Former champion Ben Curtis surged up the leaderboard yesterday at The Open by holing from the fairway for an eagle on the third and making a birdie on the fifth as everyone struggled in the raging wind at Royal Birkdale.
Curtis was one of the biggest surprises in Open history when he won at Royal St. George’s five years ago. Equally stunning was his start, considering how the gusting, 56kph wind was treating everyone else.
Paul Casey, who finished with a three-over 73 to go 12-over, and Lee Westwood, a 78 to slide to 17-over, each took a double-bogey on the opening hole and others who made the cut at nine-over 149 were not exactly moving forward.
PHOTO: AP
Lucas Glover put his opening shot out-of-bounds and made triple-bogey.
The only thing that moved forward were the tee markers to account for the wind. The sixth, 11th and 16th tees were all moved forward, with the 11th and 16th the most dramatic.
The 11th was up 78 yards and played at 358 yards with an entirely different angle, as Royal & Ancient officials were fearful that some players would not be able to reach the fairway into such a strong wind. The 16th hole was moved forward 68 yards and played at 371 yards.
And it was only expected to get worse in the third round for the leaders. K.J. Choi, the only player under-par after 36 holes, was in the final group yesterday for the second straight year, paired with two-time champion Greg Norman. The 53-year-old Great White Shark was the only player yet to shoot over-par this week.
On Friday, K.J. Choi birdied his last two holes to claim the lead with a three-under 67 that left him at one-under for the tournament, one shot ahead of 53-year-old Australian Greg Norman, who putted sublimely to register a second round of 70.
“It feels a bit like stepping back in time,” said Norman, while stressing that he was keeping his expectations for the rest of the tournament “realistically low.”
Choi described his round as “the best I’ve played at the British Open.”
“Everything went the way I wanted it to,” he said. “The fans support was wonderful and I got great motivation from that.”
Colombia’s Camilo Villegas, who surged up the leaderboard after an extraordinary 65, was two shots off the lead at one-over.
Among the group one shot further back was David Duval, whose presence near the top of the leaderboard in the latter stages of his second round was arguably even more surprising than Norman’s renaissance.
The 2001 champion has made just one cut in 12 attempts this year as he attempts to rebuild a career that went into free-fall after his victory at Lytham. Even Norman’s world ranking of 646 looks elevated when set against Duval’s lowly rank of 1,087.
Also at two-over was defending Open champion Padraig Harrington.
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