There was so much grinding done at Muirfield that the dentists will be open for business today, but Miguel Angel Jimenez is smiling, a cigar poking from his teeth.
In a Level 3 heatwave (whatever that is) we had scores on the second day of the 142nd Open Championship more akin to Royal Birkdale’s freezing sleet five years ago.
Then, they were moving tees up because some players couldn’t reach cut grass. Here, the ball wouldn’t stop on the baked fairways and one drive, from Robert Garrigus, travelled more than 400 yards.
Nearly 90 players have qualified for the final two rounds, the most since they had 112 at Birkdale in 1991 and abolished the 10-shot rule as a result. They didn’t need to reinstate it this year, because 10 shots covers the field.
Jimenez, at 49 aiming to be the oldest man to win a major championship, shot a par 71 to lead at three-under by a shot from five players, including Tiger Woods and Lee Westwood, both unfulfilled at the majors for vastly different reasons. Westwood’s 68 was the best of the day along with Charl Schwartzel.The Open liveblog: click here for Steve’s live updates from MuirfieldBehind them, there’s a further bunch on one-under, including Scotland’s Martin Laird.
What will First Minister Alex Salmond, boycotting this event, do if Laird is Scotland’s first Open winner since 1999?
But there’s a long way to go and anyone within five or even six of the lead can entertain a hope of winning especially if conditions remain as much of a trial as they were on Friday.
While the older oldies O’Meara (78) and Lehman (77) crumbled in the heat, Jimenez ground out a par 71 to leave him in the same position, ready to feel the pressure, but only Saturday’s.
“I don’t know now what will happen Sunday afternoon, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” he said. “So tonight I will have a nice cigar and when the sun comes, I will deal with it then.
“I need to feel that pressure, to feel intense, to feel competitive,” said the leader. “You want to feel that pressure and if you can handle it and are comfortable with it, it’s no problem.
“And that is the fun. Fun is not falling on the ground and laughing. You might see me look serious, but I am playing golf and it is tough, and that is fun to me. Although I smile when I see myself at the top of the leaderboard.”
Miguel famously loves his espresso, his Rioja and his cigars, but that’s actually a smokescreen (sometimes literally).
Don’t be fooled into thinking these pleasures are his entire lifestyle he is yoga devotee, he is “elastic and flexible” and he trains hard, too hard when he came back from his skiing leg break earlier this year and gave himself tennis elbow.
“As you see, I don’t lift weights,” he said, flexing his muscles. “But I need to train and walk to play golf because it’s what I like to do with my life.
“Tonight I will have dinner with my girlfriend and my sons like I always do. And I will go to bed when I like. After I smoke my cigar.”
Westwood shot the best round of the day but left us feeling a little short-changed, even if that was the wrong assessment in the conditions.
He played picture-perfect golf in the conditions to be six-under for the day at the 12th, but he was the only one capable of such yesterday. That he lost three strokes on the tough back nine, with an opposite wind making the 14th, 15th and 17th holes brutally tough, should have been expected.
“I felt pretty comfortable,” he said of that early run. “Hitting the ball well, putting nicely, then the golf course got really difficult.
“My attitude was why not enjoy it out there? This is the biggest tournament of the year to me, it’s tough for everybody, so smile your way through it.
“I felt if I came out and shot level par, one-over would be right in contention,” he continued, and five hours after he finished it indeed was.
“Three-under today and two-under (overall) is a real bonus. I could be leading at the end of the day, you never know.”
He wasn’t, and having actually got to the lead of the championship, some will mark this as another Westwood chance at a major, but surely not on a Friday. If he’s atop the leaderboard tonight or during tomorrow’s play, then you can mark it up.
Henrik Stenson, also on two-under, pointed out that it was important not to get carried away even downwind with the fairways running at 12 on the stimp-meter.
“I stood on the 12th tee,” said the thoughtful Swede. “I said to my caddie we could easily drive the green. But he said, ‘we haven’t looked, there’s some funky places down there’.
“So I put the driver back, hit a seven-iron, sand-iron a bit left and walked off with a four. That’s never going to hurt you. Par is always a good score in a major.”
Zach Johnson waited all day to go out and might not have expected to do so with his lead still intact, but as the course hardened he fell away to a 75.
Angel Cabrera, Rafael Cabrera-Bello and Dustin Johnson of the later starters also had a share or the outright lead at some point, but none could hold on to it.
Zach Johnson was five-under with five to play but lost two at 15, where the green was so quick it became almost impossible to hold with an approach shot. Cabrera, four-under with five to play, dropped a shot there as well, and both dropped shots on the last.
Dustin Johnson’s 72 was decent work in the circumstances, even though the best he ever got to was three-under.
There’s so many left here that plotting a winner is a lottery. It won’t be Rory McIlroy, who finished at 12-over, and is left to regroup elsewhere.