SPLASH JORDAN

Superstar says his ‘B’ game tames the rain

JORDAN SPIETH claimed before this Open that anyone could lift the Claret Jug this weekend. But as the world No.3 takes a two-shot lead into the final two rounds, this tournament is for him alone to lose.

On a bleak Lancashire day of gusting winds and heavy rain, the American superstar was the only one of the leaders to break par with his gritty 69. And the Texan, who braved the worst conditions late in the day when play had to be briefly suspended, said the worsening conditions had helped his push for a first Open title. TV commentators had to apologise for his language after he missed the ninth green with his approach shot on his way to his second bogey of his round. But he then chipped in to save par on 10 before a 15-minute stoppage in play allowed him to refocus. “I would give myself a ‘B’ grade today,” he admitted. “I got pretty frustrated in the middle of the round. I was hitting pot bunker after pot bunker.

“I was very fortunate to have the hooter blow. It gave me time to regroup and play the last eight holes as a different round.

“I thought I didn’t get everything out of my round yesterday. I got more than I deserved today. I am playing where my score stands.”

At one stage of the second round, there was a five-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Spieth on four-under par alongside his fellow Americans Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar, plus home hopes Ian Poulter and Richard Bland.

But Spieth lit up the dank evening with a 30-foot birdie putt on 11 and then a brilliant eagle putt on the 15th after he mis-hit a 3-wood into the green.

He then led by three shots with three to play – but he gave one back at the next hole with an rare three-putt before parring home.

He still sits at halfway on six under par – one of only a handful of players in the red numbers. Mark O’Meara won here in 1998 with a score of level par while Padraig Harrington was three-over in 2008.

Spieth opened with two sub-70 rounds in the Masters and US Open two years ago.

But he blew the lead in the last round of the Masters last year when he took a quadruple bogey seven on the 12th to lose the Green Jacket to Danny Willett.

It was a war of attrition all day against the Beast of Birkdale. Poulter went 26 holes without a bogey before dropping a shot at the 16th in his level-par 70

He said: “On the scorecard it was a very boring round of golf, but it wasn’t from the perspective of how I had to kind of piece my way around this golf course.

“It was tricky. A 35-mile-anhour wind at times and it was a different wind that we had from yesterday. The round was probably better than yesterday’s, from the perspective of how difficult the course was playing.”

Rafa Cabrera Bello, who carded a 73, said: “Anything under 75 is a good day today.”

Paul Waring, who missed the cut after his 73, said: “It is a four-club wind at times. It is a bit of a lottery really.”