GOLF: If there was a sense yesterday that the North Course here at the K Club had finally brought players to their knees - with just four players breaking 70 and a handful of others retiring for a variety of reasons in mid-round - the importance of some forward momentum was emphasised by one of the few men to cope with the demands of constructing a score in the second round of the Smurfit European Open.

Not for the first time, and almost certainly not for the last, Padraig Harrington prospered in conditions where others laboured. Indeed, like a turbo-charged convertible speeding past some clapped-out old cars, Harrington - shooting a 69 for three-under-par 141 - moved from an overnight position of tied-36th to a far more appetising midway placing of shared fourth place, just two strokes adrift of leader Michael Campbell .

Only four players, Harrington, Mark Pilkington, Eduardo Romero and Nick O'Hern, managed to break 70 - all shooting 69s - and while some 35 players beat par in Thursday's first round, only 25 managed to do so yesterday.

"To be honest, I'm absolutely delighted, but a little surprised, to be in this position. I didn't think scoring conditions were that hard," remarked Harrington, with all the candour of a man who had lived in a world of his own for over four hours.

That focus, in fact, was critical to his finish where he played a magnificent 40-yards bunker shot to the 18th green to set up a closing birdie. After hitting a huge drive, over the bunker that extends out into the fairway and now requires a carry of 280 yards, Harrington was in the process of preparing to play a five-wood approach shot to a green that has water on its left when the infernal nuisance of a mobile phone rang out.

Undeterred, he stepped back, and went through his set-up routine again. But, when the time came to play the approach, he "bailed out", to use his own words, and finished in the greenside bunker where he found a horrible lie.

After walking to the fringe to see just how much room there was for manoeuvre, he decided on an aggressive bunker play and was ultimately rewarded with a birdie that made him forget about the influence of the phone's ringing tone.

Afterwards, Harrington insisted the phone had not been a factor in his pushed five-wood approach.

"It didn't affect me," he said. "Nobody puts on their mobile on purpose. I remember going to the cinema during the US PGA a couple of years ago, to a movie called Scream. It is one of those teen horror movies and the start is the female character who is about to die being phoned by the murderer and, of course it all goes quiet . . . and my mobile phone goes off. The whole cinema jumped. I nearly broke the phone trying to turn it off.

"It is only by accident that anyone leaves their phone on. I wouldn't blame the individuals at all - although I have seen caddies chase people across fairways after phones have gone off - but I'd say 99.9 per cent of people, if they realised the phone was on, would turn it off.

"What we need to do is bombard people with signs and notices to remind them to turn phones off. It is unfortunate when it happens on the top of your back-swing, but it is also unfortunate when you finish in a divot, or get a bad bounce, or get a gust of wind."

Harrington will be joined in the final two rounds by four other Irish players who survived when the cut fell on three-over-par 147: Darren Clarke (70 for 144), John Dwyer (75 for 144), Gary Murphy (73 for 145), and Eamonn Darcy (72 for 147).

Among the casualties who fell by the wayside, however, were five members of Europe's Ryder Cup team. Three missed the cut - Bernhard Langer, who missed out by one, Thomas Bjorn and Paul McGinley - while Pierre Fulke and Phillip Price were two of six players to retire or be disqualified mid-round.

Justin Rose, a two-time winner on the European Tour this season, also failed to make it to the weekend and Soren Hansen, winner of last week's Murphy's Irish Open, found out how difficult it can be to maintain momentum after a first win.

In almost a mirror image of the previous day, the early starters, who had grafted through afternoon rain the previous day, again got the worst of the conditions. So, in many ways, it was a tribute to Campbell's resolve that he carved out a second round 71 to add to his opening 68 to assume the midway lead on 139, a shot ahead of Barry Lane and Pilkington.

If the dank conditions were one hindrance to the New Zealander, another was that he bizarrely lost his two playing partners, Fulke and Price, to injuries, and was facilitated for his final few holes by American Fred Funk, who dropped back from the group ahead. Campbell has missed the cut in five of his last six majors, and he is hoping that a good show here will provide the inspiration for a good showing at the British Open in two weeks.

"I don't think there is any doubt we've had the worst side of the draw here," said Campbell. "But that is golf for you. These things tend to even out in the wash . . . some weeks I get a good side of the draw, sometimes not. It is just nice to see myself in contention in a tournament again."

He hasn't won on the European Tour since last year's Heineken Classic, almost 18 months ago, and he is half-way there in his quest to change that statistic. But he knows, the hardest half has yet to come.

5 under

Michael Campbell (Nzl, above)

4 under

Barry Lane (Eng)

3 under

Joakim Haeggman (Swe)

Jamie Donaldson (Wal)

Paul Lawrie (Scot)

Darren Fichardt (Rsa)

Jorge Berendt (Arg)

Patrik Sjoland (Swe)

Padraig Harrington

Bradley Dredge (Wal)