The Open: McIlroy enters 'the zone'

FROM STEVE KEIPERT AT ROYAL LIVERPOOL

Neither foul winds nor a fowl visit could stop Rory McIlroy's momentum as he took advantage of the best portion of a turbulent second round at Royal Liverpool to match his first-round 66 and open an ominous four-shot lead at the midpoint of the 143rd Open Championship.

Any hint of a Friday curse was obliterated once McIlroy reeled off three birdies in four holes from the 5th and collected four further birdies on the homeward nine. He was so focused not even a pheasant could distract him. As he lined up a birdie putt on the 8th hole a wandering fowl strolled onto the green and ambled towards the cup. McIlroy helped chase the pheasant off the green and promptly holed the ten-footer to reach eight-under. From there he continued the assault on par in a performance similar to Martin Kaymer's relentless play at the US Open a month ago.

Rory McIlroy drives from the 14th tee during the second round. PHOTO: Getty Images

"I set myself a target in the middle of the back nine to get to 12-under-par and I was able to do that," McIlroy said, alluding to being in that rarified place elite athletes know as 'the zone'.

"It's just like I have inner peace on the golf course. I just feel very comfortable. I'm very comfortable in this position. I'm very comfortable doing what I'm doing right now. It's hard to describe – I wish I could get into it more often. It's a combination of confidence and just being mentally strong, mentally aware of everything.

McIlroy rolls in his birdie at the 18th for a 66 and a four-shot halfway lead at The Open. PHOTO: Getty Images

"People call it a 'zone' ... It's just a state of mind where you think clearly. Everything seems to be on the right track."

Chasing the 25-year-old is a cosmopolitan and bunched group hoping to get on their right track. Dustin Johnson compiled a tidy and under-the-radar 65 in the threesome behind McIlroy to move into outright second place. After a near miss at Royal St George's three years ago, Johnson is slowly adding greater dimension to his power game. His grouping with the Northern Irishman tomorrow stands to be full of fireworks.

Ryan Moore toured his last 11 holes in six-under to shoot 68 and share third place, alongside Francesco Molinari (70), Rickie Fowler (69), Sergio Garcia (70), Charl Schwartzel (67) and Louis Oosthuizen (68).

Earlier in the day it appeared George Coetzee would celebrate his 28th birthday by taking the Open lead. The burly South African survived the blustery morning weather at Royal Liverpool to post a three-under 69 to sit five under in total.

In a week when Hollywood heartthrob George Clooney was spotted at Hoylake, it was another George who turned heads on the golf course. Coetzee overcame an early bogey and two more dropped shots late in the round to birdie the 18th and set a mark for the afternoon wave of players to chase.

In the end he's not even the leading South African. Almost as soon as Coetzee and co. finished their morning grind the wind abated, returning to a moderate breeze that was in complete contradiction to the 20 to 25-mile-an-hour gusts the early players endured. Coetzee was one of only four players in the first half of the field to break 70 during a period when the course flashed its considerable teeth. Adam Scott hit his 6-iron only 147 yards on one occasion but later a 4-iron that he figured travelled 300. It was that sort of morning as the wind strengthened and bamboozled players.

Scott, who had negotiated the first-day breeze so efficiently, found the second round far more challenging. He dropped two shots early before a two-putt birdie at the par-5 5th. The turning point in his round was a 40-foot par save at the 7th after a wayward tee shot. He couldn't hold on forever, though, and bogeyed the 12th and 13th after missing both greens. Birdies at 17 and 18 brought Scott back to three-under and feeling buoyant about his position.

"Today was much tougher out there," Scott said, who sits at three-under along with Marc Leishman as the leading Aussies. "It's crucial how well you adjust on a day like today.

"Tomorrow doesn't look great [for weather] and I think that's all right. The last 36 holes of a major is always going to be a grind. And if it's tough conditions, I'm certainly up for that challenge. I feel like I'm swinging the club really well so the tougher it gets I think more of that [bad weather] favours me if I can keep swinging well."

Tiger Woods started the day three under and spent all three shots in two holes. He visited the left rough twice and right rough once in an 'army golf' double-bogey at the downwind 1st hole before over-clubbing on his approach to the 2nd to lose another stroke. Next came a frustrating sequence of pars in the favourable conditions that ended with a woeful and wayward triple-bogey at the 17th that included a drive out-of-bounds and a shot to the green that nearly struck playing partner Angel Cabrera. That mishap brought a missed cut into the equation before Woods conjured his only birdie of the day at the 18th to shoot 77 and make the cut by a shot at two over. His competitive rust was evident. On an afternoon when the leaders prospered, Tiger stalled.

Tiger Woods plays from the rough on the 3rd hole. PHOTO: Getty Images

The Open Championship will make history in the third round with its first-ever two-tee start, a significant break from tradition. Due to the threat of severe thunderstorms in the area, play will begin from 9am off the 1st and 10th tees with players grouped in threesomes.

OPEN LEADERBOARD (36 holes)

132 – Rory McIlroy (N.Ire)

136 – Dustin Johnson (US)

138 – Ryan Moore (US), Francesco Molinari (Ita), Sergio Garcia (Esp), Rickie Fowler (US), Charl Schwartzel (RSA), Louis Oosthuizen (RSA)

139 – George Coetzee (RSA), Jim Furyk (US), Marc Warren (Sco)

140 – Robert Karlsson (Swe), Jimmy Walker (US), Victor Dubuisson (Fra)

141 – Adam Scott (Qld), Marc Leishman (Vic), Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Thomas Bjorn (Den)

Adam Scott drives from the 17th tee during the second round. PHOTO: Getty Images

THE AUSTRALIANS' FRIDAY REPORT CARD:

Bryden Macpherson (80, +26, D-): A ten-stroke improvement was good news, as was the withdrawal of Northern Ireland's Michael Hoey, meaning Macpherson didn't finish last. The task now for the past British Amateur champion is to find some positives in his Open horror story.

Jason Day (73, +2, B): A round much like the previous one as Day didn't record many birdies (just two) but didn't fritter away as many shots as the rest of the field. After insisting his injured thumb is back to 100 percent, Day revealed he ‘twinged’ his left wrist yesterday on the 5th hole so strapped it for today's round.

Adam Scott (73, -3, B): Gallant in the testing conditions, Scott held on for 11 holes before bleeding a pair of strokes to par. Birdies at the last two holes made "lunch taste a lot better", he said.

John Senden (74, +1, B-): A mid-round bogey, double-bogey run spawned two birdies in a round where most dropped strokes were recovered instantly. Like Day and Scott, Senden has seen the worst of the wind in the first 36 holes.

Matt Jones (74, +1, B-): A solid round but one that yielded only one birdie. Jones is at least around for the weekend.

Marc Leishman (72, -3, A-): Three back-nine birdies helped Leishman get around in par figures. He's clearly becoming more comfortable in the majors.

Brett Rumford (73, +4, B): Never generated the necessary momentum to come back from an opening 75, although an eagle at the 10th hole gave hope. Sadly that was Rumford's last subpar hole until the 18th.

Rhein Gibson (74, +2, B-): Playing in the penultimate group, Gibson was inside the cut line after making consecutive birdies until a killer double-bogey at the 14th. Fortunately he made amends by sinking a long birdie putt on the 18th green to sneak inside the cut.

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK

– NOWHERE is the early/late divide between tee-times in rounds one and two more pivotal than the Open Championship. Thanks in part to the perennially breezy conditions and partly due to the one-tee start that spreads the field across ten hours of tee-times, The Open often creates lopsided conditions depending on players' starting times.

At Royal Liverpool this year, the players teeing off early on Thursday and late on Friday saw the best of the weather, an outcome that defied the early forecast. However, the dead-calm weather of Thursday morning seems unlikely to be replicated.

Sergio Garcia celebrates after holing his second shot at the par-4 2nd hole. PHOTO: Getty Images

– THE 454-yard par-4 2nd hole played into the wind and ranked as one of the day's toughest, which makes Sergio Garcia's hole-out for eagle all the more impressive. The Spaniard binned his approach from 150 yards and did so with a touch of nostalgia. At the 2006 Open at Hoylake, Garcia holed out on the 2nd as well, but in the third round.

– HOYLAKE has its quirks. There's internal out-of-bounds plus the R&A has play beginning from what is normally the 17th hole. This means to begin their rounds players must first walk across the 3rd fairway. Juvic Pagunsan waited patiently for the group of Stephen Gallacher, Hunter Mahan and Victor Dubuisson to tee off the 3rd then looked at a policeman standing by the crossing and asked if he could go. The 'bobby' turned to check the path was clear, shrugged his shoulders and gave the golfer from The Philippines the all-clear.

– KEEN gallery eyes will spot one of the greats of English golf roaming Hoylake this week. Dame Laura Davies is here as part of her relationship with HSBC. She greeted Kevin Na outside the scorer's hut and the pair laughed as they recalled an event they both attended in Korea last year.

– The weeks enjoyed by Martin Kaymer and Joost Luiten couldn't be more stark. The US Open champion is still basking in the glory of Germany's World Cup win, while the Dutchman shot 13 over for two rounds at Hoylake to miss the cut and also learned of the tragic passing of so many countrymen and women in the Malaysian Airlines MH17 disaster.

The pair crossed paths after their second rounds and in a nice touch Kaymer put an arm of consolation around Luiten as they walked towards the clubhouse.