HEIDELBERG, Germany, May 21 (UPI) -- Alex Cejka limped his way to the lead Friday midway through the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open, matching his own course record with an 8-under-par 64.
Suffering from acute pain in his back and right hamstring, Cejka walked with a noticeable limp Friday but still built a three-shot lead over David Howell of England and Gregory Havret of France at 11-under 133.
He shares the course mark with Tiger Woods and Mark Pilkington.
Cejka has benefited from playing in his home country. Otherwise, he may not have made it to the first tee after picking up a nagging back injury following the BMW Asian Open in China a few days ago.
"I don't think I would have played otherwise," he said. "But I am a fighter and I was trying to forget the pain and just try as hard as I could."
Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke, South Africans Trevor Immelman and Louis Oosthuizen and New Zealand's Stephen Scahill shared fourth place, four strokes off the pace.
