McGinley finds the missing links game

HOW THE IRISH FARED:HE'S WON the World Cup, holed the winning putt in the Ryder Cup, captured the tour's end-of-season flagship event, the Volvo Masters and, yet, if he were to look back on his career, one which has reaped over €10 million in earnings, Paul McGinley would probably wonder why the British Open has proven to be such an awkward and contrary customer.

It should be right up his alley. After all, he’s a pure ball-striker. He has imagination. He has patience. You won’t see him snapping a driver – as Paul Casey did yesterday – and he doesn’t hear a butterfly land in a meadow two miles away, à la Colin Montgomerie. As a teenager, he developed his game on the links at Baltray. He knows how to keep the ball low, when to bump and run.

No, you look at McGinley – a compact 5ft 7in (1.70m) with a body kept in shape by daily workouts in the gym – and you see a player who is tailor-made for links golf, especially on the big occasion.

Up to now, though, his best finish in a British Open came all of 13 years ago, at Lytham, where he finished tied-14th. Two years ago, he entered the final round at Carnoustie within touching distance of the Claret Jug but slipped to a 19th place finish and spent the evening basking in Pádraig Harrington’s victory.

At least now the 42-year-old Dubliner has another opportunity to do it for himself. Yesterday, McGinley, a terrier, had his back to the wall and fought for everything in producing a homeward run that featured three birdies. He signed for a second successive 71, for a midway total of 142, and left contemplating the prospect of a weekend assault.

“I’ve had a pretty poor year up to now,” conceded McGinley, “and yeah my confidence is low, there’s no doubt about that. I can’t go around saying, ‘yes, I’m full of confidence’. When you’ve had a long run like I’ve had of playing pretty averagely, it’s tough. And that was so great about today, my back was to the wall, I came back and shot a great back nine to make the cut and get myself pretty much into the middle of the pack.”

McGinley’s best finish – and only top-10 – this season came in the China Open. It seems an age ago. So, what would constitute a result here? “What’s a result? Just to walk away thinking, ‘man, I gave myself a lot of good chances’ and to have played well over four rounds. I’ve done two and what I haven’t been doing this year is putting four rounds together.”

It could have been even better for McGinley yesterday, as his 25-foot putt for eagle on the 17th lipped out and then salt was rubbed into wounds when he bogeyed the last. “That’s the way things have been going this year. I’ve played a lot of good golf but not capitalised in terms of good scores . . . but that’s a pretty decent score, 71. I still feel it could have been in the 60s, as could yesterday’s.”

Graeme McDowell led the Irish challenge at the midway stage, the 29-year-old from Portrush shooting a 73 for 141, with McGinley and Darren Clarke on 142. Harrington and Rory McIlroy each added 74s to their opening 69s to reach the midway point on 143. Five of the seven Irish players in the field thus survived into the weekend, the two casualties being David Higgins and Damien McGrane.

McDowell wasn’t enamoured with how the course had been set up, particularly with the pin placements. “Some of the pins were borderline outrageous, like the 11th. There was a 25 miles per hour wind and the pin was hanging off the left edge of the green. The par three 15th, it was stupid. There were a few examples out there of outrageous pins but you expect that at the British Open. They had seen the golf course was very benign yesterday and felt it needed protecting with the pins, but it didn’t need protecting with pins, it was still tough.”

In fairness, having made his point, McDowell took it on the chin. “Ah, I’ve really got no complaints. I didn’t do a whole lot wrong out there, I just didn’t get much luck.” A shrug of the shoulders. Such is golf!

Still, with top-20s in his two previous majors this season at the Masters and the US Open, McDowell can head into the weekend knowing he can play his way into the business end of things if he can stay patient and take what chances come his way.

Patience is a virtue that McIlroy, who struggled for long periods of his second round, also found to be important. “I thought I played okay but threw a couple of shots away. It was just a bit of an untidy round but there are still a lot of positives to take from it. This time last year or 18 months ago I would have thrown it away and missed the cut. I am happy the way I hung in,” said McIlroy.

Clarke, too, was happy to be around for the weekend. “Anything can happen on a links golf course if it blows and I’m very happy with the trajectory and control I have over my golf ball in flight, the best I’ve had in a very, very long time,” said the links specialist.