Price prowess

Abu Dhabi: Philip Price replaced Philip Archer as leader though just one stroke separated him from Padraig Harrington as the cut of 65 found a few unfamiliar names in the leaderboard of the $2 million Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

While Archer was totally off target after his day one heroics, Price moved ahead with a 7 under par 65, one of those rare occasions when the Welshman has led.

While Price leads with a 10 under par 134, Harrington compiled a 5 under par 67 to his over 68 to finish just a stroke behind the unlikely leader.

Apart from Harrington, it was Spain's Miguel Jimenez who was the only one who matched Price with a 7 under par 65 and that helped him finish in joint third with 3 other less-fancied players.

India's Shiv Kapur, Australia's southpaw Nick O'Hern and Italy's Alessandro Tadini clubbed themselves with Jimenez, who finished fifth here last year, with 8 under par 136.

Except Harrington, all the other 14 who had finished above him failed to score in the 60s and that left the leaderboard wearing an unfamiliar look.

"I drove the ball fantastic and I putted well," said Price, who was part of the victorious 2002 European Ryder Cup, beating Phil Mickelson in a crucial singles match on the final day.

"Yeah, I think it has been quite a while since I lead a tournament. I think the last time was in 2003 when I won the Smurfit European Open," said Price.

While one Philip's game touched a high, the other just went stumbling down as Archer failed to repeat his first-day birdie run.

Overnight leader by 3 strokes, with a 9 under par 63, Archer had a clean first nine holes before his bogey run began. The man who struck 10 birdies and had just 1 bogey to his credit, bogeyed thrice in the second nine and finished with a 3 over par 75.

However with a 5 under par 139, Archer will be hoping to regain his touch today.

India's Kapur and Italian Tadini, both finished with similar 6 under par 66 scores to stay in the hunt while for the Aussie O'Hern, it was a repeat round of four under par 68.

However, the man to watch will be debutant Padraig Harrington, who could have finished better than his 5 under par 67 yesterday.

The Irish star came close to making birdies on the 17 and 18, but bogeyed the last and that pushed him back.

"I got a nice star, the three birdies, made another two back-to-back on the 15th and 16th. Had a reasonable short put on 17 for birdie and a good chance on 18th, but that did not happen."

"I'm happy. Even if I was two shots better I still have a lot of work to do over the next 36 holes," said Harrington.

Henrik Stenson, Retief Goosen and Nick Dougherty are all within striking distance — four strokes of the leader — while defending champion Chris DiMarco is a further stroke adrift with Paul Casey.

Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia (-4, 140) also have a chance to bounce back over the next two rounds.