The Open 2025: big names chase leaders in second round at Royal Portrush – live | The Open
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David Williams emails: “Enjoying your weather forecasting, Matt. Reminiscent of when Michael Fish poo-pooed notions of a storm in 1987 and hours later it ripped up trees all around Wentworth and delayed the World Match Play.”
The media centre roof index has hit quiet which has had a disquieting tinnitus-like effect. Lee Westwood’s approach to 18 rattled through the green and got tangled in gnarly grass around a bunker. He can only bunt it to 27-feet but holes the putt for par. -3 for the week is a fine return to the championship for the 52-year-old.
What of the players in this appalling weather? Matt Fitzpatrick and his caddie Dan Parrott were just shown (in evocative slo-mo) staring out, in baleful fashion, from beneath a shared brolly. Scottie Scheffler is hacking out from thick wet rough in his soggy hoodie. Lee Westwood has one hole to play and is -3 for the week. He’s seen it all before. It might have passed – using the media centre roof index (Met Office approved) it’s gone from a racket to a pitter patter.
There are some truly astounding scenes out there right now. Folk sat in plastic ponchos. Folk squeezed beneath brollies. Folk looking sad under awnings. Folk getting drenched and laughing about it. You’d call it a sea of umbrellas but it’s very close to literally being a sea of sea.
Meanwhile, my warnings about not being a weatherman are proving more astute than my suggestion that the course will be vulnerable in the next two hours. It has just started hosing down. REALLY hosing it down. REALLY REALLY hosing it down.
Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan is -5 for the day through 13 and into the top 10 on -4. He thrashed a 62 to win the Soudal Open in late May and seven days later a 60 to grab second in the Austrian Alpine Open.
He has an interesting backstory. His family are supermarket tycoons in Scandinavia. Golf journalists from the region say that the Reitans would think nothing of flying a private jet down to the south of Spain for 18 holes.
A seven foot birdie putt drops for Matt Fitzpatrick at 13. He’s opened the back nine with four consecutive birdies and is now two clear of the field.
I just headed outside for a little weather recce. It looks like we’ve got a classic linksland late afternoon/early evening situation. It’s chilly and dark, but the wind has dropped and the course is there for the taking. The next couple of hours could have a significant impact on the destiny of the Claret Jug.
We’re a Matt Fitzpatrick two-putt from having a new solo leader. The Englishman has opened the back nine birdie-birdie and has just lashed his second shot at the par-5 12th to the front edge of the green … He completes the birdie. Three in a row after the turn and he leads the Open on his own.
-9: Fitzpatrick (12)
-8: Harman (F), Li (18)
-7: Scheffler (6)
-5: R Højgaard (F), Hatton (F), MacIntyre (F), English (F)
Another squall. A local was explaining to me the other day that this region is climatically unique with Atlantic weather clashing with Irish Sea weather, and creating something unpredictable. I am no weatherman so apologies if I have made a mess of the explanation. I can, however, confidently state that the squall is currently trying to make a mess of many cards.
The dynamic for the Højgaard twins, Rasmus and Nicolai, is fascinating and the latter has just been talking about it as the pair head into the weekend in the top 10 (currently).
“We couldn’t handle each other’s success when we were younger,” he said. “But we can do that now and support each other, and get motivated by each other. When you get older, you get slightly more mature.”
Birdie for Matt Fitzpatrick at 10. He joins Scottie Scheffler on -7 and in a share for third. “The golf course is fantastic,” he said back in 2019. “Everyone loves it and no-one has said a bad word about it. It’s better than a few of the other Open rota courses.” He’s won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship but once said of seaside golf: “Unsure about it. I like it when it’s fair. I don’t like it when it’s unfair.”
A birdie for Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana at the 3rd gets him to -4 for the championship. You’d think that an ordained Buddhist monk flying high in a major championship would be the only sweetspot in a Buddhism/golf Venn diagram this week. But a few days ago, news broke that Thai police are investigating a woman codenamed ‘Ms Golf’. She is accused of having sex with Buddhist monks and then blackmailing them. The sweetspot is unexpectedly a bit crowded.
On the subject of world class chunterers, I was in London last week for the tennis. Not Wimbledon but Adam Riches’s one man play about Jimmy Connors at the Park Theatre (for the second time – I liked it that much). All the shots are there: the meat-slicing backhand, the shovelling-coal forehand, the oarsman-in-a-storm-on-the-high-seas double-handed backhand. Because it’s about a sportsman whose destiny was determined by one parent in particular and who, in early middle age, raged against the dying of the light, it also made me think of Tiger Woods. “Game, set and match to Mr Riches, six love, six love, six love.” The run ends next week.
Jordan Spieth spied by the TV cameras on the range. I followed him for a few holes earlier. I’m always intrigued that I don’t enjoy watching Tyrrell Hatton’s antics, but I really enjoy Jordan Spieth’s various twitches and fretful conversations with his ball. The 2017 champion jiggled his shoulders, nattered away at his shots, and he now heads into the weekend on level-par for the championship which means he is 12-for-12 at making the cut in the Open (and his last nine starts before this one have all reaped top 30s). It’s some record.
Scottie Scheffler is back in the conversation. Did he ever leave it?! As Ewan Murray wrote in his report last night, the World No. 1 hides in plain sight. A birdie at 6 is his third of the round and he’s -6 for the championship. Haotong Li has finally made a bogey (at 14) so he drops into a tie for the lead.
-8: Harman (F), Li (14)
-7: Fitzpatrick (8)
-6: Scheffler (6)
-5: R Højgaard (F), Hatton (F), MacIntyre (F), English (F)
Bryson DeChambeau was asked how he felt after opening the championship with a 78. “I wanted to go home,” he admitted. “But I woke up this morning and I said I can’t give up. My dad always told me never to give up and that’s what I did today. I was proud of the way I fought back, really persevered through some emotionally difficult moments, and to hold myself together and not get pissed and slam clubs and throw things and all that like I wanted to. I was very proud of myself. I want to be a good role model for kids, and I struggled with that in the early part of my career. I want it to be different now. That’s the reason why I do it.” He carded a 65 today and will play the weekend.
I had a nice chat with Richard Teder’s fans this week. They taught me how to wish someone good luck in Estonian. You say “pöialt hoidma” which means “hold your thumb”. You also wave your fists in the air with your thumb tucked inside your fingers. It’s like our “fingers crossed”.
Gary Naylor isn’t impressed with the Low Amateur news. He emails: “Jeez, that’s mean-spirited of the R&A to demand that the low amateur makes the cut. Haven’t they done enough given that it’s no easy feat to get there at all? Anyone would think that the blazers lacked a bit of empathy, but that can’t be trru…” If Richard Teder can go sub-70 today the medal is his, Gary.
Tommy Fleetwood on his experience this week (which will extend into Saturday and Sunday after his Friday 68:
“I love The Open so much. I grew up in an Open town, and I think the atmosphere when you get home players like Rory McIlroy is really, really cool.”
The shot detail were incorrect for Cameron Adam but he’s not going to make a birdie. He didn’t find a greenside bunker. However, it’s all a bit irrelevant. He might well end this week the top amateur but he won’t win the Silver Medal.
We have a solo leader. China’s Haotong Li makes a fifth birdie of the day and, just as importantly, he is yet to drop a shot through 30 holes. He’s -9 and leads the 153rd Open!
Double bad news for Scottish amateur Cameron Adam: he’s in a greenside bunker in two at 18 and the cut has moved – and he’s not inside it any longer.
Robert MacIntyre on his round of 66 that leaves him -5 and three shots back of the lead:
“I’m comfortable with the golf course. I’m comfortable with what me and my caddie Mike are doing, and I just have to go out there and try and execute.”
“I feel like the last three majors I’ve put myself in good positions after 36 holes. However long my career is going to be, this is what I want to do. Until I give it up, I’m going to give it my best shot.
“I’m not scared. I’m not going to back away. It’s completely different to Oakmont. At Oakmont, (it was so difficult) I couldn’t roll the dice. It was never let’s press, let’s press. It was always, right, let’s go out here with pars.
“If I’ve got a chance here, I’m going to roll the dice.”
A potentially big little moment coming up. The low amateur in every Open wins the Silver Medal. It’s a prestigious honour, but there is a caveat: the winner must make the cut. Scotland’s Cameron Adam has just made a bogey at 17 and is now +2 for the week and right on the cut mark (and T70). It’s a perilous position, but he is the current low amateur, albeit Richard Teder, the Estonian 20-year-old, is a shot behind with 17 holes to play.
Birdie at the 1st for Darren Fichardt. “So what?” you might ask. Well, I’m intrigued by the South African’s Open record. He’s no mug (a five-time DP World Tour winner, indeed), but his log book in this major reads: MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-MC-80 and he’s carded a round of 80+ in six of his seven starts. He opened with a 77 yesterday and I’m cheering him on. Come on Darren!
Rory McIlroy on his second round and position heading into the weekend (currently -3 and T12):
“It was a good day. I feel like I maybe could be a couple closer to the lead, but overall in a decent position heading into the weekend.”
“I didn’t have this opportunity six years ago, so to play an extra two days in this atmosphere in front of these crowds, I’m very excited for that. I feel like my game’s definitely good enough to make a run.”
“It was 20 years ago that I played the North of Ireland here, and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d be coming back as a grand slam champion with the support of a nation behind me trying to win an Open. I count myself very grateful and very lucky that I’m in this position.”
Hello again, everyone. I was out at 18 when Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau completed their rounds beneath epically brooding skies. I made it back to the media centre seconds before it was battered by rain that felt a bit like machine gun fire. Good timing and I’m dry for the next five or six hours!
Scottie Scheffler sends his tee shot at the par-three 3rd over the flag, and spins it back to 20 feet. He very nearly makes the birdie putt, but the ball refuses to glide from left to right, as everyone thought it would. He stays at -4. His partner Shane Lowry knocks his tee shot a good bit closer, though, and his putt, coming in from a similar line, does move left to right. In it goes for birdie, and up go the cheers from the gallery as the 2019 winner moves to -2.
And there are more cheers from the gallery as Matt Cooper returns to take over this blog. He’ll bring you home; enjoy, enjoy, and see you tomorrow for Moving Day.
One of the shots of the week by Haotong Li at 10! He sends his tee shot into thick rough down the right of the fairway. Whipping hard out of the rain-soaked cabbage, and over a hillock, he lands his ball on top of the ridge running across the green, rolling it up to three feet. He makes no mistake with the putt, and joins Brian Harman in the lead at -8. Still yet to make a mistake this week. Is he about to go two better than 2017, when he finished third at Birkdale behind Jordan Spieth and Matt Kuchar? The way he’s playing so far, he might take some stopping.
-8: Harman (F), Li (10)
-6: Fitzpatrick (4)
-5: R Højgaard (F), Hatton (F), MacIntyre (F), English (F)
-4: Finau (F), N Højgaard (14), Jordan (7), Scheffler (2)
-3: Bradley (F), McIlroy (F), Kaewkanjana
Scottie Scheffler’s first putt on 2, while from long range, is not all that. A 60-footer that swings seven-and-a-half feet left of the target. But he makes no mistake with the par putt that he leaves himself, and stays at -4.
Harris English doesn’t give his right-to-left birdie slider on 18 quite enough. But that’s a round of 70 to file alongside yesterday evening’s 67, and he’s in fine shape at -5. Par for his playing partner Tony Finau, meanwhile, and today’s 68 sends him into the weekend at -4.