Rory McIlroy believes he still has a chance of winning the 151st Open despite failing to make a serious move in his second round at Royal Liverpool.
The world number two did not build significantly on his level-par opening round as he shot a one-under 70 on Friday.
That left him nine shots off the lead held by Brian Harman but, even though he has much ground to make up, he is not writing off his chances.
"I might be nine back, but I don't think there’s going to be a ton of players between me and the lead going into the weekend," said the 34-year-old, who is bidding to end a nine-year wait for a fifth major title by winning for a second time at Hoylake.
"It depends what the conditions are tomorrow and obviously depends what Brian does as well.
"Right now it’s not quite out of my hands. I think if I can get to three, four, five under par tomorrow going into Sunday, I’ll have a really good chance."
McIlroy produced a strong finish on Thursday by saving par on the par-five fifth after hitting bunker trouble.
He looked to have carried some momentum into his second round with two early birdies but they were cancelled out by bogeys on the back nine.
Yet he got a shot back with another birdie on the 18th and, despite his frustrations, was happy enough with his performance.
McIlroy said: "It played really, really tough. Ten under par is unbelievably impressive out there.
"We’ll see what the weekend holds but I’m actually pretty happy with my two days’ work.
"I don’t think I have to do anything differently. I’m hitting the ball well from tee to green.
"I’ve missed a couple of chances on the greens and the wind got me today."
A potentially tricky position on 18. An impressive up and down.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 21, 2023
Rory McIlroy heads into the weekend under par. pic.twitter.com/MyYa14eeo5
Harman responded to missing the cut in the Masters back in April by returning to his farm in Georgia and killing a pig and a turkey.
Three months later, the left-hander carved out a commanding five-shot lead over home favourite Tommy Fleetwood at the halfway stage.
Harman carded four birdies in a row on the front nine and holed from 15 feet for an eagle on the 18th to complete a flawless second round of 65 and move to 10 under.
Fleetwood, who must have been taken aback to start his second round so far behind after sharing the overnight lead, closed to within four when he birdied the 14th and 15th, but dropped a shot on the next and eventually signed for a hard-fought 71.
That at least got the 32-year-old from Southport into the final group with Harman for Saturday's third round, with Austria’s Sepp Straka a shot behind Fleetwood following a brilliant 67 which included six birdies and a bogey in his last seven holes.
"I've been a hunter my entire life. I enjoy the strategy of it. Yeah, we eat a lot of wild meat at my house, so I enjoy butchering, and I do a lot of hunting." - Brian Harman
Speaking after his stunning round, Harman happily explained the story behind his unusual reaction to his Masters missed cut, laughing off a query about whether the local livestock would be safe this weekend.
"Sheep don’t taste as good as the turkeys do I would imagine," Harman said.
"I’ve been a hunter my entire life. I enjoy the strategy of it. Yeah, we eat a lot of wild meat at my house, so I enjoy butchering, and I do a lot of hunting."
Harman, who is bidding to become just the third left-hander to win the Open after Bob Charles (1963) and Phil Mickelson (2013), admitted he owed his position to a "hot putter" and would need to work hard on not getting ahead of himself this weekend.
"I’m just not trying to get too caught up in it. It’s just golf. I think when I held the 54-hole lead at the US Open (in 2017) I just probably thought about it too much.
"It’s hard for me. I’ve always struggled with trying to predict the future and trying to forecast what’s going to happen. I’ve just tried to get really comfortable just not knowing.
Harman made his Open debut at Hoylake in 2014 and finished 26th, but missed the cut on his next four appearances before finishing 19th in 2021 and sixth last year.
The halfway cut fell at three over par and world number one Scottie Scheffler made it with nothing to spare, thanks to a fortunate bounce from the edge of a greenside bunker on the 18th setting up a tap-in birdie.
Defending champion Cameron Smith also needed to birdie the last to survive, but went one better with an eagle.
Padraig Harrington made the cut by one shot as a round of 71, which featured three birdies and three bogeys, took him to three over for the tournament.
However, Seamus Power, Shane Lowry, Darren Clarke and amateur Alex Maguire all failed to make it to the weekend.
Lowry, the 2019 champion, began the day well inside the cut mark on one-over but slumped to a six-over 77, hitting four bogeys and a double on 14 while failing to sink a single birdie.
Power (+4) birdied the last but still missed out by a single shot after a four-over 75 that included two double-bogeys.
Clarke (77) finished a shot behind Lowry and Maguire added an 80 to his opening day 72.
