The Open: Rory McIlroy fails to capitalise on good luck at Royal Lytham

Published on 20/07/2012 13:31

RORY McIlroy failed to make the most of some slices of good luck and more benign conditions in the second round of the 141st Open Championship at Royal Lytham today.

McIlroy complained of “an unfortunate break” during his opening 67, running up a double bogey on the 15th when his drive bounced off a young spectator’s head and went out of bounds.

The former US Open champion joked “He could have headed it the other way!” after checking that Bristol teenager Jason Blue was unharmed and giving him a signed glove, but he could have few complaints about the slices of luck he enjoyed on Friday.

After a regulation par on the first, McIlroy pushed his drive on the second and was fortunate that it stopped a few feet short of the thickest rough, allowing him to pitch out short of the green and save par.

Another pushed drive on the third was similarly fortunate, but that was nothing compared to the luck McIlroy enjoyed next, hooking his approach well left of the green but seeing the ball creep onto the fourth tee as Japan’s Toshinori Muto and his caddie in the group ahead heard the cries of ‘fore’ and took evasive action.

A few inches to the right and the ball could easily have been unplayable, but the 23-year-old Ulsterman did not make the most of his reprieve, pitching to 10ft but missing the par putt.

McIlroy bounced back with a birdie on the fourth from 12ft, but dropped a shot on the sixth after finding a greenside bunker with his approach and, after a birdie on the par-five seventh, suffered more bunker trouble on the ninth.

The world number two needed two attempts to escape from sand and two-putted for a double-bogey five to drop back to one under, five shots off the lead still held by Australian Adam Scott.

Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts, one off the lead overnight, was back on level par after running up an eight on the seventh in a front nine of 39, while England’s Richard Finch had recorded a sextuple-bogey 10 on the eighth.

But Greg Owen showed what was possible in the still excellent conditions, spinning his approach to the 18th back into the hole for an eagle two.

That gave Owen, who also had an albatross on the par-five 11th the last time the Open was staged here in 2001, a second consecutive 71 to lie two over for the tournament and in with a good chance of making the halfway cut.

Healthy crowds were lining the course despite tournament officials hoping many spectators would delay their arrivals after heavy rain overnight left standing water on parts of the course.

And they were rewarded with a string of four birdies in five holes from Luke Donald which took the world number one onto the leaderboard at three under par.

Donald’s charge was halted when he fired his approach to the 10th over the green and failed to hit his chip hard enough up a small slope, the resulting bogey dropping him back to two under.

That was five shots off the lead now held by American Brandt Snedeker, whose third birdie of the day on the seventh took him to seven under to finally knock Scott off the top of the leaderboard.