Ireland’s Shane Lowry continues to handle the challenging conditions at Troon and will take a two-shot lead into the weekend as he seeks to win a second Claret Jug, but fellow major champions including Scottie Scheffler, Justin Rose and Jason Day are in contention.
Joining Day on the weekend is his compatriot Adam Scott, but other big names including Rory McIlroy, Bryson deChambeau, Tiger Woods and Cameron Smith are headed home after wind buffeted the course situated on the Firth of Clyde.
Fox Sports takes a look at some of the major talking points after the second day of the 2024 British Open at Troon.
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WOODS VOWS TO BE BACK BUT SOME PONDER WHETHER HE SHOULD BE
As Tiger Woods strode up the 18th fairway on Friday, the crowds in the surrounding stands rose to offer a rousing ovation.
It was akin to a crowd farewelling a legend but soon after Woods, when quizzed as to whether he would play in the 2025 British Open at Portrush, defiantly declared; “Definitely.”
The question being asked during the American’s testing British Open experience was whether he should, with his form inflaming discussion as to whether it is time for Woods to bow out given his sustained struggle in the world’s biggest tournaments.
Since finishing 69th in the 2014 Open behind Rory McIlroy, the three-time champion has managed to make the cut just once in the decade since when finishing in a tie for 6th at Carnoustie in 2019.
Admittedly, the 48-year-old has only played five Opens in the past decade, but it is a poor strike rate for a man who declared prior to teeing off on Thursday that he was playing on because he believed he could still contend for major titles.
In the 14 majors he has entered since his remarkable Masters triumph five years ago, Woods has missed seven cuts, including the final three of 2024 after a 60th placed finish at Augusta in April, and withdrawn twice. His best-placed finish was 21st at the US Open in 2019.
Former professional turned Sky Sports commentator Tony Johnstone pondered the golfing immortality of Woods, who shot rounds of 79 and 77 to finish at 14-over and in the bottom handful of players, during the round.
“I just wonder how many more times we get to watch the best ever playing a major. He might not have the most majors to his name, but when he was in his pomp, he was the best ever,” he said.
Tom Watson, a five-time Open champion who finished runner-up in the tournament as a 59-year-old in 2009, said prior to his round that Woods still had the capacity to produce some magic on the course and that the decision on his future rested solely in his hands.
“It depends on what Tiger wants to do. He still has the shot-making capabilities to play great golf. It is up to him whether he wants to go out and continue to play,” he said.
“Tiger, his name and his reputation are at the top of the world in golf. He is still thinking, ‘I can play championship golf and win’.”
But as former Scottish champion Colin Montgomerie noted prior to the tournament, it is some time since Woods was competitive given the injuries that have stricken him in recent years.
Woods, for his part, is unlikely to be seen in competitive play again until October but has said he hopes to be able to play more regularly in 2025 leading into the majors, with several pundits noting he was lacking “match fitness” despite playing all four this year.
Woods ‘progressing’, but misses Open cut | 01:02
Asked whether he found the past two days “sobering”, Woods responded that he had loved the experience.
“I’ve always loved playing major championships. I just wish I was more physically sharp coming into the majors,” he said.
“Obviously it tests you mentally, physically (and) emotionally and I just wasn’t as sharp as I needed to be. I was hoping that I would find it somehow (but I) just never did. Consequently, my results and scores were pretty high.”
The key, Woods said, is to “keep getting physically better” and although he again failed to come anywhere near making the cut, he was optimistic that he had taken a step back towards being competitive again.
“I’d like to have played more, but I just wanted to make sure that I was able to play the major championships this year,” he said.
“I’ve gotten better, even though my results really haven’t shown it, but physically I’ve gotten better, which is great. I just need to keep progressing like that and then eventually start playing more competitively and start getting into kind of the competitive flow again.”
HOPES BLOWN AWAY IN THE WIND
To watch Rory McIlroy struggles in the infancy of the second round, with the four-time major winner recording 6-over for his first six holes, was among the countless illustrations of just how testing Troon is.
But it also highlighted a problem, McIlroy acknowledged, after he limped to a two-day tally of 11-over.
The Northern Irishman cut his cloth on links courses but having spent much of his life on the US PGA Tour, he said he struggles to know how to handle the wind, saying: “when the wind gets that strong and you haven’t played in wind like that for quite a while, sometimes it’s just hard to adapt,”.
“If I need to remember something about this week, it’ll be the last few holes that I played,” he said.
“When I look back on the two majors that I didn’t play my best at, here and the Masters, the wind got the better of me on Friday at Augusta, and then the wind got the better of me the last two days here.
“I didn’t adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, as I said, it got the better of me, and I felt pretty uncomfortable over a few shots.”
Bryson deChambeau noted after struggling to 5-0ver the card on the opening day that at least he did not throw in the towel and go home. But the powerful American, who edged McIlroy in the US Open last month, may as well have after shooting a 4-over 75 on Friday.
He did not speak to the press afterwards but there are questions as to whether his brutish power will ever be suited to taking courses with the intricacies of Troon.
LOWRY LASHES OUT IN CONFUSING INCIDENT
After a superb 69 that propelled 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry into the outright lead, the Irish golfer clarified the spat he had with a camera operator after a rare blemish on the 11th hole, which runs along the railway and stands as an especially tricky hole.
The 37-year-old gave the camera operator a spray after he chucked an iron into thick gorse to the opposite side of the fair way.
“As I was over the ball, I could just see you putting your f—ing game up. Just get out of the way. Just get back there. F — k sake,” he swore.
Quizzed about the moment later, he said he lost his ‘train of thought’ for a moment – and no, that is not a pun related to the hole – but that he should have had the wits about himself to step away and refocus.
“I just saw there was a cameraman there, and he was walking up, and I asked him to stop or move back, and he just kind of stayed there,” he said.
“As it was over, he put his camera up. I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I should have stood off it. (It was) my own fault.”
That was not the end of the drama. Thinking the ball was lost, Lowry hit a superb approach on his penalty shot, only to be informed the ball had been found in the midst of the gorse.
“The referee asked me going down, ‘Did I want to find my first one?’, and I said ‘No’. So I assumed that was okay. But then we got down there and somebody had found it,” he said.
“So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, but I thought (that) if you declared it lost before it was found … you didn’t have to go and identify it.
“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes … of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing. To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6.
“It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
THE FRONT — RUNNER DECLARES HE CANNOT RUN BUT DOES BELIEVE HE CAN FIND THE FINISH LINE
Lowry, meanwhile, is the man everyone has to beat heading into the weekend and earned a huge roar of applause when he extended his buffer to two over former world No. 1 Justin Rose and Daniel Brown with a birdie on the 18th.
His advantage could have been even greater bar for the meltdown on the 11th hole, but the 2015 Bridgestone Invitational winner was pleased with the way he regained his focus immediately and clearly the spat did not harm his sense of humour.
Asked afterwards whether he was a good frontrunner, he quipped; “I wouldn’t say I am a good runner.”
Jokes aside Lowry, who decided to skip the Scottish Open last week to ensure he felt fresh for the test this week at Troon, believes he is more than capable of finishing strongly from the front, with his confidence boosted by his dominant win in 2019 at Carnoustie.
“I put myself there in a few big tournaments, and I’ve managed to knock them off, so I’ve done it a few times. It’s hard to win tournaments. We’ll see. I’ll tell you Sunday evening,” he said.
“For me, it’s just about going out and playing my own game, shooting the best score I can, and then seeing where it leaves me at the end of the day. (I’ll) try not to worry about what other people are doing and just try to take care of (my) own personal stuff.”
SCHEFFLER LOOMS LARGE
Lowry has a two-shot buffer over English surprise packet Daniel Brown who, after leading on Thursday evening, rallied to hold himself together in the back nine on Friday after dropping a couple of shots heading out. He sits second at 5-under.
But in the rearview mirror of the leaders is the man of the moment Scottie Scheffler, who has shot back-to-back 70s to sit in a tie for seventh at 2-under with American Billy Horschel and South African Dean Burmester, who plays on the LIV Tour.
The world No. 1, who is playing in his fourth British Open, has finished eighth, 21st and 23rd in his previous attempts to win the Claret Jug but the dual-Masters winner is in the minds of everyone.
Tom Watson declared he remained the man to beat despite his relative inexperience in links conditions, saying his brilliance would allow him to adapt to the challenges Troon and the wild winds are presenting.
“He is lurking, you have to say. When I played, I looked up at that leaderboard … and there is one name I always looked at. J.N. Jack Nicklaus. And it seemed like he was always on there,” Watson said on Sky Sports.
“He is having an amazing run and you love to see it. You love to see someone who everybody is shooting for, rather than ‘Maybe this one. Maybe this one. Maybe that one.’ Scottie is the guy to beat.”
He was the first name Lowry raised when asked about the chief dangers this weekend, aside from Troon’s teeth and the deteriorating weather.
“Honestly, I’m not sure Scottie Scheffler is too worried about anyone with the form he’s in. He’s obviously on the leaderboard, and he’s one person that people are going to be talking about,” Lowry said.
“There’s some other guys there as well. I see Justin Rose going well, and this guy Daniel Brown, I’ve never played with him, but obviously he had a great day yesterday and looks to be going all right today.”
Source Agencies
