Paul McGinley's autumn travel itinerary has just increased, requiring another week away from home, but you won't find him complaining. In fact, putting the US PGA onto his schedule as an addition is no great chore at all.

"I was waiting and hoping the entire Ryder Cup team would get to play," said McGinley, who got the news after completing his second round in the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock yesterday.

It proved to be a good day's work for the man who sank the winning putt for Europe in the Ryder Cup at The Belfry last September. Not alone did the letter inviting him to play in Rochester next month plop onto the floor of the ISM management offices, McGinley also did his job on the golf course.

Starting out from the 10th at 9.50 in the morning, the player was fighting to survive the cut. By the time he had finished, after shooting a 66 for four-under-par 140, McGinley had manoeuvred his way well up the field. Not only had he comfortably made the cut, he'd transformed his tournament prospects from that of an also-ran to be a contender.

"I'm really please to get the invite to play in the PGA," insisted McGinley, who has played in the championship on three previous occasions, with a best finish of tied-22nd in Atlanta in 2001. "Of all the majors, it is the one that traditionally gets the strongest field because they invite the top 100 players in the world rankings and give special exemptions to other players from the Order of Merit. It'll be nice, too, to go back to the place where Philip Walton's two putts won the Ryder Cup for Europe."

The longer you wait for an invite to arrive, the more you fear it won't arrive at all - so McGinley was pleased the PGA of America stood by their traditional stance of inviting current Ryder Cup players to participate. Last week's British Open was the only major he has competed in this year, as he failed to meet the qualifying criteria for either the US Masters or the US Open.

Getting into the PGA is a bonus from another point of view, as it means he will have a two-week competitive stint in the US as he will also play in the NEC Invitational in Akron, Ohio. "It's important for world rankings to play in these big events in terms of getting points. These things are self-perpetuating. If you play any way decently, you'll get good points," he said. McGinley has fallen to 145th in the world rankings, having occupied a place in the top-35 in 2001.

Yesterday was one of those days when McGinley provided a truer picture of what he can achieve on a golf course. His round of 66 was blemish free, featuring six birdies - including a couple of long putts - and not a single bogey.

"I've started to putt well, and that makes such a huge difference," insisted McGinley, who was required to use his blade just 25 times, compared to 32 in Thursday's first round. "No matter how well you're playing tee to green, unless you putt well you're not going to compete. If you're averaging 32, 33 putts a round, you get nowhere."

McGinley moved up the leaderboard with yesterday's round, but winning a tournament he holds close to his heart - "it's right up there, I'm very patriotic," he said - would need probably another similar, if not better, round.

In his second round, he got off to the ideal start when pitching his approach to four feet on the 10th, his first, and then followed up with further birdies on the 14th - holing from 18 feet - and the 15th, where he holed from 20 feet. He rolled in a three-footer from three feet on the 17th and proved his putter was hot by holing from 15 feet on the 18th to turn in 31 shots. Although he was confined to one birdie, on the fifth, on the way home, McGinley had made his move.

"To win from here is a tall order, I'm still very far back," he said. "I really got behind the eight ball in the first round. You can't really afford to shot 74 nowadays and have realistic views of winning a tournament. Being realistic, winning is very much a long shot."

One thing is for sure, though, McGinley will be trying on each and every one of his shots as he heads into the third round playing a game of catch-up.