Pádraig Harrington reclaimed the bragging rights in the Ladbrokes.com PGA Irish Championship, at The European Club, this morning with a second round one-under-par 70 to speed past overnight leader Leslie Walker.
Harrington's 70 leaves him at four-under 138, one stroke ahead of Dundalk club pro Walker who posted a bumpy round of 72 to fall behind the defending champion, bidding for his sixth success in the championship and a three-in-a-row of wins.
The holder, however, was not entirely happy with his day's work but still reckons it's a useful exercise before he battles for that three-in-a-row victories in the Open at Turnberry next week.
"I seemed to have lost a bit of rhythm with the swing throughout," he explained. "It was gradually getting a little bit worse as the round went on but I can't really complain about the score.
"The bad shots are a result of me losing confidence in where I'm going to hit it. There were plenty of shots I hit out there where I was doing something I didn't like and then at times I'd lose focus about it and hit a bad shot, like on four and again on six.
"I've been into my game very well all week, so far, so that's a good thing. Chipping and putting is good. I'm happy on those two things so now I just need to get a little bit more of what I had last week (in France)".
Playing the back nine first, he reached the turn in two-under with birdies at the 10th and 13th holes and made another birdie at the long third before losing strokes at the par four fourth and short sixth where he was in water.
Walker had just seven pars on his card that showed half-a-dozen birdies, three bogeys and two double-bogeys. The doubles were at the second and seventh holes. At No.2 he missed the green and duffed his chip for a five and after driving into rough at long seven he moved the ball and called a penalty shot on himself.
Banbridge man Richard Kilpatrick is not having life easy on tour but reckons the challenge of playing here should be a help. In his second 70 of the tournament he made three birdies and two bogeys to be in third place overnight.
At the third hole he got up and down for birdie four from 10 yards, at the fifth he rolled in a 12-footer for a three and at 18 sank a 10-footer for another birdie three.
Simon Thornton equalled the best score of the championship to date - a four-under-67 with seven birdies sprinkled over his card. He was off at the 10th with bogey five but then pencilled in a hat-trick of birdies from the 12th, going 3-4-2 and swapped birdie at 17 for bogey at 18. On the front nine he birdied the first and sixth, bogeyed the eighth but got that shot back on his last green for a super 67, level par for the tournament and fourth place.
Fifty-one players made the cut at 155 (+13) and missing out by just one shot was Marian Riordan who carded a 76 yesterday after dropping three shots in her last three holes.