Wilson climbs leaderboard

Oliver Wilson defied the wet weather and cold to move into the lead today at The 3 Irish Open, an event he was not sure he would be able to play earlier in the week.

The Ryder Cup star missed last week’s Players Championship in Florida with neck trouble and a chest inflammation called costrochondritis.

But a course of physio following his flight to Dublin got Wilson to the start, and after an opening six-under-par 66 yesterday he covered another 10 holes in a fine three under this morning.

That put him one in front of Swede Johan Edfors, while overnight leader Francesco Molinari, who broke the County Louth course record with a 63, ran up a double bogey six on the 442-yard 12th as he fell back to seven under with Scot Alastair Forsyth.

Conditions were so foul, however, that all public car parks – mostly in fields - were closed and spectators were redirected to two retail parks over 10 miles away.

From there they were shuttled in on buses, but the ones who arrived early in the hope of seeing Padraig Harrington fight his way back into the hunt instead watched him in a battle to survive the halfway cut.

The Open and US PGA champion was outside the top 100 after an opening 73, his 10th round in a row without breaking par, and he remained one over after a bogey at the 11th and birdie at the short 15th.

Just ahead of him American John Daly, joint runner-up in Italy on Sunday, double-bogeyed the 11th and 13th in a back nine 38 that dropped him from four under to one under.

Lee Westwood, playing with Ryder Cup team-mate Harrington, went to five under when he birdied the 332-yard 14th, but then followed back-to-back bogeys.