After two laps, Brian Harman took a clear lead. Not enough to start etching his name on the Claret Jug, but enough to explore the resume of the American southpaw, who from a 65 on Friday punctuated by an eagle at 18 took five strokes ahead of Tommy Fleetwood.
The presence of the 36-year-old left-hander at the top of the yellow leaderboards of The Open is ultimately not so surprising, he who finished sixth at St Andrews last year, 2nd at the US Open 2017 and who is ranked 26th in the world. On a windier day than the day before, with still these disasters that often strike at the end (Tyrrell Hatton, quadruple at 18, or triple at 17 for Matt Fitzpatrick), the former winner of the US Amateur put his science of putting (+8.40 in stroke gained: putting) and his naturally low trajectories into play.
Fleetwood, local and hunting
Nick Faldo, on the mid-term leader: “Harman is going to live a crucial moment for him and he will have to live with this clear lead. This position puts a lot of expectations on your shoulders. “In the lead after three rounds of the 2017 US Open, he then left Brooks Koepka to victory: “I try not to think about all that too much, he evacuates. It’s just golf. At the time, I probably thought too much. I hadn’t focused on sleep and food. That will be my goal this weekend. »
Behind the native of Savannah, Georgia, we find the local hero Tommy Fleetwood, author of a 71 full of aggressiveness, like this 17-meter putt successful at 10. Cut for the links, he is in the race to become the first English winner of The Open since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Alone in third place (67, -4), Sepp Straka continues his beautiful summer. With six birdies on the last seven holes (31 on the return), the Austrian remains on a recent victory at the John Deere Classic (PGA Tour) and is a solid contender for the next Ryder Cup (current 8th on the world list).
Still in the top 10, we note the most surprising presence of Shubankar Sharma (4th, 71, -3) alongside the angelic swing of Min Woo Lee (68) and the always dangerous Jason Day (67). As for Rory McIlroy, he is once again launched at full speed towards a major top 10 (11th, 70, -1).
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No less than 24 players are under par after two rounds. The average score is 72.64, for a par 71
Halfway through, and despite the presence of Jordan Spieth in 7th place (71, -2), this leaderboard is undoubtedly one of the most unexpected of the last ten years, all Majors combined.
Three French in the cut
In front of a crowd of enthusiasts (240,000 tickets sold over the week sold out), we will have seen everything during this Friday where unreason triumphed over logic. Where the recent Major winners (Morikawa, Rose, Lowry, Mickelson, Thomas, Johnson) did not make it past the cut while our three Frenchies, Antoine Rozner (11th, -1), Romain Langasque (39th, +2) and Victor Perez (61st, +3) escaped the guillotine, for a first hat-trick at the British Open since 2011 and the qualifications of Raphaël Jacquelin, Grégory Bourdy and Grégory Havret at the Royal Saint Georges.
The grumpy minds will say that the first two fell back (by 7 and 20 places) after a hopeful Thursday while the third saved his skin in extremis for the weekend. It would be underestimating the difficulty of a course where putting on red is a very high level performance that 24 of the 156 entries achieved while being under par after two laps.
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Scottie Scheffler passed Hoylake his 23rd straight cut, current streak.
Even Scottie Scheffler, and his clean sheet (zero missed cuts this season), owes his weekend on the shores of the Irish Sea to a miraculous exit from the bunker at 18 for a qualification at -3, on the same line as Rickie Fowler, 2nd here in 2014 and back in top form, and one shot better than defending champion Smith, Jon Rahm or Xander Schauffele.
2023-07-21 22:09:26
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