A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Lights out: McDowell hits the wall hard

AFTER THE highs of last year when he made a breakthrough Major win in claiming the US Open title, Graeme McDowell – who became a Ryder Cup hero at Celtic Manor on top of his Pebble Beach triumph – is getting accustomed to a tougher season.

Yesterday’s missed cut in the PGA was the third time this season that he has failed to make it into the weekend at a Major and the 32-year-old Ulsterman remarked, “the game is just not there. It is still a work in progress. The game is just kicking the s**t out of me right now but you kick on.”

McDowell, who will reappear on tour at the Barclays Championship in a fortnight’s time, the first leg of the US Tour’s season-ending FedEx Cup series, added: “I’ve just got to go back to the drawing board a little bit and see what is going on. I have worked hard on my head this week and got that right but my technique just wasn’t there so it’s frustrating.

“At some point you are going to hit a wall and I have hit a wall hard this year. There’s no doubt it drains me. But this is a long career with peaks and troughs and I will have as many peaks and troughs as the best of them and we all go through this. I have got to stay patient and stay in it and keep working hard and there will be light at the end of the tunnel soon. But there wasn’t any light this week.”

Where's my rod?: Clarke takes time out

BRITISH OPEN champion Darren Clarke will hope to have more luck fishing when he takes a well-earned 10-day holiday than he had on the golf course here in the USPGA where he went through 36 holes without registering a single birdie.

“I hit 25 out of 36 greens and had 71 putts. I just had a nightmare, but c’est la vie,” said Clarke, adding: “My body needs a huge rest and it is going to get one. This is seven weeks in a row basically and I am done.” Clarke is due to return to competition at the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland later this month, which is the official start to qualifying for Europe’s Ryder Cup team for the match against the United States in Chicago next year.

A BIRDIE on his final hole, the par-four ninth, failed to give Martin Kaymer reason to smile after poor putting cost him dearly in his PGA Championship title defence.

The German squandered solid ball-striking with a total of 34 putts on the way to a three-over-par 73 in the second round at Atlanta Athletic Club where he was in danger of missing the cut.

PRIZE MONEY

Total Purse: $8m (€5.6m)

1st $1,445,000 (€1,015,000)

2nd $ 865,000 (€607,735)

3rd $ 545,000 (€382,000)

4th $ 385,000 (€270,000)

5th $ 320,000 (€225,000)

Brandts late and lousy

AMERICAN BRANDT Snedeker paid a heavy price for being two minutes and 15 second late for his second round tee-time. He was assessed a two-stroke penalty – turning a bogey on his opening hole into a triple-bogey seven – and finished with a 73 for a 36-holes total of 147, which left him outside the cut mark.

Two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen, meanwhile, had to withdraw through illness after completing 10 holes of his second round.

The South African was two over on his round – seven over for the championship – when making a decision to call it a day.