DAVID Howell concedes he looks up against it to make the cut at the BMW PGA Championship after a level-par second round of 72 today kept him at one-over for the tournament.

Swindon golfer Howell was amongst the earliest starters at Wentworth and is currently outside the top 70 midway through the second round of the European Tour’s flagship event.

Howell posted five birdies this morning but the same number of bogeys, meaning the 42-year-old was unable to improve on his standing after the first round after he opened up the tournament with a one-over 73 on Thursday.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to be enough but there is a lot of golf let to play, so you never know,” said Broome Manor man Howell.

“It’s one too many and it’s frustrating.

“I played pretty nicely today, probably a little bit better than Thursday, but just couldn’t quite make it happen towards the end.

“It is fine margins and I wasn’t quite good enough.”

Howell needed just two holes to bring himself back level for the tournament after a birdie on the short second hole, although that was immediately surrendered with a bogey at the next.

A second birdie arrived at the par-five fourth, but back-to-back bogeys followed to drop Howell back to one-over at the turn, and two-over for the tournament.

Two-time Ryder Cup winner Howell began the back nine well with birdies at holes 10 and 12, although another bogey soon arrived at the 13th.

Inconsistency was the story of Howell’s round and again he followed birdie with bogey at the 14th and 15th holes.

Arriving at the two closing par-five holes, Howell knew he needed to claw some shots back to give him a chance of qualifying for the weekend’s final two rounds, he could only put together a par-par finish.

Howell said: “Whenever I made a birdie, I seemed to make a bogey at the next hole. That was how it went for me today.

“Yesterday, it was the opposite. Yesterday, I went behind and kept coming back, but today whenever I went forward, I just threw in a shot that wasn’t quite good enough.

“It felt that every time I hit a slightly iffy shot, I got punished. Four or five times it seemed like one yard made a huge difference. That’s just the way it went today.”

Four-time Major champion and former world number one Rory McIlroy is the current clubhouse leader on 12-under after a seven-under second round of 65.