Five hours can be a long time in golf

Graeme McDowell could only watch the field rush past, writes Philip Reid

Graeme McDowell tossed and turned for most of Thursday night in his new-found role as leader of the British Open championship. When he reached the first tee at Hoylake yesterday for the second round, it was with a degree of nerves.

"I was nervous, but not ridiculously so," confessed the 26-year-old Portrush native almost five hours later, at which stage his status had changed considerably.

He was no longer the leader of the pack, but rather consigned to the role of pursuer.

It remains to be seen if that pursuit is in vain, given Tiger Woods is the player being pursued.

Still, McDowell, who had to work extremely hard to get the ball into the hole, in some contrast to the ease of the previous day's round, was not one to accept the seeming inevitability of it all.

"Of course I'm disappointed at not holing more putts, but I feel I'm playing well enough to go out there tomorrow and shoot 65 or 66," said McDowell, who added a 73 to his opening 66 to reach the midway stage in 139, five-under.

"I gave myself a ton of chances, but made nothing, and have made nothing in two days."

His fate could have been worse, in fact. The 18th hole, a 560-yard par five, for some reason doesn't fit McDowell's eye. In practice, he had trouble gauging just where he should hit his tee-shot; but it proved to be considerably more costly in yesterday's second round, where he ran up a bogey that was greeted with as much glee as dropping a shot can be.

What happened was this. McDowell blocked his drive so far that the only thing that stopped it from going out of bounds was hitting a metal railing. The rebound sent the ball back into play but in to thick rough.

"That was obviously a huge break," he contended.

But he immediately negated it with a fresh air: a large clump of dune grass lay behind the ball and he was standing way below it.

He wasn't being too greedy, only took a wedge and attempted to move it on some 50 yards to set up a third shot to the green.

"When the club flattened out before impact, it caught the grass and took all the speed out of it. I missed the golf ball altogether and went straight under it," explained McDowell.

With his next shot, he advanced the ball about 30 yards and still hadn't found the green having hit four. However, he proceeded to get up-and down for a bogey.

"Seeing as the drive deserved to be out of bounds, I suppose six is the best I could really hope for," he admitted.

So, having started out as championship leader, and being cheered and clapped on to each tee and green, McDowell ended the day back in the pack.

"It was a bit of a learning exercise," he said. "What happened at the last was a bit of a kick in the teeth, but I felt I handled myself well out there given the circumstances. I executed my game plan very well.

"I'm looking forward to the weekend. Obviously I'm disappointed that the rest of the boys are accelerating along without me. I didn't want to be that far behind going into tomorrow, but the pressure will be off and I'll need something special."

Certainly, he will hope that he has learned from his experience at Winged Foot in the US Open last month, when was on the fringe of contention at the midway stage, only to succumb over the weekend - suffering a horrid end to his third round when he dropped five shots in the last six holes for a 75 and then added a 79 in the final round - and eventually finished in 48th place.

He doesn't want, or expect, a repeat this weekend.