Too far back, but still praying for a miracle? Paul McGinley did what he had to do on the 18th hole on the Lower Course at Baltusrol yesterday.

He rolled in a birdie putt that safely secured his passage into the business end of the 87th US PGA Championship, yet he wore that tortured expression of someone who had been promised the earth only to be deceived.

You see, tee-to-green, the Dubliner played beautifully. In fact, his statistics for yesterday's second round were better than those posted by midway leader Phil Mickelson except for one important department: the art of scoring.

While McGinley hit 71 per cent of fairways and 67 per cent of greens, Mickelson hit 50 per cent of fairways and 67 per cent of greens.

But McGinley signed for a 70, the product of 30 putts on the greens, and Mickelson, who had 25 putts, signed for a 65.

"I feel that I've played better than my score. I don't feel I've been rewarded for the way I've played," said McGinley, whose score left him on two-over-par 142 after 36-holes.

"The only way you're going to compete in a major championship is to putt well, particularly for me because I'm not going to overpower the golf course.

"If I'm going to contend over the weekend, I've got to start making some putts. I'm not putting badly, but I'm losing ground with the putter. It's a battle, I'm not making those birdie putts."

McGinley is at a loss to understand why the blade should behave so erratically, although it's a cyclical problem that has been with him throughout his career.

Earlier this season, he actually led the putting statistics on the European Tour but now he has dropped to 17th in the putts per greens in regulation category.

"It's like getting back to the football scene," he said, "a bit like the Dubs in previous years. You know, they've been playing good but not putting the ball over the bar. Now, they've started to put the ball over the bar and that's why they're winning.

"I've had a good season with the putter. I was number one in putting stats for the first half of the season, but I haven't been holing putts in the last few months.

"I thought I was off and running at the start of the year when I started holing all the putts for birdies but it's dried up and I need to start holing them again."

If there's any solace for McGinley to find, it is that he has again made the cut in a major. Indeed, he hasn't missed a cut in a major since the 2003 US PGA.

But that isn't enough for a player with high standards for himself.

"If I'm going to contend, I need to hole some putts. I can't putt average and contend the way somebody like Tiger can because he can overpower the golf course. I have to putt well.

"The only way I'm going to contend in this game is to putt really well."

If the putter does get hot - even belatedly - what can he expect? "A low round," he claimed, because of the quality of his all-round game.

"There's no question I've a low round in me . . . these guys, I don't know how they do it. They're holing three or four 40-footers a round. If I hole two in a tournament, I'm doing cartwheels.

"It's unbelievable. The amount of luck you must have to hole a 40-foot putt in terms of the ball bouncing or dribbling or lipping out or anything is huge . . . I'm praying to the wrong God, that's the problem!"

Yesterday's round was a solid one, with two birdies and two bogeys and no major scares and no bombed putts.

He bogeyed the first after driving into rough, but got the shot back with a huge drive on the 503-yard par four third and a five-iron approach to 25 feet.

For once, the birdie putt dropped.

With one eye on the cut mark, McGinley put some pressure on himself when dropping a shot on the 13th where he drove into a fairway bunker and put his next shot into a greenside bunker.

However, he guaranteed his presence for the weekend with a birdie on the 18th, where his approach ran through the green - nestling in greenside rough just 15-feet from the pin - and he intentionally duffed his pitch shot, getting it to four feet from the hole and rolling in the putt.