Golf world championship: Luke Donald and Paul McGinley moved into position to challenge for the NEC World Championship in Akron this weekend as Tiger Woods, who had been leading by two, finished with a double-bogey six.

The world number one, back at the venue where he has won three times and had nothing worse than a fourth-place finish in his last five visits, for once could not recover from driving wildly right into the trees and had to be content with a level-par 70.

It brought Donald, round in 67, into a share of the lead on four under par - and McGinley would have been alongside them but for a closing bogey at the 484-yard ninth, where he could not get down in two from the edge of the green.

The Dubliner still had the joint best round of the day with a 66 and now shares third place with Thomas Bjorn, Vijay Singh, Chris DiMarco and Henrik Stenson, the Swede also finishing with a double bogey on the 18th for a 71.

Donald, still seeking his first victory of a season which has seen him move close to breaking into the world's top 10, commented: "I'm pleased. I didn't do much wrong and never got into much trouble.

"I've been beating myself up a little bit lately because my results have not been what I'd like, but I'm trying to treat this as kind of a fun week."

McGinley stated: "I played very well and had a lot of opportunities. One of my two dropped shots was a three-putt and the other was a tricky up and down.

"The course is playing fast and fiery and it shows you don't need 8,000-yard course to make it difficult. I hope it continues like this, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to." Storms are forecast and because of that the tee-times have been brought forward today, with play starting at 7.20am and the leaders going out as early as 9.10am.

It did not promise to be the best of days for Donald, second in the Players Championship and third in the Masters earlier in the year, when he came up short of the 11th green, his second, and bogeyed to slip to level par.

But he holed from just over 20 feet at the 13th, pitched to six feet on the next and hit his tee shot to within five feet at the 221-yard 15th.

Out in 33 he then added another birdie on the long second and parred in.

McGinley had five strokes to make up on Woods when he teed off again at one over, but in went successive putts of eight, 18 and 20 feet from the 11th and he then had a real bonus on the long 16th, just carrying the lake with his pitch and holing from nearly 35 feet.

Out in 31 as a result he slipped up at the 399-yard first, but came back from bogeys with further birdies at the next two.

Woods was two ahead after 13 holes, but then came his first bogey of the tournament at the 467-yard next, where he advanced his second shot only 111 yards from the rough and could not get up and down.

However, he came straight back with another birdie.

David Howell and Stephen Dodd, involved in a play-off for the Irish Open three months ago, went in completely opposite directions.

Howell, in only his second tournament since spending two months on the sidelines with a torn abdominal muscle, returned a 68 to stand two under and well in the hunt. But Dodd's start was a complete and utter nightmare.

The Welshman, who won that play-off, double-bogeyed the first three holes and at 10 over par was only one shot off last place in a field reduced to 71 players by Graeme McDowell's retirement with back trouble yesterday.

This weekend gives Howell the chance to seal a place in the elite 16-man field for the HSBC World Match Play championship at Wentworth next month, when golf's biggest first prize of £1 million will be on offer again.

Two spots are handed out off the European Order of Merit after next week's event in Germany and Swede Niclas Fasth and Howell occupy them at the moment - with Dodd among those chasing.

A winner's cheque of £716,332 tomorrow is not be sniffed at, of course, and that was where his attention was for the moment.

Howell turned in 32, but his back nine comprised eight pars and a six on the monster 667-yard 16th, where he was in rough for two and did not dare risk trying to carry the lake with his next.

That was wise - Davis Love had just taken eight there after moving into third place.

Padraig Harrington recovered with a second round two under par 68 to be three over for the tournament while Darren Clarke was on six over.