Dressed all in black, with only an exquisite lizard-skin belt to provide any contrast, Darren Clarke's choice of colour suitably reflected his mood as he exited the US Open where he missed the cut for the first time since 1996. "It's like going to the dentist at the minute, playing golf," he observed. "Not much fun."

Black day for Clarke

Certainly, these past two days haven't been much fun for Clarke, who shot rounds of 73 and 74 to finish on seven-over-par 147. The 36-year-old had the rare, for him, experience of going through his entire second round without a birdie.

"I'm having a bad run where I am playing poorly," said Clarke, who couldn't really blame his putting (this time) for his woes, recording 28 putts in his first round and 30 in his second. "I love the golf course, but it is too tough for me. I'm really frustrated.

"Around here, everyone's going to make mistakes. But you expect to make a couple of birdies and I haven't done that. I can't do any more than I am doing. I am practising. I am hitting balls. I am working on the putting. I'm doing everything that I should be doing and it is just not working. There's no reason for it. I'm pretty perturbed."

Can't see Woods for Mel

It's not only on the golf course that Tiger Woods is fighting to stay number one . . . Forbes magazine has placed him as the number two celebrity in the United States, behind actor-director Mel Gibson. The magazine rates stars on income, public visibility and media exposure over a 12-month period. Gibson's film The Passion of Christ pulled in $210 million. Woods, incidentally, had earnings of $80 million but rated ahead of Gibson in newspaper coverage. Still, the world's top golfer finished ahead of Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, JK Rowling, Michael Jordan and Bruce Springsteen in the celebrity stake.

Thunder blunder

Poor Miguel Angel Jimenez will remember the short 11th hole at Shinnecock Hills for all the wrong reasons.

After Thursday night's weather delay for a thunderstorm, the Spaniard returned to the par three only to run up a sextuple bogey nine after putting his tee-shot over the back of the green and needing four attempts to putt it back up the shaved slope on to the green.