Colin Montgomerie has now missed the halfway cut in five of his last six major championships.

But if that comes as a shock after Montgomerie opened the 2003 Masters with a one-under-par 71 to be in joint eight place, it was not as big as Darren Clarke crashing out as well at Augusta National on Friday night.

The Ulsterman was in fourth spot following his first round 70, but while Montgomerie was collapsing to an 80 Clarke had a 79.

He still had a hope of qualifying as he signed his card, but in the very next group - the second last of the day - fellow Irishman Padraig Harrington and Vijay Singh both made the pars they needed to squeeze through and knock out all those on five over par.

"Pathetic is a polite way of putting how I played," stated Clarke. "Typical of me at the moment. One good round, one bad round.

"It's such a fine line and I got the wrong side of it. I just hit some poor shots and a lot of wrong clubs.

"I played poorly and got exactly what I deserved."

American amateurs Casey Wittenberg and Brandt Snedeker were among the 44 players, the absolute minimum, who qualified for the final two rounds.

In addition to Montgomerie and Clarke there were early exits for Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam, Brian Davis and British amateur champion Gary Wolstenholme, as well as defending champion Mike Weir and John Daly, who bogeyed the last to miss out.