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WENTWORTH, May 29: Briton Justin Rose completed his best two rounds since leading the US Masters last month to lead the Volvo PGA Championship on Friday.
Tournament favourite Ernie Els called the 23-year-old "one of the great talents" after Rose's six-under-par 66 took him two strokes ahead of the world number three, who shares second place with Sweden's Joakim Haeggman and Britons Darren Clarke and Phillip Price.
Rose, seeking his third European Tour title and first for two years, had his best putting display for some time, chipping in from 20 feet on the 17th for one of his seven birdies and sinking putts of 20 and 15 feet.
Els, the first-round leader, had to battle to get back into the fray, making birdies at the final two holes for a 71 to steal a further march on his rankings rival, world number two Vijay Singh.
Els has a chance of replacing Singh in the world rankings with the right results this week, and the Fijiian struggled to a 73 including five bogeys.
Haeggman is in a rich vein of form and this year's Qatar Masters champion, playing on a medical exemption after breaking his ankle in an ice-hockey spill, is continuing his bid to make the Ryder Cup team instead of acting as assistant to captain Bernhard Langer.
Colin Montgomerie and Faldo, both former winner sof the tournament who missed the cut in Germany last week, made it to the weekend.
Leading second round scores (Britain unless stated):
133 - Justin Rose 67, 66.
135 - Darren Clarke 68, 67; Stephen Dodd 65, 70; Phillip Price 70, 65; Ernie Els (South Africa) 64, 71; Joakim Haeggman (Sweden) 68, 67.
136 - Angel Cabrera (Argentina) 67, 69; Anders Hansen (Denmark) 67, 69; Ian Poulter 68, 68; Marcel Siem (Germany) 69, 67.
137 - Darren Fichardt (South Africa) 68, 69; Scott Drummond 66, 71; Peter Hedblom (Sweden) 69, 68.
138 - Christopher Hanell (Sweden) 65, 73; Thomas Bjorn (Denmark) 72, 66; Thomas Levet (France) 72, 66.
139 - Nick Faldo 70, 69; Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain) 65, 74; Vijay Singh (Fiji) 66, 73; Nicolas Colsaerts (Belgium) 67, 72; David Gilford 67, 72; Maarten Lafeber (Netherlands) 68, 71.
140 - Thongchai Jaidee (Thailand) 69, 71; Colin Montgomerie 70, 70; Eduardo Romero (Argentina) 69, 71; Steve Webster 71, 69; Chris Kelly 69, 71; Simon Khan 68, 72; Jean-Francois Remesy (France) 71, 69; Anthony Wall 68, 72.
TOMS IN FRONT
GERMANTOWN (Tennessee): Defending champion David Toms fired an eight-under-par 63 in calm conditions to move into a one-stroke lead after two rounds of the St Jude Classic on Friday.
Toms, who finished the day on 12-under 130, shot his 10th consecutive round in the 60s at the TPC at Southwind.
The strong wind that buffeted the course on Thursday vanished overnight, and many players took advantage of the easier scoring conditions.
One of those was little-known Vaughn Taylor, the first-round leader, who carded a 65 for an 11-under 131 total and sole possession of second place.
Ben Crane also shot a 65 and moved into third place, a further four shots adrift.
Tim Herron (64), John Daly (65) and Paul Stankowski (69) share fourth place on 136.
Former PGA champion Rich Beem also vaulted into contention with a 64. He is joint eighth on 137 with Australia's Steve Allan, Japan's Hirofumi Miyase, Brian Gay and Trip Isenhour.
Leading second round scores (US unless stated):
130 - David Toms 67, 63.
131 - Vaughn Taylor 66, 65.
135 - Ben Crane 70, 65.
136 - Tim Herron 72, 64; Paul Stankowski 67, 69; John Daly 71, 65; Ted Purdy 72, 64.
137 - Steve Allan (Australia) 70, 67; Hirofumi Miyase (Japan) 68, 69; Rich Beem 73, 64; Brian Gay 71, 66; Tripp Isenhour 70, 67.
138 - Steve Lowery 74, 64; Stewart Cink 68, 70; Tom Carter 72, 66; Jose Coceres (Argentina) 74, 64; Bob Estes 74, 64; Joel Kribel 73, 65; Brian Bateman 73, 65.
139 - Kris Cox 72, 67; Hank Kuehne 73, 66; Matt Kuchar 73, 66; Michael Allen 71, 68; Patrick Sheehan 69, 70.-Reuters
