Hendry misses British Open cut after poor second round score

New Zealand’s two representatives at the British Open have missed the cut.

After two rounds, Michael Hendry was well off the pace at 10- over par, following his three- over- par 73 with a seven- over 80 at Royal Birkdale.

Fellow Kiwi Ryan Fox was also sitting several shots outside the cut line late in his round overnight and looked unlikely to make the third round.

Hendry looked to be a chance of making the weekend at his first major, but the combination of a bad back, wind and nerves left him disappointed by his first taste of the big time.

“[ Yesterday] was probably the worst I’ve hit the ball in a couple of years,” he reflected after his first round. “A lot of that was potentially do with the preparation being poor with my back and bit of nerves, being in this situation for the first time.

“Normally, I don’t hit the ball anywhere near as bad as I did.”

Hendry, 37, struggled early in his first round, with a bogey on his first hole and three more by the turn, before steadying down the final nine.

“The advantage we had was the sun came out and it got a bit warmer,” he said. “When we teed off, it was pretty chilly, but by the time we got through to about the eighth hole, jumpers were coming off and it turned out to be a pretty nice day, although the wind was still there.

“The nerves were pretty much gone by the third or fourth hole, but the rhythm of your golf swing changes. It gets a bit quick and it can kind of set the rhythm for the entire day, particularly when it’s a little bit breezy and you’re trying to hit different shots — higher or lower, depending on whether you’re going with or against the wind.”

“I managed to scrape a score together that hasn’t put me out of the tournament yet,” Hendry said before his second round.

“If I go out there and play solid [ overnight], I’m happy I can do what I need to do to make the cut, and then try and work my way up the leaderboard for the rest of the week.”

However, Hendry couldn’t make amends in his second round, mixing four bogies with a solitary birdie on the front nine.

Needing to rebound to have a chance of making the cut, a double bogey on 13 sunk his chances.

He followed that with three more bogies — and one last birdie — to shoot 40 on the back nine and sink down the leaderboard, consigning him to an early exit from the English course.

Hendry was not the only one to struggle — US Masters champion Sergio Garcia and 2013 Open winner Phil Mickelson shared his three- over score after the first day, eight shots behind leaders Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka and Matt Kuchar.

Similarly high scores were in vogue overnight too, with high profile players such as Brian Harman ( 78), Bill Haas ( 78) and Adam Hadwin ( 82) all dropping out of contention.

Things could even get worse, with only one of the first 23 players to complete their round managing to post an under- par score.