Not even only the second albatross of his life could bring Colin Montgomerie closer to pacesetting Ryder Cup team-mate Padraig Harrington at the halfway stage of the Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland.
Montgomerie sank a 209-yard four-iron on the 516-yard third at Kingsbarns, but played the other 17 holes in level par for a 69 that left him seven adrift of the Dubliner.
On the same course Harrington repeated the six-under-par 66 he had produced on the opening day at Carnoustie and with that moved from one behind Eduardo Romero to one ahead of the 48-year-old Argentinian.
"My first albatross was in Switzerland in 1990," said Montgomerie, who is partnering former Liverpool and Scotland football international Alan Hansen in the £3 million celebrity pro-am event.
"I was playing with Seve Ballesteros, shook his hand on the first tee and then shook it again four minutes later. It was my second shot of the day.
"That was a three-wood, so I must be getting longer. I made eagle on the same hole last year and albatross this year - I'm going to struggle to keep that going next year. I will have to find a long driver."
That hole apart, though, Montgomerie admitted he had largely found it tricky on the least familiar of the three links courses being used.
"This is the one that will make or break a score within the four rounds," he added. "None of us know it as well as we do Carnoustie or St Andrews."
Harrington had eight birdies, the last two at his final two holes to take him above Romero. Even though he can still win the European Order of Merit he has yet to win this season, but is trying not to get too anxious about that.
"I'm not rushing to prove anything in the next couple of weeks," he said. "Basically I'm happy that my game has improved and I'm working on the principle that the wins will come eventually and don't press it.
"I would not say I've been anywhere near my top form with how I'm swinging the club here, but I've got a good mental attitude and I've worked my way around the course.
"What I've done is hit the important shots well - I had four putts for eagle today. I've hit some bad ones elsewhere, but because of the nature of links golf you can get away with it.
"It's nice to be back playing links golf. I'm suited to it and don't have to adjust that much. Obviously you have to hit different shots, but it comes pretty natural to me."
Harrington's amateur partner is racehorse owner JP McManus and they are leading the team event. Joint third are Gary Lineker (with Thomas Bjorn) and former South African cricketer Barry Richards (with Henrik Stenson).
Third in the individual race is Swede Mikael Lundberg and joint fourth Bjorn and Indian Jyoti Randhawa. Sandy Lyle is among those one further back.
Next best of the Ryder Cup nine is Phillip Price in a group on seven under that also contains Order of Merit leader Retief Goosen - five back - while Montgomerie is alongside Ernie Els.
Four of the team need to improve their position to make the cut after the third round today. Lee Westwood, after a 68, and Darren Clarke are level par and joint 64th, Paul McGinley one over and Pierre Fulke seven over.
Meanwhile, their leader from last week, Sam Torrance, confirmed yesterday that he does not wish to stay on as European Ryder Cup captain. Five days after leading the side to a famous victory over the Americans at The Belfry the 49-year-old Scot has decided to quit at the top.
"If selected I feel that I would be the sentimental choice rather than the reasonable choice," he said. "By the time of the next matches I will have been on the Seniors Tour for almost two years and won't have been playing with the players week-in, week-out as I did this time.
"Without seeing the guys regularly, I don't think I'd have the same rapport and wouldn't necessarily be able to re-create the team atmosphere that we so enjoyed last week. It is very tempting, but it wouldn't be right for the team and that, in the end, is the most important thing."
Harrington, on being told of Torrance's decision, commented: "That's what he kind of told us, so it comes as no surprise. We would have loved him to be captain again, but he gave so much for three years and he could not give the same again, so I think he's made the right decision. He put a huge amount into it and took a lot out of his own golf."
The announcement comes only a day after Nick Faldo backed Torrance and said he was withdrawing himself from the running for the 2004 captaincy and putting his efforts into trying to return to the side.
Bernhard Langer is now strong favourite to succeed Torrance. The 45-year-old, unbeaten last week in his 10th appearance in the match, said he is taking the next few months to decide whether to make himself available.
Second Round Scores
(Brit unless stated, Irish in bold)
132 (12 under) Padraig Harrington 66 66
133 (11 under) Eduardo Romero (Arg) 65 68
134 (10 under) Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 67 67
135 (9 under) Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 66 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 67 68
136 (8 under) Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 66, Nic Lawrence (Rsa) 66 70, Santiago Luna (Spa) 67 69, Sandy Lyle 69 67
137 (7 under) Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 67, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 67, Phillip Price 69 68
138 (6 under) Gordon Brand Jnr 71 67, Adam Scott (Aus) 68 70
139 (5 under) Klas Eriksson (Swe) 72 67, Simon Dyson 71 68, Paul Eales 72 67, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69 70, Colin Montgomerie 70 69, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 67, Brian Davis 70 69
140 (4 under) Roger Chapman 70 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 70, Mark McNulty (Zim) 68 72, Paul Broadhurst 72 68, Andrew Coltart 73 67, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 70, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 71 69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 73 67
141 (3 under) David Gilford 72 69, Alan McLean 76 65, Richard Green (Aus) 71 70, Justin Rose 70 71, Barry Hume 74 67
142 (2 under) Gregory Havret (Fra) 69 73, Rolf Muntz (Holl) 68 74, John Bickerton 74 68, Paul Lawrie 74 68, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 71, Richard Johnson (Swe) 71 71, Raymond Russell 70 72, James Kingston (Rsa) 76 66, Steve Webster 71 71, Amandeep John (Ind) 70 72, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 72, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 71 71, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 73 69, Scott Drummond 74 68, Gary Orr 70 72
143 (1 under) Jorge Berendt (Arg) 70 73, Jonathan Lomas 68 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 74 69, Roger Wessels (Rsa) 70 73, Peter Fowler (Aus) 70 73, Anders Forsbrand (Swe) 71 72, Fredrik Jacobson (Swe) 70 73, Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 74 69, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 73 70, Nick Faldo 75 68, Costantino Rocca 74 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 74 69, Steve Elkington (Aus) 73 70, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 68 75
144 (level) Brett Rumford (Aus) 75 69, Anthony Wall 74 70, Gary Evans 75 69, Lee Westwood 76 68, Glen Day (USA) 71 73, Darren Clarke 72 72, Gary Emerson 75 69, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 71, Jamie Donaldsaon 70 74, Gary Clark 71 73, Diego Borrego (Spa) 70 74, David Lynn 73 71, Peter Baker 75 69, Soren Hansen (Den) 74 70, Greg Owen 76 68
145 (1 over) Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 74 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 75, Paul McGinley 73 72, Paul Casey 74 71, Marc Farry (Fra) 71 74, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 74, Dean Robertson 73 72, Ian Woosnam 69 76, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 74 71, Richard Lee (Nzl) 72 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 72, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 72, Richard Bland 68 77, Graeme McDowell 71 74
146 (2 over) Mathias Gronberg (Swe) 76 70, Sebastien Delagrange (Fra) 75 71, Alastair Forsyth 73 73, Andrew Oldcorn 73 73, Mark Foster 75 71, Ted Oh (Kor) 74 72, Sven Struver (Ger) 69 77, Tobias Dier (Ger) 75 71, Scott Gardiner (Aus) 71 75, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 72 74, Bradley Dredge 75 71, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned), Stephen Leaney (Aus) 75 71, Stephen Gallacher 78 68, David Howell 79 67, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 74 72, Stephen Dodd 75 71, Chris Gane 69 77, Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 74 73
147 (3 over) Grant Muller (Rsa) 75 72, Henrik Bjornstad (Nor) 75 72, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 74 73, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 75 72, Mark Pilkington 74 73, Adam Mednick (Swe) 75 72, Ian Poulter 74 73, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 75 72, Anthony Kang (Kor) 75 72, Malcolm Mackenzie 72 75, Doug McGuigan 73 74, Ty Tryon (USA) 73 74
148 (4 over) Ian Garbutt 75 73, Mark Davis 73 75, Warren Bennett 78 70, Mark Roe 72 76, Clay Devers (USA) 76 72, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 72 76, Kenneth Ferrie 71 77, Jamie Spence 72 76, Nick Dougherty 72 76
149 (5 over) Omar Sandys (Rsa) 76 73, David Park 74 75, Graeme Storm 75 74, Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 77 72, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 74 75, Martin Maritz (Rsa) 73 76, Andrew Pitts (USA) 81 68, Steen Tinning (Den) 75 74
150 (6 over) Miguel Angel Martin (Spa) 74 76, Barry Lane 73 77, David Carter 76 74, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 73 77, Tom Gillis (USA) 74 76, Andre Cruse (Rsa) 80 70
151 (7 over) Lucas Parsons (Aus) 78 73, Mark Mouland 79 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 79, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 79 72, Greg Turner (Nzl) 72 79, Jean Hugo (Rsa) 75 76
152 (8 over) Andre Stolz (Aus) 76 76, Daren Lee 76 76, Olle Karlsson (Swe) 78 74, Andrew Marshall 76 76, Philip Golding 74 78, Mads Vide-Hastrup (Den) 80 72
153 (9 over) Marc Cayeux (Zim) 78 75
154 (10 over) Ahman Dan Bateman (Can) 77 77
155 (11 over) Philip Walton 75 80, Henrik Nystrom (Swe) 77 78, Chris Williams 79 76
159 (15 over) Des Smyth 78 81
160 (16 over) Thammanoon Sriroj (Tha) 73 87
161 (17 over) Mark James 85 76
Disq: Miles Tunnicliff
LEADING TEAM SCORES
124 (20 under) Padraig Harrington and JP McManus 62 62
125 (19 under) Eduardo Romero and Neil Crichton 61 64
128 (16 under) Thomas Bjorn and Gary Lineker 65 63,
Henrik Stenson and Barry Richards 63 65
