Stenson disqualified from Players Championship

ALVESLOHE, Germany, July 27 (Reuters) - Henrik Stenson's hopes of regaining first place on the European money list ended with disqualification in the Players Championship second round at Gut Kaden today.

Stenson, needing at least second place on Sunday to take top spot from British Open winner Padraig Harrington, admitted losing count of how many putts he took on the 17th and scrapped his card.

The Swede had already taken 40 shots going out, though, and would have been well over that figure coming home -- if he had signed a card.

''I ran out of putts,'' Stenson told reporters. ''I managed to double-hit a couple of times. I don't know how many putts I'd actually taken, that was the problem, so I couldn't sign a card.'' A birdie on the last showed what might have been.

Britons Zane Scotland (68) and Lee Slattery (69) lead the field on nine-under 135 at the halfway stage, a stroke ahead of last week's surprise British Open leader Andres Romero and another Briton, Oliver Wilson.

Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez is a further shot back.

Scotland is rehabilitating following severe whiplash in a 2003 car crash that threatened his career.

The 25-year-old is happy that recent new physiotherapy has made him fully mobile for the first time in three years.

''The whiplash moved two vertabrae in my neck to the right,'' Scotland told a news conference. ''At times it was like having a knife in my neck.

''I wasn't able to play much. But the new treatment has got me back.'' Fellow Briton Simon Khan, the first round leader, missed the cut with a record he would rather have avoided.

He suffered a right shoulder strain and a succession of three-putts to end up with a round of 80 which was 15 strokes worse than his opening round effort.

Khan joined Australian Rod Pampling, who led the 1999 Carnoustie British Open and then became the only player to have done that in the major and missed the cut, in the record books.

Reuters BJR VP0105