Canadian Corey Conners in fine position after second round of British Open – SCOREGolf

TROON, Scotland—Corey Conners was a man in demand after he got his Friday work in early with another impressive navigation of both the challenges and the conditions of Royal Troon as the Canadian briefly took the earliest halfway clubhouse lead at the British Open.

Among the fortunate starters at first light on the captivating links on Scotland’s west coast, Conners fired a one-under-par 70 which left him on one-under overall in a tie for eighth and in a fine position for a weekend tilt at a first major victory. The 32-year-old was the first of the field to post a red score at the halfway mark and with gusts expected to ramp up significantly as Friday goes on, it’s a score that could look better by the time the day is done.

But if Conners’s opening round Thursday was all about his true striking ability, his second 18 holes around here took a little more scrambling and a lot more thinking. When he finally made his way through his TV commitments, Conners reflected on a fourth-straight cut made at this event and weekend progress which keeps intact a superbly consistent 2024 campaign in which he has yet to miss a single cut.

“I’m happy to be under par for that round. It could have been a little bit better again,” Conners told the Star. “There’s a few shots I would like over. I made some nice putts today but definitely left a few out there again. But if you’d told me at the start of the round, I’d certainly take one-under par.”

Conners found his first birdie just three shots into his second round, a sparkling approach leaving him less than five feet on the first. He would add four more but offset them with four bogeys as some uncharacteristically patchy iron play put him in tricky positions. Remarkably, one place he didn’t find was sand, an impressive feat at a place which hugs the Firth of Clyde and is liberally pock-marked with pot bunkers.

“I didn’t hit as many greens today on the back nine certainly but I always gave myself a chance to save par and managed to save some,” the Listowel, Ont., man added.

Asked whether the sight of flags hanging loose and lazy as he teed off at 7:08 a.m. local time made him motivated to make hay in the calm, Conners smiled.

“You betcha. It wasn’t too bad teeing off first thing this morning, just a lighter breeze coming in our face on those first few holes. So I definitely wanted to take advantage. They weren’t playing quite as difficult as they were yesterday afternoon.”

With winds already picking up significantly as the swelling galleries began to ponder lunch around midday, Conners’s work was done. It’s not in his genial nature to put his feet up and savour the potential carnage to come but, hey, at least he could put his feet up. Gusts were forecast to head towards 50 km/h leaving the mid-morning and afternoon starters, Conners’s three compatriots Mackenzie Hughes, Adam Hadwin and Nick Taylor among them, facing the kind of flummoxing test which so many failed during Thursday’s chaotic first round.

Conners is a king of consistency, a tee-to-green metronome with the temperament to match. Which is why so many see his major potential. On Friday it perhaps showed itself best in a really impressive stretch from the seventh to the 13th when Conners plundered three birdies to go with four steady pars in a seven-hole stretch. If he is to truly contend this weekend, that’s the sort of rhythm he needs to both find and keep.

“Yeah I hit some great shots there,” he said of the sequence. “I had recovered from some sloppy ones early and unfortunately wasn’t able to keep that mojo going. But I played those holes really, really well, gave myself some great looks and was able to take advantage.

“I’m feeling comfortable out there. I feel like my game’s strong and I just have to keep hitting good shots, give myself some looks and see what we can do.”

Connors birdied Troon’s iconic Postage Stamp par-three eighth but his favourite shot of the day was a booming three wood from fully 291 yard into the long 16th, setting up a two-putt birdie.

Billy Horschel was another grateful for the early wake-up Friday. The American world No. 11 getting in with a halfway total that was one shot better off than Conners on two-under overall setting the early clubhouse mark with the on-course leaders hovering around five-under. Fellow Ontarian Hughes started three hours after Conners but found trouble near the turn, three-straight bogeys knocking him back to one-over for the tournament.

With Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland and many more luminaries facing into the teeth of things later in the day, the cutline was heading for somewhere around five-over. That was far beyond the reach of Tiger Woods as the three-time champion toiled Friday, his score heading towards 13-over-par with a handful of holes still to play.