Murphy stays in the hunt Golf Dutch Open

Gary Murphy was the only one of the five Irishmen in the field to survive the halfway cut yesterday in the Dutch Open at Hilversum.

The Kilkenny man relinquished the lead he had shared after his first-round 64, the 70 he carded yesterday leaving him on 134. That is three shots being the new pacesetter, Sweden's Fredrik Widmark - who is bidding for his first European Tour title - and a shot behind five who share second place.

But Paul McGinley, Peter Lawrie (both 141), Graeme McDowell (145) and Ronan Rafferty (149) all missed the 140 cut mark.

Jamie Donaldson, one of two Britons who had shared the first-round lead with Murphy, kept pace with the Irishman on 134. The other, Alastair Forsyth, fell off the pace somewhat after a 72.

Murphy posted four birdies in yesterday's round, including twos at the short fifth, 10th and 15th holes. But he undid his good work with bogey fives at the sixth and 14th and a double-bogey six at the llth.

Lawrie was two over for his round after 11 holes, but recovered well to record four birdies thereafter and finish with a two-under-par 68. Unfortunately, his opening-round 73 had left him with too much ground to make up and, like McGinley, he missed the cut by a single shot.

McDowell was level par through five but then bogeyed the sixth and seventh and had a thoroughly unhappy back nine, his five further bogeys only slightly mitigated by birdies at the 12th and 18th as he finished with a 75.

And Ronan Rafferty fired six bogeys and just two birdies in another undistinguished round.

Widmark, meanwhile, attributed his good form to a recent conversion to a belly putter. The 27-year-old from Hasselholm is in his rookie season on the European Tour and lies 146th in the Volvo Order of Merit, so a win here would solve his problems of keeping his playing privileges for next year - he needs to climb to 115th or better.

The five in second place included Gordon Brand jnr, who ended the day by backing the demand of his fellow Scot Sandy Lyle for a change in the way the European Tour's career money list is calculated.

The top 40 in the list earn an exemption for next season but Lyle has just been knocked down to 41st despite winning 18 events, including two majors, in his career.

And although Brand jnr is one of those who will keep his playing rights for 2004 through the current standings, as he lies 30th, he agrees with Lyle that the system needs to be overhauled.

"The career money list is becoming obsolete," said Brand jnr. "It should be where you finished, how many tournaments you won, because you've got people passing me now who have won one tournament.

"When Sandy and I were playing I finished seventh in the Order of Merit and won two titles (in 1982) and won £38,000. The top 10 in the Order of Merit this year are winning £1 million."

Lyle himself has just one more chance to safeguard his European Tour future after a second-round 67 left the former Open and US Masters champion two over par and missing the cut for the fifth time in six events.

The 45-year-old, who has held a tour card since winning the qualifying school in 1977, is not playing in Majorca next week and therefore has just one more event, the Madrid Open in a fortnight, to get back into the top 40. Lyle was 35th at the start of the year and 38th as recently as 12 days ago, but has been bumped down to 41st by Adam Scott, Ignacio Garrido and David Howell.

Brand jnr was joined on seven under yesterday by Swede Fredrik Andersson, Austria's Markus Brier and Danish duo Steen Tinning and Soren Hansen, while England's Paul Eales carded a superb 65 to be level with Murphy.