adminST ANDREWS. – Englishman Danny Willett remains the second round clubhouse leader on nine under at the Open Championship yesterday with five players two shots back at windswept St Andrews. The Sheffield 27-year-old carded a fine 69 to go with his opening day 67 after play was suspended early morning for over three hours after torrential rains engulfed the famous par-72 layout.
Overnight American leader Dustin Johnson will begin his second round at 5:48 pm local time (1648GMT) on seven under while Scotland’s Marc Warren, American Zach Johnson and former world number one Adam Scott are already in the clubhouse on the same score.
Another American Robert Streb completes the quintet on seven under after picking up an early birdie down his second round front nine.
Texan 21-year-old Jordan Spieth, who is in the same group as Johnson, is part of an eight-man pack on five under as he maintains his challenge for a third straight major title, to start the season, and emulate Ben Hogan’s 1953 feat.
Another Englishman Justin Rose is also part of the chasing pack on five under, through 16 holes, and Anirban Lahiri continues to make headlines for India, also four shots back, after a solid 70 to follow his first round 69.
Tiger Woods likely needs to card a score in the mid-sixties to have any chance of making the cut expected to fall at one under.
Many of the groups teeing off late will have to finish their second rounds on Saturday.
Nick Faldo completed what might be his final Open Championship yesterday, walking down the famous 18th hole at St Andrews to fullsome applause from his fans.
Widely regarded as Britain’s finest golfer of the modern era, Faldo held back the tears at the scene of his 1990 triumph which was the second of his three Open Championships.
Minutes earlier he had posed for pictures on the Swilcan Bridge, as many have done before him, clad in the yellow Pringle sweater he wore when winning The Open for the first time in 1987.
He admitted afterwards that he almost didn’t play yesterday after damaging a finger accidentally.
“This morning my cut was open again, so I went back to the hospital and had it glued again and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and then the kids looked at me and said, dad, what are we doing? And I said, I don’t know,” he said.
“They said, we think you should go. When your kids say you’re going, you’re going, aren’t you.
“I was just trying to say, thank you, St Andrews. That’s why I looked at the gods, the St Andrews golfing gods at 17. I thought, thank you very much for that,” he added after making birdie at the notoriously tough Road Hole as he did in 1990.
“I knew I was bringing this thing, bust out my ol’ Pringle, so I knew I was doing that. That was the image or the goal of the week, so I thought, you’ve got to do it.”
Faldo, who is 58 today, now spends more of his time in the commentary box, rather than out on the course.
He remains the last Englishman to win the Open when he lifted the Claret Jug in 1992 at Muirfield.
Faldo spent 97 weeks as world No. 1, won his first major at the Open in 1987 and followed that up with another memorable victory by coming back from five shots down on the final day to become the first Englishman to win the Masters in 1989.
He then repeated the feat one year later, this time in a playoff win over Raymond Floyd to become only the second man after Jack Nicklaus (1965-66) to successfully defend the green jacket.
Faldo was also unique in using a female caddie Fanny Suneson from Sweden, who made a guest appearance at St Andrews this week to carry his bag in the Champions Golfers’ Challenge ahead of the first round.
His final major title was even more dramatic than the previous five and again took place at Augusta National in 1996.
Going into the final round of the Masters six strokes back of Greg Norman, he fired a masterful 67 to complete an 11-shot turnaround as the Australian fell to pieces and Faldo won by five shots. – AFP.
Online Reporter