GRAEME STORM’S frustration boiled over on the 18th at Loch Lomond yesterday when a wayward putt for a birdie left him six-shots behind halfway leader Darren Clarke.

Storm is four-under after the opening 36 holes of the Barclays Scottish Open, although he blamed the bad weather for yesterday’s one over par round.

Now the Rockliffe Park professional must claw back Clarke’s advantage over the weekend if he is to stand any chance of playing in next week’s Open Championship.

There is one space available for the St Andrew’s showpiece at Loch Lomond. The winner will take that spot if he has not already qualified with the place then going to the highest placed finisher.

Storm must finish ahead of Clarke to claim that place needing to turn around a six shot advatage the Northern Irish player currently holds.

“Darren Clarke has built up a decent lead,” said Storm. “If you were to say on Thursday morning I would be six behind the leader I would have taken that.

“Darren deserves credit because he has played two blinding rounds. With the Open in mind next week it looks like he will be the one that I have to end above.

“Overall there weren’t many mistakes from me other than on the 14th, but the disappointing aspect was that I had three birdie chances on the last four holes and didn’t take any of them.”

Storm reached the turn in poor conditions one under for his round, but bogeys at the tenth and 14th left him frustrated and facing a tough finish.

He then had birdie chances at the 16th and 17th which he failed to convert, before firiong his second shot at the last to within six feet of the pin.

However, he saw his putt miss to the right.

“It was really difficult out there,” he said. “The wind was very strong and then the rain started to come down heavily and made it very difficult in the circumstances. I’m really disappointed to miss the putt at the last.

“I think I had the worst of the weather because it was windy and raining up until the seventh hole and then it was just windy. A level par round would have finished it off nicely and I got angry because I am always hard on myself.”

Storm’s hopes of appearing at The Open look slim given Clarke’s form. Clarke is three shots clear of Italian Edoardo Molinari after following Thursday’s 65 with a 67 yesterday.

Harrogate’s John Parry, on his first season on the main European Tour, is also nicely placed. He sits two shots behind Storm on two-under after yesterday’s level par, 72.

Ashington’s Kenneth Ferrie has missed the cut.

Clarke, 40, considered it an even more satisfying round yesterday. His one bogey – the only one he has had in 36 holes so far – came when he threeputted from just 20 feet at the short 11th.

When asked for the last time he had played through such bad weather Clarke said: ‘‘It wasn’t torrential heavy rain, it was just torrential rain.

‘‘If you’re from Ireland there’s a difference, a massive difference.

‘‘We knew it was going to be very hard, but obviously at home in Portrush I’ve had much worse weather than this.”