Golf/French Open: Ian Woosnam, whose last stroke-play victory came in 1997, jointly leads the French Open after 36 holes at the National course here.

Fighting a rising panic that led to him bogeying three of the last four holes, the 46-year-old Welshman gained the clubhouse lead at six-under-par 136, the same mark as the Frenchman Jean-Francois Remesy.

A Woosnam win, although unlikely, would provide a dramatic footnote to the history of Europe's Famous Five, Severiano Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sandy Lyle and Woosnam, all born within 12 months of each other in 1958-59.

Between them they won around 240 tournaments, including 16 majors.

Woosnam's chance this weekend could be the last for any of them. His lovely, smooth swing was leaking a little oil over the final holes, as he missed the 15th and 16th greens with seven-irons, then drove into rough so bad at the 17th that it required a search by five people to find it.

The by now notorious nightmare that is the ninth could have seriously damaged Paul McGinley's hopes of retaining his his place in the Ryder Cup team for the contest in Detroit in September. But he did himself no good at the ninth on Thursday. He found some of the shoulder-high rough that has been allowed to fester down the right and decided to play it. In three increasingly vicious swings he had moved the ball four yards and, in doing so, hurt his wrist.

"Luckily," he said yesterday, "I had some strong painkillers in my bag, so I was able to continue."

He needed a further dose of the tablets yesterday morning before he could play. In the circumstances a 72, for a five-over-par 147, was a creditable effort.

McGinley keeps the painkillers handy because an operation on a knee still gives him trouble and altogether he is not in the best of physical shape to improve his Ryder Cup ranking. He lies 17th in the standings, some 243,000 points behind the man ranked in the 10th, and last, automatic place, Ian Poulter.

Graeme McDowell (73) remained best of the Irish at one over par, with Damien McGrane on four over and Gary Murphy five over. But Peter Lawrie (eight over) and Philip Walton (11 over) missed the cut.