No love lost between Masters movers McIlroy and Westwood

Augusta: The Augusta patrons joined on Friday night in a sharp intake of breath. For Rory McIlroy, whom they had embraced 12 months ago in pity and whom they cheered all day in mass adoration, was back in the hunt at the Masters.

While a chill wind had blown across this corner of Georgia all day, the temperature on the course remained white-hot as McIlroy and Lee Westwood, in every sense his arch-rival, took their positions for a defining duel.

On an extraordinary day of drama, McIlroy edged closer to a redemptive coronation with a superb 68, while Westwood fell out of the lead when he followed 15 pars with a costly double-bogey at the last and an extraordinary round by Fred Couples saw the 52-year-old vaulted into a share of the halfway lead.

Westwood did not disguise his pain over the mistake at the 18th, saying: "It was slightly disappointing. I played solidly all day and controlled what I could control. I gave myself a lot of birdie chances and hit a lot of good putts that didn't go in. But I'm still in a good position."

In the fascinating dynamic set to be played out, it is fair to say that McIlroy holds the upper hand, having overtaken Westwood in the rankings and then beaten him in the semi-finals of February's Accenture Match Play. But in a straight fight at the Masters, with McIlroy desperate to erase the agonies of last year and Westwood more determined than ever to win a first major at 38, the outcome is impossible to call.

Fall out

Westwood and McIlroy might exchange pleasantries, but a froideur persists between the pair. It was here last year that Westwood was accused of being at best insensitive, and at worst outright graceless, when he claimed that McIlroy — who had just shot a final-round 80 after his notorious thrash into the woods — "always had a bit of a pull-hook in his bag under pressure".

Then there was the fallout over McIlroy's departure from Chubby Chandler's management company last October: a decision that Westwood labelled "bizarre".

In Tucson in February, Westwood was again not disposed to offer much warmth, saying: "Rory doesn't want to spend time with the people who manage me, and I don't want to spend time with the people who manage Rory."

It was McIlroy who garnered the most attention yesterday.

The American affection for him grew into a mass love-in. Crowds were massed 15-deep on the first fairway, craning for a glimpse of the prodigal as he teed off alongside Angel Cabrera and Bubba Watson.

One sensed that only the decorum insisted upon at Augusta stopped his fans from chanting ‘Let's go Rory, let's go', just as they had during his US Open at Congressional. McIlroy is in every sense an adopted American, having attended a dinner at the White House last month and begun renting an apartment near Miami.

The patrons love him as one of their own.

Scores

Leading scores after the second round:

139 - Jason Dufner (USA) 69-70, Fred Couples (US) 72-67

140 - Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 68-72, Lee Westwood (ENG) 67-73, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 72-68, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 71-69, Bubba Watson (US) 69-71

141 - Paul Lawrie (SCO) 69-72, Matt Kuchar (US) 71-70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (ESP) 69-72

142 - Ben Crane (USA) 69-73, Charles Howell (US) 72-70, Vijay Singh (FIJ) 70-72, Phil Mickelson (US) 74-68, Peter Hanson (SWE) 68-74, Aaron Baddeley (AUS) 71-71, Henrik Stenson (SWE) 71-71, Nick Watney (US) 71-71

143 - Sean O'Hair (US) 73-70, Jonathan Byrd (US) 72-71, Jim Furyk (USA) 70-73, Yang Yong-Eun (KOR) 73-70, Gary Woodland (USA) 73-70

144 - Zach Johnson (USA) 70-74 Ian Poulter (ENG) 72-72, Fredrik Jacobson (SWE) 76-68, Hunter Mahan (USA) 72-72, Padraig Harrington (IRL) 71-73, Justin Rose (ENG) 72-72, Francesco Molinari (ITA) 69-75.

— The Telegraph GroupLimited, London 2012