The Open has lost the number one and two in the world at the half-way 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 couldn’t 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 per cent sure, but I definitely seemed to run out of steam both days. Maybe I just made it a bit difficult for myself for the first 14 holes, even if I was scoring OK. It’s far from stress-free, let’s put it like that.
“Maybe the course wore me down, that’s what I mean. You’re not creating too many chances and even if you’re getting up and down, it is wearing. It got the better of me at the end.”
Garcia also missed the cut as did four of the five Scots in the field – Sandy Lyle, Scott Jamieson, Grant Forrest and Russell Knox.
