Golf: Cut could hurt Westwood

Lee Westwood could not have placed a marker between his ball and the cup, yet by that tiny measure might the world No1 have offered up his ranking to Martin Kaymer.

Westwood was required to putt his ball a little harder to record the eagle he needed on the last hole to make the cut at the Qatar Masters.

It stayed up, presenting Germany's Kaymer with an outside chance of planting his standard on the summit of world golf. The world No2 must finish at least second to take Westwood down.

After stealing into the weekend only one shot ahead of Westwood, Kaymer must find the form of Abu Dhabi, where he won by eight shots, to have a chance.

It was the first time Westwood had missed a cut for 13 months, and only the eighth time in a decade that a world No1 had done so. He returned from his winter break struggling for rhythm and timing in Abu Dhabi. Two days scratching about in the wind were no more productive and his luck ran out.

Westwood said: "I didn't play well and that's the reason I missed the cut."

Westwood's only birdie in his second round came at the last.

Kaymer looked unbeatable coming into Qatar, yet somewhere in the week between Abu Dhabi and Qatar his game has slipped a notch. Winds nudging 50km/h on the first day combined with tightish fairways and penal rough to ruin his card. Kaymer came back with a two-under-par 70.

The madness of this regal discipline reveals itself in the person of the leader, Markus Brier, who stands a mere 477 places behind Westwood in the world rankings. While Westwood and Molinari were torching the fairways in Beijing, the Austrian was heading back to qualifying school to retain his card. He owes his presence in Doha to a sponsor's invite.

"I kept the ball in play and holed two or three really long putts, and that obviously makes the difference between a good and very good round. And I didn't make mistakes," Brier said. A birdie from 35 feet at the last gave him an improbable 66.

New Zealand's Mark Brown made the cut with a fine second-round 69 but both Danny Lee (76, 72) and Michael Campbell (74, 79) didn't.Meanwhile, in Phoenix, Tommy Gainey and Mark Wilson topped the Phoenix Open leaderboard, reaching 11 under before second-round play was suspended because of darkness in the frost-delayed tournament that will finish on Tuesday (NZT).

Wilson opened with a 65 and was 5 under for 14 holes in the second round. He won the Sony Open in Hawaii last month in a 36-hole Sunday finish for his third tour title. Geoff Ogilvy was third at 9 under with two holes left. Phil Mickelson, on the leaderboard after a first-round 67, didn't start the second round.

In Melbourne, the sensational 13-year-old Lydia Ko fired a stunning five-under par 68 to move into the top 10 with one round remaining in the weather-delayed Handa Australian Women's Open in Melbourne.

Ko fired the joint second best round of the day to jump 25 spots to a share of 10th place on five-under par at Commonwealth Golf Club.

Auckland's Cecilia Cho shot a third successive even par round of 73 to be tied for 42nd place.

Ko, the talk of the Australasian golf scene after finishing runner-up in the recent New South Wales Open, was among 58 players to complete their second rounds this morning after a storm brought a premature close to the opening day.

The delayed third round saw the North Harbour teenager off the 10th hole, mixing a bogey with a birdie in her opening seven holes. Then she turned up the heat in the challenging conditions, making five birdies in her last 11 holes with a superb display. She is now the leading amateur, with a two shot buffer over Korea's Annie Choi.

World No1 Yani Tseng takes a three-shot lead into the final round over defending champion Jayai Shin with fellow Korean Eun-Hee Ji third on 10-under.

- Agencies