The weather shouldn’t misbehave as much as it did yesterday. It’s forecast to be overcast for most of the day, with some sun perhaps breaking through in the afternoon. The afternoon might also see some heavy rain at times. Chances always of scattered showers, naturally. The wind shouldn’t be too bothersome, though the occasional gust of up to 18 mph is possible. As for the weekend: it’s expected to be brighter on Saturday, and wetter on Sunday. But no risk of the thunderstorms that were threatened yesterday but thankfully didn’t materialise. We’ll get through Sunday.
Another erstwhile champion takes to the tee. Francesco Molinari became the first Italian to lift the Claret Jug at Carnoustie in 2018. This morning he displays a bit of the moxie that was required back then to see off Tiger Woods, Justin Rose and Rory McIlroy on the final day, bashing his drive down the left side of the fairway. The ball creeps into the rough, but that’s more than good enough with those internal OB markers a mere 15 yards either side of the fairway. Molinari is +1 after yesterday’s opening round of 72.
The first shot of the second day of the Open is hit by the 2009 champion golfer Stewart Cink. The US star didn’t get the acclaim he deserved upon winning at Turnberry back in the day, the unavoidable cost of beating the legendary Tom Watson in a play-off. Watson was 59, agonisingly close to breaking all sorts of records, and so Cink was cast in the role of dream-snatcher and heart-breaker, all for having the temerity to win the biggest tournament of his life with some brilliant golf. Well, he gets the love he deserves now with a warm round of applause as he sends his opening tee shot down the middle. A film of Cink’s 2009 triumph and its aftermath, Underdogs, is on Sky Sports and well worth your time. Warning: Cink’s disarming charm may make you feel a tad guilty. Anyway, now 52, Cink is +4, with a bit of work to do if he’s to avoid the cut this time round.
Preamble
… and we’re back. Less than nine hours ago, the first day of the 153rd edition of the Open Championship came to a close. Now we’re up and running again! Friday promises to be another Homeric odyssey, and we’ll be blogging about it ♫♪ all day looooooonng♫♪. Here’s how the very top of a star-studded leaderboard looked at the end of play last night …
-4: JS Olesen, Li, Fitzpatrick, Bezuidenhout, English
-3: Jordan, Scheffler, Kaewkanjana, Hatton
-2: N Højgaard, Westwood, Fowler, R Højgaard, Rai, Harman, McNealy, Rose, Glover, T Kim
-1: Mickelson, Burns, Rahm, Lowry, Axelsen, Z Johnson, Garcia, Hidalgo, Leonard, Niemann, McIlroy, Finau
E: J Smith, Kanaya, Schauffele, Svensson, Hillier, Novak, Burmester, McCarty, Im, Langasque, MacIntyre, Kimsey, Kokrak
… and here are the tee times for the second round (GBR & IRE unless stated, all times local, (a) denotes amateurs). It’s on!
0635 Stewart Cink (USA), Marc Leishman (Aus), Matteo Manassero (Ita)
0646 (a) Connor Graham, Francesco Molinari (Ita), Jesper Svensson (Swe)
0657 Daniel Brown, Daniel Hillier (Nzl), Zach Johnson (USA)
0708 (a) Ethan Fang (USA), Rickie Fowler (USA), Adam Scott (Aus)
0719 Laurie Canter, Sergio Garcia (Spa), Elvis Smylie (Aus)
0730 Andrew Novak (USA), Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Matt Wallace
0741 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Davis Thompson (USA)
0752 (a) Sebastian Cave, Shugo Imahira (Jpn), Si-Woo Kim (Kor)
0803 Bud Cauley (USA), Michael Kim (USA), John Parry
0814 Angel Hidalgo (Spa), Matt McCarty (USA), Shaun Norris (Rsa)
0825 Daniel Berger (USA), Keegan Bradley (USA), Sung-Jae Im (Kor)
0836 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Romain Langasque (Fra)
0847 Harry Hall, Aaron Rai, Sahith Theegala (USA)
0903 Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Justin Leonard (USA), Antoine Rozner (Fra)
0914 Chris Kirk (USA), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), JT Poston (USA)
0925 Brian Harman (USA), Maverick McNealy (USA), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
0936 Tyrrell Hatton, Russell Henley (USA), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
0947 Bryson DeChambeau (USA), Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose
0958 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Viktor Hovland (Nor), Jordan Spieth (USA)
1009 Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas (USA)
1020 Harris English (USA), Tony Finau (USA), Nick Taylor (Can)
1031 Lucas Glover (USA), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)
1042 Brian Campbell (USA), John Catlin (USA), (a) Frazer Jones
1053 (a) Cameron Adam, Nathan Kimsey, Jason Kokrak (USA)
1104 Curtis Knipes, Curtis Luck (Aus), Daniel Young
1115 George Bloor, OJ Farrell, Young-Han Song (Kor)
1126 Padraig Harrington, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Tom McKibbin
1147 KJ Choi (Kor), Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
1158 (a) Justin Hastings (Cay), Marco Penge, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1209 Jason Day (Aus), Jacob Skov Olesen (Den), Taylor Pendrith (Can)
1220 Phil Mickelson (USA), Ryan Peake (Aus), Daniel van Tonder (Rsa)
1231 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Max Greyserman (USA), Niklas Noergaard (Den)
1242 Dustin Johnson (USA), Haotong Li (Chn), Jordan Smith
1253 Darren Clarke, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Davis Riley (USA)
1304 Mikiya Akutsu (Jpn), Julien Guerrier (Fra), Chun-An Yu (Tai)
1315 Thomas Detry (Bel), Chris Gotterup (USA), Lee Westwood
1326 Patrick Cantlay (USA), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Cameron Young (USA)
1337 (a) Filip Jakubcik (Cze), Matthew Jordan, Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
1348 Stephan Jaeger (Ger), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
1404 Martin Couvra (Fra), Kristoffer Reitan (Nor), Adrien Saddier (Fra)
1415 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), (a) Bryan Newman (Rsa), Justin Walters (Rsa)
1426 Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ryan Fox (Nzl), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
1437 Akshay Bhatia (USA), Ben Griffin (USA), Sepp Straka (Aut)
1448 Sam Burns (USA), Brooks Koepka (USA), Aldrich Potgieter (Rsa)
1459 Jon Rahm (Spa), Xander Schauffele (USA), JJ Spaun (USA)
1510 Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa (USA), Scottie Scheffler (USA)
1521 Wyndham Clark (USA), Corey Conners (Can), Tom Hoge (USA)
1532 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Denny McCarthy (USA), Patrick Reed (USA)
1543 Ryggs Johnston (USA), Matthias Schmid (Ger), (a) Richard Teder (Est)
1554 John Axelsen (Den), Darren Fichardt (Rsa), Dylan Naidoo (Rsa)
1605 Oliver Lindell (Fin), Jesper Sandborg (Swe), Justin Suh (USA)
1616 Sadom Kaewkanjana (Tha), Riki Kawamoto (Jpn), Sampson Zheng (Chn)