Unlike most of the British Open survivors, plucky West Australian Greg Chalmers was hoping for gale force winds from the Irish sea to sweep across Royal Lytham and St Annes on so-called moving day at the links course major.
Chalmers was one of five Australians plotting his pursuit of compatriot Adam Scott and American leader Brandt Snedeker after making the weekend cut.
The reigning Australian Open champion was tied for 15th at one-under par and nine strokes off the pace after miraculously avoiding all 206 bunkers in his second round of 68.
After making the Open cut for only the second time, and first since 1998, Chalmers was praying for some luck from the golfing gods.
“I need tougher weather than what we’ve had probably for the past couple of days because I’m probably not the guy who is going to make seven or eight birdies,” he said.
“But I can make three or four on a tough day and pick up some shots if we get a 20 or 30 mile an hour wind and a little more run.
“So if we had some tougher weather and if we had to grind it out a little more, that would suit me nicely.”
Geoff Ogilvy also struck a second-day 68 to break his miserable Open run of five straight missed cuts.
The US Open champion hurled himself back to even par with four birdies in his last 10 holes and wasn’t giving up the ghost either.
“It’s not the sort of golf course that someone’s going to run away and hide,” Ogilvy said.
“If I keep chipping away and playing well, hopefully I’ll have lots of chances.
“They’re the sort of greens that you can hole a lot of putts on because they’re very flat.
“The hard part is the first two shots on every hole. If you get that right, you’re going to have a chance to make birdie on a lot of holes.
“If I can hit the ball well and make a few birdies, you never really know.”
John Senden, at one-over after a 71, also survived the chop, as did Aaron Baddeley for the first time in seven attempts dating back to his debut at Lytham in 2001.
After teeing off at 6.15am in the second group of the day, Brendan Jones had an agonising nine-hour wait before learning he’d made the halfway cut right on the bubble at three-over following a 74.
But Marc Leishman (75), Marcus Fraser (73) and major rookies Nick Cullen (71) and Aaron Townsend (74) all missed out on weekend action by one shot.
Ashley Hall (75) was unable to repeat his first-round heroics and missed out by two.
Veteran Robert Allenby (75) finished at seven-over in his 20th Open appearance and was also on his way home, as was Brad Kennedy after rounds of 75 and 73 left him at eight-over.
