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Graeme McDowell, one of the early starters on day two. David Davies/PA Wire/Press Association Images
AS IT HAPPENED

As it happened: British Open, day two

We’re up and running for day two at Royal St. George’s. Stay with us for all the action.

Follow us shot-by-shot for the entire day two of The Open Championship. We’ll be live blogging our way right through today and also over the weekend until the final shot is hit on Sunday evening.

Send us your thoughts and comments on today’s action. E-mail  neil@thescore.ie, tweet us@thescore_iefind us on Facebook, or leave a comment below

Welcome to our coverage of day two of The Open Championship at Royal St. Georges. As ever, we welcome and encourage you comments and interaction. The overnight leaders were Thomas Bjorn and Tom Lewis on five under par. Lucas Glover, the 2009 US Open champion, has now joined them on that number. We’ll be keeping  a watchful eye on these guys over the course of the day as well as on the chasing pack. We’ll also be keeping you updated on the potential cut mark that will fall at the end of the day’s play.

I can tell you now that condidtions at Royal St. George’s are almost perfect for golf. The sun is shining, and there’s just a breath of wind. The players will be relishing it and no doubt there’ll be plenty of birdies to get us going.

There have been some moves made already by some of the early starters. Lucas Glover, as I mentioned, is now tied at the top – he’s played the front nine in one under.

Tom Lewis has in fact dropped a shot and is back to four under for the tournament.

Joining him there on four under on the course is Webb Simpson who finished strongly late last night and has played two holes this morning.

Darren Clarke has made a significant early move and is one under for his round. That puts him at three under par for the tournament.

Following that there is a host of players on two under and chasing.

Another piece of news from this morning. Any of you who were hoping Retief Goosen was going to make a move today will be disappointed to hear that he has withdrawn.He was suffering from a back injury and felt he could not continue his quest for this year’s Open.

Graeme McDowell started off poorly yesterday but managed to come home with some birdies to finish on two under. Well, he’s had a bad start again today. He’s two over for the day and back to par for the tournament. He knows as well as anybody, though, that there are chances out there, particularly on the back nine.

Lucas Glover has just raced his par putt past the hole on number 10 and will drop a shot. That means Thomas Bjorn is now the sole man on five under and has the outright lead. He’ll tee off at 12.26 to be exact.

The wind seems to be freshening a little out there. It’s certainly not as benign as it was an hour ago.

Charl Schwartzel has just hit it from a bunker into another bunker. He’s had a good morning, making three birdies in his first six holes. That puts him on two under par for the tournament, but it looks like he might be dropping a shot here.

HOLE IN ONE: You’ll never guess who’s just had a hole-in-one. None other than Tom Watson! It bounced once and the hole just gobbled it up. The crowd cheer and Tom bows in recognition of their support. What is it about Tom Watson and the Open. There’s a special relationship there.

That puts Watson at par for the tournament by the way.

Tom Lewis has just dropped another shot. He may have lost a little concentration after the joy and celebration of Watson’s hole-in-one. He pulled his tee shot into the rough on the left, chipped up to about 10 feet, but the putt slid just to the left.

He’s now back to three under for the tournament and the fairytale is becoming a reality again.

Darren Clarke gives the crowd more to cheer about. He birdies number 11 to get back to four under for the tournament. The BBC are telling us that he saw two different sports psychologists before teeing off yesterday. Curious decision, but it’s obviously working for him.

The leading American in the field is now Chad Campbell. He was one of the very early starters this morning and is on the final hole of his round. Thus far, he’s on three under for the round which puts him four under overall. He was runner-up in the US Masters in 2009, so he certainly knows how to contend at Majors.

Martin Kaymer isn’t getting too much coverage on our screens, but he’s going about his business in a typically unassuming manner. He’s one under par for the day, three under for the tournament. That’s only two off the lead. Watch this space…

Bubba Watson is also making progress. He hits a lovely approach into the ninth green, about three feet away, and makes no mistake with the putt. He’s now at three under as well.

Darren Clarke has made another birdie. The man is on fire on the greens. It’s almost like he can’t miss. He is now tied for the lead on five under par with five holes left of his round.

My new pal David has been onto us again.

That was a disasterous front nine from McDowell. As I said yesterday, he is playing very erratically, but shooting a +5 over nine holes is unforgiveable. I’m sure he’ll play a decent back nine, but he can’t score like that in these conditions and expect to be in contention.

The BBC commentary team are slightly obsesesed with Tom Watson. Worryingly so. Probably because they are all old tour mates of his. He’s playing very well, but a little less of the man-love please.

Hopefully the conditions stay good for McIlroy, and he is in contention going into the weekend. Needs to take advantage of a day like today.

It’s far from the front nine McDowell would have wanted alright. Just on the weather, we’re told that the wind is picking up slowly but surely and that the clouds are accumulating to the north of the course. If this continues, the afternoon starters will have it a little tougher.

Chad Campbell has completed his round, but he dropped a shot at the last so he posts a 36-hole total of three under par. It’s a very good score, but unless the wind picks up dramatically and suddenly, I don’t see that being the lead at the day’s end.

Is there anyone out there by the name of Simon? Well, our vast team of expert statisticians have come up with this chart just for you. It really is unmissable.

Some of you are probably wondering about Padraig Harrington. The two-time Open champion is three over for the tournament. He may need to be one or two better if he want’s to be here for the weekend.

The project cut bar has just appeared in the middle of my leaderboard. At the moment, two over is making it in, three over is missing out. That’s bad news for a few players. Harrington, McDowell, Westwood, both Molinaris and Hunter Mahan would all miss out if things stay the same.

For those of you who missed it earlier, here’s the hole-in-one from the great Tom Watson

As we watch Miguel Angel Jimenez warm up and do some stretches on the range, Peter Alliss informs us that he was the hula-hoop champion of Santander for a number of years. A delightful mental image.

Darren Clarke has dropped a shot, but he’s still only one off the lead with three to play.

The BBC just did an interesting piece with one of the course marshalls. Apparently students from St Andrew’s University do it every year. This particular guy had had a few interesting nights out during the week. He broke his left hand during Tuesday’s festivities. He had red nail varnish on his right hand from Wednesday’s festivities. All in a week’s work for a British Open course marshall.

Ricky Barnes is moving forward early in his round. He’s two under for his first seven holes, four under for the tournament. Remember that yesterday morning he wasn’t even in the tournament and only got in because of the withdrawal of Nicolas Colsaerts.

Here’s the state of play at the moment. A lot of interesting stuff going on, so here’s your chance to mull over it.

Darren Clarke has just dropped another I’m afraid. He missed a short putt on 16 to go back to three under. He putted very well over the front nine so will be kicking himself that he let one slip there.

Tournament leader Thomas Bjorn has just hit his opening tee shot of the day. I wonder was he expecting to still be in the lead or would he have thought someone would have overtaken him? Makes for an intersting day for him regardless.

As the afternoon starters begin to hit the course, here is the BBC’s latest weather forecast for the day. As you can see, no sign of rain but the wind is going to be a factor.

Simon Dyson opens as he’d like to continue, with a birdie. The Englishman moves to three under while Thomas Bjorn makes a solid par to stay in the lead.

Darren Clarke finishes things off with a birdie for his second consecutive round of 68. That’s four under par total. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility for that to be the leading score by the end of the day, although I expect it may be one or two short.

I’ve just had a look at some bookmakers’ websites and, amazingly, most still have Rory McIlroy as favourite. I find that very surprising for a man who’s six shots off the lead. What are your thoughts?

Simon Dyson is continuing as he means to continue, with a birdie. He’s now on four under.

Bjorn, meanwhile, makes another routine par.

A quick update on Graeme McDowell. He’s now seven over for his round, five over for the tournament. He’ll almost certainly be having the weekend off.

Lucas Glover has just finished off his round. Another man on four under. He’ll be happy with that.

I’m afraid I’ve misinformed you. According to the Open Championship live scoreboard, Thomas Bjorn’s tap-in was actually for a bogey, not a par as I just wrote, so he is now back in the pack on four under as well.

Simon Dyson has now made three birdies in a row, just like Justin Leonard yesterday. That’s put him straight into the lead on five under. What a start!

Another bogey from Bjorn. That’s not what he’ll have planned at all. It was a poor bogey as well, taking three putts from about 25 feet away. It won’t do much for his confidence.

Afternoon, golf lovers of the world. Niall here – I’ll be taking you through the action over lunchtime.

I haven’t been paying a huge amount of attention to the action this morning but, erm, what happened to G-Mac? It all seemed to be going so well for him yesterday, but now he’s gone off the rails entirely.

At least Darren Clarke is sticking around. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect him to be sitting on the clubhouse lead after 36 holes.

Anyway, feel free to send in your thoughts and comments. Details on how to do so are at the top of the page.

If anybody is keeping a close eye on the cut line to see if their pre-tournament fancies are going to be sticking around for the weekend, I can inform you that the cut line is currently hovering around +2, leaving 75 players for the final two rounds.

Below that? The Molinari bros, Lee Westwood, Nick Watney, Casey, Harrington, G-Mac and a rake of others. I’ve a small bit of money on at least two of the players I’ve just mentioned, so a little bit of upward progress would be nice.

As I type, Westwood knocks down his second bird of the day at 15, moving him to +3 and keeping him in with a sniff of a chance.

Seconds before that, playing partner Steve Stricker chipped his own birdie effort to about three millimetres from the side of the green.

Good job guys, good job.

After opening his round with three successive birdies, leader Simon Dyson has bogeyed the fourth, dropping back to -4 where he now shares the lead with Clarke and Glover in the clubhouse and Jiminez, who has just kicked off his second round with a par four on the first.

Here’s an interesting nugget of information. Apparently Ryo Ishikawa’s first name is pronounced “Yo.” Makes sense I suppose …

Martin Kaymer seems to have hit a bit of form over these opening two days. He’s on -3 at the moment, but he’s just played a beautiful tee shot into the par three 16th, so he’ll have every chance at picking up another shot and moving into a share of the lead here.

Jiminez has dropped back to -3 after finding the rough stuff with his drive on the second. Overnight co-leader Thomas Bjorn moves up to join him, ending his run of three successive bogeys with a birdie at the fifth.

Martin Kaymer has let the birdie opportunity at 16 slide, which gives me an opportunity to bring you a leaderboard update. Is our winner already in this group? Or is somebody going to make a move from the pack?

G-Mac has just finished up with a par on 18, ending a disappointing day on +5 which will almost certainly see him miss the cut.

Bubba has also had a disappointing finish to a solid day, three-putting for a double bogey on the last green. He’ll start tomorrow morning on +1.

BBC Sport’s Rob Hodgetts has been in at Darren Clarke’s post-round presser. Judging by this tweet, it seems that Dr. Bob might be able to claim some credit for his performance thus far.

Rors is due to get his second round underway in about five minutes. The wind is getting up a bit and playing conditions are becoming slightly more difficult, but he’s only five shots off the lead so a 67 or 68 today would be perfect.

After his pretty aggressive approach zipped past the hole, Martin Kaymer has managed to save par on 17 with a solid putt back. He stays at -3, one shot off the lead.

And that, dear friends, is where my involvement ends for the moment – Neil will take you through the rest of the afternoon’s action. Laters.

Many thanks to Niall for keeping us in the fairway there.

Just as I sit back in, Lee Westwood closes his day on four over for the tournament. It’s a little early to say, but it looks like score could be a stroke outside the cut mark.

Steve Stricker follows him in on par for tournament.

Rory McIlroy is underway. He takes a vigorous practice swing and finds the light rough with the actual shot. He’s fine there though, it’s only in the first cut.

We’ve had a comment from Mike in Dar Es Salaam. I’m not going to lie, I had to put that one into google maps. It’s in Tanzania, unless the internet is lying to me again. Either way, it’s nice to hear from you Mike.

Greetings from Dar es Salaam. Thank you for the blog. Easy to keep up to date …. and work also. This course is notorious for lack of predictability and luck begins to take over. The pro’s find that hard to deal with but there must be a way to minimise the luck element and maximise the skill. Here’s hoping the remaining Irish can find the game to do so. If anyone can Harrington should be able to do so. It looks like Darren Clarke has it at least half sorted and as for Rory … he needs to really be patient and not let the bad bounces (if they come) knock him off-course.
Mike

A towering iron shot into the first hole to about four feet gives Rory a golden opportunity, but he rolls the putt just to the right and wide. He can’t afford to miss too many of those.

Martin Kaymer finishes off his day with a par, he’s three over for the tournament. I don’t know about you, but I think Kaymer is very much the danger man.

Tom Lewis’ ball has ended up on the path at the back of the 18th green. He is removing the stones from around the ball, but the ball better not move, otherwise he’ll incur a penalty shot. Ken Brown describes it as playing a game of Jenga.

But he’s okay. He plays a very nice pitch and run down to five feet away.

Tom Lewis misses his five-footer, but all is not lost. He’ll still be around for the weekend. I’m sure if you’d offered him that before the tournament, he’d have bitten your arm off. He’s on one under for the tournament.

His playing partner Tom Watson will be joining him, he’s on two over.

It’ll be a nervous wait for the third man in that group, Henrik Stenson. He’s on three over. At the moment, that’s just inside the cut.

As the camera pans out to a cluster of wind turbines in the sea just off the coast, BBC commentator Wayne Grady wonders if they actually do anything. Ken Brown swoops in there. “They’re the future, Wayne.” Good man Ken.

Rory McIlroy has missed another good chance on the second. He played a good wedge shot into about 15 feet and just shaved the hole on the right hand side with the putt. Another one slips by…

1997 USPGA Champion David Love III has just birdied the 18th to move to two under for the tournament. He’s been putting himself in contention over recent months.

There’s no doubt that those who started early yesterday and late today are having the worst of the conditions. The flagsticks are really being thrown around by the wind now. Some might call that unfair, but there’s no perfect method. You have to play the conditions you’re given. Certainly Louis Oosthuizen benefited from his tee times last year, but who’d begrudge him making the most of that kind of opportunity.

Another great stat from Infostrada Sports.

Staggering recall from Tom Watson in his post-round press conference. He tells us he’s had 15 hole-in-ones in his career. Today’s was his second in a Major. His first was in the first round of the 1980 US Open at Baltusrol. He hit an eight iron.

Intersting stuff from Steve Elling of CBS Sports on twitter

Poor start from Ian Poulter. He’s surrendered three shots over his opening five holes today and is now two over for the tournament.

Thomas Bjorn has taken over the lead once again. He has started his back nine with a birdie which gets him back to where he started the day, five under par.

The fifth hole is a par four, but with the wind blowing behind the players, they’re having a go at it from the tee. McIlroy and Fowler both reach but are in the semi-rough on the right hand side. There will be birdie chances upcoming.

Ernie Els, also playing in McIlroy’s group, puts it in a similar spot.

For the record, those drives have been calculated as follows: Els 388 yards,  McIlroy 386 yards,  Fowler 377 yards. I think I can see empty cans of spinach rolling around the tee box.

Three birdies chances for the boys from inside 10 feet, but only one of them converted. Ernie Els shows his young playing partners how it’s done. McIlroy and Fowler will be disappointed with their pars.

Another nice approach from McIlroy on the par-three sixth. He’s about eight feet away. Can he finally convert one?

There’s a battle on to be the leading amateur. Tom Lewis, as we know, is two under, but Peter Uhlein is only one behind him. There’s a nice sub-plot for the weekend.

Ernie Els has just had a shocker. A triple bogey six. His tee shot ended up in the front bunker at the sixth and he had to pitch out backwards. He then chipped onto the green and three-putted, the last of which was a two footer which went to the left and wide.

Rory McIlroy makes no mistake with his eight-footer though. That’s his first birdie of the day and he’s heading in the right direction.

Bjorn has bogeyed again and the lead is back at four under. This is a very tight leaderboard folks. It’s primed for somebody to take it by the scruff of the neck.

Simon Dyson and Miguel Angel Jimenez have just dropped shots, so that means there are now only three players on four under.

Meanwhile, Rory makes birdie on the seventh and is now in red figures, only three off the lead.

A bogey for Rors put him back at level par. There’s really nobody threatening the lead at this point. Thomas Bjorn is the only man on four under who’s still on the course.

Awful awful lie for Thomas Bjorn. His ball was about to roll into a fairway bunker on 15, but it stays just on the lip. He’ll have to stand in the bunker with the ball on the ground above his feet. Not pleasnant.

McIlroy is having a bit of bunker trouble of his own on the ninth and will have to get up and down to avoid dropping another shot.

Meanwhile, Jimenez rolls in a nice birdie to move back into a tie for the lead.

Bjorn has done okay, but not great. He gets it moving forward, but the ball has ended up in the rough on the left and a good bit short of the green.

McIlroy makes the par putt to avoid his second bogey in a row and is even par for the championship. Four off the lead.

Thomas Bjorn makes a brilliant par-saving putt from about 25 feet. It’s been an up-and-down day for the Dane, but he’s still right in it.

Simon Dyson has to settle for a bogey on the 15th and has dropped back to two under after his fast start.

The BBC commentary team make a very good point as the players enter the latter stages of their second round. If the conditions are to be as bad as is being forecast at the moment, this could be the last opportunity for players to make some birdies. So do you start taking some more risks now, with the hope of moveing up the leaderboard and then defend your position over the weekend? Or are the potential penalties for taking those risks too high at this early stage?

Jimenez has foudn trouble on the left of the 14th, but it’s a par five and he’ll be able to make the green with his third.

McIlroy also found trouble on number 10 and it has cost him a stroke. He’s back to one over for the tournament.

Thomas Bjorn and Simon Dyson both have two holes to play and have both found the rough off the 17th tee. The day promised much for Dyson, but he’s struggled over the back nine. Bjorn has also had a pretty tough day, but if he grinds it out two pars over the last two holes he won’t be too disappointed with only being one behind.

A quick cut update. It’s currently at +4, so those on three over are getting in for the weekend. That means Ernie Els, Ian Poulter, Matteo Manassero, G-Mac, Harrington and Westwood are all missing out.

Luke Donald is currently on three over with nine left to play today. He’ll be praying he doesn’t make a bogey.

Simon Dyson has made double bogey from nowhere. Two slight misjudgements from the tee and with the second shot, then three puts, and he’s gone from being five under at one point back to level par.

Bjorn is hanging on. His 15-footer for par sneaks in the side of the cup.

Thomas Bjorn finishes his round with a par, three under for the tournament. Even though that’s a round of two over, he can’t be too disappointed with being only one shot off the lead.

Mark James on commentary duty says “it seemed inconceivable at the start of the day that four under would be leading.” I’d have to agree with that. Conditions were not difficult for the majority of the day and the chasing pack was fairly stacked. The average score today is around half a shot higher than yesterday, we’re told, which is a bit of a surprise.

The lowest round of the day has been three under. That came from Charl Schwartzel (-2), Tom Lehman (-2) and Rafael Jacquelin (+1).

Here’s another interesting one. Normally in Major championships, a 10-shot rule is enforced when the cut is being decided. In other words, regardless of how many players there are, everyone within ten shots of the lead makes the cut. That has been done away with this weekend, probably to the chagrin of those sitting on four and five over. Should there be a 10-shot rule? What are your thoughts?

This is going to be a “What might have been…” day for Rory McIlory. He’s had an awful lot of birdie chances, but has made very few putts. Another 10 footer slips by on the 12th hole and he remains at one over.

Dustin Johnson has crept up the leaderboard today. He had a hole-in-one yesterday and an eagle today along with two birdies. He sits two shots off the lead with five holes left to play today. With the distance he hits the ball, the wind may not be that big an issue for him over the weekend.

Rory McIlroy has yet another birdie chance from around 10 feet on the 13th. He really needs to make one, if not more, of these very soon.

Yuta Ikeda, meanwhile, has recovered from an early triple-bogey to get himself to three under after a birdie on the 14th.

He gives it the fist pump. Rory McIlroy does indeed hole his ten-footer and gets back to par.

Rickie Fowler has a good chance of his own but leaves it on the right and stays at one over.

Jimenez is having a bit of difficulty on 17. He’s gone from the rough into a bunker/rough area and will need to call upon his finest short game skills to get up and down for a par. Himself and Yuta Ikeda are the highest placed players of all those left on the course at three under par.

Jimenez has played a wonderful bunker shot on 17 to about eight feet and saves par with a brilliant putt right in the middle of the hole.

McIlroy is just short of the par-five 14th in two and will be looking at birdie again.

McIlroy converts his birdie from five feet. He needed that, given the amount of chances he’s had. He’s now back into red figures at one under for the tournament, three off the lead.

A bit of trouble for Rors, he drives into the fairway bunker on 15. It’ll depend on the lie really.

The wind is dying off a little as we enter the evening

It looks as though Ian Poulter is another high-profile player who’s going to miss the cut. He’s on six over with just two holes to play, so he’ll need something special.

Jimenez taps in for a par at the last and a round of 71. He’s three under.

Rory takes a bit of a lash at it and takes a lot of sand so is well short of the green in two. He follows it up with a nice wedge shot into about six feet so he’ll have that to stay on track.

Sergio Garcia has had twelve pars in a row today. He birdied the 13th to break that sequence and has a short putt for another on 14 that will get him to two under.

Luke Donald, playing with Garcia, is hanging in there. He pars the 14th to stay at two over and Garcia follows him in with his short birdie putt.

Rory misses his par putt. It slides just past the left of the hole. Just beforehand, Fowler holes a long putt for birdie. Both men are now on level par.

Matt Dickinson of The Times has summed things up pretty nicely on twitter.

Anders Hansen has been going about his business pretty quitely today, but with a birdie on the par-five 14th, he has just moved to three under. The Dane has had a good season so far. He hasn’t had a win, but he’s had three runner-up finishes and a third place, which is good golf in anyone’s book.

Rors and Rickie have safely navigated the par-three 16th and move on to the penultimate hole.

After finding a greenside bunker on 15, Garcia drops a shot and moves back to one under.

There are now only a handful of players left on the course who’ll have something to say about the course of events over the weekend. As for the cut, those on four over are tied in 75th position. Only the top 70 and ties make the weekend, so those on four over will be praying there are some bogeys made over the closing holes.

Dustin Johnson and Yuta Ikeda finish off their rounds. Johnson will fancy his chances over the weekend as he’s only two behind. He has good Major experience from last year’s US Open and USPGA and that will stand him in good stead.

Rory and Rickie have got through the 17th unscathed and head to the final tee both on level par.

Meanwhile, Garcia fist-pumps his way off the 16th green having made a 15-footer for par.

Here’s Ian Poulter’s assessment of his day’s work. I’m glad he said it and not me!

Sergio Garcia has just made me laugh out loud. He hacked one out of the rough on 17 and when he realised it wasn’t going the way he wanted it, he started shouting at it. He shouted “no” a lot of times. Whatever works I suppose.

Rory McIlroy has a horror of a lie in the greenside bunker at 18. A real fried egg. He has a gouge at it and ends up playing a brilliant shot about 15 feet past the hole. It was probably the best he could realistically have done from there.

Garcia drops another one on the 17th after his shouting and is back to level par.

That’s out of the top drawer from McIlroy, a real quality up-and-down out of the bunker. He’s level par for the tournament, a nice position to be in going into the final 36.

The highest placed player still left out on the course in Anders Hansen, but he’s just missed a four-footer for par to move back to two under.

Sergio Garcia is just approaching the 18th green where his ball is about 25 foot away from the flag.

It’s beginning to get a little dark in the sky over Royal St. George’s, which means the day is almost at an end.

Those on four over are still just missing out on the weekend. There are six players left out on the course on either two or three over and it will take four of those dropping down to four over for the cut mark to change.

Sergio Garcia finishes up with a par. That’s two consecutive rounds of level par for him and he’s safely into the weekend.

Spare a thought for the English amateur Craig Hinton. He started his day, double bogey, double bogey, double bogey, quadruple bogey. He’s just had his second eight of the round, his third of the tournament, as is 28 over for the two days. Golf can be a very frustrating game. Let’s hope he got at least some enjoyment from playing in a Major.

Anders Hansen plays a delighful chip onto the 18th and has a tap-in for his par to stay at two under. That means the final leaderboard looks like this.

There’s still a glimmer of hope for those on four over. They now only need two players to drop back to four over and there’s five on three over, so we could have a big enough field for the weekend.

We’ll know for sure in the morning when we start all over again for day three. Thanks for staying with us through thick and thin today.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. We’ll begin to get a much better idea of who’s going to win this thing and it looks like the weather might wreak a bit of havoc as well and throw a spanner in the works.

We’ll be bringing all the action to you here and we hope you join us again and get in touch.

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