Justin Rose fights back to finish tied for second in Round 2 of Open Championship; Shane Lowry leads

TROON, Scotland – By the time 30 mile per hour gusts of the Firth of Clyde destroyed golf rounds through much of Friday afternoon, Shane Lowry and Daniel Brown stood atop the Open Championship field ready to play in the final group Saturday.

They still will, but it was 43-year-old Justin Rose who fought through brutal conditions to shoot a 3-under-par 68 to tie Brown and get within two of the leader, Lowry at 7 under par. Playing in the tougher tee time window in both rounds, Rose went 29 holes before his first bogey and has just one bogey through 36 holes.

Lowry, the 2019 Open Champion, shot 69 to jump Brown for the solo second-round lead Friday. He did it despite a dramatic double bogey on the 11th hole that included disagreements with R&A officials and a 20-minute delay.

Lowry, coming off a first-round 66 in which he led the field in putting, led the tournament in ball striking Friday with five birdies. The Irishman attacked pins all day and took the lead despite missing three putts inside 10 feet.

Just behind him are Rose and 29-year-old English journeyman Brown, who shot a 1-over 72 to stay in a strong position after a first-round-leading 65 on Thursday. Brown, ranked No. 272 in the world, entered the Scottish Open last week coming off six straight missed cuts. He finished 61st last week, but now he’s in the final group at The Open.

Lowry entered that 11th hole 7 under with a two-shot lead, but when hitting his second shot from a good lie in the rough, he shanked it into the thick gorse bushes and hit a provisional.

“I hit a great provisional. The referee asked me going down, ‘Did I want to find my first one?’ ” Lowry recalled. “And I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it.”

After 20 minutes of deliberation, Lowry took his unplayable lie penalty and hit his shot. He double bogeyed the hole.

R&A rules official Charlie Maran explained: “You can declare a ball lost, but when it’s actually found, it is the ball in play. The provisional ball that he did play now becomes a wrong ball. So, he has to take his options with his original ball.”

Lowry then finished with birdies on 16 and 18 to regain the solo lead into the weekend.

Billy Horschel had only one career major top-10 finish entering 2024. He then finished tied for eighth at the PGA Championship in May, and Friday he shot a bogey-free 68 to put himself in the mix. He’s tied for fourth with LIV golfer Dean Burmester and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who has shot consecutive 70s to stay afloat.

Tiger Woods finished 14 over but still committed to playing in The Open next year, in addition to the other majors. He said he will not play again until his Hero World Challenge event in the Bahamas in November.

Many other top stars missed the cut at Royal Troon, which closed at 6 over. That included Bryson DeChambeau, Rory McIlroy, Sahith Theegala, Wyndham Clark, Viktor Hovland, Tony Finau, Ludvig Aberg and Tommy Fleetwood.