Barclays Scottish Open report, scores

Darren Clarke leads by three

as Mickelson & Co miss cut

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
With a few extra words by Colin Farquharson
Darren Clarke turned in another brilliant performance in wet weather at Loch Lomond to take command of The Barclays Scottish Open at the halfway stage.
The 41 year old Ulsterman, now 179th in the Official World Golf Ranking, moved to ten under par and three clear of second-placed Italian Edoardo Molinari 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.
Molinari, whose younger brother and Omega Mission Hills World Cup-winning partner Francesco is in fifth place at five under, shot 69 and admitted he would love to partner his sibling in the final round.
He said: "It would be nice to play with him on Sunday.
"We have double the chances of the others. We are competitive, but we are very close and happy for the other."
Welshman Bradley Dredge and Swede Peter Hedblom shared third place. They were partners in the first two rounds and have matched each other with scores of 67 and 69.
Clarke, superbly placed now to claim The Open Championship place which is up for grabs at the event, caused some laughter when he offered his own description of the morning weather.
When asked to recall  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've 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 fourth a 20 footer found the target and he parred in over a closing stretch which saw John Daly go from six under to two under and Ernie Els have back-to-back double bogeys.
US Open Championship winner Graeme McDowell safely made it through the cut on level par after another 71 on his return after his Pebble Beach victory. But World No 2 Phil Mickelson ran up a 9 at one hole and a 74 for 146 was one shot too many to qualify for the weekend action. Other big names to miss out included Ernie Els (76-145), Vijay Singh (73-145), Colin Montgomerie (74-148), Americans J B Holmes (71-145), and Lucas Glover (73-146), recent European Tour winner Miguel Angel Jimenez (78-150) and South African major winner Retief Goosen (73-146).
Although Stephen Gallacher (73-140), Craig Lee (72-142), Martin Laird (71-142), David Drysdale (72-143) and Richie Ramsay (74-143) beat the cut, it was not a good day for Scots in general on her home turf.
Alastair Forsyth (145), Scott Drummond (146), Paul Lawrie (147), Marc Warren (147), Andrew Coltart (149), Peter Whiteford (150), Steven O'Hara (150) and Scottish amateur champion David Law (157) all have the rest of the weekend off.
It was a day when the tough got going. Bradley Dredge commented: "Yesterday I thought it was one of the toughest conditions we've played in, quite windy and the pins were quite difficult as well.
"And today, I think it's even more difficult in this rain because the ball is going so short. Darren is at ten under at the moment - that's some playing, it really is."
Hedblom revealed he was not surprised by Clarke's form after witnessing his J P McManus Invitational Pro-Am triumph earlier in the week.
"It's unbelievable to shoot that score today, the way the course is playing," he said. "But he played good Monday, Tuesday, as well, earlier this week, so he's back to his best - it's nice to see."

SECOND-ROUND TOTALS
Par 142 (2x71)
132 Darren Clarke 65 67
135 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 66 69
136 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 67 69, Bradley Dredge 67 69
137 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 68 69
138 Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 68, Damien McGrane 66 72, Graeme Storm 66 72
139 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 70 69, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 69, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 69, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 71 68, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 68
140 John Daly (USA) 67 73, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 73 67, John Parry 68 72, Stephen Gallacher 67 73, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 71, David Horsey 68 72, Heath Slocum (USA) 69 71
141 Sam Hutsby 69 72, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 72 69, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 70, Shane Lowry 68 73, Richard Green (Aus) 69 72, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 67 74
142 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 68 74, Craig Lee 70 72, Graeme McDowell 71 71, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 72 70, Danny Willett 70 72, David Lynn 71 71, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 70, Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 71, Jamie Elson 72 70, David Dixon 71 71, Martin Laird 71 71, James Kamte (Rsa) 71 71, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 72, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 68 74
143 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 75, David Drysdale 71 72, Richie Ramsay 69 74, Soren Hansen (Den) 73 70, Tom Lehman (USA) 71 72, Rhys Davies 69 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 67 76
144 Ross Fisher 71 73, Joost Luiten (Ned) 71 73, Clodomiro Carranza (Arg) 74 70, Peter Lawrie 70 74, Anthony Wall 68 76, Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 72 72, Gary Boyd 74 70, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 75, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 71 73, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 70 74, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 73 71, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 70 74, Gareth Maybin 71 73, David Howell 71 73, Richard McEvoy 71 73, Mark Brown (Nzl) 70 74, James Morrison 72 72, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 67 77, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 73
MISSED THE CUT
145 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 74, Kenneth Ferrie 71 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 69 76, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 73, Steve Marino (USA) 74 71, Ernie Els (Rsa) 69 76, Alastair Forsyth 72 73, Sam Little 74 71, Y.E. Yang (Kor) 72 73, Richard Bland 72 73, Nick Dougherty 73 72, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 71 74, Phil Mickelson (USA) 71 74, J.B. Holmes (USA) 74 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 73 72, Tano Goya (Arg) 72 73
146 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 75, Steve Webster 72 74, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 76, Oliver Wilson 72 74, Lucas Glover (USA) 73 73, Scott Drummond 71 75, Danny Lee (Nzl) 74 72, Robert Rock 72 74, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 73 73, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 69 77, Thomas Levet (Fra) 73 73
147 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 76, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 71 76, Scott Strange (Aus) 74 73, George Coetzee (Rsa) 71 76, Simon Dyson 71 76, Simon Khan 72 75, Marc Warren 73 74, Robert Allenby (Aus) 72 75, Paul Lawrie 74 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 73 74, Michael Hoey 74 73
148 Neil Cheetham 75 73, Chris Wood 70 78, Robert Coles 75 73, Colin Montgomerie 74 74, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 76 72, Paul Broadhurst 73 75, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 73 75, Stephen Dodd 73 75, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 76 72, Jamie Donaldson 74 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 72 76, Mark Foster 73 75, Paul McGinley 74 74, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 76, Pablo Martin (Spa) 73 75, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 72 76
149 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 74 75, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 72 77, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 78, Dale Whitnell 71 78, Andrew Coltart 75 74, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 74 75, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 73 76
150 Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 71 79, Peter Whiteford 79 71, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 72 78, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 74 76, Julien Quesne (Fra) 72 78, Steven O'Hara 72 78, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 76 74
151 Marco Ruiz (Par) 79 72, Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 77 74, Fred Funk (USA) 74 77
152 Anthony Kang (USA) 77 75, Andrew Butterfield 73 79, Richard Finch 79 73, Ross McGowan 75 77
153 Paul Waring 76 77, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 80, Phillip Price 75 78, Michael Watson (USA) 76 77
156 Gary Lockerbie 81 75, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 77 79
157 David Law (amateur) 79 78, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 80 77, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 74 83
158 Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 78 80
160 Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 76 84, Jin Jeong (Kor) 81 79
Retired: Maarten Lafeber 74