Clarke leads Scottish Open by three

Darren Clarke turned in another brilliant performance in foul weather at Loch Lomond today and is in command of the Barclays Scottish Open at the halfway stage.

The 40-year-old Ulsterman, now ranked only 179th in the world and down at 38th in the Ryder Cup points race, stands 10-under-par after adding a four-under-par 67 to his opening 65.

Given the "brutal" conditions Clarke considered it an even more satisfying round. His one bogey - the only one he has had in 36 holes so far - came when he three-putted from just 20 feet at the short 11th.

Welshman Bradley Dredge and Swede Peter Hedblom were next best in the clubhouse at six under, although out on the course - and playing in sunshine unlike the morning starters - Italian Edoardo Molinari was seven under and second on his own with four still to play.

Clarke, superbly placed now to claim the Open Championship spot up for grabs at the event, caused some laughter when he offered his own description of the weather.

When asked for the last time he had played through such a deluge he replied: "It wasn't torrential heavy rain, it was just torrential rain.

"If you're from Ireland there's a difference, a massive difference.

"We knew it was going to be very hard, but obviously at home in Portrush I've had much worse than this.

"When we got on the first tee and there was no placing we were all surprised. The ball was going nowhere and consequently the course was playing brutally long.

"You have to take what the course gives you and try to grind out a score. Certainly I'm very pleased to have ground out four under - I thought anything around level par was going to be pretty good."

After his early slip-up - the 11th was his second hole - he sank a 15-foot putt on the next, chipped in for another birdie at the demanding 16th and holed from just off the edge at the first and third.

On the next a 20-footer found the target and he parred in over a closing stretch which saw John Daly slump from six-under to two under and Ernie Els have back-to-back double bogeys.

Even a victory on Sunday would not lift Clarke - hero of Europe's 2006 win in a similarly wet week at The K Club - into an automatic qualifying position in the Ryder Cup.

Dredge and Hedblom shot 69 playing together and the Welshman has given himself an opportunity to make up for what happened at the BMW International Open in Munich.

He dropped from first to joint third there after double-bogeying the 16th, a crushing blow to his hopes of making the Ryder Cup on home soil.

Masters champion Phil Mickelson, who needed a top-two finish to topple Tiger Woods as world number one, was left waiting to discover if he had survived the cut on three over after hitting two balls in the water on the 18th - his ninth - and running up a quintuple bogey nine.

It was going to be close, but a 20-foot closing putt might just have saved him.

Els was on the same mark, while US Open champion Graeme McDowell, who also double-bogeyed the seventh, stood one-over with seven to go.