Harman sets round two pace at Royal Liverpool Open

Brian Harman hit a sensational six-under-par 65 to race five clear of the field during round two of The Open.

Rory McIlroy’s 69 lifted him to one under, while Tyrrell Hatton had a nine at the last to end two over after a 73.

Joint overnight leader Tommy Fleetwood is among the later starters and resumes in second place on five under.

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, who shared the lead with Fleetwood, double-bogeyed the second as he fell back with a 74. South African amateur Christo Lamprecht is out on the course, meanwhile, and had four bogeys in his opening six holes.

But Friday morning was all about Harman, whose 65 was three shots better than the next best of the early starters – Australia’s Min Woo Lee, who climbed to joint fourth on three under with a 68.

His total of 132 shots matches that of Tiger Woods in 2006 and McIlroy in 2014 here at Royal Liverpool, and they both went on to win.

Left-hander Harman, who started one shot off the lead after Thursday’s 67, drained putts of 19, 25 and 17 feet on the second, third and fourth holes to go two ahead and a further birdie followed on the par-five fifth.

“I’ve had a hot putter the past couple of days so I’ll try to ride it through the weekend,” he said.

“There were several holes where it could have gone either way on the back nine. I’m fortunate to finish where I did and I’m really pleased with it.”

A run of 12 pars was kept going on the 12th when Harman, who finished joint sixth last year at St Andrews, chipped in from the rough to avoid dropping a shot.

Just Stop Oil protesters briefly halted play at the par-three 17th hole with orange flares and powder but that was cleared well before Harman escaped with a par, after splashing out of a bunker to seven feet.

And he wrapped up an already superb round with a 240-yard second shot into the heart of the par-five 18th green before rolling in his eagle putt.

McIlroy ‘gave shots away on easier holes’

McIlroy reached halfway for the Championship under par, but only after holing an eight footer for birdie on the last. The world number two missed two other birdie putts from closer in on a day when his scrambling skills came to the fore.

Six times he putted to save par after failing to reach the green in regulation, including a 14-footer on the 14th.

The four-time major champion had started brightly with two birdies in his opening five holes, but found the going tougher on the back nine, dropping shots on the 11th and par-five 15th.

“I got off to a great start, was a couple under through nine, and then gave those shots away on two of the easier holes on the course, 11 and 15,” said the Northern Irishman.

“But it was nice to at least get one of them back on 18 there. I might be nine back, but I don’t think there’s going to be a ton of players between me and the lead going into the weekend.”

The 18th has not yet yielded quite so many big scores as in round one, but England’s Hatton fell foul of the internal out of bounds, hitting two tee shots beyond the boundary as he closed with a quintuple-bogey nine that dropped him from two under to two over.

That’s the same score as world number three Jon Rahm, who bemoaned several missed short putts in his one-under 70.

“Those are four shots that you can’t give up in major championships,” said the Masters champion. “Two over or two under makes a massive difference right now in the score, and that’s mainly it, luck or fortune aside.”

More to follow.