“I need to lie down in a dark room. It’s brutal out there,” said England’s Matthew Southgate who realised how it feels to play like any club golfer at the weekend.
The 152nd Open Championship has been a refreshing change from the modern target golf mumbo jumbo and has lent itself to the aristocrats, the creators and the steady Eddies of golf.
Through 36 holes has the standard of play been appalling or has Troon acted as a leveller and thus exposed the modern game as being a one dimensional limited style?
Conditions on Thursday were not that difficult yet big names like Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Äberg, Cameron Smith and Bryson DeChambeau all missed the cut before Tony Finau and Viktor Hovland saw their chances gone with the wind during the 30mph gusts on Friday afternoon.
Dotted around the links here are Open signs reading ‘Forged by Nature.’ The modern game is not built for Mother Nature. It’s not built for gale force winds, firm and fast terrain, hazardous bunkers or knee high fescue.
It’s tailor-made for wide and soft fairways, receptive and quick greens and generous rough.
How often do the top players in the world play on links courses? Once? Twice in a season maybe?
It’s amazing what a little wind can do.
Had the wind not switched for Thursday and maintained its direction from the three days of practice, we might have seen a different story. But with the easier front nine now playing into and off the right and the more difficult back nine playing down off the left it has negated the benefit of long hitting.
Big hitting into the wind on the difficult back nine would have been an advantage but the now not prevailing wind around Troon has limited the advantages and brought the field closer together.
Scrolling through the top-10 of the Open Championship leaderboard after 36 holes, it can be argued that nobody under par is known for big hitting.
Scattered at the top we have some of the best players at plotting their way from tee to green, we have creators, steely competitors and in Shane Lowry we have an artist.
This Open has been a retro edition of golf. Old fashioned is back in style. It should come as no surprise to see Lowry sitting top of the pile at the halfway point.
Lowry has prospered in the conditions and he has the shot making ability to cope.
In full flow he really is one of the great golfers to watch live. He can hit it low, high, left right, stinger cuts, hooky draws. He manoeuvres the golf ball in a variety of ways and he always looks in control.
The All-Ireland Hurling final throws in at 3.30pm on Sunday and all going well, Lowry will miss it as he attempts to play some ground hurling of his own and win a second Open title.
There has been no hiding place at the Open this week, while the likes of McIlroy and co have whiffed and whacked their way through the fescue rough, often looking embarrassing at times.
Justin Rose had to come through Final Qualifying a fortnight ago to book his spot in the Open and having not missed a Claret Jug week since 2007 he is still a steely competitor and in truth, played the best golf on Friday in the worst of the conditions to muscle himself into second place.
There are concerns that with modern technology and how far the golf ball travels that some links courses may become obsolete but if the weather lends a hand, links golf will always be a great leveller.
Harrington played with young hotshot Davis Thompson of America who in fairness did very well to make the cut after looking a little lost in the wind early on Thursday according to the Dubliner. The youngsters are just not used to this and it’s great.
If the field were to have played a combined worst ball on Friday they would have shot a collective 128 of 57-over-par. One player failed to break 90, carding an inexplicable 91.
It’s been a great week so far for the over 50s club with 55-year-old Darren Clarke making his first cut at the Open since 2016 while 53-year-old Alex Cejka, the Senior Open champion has made it to the weekend for just the second time in his career in his first appearance since 2008.
Three-time major winner, Harrington eased into the weekend at 52 years of age while Phil Mickelson who became the oldest ever major championship winner when he won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island in 2021, also made the cut aged 54.
Only at The Open.