PHILIP REIDhears Graeme McDowell and Pádraig Harrington try to explain where it all went wrong

THE SLINGS and arrows were made for this game, as Graeme McDowell – once a favoured son – has discovered in recent times. The final-day fallout in the Players championship was followed by a fall from grace in the Wales Open and, only last week, another burning in the Scottish Open. Unfortunately for him, there was to be no solace in here in the British Open at Sandwich as, again, he became a victim.

He wasn’t alone. For, when the axe fell, Pádraig Harrington – a three-time major champion who provided the catalyst for McDowell and, more recently, Rory McIlroy, to follow suit – was also among the casualties. McDowell missed the weekend by two, after a second round 77 for 145; but Harrington’s 71 put him on the 144 mark, and just a stroke outside the cut mark.

“I’ve always enjoyed the mental side of the game, but I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it so much right now because I’m a bit of a mental case. I need an attitude adjustment. I need to care a bit less about the game. I mean, I love this game and I’m working my ass off. But I’m just not putting it into play right now,” lamented McDowell, who normally possesses one of the most positive mindsets on tour.

On Thursday evening, McDowell had bounded off for dinner – ending the first round in tied-sixth place and poised to contend – with a spring in his step only for reality to serve a cold dish yesterday. In running up a second-round 77, the Ulsterman slipped down the field like a stone in a deep well. He took 34 putts, hit only five of 14 fairways and ended up with a 36-holes total of 145, five-over, that meant he failed to survive the cut.

Typically, McDowell sought to face up to the problem. “It’s getting to be a bit of a habit, a bad habit,” he said. “I couldn’t really put my finger on anything that was particularly bad. I just drove it average, iron play was average. Everything was average. My attitude had been pretty average the last two days. I’m not having a lot of belief in myself . . . I can’t string four rounds together at the minute and, this week, I couldn’t even string two together.”

McDowell’s woes yesterday were a stark contrast to his finish on Thursday, when he covered the back nine in a best of the day 31 strokes. He didn’t bring the momentum of that round with him. And, in a round that featured not a single birdie and included five bogeys and a double-bogey, McDowell left Sandwich wondering where the answers could be found.

“Frustrated and disappointed. I guess those are the two words that are coming into my game really quickly. I don’t have any patience in myself. Maybe I expect a little too much of myself. I know my game is getting better all the time, I’m just not putting it into play at the minute. As I said, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday I hit the ball beautifully. I was ready for this tournament. By the time I walked off the first green yesterday I wasn’t ready anymore. It’s very frustrating.

“This game kind of gives you its ups and downs. It’s just frustrations and then patience and disappointment. I just maybe need to get back to grinding out rounds and turning 75s into 70s and 77s into 72s and 73s. That was just bad today.”

For Harrington, it was a day of frustration with the putter – usually one of the strongest weapons – that left him pondering if change were needed. Although he doesn’t envisage himself switching to a broomhandle putter, the Dubliner – who had three three-putts and 32 putts in all – headed afterwards for the practice putting green with mind-guru Bob Rotella in an attempt to find a fix.

“It’s my putting, I’m just not trusting it. I just am not committing to my lines. It is interesting, actually. I am hitting my putts as bad as I’ve ever hit them. It’s interesting to see what it feels like for everybody else,” said Harrington, who ranks as one of the top putters on the US Tour.

He added: “I’m hitting bad putts from 15 feet and I’m just not trusting my pace, not trusting my line and then it’s just creeping into my stroke. I just hit some awful putts, terrible putts. I’m starting to understand it’s coming from me just not committing to my read in the first place. I’ve got to really commit to my read, whether it’s right or wrong, then my putting will come back. It’s pretty bad so you usually find the solution when it’s pretty bad.”

For Harrington, hope springs eternal. Although the fact he was on the putting green for hours afterwards with Rotella would suggest he believes in his own hard work rather than hope to actually solve the problem.