Go toe-to-toe
when, thankfully, the looks set to improve.
Kuchar gave an insight into what the players were having to contend with yesterday.
“On the 12th hole, I must have aimed 30 yards left of the pin into the crowd,” he said. “I hit the shot, it started at the crowd and stayed at the crowd for a long time before finally drifting over and ending up in the middle of the green. It moved 30 yards.”
When the deluge arrived later some dug in, others were swept away. Justin Thomas posted a quintuple bogey nine at the hardest hole on the course – the sixth. He had three hacks at his ball in the rough before declaring his ball lost.
The conditions were treacherous for all concerned. The golf correspondent of the Irish Times weather needed a check-up in the medical tent after being hit on the head by an errant Dustin Johnson approach. Kevin Na, whose five-over round of 75 was not far off par for the day, described it as “a good day to sit at home and watch a movie”.
In the circumstances Zach Johnson’s 66 was a work of wonder, especially as he was wielding an unfamiliar driver having cracked his old one on Tuesday.
“I can’t really explain it. I just had a great rhythm out there today,” said the 2015 Open champion. “For 18 holes in a Major Championship this round is in my top five.”
It all starts again this morning. By then they may all have just dried out. eight shots better than I played them yesterday. I hit some quality shots out there. I saw a lot of better iron shots. I saw some really good putts going in.
“So there was a lot of quality out there and I was happy to see that. I just have to try to keep that going for the next two days.” When McIlroy walked off the sixth green already at five-over on Thursday, one bookmaker made him a 369-1 shot to win the Open.
Yesterday, at the same point after three birdies in six holes, he had again been reinstalled as the tournament favourite at 15-1. From that point home it became a battle against the elements as the wind began to howl, south-easterly gusts traditionally the Birkdale course’s most staunch protector.
Some remarkable up-anddown saves kept McIlroy in the red even when a makeable putt finally slid by on 13 to cost the 28-year-old his first shot for 25 holes.
In keeping with bulletins broadcast to spectators tuning into radio commentaries, driving conditions were indeed becoming more treacherous.
A signpost obstructing McIlroy on the 15th had to be dismantled with an Allen key but an embedded lie still cost him another shot. However, two brilliant blasts down the penultimate fairway to a spot just off the back of the green set him up for a birdie on the par five. Back in the shelter of the tent, McIlroy – who had set himself a target of even or one-under by last night – was praised for his bravado. “It’s not as if I went through war out there – it was just a round of golf,” he said in self-deprecating fashion. “But I was very proud of myself that I hung in there.
“The long iron I hit into the 17th was almost like a validation that you’re fighting for it and you’re mentally where you need to be.”
All thanks to the marshals, of course, because Allen keys are notoriously never the easiest thing to put your hands on when you unexpectedly need them.
More significant, though, are the mental keys McIlroy seems to have discovered at some point after the caddie flak he received yesterday. The important thing now is to keep hold of them until tomorrow.