Golf Spanish Open: Jose Maria Olazabal's hopes of a Ryder Cup revival suffered another heavy blow yesterday when the Canaries Spanish Open favourite missed the cut following another flurry of missed putts.
Olazabal's five-over-par 75 left him six-over-par 146, 17 strokes behind David Park. The Welshman added a 65 to his opening 64 over the Fuerteventura course to lie on 11 under par, four shots clear of second placed Christian Cevaer of France.
Best performance of the Irish quartet came from Wexford's Damien McGrane, who recovered from an opening 75 to fire a two-under-par 68 and just survive the cut.
Peter Lawrie also shot a fine 68, but it was not enough after an opening 76.
Gary Murphy finished on two-over after a 72, while Graeme McDowell also came in on the cut mark after a 72.
For Olazabal, it was the putter that betrayed the double US Masters champion most, ending his 18th bid to win his home Open title.
Olazabal has missed the cut in the Spanish Open before, but this failure could prove to be his costliest yet. He was trying to lift himself from a slump to 138th in the world rankings, 79th on the European money list and 34th and 24th respectively on the European and world Ryder Cup points tables.
"What can I say? I missed the cut, shot 75, but missed only two greens all day," said Olazabal. "Frustration, for sure, yes. When you shoot five-over-par and just miss two greens, that tells its own story. I had 37 putts today."
At 38, Olazabal, who insisted his putting stroke is the same as the one he used to win both his Masters titles, has collected 28 titles worldwide, including 22 European Tour titles. But he now believes the years may be catching up with him.
"I think it is just age," he said. "Everything must be bad, the stroke, the eyesight, everything, whatever. Sometimes I hit the ball on line, sometimes I don't, but those I do, the ball doesn't go in the hole anyway."
Olazabal will try again to kick-start his Ryder Cup campaign at next week's Italian Open, having been undone not just by his putter but by Fuerteventura's toughest hole, the 472-yard second.
He pushed his drive out of bounds to run up a triple-bogey, and his chance of a weekend recovery was ended when his ball bounced into the hazard at the short 12th and he added a double bogey to his card.
Park (29), is trying to end a slump since winning in 1999 only his second full tour event, the European Grand Prix. He has tidied up his takeaway and is determined to keep the smooth swing that has stood him in good stead in the Fuerteventura winds.
"Old habits die hard but the swing is now all one piece and smooth and I'm going into the weekend trying to play the way I have over the first two days," Park said.
Cevaer, twice a runner-up on tour, made his latest bid for victory just under a year after sealing his card by finishing second in the British Masters while on a medical extension after breaking an elbow in a snowboarding accident in 2002.
