150th Open Championship - Cameron Smith takes over at the top

The 150th Open Championship just isn’t failing to excite and, going into the weekend, it’s very much still up in the air who will hoist the claret jug aloft on Sunday.

Young took an overnight lead into day two and would consolidate that with a -3 to see him move to -11 for the competition.

But the story of the day was the performance of Australian Smith whose magnificent -8 will see him enter Saturday as the tournament leader on -13.

The chasing pack is stacked with huge names, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Viktor Hovland amongst those within touching distance of the two Camerons who sit first and second.

With overnight leader Young one of the later starters it gave those tucked in behind a chance to eat into his lead.

There were plenty of moves during the early part of the day, Sergio Garcia wiping out an overnight +3 to card a -3 66 and fire his way into contention.

Johnson, Adam Scott and Tyrrell Hatton were amongst the others making a move ahead of round three.

Johnson was particularly impressive, quietly going about his business as he added a 67 to Thursday’s 68 to see him surge to the top end of the leaderboard.

Sadly, as the day progressed and with the cut mark never drifting far from even par, the big names started to tumble.

Few in the sport are as big as Tiger Woods and sadly +9 for his two rounds saw him cut some way adrift.

The three time winner was afforded a standing ovation from a packed gallery, Woods admitting afterwards that 2022 was likely to be his last Open at the home of golf.

But fans of the golfing great were given a real boost when the 46-year-old confirmed that his time playing competitive golf was far from done and that he would be appearing at future Opens.

Following Woods’ exit focus turned back to play and the battle to enter the weekend on top.

Young added to his scoring on his opening nine holes, reaching the turn in 34 while Smith made a positive move, surging to the top of the pile.