2015 British Open: Live scores, leaderboard updates and more from Friday’s second round

The Open Championship is the oldest major in golf and this year it returns to its most renowned venue, the Old Course at St. Andrews. World No. 1 Rory McIlroy is the first defending champion not to play The Open since Ben Hogan in 1954. McIlroy was the favorite before he ripped up his ankle and his loss is significant, but the headliner is still here.

Jordan Spieth is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2002 to show up at the British Open holding the first two majors of the season. He’s the best player in the world and the favorite to win. Between the Spieth Slam, Tiger’s return to a place where he’s won twice, and the venue, this should be an amazing Open. Some background notes on the 144th edition as well as updated results and highlights as the week progresses.

Tiger Woods won’t be around for the Claret Jug-hoisting ceremony Sunday at St. Andrews, but his ex-caddie Steve Williams may well be celebrating his fourth British Open victory in a return gig as Adam Scott’s bagman.

Scott, who won the 2013 Masters and achieved other successes with Williams by his side, coaxed the former looper out of retirement in June for just such occasions as this week’s Open Championship. It did not take long for the duo to pick up where they left off, with Scott finishing tied for fourth at last month’s U.S. Open and playing himself into contention for the Claret Jug after a flawless second round at St. Andrews.

Unlike Tom Watson, English great Nick Faldo is not ending his run at the British Open this year. He’s said he will play two more. That does, however, make this his last Open at St. Andrews, the championship’s most famous and revered venue.

Faldo won one of his three Opens at the Old Course in 1987 wearing this ugly number so when he got to the 18th tee, he decided to break it out of the bag and wear it for his final walk up the 18th at St. Andrews. He did the ceremonial pose on Swilcan Bridge, which Watson will hit for the final time just before darkness in St. Andrews.

Adam Scott spent most of the first round at the 2015 British Open hovering around even par. He was even on his round heading into No. 16 before finishing with two birdies on his last three holes. He picked up the second round right where he left off on Thursday. Scott carded a bogey-free 5-under 67 to vault up the leaderboard and into contention.

Scott now sits at 7-under for the tournament and is two strokes behind leader Danny Willett. He didn’t draw much attention on Thursday, while the focus was on Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and others who went low. But a 7-under stretch over his last 21 holes has Scott firmly in the mix heading into the weekend. He benefited some from an early tee time. The best scoring conditions of the day came right after play resumed. Wind gusts have picked up some since then, and could make it a challenge for the afternoon wave to go low.

A three-hour rain delay on Friday morning ensured that the cut at the 2015 Open Championship will not be made on schedule, so that’s one way Tiger Woods will get to see the weekend at St. Andrews.

Woods is the biggest name on the wrong side of the cut line, staring down another second round where he’ll have to grind and go low just to get a crack at 36 more holes. Tiger may get the unfortunate side of the weather on Friday as well, with winds expected to start gusting even harder to upwards of 50 mph. The rain is expected to hold off, but it was so heavy this morning that the early players were able to dodge it because it made the course unplayable.

Tom Watson’s 2015 British Open started well enough. He played much better than many players 40 years younger on his first nine holes and it looked like he would have a chance at making the cut. But then it came undone quickly on his second nine on Thursday, and he posted three double bogeys in a five-hole stretch.

His hopes of making the weekend likely ended in that stretch. Now he’s facing what should be the tougher weather conditions late Friday afternoon and needing a round his 65-year-old body probably can’t produce anymore. He’s 4-over and in a tie for 133rd place with the cut line currently at 1-under.

[SWOOP]

Oh nice, hey, a golf ball.

For the second straight day, the first players out on the course are getting the best of the scoring conditions at the British Open. Danny Willett is the big mover, rocketing past first-round leader Dustin Johnson (7-under) with four birdies in his first 10 holes. He’s now 10-under for the championship and three shots clear of DJ, who still has a few more hours of sitting around before he gets his crack at what could be a much tougher golf course.

The rain came harder and heavier than anticipated Friday morning, pushing the entire round back three hours and 14 minutes and also drenching an already soft golf course. When the rain finally dissipated a bit, and most of the standing water was moved, the course became quite playable and defenseless. Those first several groups out after the resumption of play, at 10 a.m. local, encountered little-to-no wind. Willett stuck it close and went out on the links in 3-under 33.

As he works through whatever the hell he is working through on his fourth swing overhaul, Tiger Woods’ mantra is that he’s “close” to regaining the form that brought him to the top of the game of golf. With monologues about a “baseline shift” and “feels,” Woods sounds like a guy trying to convince himself that he really is just on the verge of lapping the field, the way he did in his glory days.

The reality is that the former world No. 1 is on the cusp of falling out of the top 250 (he entered the week ranked 241) in the wake of some truly awful golf in a season of “worsts ever,” that include three scores in the 80s. But, hey, if carding his highest round in a British Open at St. Andrews as a pro is “close,” then we all may want a bit of what Woods is smoking.

“Is that a training aid?” mused ESPN’s Andy North.

It got a little punchy early this morning, with a 3.5 hour weather delay disrupting the second round of the British Open. The first hour of the broadcast, which started at 4 a.m. ET, was spent showing a water-logged course and players on a driving range. It’s not what ESPN expected -- the marquee groups of the morning were supposed to be going off as they came on air, not just the third (of 52) group an hour into the coverage.

A storm system passing through the British Isles will bring rain and wind to St. Andrews Friday and Saturday. Rain will be heavy at times and the U.K. Met Office has issued a weather advisory for St. Andrews due to the heavy rain. The rain could cause some disruptions across the region, and forced almost a four hour delay in play at the start of the second round.

Winds will also be very strong Friday and Saturday, gusting to near 40 and in some places 50 mph. If the golfers wanted to experience all that St. Andrews could throw at them, they are getting it this weekend.

It takes a lot for weather to delay the Open Championship, but the second round of the 2015 edition was halted just two groups into the day. The opening tee time of Mark Calcavecchia, Marcel Siem and Jaco Van Zyl made it out onto the course and up to the first green, but things were called shortly thereafter for more than three hours.

That first tee time went out at 6:32 a.m. local time and play is tentatively scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. local (5 a.m. ET). The second tee time of Thomas Aiken, Jonas Blixt and David Lipsky also made it to the first hole and are technically out on the course, but they were just a shot into the round before they were hauled back off the Old Course.

The first two days of the Open Championship are the longest days of the year in golf. The entire 156-man field goes off the No. 1 tee in almost 10 hours of rolling tee times, and it’s a grind for those watching from the States. ESPN goes live at 4 a.m. and shows live golf sometimes all the way up to 4 p.m. in the East. The most dedicated souls have come to enjoy this annual overnight excursion into links golf, celebrating the odd-hour major championship as a treat for two days each year.

Friday’s round will feature most of the big guns out during the more reasonable hours in the US. Grand Slam hopeful Jordan Spieth, 18-hole leader Dustin Johnson, and the must-watch circus of Tiger Woods are all on the same side of the draw, playing within a half-hour cluster of tee times. On Thursday, they were all done by 10 a.m. ET, which was probably fortunate for Tiger, who hit ugly shot after ugly shot on the way to the worst score of his pro career at St. Andrews.