Masters latest

19.00 GMT. SOUTH African Trevor Immelman, his life given a new perspective when he was operated on for a benign tumour in December, led The Masters on his own after a second successive 68 at Augusta National today.

The 28-year-old took advantage of good early conditions and birdies at the closing two holes put him three ahead of Americans Brandt Snedeker and left-hander Steve Flesch.

Justin Rose, with whom Immelman shared the overnight pace, was not teeing off again until the very last group of the day and Tiger Woods, round in a level par 72 yesterday, was another late starter.

It was just after he had beaten Rose to the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City four months ago that Immelman started feeling pains.

"I went to the doctor and we eventually figured out that I had a tumour on my diaphragm," he said.

"They had to go in between the 10th and 11th rib and cut through the intracostal muscle. It was some pretty scary stuff and it took a couple days to get the results back, so that was pretty hair-raising.

"But luckily enough it's all benign and it's all been removed."

Immelman was certainly enjoying his week at Augusta so far more than he did a year ago. On his last visit a parasite got into his stomach and put him out for over a month.

"I lost 25 or 26 pounds in three weeks," he recalled.

A bogey at the short sixth today came between his first two birdies and on the back nine, just as the wind started to freshen, he picked up further shots on the difficult 11th – his second three there in a row – 17th and 18th.

The odds on Phil Mickelson capturing a third Masters title in five years, though, came tumbling down after a flying start to his second round.

Mickelson, with nothing better than a 20th place finish in his last three events, birdied the long second and after driving close to the green on the 350-yard third a delicate pitch to six feet moved him further up the leaderboard.

When he added another on the long eighth he was four under and in a group tied for fourth that also included Lee Westwood.

The Worksop golfer, in the joint lead until he three-putted the 17th in gathering gloom last night, followed seven successive pars with a birdie.