4:14pm Friday 5th February 2010
DAVID Howell finished well below the cut line as his long weekend in Middle East ended prematurely today.
The Swindon golf star, pictured, went into his second round at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic needing something special to qualify for Saturday and Sunday.
And though the ex-Ryder Cup man showed an improvement on his first round four-over-par, it was not nearly enough to join the elite of the field in two further days of action.
In a threeball with Ireland’s Paul Lawrie and India’s Arjun Atwal, Howell made a positive start to the day with with a birdie on the 549-yard 10th hole.
Three pars followed before he dropped a shot on the 14th, taking him back to par for the round.
Howell finished the first nine in impressive fashion with back to back birdies at the 17th and 18th as he moved to two-over-par for the tournament.
But the back nine proved expensive as Howell added three dropped shots onto his overall score.
In spite of birdies at the third and seventh, bogeys were dotted all over his card and it was the par fours that were creating the problem.
Four of the five holes that Howell bogeyed, the second, sixth, eighth and ninth, were par fours, as he slumped to five-over-par to miss the cut by a distance.
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