By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Rochester

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American Shaun Micheel, given an award for bravery nine years ago for saving two people from a sinking car, is back in the headlines - as the shock halfway leader in the United States PGA championship at Oak Hill.

The 34-year-old from Orlando, ranked 169th in the world and appearing in the event for the first time, birdied four of his last five holes for a 68, a three-under-par total and a two-stroke lead.

Masters champion Mike Weir and American Billy Andrade - not even in the event until Monday afternoon - were set to share top spot until Micheel, playing only his third major, produced his brilliant finish.

And this a month after compatriot Ben Curtis, ranked 396th at the time, won his first-ever major at the Open.

Whether he can continue as he left off remains to be seen, though, and there still looks every chance of the final major of the season being won by a record score. A record high score, that is.

Rochester, New York, was one of the towns affected by the massive black-out across north-east America and parts of Canada, but the problems the world's top golfers were encountering had nothing to do with a power failure. Just a player failure on one of the toughest lay-outs imaginable.

The championship switched from match play to stroke play in 1958 and since then the highest winning score was Larry Nelson's one under aggregate at PGA National in Florida in 1987.

Tiger Woods bogeyed two of his last three holes to be nine behind - he added a 72 to his opening 74 - while Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Greg Owen, Bradley Dredge, Phillip Price, Lee Westwood, Alastair Forsyth, Brian Davis, Justin Rose and Colin Montgomerie all missed the halfway cut.

As did Curtis and Thomas Bjorn, first and second at Sandwich last month.

Phil Mickelson, trying to make his 46th major his first win, led by three at five under when he birdied the long fourth, but he made two visits to the water in the next three holes and double-bogeyed them both.

He finished with a 75 to be in the group on one over, while joint first-round leader Rod Pampling's 74 leaves him fourth.

World number two Ernie Els looked set to be one under, but finished with a double bogey six at the 452-yard ninth.

Westwood and Forsyth could both do no better than 78 after the promise of opening 73s, while Montgomerie and Clarke improved their first day efforts - 82 and 79 respectively - by nine and eight, but still found it was not enough.

McGinley bogeyed the last to miss by one, but Paul Casey's 69, one of only a handful of sub-par rounds during the day, enabled him to make his first cut in a major at last. And former Walker Cup teammate Luke Donald stands five over.

Andrade said: "I got a call Monday that I was second alternate because Davis Love (already exempt) won on Sunday. Then I got another that I was first alternate because Larry Nelson withdrew and then two minutes later I got another saying that (Hidemichi) Tanaka declined to play."

He was making better use of his late opportunity than any of the 29-strong European contingent.

German Alex Cejka was in on three over and that was starting to look better by the minute because of what was happening to many of those in front of him.

Ian Poulter, Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia, who led the European challenge after their opening rounds of 72, could do no better than 75, 76, and 77 respectively.

Harrington said: "I don't feel hard done by. I had a few putts horseshoe out, but they were always for saves. I didn't play very well."

He refused to blame it on having his mind on matters back at home, where wife Caroline is waiting to give birth to their first child.

It was due next Monday, but the Dubliner said: "The doctor said it could be more than a week away, so I'm not a bit distracted. The course is tough, but very playable - the pins were slightly harder today, but you do get birdie opportunities if you are playing well."

Meanwhile, young Australian Aaron Baddeley, joint sixth overnight, was penalised two strokes for missing his tee-off time.

Baddeley, three shots behind Mickelson and Pampling thanks to an opening 69, thought his start time was 7.35am when it was, in fact, five minutes earlier and he was late by 40 seconds.

After a 77 he said: "I was walking to the tee when a friend told me. I said 'Are you serious?' and then began running.

"It's one of those things. There's nothing you can do. I was a little bit annoyed at first (both with himself and his caddie presumably for not double-checking). I thought my two tee-off times were 12.35 and 7.35."

David Duval, in a real slump, was bothered by more back trouble and after starting with an 80 he managed only four more holes before retiring.

The first was a double bogey six, the third a triple bogey six and the fourth a bogey six to leave the Ryder Cup star 16 over.

Duval has failed to make the cut 15 times in 18 starts this season, also withdrawing from the recent Great Hartford Open after an opening 83.

In the Open at Sandwich last month he shot 83-78 to be 19 over par and he has not been around at the weekend in any of the four majors.

Collated first-round scores (USA unless stated, par 70):

137 Shaun Micheel 69 68

139 Billy Andrade 67 72, Mike Weir (Can) 68 71

140 Rod Pampling 66 74

141 Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 70, Jose Coceres (Arg) 73 68, Chad Campbell 69 72, Tom Pernice 70 71, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 69, Tim Herron 69 72, Phil Mickelson 66 75

142 Tim Clark (Rsa) 72 70, Lee Janzen 68 74, Fred Funk 69 73, Vijay Singh (Fij) 69 73, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 71 71, Charles Howell 70 72

143 Frank Lickliter 71 72, Alex Cejka (Ger) 74 69, Phil Tataurangi (Nzl) 72 71, Loren Roberts 70 73, Toshimitsu Izawa (Jpn) 71 72, Robert Gamez 70 73, Kevin Sutherland 69 74

144 Jay Haas 70 74, Len Mattiace 74 70, Mark Calcavecchia 73 71, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 74 70, Briny Baird 73 71, Todd Hamilton 70 74, Scott McCarron 74 70

145 Chris DiMarco 74 71, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 71, Fred Couples 74 71, Jesper Parnevik (Swe) 73 72, Woody Austin 72 73, Duffy Waldorf 70 75, Luke Donald (Gbr) 73 72

146 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 77, Hal Sutton 75 71, JL Lewis 71 75, Rocco Mediate 72 74, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 76 70, Ben Crane 73 73, Carlos Franco (Par) 73 73, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 71 75, Tiger Woods 74 72, Jim Furyk 72 74

147 Jonathan Kaye 74 73, Scott Hoch 75 72, Ian Poulter (Gbr) 72 75, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 75 72, Bob Estes 71 76, Joe Durant 71 76, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 77, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 74 73, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 76, Kenny Perry 75 72, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 75 72, David Toms 75 72

148 Peter Lonard (Aus) 74 74, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 77 71, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 72 76, Gary Evans (Gbr) 74 74, Billy Mayfair 76 72, Bob Burns 72 76, Paul Casey (Gbr) 79 69, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 74 74, Brian Gay 74 74, KJ Choi (S Kor) 74 74

Missed the cut:

149 Steve Flesch 79 70, Dan Forsman 75 74, Darren Clarke (Gbr) 79 70, Scott Verplank 77 72, Greg Norman (Aus) 79 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 77, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 73 76, Paul McGinley 73 76, Davis Love 74 75, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 78 71, Paul Azinger 73 76, Gene Sauers 72 77

150 Greg Owen (Gbr) 77 73, Tom Lehman 75 75, Bradley Dredge (Gbr) 75 75, Steve Lowery 75 75, Tom Watson 75 75, Peter Jacobsen 73 77, Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 76 74, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 76 74, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 74 76, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 75 75, Ben Curtis 75 75, Don Berry 74 76

151 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 77 74, Hank Kuehne 70 81, Brian Davis (Gbr) 73 78, Mark Brooks 77 74, Kevin Burton 78 73, Rob Labritz 76 75, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 73 78, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 75 76, Bob Tway 78 73, John Daly 76 75, Alastair Forsyth (Gbr) 73 78, Chris Riley 73 78, John Rollins 78 73

152 Jeff Maggert 79 73, Scott Porter 80 72, JC Anderson 76 76, Stewart Cink 79 73, Phillip Price (Gbr) 77 75, Chip Sullivan 74 78

153 Jerry Kelly 78 75

154 Justin Leonard 79 75, Ken Schall 80 74, Dave Tentis 79 75, Tim Thelen 75 79, Jeff Sluman 75 79, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 79, Jeffrey Lankford 78 76

155 Dean Wilson 78 77, Mark O'Meara 73 82, Anders Hansen (Den) 78 77, Justin Rose (Gbr) 77 78

156 Stephen Ames (Tri) 82 74, Dino Lucchesi 79 77, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 82 74

157 Tim Petrovic 82 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 77 80, Craig Parry (Aus) 79 78, Rich Beem 82 75, Steve Schneiter 77 80

158 Mike Schuchart 77 81, Andre Stolz (Aus) 75 83, Cary Sciorra 76 82, Michael Combs 79 79

159 Jonathan Byrd 80 79, Bob Sowards 81 78, Skip Kendall 80 79, Rick Schuller 79 80

160 Ron Philo 82 78, Sean Farren 79 81

161 Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 82 79, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 81 80, John Guyton 80 81, Brad Faxon 82 79, Dave Spengler 81 80

163 Alan Morin 84 79

165 Terry Hatch 84 81

167 Tim Fleming 84 83

Retired: David Duval, Kirk Triplett

Withdrew: Wayne Defrancesco, John Jacobs, John Huston