Until Thursday evening last, the putter Darren Clarke held in his hands had travelled thousands of miles and traversed numerous time zones. The walk from the clubhouse at the K Club to the putting green is little more than 100 yards, but the putter, which had been as cold as cold can be in that first round of the Smurfit European Open, never survived the short trip.

Frustrated with his putting display on the course, the player snapped it in half in midstream.

"Yeah, I dismembered it along the way . . . it's well and truly gone," he admitted.

At least, with a little time for reflection, he could see the funny side of it; and it may yet be resurrected for use - not by the player, but by his nearly two-year-old son. "I think Conor may end up using it now," he added.

His little display after that first round may have resulted in a broken putter shaft, but the serious work started when he reached the putting green. Clarke has a locker-full of putters, and he spent two-and-a-half hours on the green in an attempt to get his putting back to the desired level. If the bigger picture may be on the British Open at Muirfield in two weeks - where anyone with a cold blade will simply flounder - he was also anxious to revive his defence of this title before he had slipped too far behind.

The time spent on the putting green, and the switch - somewhat enforced - to a new putter, reaped some dividends yesterday. Instead of the 31 putts he took in Thursday's opening round, he took 27 in the second. And, instead of the round of 74 with which he opened, yesterday he had a 70 for a midway total of level-par 144. Consequently, he moved from tied-67th overnight to 24th, and within striking distance of the leader.

Indeed, it could have been so much better, but for a double-bogey six on his third hole from home. On "Michael's Favourite", the seventh hole (normally the 16th as members play the course), a par four of 395 yards, Clarke must have felt he had done the hard part when launching a huge drive. He only had 100 yards to the pin.

"I was trying to hit a hard lobber in," he explained. However, he caught it heavy, and it finished in the water that guards the green. Dropping his ball, he then hit another lob wedge and his first putt horse-shoed out.

"I played nicely, was doing okay, and then I make that mistake," said Clarke. "I'm not totally out of it. However, I had opportunities and let them go. I am just not making the most of my good shots. I need a good day tomorrow. This is a course that I like, but I need to go low."

Clarke's aim may be to get back into the thick of the action, but another Irishman on the 144 mark had altogether different targets. As if to emphasise the difference between the globe-trotting superstar golfer who more often than not travels in private jets, and the club professional who only rarely gets into a big tournament, John Dwyer was back in his shop at Ashbourne Golf Club last evening.

Dwyer, a brother of former National Hunt jockey Mark, who won two Gold Cups with Forgive and Forget and Jodami as well as a Champion Hurdle with Flakey Dove, followed up on his opening round 69 with a roller-coaster 75 yesterday that featured four birdies - three of them on par threes - and three bogeys and two double-bogeys.

With two birdies in his opening three holes, Dwyer - playing in the event because he topped last year's Irish PGA Order of Merit - actually moved into a share of the lead on five-under-par, and admitted: "I don't look at leaderboards, but I figured I might be up there and I got a bit nervous after that. I hit a few loose shots and lost my tempo."

At the start of the tournament, Dwyer's target was simply to make the cut. "Now that I have achieved my main target," he said, "I can go out and enjoy it. There's a fine line, however, between the point where you are not switched off but you are very relaxed at the same time playing. But I am swinging well, and every department of my game is good at the moment."

The most costly of Dwyer's dropped shots came on his penultimate hole, the 17th. Confident and going at the flag with an eight-iron, he blocked it. The ball was only a yard into the rough, but that made the shot more difficult if anything. The timing and contact had to be perfect.

"I felt I had a couple of shots leeway," said Dwyer, who was two-under at the time, "and felt, 'why not go to three-under?'."

The attempted flop shot was "about a foot" from being perfect but it took him a further three shots to get the ball into the hole, and the double-bogey six moved him back to level, but in with the prospect of collecting his biggest ever pay cheque and not too far away from a possible top-10, which would get him into next week's Scottish Open.

While Padraig Harrington led the Irish challenge, on three-under, with Clarke and Dwyer on level, two other home players also made the cut. Gary Murphy, who obtained a late sponsor's invitation into the event, birdied his final hole, the ninth, to record a 73 for 145, while Eamonn Darcy, competing in his last regular tour event before he turns 50 on August 7th and moves on to the European Seniors Tour, had a 72 for 147 to survive on the cut line.