It's all about the luck of the draw
TROON, Scotland — Jason Day went through four pairs of gloves, trying desperately to stay dry in the pounding rain. At one hole, he accounted for the howling wind by aiming his shot toward the Irish Sea.
Call it the luck of the draw at the British Open.
For those who teed off Friday morning, the stormy weather hung off in the distance, giving them a chance to put up some low numbers before things turned nasty at Royal Troon. For those going off later in the day, well, there wasn’t much to do except try to limit the damage.
“You’ve got to understand that some people get lucky, some people get unlucky,” said Day, the world’s top-ranked player and one of only four golfers to break par in the afternoon. “You’ve got to take what you get and roll with it and try to do the best job you can.”
One after another, those who endured the worst of it tried to describe what they had just been through, a dazed look in many of their eyes.
Having barely made the cut, Jordan Spieth moaned about “sheets of water moving sideways” as he stood at the 16th tee. Rory McIlroy, one of the biggest hitters in the world, had a drive that went only 230 yards after getting caught up in the gusts. Day didn’t even bother trying to reach the green in two shots at No. 15, the longest par 4 on the course.
By the end of the day, the leaderboard revealed a striking divide.
Paced by Phil Mickelson, the top 14 all had morning tee times. Of the 20 players who broke par in the second round, only four started in the afternoon — Marc Leishman (69), Day (70), Byeong Hun An (70) and Patton Kizzire (70).
“It was ridiculous,” said Justin Rose, who struggled to a 77 after shooting 68 the first day. “You know when you see such a disparity between the draw and you see no name from this side of the draw popping up, it’s just frustrating.”
Rose managed to make it to the weekend with a couple of shots to spare. Spieth barely got through, finishing right on the cut line after a 75 left him 14 shots behind Mickelson, any hope of a third major title all but snuffed out for the 22-year-old Texan.
