Molinari and Hoey disqualified at Baltray

Irish Open:Italian Francesco Molinari was disqualified from the 3 Irish Open today when lying two strokes off the lead in the second round and joins Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey as the second player to be sidelined at Baltray.

Molinari, who fired a course record 63 yesterday to lead by one overnight, signed for the wrong score on two holes of his second round. His error came when he wrongly marked a six at the 12th and a four at the 13th when the two scores should have been the other way around.

The unwanted theme regarding disqualification emerged at Baltray for earlier in the day Hoey disqualified himself after discovering that he had been carrying a 15th club - one too many - in his bag. He was two-under at the time.

This year’s Portuguese Open champion came across it during his second round, but instead of merely having to add penalty strokes he knew he could not continue because he had signed for a wrong first-round score.

“I just realised before I was about to hit a shot that underneath all of the wet gear in my bag was an extra club,” said Hoey.

“I always have a rescue club and two-iron with me every week, but I just presumed my caddie knew that I wouldn’t be taking the rescue because of this course.

“It wasn’t taken out - it’s partly my fault, partly his I would say. We didn’t even discuss it. It’s so stupid and I can’t believe it because I was playing well and trying to get moving up the leaderboard.”

On a positive note McDowell was making great strides up the leaderboard and has given himself a chance of getting back into the tournament.

The 29-year-old opened with an uncharacteristic 77 yesterday but today has been a completely different experience. Starting at the first his figures read birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie, birdie to be a staggering seven-under after six holes.

Bizarrely that left the Portrush pro still one shot outside the cut mark on two-under as the improved conditions and scoring means the projected cut has moved to three-under.

That places Pádraig Harrington in a precarious situation despite the three-time major winner carding a 68 to get to three-under and seemingly safe for the weekend.