Price holds on to tie for lead

Phil Price has always wanted to be a sporting superstar. And at 32 the greying Welshman still hopes he has not left it too late.

For the second day running Price out-scored playing partner Colin Montgomerie and now he goes into the third round of the Murphy's Irish Open at Druids Glen sharing the lead with Danish rookie Soren Hansen.

While John Daly only just survived the halfway cut, Price followed his opening 67 with a 65 to reach halfway on 10-under-par 132. It took a career-best 63 for 25-year-old Hansen to be on level terms.

Montgomerie, three behind in joint-third place after improving one stroke on his first-day 68, likes his position, but the six-time European number one, seeking a third Irish Open title in four years, said of Price: "He's not had a bogey yet and someone not making mistakes will be difficult to catch.

"I see in Phil a much more ambitious and self-confident player - someone who has much more self-belief than he once had."

Price, who last year made a real bid to rid himself of the "journeyman" tag, was rewarded with his first US Open appearance only a fortnight ago and made the halfway cut at Pinehurst despite admitting to a feeling of intimidation.

"I learnt an awful lot," he commented. "Once you've played you want to get back. I just need to be in that situation more often.

"I would rather be a superstar by now, but that's not the case. Do I have it in me to be one? I hope so.

"I may be quiet, but I think all the guys on tour want to be better than the others. That's the direction we all have to strive for.

"It was good to play with Monty. He sets the standards we aim at and it tells me how much I need to improve.

"He gets rattled by the public, but over every shot he's so focused. Some players show anxiety, but he never looks flustered.

"There were a lot of cameras going and that irritates him, but he closes it out and does everything right."

Price, who works with sports psychologist Alan Fine, has won only once in a decade - the 1994 Portuguese Open - and confesses he would like to be able to hit the ball further. Yet golf has always been about how many, not how.

The Ryder Cup is an immediate target (he lies 25th in the table, but could go seventh by winning on Sunday) and he would be looking ahead to the Alfred Dunhill Cup at St Andrews as well if only Wales had been selected.

The 16 sides were named in April for the October tournament and Price voiced his disappointment then.

It looks an even worse decision now that former world number one Ian Woosnam is back from injury and David Park has started his European tour career with a play-off defeat in Morocco and then a victory at Slaley Hall near Newcastle on Sunday.

"It's the best week of the year because of where it is, but the sponsors have their own ideas about who they want there," added Price.

"They might have changed their minds if they had waited to see what David Park had done."

It is certainly hard to justify in golfing terms Wales being left out and the likes of China, France, India, Italy and Paraguay being included. But golfing terms are never the sole criteria in these circumstances.

Best of Price's six birdies on Friday was the 476-yard sixth, where he struck a drive and three-iron to six feet from the hole and made the putt.

Hansen could certainly trump that, though. He holed a 150-yard eight-iron for an eagle two at the first and after double-bogeying the 15th struck a three-wood to 10 feet for another eagle at the long 16th.

With six birdies as well, including a five-iron to six inches on the 465-yard last, Hansen is hoping July will be as lucrative as June.

The Copenhagen golfer won a £25,000 sports car for a hole-in-one at the German Open. "Due to taxes in Denmark it would cost me the same to bring it into the country, so I think I'm going to sell it," he said.

After two aces on the opening day - the first of which from Jimmy Heggarty earned every spectator a pint of Murphy's - Thomas Bjorn made it three by sinking his four-iron to the 203-yard 17th.

The Ryder Cup Dane's 66, putting him on six under, also included a painful six on the long fifth. "I thought I had broken my wrist," he said. "I was just trying to get the ball out of the rough and the club got caught up in the grass."

Montgomerie's handy position still did not satisfy the Scot. "I've all afternoon before my wife arrives and I'll spend it on the practice range," he said. "I'm pulling the ball left, but I'll sort it out."

Teenage sensation Sergio Garcia came home in 31 to move to five under and Lee Westwood is only one further back after also shooting a 68.

"I'm hitting it better than I have all year," said Worksop's world number eight. "My form is coming in time for the Open."