Ryder Cup heroes Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley both failed to make it through US Open qualifying at Walton Heath in Surrey today.
And Clarke, who has not made a halfway cut since early February, made a sad admission afterwards.
"The current state of my game is not good for the US Open any way, so it is maybe not such a bad thing," said the Ulsterman after rounds of 75 and 72.
McGinley's two 71s were not sufficient either and having seen his world ranking slip to 138th the Dubliner commented: "I'm not scaling the heights. I never got hot at any stage."
A total of 52 players teed off for nine spots at Oakmont next week, but Clarke, himself now down to 94th in the world from 35th at the start of the year, finished only tied for 35th.
Jean Van de Velde and Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ryder Cup team-mates in 1999, were unsuccessful as well.
Jimenez's two 74s included a nine on the long 14th in the first round, while Van de Velde shot 72-74 and will now turn his attentions to trying to qualify for next month's Open at Carnoustie - the scene, of course, of his closing triple bogey seven when leading by three in 1999.
Joint winners on eight under were Liverpool's Nick Dougherty, Swede Peter Hanson and South African Darren Fichardt.
Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, Australian Marcus Fraser and Argentina's Miguel Rodriguez finished one behind, Birmingham's Sam Walker was sixth and the other two qualifiers were Dane Soren Kjeldsen and Frenchman Christian Cevaer.
Walker's performance was perhaps the most noteworthy. The 29-year-old has failed to make it through five attempts at Open qualifying and after missing nine of his last 10 halfway cuts is 189th on the European Order of Merit.
He said: "This is a great achievement for me - but I just wish my Nan was here to see it.
"She used to follow me every single day of the week, but died four weeks ago."
Dougherty, who also qualified two years ago, was equally thrilled and said: "I can't understand why guys pulled out of this.
"Everyone can make their own decisions, but I must have a lot of ambition."
Bradley Dredge, 54th in the world after just missing out on his home Wales Open, was the most notable absentee.
Scots Marc Warren and Alastair Forsyth missed out by a single stroke, as did England's Oliver Wilson and France's Gregory Havret.
This was the first time Clarke had had to play a qualifying event for a major since the 1995 Open. He made it through at Ladybank on that occasion and went on to finish 30th at St Andrews.
This season, in addition to pulling out of three events because of a hamstring strain suffered playing football with his sons Tyrone and Conor, he has missed five successive cuts.
"I just struggled again - 35 putts both rounds," he added. "The co-ordination is not there. It's not clicking at all.
"I don't have control of my ball flight and because I can't control the distance I'm not hitting it close and I'm taking three putts all over the place.
"I'm working away as much as I can at home, but it's not happening for me at the moment.
"I was hoping to qualify. You want to play all the majors (he has missed only two of the last 33), but I have to be realistic. Disappointed, but realistic at the same time."
He plays in Austria this week and added: "I haven't played a lot of late because of injuries and now I'm fully fit I want to play.
"I'm seriously lacking in tournament golf - two rounds just don't do it."
A double bogey at the second hole of his second round was the killer blow for McGinley, who admitted: "I was on the back foot after that.
"I had a lot of chances, but I couldn't take them. It's not to be - I'm not going to be there."
Collated final scores (Gbr and Ire unless stated):
(x) denotes amateur
Qualifiers:
136Peter Hanson (Swe) 68 68, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 68 68, Nick Dougherty 66 70
137Miguel Rodriguez (Arg) 71 66, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 66 71, Graeme McDowell 69 68
138Sam Walker 67 71
139Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 70, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 70
Non-Qualifiers:
140Alastair Forsyth 68 72, Marc Warren 70 70, Oliver Wilson 72 68, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 70
141Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 73 68, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 74 67, Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 71
142Peter O'Malley (Aus) 70 72, Paul McGinley 71 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 70, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 69, Tom Whitehouse 71 71, David Griffiths 72 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 72 70
143Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 72, Richard Green (Aus) 71 72, Gary Murphy 71 72
144Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 72
145Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 71 74
146Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 74 72, Steve Webster 74 72, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 72 74, Simon Khan 74 72, Benn Barham 73 73
147Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 74 73, (x) Nathan Smith (USA) 72 75, Darren Clarke 75 72, Sion Bebb 78 69, Ross Fisher 75 72, Richard Finch 74 73
148Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 74, Phillip Archer 72 76, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 76, (x) Garret Osborn (USA) 78 70
151James Heath 71 80
155Adrien Mork (Fra) 74 81, Brandon Boomsma (USA) 79 76
156Tim Acquaviva (USA) 82 74
157Gary Emerson 74 83
WithdrewMatthew Millar (Aus), Daniel Vancsik (Arg), Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa)
