Thriston Lawrence kept his hopes for a strong finish in the Open Championship alive on Friday with a second round of one-under-par 70 at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Lawrence, who finished fourth in last year’s Open Championship, heads into the weekend in a share of 52nd on one-over-par for the championship. That’s 11 shots behind the leader, world number one Scottie Scheffler, who, ominously, seems to have decoded the secret to scoring on the challenging links course.
Scheffler posted a seven-under-par 64 to lead by one at 10-under from Matt Fitzpatrick. Brian Harmon and Haotong Li share third on eight-under, and there were five players on five-under in a share of fifth: Rasmus Hojgaard, Tyrrell Hatton, Robert MacIntyre, Harris Ebglish and Chris Gotterup.
Lawrence was not the leading South African: Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who held a share of the lead at four-under-par, was unable to convert some birdie opportunities in his second round as he made three bogeys. He opened with one of them, and regained that lost stroke immediately with a birdie on two. After that, the rest of his round seemed to consist of a variety of lengthy putts which got there or thereabouts for birdie – but none would drop. At two-under for the championship, he’s only a good stretch away from getting back into contention from his current share of 17th.
Dean Burmester had a second successive level-par, and he’s in a share of 34th going into the weekend.
Up front, maybe Scheffler will succumb to the pressure. Maybe he will just play poorly and get beaten. Strange things happen in sport. But Scheffler hasn’t given the world any reason to believe he will.
“He’s going to have the expectation to go out and dominate,” Fitzpatrick said of Scheffler. “He’s an exceptional player. He’s world No. 1, and we’re seeing Tiger-like stuff.”
“I felt like I hit a few more fairways than I did yesterday,” Scheffler said in a brief post-round interview. “(I) hit some really nice iron shots, and was able to hole some putts.”
From start to finish, Scheffler’s second round was exquisite. He birdied the first hole in a downpour, played the second hole poorly but still made par, then added three birdies in a row starting at the fifth hole that forced him onto the first page of the leaderboard. He made another birdie at the 10th that was offset by his lone bogey at the 11th in the hardest rain of the week, but he was hardly stifled. Scheffler stuffed his approach on the par-three 13th and holed the putt, did so again on the par-three 16th and added another birdie for good measure on the 17th.
Scheffler, by his own lofty standards, had underwhelmed at the Open Championship. In four starts, he had two top-10s but didn’t have a legitimate chance to win either. The lone thing holding him back was the putter (he hasn’t gained strokes on the green on a links course since 2021). But Scheffler has answered the lingering putting questions this season, now a top-25 putter on the PGA Tour statistically, and that’s carried over to the Open this week. He’s second in the field in putting through two rounds, gaining more than six strokes.
It sure seems like the stars are aligning in Scheffler’s direction. Around 100,000 fans are expected on Royal Portrush’s grounds over the final two days. It’s safe to say most will be hoping the world number two Rory McIlroy can somehow push his way into the conversation.
