The first cut is the deepest

WHILE Pádraig Harrington was out of the US Open yesterday before he sat down to lunch, the prospects of his fellow Irishmen surviving into the weekend remained on a knife-edge entering the closing stages of the second round.

Harrington finished on 11 over par after a 74 to miss out by a distance, leaving McGinley (who finished on eight over) and McDowell (out on the course and one worse off after 12) hoping for rescue either through the 10-shot rule or that sufficient number of the late starters would falter in the ever more demanding conditions.

McGinley bogeyed each of the first two holes to drop to eight under but then demonstrated the essential fighting qualities that enabled him to finish on the same mark.