Padraig Harrington, who finished second last year, is just one shot off the pace at the halfway mark in the BMW International Open in Munich.

Harrington finished 11-under-par after adding a 66 to his opening 67 to trail leader Thomas Bjorn by one shot. The Dubliner has several reasons to have fond memories of the Nord-Eichenried course. He clinched his Ryder Cup place 12 months ago by finishing second behind Montgomerie and has also finished ninth and third in recent years.

"I just like the event," said Harrington who also celebrated his 29th birthday on Thursday. "They look after you really well and that all adds to the event.

"I obviously play well on the course and like it, it sets up well for me. The reason I have done well here before is because you could hit it anywhere but you can't do that now.

"But I've tightened up my game with Bob Torrance over the last couple of years and in the eyes of a lot of people I have taken my game to another level."

As Bjorn and Harrington stormed to the top of the leaderboard, defending champion Colin Montgomerie made an unaccustomed early exit. Bjorn carded a second-round 63 for a 12-under-par total and one-stroke lead over Harrington and Miguel Angel Martin of Spain.

In stark contrast, Montgomerie was contemplating a weekend off in Europe for the first time in two years after failing to make the halfway cut.

Montgomerie never really recovered from the embarrassment of being penalised two shots on the opening day after arriving a minute late for his tee-off time.

The world number five arrived on time yesterday but could only add a 74 to his opening 72 and saw his proud sequence of making 36 consecutive cuts in European Tour events - a run ironically going back to this event in 1998 - come to a disappointing end.

"The two-shot penalty shook me," admitted Montgomerie who missed the cut by five shots in his 300th European Tour event. "I came here looking forward to defending my title and this is what happens.

"I came out today anticipating shooting a 66 and shot 74, it's very uncharacteristic. The penalty really threw me."

There were no such worries for tournament leader Bjorn who carded nine birdies and no dropped shots in his round, just one off the course record.

Bjorn, a member of Europe's victorious Ryder Cup team in 1997, has been in superb form recently, finishing third in the USPGA championship and joint second in the British Open at St Andrews.

And ironically it was a desire to imitate Montgomerie's usual consistency that led the 29-year-old London-based golfer to make the changes to his swing necessary to move his game to the next level.

"I started working with Pete Cowen earlier this year, I felt there was something missing in my game, some consistency missing, and I made a decision to try and do something different," Bjorn said.

"It is just small changes and we are gradually changing things to make it better and better and more solid.

"I felt I was doing well with my old swing but it would disappear too quickly. You need to be up there every week. That's what Lee Westwood and Monty do.

"They are up there every single week they play and that's why they challenge so often because they get so used to being in contention."