Former Open champion Shane Lowry got his second round off to a strong start to move into the outright lead on day two.
The Irishman was one of the few to master the blustery conditions on day one, finishing on five-under par without a single dropped shot and one behind surprise overnight leader, Englishman Dan Brown.
Day two began with relatively benign conditions for the early starters but with the wind picking up as Lowry took to the first tee a little before 10am. Despite that, he managed a six-foot putt for birdie for a share of the lead on the opening hole.
He had birdie chances at all four of the opening holes, with varying degrees of difficulty. At the second, he was left a putt from 30ft, this time after slightly overshooting the flag. He two-putted that to stay six-under par.
He looked in a strong position to take the outright lead at the next hole but, having looked unstoppable with the putter on day one, he was just off line from about eight feet.
Unflustered, he made amends with a birdie on four to go seven-under and one clear.
Looking ahead to the rest of the tournament, Lowry, who won five years ago at Portrush, said after his first round at Royal Troon: “There’s three rounds left. If I don’t play well the next three rounds, it doesn’t matter what I shot today. I’m fully aware that I have a job to do over the next three days. I’d give anything to win this tournament again. I’d give anything to give myself a chance to win this tournament again, and that’s why I’m here this week. This is obviously a great start to do that.
“It’s hard to get to the front. When you do get to the front, you kind of have to keep going and keep your foot down and see where it leaves you at the weekend.”
Germany’s Marcel Siem had been the form man on course early on, enjoying a storming start to his round with five birdies in his opening eight holes before double-bogeying the ninth and picking up three more bogeys with four still to play as the back nine reared its ugly head, as it had for many others yesterday.
Another former Open champion, Darren Clarke, rolled back the years after his opening-day 77 and picked up three shots in his opening five holes. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods had a double-bogey on the second to move into double figures over par.
The forecast was for a dry day, but with windy conditions expected to wreak havoc at points, as it had done yesterday, and reaching its peak in the early afternoon.
McIlroy, among the later starters on the course for round two, was hoping for a better showing after a difficult opening day. In round one, the four-time Major champion recorded a solitary birdie and his round fell apart from the eighth, where he dropped five shots in four holes, including double-bogeys on the eighth and 11th.
He finished his round with a bogey on 18, having also dropped another shot on 15, to end the day on seven-over par and struggling to avoid the cut.
Looking ahead to the weekend, he said: “I just [need to] come out and try to play better and be here for the weekend. The conditions look like they’re going to be pretty similar again.
“I have to do a better job in those conditions and I need to go out there and play better and try to shoot something under-par and at least be here for the weekend, if not try to put myself up the leaderboard a bit more and feel like I have half a chance.”
Looking back on a difficult day one, he said: “I felt like I did okay for the first part of the round. I was actually surprised how difficult the back nine played. I thought we were going to get it a little bit easier than we did. The course was playing tough. Just one of those days where I just didn’t adapt well enough to the conditions.”
