Midway through Friday’s action, Brian Harman had stormed out to the lead after a bogey-free 6-under 65, staring down a second attempt at a Claret Jug in three years. As the afternoon unfolded, more and more top players in the world climbed the board to join Harman at the top despite a couple of downpours that briefly dumped on the afternoon wave.
Through two days of play, every player inside the top 10 has a professional win over the last 12 months, with two exceptions. Robert MacIntyre hasn’t won in the last calendar year, but he won twice early last summer. The other is Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 U.S. Open champion. We have one heck of a leaderboard on our hands. The players near the top of the board are all talented and accomplished, but two names stand clear above the rest:
Scottie Scheffler – The best, most consistent player in the world is once again the biggest threat to win a major championship. Scottie leads the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and has grabbed his fourth 36-hole lead in his major championship career. If Scottie plays well over the next 36 holes, it would take a miraculous effort for someone else to give him a run for his money.
Matt Fitzpatrick – The Englishman has struggled over the last year and a half, but his ball-striking has been steadily rounding back into form since April. A 10-time winner with success on links courses and a major championship victory, Fitzpatrick is the biggest non-Scheffler threat to take home the Claret Jug on Sunday. Fitzy is gaining strokes in every category, and his one-shot deficit could easily be a co-lead had he not missed a three-footer for birdie on No. 17 on Friday.
Prompted by some vulnerable moments of reflection, the Open has become an unlikely forum for a philosophical, certainly shading into theological, discussion on what the point of all this is. Of playing, consuming, succeeding, and achieving in a major like this. There are a few different arguments not contradicting each other and happening at the same time, but Rory McIlroy indirectly added his contribution to it on Friday afternoon following his second round 69 that will have him playing the weekend, unlike his Royal Portrush homecoming six years ago.
“It was 20 years ago that I played the North of Ireland here, and never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd be coming back as a grand slam champion with the support of a nation behind me trying to win an Open Championship,” McIlroy said. “I count myself very grateful and very lucky that I'm in this position, and I'm excited for the weekend.”
That feels like a purpose and point – to play for, the gratitude and fulfillment of doing so, and the joy of going for the ride for the individual and the watchers. And there are many watchers. You have no doubt read and heard about how much this crowd loves Rory. I will add a bit more, dear reader. I have never seen crowds this large in such congested spots that range essentially across the three or four hole swath of where McIlroy might be in range. Amen Corner traffic gets heavy, but this is heavier and across larger tracts. They were a few hundred or so deep in line hopelessly trying to get into the 18th grandstand about an hour before he might come through. They are eight and 10 deep around the greens and tees, and down the whole rope lines on the fairway. On Thursday, I watched a wheelchair-bound old man get rolled into and stuck in exceedingly ADA-noncompliant knee-high fescue atop a dune, just to get a glimpse. The crowd support, more in size than fervor, is not cliche, and more than you could envision when they keep hammering it to you on the broadcast.
It’s often said the Open crowds are the most educated in golf when it comes to assessing quality play. Rory may not be the best player thus far this week, but he is unquestionably the show and should continue to be until the final hours, unless of course he’s also in contention then, too. As he finished up on 18, the rains came, which would make things more annoying for the later wave, but also take the wind out with it. So lower scores would come hours after he’d finished and the crowds spread wider around the course. For Rory, it’s been an uneven couple days of missed fairways, stolen birdies, and missed opportunities. But he’s inside the top 15 going into the weekend. He’s not the leader, but still the lead character for another day. The account will be given a full examination at the end, but the wildest dream for him and the championship continues into the weekend.
Welcome to everyone’s favorite major championship Friday newsletter segment: trunk slammers. Or, as my friends in Great Britain and Ireland call it, boot slammers. Here are some notables heading home
Patrick Cantlay (3 over) – A staple on recent American team events, Cantlay has done next to nothing in 2025 to deserve a place on the American Ryder Cup team. Still, with the state of the end of the U.S. team, Cantlay is a veteran who is in the discussion for a captain’s pick. But with three MCs and a T-36 in his four major starts, the decision to pick him would be more on trust and less on performance.
Cameron Young (4 over) – Our beloved Bronx bomber could have used a good performance this week. Young entered the championship riding high from a strong showing at Oakmont but failed to get out of the starting blocks at Portrush. He should still be in the mix for a captain’s pick at Bethpage but he didn’t do himself any favors this week.
Patrick Reed (5 over) – Another American some were arguing for Ryder Cup consideration, including Reed himself. Two very poor rounds at Royal Portrush will end that conversation.
Brooks Koepka (7 over) – The five-time major winner missed three major cuts in 2025, the first time he’s done that in his career.
Collin Morikawa (7 over) – It happens to the best of them, but Morikawa just wasted a full year of majors in his prime. Zero top 10s and just one top-20 finish will have him streaking the wrong direction heading to Augusta next spring.
Cameron Smith (8 over) – Five straight missed cuts in majors for a player who was arguably the best player in the world in 2022.
Adam Scott (9 over) – A tale of two Adam Scotts in 2025 majors as he contended in two and missed two cuts in disappointing fashion. An innie and outie situation, you could say.
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The driving range might be the most insightful location on property at a major championship. You get to see who is working on shots, who is feeling confident, and often most importantly, who is going through deep, dark struggles.
The folks at Toptracer, who power the ball-tracking stats on the range at the Open Championship, were generous enough to share some data with me. So below are a handful of observations from my experience hanging around the range the last few days and some of the datapoints I found most interesting.
Collin Morikawa is, as they say, down bad right now. The scene I witnessed on Thursday afternoon was bleak. After shooting an opening-round 4-over 75 in which he lost more than 2.5 shots to the field with his irons, one of the game’s best iron players headed to the range for some work with his swing coach. Throughout the session, Morikawa outwardly showed frustration, periodically stepping away from his stall to collect himself. Here are some of the numbers behind that range session:
Morikawa hit 215 total balls on the range on Thursday, and 169 were hit after his round. The post-round session lasted an hour and 24 minutes. He didn’t hit a single driver, and he didn’t hit anything that carried more than 199 yards.
The contrast between Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler’s post-round range sessions was stark. Scheffler set up near Morikawa about five minutes into Collin’s session. He hit 25 balls in 11 minutes. Every driver he hit was a tight fade, officially fading between four and 50 feet. Scheffler was just out there to stay dialed.
The dichotomy of those respective range sessions will stick with me well after this Open Championship. One 28-year-old two-time major champion was desperately searching for his swing. And one of his contemporaries, the top player in the world, was just looking to stay on cruise control during a little stress-free 10-minute outing. A tale of two range sessions.
Other interesting miscellaneous datapoints I requested:
Bryson DeChambeau hit 372 range balls between Monday and Thursday. He hit only 52 drives on Thursday, all before his round. Fourteen of the tee shots were with driver. Nine of his drives curved from right to left, five of which had at least 80 feet of left curve. His lowest ball flight with driver apexed at 61 feet and had a 186-mph ball speed, presumably testing out the low bullet to prepare for windy conditions. As you may have suspected, DeChambeau is the record holder for highest ball speed on the range this week, clocking in at 200.8 mph. His longest carry flew 387.8 yards.
I’m a bit of a sucker for seeing who is the last to leave the range each night during major championship weeks. Exceptions exist, but more often than not, it isn’t a great sign of what is to come! The Last Man on the Range each night this week:
Monday: Collin Morikawa
Tuesday: Viktor Hovland
Wednesday: Bryson DeChambeau
Thursday: Andrew Novak
Hovland is currently the low LMOTR at even par (T-34).
Haotong Li went 31 holes at Royal Portrush without a bogey before his first square on the scorecard came on the 14th hole on Friday. He’s two shots back through 36 holes.
After a 7-over 78 on Thursday, Bryson DeChambeau bounced back with a nearly polar-opposite 6-under 65 on Friday to move inside the cut line.
According to Justin Ray, 89% of Open champions have been within four shots of the lead through 36 holes since 1970. Of the last 50 Open winners, 44 have been in the top 10 through 36 holes. That’s good news for Scottie Scheffler, Matt Fitzpatrick, Brian Harman, and Haotong Li.
SHOT OF THE DAY
Haotong Li, No. 10, Second Shot – Trying to keep his bogey-free streak alive, Haotong Li lost his tee shot to the right on the par-4 10th and then hit an incredible recovery shot to set up an unexpected birdie and tie the lead at the time.
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