Padraig Harrington will not be panicking yet, but surviving only one of his last five halfway cuts in America was definitely not what he had in mind after winning back-to-back majors last season. The world number three’s latest early exit came at the Northern Trust Open in Los Angeles, where a two-over-par total of 142 was three too many to make it into the weekend.
Four missed cuts is as many as Tiger Woods has had in his entire professional career, but Harrington also sat out the finish of last week’s AT&T Classic at Pebble Beach and following his US PGA triumph last August he crashed out of both The Barclays and Deutsche Bank events.
He began the year with a fifth-place finish in Abu Dhabi, but said there: “I don’t think I’ve ever teed it up on a Thursday not been a little bit concerned about the cut.
“You want to play four rounds and make sure you’re in there competing. I’ve seen a lot of players start a run from scraping a cut and they relax on the weekend to shoot a good score, so every week to play four rounds is essential.”
A change of format might help at the moment and he will have that next week in the Accenture World Match Play in Arizona, where he is due to play American Pat Perez, winner of last month’s bob Hope Classic, in Wednesday’s opening round.
There is also still nearly seven weeks to go to the start of The Masters at Augusta and his attempt to win a third successive major — this time, of course, with Woods in the field.
Phil Mickelson surrendered the lead at the Riviera Country Club as wayward driving allowed fellow American Scott McCarron edge two strokes clear of the pack.
Left-hander Mickelson, the defending champion, hit only five fairways out of 14 on his way to a one-over-par 72, sliding back into a six-way tie for fourth place.
Having surged a stroke in front with a blistering 63 in the opening round and then two ahead after eagling the first, Mickelson piled up four bogeys and a birdie for a seven-under total of 135.
That left him three shots behind McCarron, who rolled in an eight-foot birdie putt at the par-four last for a 68.
Americans Steve Stricker (66) and Tommy Armour III (67) were tied for second at eight under after taking advantage of ideal scoring conditions in the morning.
Collated second round scores
(USA unless stated, par 71)
132Scott McCarron 64 68
134Steve Stricker 68 66, Tommy Armour III 67 67
135Phil Mickelson 63 72, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 68 67, Pat Perez 69 66, KJ Choi (Kor) 66 69, Luke Donald (Eng) 66 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 68 67
136Dustin Johnson 66 70, Kevin Na 67 69, Bill Lunde 69 67, Andres Romero (Arg) 66 70
137Kirk Triplett 67 70, John Merrick 66 71, Ben Curtis 68 69, Fred Couples 67 70, Bob Estes 72 65, Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 67, Jim Furyk 66 71, Rich Beem 68 69, Marc Turnesa 69 68, Briny Baird 67 70
138Brian Davis (Eng) 69 69, Woody Austin 68 70, Matt Kuchar 70 68, John Mallinger 70 68, Kenny Perry 70 68, Hunter Mahan 69 69, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 70 68, Dean Wilson 66 72, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 67, Rocco Mediate 70 68
139Nick Watney 71 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 70 69, Kevin Sutherland 72 67, David Duval 70 69, Charles Howell III 72 67, Jeff Klauk 67 72, Bo Van Pelt 68 71, Jimmy Walker 69 70, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 71 68, Jason Gore 69 70, Jason Bohn 73 66, Brendon De Jonge 69 70, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 70, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 71, Mark Calcavecchia 70 69, Carl Pettersson (Swe) 68 71, Ryan Moore 68 71, D.J. Trahan 67 72
140Jerry Kelly 72 68, Brad Adamonis 70 70, Charley Hoffman 68 72, Chris DiMarco 68 72, Jeff Quinney 69 71, Joe Ogilvie 70 70, Bubba Watson 69 71, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 72 68, J.B. Holmes 73 67, Chad Campbell 72 68, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 67, Ben Crane 72 68, Brandt Jobe 68 72, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 67 73, Tim Clark (Rsa) 68 72
141Michael Letzig 70 71, Bart Bryant 74 67, Graeme McDowell(NIrl) 70 71, Charlie Wi (Kor) 70 71, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 71 70, Mike Weir (Can) 70 71, Cameron Beckman 70 71, Scott Verplank 71 70, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 70
The following players failed to make the cut
142Vaughn Taylor 70 72, Zach Johnson 73 69, Steve Flesch 73 69, Todd Hamilton 67 75, Steve Elkington (Aus) 68 74, Steve Marino 73 69, Steve Pate 71 71, George McNeill 71 71, Bill Haas 69 73, Johnson Wagner 70 72, Troy Matteson 71 71, Brandt Snedeker 67 75
143Paul Azinger 67 76, John Senden (Aus) 71 72, Billy Mayfair 76 67, Peter Lonard (Aus) 70 73, Chez Reavie 69 74, Michael Allen 69 74, Jeff Maggert 71 72, J J Henry 74 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 72 71, Mathew Goggin (Aus) 71 72, Nicholas Thompson 71 72
144Vincent Johnson 70 74, Chris Stroud 71 73, Tom Pernice Jnr. 72 72, Cliff Kresge 72 72, Alex Cejka (Ger) 75 69, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) 71 73, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn) 73 71, Will MacKenzie 69 75, John Rollins 70 74, Justin Leonard 70 74, Tim Petrovic 75 69, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 70 74, Padraig Harrington(Irl) 72 72
145Ryan Palmer 74 71, Oliver Wilson (Eng) 69 76, Lucas Glover 73 72, Eric Axley 72 73, Ken Duke 73 72, Steve Lowery 71 74, Jonathan Byrd 70 75
146Jin Park (Kor) 73 73, Ricky Barnes 73 73, Mark Brooks 73 73, Brian Gay 70 76, Matt Bettencourt 76 70, Brian Bateman 69 77
147Nathan Green (Aus) 73 74, Kevin Chappell 75 72, James Nitties (Aus) 76 71, Parker McLachlin 75 72, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 71 76, Mark Wilson 72 75
148Heath Slocum 72 76, Kevin Streelman 75 73
149David Morland IV (Can) 75 74, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 70 79, David Berganio Jnr. 72 77, Bryce Molder 72 77, Harrison Frazar 73 76
150Jeff Overton 75 75, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 78
151Tim Herron 73 78, Jim Gormley 79 72, Corey Pavin 73 78
153Tom Lehman 76 77
154Brad Faxon 77 77
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