Martin Laird displayed his survival instincts yesterday with a six-under-par 66 in the second round of the Children's Miracle Network Classic in Florida to enhance his claim to retain his playing rights on next season's PGA Tour.

Martin Laird displayed his survival instincts yesterday with a six-under-par 66 in the second round of the Children's Miracle Network Classic in Florida to enhance his claim to retain his playing rights on next season's PGA Tour.

The 25-year-old Scot, in his rookie season on the world's foremost golf circuit, has targeted a top-15 finish in the final event of the season to move within the qualifying zone, and was inside the top 10 when he finished his round, which gave him a 10-under-par aggregate of 134.

Laird is at No.126 in the rankings with only the top 125 retaining their full playing rights and needs to make up almost $37,000 on Jeff Overton, who had a 68 yesterday to lie one shot behind him. Shane Bertsch at No.124 and Michael Allen at No.123 were well off the pace as the Scot signed off.

However, players close behind Laird in the rankings included Jason Gore, who had a 67 yesterday to go 11 under at the halfway stage and there are still endless permutations about how it will all end up tomorrow.

At least Laird has given himself a fighting chance over the weekend and the course suits his big-hitting game. He opened with a 68 over the shorter Palm Course at Lake Buena Vista in the Walt Disney World Resort, while his 66 yesterday was over the Magnolia Course which, at 7516 yards, is around 600 yards longer. That is the layout for the final two rounds.

Yesterday his score was founded on excellent approach play. He had seven birdies, his longest putt of 16 feet coming at the fifth while four of his gains were from five feet or less. His only dropped shot, at the par-4 16th, came when he missed the fairway to the right and had to chip back out.

Laird lay just three shots behind early pace-setters Steve Marino and Tory Matteson.

n Heavy rain washed out play on the second day of the HSBC Champions at the Sheshan International Golf Club, raising the prospect of the $5m tournament spilling into next week.

Weather permitting, the players will be back on the course at 6.45am (22.45pm GMT) today to start the second round and organisers hope they can complete half of the third round as well.

Henrik Stenson led on six-under-par after the first round with Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia among four players a stroke behind. The Champions is co-sanctioned by the European and Asian Tours, the PGA Tour of Australasia, South Africa's Sunshine Tour and the China Golf Association.

n Scotland's Ross Drummond and Sam Torrance are two shots off the pace after opening rounds of 68 in the OKI Castellon Open Espana- Senior Tour Championship, writes Henry McCall.

Torrance posted four birdies in his flawless four-under- par round, while Drummond recovered from back-to-back bogeys on the second and third holes with a hat-trick of birdies.