The toughest European Tour event since last year's Open at Carnoustie claimed some notable victims yesterday - Seve Ballesteros among them. But Dubliner Paul McGinley continues in tremendous form and his two-under-par total of 142 leaves him one shot off the pace behind Dutchman Rolf Muntz and Swede Mathias Gronberg in the windswept Qatar Masters in Doha.
McGinley was joint runner-up in Dubai last weekend and his form convinces him that at 33 he can still achieve all he hoped he would from the game. "I've not improved at the rate I would have liked," he said. "That's been the case even through my amateur days - nothing has come easily or quickly for me."
McGinley played the back nine first in a superb 33 and got all the way to the 386-yard seventh before dropping his only shot of the day in a round of 70. He was one of four Irish players who remain for the weekend's last two rounds. The other three are Eamonn Darcy (147), Philip Walton (150) and Gary Murphy (150).
Ballesteros injured a wrist playing out of the thick rough and at nine over par after five holes - all of them bogeys - he decided enough was enough.
Former Ryder Cup players Gordon Brand Jnr and Joakim Haeggman failed to tee off because of hand and back problems respectively while Scot Andrew Coltart bogeyed the first seven holes and double-bogeyed the next en route to an 83. He missed the cut by nine.
Justin Rose headed home as well after a second successive 78 and Costantino Rocca scored an 84 after kicking his putter and damaging it on the second green and being forced to use his three-wood for the rest of the round.
Overnight leader Peter Lonard of Australia crashed to a 78 and England's David Lynn, joint-second after the first round, managed only a 76.
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