Greg Norman was incandescent with a frustration that bubbled ever closer to the surface as his round progressed. On the 16th hole at the K Club, his patience finally snapped, golf's Great White Shark taking a chunk out of a hapless tree.

He didn't break the club, but probably wouldn't have cared if he did.

One errant drive too many in a round that largely unravelled on the greens saw him slip from a first round total of three under par and a place on the leaderboard to a 76, one over for the tournament as the weekend looms.

He smiled ruefully when it was suggested that he was still reasonably well placed on a day when the course largely defied Europe's golfing elite.

"I putted terribly," he said, before going on to venture that a continuation of those woes would render his position on the leaderboard irrelevant.

These sound bites were delivered as the Australian strode purposely for the sanctuary of his hotel room at a bracing clip. It matched his gait over the closing holes.

Once he hit his shot, he set off; it was as if he couldn't bear to look. It was difficult not to empathise to some extent as he suffered a kind of slow torture on the greens.

A birdie at the third merely served to tantalise; back-to-back double bogeys at the sixth and seventh holes saw his round listing dangerously. He righted the ship temporarily with a birdie at the par three eighth to be two over at the turn.

A drive, five-iron and wedge to three feet set up another birdie opportunity on the 10th, of which he availed.

Now only one over regulation figures for the day, Norman seemed poised to rescue his round.

A good drive on 11 was undone by a poor second shot and a two- putt par, before he missed the green left on the 12th. A sloppy chip left him with a six-foot putt for par. He holed.

Two holes later there would be no redemption when he bogeyed the 213-yard par three.

At the 15th he hit a marvellous second to 12 feet but the blade once again thwarted him. Having released a little of the tension on the next following his "tree-iron", he was soon disconsolate following a three-putt on the green.

A blocked tee-shot on the 17th required three more shots before reaching the par four: his travails eventually ended in a bogey.

An end to his torment was in sight as he undertook a relatively uneventful pilgrimage down the par five 18th; on the home green in three and a straight-forward two-putt.

His playing partners, Paul McGinley and Angel Cabrera, weren't exactly chipper themselves.

Half a dozen poor shots a round are undermining McGinley's confidence.

A one over par 73 was a good score on the day but not enough to offset Thursday's 77, and so the Dubliner won't be around for the weekend.

Having turned two over for his round, McGinley had birdies on the 15th and 17th to come home in one under the card. He is now resigned to a couple of days practice before heading to Loch Lomond.

Cabrera, regularly 30 and 40 yards outside his playing partners from the tee, will have found last night's dinner a little more palatable following three consecutive birdies over the closing stretch to finish at one under for the tournament with 36 holes remaining.

He will also have one eye on the €100,000 diamond on offer from Appleby Jewellers for any player to complete the par fives in 14 under par over the four days.

He currently leads the way on a score of six under par and will be hoping that he can emulate Thomas Bjorn's feat last year when an eagle on the 72nd hole saw the Dane claim the prize.