Olazabal way out of sorts

BELLSOUTH CLASSIC: Jose Maria Olazabal's fears were realised as he slumped to a "pathetic" 77 yesterday in Atlanta - and dragged Adam Scott down with him.

From joint overnight leader in the BellSouth Classic after his sparkling opening round 65, Olazabal dropped to two under par, five behind clubhouse leader Craig Bowden, and four behind another American, Brian Gay.

Out later in the day was Padraig Harrington who, after a sluggish start which included a bogey on the 11th - his second hole - picked up three birdies in a row to be two under for the day after 11 holes and four under par overall, just three off the lead.

Olazabal, meanwhile, had warned before his round that his problem had been stringing two good rounds together. And so it proved. The double Masters champion, looking for form heading into Augusta next week, fell all the way back to two under and only joint 15th with most of the field still to finish.

Playing partner Scott, meanwhile, was in severe danger of missing the halfway cut five days after he won the Players' Championship following a seven-over-par 79 that left him two shots worse than the projected 145 cut mark and looking worn out and with his head in his hands.

"That was terrible," said Olazabal. "I told you. I wasn't lying. My irons were wonderful yesterday, but today they were all over the place. I kept missing green after green, left and right.

"And I have to say that's how I've been hitting them for over a year now. I missed a lot from the middle of the fairway, even with short irons. I was only 65 yards away on one of them and didn't hit the green."

Scott had a nightmare run on the back nine, where he played five holes in six over par, four successive bogeys being followed by a double on the short 16th.

The front nine was still to come to try to repair some of the damage, but he ran up a six on the sixth and at the last went into the trees, hit the branches with his next and failed to save the par he might have needed to survive to the weekend.

At three over par he was forced to wait to discover his fate and said: "I just played terrible. I had a shocking stretch on the back nine."

Little-known American Roger Tambellini was the other player to shoot 65 on Friday and he was another late starter yesterday.

A nightmare start saw the Californian go double-bogey, double-bogey, bogey for his first three holes to go tumbling down the leaderboard.

Things weren't going well either for other late starters Phillip Price of Wales, Scotland's Paul Lawrie, and Dane Thomas Bjorn, who were, respectively, five over par after seven holes, eight over after 13 and 11 over after 14 holes.