Irish quartet still in with a shout

THOSE who wagered on Gary Murphy to be leading Irishman at the Open Championship have good reason to feel smug this morning!

While the three Ryder Cup heroes, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley all struggled to cope with the quirks and intricacies of the Royal St Georges links, the far more inexperienced Murphy remained composed and kept his head admirably to complete the 36 holes on five over par, six off the outright lead of Davis Love III, one ahead of Harrington and three clear of Clarke and McGinley.

The fascinating aspect about it all is that theoretically all four Irishmen are still there with a chance simply because everybody else in the field has also found it next to impossible to cope with the peculiar demands of this bone hard, bouncy links. “I’m quite astonished by that,” agreed Harrington. “At six over, I should be way down the field. While there are a lot of players ahead of me, I am still within seven shots of the lead. Unfortunately two dropped shots with pitching wedges cost me. Wow, anybody on three or four over is right in there and even six over, you never know.