Cam Smith is poised to shrug off the mantle as the Best Player Yet To Win A Major. And do it on one of the most historic of golfing stages.
But Rory McIlroy won’t go away quite yet. The 150th Open at St Andrews is building to a potentially brilliant weekend shootout.
The Australian with the air of a surf bum – or maybe a comedy sidekick from a 70s sit-com with that moustache and mullet combination – has paid his dues in the last two years.
One short of the halfway record
CAM SMITH! 🔥
The Aussie leads by three after this eagle on 14. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/fkdoP7tJjb
— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) July 15, 2022
He’s put a downpayment on this championship with a second round 64. That gave him a two-shot advantage over another Cameron, New York’s Young, the first round leader.
But McIlroy, seemingly on the ropes on the back nine late in day, counterpunched with a brilliant birdie at 17 to get back within range at ten-under.
Smith’s halfway aggregate of 131 is one short of the Open record, held by Nick Faldo from 1992. Faldo eventually limped to the Claret Jug in that one, and there’s plenty of chasing interest behind the Queenslander.
Young didn’t waver much after his first round 64 and added a three-under 69 to be on 11-under. McIlroy and Viktor Hovland are on ten-under. Dustin Johnson, the leader at halfway seven years ago here, is a shot further back.
Early morning rain took something of the sting out of the Old Course, and there was a chance to make hay. Smith thinks that he’s going to have to be more defensive on the weekend, as the course dries out again.
‘It’s going to be brutal out there’
🐦🐦🐦.
A hot start for Cam Smith, and he's one shot back.💥 #TeamTitleistpic.twitter.com/hDRu6hFKdU
— Titleist (@Titleist) July 15, 2022
“Being off late again tomorrow afternoon it’s obviously going to be a bit firmer, more like the first day,” he said. “It’s going to be pretty brutal out there.
“There’s going to be a few more gnarly pins. Being smart out there is definitely going to be the key to staying at the top of the leaderboard.”
The stroke that gave him the lead was a 60-foot putt for eagle on 15, and he defended the 13-under into the clubhouse from there.
“We actually probably played maybe 16 holes into the wind today,” he said. “Out to the back the wind switched around.
“We were able to kind of land those shots into the green maybe a little bit softer than the guys this morning. But (the wind) in and off the left the whole way in there isn’t the wind that right handers want.
“I wasn’t thinking about 62, 63. The back nine was always going to be tough.”
‘I’d rather be second than tenth’
Huge roars for @McIlroyRory 🗣pic.twitter.com/eAYV1bV09u
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) July 15, 2022
Young was punished for a couple of poor shots by his own admission, but he hung in to stay within two of the lead he held at the start.
“I’m in second, and I’d rather be in second than tenth,” he said. “You’re going to have to play some good golf over the weekend regardless. So obviously nice to start up there, at least.
“The wind made the whole back nine play very, very different. Those holes being all off the left instead of off the right was definitely weird.
“But I think you kind of have to come prepared for some weird stuff out here.”
McIlroy’s day started slowly, picked up with three successive birdies around the loop, but seemed to flounder on 15 and 16.
A bogey on the first and 80 feet away in two on the next put him under pressure, but he made par and came out of the left-side rough to 20 feet for a rare birdie on 17.
“It was a totally different golf course today, but I feel I adapted well,” he said, although slightly annoyed he didn’t birdie 18. “But I would have taken playing the last two holes in one-under anyway, I just ended up doing it in reverse.”
Earlier Talor Gooch – who makes a habit of strange statements – said the LIV Golf group had defiantly adopted a “no-one likes us, we don’t care” sort of unity to inspire each other.
Gooch is doing okay at seven-under, but the leading LIVer is Johnson, and he doesn’t seem to have been invited to the new prayer group.
“Not me because, honestly, I don’t read anything,’’ Johnson said. “So I wouldn’t know what you were saying or if there was anything negative being said. I don’t pay attention to it.
“That’s exactly how I do it. I don’t read. I don’t look at it. It doesn’t bother me because everyone has their own opinion and I have mine, and the only one I care about is mine.’’
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