ALONE HE stands, or rather will stand. Pádraig Harrington will be the sole Irish player in the field for next week's US Open at Torrey Pines, after his Ryder Cup team-mate Paul McGinley and tour rookie Rory McIlroy failed to come through the 36-hole international qualifying at Walton Heath outside London yesterday.

Although a large number of players decided to bypass the qualifying, leaving just 42 players battling for seven places for the season's second major, neither McGinley - who is not yet exempt for any of this year's majors - nor McIlroy managed to secure a ticket, with Scotland's Alastair Forysth and England's Ross Fisher sharing top place in the qualifying (after matching rounds of 69 and 68 for 137) to secure maiden appearances in the US Open.

The seven players to book places in next week's field, where world's number one Tiger Woods will reappear after an eight-week lay-off due to knee surgery, were: Forsyth, now the only Scot in the world's top-100, Fisher, Robert Dinwiddie, Phillip Archer, Ross McGowan, Thomas Levet and Johan Edfors.

The qualifying experience proved to be disappointing for the only two Irish players in the field. McGinley missed out by seven shots after rounds of 70 and 76, while McIlroy - who explained, "I was a bit rushed at the start because my taxi was 30 minutes late, but I don't want to make excuses" - had rounds of 74 and 71 to be six strokes adrift of a sudden-death play-off.

In that sudden-death, Levet and Edfors claimed the final two places with pars on the first extra-hole at the expense of Argentina's Daniel Vancsik and English amateur Gary Wolstenholme, who both bogeyed the hole.

The qualifying field was reduced after more than 20 tour players withdrew, preferring to concentrate on playing on the European Tour in the next few weeks rather than the possibility of such a long transatlantic trip to the west coast of the United States that would effectively take three weeks out of their schedule.

As Darren Clarke, one of those who decided not to attempt to qualify, explained: "I'm disappointed that I am not going to be at the US Open, but Austria this week has been in my schedule and I wouldn't have got to Torrey Pines until next Monday night.

"If you're not properly prepared, it is a very difficult week let alone trying to get over jetlag and getting proper practice in," added Clarke.

Instead, Clarke's major focus is on qualifying for the British Open, where Harrington defends his title at Royal Birkdale in July. As thing stand, Clarke is not yet in the field for Birkdale - Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Damien McGrane are the only Irish players currently exempt - but, after his fourth place finish in the Wales Open, the Ulster golfer is determined to earn an exemption through the qualifying mini-order of merit that started at the Irish Open and finishes at next month's French Open.

"I've got to try to make sure I'm exempt for the Open," said Clarke, whose top-five finish in Wales was his fourth of the season. Clarke, who has seen his world ranking improve from 225th at the end of 2007 to a current position of 104th, is one of four Irish players - along with McDowell, Gary Murphy and David Higgins - who are competing in Austria this week.

Harrington, after missing the cut in the Wales Open, his second missed cut in three tournament appearances having also missed at last month's Players Championship, intensifies his US Open preparations by competing in this week's St Jude Championship in Memphis.

Having finished 2007 ranked eighth in the world, Harrington has now dropped to number 14 in the latest rankings. In fact, Justin Rose - who moved up five places to sixth after his runner-up finish to Kenny Perry in the Memorial - is now the only European player in the top 10. Sergio Garcia has dropped one place to 11th from last week.

Ironically, given his choice of tournaments to build-up for next week's US Open, Harrington missed the cut at Memphis a year ago (by one stroke) and, obviously, will be aiming to fare better this week in what will be his last outing before Torrey Pines.

Meanwhile, in a teleconference last night, Woods - who hasn't played since the Masters at Augusta - said that he had only started hitting shots in recent days after the surgery on his left knee. "I've been practising quite a bit, just started to play a few holes. My sessions have increased, got a bit more intense and everything has been holding up well. It is a matter of getting feel again and hopefully that will all come right before Thursday (week)."

On whether he was close to being fully fit, Woods replied: "I feel like I am getting there, getting my leg stronger. If it's not, no big deal."