Golf - US Open:Pádraig Harrington's miserable run of form continues after the three-time major winner missed the cut at the US Open in Bethpage, New York where PGA Tour rookie Ricky Barnes is the surprise leader and Tiger Woods has his work cut out to get back into contention.
Harrington wasn’t alone as a sizeable section of the European contingent – including Darren Clarke, Paul Casey and Luke Donald - bowed out at the halfway stage of the second major of the year where the weather has played havoc with the tournament schedule. The cut fell at four-over par.
The Dubliner carded a second successive 76 to miss by eight shots on 12-over. Harrington was playing alongside Woods and proceeded to card two birdies, six bogeys and a closing double bogey.
It means the world number 11 has now missed five out of the last six cuts as a poor first half of the year continues.
There was better news for Harrington’s Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood, who defied the rain and a bad draw to climb into the top 10.
Westwood, starting the day at two-over, shot a four-under-par 66 for his second round in the worst conditions of the day as rain poured constantly through the afternoon on Long Island.
At two under he finds himself six shots back on Barnes who earlier in the day carded a five-under-par second-round 65 in the best of the conditions playing back-to-back rounds yesterday and this morning.
“I just went out with the idea of trying to be in front on my side of the draw,” Westwood said. “I’ve managed to do that so I’m delighted.”
Graeme McDowell was the leading Irishman on one-over after a second round 72 brought the 29-year-old back over par following his first round 69.
Rory McIlroy was a shot further back on two-over after his second round 70, while Darren Clarke outscored Harrington by two strokes but at 10-over, following a 76, he too had the rest of the weekend off.
There is now a race to get the tournament finished on time and last night play was suspended for the day at 7:11pm local time (12:11am Irish time) after Bethpage Black was hit with another heavy downpour of rain.
Tournament officials had hoped to restart play within half an hour of completing the second round and kept the players in place on the course but the speed with which some of the greens collected surface water made attempts at continuing play futile.
The USGA’s intention is now to restart the third round today at 12.30pm Irish time with 18 of the 60-man field, including Barnes, yet to tee off.
McDowell and McIlroy were both level par for their third rounds after six and five holes respectively. McDowell had reached the sixth hole and was at one over while McIlroy had played five and was at two-over having rescued par at the 12th hole when he had to play backwards out of trouble off the tee with his second shot.
Both Phil Mickelson and Woods parred their opening holes before the hooter sounded. They were one-under and three-over respectively.
The leader Barnes, the 2002 US Amateur champion who earned his tour card this year after six years as a professional, leads at eight-under, his 132 the lowest 36-hole total in US Open history.
It puts him one ahead early leader Lucas Glover, who posted a six-under-par 64, and another shot in front of first-round leader Mike Weir, the 2003 Masters champion from Canada who added a 70 to his opening 64.
Those three were set to get the third round way in a group of three with the lower half of the leaderboard playing from the 10th.
Barnes, 28, had begun the day in second place at five-under and carded three more birdies on a course that yielded just one under par total, that of Woods, when the US Open was first staged there in 2002.
“It’s pretty cool,” Barnes said. “At the beginning of the week you didn’t think that score was out there.
“With some tees moved up and the soft greens helped it out. And my ball-striking was the most probably impressive part of the first 36 holes. I just got 31 of 36 greens. Pretty stress-free, I think one bogey.
“But also if you would have told me I would have been eight under and only a one-shot lead, I would have said, ‘You’re kidding me’, but I’ll take it. It was solid play. And I’m happy with in the position I’m at.”
With the halfway cut determined by the low 60 scorers and ties, defending champion Woods found himself on the line at four- over after eight holes of his second round but three birdies and just one bogey over his next six gave him the luxury of a bogey at the last to finish at three-over.
With the rain reaching Long Island, the leaderboard remained dominated by Barnes’ initially late-starting side of the draw.
In addition to the top three, Japan’s Azuma Yano shot a 65 to get to three-under alongside former British Open champion David Duval, who added a 70 to his opening 67, and Peter Hanson of Sweden, who finished with a 71.
Collated second round scores & totals in the US Open Championship, Bethpage State Park (Black Course), Farmingdale, New York, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 70):
132Ricky Barnes 67 65
133Lucas Glover 69 64
134Mike Weir (Can) 64 70
137Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 71, Azuma Yano (Jpn) 72 65, David Duval 67 70
138Ross Fisher (Eng) 70 68, Sean O'Hair 69 69, Todd Hamilton 67 71, Nick Taylor (Can) 73 65, Lee Westwood (Eng) 72 66
139Steve Stricker 73 66, Phil Mickelson 69 70, Gary Woodland 73 66, Ryan Moore 70 69
140Adam Scott (Aus) 69 71, Oliver Wilson (Eng) 70 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 70 70, Trevor Murphy 71 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 73 67, Hunter Mahan 72 68, J.B. Holmes 73 67, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 66
141Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 70, Michael Sim (Aus) 71 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 69 72, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 73 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 71, John Mallinger 71 70, Dustin Johnson 72 69, Jim Furyk 72 69, Rocco Mediate 68 73, Drew Weaver 69 72
142Anthony Kim 71 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 72 70, Bubba Watson 72 70, Jeff Brehaut 70 72, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 71, Stewart Cink 73 69, Matt Bettencourt 75 67
143Tiger Woods 74 69, Billy Mayfair 73 70, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 74 69, Ben Curtis 72 71, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 71 72, Kenny Perry 71 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 73 70, K J Choi (Kor) 72 71, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 75 68, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 73 70
144Kyle Stanley 70 74, Kevin Sutherland 71 73, Tom Lehman 71 73, Fred Funk 70 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 74, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 72, Ian Poulter (Eng) 70 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 73 71, Tim Clark (Rsa) 73 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 72 72
The following players failed to make the cut
145Peter Tomasulo 73 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 73, David Toms 69 76, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 76 69, Simon Khan (Eng) 75 70, George McNeill 74 71, Cameron Beckman 76 69, Ryan Blaum 72 73, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 77 68, Martin Laird (Sco) 74 71, Luke Donald (Eng) 74 71
146Nick Watney 73 73, Brian Gay 73 73, Justin Leonard 71 75, Bo Van Pelt 73 73, Rickie Fowler 78 68, Cortland Lowe 75 71, Chris Stroud 76 70, Shawn Stefani 73 73, Rodney Pampling (Aus) 74 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 73 73, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 73 73, Ryan Spears 73 73, Robert Allenby (Aus) 75 71, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 74 72, Andrew Parr (Can) 74 72, Nathan Tyler 77 69, Angelo Que (Phi) 77 69, Brandt Snedeker 71 75, Steve Allan (Aus) 73 73, James Kamte (Rsa) 74 72
147Richard Bland (Eng) 77 70, Colby Beckstrom 76 71, Zach Johnson 75 72, David Smail (Nzl) 70 77, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 77 70, Mike Miles 78 69, James Nitties (Aus) 78 69, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 77 70, Charlie Wi (Kor) 75 72, J J Henry 73 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 75 72, Ken Duke 76 71, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 76 71, Briny Baird 73 74, Cameron Tringale 70 77, D.J. Trahan 76 71
148Kaname Yokoo (Jpn) 77 71, Tyson Alexander 73 75, J.P. Hayes 74 74, Matt Kuchar 71 77, Simon Dyson (Eng) 78 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 75 73, Justin Rose (Eng) 73 75, Doug Batty (Nzl) 74 74, Craig Bowden 74 74
149Michael Welch (Eng) 73 76, Scott Gutschewski 77 72, Heath Slocum 76 73, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 76 73, Steve Conway 80 69
150Ben Martin 72 78, Chad Campbell 80 70, John Merrick 73 77, Kevin Silva 78 72, Clark Klaasen 76 74, Paul Casey (Eng) 75 75, Darren Clarke (NIrl) 74 76, Charlie Beljan 78 72
151Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 78 73, Chris Kirk 74 77, Ben Crane 76 75, Casey Wittenberg 73 78, Boo Weekley 79 72, Josh McCumber 78 73, Greg Kraft 79 72
152David Erdy 78 74, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 76 76
153Drew Kittleson 80 73, Clinton Jensen 78 75, Bronson Burgoon 74 79
154Vaughn Snyder 76 78, Cameron Yancey 74 80, David Horsey (Eng) 81 73, Darron Stiles 75 79, Andrew Svoboda 80 74
155Ernie Els (Rsa) 78 77, Sean Farren 80 75
156Michael Campbell (Nzl) 77 79, Kyle Peterman 81 75, Matt Nagy 76 80
157Shintaro Kai (Jpn) 79 78
159Eric Axley 79 80
161Scott Lewis 81 80
162Josh Brock 83 79
