Darren Clarke, Colin Montgomerie and Ernie Els hardly looked like challengers poised to end Tiger Woods' Grand Slam dream at Muirfield next weekend after some uninspiring performances at Loch Lomond today.
Even with a birdie at the last hole Montgomerie had to wait along with Clarke to discover if he had survived the halfway cut in the Barclays Scottish Open. And Els was only one ahead of them after a second round 74.
Clarke's 73 left him sitting on one over, the score currently projected as just making the cut, after a bogey on the last hole of the day.
Birdies at the 14th and 16th appeared to have put him on course but that dropped shot at the the 18th meant an uneasy few hours wait for the Tyrone golfer.
Montgomerie is also struggling with his form and said afterwards: "There's been a problem for months and I don't see light at the end of the tunnel yet."
The 39-year-old has less than a week to put things right for the Open at Muirfield.
"I don't know what it is, but I'm not playing the golf I used to play and I've got to get it back. I'll just use the last two rounds here as practice now."
Els fared little better on the banks of Loch Lomond and his card contained double bogeys at the sixth and 10th. The 2000 champion said: "If I hit it like that next week I've got no chance.
"I really hit my irons very poorly and I've really got to find something.
"I kept pulling them and just felt uncomfortable. There was a little panicking going on out there after playing so solidly in the first round and seeing it all fall apart."
"It was a comedy of errors," stated the world number three. "My lower body and upper body didn't want to work together."
Elsewhere, Michael Hoey’s bid to grab one of the automatic qualifying spots for the Open continued this afternoon with the former British Open amateur champion level par for the day, keeping him three under for the tournament.
Paul McGinley has joined Belfast’s Hoey on three under, a birdie on the eighth taking him into a tie for 14th spot.
Fredrik Jacobson leads the field at ten under after 15 holes. The tall Swede, a runner-up in the Murphy’s Irish Open at Ballybunion in 2000, holds a two stroke advantage over England’s Justin Rose, with Miles Tunncliff a shot further back on 7 under.