Harrington wins as weather causes delay

Padraig Harrington set up a meeting with Colin Montgomerie by thrashing American Bob May six and five in the Cisco World Matchplay at Wentworth.

Defending champion Montgomerie defeated Harrington seven and six in last year's semi-finals, but the Irishman now has a chance to avenge that loss after fighting back to beat May.

On his Matchplay debut, May made a start reminiscent of his performance at the USPGA Championship in August as he opened up a three-shot lead with a front nine of 30.

But Harrington overpowered him by playing the next 20 holes in nine-under-par and once he had secured a five shot lead, two more pars were enough to see off May.

Torrential rain delayed the closing stages of the other three pairings but when they returned Retief Goosen completed a five and four victory over Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, while Spain's Sergio Garcia won the battle of the 20-year-olds by beating Adam Scott two and one.

Goosen now goes on to meet compatriot Ernie Els while Garcia will play against Lee Westwood.

Darren Clarke and Nick Faldo could not be separated after 36 holes and will begin again at 8am (GMT) on Friday as they battle it out for the right to play Vijay Singh.

Sergio Garcia turned his match completely on its head when he finished the morning round with a birdie and an eagle in his last four holes to lead Adam Scott one up.

The Spaniard had been trailing the Butch Harmon coached Aussie for most of the round after making three bogeys on the opening nine holes.

But he burst into action following a wonderful birdie at the long par-four 15th. Scott then began to stutter and he bogeyed the 16th and after hitting two drives out of bounds on the 17th, the match was all-square.

But Garcia took the halfway lead with an eagle at the par-five 18th after hitting a three-wood to 12 feet. Scott could only manage a birdie.

“I played like a 26 handicapper,” admitted Garcia. “But a good tee shot at the 14th got me going and I was happy with how I finished.”

Scott, whose swing has been compared to world number one Tiger Woods, refused to let his disappointing finish affect him. “I made an ordinary start but struggled coming in and he took advantage.”

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