BILL Murray might earn a staggering living to make people laugh, but the Hollywood A-lister could not prevent Swindon pro David Howell coming off the Kingsbarns course with a slightly rueful expression yesterday.

Playing alongside the Ghostbusters star for the second day in a row at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championships in Scotland, Howell fired a level-par 72 to leave himself one-under overall and with work to do heading into today’s third round at Andrews, after which the cut will be made.

“I battled really hard on Thursday to get to one-under at Carnoustie, so I was a little bit disappointed with my second round to be honest,” said Howell.

“I got off to a nice start with a couple of birdies, but then I made a bit of a mess of the rest of the back nine.

“I chucked in a double bogey and bogeys at the 17th and the first and all of a sudden, four shots had gone in the space of six holes.

“Any time you shoot par at Kingsbarns you’re always disappointed it couldn’t have been a couple better.

“The cut will be about four or five-under, but I’ve got Carnoustie out of the way, which is good, so I’ve just got to get it done at St Andrews now.”

While the presence of comedy royalty could not coax an all-star 18 holes out of the Broome Manor pro, he admitted he had more than enjoyed the presence of his playing partner.

“We were having a good old chat and he’s great, a funny guy,” said Howell. “I asked him a bit about how he got into comedy and he asked me about my career.

“He’s got a competitive streak in him as well but the main thing is to put a smile on people’s faces, which he does very well.”

Howell begins his third round at 9.22am this morning.