Who better to lead the US Open at Bethpage Black, this most public of courses, than a workaday pro? Twenty-eight year old Ricky Barnes has spent much of the last seven years shuttling on and off the PGA Tour. In an all too-typical stretch of form, he's managed just one top 50 finish so far this year. Putting all that aside, the son of a former NFL punter came out yesterday morning, notched three birdies in the last nine holes of his truncated second round, and finished with a 65. This took him to eight-under for the tournament and a new 36-hole scoring record of 132 strokes for this event. Nice work if you can get it.

Lucas Glover lay one shot behind Barnes, the 2002 US Amateur champion, at the halfway point. He picked up one birdie on the last of the five holes he had left over from Friday to card a bogey-free course record-equalling six-under 64. Some going for a player who's never made the cut at the US Open before, Glover was another to profit from the rain-affected schedule.

The half of the field which got to play all day Friday and early yesterday enjoyed optimum scoring conditions, a fact reflected in their virtual ownership of the upper echelons of the leaderboard for most of the day. From the other side of the draw, only Lee Westwood gatecrashed that party with a 66 to go two-under.

Mike Weir had matched Glover's breathtaking 64 in his opening round and while the Canadian southpaw never rediscovered that kind of impressive scoring second time out, an even-par 70 left him nicely-placed at six-under. Among a group sharing fourth spot three shots further back was an evocative name from the past, David Duval. The former British Open champion and one-time world number one belied his current ranking of 882 by following up an opening 67 with a solid 70.

Of course, none of the above received anything like the acclaim the locals showered upon Phil Mickelson. That he didn't improve his one-under position any during the seven holes he played yesterday morning didn't matter a jot to the Long Islanders for whom he remains the sentimental favourite. The low-scores ensured Tiger Woods (+4) and Pádraig Harrington (+6) started their second rounds under real pressure. Teeing off on the 10th shortly after 10am New York time, 50 hours after beginning this competition, they had to be conscious of the cut, at four-over, and the small matter of the gloomy weather forecast predicting yet another soaking.

Woods made what passed for a charge coming into the turn as the serious rain finally began to fall. He followed an eight-foot birdie on the 18th by holing an even longer effort on the first. Suddenly, he was two-over and looking like he might yet contend for his 15th major. A bogey on the par-three third thieved him of momentum but he immediately grabbed that stroke back with a birdie on the fourth.

Having given himself genuine birdie chances on the next four holes, he couldn't sink any of them. If that was largely the story of his day, a bogey on the ninth made for a particulary nasty postscript, leaving him 11 shots back from Barnes. "I'm going to have to shoot some better rounds," said Woods matter-of-factly afterwards. "It's soft so you can be aggressive. If you drive the ball in play here and don't get mud on the ball you can get after it on every play. The grass is a little bit gnarly for me so it's been hard to get a feel for it. I just have to hit the ball better."

Harrington saved a great par on the opener, after a trip through the fescue grass, but that wayward drive set the tone for his latest awfully bad adventure. Apart from birdies on 11 and 14 briefly hinting at better things, he spent his time trying to rescue his ball from various unforgiving cuts of rough. Some of his up and downs (a magical sand shot to within inches on the third for instance) were of a quality that recalled his excellence of last summer but his errant driving took him all over the course. Another disappointing 76 left him languishing at 12-over.

Darren Clarke was headed home too. Of the rest of the Irish, Rory McIlroy was two-over, having failed to make the best of the amenable conditions, while a bogey on the last meant Graeme McDowell finished one better.

Collated second round scores and totals

(USA unless stated, par 70)

132 Ricky Barnes 67 65

133 Lucas Glover 69 64

134 Mike Weir (Can) 64 70

137 Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 71, Azuma Yano (Jpn) 72 65, David Duval 67 70

138 Ross Fisher (Eng) 70 68, Sean O'Hair 69 69, Todd Hamilton 67 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 73 65, Lee Westwood (Eng) 72 66

139 Steve Stricker 73 66, Phil Mickelson 69 70, Gary Woodland 73 66, Ryan Moore 70 69

140 Adam Scott (Aus) 69 71, Oliver Wilson (Eng) 70 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 70, Trevor Murphy 71 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 67, Hunter Mahan 72 68, J.B. Holmes 73 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 66

141 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70, Michael Sim (Aus) 71 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 69 72, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 71, John Mallinger 71 70, Dustin Johnson 72 69, Jim Furyk 72 69, Rocco Mediate 68 73, Drew Weaver 69 72

142 Anthony Kim 71 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 72 70, Bubba Watson 72 70, Jeff Brehaut 70 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 71, Stewart Cink 73 69, Matt Bettencourt 75 67

143 Tiger Woods 74 69, Billy Mayfair 73 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 74 69, Ben Curtis 72 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 71 72, Kenny Perry 71 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 70, K J Choi (Kor) 72 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 75 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 73 70

144 Kyle Stanley 70 74, Kevin Sutherland 71 73, Tom Lehman 71 73, Fred Funk 70 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 72, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 73 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 72 72

The following players failed to make the cut

145 Peter Tomasulo 73 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 73, David Toms 69 76, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 76 69, Simon Khan (Eng) 75 70, George McNeill 74 71, Cameron Beckman 76 69, Ryan Blaum 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 77 68, Martin Laird (Sco) 74 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 71

146 Nick Watney 73 73, Brian Gay 73 73, Justin Leonard 71 75, Bo Van Pelt 73 73, Rickie Fowler 78 68, Cortland Lowe 75 71, Chris Stroud 76 70, Shawn Stefani 73 73, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 73, Ryan Spears 73 73, Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 74 72, Andrew Parr (Can) 74 72, Nathan Tyler 77 69, Angelo Que (Phi) 77 69, Brandt Snedeker 71 75, Steve Allan (Aus) 73 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 74 72

147 Richard Bland (Eng) 77 70, Colby Beckstrom 76 71, Zach Johnson 75 72, David Smail (Nzl) 70 77, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 77 70, Mike Miles 78 69, James Nitties (Aus) 78 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 77 70, Charlie Wi (Kor) 75 72, J J Henry 73 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 72, Ken Duke 76 71, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 76 71, Briny Baird 73 74, Cameron Tringale 70 77, D.J. Trahan 76 71

148 Kaname Yokoo (Jpn) 77 71, Tyson Alexander 73 75, J.P. Hayes 74 74, Matt Kuchar 71 77, Simon Dyson (Eng) 78 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 75 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 73 75, Doug Batty (Nzl) 74 74, Craig Bowden 74 74

149 Michael Welch (Eng) 73 76, Scott Gutschewski 77 72, Heath Slocum 76 73, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 76 73, Steve Conway 80 69

150 Ben Martin 72 78, Chad Campbell 80 70, John Merrick 73 77, Kevin Silva 78 72, Clark Klaasen 76 74, Paul Casey (Eng) 75 75, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 74 76, Charlie Beljan 78 72

151 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 78 73, Chris Kirk 74 77, Ben Crane 76 75, Casey Wittenberg 73 78, Boo Weekley 79 72, Josh McCumber 78 73, Greg Kraft 79 72

152 David Erdy 78 74, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 76 76

153 Drew Kittleson 80 73, Clinton Jensen 78 75, Bronson Burgoon 74 79

154 Vaughn Snyder 76 78, Cameron Yancey 74 80, David Horsey (Eng) 81 73, Darron Stiles 75 79, Andrew Svoboda 80 74

155 Ernie Els (Rsa) 78 77, Sean Farren 80 75

156 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 77 79, Kyle Peterman 81 75, Matt Nagy 76 80

157 Shintaro Kai (Jpn) 79 78

159 Eric Axley 79 80

161 Scott Lewis 81 80

162 Josh Brock 83 79