Clarke continues run as Irish get rub of the greens

Golf Dunhill Links ChampionshipIn unseasonably fine weather, with hardly a cloud to spoil the view and only a wind of the gentle variety to make players think twice about their club selection, there was something of a green hue over the Kingdom of Fife yesterday.

Of the three halfway leaders in the Dunhill Links, two of them - Darren Clarke and Peter Lawrie - are Irish, and another, Gary Murphy - still looking for a solution to a clogged nose, a legacy of the flu that laid him low earlier in the week - lurked just a shot further behind. It would seem that last year's winner Padraig Harrington has indeed started something, although the man himself has work to do if he is to get in on the act this time.

In fact, if Clarke had capitalised on all the chances he created on the Old Course yesterday, he could well have been like a racehorse that had given the slip to the rest of the field.

"I made some silly mistakes, left some shots out there," said Clarke, after a 68 left him on nine-under-par 135, the same mark as Lawrie and England's David Howell.

Increasingly, these days, Clarke has all the appearances of a man who knows exactly where he is going. His ball-striking ability has never been questioned, but since he has embarked on a serious fitness regime - he now has two personal trainers, John Newton and Steve Hampson, who works with a number of rugby teams - there has been an extra bounce in his stride.

After a post-round visit to the driving range yesterday, the next port of call was the gym in the hotel beside the 17th fairway. Changed times.

The evidence of this late-life discovery of a slimmer and stronger body is finding its way on to leaderboards. Two of his last four outings have produced victories - one in the NEC Invitational in Akron, Ohio, and the other in the Northern Ireland Masters, a Challenge Tour event promoted by his ISM management company - and, going into the weekend, Clarke will carry the mantle of favourite.

Certainly, he left some shots out on the course, one of which was at the 18th where he drove to within 20 yards of the green. However, faced with a shot through the Valley of Sin to the pin, he opted to use a putter and the ball failed to reach the green.

"I didn't hit it hard enough, simple as that," said Clarke, adding: "I didn't have to walk too far to hit the next one."

The error was compounded by the fact that he failed to get up and down for par, so what had seemed like a genuine birdie opportunity was transformed into a bogey.

"It was very annoying, but I'm prone to the odd faux pas here and there," he said. In fact, he had suffered a similar fate on the 14th, but at least he managed to salvage a par there.

Clarke, who started on the 10th, also bogeyed the second when he pulled his drive into a bunker, but three birdies in the last seven holes enabled him to move into a share of the lead.

"I'm pretty pleased," he said. "I've put myself into a pretty decent position going into the next couple of rounds."

If that's a familiar position for Clarke, it is relatively uncharted territory for Murphy who yet again defied the nuisance of a clogged-up nose to stay in the thick of the hunt.

The 30-year-old Kilkenny man - whose only previous competitive outing over the Old Course was as an amateur in the 1995 Links Trophy - had a 70, which left him in a four-way tie for fourth place.

Murphy incurred 34 putts in his round - including starting the day with a three-putt bogey on the first - and admitted, "I can be too hard on myself. I go out there and try too hard instead of relaxing a bit. I hit the ball as well as anyone out here, and I just have to relax and believe that."

As players took advantage of the calm - for September - conditions in this part of the world, Ernie Els, the world number two and leader of the European Tour Order of Merit which Clarke is also chasing, played his way back into the tournament with a 65 on the Old Course, which constituted the low round of the week.

"It's no surprise to me that Ernie's played his way back in," admitted Clarke. And Vijay Singh also recovered from an average first day, firing a 66.

And, yet, the defending champion Harrington doesn't believe he is out of it. Yesterday he shot a 69 which featured three birdies in his last five holes, and it could have been even better but for his failure to convert a birdie opportunity on the ninth, his closing hole.

"I'm only six shots out of the lead with 36 holes to go and that's nothing. Every part of my game is at its lowest point right now and, still, I'm not that far away. I'm not out of it at all, and feel that my game is turning the corner."

Des Smyth goes into the weekend on two-under after a 70 on the Old Course, but Paul McGinley could again curse one disastrous hole preventing him being in the thick of the action. After suffering a triple-bogey at the 16th on the Old Course on Thursday, he again had a triple-bogey at Kingsbarns - on the 18th, his ninth, where he put his drive into rough, opted to lay up only for the ball to finish in a divot, and then put his third shot into the ravine in front of the green - as he battled to a 72, to be on one-under par.