2013 British Open: Scott and Day in hunt for Claret Jug as The Mechanic leads

Adam Scott and Jason Day find themselves very much in the hunt for The 2013 Open Championship.

Tough Scottish links golf is often associated with gale-force winds and driving rain but Friday’s action from Muirfield showed that links golf can be just as brutal in bright sunshine.

Truth be told, there was a decent wind sweeping across Muirfield for most of the day and played havoc with the majority of golfers during their second rounds at The Open Championship.

It was a combination of these winds and the rock hard greens and fairways at Muirfield that caused the most problems. On several greens, 15-foot putts were still very much in three-putt territory.

The very likeable Miguel-Angel Jimenez nicknamed The Mechanic for his love of cars) leads the field after a solid even-par round in the testing conditions.

“Sometimes it’s not about to make too many birdies, it’s about not to make bogeys.” Jimenez said after his round.

He’s followed by a whole bunch of golfers just a shot behind that includes Tiger Woods who holed a great birdie putt on the last hole to get himself and the crowd pumped ahead of an intriguing weekend.

Lee Westwood also trails Jimenez by just a shot after putting on a clinic for most of his round that featured some sublime iron play. Along with Woods, Westwood’s form looks ominous ahead of the weekend where he could just break his major drought.

The Aussies
Just five of the 12 Australians who started the 2013 British Open are playing on the weekend with Adam Scott and Jason Day still very much in the hunt for the Claret Jug.

Adam Scott began with bogeys on the 4th and 6th holes. In what was a frustrating round for Scott, he managed to hold his round together recording pars on every other hole barring the 17th where he made birdie. As the afternoon groupings struggle to make par, Scott climbed the leaderboard and finds himself just four shots off the lead at 1-over for the tournament.

Jason Day is also not out of contention and is just five behind Jimenez.

Day’s round was in stark contrast to Scott’s. Day combined five birdies with five bogeys to set a remarkable even-par round. In the conditions, scoring so many birdies was impressive and bodes well if he can limit the bogeys on the weekend.

Three other Aussies managed to make the cut with Peter Senior, Geoff Ogilvy and Marcus Fraser, who all finished all surprised to be playing on the weekend when they scraped through on the 8-over cut line.

Marcus Fraser expressed his relief to be playing on the weekend soon after the cut was set at such a high number.

Geoff Ogilvy summed up his surprise to make the cut on Twitter soon after his round, making everyone aware just how difficult conditions at Muirfield are.

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