Major opportunity beckons Dustin Johnson

Report by Anand Datla

July 18, 2015: Dustin Johnson will resume his second round on Saturday looking to build on a one shot advantage over Open Championship clubhouse leader Danny Willett.

England’s Willett set the pace on a weather-affected Friday, a day which ended at 9:55pm with five-time champion Tom Watson bidding an emotional farewell.

As play stuttered to a halt around the course following a delay of more than three hours due to torrential early rain, Watson and playing partners Ernie Els and Brandt Snedeker opted to complete their second rounds in near-darkness.

The trio and their caddies – with Watson’s son Michael on his bag – paused on the Swilcan Bridge on the 18th for the traditional photograph before Watson was left alone to take the applause of the spectators who had stayed on to salute the popular 65 year old.

A closing bogey, one of five in a row for a round of 80, barely mattered and was instead greeted with a loud cheer as officials and players applauded from the clubhouse steps.

In truth it was not the finish Watson deserved with the grandstands largely deserted, but the alternative was a return at 7am on Saturday to complete the round, with those players making the cut to be sent out in groups of three to make up lost time.

Willett had finished more than five hours earlier and is 41 under par for his last ten rounds on the Old Course, adding a 69 to his opening 66 to reach nine under par, two shots ahead of Scotland’s Marc Warren, former Masters champions Zach Johnson and Adam Scott and Robert Streb.

Dustin Johnson was ten under par with five holes remaining, with 1999 champion Paul Lawrie and Jason Day eight under with six and seven holes left respectively.

Masters and US Open champion Jordan Spieth, playing alongside Johnson, was five under par after three birdies and three bogeys in 13 completed holes.

Willett was entertaining thoughts of becoming the first English winner of the Open since Nick Faldo in 1992, although his mother Elisabet kept Willett’s feet planted firmly on the ground.

“I just had a text message off my mum saying well done, you’ve made the cut,” Willett joked in his post-round press conference.

“I’m sure there will be a few messages, I can feel my phone buzzing a little bit right now. But it might be a case tonight of turning the phone off and having a little bit of quiet time.”

After greenkeepers cleared the waterlogged course so play could restart at 10am, Willett carded birdies on the second, fifth and ninth to reach the turn in 33, before another birdie on the tenth gave him a three shot lead as Zach Johnson dropped shots on the 11th and 12th.

Three-putt bogeys on the 15th and 17th cut the gap to a single shot, but Willett took advantage of the downwind 18th to drive to the edge of the green and pitched to eight feet for a closing birdie.

“I looked at the leaderboard on 11 and knew we were three in front,” added vicar’s son Willett, whose best finish in a Major is a share of 15th at Muirfield in 2013. “It’s a childhood dream and looking up there it’s still a little bit surreal, but something I’m going to have to get used to, otherwise no point in being up there.

“It’s something you need to embrace, otherwise you’re going to have a pretty tough weekend if you don’t like being there.

“You can’t really put it out of your mind but it’s pretty cool.

Leading The Open is what you dream about. – Willett

“For Brits especially it’s the

Major you want to win and here at the Home of Golf it’s a little bit more special.”

Willett, 27, won the English Amateur title in 2007 and defeated Rory McIlroy in the first round of the Amateur Championship the same year, racing five up after six holes before eventually sealing victory on the 17th.

And later that year he and McIlroy were on the same team in the Walker Cup as Great Britain and Ireland lost out at Royal County Down to an American side featuring Rickie Fowler, Billy Horschel, Dustin Johnson and Webb Simpson.

Warren matched Willett’s 69 to boost Scottish hopes of a first home winner since Lawrie’s victory at Carnoustie 16 years ago.

“I’m delighted with that,” said Warren, who carded a closing 64 to finish fourth in the Scottish Open at Gullane on Sunday. “It was a long morning.”

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Source: European Tour Website