Scott and Tiger ready to pounce on Snedeker
For a while, fellow American Brandt Snedeker had been sitting pretty at the top of The Open leaderboard, his bogey-free second-round 64 had not only helped to equal Nick Faldo’s 36-hole lowest score of 130 at Muirfield in 1992 but given him a four-shot cushion over the field after another benign morning on Lancashire’s Fylde Coast.
By the end of the day, his lead was down to one stroke at 10 under par from Australian Adam Scott and he was just four ahead of Woods, who shot a second consecutive 67. Denmark’s 22-year-old Thorbjorn Olesen’s 66 left him in fourth place overnight at five under with Ireland’s Graeme McDowell handily placed in a five-man group at four under following a 69.
Snedeker, the world number 29, had also become the first player since Woods at Pebble Beach in the 2000 US Open to negotiate his first two rounds bogey-free but with first-round leader Scott making birdie at the last for a 67 and then Woods himself sending his bunker shot at the same hole rolling into the cup, he will have to rethink his strategy for today’s third round.
“I’ve got a cushion, which is nice,” Snedeker said immediately after his bogey and bunker-free 64. “I don’t have to play the best golf over the next 36 holes. I have to play good golf, but maybe not the best of anybody. So that’s always nice to have.”
Fortunately he qualified his statement by adding: “That being said, I’m going to go out there and try to do the exact same things I did the first two days and hit a bunch of greens and make a bunch of putts and try to extend my lead as much as possible.
“I’m sure everybody in this room is in about as much shock as I am right now,” he said in his post-round press conference. “But I feel good. I played honestly pretty well the first two days. I’m just going to try and keep doing that over the weekend.”
That will have to be the case after Scott, chiefly, and Woods, tellingly, made inroads into that cushion, although nothing should take away from what was the round of the day.
Scott had bogeyed the par-four third to fall five shots back but that was the only blip in his round, while Woods’ only speed bump came at the 11th, his final shot on 18 bringing him neatly back into the hunt for a 15th Major of his career.
“It wasn’t as hard as it may have looked,” Woods said. “Because I was on the up-slope I could take out that steepness coming off the bunker and land the ball on the flat. So just threw it up there, and I played about a cup outside the left and it landed on my spot and rolled to the right.”
Simple then.
“Overall I’m very pleased at where I’m at,” he added. “We’re at the halfway point and I’m right there in the mix. With the weather that’s forecast, it’s going to be a good weekend.”
Woods was referring to the promise of more calm conditions over the weekend but McDowell, still very much in the mix himself, would rather the Lytham course got some teeth as he targets a second career major to add to his 2010 US Open breakthrough.
“I think the tougher the better for me,” the Portrush man said. “I’d like to see the wind, get it up to 10, 15 miles an hour and let’s really test us out here.
“I was happy with the way I hit the golf ball, to give myself some chances. Six back, and Tiger Woods holing bunker shots and all kinds of fun stuff. The last few groups of a Major championship, playing with guys like Tiger Woods, that’s right where you want to be, and that’s what I wanted going into yesterday and today, and that’s all I can ask for.”
McDowell’s compatriots still in the tournament will need a little bit more. Pádraig Harrington and Rory McIlroy will start the third round 12 shots behind Snedeker at two over par following rounds of 72 and 75 respectively. Defending champion Darren Clarke and fellow Irishmen Alan Dunbar, the British Amateur champion, and Michael Hoey, were all saw their chances end at the halfway stage and on the wrong side of the cut-line.
