What was Trevor Immelman thinking of last winter when, a few days after winning the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa he lay in a hospital bed waiting for the results of tests on his back? Even with all the drugs that had been injected into his body he would not have dreamt that in four months he would have two rounds of 68 to lead the Masters at the halfway stage. By so doing, Immelman led Brandt Snedeker, rookie of the year in the US in 2007, by one stroke, and Phil Mickelson, Masters champion in 2004 and 2006, and Ian Poulter by three.

For the second day in succession Poulter’s golf overshadowed his clothes. He had described his 70 on Thursday as his best in a major championship. He was almost lost for words to describe his 69, which included a birdie on the 16th where the previous day he had holed out from the tee. “You have to have a bit of luck as I did yesterday on 16 and you have to hole those par putts when you need to,” he said. “That is what I have done these past two days.”

Tiger Woods, who struggled all day, could do no better than a 71. Clad in black from the waist up and grey from the waist down, he seemed irritable with himself and often banged his club on the ground in frustration. He has clawed his way to seven strokes behind Immelman and needs a remarkable round today to get himself back into serious contention for a 14th major championship.

Yet difficult as Woods’s task is in the next two rounds, it is nothing as compared with that of Justin Rose. The Englishman, the winner of the Order of Merit in Europe, had shared the overnight lead with Immelman, on four under par. But as Immelman moved on yesterday, Rose slipped back with a round of 78.

Rose was two over par for the day when he reached the 15th where, even though he laid up with his second shot, he took an 8 by hitting his third shot into the guardian pond and his fifth over the green. Clearly rattled, he dropped another on the 16th.

The pleasant face of Immelman, 28, broke into a smile at the conclusion of his round. It was questionable whether recovering successfully from having a benign tumour removed from behind his ribcage in December or leading the field at the 72nd Masters in April was the greater achievement. Both invigorated him. “Going through what I went through gives you perspective,” he said. “I went from winning a tournament to lying in hospital waiting for the results of the tests. It made me realise that golf wasn’t my whole life.” Two weeks ago, Immelman, Poulter and Rose made a scouting trip to Augusta, three young men on the loose, chartering a private plane, staying in a Marriott hotel, eating steaks at T-Bones and playing two rounds of golf over Augusta National’s famous course. How it paid off.

Breathing down Poulter’s neck was Paul Casey, who was four under par, after his best first two rounds at Augusta. “I have never been under par before,” the Englishman who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, said. “I played very, very good golf today. I am extremely happy, extremely.”

With Lee Westwood adding a 73 to his first round of 69, there were three Englishmen in the top dozen, while Nick Dougherty had fought courageously to go round in 69 and avoid the ignominy of suffering the halfway guillotine.

Ian Woosnam, the 1991 champion, helped to add to the distinct European flavour that has existed here this week. Woosnam, 50, played better than he has for some time when he added a 71 to his 75 on Thursday. It was Woosnam’s lowest round since his first in 2001 and his total of 144, two over par, meant that he was playing at the weekend for the first time since 2000. Woosnam has had physical and personal problems recently. There were times last year when the heady moments of Europe’s victory over the US in the Ryder Cup the previous year must have seemed a million miles from the mind of the Europe captain.

It was not all good news for the Europeans, however, with Luke Donald and Sergio García missing the cut at four over par. Ernie Els, of South Africa, also failed to qualify.