GOLF/British Open: A leaderboard that reads like an obscure firm of solicitors - Owen, Green, Siem and Lynn - headed the second round of the British Masters here yesterday.

Greg Owen and Richard Green are on 136, eight under par, while the junior partners, David Lynn and Marcel Siem, are both a stroke behind.

Owen has led at the halfway stage before this year, establishing a three-shot advantage in the Algarve Open, only to finish fifth. Green, an Australian left-hander, had a second-round 66, the equal lowest of the day, chipping in from 51 yards at the 381-yard fourth.

But around 36 players are within six strokes of the leaders.

One of those six behind was pre-tournament favourite Darren Clarke, who could only repeat his first-round one-under 71. The Tyrone man is clearly still in it but he will need a much improved third round if he is to end his 12-month winner's drought.

A shot further back was Dubliner Peter Lawrie, who shot a disappointing 74 to add to his opening 69.

There was disappointment for Paul McGinley, lying at two under par overnight, when he had to withdraw from the tournament with painful neck spasms.

After calling for the European Tour's chief physiotherapist, Guy Delacave, to treat him out on the course, McGinley was forced to call it a day.

There was better news for Ireland's Damien McGrane, whose prospects of finishing inside the 145 cut-off mark did not look great after he had opened with a 75 on Thursday. McGrane shot a superb 67 yesterday to finish on 142.

Not so lucky, however, was Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, whose second-round 72 was not enough to ensure his presence at the weekend, after his opening 76.

Perhaps the most notable absentee today and tomorrow, however, will be Colin Montgomerie

The Scot has always been a confidence player and, when this is dented, he does not go from winner to a place in the top 20. Instead he usually manages to miss the cut.

It was dented well and truly in America, to the extent that he has now returned to the cavity-back clubs that he had used all his career, abandoning his experiment with blades.

But it begins to look as if there will be no instant restoration of his once-considerable powers. When he returned a second-round 75 yesterday to go with his opening 73, it meant he had missed the cut emphatically, for the second successive week.

Furthermore it was his eighth missed cut of a season that is only four months old and, when his first-round defeat in the Accenture Match Play - the equivalent of a missed cut - is added in, his record this season is abysmal.

His play and his overall attitude this week have reflected that. Partnered by Clarke and Ignacio Garrido, he was frequently 40 yards behind the latter and often 80 yards behind the former off the tee.

At least he managed a stab at humour before he left. Asked whether playing six tournaments in a row, as he now has, was too long a run, he said: "Well, no. I used to do 10 to 12 when I was winning Orders of Merit, so six in a row is nothing really. I'm just doing my job.

"Anyway," he added, with a sly reference to his missed cuts, "when you only work two days a week it doesn't really affect you that much."

Guardian Service