Wayward Padraig is still not cutting it

04 Jul 2009 - 01:36:10

Problems continue to pile up for Padraig Harrington in his build-upto the defence of his Open Championship title at Turnberry in 12 days.

He missed his fifth cut in a row at the French Open after asecond-round 75 left him at five over par, five shots outside thesafety margin.

And after complaining about putting errors during his opening 72 it was Harrington's six-month long struggle to sort out tee shots that troubled him yesterday.

At Le Golf National's par-five 14th, Harrington hit his drive out of bounds and his second ball into deep rough for an eight.

His only chance now of refinding his form before The Open comes next week when he will try to defend the Irish PGA Championship title.

At the other end of the leaderboard, Germany's Martin Kaymer struggled to follow up his openingday 62 which equalled the Versailles course record.

And in mid-afternoon he was overtaken by Argentine Rafa Echenique, whose 67 left him in the lead at 10 under par, two ahead of Birmingham's Steve Webster.