Behind them Peter Baker and Mark James have laboured diligently but without great reward and when they too frittered shots away around the turn their hopes of defending the title Nick Faldo and David Carter won last year evaporated.Phillip Price and David Park would not perhaps have had great expectations of becoming the second Welsh pair to win this event but Price has played out of his boots and with a personal score of 10 under par is in second place in the individual competition, five shots behind Woods, who is chasing his fifth individual trophy in his last six tournaments. Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington, winners for Ireland two years ago, are best placed on seven under par. Their challenge foundered when they collectively dropped three shots at the ninth. Each day it has been noticeable that good scores were made over the first nine holes and preserved coming home as the heat rose.The home nations have acquitted themselves competently and all bar Scotland would have felt they were in with a chance at start of play yesterday.

But when both made errors at the eighth America drew level and then steamed away over the final nine holes. A three-putt by O’Meara at the last was the only time either he or Woods went over par.With the American birdie and eagle tally clicking up like a World Cup rugby score it is no wonder that all other contenders fell away in the oppressive heat and humidity. All credit to Miguel Martin and Santiago Luna of Spain, who have played alongside Woods and O’Meara these past two days, for staying in touch for as long as they have.
On Friday they actually out-scored the Americans to lead at halfway and over the opening holes yesterday briefly went further ahead. It took the Americans those two days to unlock the secrets of the Mines Course on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur but once they did they played flawlessly to record individual scores of 63 and 67.

AFTER TOYING with the World Cup field in Malaysia for the first couple of days, Tiger Woods and Mark O’Meara yesterday raised their game and eased the United States into what should be an unassailable lead. With a round to go they are 23 under par, seven strokes in front of Spain with Argentina third a further six shots adrift. Cayard, whose AmericaOne team lie in fourth place behind Prada, America True and Team Dennis Conner, is said to be expecting much more from his new boat.The next question is when will AmericaOne, Prada, Nippon and Abracadabra decide to introduce their new boats and whether, when they do, the single boat America True and Team Dennis Conner teams will be able to hang on to them.. The French are simply slow and will need a miracle, while Young Australia and the Swiss FAST 2000 are surely without hope.And as the impoverished contenders contemplate Christmas at home, salt is rubbed into their wounds by the appearance out on the water of others with more luxurious budgets.While Paul Cayard was out dishing defeat to Young America yesterday, his B-boat crew were putting a brand new USA 61 to the test. They, like the Hawaiians, will need more speed if they are to make it past Christmas.In truth the Spanish and the Hawaiians will be the only teams in the bottom half who will be agonising over extending their hotel bookings. The Spanish, one place behind Young America, led the second-placed America True during their final race but could not eventually prevail. The team that were second behind Prada at the end of round one are now perilously close to the relegation zone in sixth place.But if Young America are struggling, they will take heart from the fact that they have still won more races than they have lost, a statistic that eludes all of the players beneath them.

They withdrew from two races and suffered two defeats as they gingerly coaxed their valuable asset around the course. The end of the round could not have come quickly enough after they were forced to commission their second boat earlier than they wanted. Kolius will be hoping for much more from his second boat if the team are to move the two places up the standings needed to make the cut next month.Sadly for Kolius it is familiar territory: the last time he was running an America’s Cup team of his own was back in 1987 when he represented the stuffy New York Yacht Club and humiliated their members by not making the semi-finals in Fremantle.The New York Yacht Club are facing humiliation once again unless Ed Baird and his Young America syndicate can turn round the poor run of form precipitated by the near-sinking of their first boat a week and a half ago. Since Chris Larson took the wheel and Kolius stuck his head out of the boat in a more tactical role, the team have showed more promise and even led the golden-boy Prada crew before the Italians finally restored normality and went on to win. While the leaders cruised easily into the final period of trialling and testing before the defining third round, after which five teams will go home, the scrabble at the cut has reached intensive proportions.
John Kolius made the ultimate commitment to the Hawaiian Abracadabra cause when he relinquished the helm in an attempt to improve his team’s ailing form. THE PAST week has been a time for drastic measures out on the Louis Vuitton Cup racecourse as the 11 America’s Cup challengers completed the second of three round-robins in the unpredictable waters off Auckland. But I wasn’t waterlicked after all, and my record book shows that for 14 days in India and Arunachal Pradesh, I had landed (and sportingly returned) two goldfish Best of all, without being caught myself..