British Open: Of all things, Tiger Woods has criticised the meteorologists for getting the weather forecasts wrong for the first two rounds. For the world's number one, the systems coming in over the Firth of Clyde haven't been wicked enough. It's been too tame.

But, then, Woods wasn't in close proximity to Darren Clarke, who developed his own micro system of dark clouds hovering amid the sand hills of Troon, particularly in negotiating the back nine of yesterday's second round.

In fairness to Clarke, he had played beautifully - again - without getting the rewards. Even Kenny Perry, one of the other players in the group, remarked how it had been an education in how to play links golf simply watching Clarke in action.

"I was in shock when I was first introduced to links golf, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. I guess I was paralysed, it stunned me and I really struggled but I was fortunate to watch Darren Clarke play this golf course.

"He seemed like he was always ahead of me, always hitting first, so I was able to take notes from this guy and I was trying to get a feel of how to play these holes. I feel like I've got a little bit of understanding of how to play the golf course now."

If there was an irony in Perry's observations, it was that Clarke may have had the honour on him for the vast majority of the round but, when it mattered most coming down the stretch, it was the American who made hay. While Clarke bogeyed two of his last three holes for a 72 and midway total of one-under-par 141, Perry birdied four of his last five to sign for a 70 to move to 139.

"I saw Darren over the last few holes and he got flustered . . . you could see him getting flustered over the last few holes. But it's golf, we all have our own mental states and at certain times some guys handle it better than other guys."

It wasn't difficult to understand why Clarke should by visibly upset with the bounce of the ball on this links which, in the past, has bitten him more than once. In the 1997 Open, he shanked his tee-shot on the second hole of the final round and wound up finishing runner-up to Justin Leonard; and in Thursday's first round, his approach to the last overflew the green and finished out-of-bounds on the gravel path. Surely he was due some measure of good fortune yesterday?

It wasn't to be, and Clarke's frustration that so many good shots were not only not rewarded, but were actually punished, was comprehensible. "It's the same as usual, I just take as many shots as I can to get down," he remarked. " I left a lot of shots out there."

Clarke had numerous opportunities to get into the thick of the action but the sad statistic of 33 putts, despite hitting 14 greens in regulation, tells its own sorry tale. As early as the second hole, the writing was on the wall when a 12-footer lipped out. Another birdie attempt on the third also missed the cup. He did manage a birdie on the par five fourth, but a long birdie chance - from 30 feet - was missed on the fifth and one from eight feet failed to find the target on the sixth.

Thankfully, he had a short putt for birdie on the seventh but that was negated by a bogey on the Postage Stamp, where his tee shot found one of the greenside bunkers. On and on it went, with a number of birdie chances going amiss before he was stung at the end.

On the 16th, having played a two-iron off the tee to just short of the burn, Clarke hit a three-wood approach which plunged into the corner of the bunker and, from there, all he could do was progress it on to an adjacent bunker. Splashing out to 10 feet, he missed the par putt.

On the 17th, his tee shot pitched on the green and rolled down the slope, from where he failed to save par. From a position of challenging, he'd been slapped in the face.

"I just hope he wakes up tomorrow morning and realises he can still win the championship," remarked his manager Chubby Chandler.

In fairness to Clarke, his work didn't stop when his round finished. Indeed, late into the evening, he could be seen on the putting green with his physical therapist John Newton repeatedly searching for a putting stroke that had proven to be elusive in competition earlier on.