HOWELL, CLARKE AND McGINLAY FAIL TO
BEAT THE CUT IN PORTUGAL MASTERS

David Howell and Darren Clarke, Ryder Cup heroes a year ago, were unable to avoid easily their worst season on the European Tour.
While Argentina's Daniel Vancsik took over the lead at the Portugal Masters, adding a 66 to his opening 64 for a 14 under par halfway total of 130, stable-mates Howell and Clarke both crashed out.
Howell, third on last season's Order of Merit, came to the Victoria Club in Vilamoura a lowly 136th on the money list and made it six missed cuts in his last seven starts.
After taking a triple-bogey 8 at the 12th and a double bogey 7 at the 17th, he finished with a 76 for three over par - six too many to survive (three under par 141 was the maximum total for qualifying for the weekend rounds)..
Clarke, down in 129th place and without a single top-10 finish since his amazing Ryder Cup performance against the Americans six weeks after wife Heather lost her battle with cancer, was on one under after a 73.
After playing in Morocco and Singapore over the next two weeks - neither European Tour events - Clarke is planning a long winter long-off.
"Maybe a couple of months not looking at them," said the 39-year-old, indicating his clubs. "I actually hit the ball lovely these two days, but I'm just not making anything or getting any momentum going. I'm not going to keep on moaning, though."
Paul McGinley, another member of last year's Ryder Cup side, also made an early exit, being another to run up an 8 on the 12th as he matched Clarke's one-under aggregate.
Lee Westwood birdied the last two holes to climb to 10 under, but Justin Rose's hopes of the first or second place he needs to go above Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington at the top of the money list suffered a serious setback when a bogey 6 dropped him to five under, nine adrift.
As for 18-year-old Rory McIlroy, the Tour's new sensation, he made it four cuts out of four as a professional, but after third and fourth place finishes in the last two weeks, he had only one shot to spare this time.
HALFWAY SCOREBOARD
Par 144 (2 x 72)
130 Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 64 66
132 Steve Webster 66 66, Ross Fisher 68 64, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 64 68, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 66 66
133 Charl Schwartzel (RSA 66 67, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 61 72
134 Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 65, Sam Walker 66 68, Lee Westwood 65 69
135 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 67 68, James Hepworth 67 68, Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 67 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 67
136 Ariel Canete (Arg) 66 70, Sam Little 67 69, Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 66 70, David Frost (RSA) 67 69
137 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 70 67, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 69 68, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 67, James Kingston (Rsa) 68 69, Alexander Noren (Swe) 68 69, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 65 72, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 72 65
138 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 72, Oliver Wilson 68 70, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 67 71, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 71, Peter Lawrie 67 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 67, Paul Broadhurst 72 66, Andrew McLardy (Rsa) 66 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 67 71, Barry Lane 67 71
139 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 69 70, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 70 69, David Park 71 68, Anthony Wall 71 68, Lee Slattery 70 69, Justin Rose (Rsa) 69 70, Pablo Martin (Spa) 69 70, Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 67 72, Nick Dougherty 66 73, David Lynn 70 69, Carl Suneson (Spa) 69 70, Gary Murphy 68 71, Phillip Archer 67 72, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 66 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 65 74, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 66 73
140 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 69 71, Rory McIlroy 71 69, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 69 71, Stephen Dodd 69 71, Richard Finch 72 68, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 71 69, Paul Lawrie 68 72, Andres Romero (Arg) 69 71, Terry Price (Aus) 67 73, Santiago Luna (Spa) 69 71, Bradley Dredge 68 72
141 Damien McGrane 69 72, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 69 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 71, Simon Khan 71 70, Tiago Cruz (Por) 71 70, Marc Warren 71 70, Miles Tunnicliff 69 72, Mark Foster 70 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 70
MISSED THE CUT
142 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 71, Gary Orr 70 72, Andrew Marshall 72 70, Kyron Sullivan 73 69, Alastair Forsyth 68 74, Thomas Levet (Fra) 68 74, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 71 71
143 David Carter 73 70, Benn Barham 74 69, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 71, Darren Clarke 70 73, Simon Wakefield 70 73, Stephen Gallacher 69 74, Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 70 73, Paul McGinley 69 74
144 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 73 71, Richard Bland 69 75, Christopher Hanell (Swe) 70 74, Matthew Millar (Aus) 74 70, Per-Ulrik Johansson (Swe) 68 76, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 67 77, John Bickerton 75 69, Graeme Storm 73 71
145 Joao Carlota (Por) 70 75, Kenneth Ferrie 73 72, Steven O'Hara 71 74, Robert Rock 72 73, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 75 70, Jean Van de velde (Fra) 73 72, Tom Whitehouse 70 75, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 73, Ricardo Santos (Por) 73 72, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 72
146 Gary Lockerbie 74 72, Andrew Coltart 71 75, Johan Axgren (Swe) 75 71, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 75, Ian Garbutt 70 76
147 Mark Pilkington 72 75, Garry Houston 71 76, David Howell 71 76, Sandy Lyle 72 75, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 73 74
148 Antonio Sobrinho (Por) 75 73
150 Anton Haig (Rsa) 74 76, David Griffiths 74 76, Yong-eun Yang (Kor) 73 77
151 Scott Drummond 72 79
152 Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 74 78, Johan Edfors (Swe) 74 78
154 Cesar Monasterio (Arg) 75 79
157 Gary Emerson 72 85