Rory cruises, Tiger fumes, Sergio holes out: Best and worst moments from Round 2 at the British Open

It was another interminable day at Royal Liverpool, where Rory McIlroy extended his lead and now sits on top of the British Open by four shots at 12-under. The course played a little tougher in the second round, and there were plenty of ugly shots and impressive recoveries. Here are some of the best and worst moments from Friday at Hoylake.

It wasn’t the low round of the day, but once again Rory McIlroy posted the smoothest and most impressive score. McIlroy has had this weird tendency to implode on Friday, and that trend received all the attention this week and on Friday morning. His first-round scoring average is the best on the PGA Tour at 68, but his Friday average is 181st at 73. He’d blitzed the course in the first round at Memorial, Quail Hollow, Augusta, Doral and Sawgrass, only to give it all back and more the next day. Then last week’s 64-78 at the Scottish Open happened, and Rory admitted the Friday “curse” was in his head.

In reality, this was probably nothing more than a coincidence, and Rory quickly cast it aside to make sure he did not come back to the field on Friday. In fact, he matched his dazzling first round with another 6-under 66 in a bit tougher scoring conditions on Friday afternoon. He started with a bogey, but that was the only shot he gave away. On the front side, he made three birdies in a four-hole stretch to get his lead to multiple shots, and it would stay there all day, the margin sometimes growing to as much as five. When he got in trouble, he either pulled off perfect recovery shots or just got lucky, which he said was the case from this bit of cabbage on the 10th.

That amazing wedge out of some of the thickest fescue would set him up for his first of four birdies on the back nine. Dustin Johnson shot the low score of the day, a 7-under 65, but given all the talk about his troubles on Friday and knowing he was playing from ahead, McIlroy’s second consecutive 66 was the best round.

It has to be Tiger, who really shouldn’t have made the cut. Nothing came easy for Woods. He sprayed it all over the course off the tee, and that was without hitting driver. He was loose with approach shots, repeatedly airmailing the green or going wide into the high junk. And then couldn’t make a putt whenever he got in position to maybe post a red number on one of Hoylake’s easier par-5s. It started with his first shot of the day, which he yanked way left over fencing and into the rough down the 18th hole that abuts the 1st. The recovery wasn’t exactly impressive either, as Woods would criss-cross the hole twice, sending three straight balls into the fescue on different sides of the hole.

That opening double, and a bogey on the second, erased the 3-under work he did on Thursday and he was immediately back to level par. The rest of the round was a grind; Tiger visibly fumed on several occasions as he hit poor shot after poor shot. It came totally undone on the 17th, when he lost interest after sailing his tee ball out of bounds. That triple bogey suddenly and momentarily put him on the wrong side of the cut line before he canned his first birdie on the day on his last hole.

Tiger started the day in the top 10, and finished it needing to convert his first birdie just to make the cut on the number. His was definitely the most disappointing and worst round of the day.

There were plenty of McIlroy darts to choose from, but Sergio’s hole-out at No. 2 is probably the shot of the tournament so far. This came right on the heels of a lucky par-save at the 1st, where he hooked his drive so far left that it ran into a nice lie in the 18th fairway, unlike Tiger’s ball that got stuck in the neighboring hole’s rough. Then came this dunk at the next hole that bumped Garcia quickly up the leaderboard into a tie for second at 5-under.

Sergio finished the day 6-under, six back of McIlroy and in a tie for third thanks in large part to this eagle hole-out.

Phil Mickelson played most of his round before the American audience was awake, and it could have been so much more. Mickelson was actually striking the ball pretty well, and made an early charge with an eagle and a birdie that was just an inch from being another eagle. This wedge shot, however, was startling to see from one of the best short-game players in the history of golf ,and it stopped any early momentum he had, leading to a bogey.

Phil never made another bogey after this one on the 8th, somehow overcoming an out-bounds tee shot at the 10th. He’s at even-par and 12 shots back, but this round was just a few early breaks away from being something special.

Wildlife has been prevalent on the PGA Tour all season. We’ve met golf otter, golf gator, golf duck, golf turtle, golf turkey and golf fox, among others. Now that things are abroad in England, we were lucky have an encounter with golf pheasant, who seems to be a big Rory fan.

Few people were awake when this happened, but this was one of the all-time caddie-player interactions. ESPN microphones have been great at picking these conversations up, as well as the occasional Tiger “Jesus Christ“ outburst or Phil ”Oh shit” moment. Standing on the 12th tee, a shorter par-4 where the unquestionably smart play is to lay up, Phil tells his caddie, Bones Mackay, that he’s really liking the driver. This came just two holes after Mickelson had rocketed one off the property and out of bounds, and it was totally unnecessary. Mackay stood in stunned silence for a good 10 to 12 seconds as a not-so-helpful graphic for Phil’s case popped onto the screen.

The caddie’s pained silence would prevail, and Phil would lay up and make his routine par.

This category went to Henrik Stenson on Thursday night when he snapped his gap wedge over his knee. A fuming Tiger, who was playing with Stenson both days, came close to repeating that athletic feat here.

Rickie Fowler continues to play the best major championship golf of his life. He’s got a T5 and T2 at the first two majors of the year, and now he’s back in a tie for third at the midpoint this week. This photo came on the 18th hole, when Fowler made an amazing shot with one leg in the pot bunker and one leg out. The ball would shoot some 60 degrees off to his right and toward the pin for a good birdie chance.

Runner-up for best photo has to go to the woman who took her pet pig for a walk around Hoylake.

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Back tomorrow for what’s supposed to be a nasty, storm-filled day on the Liverpool links.