Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa played some gritty golf on a grim and windy day to hang in there with decent sub-par scores on the second day of the inaugural HSBC Champions Golf tournament in Shanghai.

Atwal, who had one bogey on either side of the course, had a run of four birdies in five holes. That helped him post a 70 to be tied 19th at the midway stage at the Sheshan Golf and Country Club.

Randhawa, followed around by his wife Tina despite the irritating drizzle, managed steady pars besides four birdies till the 18th, where he dropped a shot. It was his only blemish in a three-under 69 that saw him rise from 51st to 33rd place.

Atwal, who plays the World Cup of Golf in Portugal next week with Randhawa, jokingly remarked "That's the World Cup team getting primed up. There's two more rounds to go, and let's see how it goes.

"Five-under is alright. If the weather stays like this, it won't probably go too low. But if it clears up, there's plenty of birdies out there."

On the top the of the leaderboard were England's [Images] Nick Dougherty and David Howell at 12-under apiece, but the shadow of Tiger Woods [Images] was looming large behind them at 10-under.

"It was a long and frustrating day. There was a good bit of bad weather out there and I just had to deal with it. I had to hang in there and grind away and just be as patient as possible," said Woods, who more than once was enraged at himself and showed it in public.