Shane Lowry believes he is ready to take whatever is thrown at him "on the chin" after keeping his bid for a second Open title firmly on track at Royal Troon.
Lowry added a second round of 69 to his opening 66 for a halfway total of seven under par and two-shot lead over English duo Justin Rose and Dan Brown, who both came through 36-hole final qualifiers earlier this month.
With a strong wind sending scores soaring for the later starters, Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Aberg and Tommy Fleetwood all missed the cut, but home favourite Robert MacIntyre and Justin Thomas fought back from horror starts to make the weekend.
Lowry also recovered from a double bogey on the 11th with birdies on the 16th and 18th as he bids to lift the Claret Jug for a second time following his triumph at Royal Portrush in 2019.
Surprise overnight leader Brown, who had completed a flawless 65 at 9.33pm on Thursday, battled to a second round of 72, while Rose returned a superb 68 and has dropped just one shot in 36 holes.
The Open third-round tee times
(Saturday, July 20, all times BST)
08:55am: Darren Fichardt, Tommy Morrison
09:05am: Guido Migliozzi, Max Homa
09:15am: Shubhankar Sharma, Sungjae Im
09:25am: Abraham Ancer, Luis Masaveu
09:35am: Matt Fitzpatrick, Darren Clarke
09:45am: Rickie Fowler, Jorge Campillo
09:55am: Harris English, Robert MacIntyre
10:05am: Aaron Rai, Matt Wallace
10:20am: Adam Scott, Daniel Hillier
10:30am: Younghan Song, Andy Ogletree
10:40am: Si Woo Kim, Hideki Matsuyama
10:50am: Davis Thompson, Phil Mickelson
11:00am: Alex Cejka, Jacob Skov Olesen
11:10am: Ewen Ferguson, John Catlin
11:20am: Sean Crocker, Brian Harman
11:30am: Chris Kirk, Austin Eckroat
11:45am: Matteo Manassero, Justin Thomas
11:55am: Calum Scott, Joe Dean
12:05pm: Cameron Young, Kurt Kitayama
12:15pm: Ben An, Brendon Todd
12:25pm: Rasmus Hojgaard, Ryan Fox
12:35pm: Richard Mansell, Thriston Lawrence
12:45pm: Thorbjorn Olesen, Laurie Canter
12:55pm: Tom McKibbin, Emiliano Grillo
1:10pm: Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns
1:20pm: Padraig Harrington, Eric Cole
1:30pm: Adrian Meronk, MK Kim
1:40pm: Matthieu Pavon, Russell Henley
1:50pm: Nicolai Hojgaard, Alex Noren
2:00pm: Jeung-Hun Wang, Tom Hoge
2:10pm: Sepp Straka, Gary Woodland
2:20pm: Marcel Siem, Jon Rahm
2:35pm: Mackenzie Hughes, Collin Morikawa
2:45pm: Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson
2:55pm: Joaquin Niemann, Matthew Jordan
3:05pm: Patrick Cantlay, Xander Schauffele
3:15pm: Jason Day, Corey Conners
3:25pm: Scottie Scheffler, Dean Burmester
3:35pm: Billy Horschel, Justin Rose
3:45pm: Dan Brown, Shane Lowry
