Padraig Harrington has so far liked what he has seen on his first visit to the Belfry. Little wonder really, because the Dubliner now tops the leaderboard after adding a three-under-par 69 yesterday to his opening 71 in the Stg£1 million Benson and Hedges International Open.

Harrington now has given himself a chance to remember this event for something other than the 13 he took on The Oxfordshire's 17th four years ago.

Yesterday Harrington birdied four of his last seven holes, and then heaped praise on his coach, Bob Torrance, father of Ryder Cup captain Sam.

"I can't say enough about the help I'm getting from Bob," said the 28-year-old. "I think he's a genius actually. His ideas always seem to make sense. I've worked very hard on my swing for 18 months and I'm improving all the time."

Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke will join Harrington for the weekend. McGinley added a 71 to finish on level par, while Clarke slipped under the cut with a 72 to lie at six over par.

But Eamonn Darcy (77), Philip Walton (75) and Ronan Rafferty (81) were way off the pace, while Des Smyth was disqualified.

Harrington's round was overshadowed somewhat by the rank bad form of Seve Ballesteros. After his opening 87, the Spaniard took 82 yesterday to be 25 over par for two rounds, 29 shots behind Harrington.

By contrast Ballesteros' compatriot and former Ryder Cup partner Jose-Maria Olazabal had a four-under 68, the lowest round of the tournament so far, to take him to 143 and one under overall, only three behind the Dubliner. Phillip Price lies second on three under after a 72 yesterday, and Colin Montgomerie, at one over par overall after a 69, is in contention.

There were echoes of old glories from Olazabal yesterday. He has "found" his driving - lost for the past two years - largely because of hard work but with a little help from technology. His driver has a lighter head and a lighter and longer shaft, and in two rounds at the Belfry he has missed only three fairways.

Unfortunately one of those was at the 18th yesterday when he pushed a three-wood off the tee so far right that he had to lay up short of the lake that guards the green. His third finished eight feet from the hole but the putt was missed, so it fell to Anthony Wall to produce the only bogey-free round of the tournament to date, a 69 which brought him back to level par.

Six years ago Ballesteros won this tournament and finished third in the order of merit, but his decline has been both sudden and dramatic. In 1995 he was 33rd in the order and since then he has been 69th, 136th, 108th and 143rd.

He has become the image of every pro's living nightmare, the embodiment of the moment when they realise the gift has gone. Every professional knows it is coming; that it is a matter not of if but of when, and now they shudder to see Seve.

Yesterday he was playing with Peter Baker who, despite his own troubles at 12 over par for the two rounds, confessed that he admired the Spaniard just for "sticking at it". The other partner was Ian Woosnam, who must have been tempted not to watch at all, so sensitive is the Welshman to the gift he has been given.

Woosnam is not one of those practitioners such as Montgomerie who can put the clubs in the garage for three months and not touch them. Once, at a new year's eve party, he was discussing the golf swing with some Shropshire county players and something one of them said made so much sense that he went out on to the snow-covered lawn, in his street shoes, and hit some balls.

They went so well that the next day he drove from Oswestry to Aberdovey to put the theory to test - and found that it was good. That year, 1990, he became the first European to win more than Stg£1 million in prize money in a single season.

Woosnam is also struggling these days, although his six-over total was good enough to keep him playing over the weekend. Ballesteros has done that only once in five tries this year and missed 15 cuts in 20 attempts in Europe last year.

The Welshman feels he could help Ballesteros - who, these days, does not? - and said yesterday: "I can see some things that are wrong and I'll tell him. And he'll listen, but only for a while . . . the trouble is that even if he hits one straight there's nothing in it.

"I have to say," he added sadly, "that if I was playing like that I couldn't carry on."