Irish Open: Form, as every golfer knows, ebbs and flows; and, just now, Paul McGinley must feel like he is swimming into a tsunami.

The 39-year-old Dubliner has arrived at Carton House in pursuit of an elusive Irish Open title on the back of one of the worst runs of his career: he has, uncharacteristically, missed the cut in his last four tournaments on either side of the Atlantic.

But he insists the tide will turn.

"My golf is in really good shape, to be honest. But I've got to do it on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I've got to produce results. At the moment, I'm not producing results. It's hugely disappointing, because I feel I deserve better the way I am playing.

"But I am not doing it. I've got to produce better, that's the bottom line."

In McGinley's last four tournaments - the Players Championship, the US Masters and the Heritage in America, and the British Masters), he has failed to survive into the weekend.

Twice he missed out by one stroke.

"I haven't been producing enough birdies. It's like a soccer team playing well but not scoring any goals. Until I start doing it, I am not going to compete. If you're going to compete in a golf tournament, you have to have four or five birdies a round no matter how tough the golf course is.

"That's what the really good players do when they play well. That's what I do when I play well. I've got to start doing that to win a tournament."

In his last four rounds of golf, two at Hilton Head and two at the Belfry, he produced the grand total of seven birdies. Yet, he dismissed the notion that putting was an issue.

"No, it's not a major issue, (although) I don't think I am reading the putts as well as I'd like to. I think a lot of it is momentum and confidence. You get on runs, and I don't think I have been on a run this year. But I will get a run. I'll run at some stage and my confidence will lift and off I'll go."

McGinley has been here before. In 2003, he missed three successive cuts in the early part of the season and bounced back by making 10 in a row.

In 2004, he also missed three cuts in a row early in the season and responded by making 13 of the next 15, including securing seven top-10 finishes in that stretch.

Still, he'd prefer to start earning paydays again over the weekend. As things stand, he is nicely positioned on Europe's Ryder Cup qualifying table off the European points, but he admitted to feeling "nervy" about the situation that has arisen.

"I have a lot of respect for the players behind me in the ranking tables and I am looking over my shoulder, to be quite honest. I've got to play better, to produce a lot better. There's no two ways about it."

This would be the perfect time to start swimming with the current.