The second round of the 150th Open Championship featured a little bit of everything on Friday. It began with fans sending Tiger Woods off in the grandest of fashions as the 15-time major winner’s playing career at St. Andrews may have come to a close with a missed cut this week. Walking down the 18th fairway to a standing ovation, tears rolled from Woods’ eyes as he thought back on his crowning achievements at the Home of Golf and of the previous legends of the game to receive a similarly warm goodbye from the people of St. Andrews.
Fans again rose to their feet hours later, albeit for a different reason, as Cameron Smith signed an 8-under 64 to set the 36-hole scoring record for an Open at the Old Course. Sitting at 13 under for the championship, the long-haired Australian looks to be in complete control of his game as he has racked up 12 birdies and an eagle against just a single bogey through his first two rounds.
And then you have Rory McIlroy, who while still looking for his first major championship since 2014, put himself in exceptionally strong position at this Open. McIlroy remained hot playing in one of the final pairings of the day and now sits just three strokes back of Smith entering Moving Day.
Five of the last six 36-hole leaders at The Open have gone on to win, and Smith should give a fine effort over the weekend in continuing this trend. Meanwhile, each of the last seven Open winners at St. Andrews have been T4 or better after two rounds with 14 of the last 15 sitting within three shots of the lead after 36 holes.
Here is the breakdown of the rest of the leaderboard