NI Masters: The tough Dufferin track at Clandeboye proved to be a graveyard for all but four of the 19 Irish starters in the £125,000 Benmore Development Northern Ireland Masters as the cut was made at level par last night.

Heading the home list are Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell at four-under with Stephen Browne and Michael Hoey squeezing into the weekend action with one shot to spare. Hoey added a 72 to his opening 69 while former European Amateur champion Browne strung together rounds of 71 and 70.

With five holes to play Clarke was level par for the tournament with no room for slippage. The big Dungannon man then slipped into gear and fired four birdies to finish on 66 for the day and four-under at the halfway stage.

"The difference today was that I birdied two of the four short holes after being six over for the four in the first round - an eight shots swing," explained Clarke.

Still, Clarke is quite a distance behind the overnight leader Jon Lupton who kept up his good form on his Challenge Tour debut. He followed his first round 64 with a 67 to be overnight leader at 11-under-par.

He is just one stroke ahead of Swedish player Michael Jonzon who carded another new course record. He stormed round in 63 to be 10-under going into the weekend. An eagle and six birdies decorated Jonzon's card without a dropped shot in sight.

Jonzon's 63 was one stroke better than Lupton's 64 on Thursday but the Middlesbrough 24-year-old maintained his good form with a 67. Again he went to town on the back nine - his first - with six birdies and just one bogey to turn in 31. On the front nine he birdied the sixth but dropped shots at the first and ninth.

Graeme McDowell posted his second 69 with four birdies included. He displayed some superb iron play, nowhere better than at the long 17th where he pitched to one foot for birdie four.