Golf: Nobody envisaged such a fate could befall this golden boy of golf. Yet, the vagaries of this game are such that few, if any, can ever really hope to remain untouchable; and so it was that Padraig Harrington, the world's number nine ranked player - and the current European number one - discovered his own fallibility in slipping from the fringes of contention to failing to survive the midway cut in the Nissan Irish Open at Portmarnock last evening.

When Harrington missed a 25-foot birdie putt from the fringe of the 18th green, a stroke that was the 75th and penultimate stroke of a round where, he admitted, "my mind was running riot", it had the effect of someone producing a pin and bursting a newly inflated hot-air balloon.

Quiet incredulity from those watching on sandhills and grandstands, and the guarantee that Hamlet would proceed over the weekend without its prince.

On a day when David Lynn, a journeyman professional from England, assumed the midway lead - shooting a fine 65 to add to his opening 69 for a 10-under-par 134, a shot ahead of New Zealand's Michael Campbell - Harrington's demise, from an Irish standpoint, was tapered by the survival instincts of Ryder Cup players Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley, and by the emergence of Peter Lawrie as a genuine contender.

In all, six Irish players - Clarke, McGinley, Lawrie, Gary Murphy, Damien McGrane and Damien Mooney - survived, and if one of those that didn't, Harrington, provoked most debate in the 16,000-plus crowd, the other stories are worth telling. Clarke, for one, found inner depth from somewhere to be transformed.

When the man from Tyrone arrived on the first tee yesterday he was three-over and the omens weren't particularly good.

On the range beforehand, though, his manager, Chubby Chandler, had observed that the player's posture was poor. The little piece of advice worked wonders.

Clarke proceeded to produce a round of 68 that could have been so much better. "I could have gone silly on the back nine," he observed, as he peppered one flag after another. Some putts fell, and others didn't. The end result, however, was that he finished two shots inside the cut line, on one-under.

"This is not a cut that anyone who is Irish wanted to miss, especially me," he later observed. His pride had been salvaged, and he'd played his way back into the tournament.

Of them all, Lawrie, exuding a quiet confidence, knows this wonderful links better than anyone. In his student days at UCD, he was a member, for three years, of the club.

"I played it every single day, quite a lot," he said. What it means is that he knows every nuance, where to hit a green and where to miss it.

"My caddie's just letting me go at it because of the amount of knowledge I have of the course," remarked Lawrie, who shot a 68 to be on six-under-par 138, in tied-third place with Thomas Bjorn, the first-round leader, and Robert Karlsson.

"I don't think anybody who sees the name Peter Lawrie on that leaderboard is going to be intimidated," he said, which is not entirely doing his new status in the game full justice. This year, he has been a revelation and he has a habit, demonstrating a strong will, of following on some lean weeks with exceptionally good ones.

When he was runner-up in the Spanish Open in May, he'd missed the cut the previous two weeks.

Guess what? He'd missed the cut in his two previous tournaments before renewing his acquaintance with Portmarnock.

On the back nine yesterday, Lawrie started off with back-to-back bogeys. His response was to hit an eight-iron to 12 feet on the 12th for birdie, and a six-iron to the front of the 15th for another birdie. "Local knowledge," he quipped.

The man they all have to catch is Lynn. Currently 37th on the European Order of Merit, Lynn decided to make a late arrival into Dublin after playing in the British Open.

He arrived on Wednesday afternoon, got his caddie to walk the course, and played it blind on Thursday. He shot a 69. Yesterday, knowing where he was going, he shot a 65 that featured eight birdies and a lone bogey, on the eighth where he missed the green right.

Of those in pursuit, Campbell, now playing more frequently in Europe rather than on the US Tour where he was based for much of the season, is closest to Lynn.

"My mind is quite at peace on the golf course. . . I have one or two swing thoughts and that is enough for me to go out and play well," insisted Campbell.

For Harrington, it was a time to be philosophical. As he emerged from the recorder's hut, having signed for a 76 which left him one shot outside the cut which had 75 survivors, Harrington munched on an energy bar and accepted his fate.

"I just wasn't with it, hit a lot of poor shots. But that's golf. It's the nature of the game and the errors I committed showed that I just wasn't there mentally. I tried on every shot, and I can't do more than that," he said.

When Harrington will play next is in the lap of the gods. His wife, Caroline, is due the couple's first baby next month - around the time of the US PGA - and the player has committed to at least two weeks off.

"Who knows? It's quite possible I might not play for seven weeks," said Harrington, who will only revise his schedule when the baby is born.