An Irish Open miscellany by PHILIP REID

Shed heaven: Lawrie's club

DON’T THROW – or give – your old putters away is the advice from Peter Lawrie who recently found an old putter in his shed, put a new grip on the shaft and used it like a magic wand yesterday. “Let’s say the putter is working. It’s an older putter I took out of the shed, an Odyssey Tri Hot 2. They don’t make them any more. Go on eBay, they are very expensive.” In fact, they can be acquired for $199 but, if Lawrie should keep his momentum going, discovering the putter among this has-beens could prove to be one of his best investments. The Dubliner needed just 26 putts in a round of 66 for a midway 136, six-under.

An Irish winner? “There could be, and hopefully, for my sake, it’s me,” remarked Lawrie.

Luck of the Irish Open: McGrane goes with the flow

YOU MAKE your own luck in golf, but Damien McGrane (right) joked that some other force was assisting him as he made a move in the Irish Open. "There was holy water falling on my head," said McGrane, of a spell in his second round of 67 for 136 where he sank a 40-footer for birdie on the eighth and holed out with a chip on the ninth.

"All of a sudden I went from just treading water to going forward fast," said the Meath man.

Not surprisingly, one of the players alongside McGrane watched his antics with a sense of longing of his own. "I'll tell you what went through my mind: 'I did that one day'," said Pádraig Harrington. "That's exactly what I said. But I was delighted (for him). Damien is a fine player. Tee-to-green, he's good and solid and he can also make it happen when he gets in trouble and that's what it takes to win tournaments. He has that bit of fight and he knows how to get the ball in the hole."

The cut hurts: Harrington looks at making a change

PÁDRAIG Harrington's missed cut here led to him considering to make a change. Of what, he isn't quite sure. "Changes are required, absolutely. Unfortunately a change is required for the sake of it, rather than anything else. I'm doing everything that I would have done that won me three Majors. Just something, a spark, something fresh, is needed and doing the same old things every day worked before but it does need a bit of something new." As for missing the weekend here, Harrington admitted it hurt. "You never want to miss a cut . . . (but) I'm not even slightly embarrassed. I tried on every shot I hit. I was embarrassed once on a golf course and that was the 72nd hole at the Open at Carnoustie (in 2007) and I don't think I will ever be embarrassed again. I felt I let everybody down. It's not a nice feeling."