LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England — Brandt Snedeker plays fast and talks even faster, and he was on a roll Friday in the British Open. He raced up the leaderboard with five birdies in a seven-hole stretch, tied the 36-hole record for a major championship and looked like he was bent on running away from the field at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
Not so fast.
Along came Adam Scott, playing cautiously and picking his spots for three birdies on the back nine to close to one shot. Not far behind was Tiger Woods, sticking to a conservative game plan and delivering a dramatic finish by holing out from the bunker to set off a wild cheer from 6,000 spectators crammed into the bleachers.
As the second round ended, this Open was just getting started.
On another benign day when the only concern was pools forming in the bottom of pot bunkers from overnight rain, Snedeker became the latest player to match the course record at Royal Lytham with a 6-under 64.
He has yet to make a bogey over 36 holes, the first player to go bogey-free in the opening two rounds of a major since Woods won at St. Andrews in 2000. Snedeker’s 10-under 130 tied the 36-hole record set by Nick Faldo in 1992, when he won the Open at Muirfield, and it broke by four shots the 36-hole record at Lytham.
Even more amazing? Snedeker hasn’t hit into any of the 206 bunkers in two days.
“No bogeys around here is getting some good breaks and playing some pretty good golf,” Snedeker said. “Once I’m on there (the greens), I have a pretty good hand for the speed of the greens. Just going to try and keep doing that over the weekend.”
Snedeker has never made the cut in three previous trips to the British Open, although this brand of golf is nothing new. As a rookie on the PGA Tour in 2007, he was 10 under through 10 holes on the North Course at Torrey Pines before having to settle for a 61. He picked up his third win there this year by rallying from a seven-shot deficit on the last day to beat Gig Harbor’s Kyle Stanley.
“Brandt is a momentum-type guy, once he gets going and starting making putts and hitting shots,” said Mark Calcavecchia, another player who doesn’t waste time. “He plays quick and he’s got the quick tempo and he putts quick. And they go in quick. That’s awesome golf.”
Scott, who had a 64 on Thursday, has never been in such good shape at a major going into the weekend.
“Why I’ve played good this week is kind of a culmination of everything I’ve done over the last couple of years,” Scott said. “I feel like this is the path I’ve been going down.”
The biggest name was Woods.
Woods mapped out a strategy for navigating the bunkers of Royal Lytham, and not even a change in the weather – only a breath of wind – will take him away from that. He has hit driver only three times this week. On the par-5 11th, where several players hit driver for a chance to go for the green in two, Woods laid back with an iron. He pulled it into the rough, and it cost him. Woods had to get up-and-down from behind the green for a bogey.
That was his lone mistake, however. He holed an 18-foot birdie on the 16th hole, and then fooled by what little wind there was on the 18th, recovered by holing out from the greenside bunker with a shot that rolled into the cup for his second straight 67 and a 6-under 134.
Woods will find out if his record in the majors still means anything. This was the eighth time he has opened a major with two rounds in the 60s, and he went on to win on the seven previous occasions – including all three of his Open titles.
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