The Open 2024: second round updates – live

Alan James emails regarding my first post this morning at 10am: “I went to the Open at Lytham in 1979 and St Andrews in 1970, and traffic problems were already horrendous back then, so there has been every reason and opportunity to adapt travel patterns over those 55 years, so why are we stuck in the same old rut?” Alan adds that Troon is well served by trains and the good news is that 30,000 fans used Scotrail yesterday. My Open commute has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous. Last year it was a 10 minute stroll through Hoylake.

A first error for Shane Lowry this week. Well, a first bogey. His approach at 5 finds sand and then demonstrates the difficulty of Troon’s sand traps because he can’t get up-and-down for par. I was speaking with a Japanese journalist on Tuesday who said her nation’s players were agog at the deepness of the pot bunkers. Lowry is back to -6 and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler joins the -2 peloton with a birdie at 4.

First round leader Dan Brown and his lush blond beard is on the first tee. At first glance, he was in terrible form ahead of this week with six missed cuts in his last seven starts. But his links form this season has been sensational: third on a Louis Oosthuizen-designed links track in Mauritius, fourth (when the halfway leader) at St Francis Links in South Africa, he drained a final green putt to progress from Final Qualifying and then shot a 65 in round one of last week’s Scottish Open. Can he maintain the pace today? He said last night that he had been nervous on the first tee yesterday and surely is again right now.

Matthew Jordan is riding the wave after landing a top 10 at Royal Liverpool last year. Back-to-back birdies at 6 and 7 for the Englishman gets him to -2 for the round and week.

-7: Lowry (4)
-6: Brown
-3: Thomas
-2: Burmester (9), Jordan (7), Hughes (2), Dean (1), Noren, N Hojgaard, Rose, Henley

A wonderful approach at 4, the first par-5, sets up a tap-in birdie for Shane Lowry. He walks to the green with putter tucked under his armpit, removing his glove, frowning slightly. Nothing to frown about though. This has been a wonderful start to his second round. There’s a long way to go but he could put the field under enormous pressure today. Troon is difficult enough without feeling the need to chase birdies. He’s -2 for today, -7 for the week and the solo leader.

England’s Joe Dean starts his second round with a par. The Yorkshireman is one of the success stories of the 2024 DP World Tour season. He won a card at Q School, spent Christmas driving a delivery van, and has since then finished second in Kenya and lost a play-off in the Netherlands. He made the cut in the 2017 Open but after a 69 yesterday he can book himself late tee times this weekend.

2011 Open champion Darren Clarke is making a move, albeit way back in the pack. He’s playing with Burmester and is -3 for the day and +3 for the week. He’s looking to make the weekend for the first time since 2016.

Special delivery for Dean Burmester. He holes from eight feet for birdie at the Postage Stamp (the par-3 8th) and is now -2 for the day and the week. He’s a three-time winner this season and a genuine threat now.

Dean Burmester is bouncing back again. Earlier today Scott highlighted the impressive recovery of the South African in round one and then noted that he started round two with a bogey. But a second par breaker of the day at 7 has him in red numbers (-1) for the first time in the round and the championship. He admitted yesterday that it took him a while to understand links golf but he’s looking for a fifth consecutive top 12 finish by the British and Irish seaside this week.

Canada’s Corey Conners, an alliterative delight,is making a move today. A fourth birdie of the day at 13 get him to -2 for the round and also the championship. He was 15th in the Open in 2021 but fourth heading into the final round so he has some links form. He’s as neat and tidy from tee to green as he is in person. Very much a golfer who looks like his apparel has just been pulled from the packet. His putting is rarely a strength but that’s often not a big problem at Troon where ball striking is most important.

Simon McMahon emails: “Penny for Tiger’s, or indeed Colin Montgomerie’s, thoughts after the three-time Open champion dropped to +10 after doubling the second. Maybe he’ll recommend that Tiger joins him at Carnoustie next week for the Senior Open? If nothing else, it’d be quite the pairing. 15 Majors between them and all that.” Monty, of course, got himself in bother this week by repeating his thoughts that Tiger should quit. Tiger wasn’t impressed but has done little to change Monty’s mind. Maybe Simon’s on to something? The next line-up for a made-for-TV match anyone?

An early par-breaker for Collin Morikawa. The 2021 champion has struggled on the links since that triumph on his Open debut but he’s just confidently drilled home a 10 foot putt at 3. He’s +1 for the week.

This is a great time to be out on the course. There’s very little wind and it’s predicted to rise in intensity from around noon. And yet the course can still bite. Early bolter Marcel Siem’s drive at 16 finds gnarly rough. Henrik Stenson predicted that -10 would win this week.

A classic few moments of Shane Lowry at 2. That smooth, sawn-off approach, a narrowing of the eyes as he watches its path. He’s also in his favourite get-up of all black today. He’s found the green with that approach and is not close to the hole (about 28 feet) but he revealed after round one why he was putting well. “Sometimes I struggle when I come back here from playing a season on the PGA Tour with the speed of the greens, but for some reason I got here, I played a couple of practice rounds here, and my speed control was very good, and I was seeing my lines great. When that happens on the links the hole feels quite big and long may it continue.” The putt does, indeed, have good speed as it settles by the hole for a comfortable par.

Birdie for Shane Lowry! A great start for the Irishman, with a birdie from nine feet at 1. He hits -6 for the championship and joins Dan Brown on top spot.

Thanks Scott. It’s great to be on-site here at the Open, as always, but there’s an extra bounce in my step this morning after a fraught journey in. The championship’s requirement for links golf takes it to some remote spots and the roads are creaking under the pressure this week in and around Troon. The queues coming in were full of tense folk gripping either their hair or the steering wheel with whitened knuckles. It was too much for one car which conked out. And too much for one young lad who was bent over on a verge suffering from (non) motion sickness.

A bogey at 2 drops Xander Schauffele down to -1. A short par putt slides by, causing much irritation. And with that, I’ll hand you over to Matt Cooper. Enjoy, enjoy. See you later.

-6: Brown
-5: Lowry
-3: Thomas
-2: Hughes, Dean, Noren, N Hojgaard, Rose, Henley
-1: Conners (11), Horschel (8), Koepka (2), Schauffele (2), Fitzpatrick, Scheffler, A Scott, Wallace, Kirk
E: Siem (13), Day (6), Burmester (5), Jordan (3), Spieth, Grillo, C Scott -a-, Song, Lee, Canter, Niemann, Finau, McNealy, Lawrence

Marcel Siem can’t get up and down from the tousled rough behind 13. He’s running properly hot now, having made three bogeys in the last five holes. But this is what Troon does. Make your birdies early and try your damnedest not to hand them all back on the way home. Siem is level par for the tournament, but still two under for his round.

Billy Horschel very nearly slam-dunks his tee shot at the Postage Stamp. Inches away from a first ace at the Open on this hole since Ernie Els in 2004. He tidies up for birdie to move to -1. But never mind that, here’s the 1932 champion Gene Sarazen making a hole in one on this famous hole as a 71-year-old in 1973. One of the classic Open moments.

Marcel Siem has a face on. Having flayed his tee shot at 13 towards serious trouble down the right, he gets a lucky break, a decent-enough lie near a spectator path. But he doesn’t take advantage, whistling his second shot over the back of the green. A fine round is threatening to fall apart as Troon’s notorious back nine does its work. A big up and down coming up. Meanwhile bounce-back birdie for Brooks Koepka at 2; he returns into red figures at -1.

Tiger putts from the fringe. He nearly holes out from 20 feet, but the ball stubbornly stays up on the left lip. He taps in for par. So close to the fast start he so desperately needs. He remains at +8. His putt was a better effort than Xander Schauffele’s, a ginger prod that is always missing on the right. Par and he’s still -2. Good chance spurned there.

A few drops of rain in the air as Tiger Woods takes to the course. He splits the 1st fairway but misses the green to the right with his approach. He might still get a putter to that. Meanwhile his playing partner Xander Schauffele, very much in contention after yesterday’s 69, is pin high in two and will take a good look at birdie from 15 feet.

Corey Conners has been up and down on the front nine. An opening birdie was followed by bogeys at 3 and 6; he’s just birdied 8 and 9 to hit the turn in 35. The 32-year-old Canadian, who doesn’t have much of a record at the Open to date, is -1. Meanwhile Marcel Siem is beginning to let Troon get to him. He was absolutely steaming after dropping a shot at 11; he’s not in much better humour as he leaves 12, having left a straight birdie putt short. He remains at -1, and to be fair is still the hottest player out there this morning, three under par for his round.

Trouble for Brooks Koepka at 1. His approach plugs in a bunker to the right of the green, and he’s short-sided. He can only blast out 30 feet past the flag. He gives the long par putt a chance, but it’s an opening bogey for the five-time major champion. He’s level par.

Another backwards step for Marcel Siem. Bogey at 11, the end result of sending his tee shot into some native filth. He’s -1.

Australia has supplied five Open champions: Kel Nagle, Greg Norman, Ian Baker-Finch, Cameron Smith and the legendary five-time winner Peter Thomson. Jason Day would love to become number six, and nothing’s off the table after yesterday’s 73. He’s started well this morning, following up a 30-foot birdie rake at 2 with a wedge from 105 yards to five feet at 3. In goes the putt, and last year’s joint runner-up returns to level par.

A weather update. Safe to say the early starters will have had the better of the draw.

Marcel Siem takes 3-wood at 10 for safety, but with a 20mph breeze behind, runs out of fairway anyway. He’s got a decent enough lie in the semi-rough, though, and flicks his second from 120 yards into the heart of the green. Then he cocks his head back in irritation as his 30-foot right-to-left swinger grazes the side of the cup. So close to a bounce-back birdie, but that’s a tricky hole out of the road. He remains at -2.

Dean Burmester had quite the topsy-turvy round yesterday. Four straight bogeys between 4 and 7, then a repair job for the ages, with birdies at 8 and 12 and eagle at 16. Put another way, out in 39, back in 32. Put yet another way, a level-par round of 71. But he’s started scratchily today, sending his opening tee shot into deep filth. A bogey and the 35-year-old South African slips to +1.

Marcel Siem effs and jeffs like an old sailor, bemoaning a poor lie in the semi-rough down the left of 9, as he sends his ball down a swale by the side of the green. He spins around while waving his club in the air in irritation, before jogging up to the green. The fume seems a little disproportionate, given he’s left with an up and down that’s relatively simple for these guys. The blood pumping, he trundles an aggressive chip nine feet past the flag. The par putt is always destined to die off to the left, and he closes out his front nine with bogey. He’s out in 32, a number he’d have grabbed with both hands at 6.35am this morning, but his current disappointment is palpable. A resigned sigh. Momentum stalled, he’s back to -2. At least he’s calmed down now.

Tiger Woods didn’t have the best round yesterday. He’ll need something extremely special if he’s to survive the cut. Some 48-year-olds, their body ravaged by years of intense competition, might consider sacking it off, but Tiger’s not really wired that way. He’s out on the range right now, working a few things out ahead of his round. He tees it up in 50 minutes or so.

Marcel Siem keeps on keepin’ on! A sensational shot into the Postage Stamp lands pin high and screeches to an immediate halt, six feet from the flag. He’s left with a straight putt, and in it goes for a fifth birdie in eight holes! Things may start to get a little trickier now with the wind slowly picking up, though it’s not expected to become a proper game-changer until around midday, by which time the German will be long back in the hutch.

-6: Brown
-5: Lowry
-3: Siem (8), Thomas
-2: Noren, N Hojgaard, Rose, Henley, Schauffele, Hughes, Dean

Angel Hidalgo secured a place at his first Open in dramatic circumstances, holing out from 120 yards for eagle on the last hole of his qualifying round at Dundonald. The 27-year-old Spaniard may currently be wondering why he bothered: he’s followed up yesterday’s 77 with a nightmare start to his second round. Bogeys at 3 and 5 have sandwiched a quadruple-bogey nine at the 4th that involved shenanigans in both fairway and greenside bunkers. He’s +12 and it’s all good experience going forward.

A birdie-birdie start for Billy Horschel. The 2014 FedEx champion is a big fan of West Ham United – he bought a DVD of Green Street from Best Buy when at college and fell in love immediately – so may be buoyed by the exciting news of his team’s pursuit of N’Golo Kanté. Transfer tittle-tattle always puts extra spring in the step, doesn’t it. He’s -1.

Sepp Straka is the first player in red figures after the first round out this morning. The Austrian clips an iron down the middle of the 1st only to find a divot. He still arrows his second straight at the flag, but it’s a good 20 feet short. His birdie putt travels 19 feet and 11 inches. So close but he remains at -1.

A fourth birdie in six holes for Marcel Siem! He rolls in a gentle right-to-left slider from 15 feet on 6, and punches the air in delight. He’s storming around Troon in these favourable conditions, and suddenly finds himself right in the mix.

-6: Brown
-5: Lowry
-3: Thomas
-2: Siem (6), Noren, N Hojgaard, Rose, Henley, Schauffele, Hughes, Dean

Let’s be honest, we’re kicking our heels until the big names and leaders tee it up later this morning. Time to catch up on yesterday’s play with Ewan Murray’s report from Troon. You’d have got a good price on Dan Brown bettering Bryson DeChambeau by 11 strokes and Rory McIlroy by 13, but that’s the beauty of the Open and here we are.

Not only is there very little wind right now; they’re also not expecting any rain today. The 2019 US Open champion Gary Woodland is the next player to take advantage of a defenceless Troon, opening with birdies at 1 and 2 to move to +3 overall.

The conditions are benign this morning. A small breeze, nothing more. The wind is expected to pick up later on, so the early starters need to make hay. Marcel Siem, out in the first match, has grasped the opportunity with both hands: the 44-year-old German, whose best result in an undistinguished major-championship career is a tie for 12th at the 2014 US Open, has birdied three of the opening four holes to rise up the standings to -1. Confidence soaring after his recent win at the Italian Open.

The 2002 and 2012 champion Ernie Els shot 82 yesterday. The Big Easy won’t be racking up the numbers again today; the 54-year-old veteran has withdrawn from this year’s tournament. A shame for Els, of course, but also for his playing partner and compatriot Altin van der Merwe; at least the 27-year-old amateur got to play 18 holes at the Open with his idol. As for Ernie, he’ll always have Muirfield and Lytham.

Preamble