Corey Conners shot two-under on the second day of the Open Championship to make the cut at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland.Warren Little/Getty Images
There’s isn’t much that’s memorably good that you can do on the second day of a golf tournament.
On Friday, Rory McIlroy kept himself in it. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler put up the best round of his major career, and took the lead. Great stuff. Unless either one wins this year’s Open, no one will remember any of that.
But memorably bad? That’s definitely doable.
On Friday, Shaun Norris scored a 10 on the par-four fourth. Up on the big board, they really have to squeeze in the double digits, so it popped all day long.
How does a professional golfer score a sextuple bogey on a hole that isn’t on water? It’s an involved process.
Norris’s tee shot was out of bounds, so he dropped and shot again. That one went into a fairway bunker – one he’d also hit the day before. The next shot hit the lip of the bunker. Same with the next one.
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“After that, the mind sort of like went a little numb,” Norris said later.
Four shots later, he’d finally gotten it onto the fairway. Then he missed the green. He did manage to one-putt it, and then birdie the next hole.
Norris, a 43-year-old South African journeyman, was having a pretty good Open. Were it not for the fourth hole, you’d be seeing him again on Saturday. But that happened so he’s headed home. On the mused scale, he came out more a- than be- about his day. He even laughed about it.
Shaun Norris of South Africa carded a 10 on the par-four fourth hole on Friday at the British Open.Warren Little/Getty Images
“This game can break the biggest person and people on this planet,” Norris said. “I learned a lot again from this week.”
Like the ’10, the word ‘again’ really pops in that sentence.
The Open Championship is different in many ways, but the one that’s most instructive is its unfairness. You can do things the right way, and they just break wrong.
Unlike almost every other sport, there is never anyone to blame that on. It’s only you and the ball. On this terrain and in this air, the ball does what it likes.
Last year at Troon, Japan’s Aguri Iwasaki scored a nine. Twice. On consecutive holes. The second was a par-3.
Iwasaki is a good golfer. He’s won tournaments. But go watch the video of him trying to hack his way out of a bunker. It’s like watching someone who doesn’t know what a trench is trying to dig one.
On the opposite end of the scale there was Bryson DeChambeau.
On his first day at the tournament, DeChambeau was a mess, particularly at the end. He bogeyed the two final holes, finishing the day seven over. At several points, you could see him about to throw a rod, or a club, or maybe his caddie. Once the pain was over, he stalked off the course in a huff.
Bryson DeChambeau of the United States recorded six birdies on Friday, including four on the final six holes, to make the cut at the British Open.Christian Petersen/Getty Images
About 16 hours later, DeChambeau could do no wrong. Six birdies, including four in the last six holes. He’d just snuck back up to the cutline at plus 1. No one had a better day. What changed?
“I played the same as I did yesterday,” DeChambeau said.
You read that line and assume it was said in a friendly way. It was not. Everything had broken his way, and he still wasn’t happy.
DeChambeau said the only reason he hadn’t freaked out earlier was because, “I want to be a good role model for kids.”
I can imagine the many at-risk teens who are taking their life cues from this guy, a golfer.
For the four Canadians here, it was a mixed bag.
Nick Taylor played well, was unlucky and missed another Open cut by two shots.
“I’m very frustrated from yesterday because there’s just a lot of dumb things I don’t do,” Taylor said afterward.
Then Taylor explained that he’d hit the ball where he wanted to, but the “feel” wasn’t there. As in, the ball did what it wanted after he hit it to the place he meant it to go. Unfair.
Nick Taylor hits his tee shot on the 14th hole during the second round of the British Open on Friday. The Canadian missed the cut by two shots.Russell Cheyne/Reuters
His countryman, Corey Conners, was on the other side of the ledger. He skated along the cutline all day long. Midafternoon, it moved above him. Later, as the rains came, it ebbed below him again.
Conners came up the 18th needing a par to remain. Facing a four-foot putt – the disaster distance – Conners holed it. He’ll be the only Canadian to play this weekend.
Barring a Twilight Zone-esque couple of days, he’s not going to win this thing. But Conners will at least get to wave the flag while the world watches.
That seems fair.