Pádraig Harrington was feeling the "pain" after storming into contention only to lose his putting touch and miss the cut in The Open.

After storming into a share of fourth thanks to birdies at the first two holes, Harrington was licking his wounds after crashing to a six-over 78 to miss the weekend.

But he was also full of admiration for the "pig-headed" individuality of qualifier David Carey, who fired a brilliant 67 to move into contention on five-under-par.

A big-hitting Bryson DeChambeau fan with a Ben Hogan cap, the Dubliner (26) has come from the Alps Tour to the world's biggest tournament and looked totally at home.

"I am a complete show-off," Carey said of his love of all the attention in front of 40,000 fans at the Home of Golf. "So the more people that are there, the better. It's great. I've always loved having people around, even when I'm in Portugal or different places practising, I love getting a crowd around to watch me hit drivers.

"Am I a bit different? Yeah, I've never worried too much about what others think. That would be true."

Carey —who shot 57 on the Alps Tour a few years ago, a 60 with friends and two 61s in tour events—has a ball speed of close to 190mph, putting him in the same category as the biggest hitters in the world.

He has two drivers in the bag this week — a nine-degree monster capable of a 350-yard carry and a ten-degree version he chips 320 yards— and uses DeChambeau's arm-lock putting style.

"The traits he has are what make a successful professional golfer," Harrington said of his fellow golfing eccentric, who he tipped to be first-round leader. "I think he's got the traits that he might just think that this is his place, and that's what you've got to do.

"Look, the guy shot a couple of times in the 50s. That takes a lot to do that. He has the traits that are required for golf. He believes in himself. He backs himself. He's pig-headed. He does his thing, which is very, very good for being -- you know. He backs himself, yeah."

Carey opened with a level par 72 on Thursday, finishing in darkness.

But he got it going in warm, breezy conditions yesterday as he birdied the second and three-putted the sixth to remain level par before reeling off five birdies in his next seven holes, then closed with five solid pars.

"Yeah, today was better than yesterday," he said casually of his impressive performance in the world's oldest Major. "It wasn't as dark and as cold. I try not to worry about whether it's The Open or what event I play. I am just judging it off what I can do.

"Step one is to make the cut. You can't win the tournament if you don't make the cut, so I'm going to try and push on and do better again tomorrow."

"I know it's a different situation and there's a lot more people and that it's a different set-up this week. But honestly, this isn't one of the harder cuts to make this year.

"Playing on the Alps Tour, you have to be three, four, five-under every single week. You've just got to get it into your head that you've got a shoot under par.

"I know it's a different challenge, but at the same time, it's still just a golf tournament, and it's in your head you just have to shoot under par.

"I played pretty nicely today. I didn't birdie either of the par fives again, which was pretty disappointing. I had one three-putt bogey, which was very frustrating, but there were a few better shots definitely.

"Around the turn, I drove a lot better today, and I hit more fairways to definitely gave me more chances. I could've I should've got a couple more shots, but it's definitely a move in the right way."

While the winner will take home $2.5 million, Carey is guaranteed $32,200 for making the cut.

But he knows he could transform his career with a big finish, eight years after turning pro as a teenager.

"I don't play this game for money," he said. "That's a nice thing to come along when you do well, but I'm here to win golf tournaments. I need to try and get myself in position to win and, if not then finish as high as I can.

"Anybody who knows me or has played a lot of golf with me knows this is not unexpected. We have just been waiting for the right moment.

"I've got through the cut now and it's just about making the most of it and trying and finish as high as I can.

"I can't control what anybody else ahead of me does, all I can do is control my scores and if I can put together another five under or a couple of sevens or eights, we'll see where we can get to."

As for talk that he's copied DeChambeau, who played a practice round with him earlier this week, he said: "The joke I have with my Dad is he's more copied me than I've copied him. I remember being at the European Boys in Oslo and they were saying why are you hitting it so hard, and things like that. That was years before he started. Maybe the putting I take a little bit from him."

As for Harrington, he birdied the first from three feet at the second from 10 feet to tie for fourth on five-under.

But he bogeyed the fourth and three-putted the fifth to hand those shots back, then four-putted the sixth for a double bogey and three-putted the eighth to turn in 39 before poor driving led to three more bogeys coming home.

"Just a bad day," Harrington said. "Pretty typical day on the greens, to be honest. But I have been putting better.

"I do get some good days, but it just puts you under a lot of pressure when you're putting badly.

"It was one of those days. A couple of bad drives early on didn't help for the rest of the day. I hit a couple of bad putts. I couldn't figure it out, but it didn't matter what I did after that. If I hit a perfect putt, it would miss."

Asked if it hurt more to miss the cut in the Open at St Andrews, Harrington said: "It hurts missing the cut. It hurts missing the cut at St Andrews. It hurts missing when you were 5-under par. Do you want any more hurt?"