Luke Donald of England shot a second straight 3-under 68 Friday to take a one-shot lead after the second round of the BMW PGA Championship. Donald took advantage of an early start time to make four birdies and a lone bogey while playing in perfect conditions, for a 6-under total of 136. English duo Ross Fisher and overnight leader Danny Willett were a shot back in second, along with with James Kingston of South Africa. Willett was among the late starters and birdied three of his first four holes before the wind started picking up at Wentworth's West Course, leaving the leaders struggling to make par. Willett had five bogeys and just one more birdie the rest of the way, for a 1-over 72. Fisher birdied two of his last three holes for a 70, while Kingston shot a 69. Padraig Harrington of Ireland was among a quartet of players a further shot back after carding a 67 in a bogey-free round. Harrington is chasing his first title since 2008, and said he liked the redesigned West Course, which has been heavily criticized by some of his colleagues. Defending champion Paul Casey was tied with Harrington at 4-under as he tries to become only the third player after Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo to retain his title since the tournament was launched in 1955. On another baking hot day, there were four withdrawals. British quartet Stephen Dodd (knee), Bradley Dredge (neck), Graeme Storm (food poisoning) and Michael Hoey (unwell) all pulled out. Seven share first-round lead Seven players shared the lead Friday when the weather-disrupted first round of the Byron Nelson Championship was completed in Dallas, Texas. Five players put the finishing touches on rounds of four-under-par 66 Friday morning to join Australian Jason Day and American Joe Durant atop the leaderboard. Day and Durant had completed their rounds Thursday. Blake Adams birdied two holes and Aussie Michael Sim had one birdie to join the group at the head of the leaderboard. Texan Hunter Mahan and Aussies Jarrod Lyle and Steve Elkington were four-under on the course when play was suspended on Thursday and were able to stay there. US Junior Amateur champion Jordan Spieth – a 16-year-old high school student from Dallas – capped his first round with two birdies for a 68 to lie two strokes off the lead on his PGA Tour debut. The second round started shortly after completion of the first, and Elkington opened with three birdies in four holes to get to seven-under. Wie advances In New Jersey, Michelle Wie survived a tight opening match against Stacy Prammanasudh in the Sybase Match Play Championship, taking the lead with a 30-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th and winning 2-up with a conceded birdie on 18 Thursday. The eighth-seeded Wie will face Hee Young Park, a 19-hole winner over Ji Young Oh, in the second round at Hamilton Farm Friday. Top-seeded Jiyai Shin and No. 2 Ai Miyazato also advanced, while 49-year-old Juli Inskter rallied to beat third-seeded Suzann Pettersen in 21 holes. In perfect, cloudless conditions after rain soaked the hilly course Tuesday, Shin beat Kyeong Bae 3 and 2, and Miyazato, the winner of three of the first six events of the season, topped Jeong Jang 4 and 3. Because of the wet conditions, players were allowed to lift, clean and place their balls in the fairways.
