Fortunately for Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, his long Friday ended much better than it had started. He had nine holes to play to complete his second round, and promptly made a quadruple-bogey 8 on the 451-yard first hole. He said he completely lost his touch and four-putted.
“I haven't had a snowman for I don't know, what?” he said. “I haven't had a four-putt, should I say, for a very long time. It was one of those, I was, I just got it out, it was a comedy of errors. But I just completely misjudged the speed of the green. It was way faster uphill than what any putt that I've been hitting downhill was out here before I went out and I hit it 4 foot past, and hit it 4 foot past, and then I was sort of I’ll finish, I'll finish, I'll mark.’ But I was the worst in the field with the putter, and I struggled all the rest of the way around.”
Clarke was 7 over for the tournament when he stood on the 14th tee. He then holed a bunker shot for birdie to get something going; he hit 8-iron to 4 feet for birdie at 15; hit 7-iron to 3 feet at 16; hit 3-wood into a greenside bunker and got up and down for birdie at 17; and made par at 18 to shoot 68. At 3-over 143, he was well inside the cutline, which Friday afternoon was hovering near 6 over par.
“Got it back a little bit,” he said. “But then it's tough, it's a major, it's supposed to be tough, but it's tricky, it's really, really tricky out there. To get the wind -- and here, if you get the wind wrong, there's a couple of places where you can't afford to hit it, and unfortunately I did that.”
