Padraig Harrington remained on course for his fourth European Tour title as Colin Montgomerie crashed out of the Algarve Portuguese Open yesterday.
Harrington added a second round 70 to his superb opening 64 for a 10-under-par halfway total and two-shot lead over the field at Quinta do Lago.
Paul McGinley is six off the lead after a round of 69 yesterday to add to his first-round score of 71. David Higgins, who shared second place overnight, shot a disappointing 77 to fall well back. Des Smyth, Ronan Rafferty, Eamonn Darcy, Philip Walton and Gary Murphy missed the cut.
Harrington's playing partner Montgomerie, however, was probably back home by the time play ended yesterday evening after a second-round 72 left him on one over par and with a spare weekend on his hands.
After his early exit at the US Masters in his last appearance it meant the seven-times European number one had missed successive cuts for the first time since the Smurfit European Open and BMW International in 1998, a proud run stretching back almost three years.
"Obviously I'm disappointed, I had opportunities coming in but my putting let me down," said the world number five who missed only three cuts in European events in the previous four years.
"Never mind, it's one of those things. It's not so good just now but I'll have to go and work on it and see if I can get out of it.
"The rest of my game? It can't be good can it? I shouldn't be missing cuts."
Harrington preserved his overnight two-shot advantage with four birdies and two bogeys with Scotland's Alastair Forsyth and England's David Gilford on eight under and Spain's Ignacio Garrido and England's David Howell a further shot adrift.
And the Dubliner later confirmed it was Montgomerie's short game that was letting him down.
"Colin started hitting it really close near the end when he needed to but he hit a lot of bad putts yesterday and it was a little bit too late," Harrington said.
"But he's won seven Order of Merit titles and done almost everything he can in the game so I don't think he has anything to worry about. We all miss cuts."
Harrington, who already has two second places under his belt this season and is closing on an a Ryder Cup place, added: "It was tougher this morning when it was cold and we were pretty unhappy to have got both rounds in strong winds.
"It was in a slightly different direction which made the par fives out of range so I'm delighted with that score and to be in contention at the weekend."
Forsyth's 68 was one of the best rounds of a testing day and he was delighted to have rediscovered the consistency that saw him finish 46th on the Order of Merit in his rookie season last year.
"That's the third 68 in a row including the final round in Spain last week," the 25-yearold from Glasgow said. "It's the best two rounds together this season, I'd been having good stretches of nine or 12 holes but never keeping it together for 18.
"I thought it was going to be tough to improve on last year but I knew I had to improve a few things in my game over the winter.
"It's taken longer than I thought what with the weather being so bad and unable to really practise but hopefully I'm starting to see the rewards and getting back the consistency."
Gilford's score came mainly courtesy of two eagles in seven holes, both times holing out from around 100 yards, the second one taking just one bounce before plummeting into the cup.
"I've holed shots before but never twice in one round," said the 35-year-old from Crewe. "I had birdies, bogeys and eagles so I was a bit inconsistent to say the least.
"I haven't played that much this season, I missed the cut in Dubai and Qatar and finished about 30th last week but it's early days. The course is good and I like it a lot but it's a long time since I played it."
