Jordan Speith opened up a two-shot lead over the field at the halfway point of the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale yesterday, a day when rain, strong winds and even snow caused havoc with the scoring.
The American played beautifully for a 1-under-par 69 to be 6-under-par after two rounds, two better than another of the three overnight leaders, Matt Kuchar, who shot 71.
The remaining American who led overnight, US Open champion Brooks Koepka, was tied for third with Englishman Ian Poulter, who battled round in 70 to be right in the hunt.
Spieth had an eagle and two birdies on the way home and also chipped in for a vital par along the way as he moved clear of the pack.
The American’s halfway score equals the best score at this point of anyone at Birkdale in previous Opens.
Poulter almost lost his US PGA Tour card earlier this year, but was second at the Players Championship and is right in the hunt.
“That large, confidence tank that was empty a few months ago is starting to fill up,” said Poulter, who had to qualify. “I’m on a bonus week, and I’m loving it.
“It’s difficult to talk about winning right now. I don’t want to use up mental energy thinking about holding the Claret Jug, as there’s a lot of golf to be played. You can guess how good it would feel after the year I’ve had.”
While many struggled, Rory McIlroy moved ominously up the leader board with a fine 2-under-par 68, building on the momentum created by his comeback from plus-5 through six holes on day one.
“I hit some quality shots on the front nine,” the 2014 champion said. “I saw a lot of quality out there, which was really good. I holed what I needed to and hung in there.”
The south-easterly wind, which produced gusts of more than 32 kilometres per hour, was in stark contrast to the calm of much of the opening round and caused mayhem on the course.
“The south-east wind today is the toughest on this course,” McIlroy said. “Really pleased with the birdie on 17 and just thought, if I can stay under par, then I’m right in there for the weekend.”
Kuchar said conditions were completely different on day two than they had been on Thursday.
“Conditions were really hard today, but it’s what we expect coming over here - to have really trying and difficult conditions,” Kuchar said.
“The wind was almost the complete opposite to yesterday, so it was like playing a totally different place.”
Kuchar’s countryman, the former Masters champion Zach Johnson, produced the round of the day with a 66 to move up to 1-over-par, one better than current Masters champion Sergio Garcia.
Garcia moved himself back into contention with a 1-under-par 69, but suffered a scare when he hurt his shoulder early in the round.
“It feels better than it felt when I did it, I took a good amount of pills to make it feel better and had a little bit of treatment,” Garcia said.
“I want to see how it feels tonight. I’m not happy about it because I almost screwed up my Open. Fortunately I didn’t.”
With just a few stragglers to finish, the halfway cut looked set to fall at 5-over-par.