Rose the main draw as rivals left trailing

From the age of eight Justin Rose came to Wentworth to see his heroes, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman. He was one of the kids behind the 18th green hoping for an autograph or a golf ball as the players finished their rounds.

From the age of eight Justin Rose came to Wentworth to see his heroes, Nick Faldo and Greg Norman. He was one of the kids behind the 18th green hoping for an autograph or a golf ball as the players finished their rounds.

Yesterday he could not have got a closer view of Faldo as he played alongside England's finest ever golfer but it was the 23-year-old Rose who got mobbed at the end of the second round of the Volvo PGA Championship.

Faldo, having just come off a run of three missed halfway cuts in a row, restored some order on the familiar terrain of the West Course and reached the 36-hole stage of the tournament at five under par. He still trailed Rose by six strokes.

Missing cuts, something Rose turned into a speciality at the start of his career, now no longer bothers him and last week's blip in Germany after returning to Europe after a long stint in the States was quickly forgotten. A second round of 66 left Rose at 11 under and on top of an impressive leaderboard.

He was two strokes in front of Ernie Els, the overnight leader, Darren Clarke, Phillip Price and Joakim Haeggman, with Ian Poulter among those a stroke further back.

Rose, of course, led after the first two rounds of the Masters and then collapsed spectacularly with an 81 in the third round. "If I haven't learned from that experience it would be a waste," Rose said. "You can never get ahead of yourself. It is incredibly boring but it's just one shot at a time.

"I think at Augusta it was on my mind was away from the course too much. It was churning away a bit when you should be relaxing. Tomorrow is not worth thinking about until tomorrow."

All four of Rose's professional victories came in 2002, the last at the British Masters shortly before the death of his father from leukaemia. "I've had some good performance since then but, for sure, it's been a while since I won," he said. "There is nothing better than holding up a trophy." Three birdies in a row from the second hole was a good start. His only bogey came at the fifth, where he found a greenside bunker, but the finish was full of incident. He holed a 20-footer at the 16th, where the green is notoriously difficult to read, but his birdie at the next was even more of a bonus.

The par-five 17th swings from right-to-left with a reverse camber on the slope. Rose's drive finished in the right rough, his second further up in the right rough and his third missed the green in the left rough. He should have been playing his next shot from in front of the famous art deco battleship house that stood beside the green. But during the winter the owner, frustrated at not being about to sell a property that was difficult to maintain, took to the controls of a bulldozer himself and knocked it down despite the fact it was a listed building. Now a green mesh fence has replaced one of the most famous sights in golf.

This was probably the furthest thing from Rose's mind as he chipped in from 20 feet for his birdie. He failed to birdie the last, the first time he had not had a four at any of the par-fives over two days but was content enough with his position.

"He was very steady," said Faldo. "He is thinking well and hitting a lot of good shots. It was important to get in there at the Masters and find out what it is all about but the more experience he gets the more he is going to improve." No one made a quicker leap up the leaderboard than Price, who birdied the last five holes for a 65. Clarke was hoping to be closer to Rose but failed to birdie the two-par finishing holes. But with any luck he had simmered down by the time it came to hosting a barbeque for the other players last night.

Vijay Singh, like Els, could not match his sublime golf of the day before and the Fijian limped home for a 73 to fall back to five under. Els, after going to the turn in two over, salvaged something when he finished with a pair of fours, holing from 12 feet at the last for a 71.

The group of Els, Ignacio Garrido and Paul Casey were a collective 17 under par on Thursday but yesterday's efforts added up to four over with a 73 for Casey and Garrido a 76. "The greens were a bit different today," Els said. "They were firmer and quicker and I didn't feel comfortable." He missed birdie chances on the first two holes, a three-footer for par at the third which did not hit the hole and then three-putted the fourth for a par. No wonder he was unsettled. "Then my swing got a little shaky," he added.

Els has not won the PGA but will be the defending champion at the HSBC World Match Play in October where for the first time he will have to play in the first round instead of receiving a bye. "For the money they are offering they should make us play 10 rounds but I will be taking the next week off," said the man who collected the £1m first prize last year.