The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)

World’s top two head home

-

The Open has lost the number one and two in the world at the halfway stage.

The damage was done for Dustin Johnson on Thursday but Justin Thomas’s second day collapse was a spectacula­r one.

He suffered three double-bogeys in a row on the front nine and could not climb out of trouble thereafter.

Jon Rahm would know how he was feeling. He too dropped six shots in the space of three holes and slumped from championsh­ip contender on three under to going home at seven over at the end of his round.

It would have been four out of the top five in the WGC rankings missing the cut had Justin Rose not birdied 18 to sneak in at three over.

There were plenty of ex-champions who won’t be playing this weekend, including the last winner at Carnoustie, Padraig Harrington.

He admitted that this time the course wore him down. Harrington added a second round of 74 to his opening 76 to finish eight over par.

“Knowing that we’re on the wrong side of the draw, those three shots I dropped in the last three holes yesterday afternoon really put me behind the eight ball for sure,” said Harrington, who defeated Sergio Garcia in a play-off in 2007.

“I’m not 100% sure, but I definitely seemed to run out of steam both days.”

Garcia also missed the cut as did four of the five Scots in the field – Sandy Lyle, Scott Jamieson, Grant Forrest and Russell Knox.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom