Westwood's Ryder Cup blues

Westwood has gone 22 months without a victory

Lee Westwood has confessed he will be happy when this month's Ryder Cup is over after missing another cut ahead of the three-day clash with the United States.

The former European number one was downbeat after carding a second-round 74 to miss the cut at the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

World number four as recently as May last year, Westwood has now gone 22 months without a victory and 11 months since a top-10 finish.

  Leaderboard

11 under Robert Karlsson (after 36 holes)

7 under Andrew Coltart
Klas Eriksson (Swe)

6 under Paul Lawrie
Carlos Rodiles (Spa)
Alex Cejka (Ger)
Emanuele Canonica (Ita)

5 under Paul Casey
Phillip Price
Carl Pettersson (Swe)
Trevor Immelman (South Africa)
Matthew Cort

His early exit at Crans-sur-Sierre was his eighth in his last 14 tournaments, and he admits he is not relishing the prospect of taking his poor form into the Ryder Cup.

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"It's difficult to be positive after scoring 74, isn't it?" he said. "I hit it rubbish, but I've got used to that over the last two years.

"I'll be glad when the Ryder Cup is over. People put too much emphasis on it.

"It's one week, a game of golf and it's supposed to be fun. Everybody looks forward to it, but you want to be playing well going into it.

"It's not where you want to go with a quarter of your game."

I'm just hoping to get my game right at some point

Lee Westwood

Having seemingly turned the corner with a 15th place in the NEC world championship in Seattle a fortnight ago, Westwood is now contemplating pulling out of next week's German Masters after his latest disappointment.

That would mean he has no chance of qualifying for the following week's American Express world championship in Ireland, and would therefore not hit another competitive shot before the match against the Americans.

"I'm just hoping to get my game right at some point," Westwood added. "My goals are not just the Ryder Cup. I can't just click my fingers."

There was some encouragment for European captain Sam Torrance however with the form of Welshman Phillip Price, who added a 68 to his opening 69.

"If I can perform well here then I can carry a little confidence forward," Price said. "Playing in the Ryder Cup is something I've always wanted to to do and I want to perform well."

Karlssson still leads by four after the second round

He finds himself six shots behind runaway leader Robert Karlsson, who carded a 66 to go with his opening 65 to take a four-shot lead on 11 under par.

The Swede made a terrific start after an 80-minute delay for fog with three birdies and reached the turn in 33.

Nick Faldo, second overnight, stuttered with three front nine bogeys and then a double-bogey seven on the 14th in a 72 to finish seven shots adrift of Karlsson.

Scotsman Andrew Coltart leads the chasing pack on seven under alongside another Swede, Klas Eriksson, while former Open champion Paul Lawrie is one of four players a shot further back.

Seve Ballesteros did not even make it to the tee for the second round, withdrawing because of a bad back.

The 45-year-old Spaniard, who was on four over, only returned last week from a two-month lay-off which followed his disqualification from the Irish Open.