Stars fading fast at K club
The European Open at the K Club near Dublin was in danger of losing three of its biggest attractions today – much to the disappointment of Irish fans.
Only the top 65 qualify for the final two rounds, but local heroes Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley and newly-crowned US Open champion Angel Cabrera were down in joint 80th place as they came towards the close of their second rounds.
Harrington, switching back to his favourite driver despite somehow damaging its graphite shaft on Tuesday, resumed with a birdie but then came three bogeys in the next seven holes as a strong wind made conditions tough.
At that point the world number 10 – the highest-ranked player in the field - was not even in the tournament’s top 100, but he did then birdie the 18th, reduced from a 578-yard par five to a par three as on the opening day because of the saturated fairway.
Fellow Dubliner and Ryder Cup partner McGinley, who also managed only a one-over 71 yesterday, set off in much better fashion with birdies at the 10th and 16th.
But then came a bogey on the short 17th and at the 449-yard first the 2005 Volvo Masters champion, who has slumped to 158th in the world, pulled his second badly left into the hay, could not make the green from there and double-bogeyed.
Cabrera, starting on the back nine, is playing his first event since triumphing at Oakmont last month and birdies at the 14th and 16th helped restore the damage of an opening bogey six before he then dropped two more shots on the 17th and 18th.
Even though they were all eight adrift of overnight leader Maarten Lafeber, the stars were carrying the biggest galleries with them.
Not that they were missing much in terms of who might actually win the event. Lafeber was among the afternoon starters and so were three of the players whose opening 65s left them one behind – Swede Niclas Fasth, England’s Robert Rock and Indian Jyoti Randhawa.
France’s Gregory Havret was on the same mark when he teed off again, but he turned in a one-over 35 and with five to play was still four under par and two behind.
Little-known Swede Pelle Edberg joined the group in second place with birdies at the 11th and 12th and remained five under after eight holes of his round.
Welshman Bradley Dredge, who led after the first and second days on the same Smurfit Course last year, was having a real tough time on his return.
Dredge, who on Sunday qualified for the Open at Carnoustie off a mini-Order of Merit, had six bogeys in eight holes and at 10 over was in last place.
