Golf: Lowry leads Open; Fox and Hillier make the cut

Ireland's Shane Lowry leads the British Open from English qualifier Dan Brown after a masterful second round at Royal Troon, and world number one Scottie Scheffler and England's Justin Rose are moving ominously into contention.

Links-lover Lowry, the 2019 champion, rolled in a superb 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to complete a two-under 69 to reach seven under - two shots clear of overnight leader Dan Brown, who again impressed with a one-over 72.

Former US Open champion Rose, who had to qualify this year, put together a magnificent three-under 68 in the toughest afternoon conditions to join Brown on five-under.

The 43-year-old went bogey-free for 29 holes and finished by sinking a superb 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th green to raise hopes of a first English winner since Nick Faldo in 1992.

American Scheffler was warming to the task of lifting the Claret Jug for the first time although a bogey at the 18th rather jolted his serene progress on the Ayrshire coast.

Mixed returns for NZ golfers

New Zealand golfers Ryan Fox and Daniel Hillier made the cut but have considerable ground to make up on Lowry.

Fox is 38th on four-over, having improved five places following his second-straight round of 73.

The Kiwi No 1 would have been considerably better placed were it not for a triple-bogey on the par-four 11th hole.

Daniel Hillier is a stroke back in a share of 54th after his 71 was highlighted by an eagle on the par-five 16th hole.

Kazuma Kobori missed the cut by an agonising one shot after his second-round 76 left him seven over.

Michael Hendry also won't play the weekend, finishing on 10-over after carding 78.

Majestic finish

Conditions were calmer for the early starters, although winds increased considerably throughout the day to stifle scoring and leave the hopes of several big names in tatters, including Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.

But Lowry was supreme, making birdies at the first and fourth and after dropping a shot at the fifth he made birdie on the treacherous par-three eighth known as the Postage Stamp.

His only moment of concern was a double-bogey on the 11th but he quickly shrugged that off and made birdie at the 16th before his majestic finish on the last hole.

"It was pretty good, it was tough out there," Lowry said. "The wind wasn't quite as strong as yesterday but it was still tricky. The 11th was a bit of a disaster but I handled that well and managed to finish nicely."

Scheffler, who has six wins on the PGA Tour this season including The Masters, plotted his way around impressively with three birdies although he was left frustrated by a bogey five at the 18th after finding a fairway bunker.

"I've played two solid rounds and it put me five shots back, and I'll continue to try to execute and just continue to ... hit good shots and hit good putts out there," he said.

Brown, playing his first major, dropped two shots on his front nine but hung in well and made two birdies on the way back. "I'm proud of what I've done, and hopefully I can continue and sort of still be lingering around on Sunday," he said.

While others lost their heads in the elements, Rose was calm and collected as he showed the virtue of staying out of trouble.

He made two birdies and six pars in his first eight holes, although he finally made a bogey at the 12th. But birdies at the 16th and 18th earned the biggest roars of the day.

American Patrick Cantlay scored a 68 to move to one under, as did Australia's Jason Day while Canada's Corey Conners (-1) and American PGA champion Xander Schauffele (-1) were the only other players below-par after 36 holes.

Big names miss cut

World number two McIlroy and three-times winner Woods led a long list of former champions who missed the cut.

McIlroy, who lifted the Claret Jug in 2014 at Hoylake, made a premature exit from the year's final major after struggling to an opening 78 and following up with a 75.

The cut fell at six-over 142 with 80 players advancing to Saturday's third round.

A missed birdie putt from five feet at the last summed up a disappointing week for McIlroy, who had been bidding to end a decade-long wait for his fifth major title after his late meltdown cost him the chance to win last month's US Open.

"I got off to the worst start possible today, being six-over through six, but then played the last 12 holes pretty well, bogey-free," the Northern Irishman told reporters.

"If I need to remember something about this week, it'll be the last few holes that I played.

"I didn't adapt well at all to that left-to-right wind yesterday on the back nine, and then this afternoon going out in that gusty wind on the front, it got the better of me," added the Northern Irishman, who bogeyed the third, ran up a triple at the fourth and dropped shots at the fifth and sixth.

Woods, who competed in all four majors this year for the first time since 2019 after struggling with his health in recent years, missed the cut by a wide margin after scores of 79 and 77.

"Well, it wasn't very good," the 48-year-old American said of his second round.

"I made a double (bogey) there at two right out of the hopper when I needed to go the other way. Just was fighting it pretty much all day. I never really hit it close enough to make birdies and consequently made a lot of bogeys."

Other former champions who missed the cut were Australian Cameron Smith, the 2022 winner at St Andrews, Italy's Francesco Molinari, Swede Henrik Stenson, who won the previous Open at Troon in 2016, Americans Zach Johnson, Stewart Cink, Justin Leonard and Todd Hamilton, and South African Louis Oosthuizen.

Also missing out after withdrawing from the tournament before the second round were twice winner Ernie Els of South Africa and American John Daly, the 1995 champion at St Andrews.

Other big names who failed to make the cut were Sweden's world number four Ludvig Aberg, ninth-ranked American Bryson DeChambeau, the US Open champion, and Norway's world number seven Viktor Hovland.

Seven players ranked in the world's top 12 made an early exit from Royal Troon.

- Reuters/RNZ