Little-known Australian Scott Strange today showed that his opening 63 in the Wales Open at Celtic Manor was no fluke by carding a flawless 66 in his second round, but a 74 means Padraig Harrington's misses his first cut in 19 months.
One ahead of Italian Edoardo Molinari overnight, the 31-year-old Strange stretched his lead to four shots with birdies at the second and third holes of his second round.
Consecutive birdies followed at the eighth and ninth before an uneventful back nine culminated in a birdie at the last to set the midway target of 13-under par 129. Strange is four shots ahead of English pair, Benn Barham (64) and Robert Dinwiddie (65), India's Jeev Milkha Singh (68) and Spain's Alvaro Velasco (68).
The 25-year-old Dinwiddie shot a remarkable 63 in the PGA Championship at Wentworth last week but his other three rounds (78, 79 and 79) in the European Tour's flagship event meant he finished only 67th of the 70 who made the cut.
His course record, however, showed what the former Walker Cup player was capable of and birdies this morning at the first, second and seventh lifted him 14 places.
Open champion Harrington was in trouble from the moment he double-bogeyed the 413-yard 14th, his fifth of the day.
He then bogeyed the first and after birdies on two of the next three could not save par on either the 452-yard sixth or 439-yard eighth.
Only 62 players made it through to the concluding 36 holes and missing the cut was not the ideal preparation for Harrington with the US Open at Torrey Pines only two weeks away.
"I made a lot of poor decisions over both the rounds and I wasn't making enough putts to make up for it," said the Dubliner afterwards, but he rejected the suggestion he would have been better off preparing in America.
"That's not the issue. It's not about conditions on the course or the speed of greens, it's how sharp my mind is.
"Obviously it's never very nice to miss a cut but it was through my focus and decision-making and not where I played."
Of the three Irishman who made the cut, all were from north of the border with Darren Clarke leading the way. His second round 68 left the Dungannon man on four-under, nine off the pace.
Rory McIlroy was a shot further back after today's 71, while Graeme McDowell battled for a 72 to be one-under and make it into the weekend on the cut mark.
Peter Lawrie (72), Paul McGinley (70) and Damien McGrane (69) all finished one shot outside the cut on level par. Gary Murphy was well off the pace after his 73 left the Kilkenny pro five-over.
Former winner Robert Karlsson has moved into the mix with a 67 that left the Swede in a group on eight-under-par.
