Gallacher pays hefty penalty as Casey takes control in Madrid

STEPHEN GALLACHER missed equalling the lowest round of his European Tour career by incurring a bizarre one-shot penalty for hitting the ball when he did not mean to.

While Paul Casey moved four clear of the field in a frost-delayed second round of the Telefonica Madrid Open at Club de Campo, Gallacher moved into joint second place with a 64.

But it should have been a 63. Putting for par from three feet at the 467-yard 13th the 28-year-old clipped the ball making a practice stroke.

"It moved only about a quarter of an inch, but I remembered Davis Love doing the same (at the 1997 Players' Championship) and he was disqualified for not replacing the ball," said Gallacher.

"It's a thing you never expect you're going to do but I'll never do it again. From now on I'm going to take my practice stroke about three feet away."

Casey was among those unable to finish because of the earlier hold-up and after adding five birdies to his opening 63 he had already reached 13 under with three to go when play was called off.

Casey had had to wait until 3.30pm to tee off again, but resumed with a birdie, then had three more in a row from the fifth and another on the long 14th.

Lawrie matched Gallacher's 64 and it could result in him getting a call from Colin Montgomerie, his former Ryder Cup partner.

Montgomerie is captain of the Britain and Ireland team to face Continental Europe in the Seve Trophy at El Saler near Valencia in two weeks' time and has one wild card for the competition to name next Monday.

For the past two matches Montgomerie has chosen the leading player in the world rankings who does not earn an automatic place and with Nick Faldo having already said he is unavailable Lawrie is currently next in line.

Spanish star Sergio Garcia, second overnight, twice missed from under three feet as he remained seven under with a 71, while Padraig Harrington, twice a winner on the Club de Campo course, double-bogeyed the 12th en route to a 73 and four-under aggregate. "I'm blaming the delay," Harrington said.

"I found something wrong with my swing spending too much time on the range."

Se Ri Pak became the first woman in 58 years to make the cut at a men's event after shooting a two-over par 74 in the Korean Tour's SBS Super Tournament yesterday.

The 26-year-old, already one of the most successful players on the LPGA Tour, can now boast to be the first woman to make it past the halfway stage in a men's tour event since Babe Zaharias did it 58 years ago at the Los Angeles Open.

The Korean came into the day tied for 13th after an opening day 72 at the

7,052-yard Lake Side Country Club and followed that up with a 74.

Pak is five shots behind a trio of Korean players Jang Ik-Jae, Han

Young-Keun and Kang Kyung-Nam.