Open Championship: Halftime report from Royal Birkdale

At the 146th Open Championship unfolds, Royal Birkdale is proving once again to be one of the great courses on Earth.

The Open Championship at its mid-point is all about Jordan Spieth.

Have you ever noticed how all the golf courses considered great boast a list of golf’s greatest Champions who have won there? Royal Birkdale is no exception. Some of the game’s all time greats have won the Claret Jug there. Palmer, Watson, Trevino head the list of Royal Birkdale champions.

They are about to have company if modern legend Jordan Spieth keeps golfing his ball over the weekend as he did Thursday and Friday.

The 2017 Open Championship is halfway complete but far from over despite being fairly dominated by one of the games great young legends.

Jordan Spieth begins the weekend with a 2-shot lead after posting a 1-under 69 on Friday. Matt Kucher trails Spieth by two shots after his round of 71 left him at 4-under for the tournament.

The scores were absolutely horrific on Friday at Royal Birkdale as was the weather. Quintessential Open Championship conditions turned Royal Birkdale into a sea-side monster disguised as a links by the sea golf course.

In Scotland it is said, no wind and rain, no golf. Apparently that’s the way it works down in England as well. Royal Birkdale and Mother Nature tortured the game’s best during the second round. At no point during Friday’s round did playing looked even remotely appealing to me. Evidently I’m not the only one who is of that opinion.

For the most part the Big Boys ended up making the cut. I’m not sure if you asked a couple of them if they considered that to be a good thing, they would actually say yes.

The conditions are expected to improve over the next two days but only Rory McIlroy and U.S. Open Champion Brooks Koepka have a possible chance of catching up. Well that’s not entirely accurate. They are the only ones from the young bombers club that might catch Spieth. Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, and Jon Rahm all somehow managed to make the cut and if any of them were to happen to shoot 60 on Saturday they would maybe be back in contention.

I feel the need to clarify a myth.

Jordan Spieth hits it longer than anyone you know.

The TV folks would have you believe Spieth is a short hitting old man who chips in 10 times a round and 1-putts the other eight greens. Spieth is a 23-year old kid with a golf game to whom few who have played the game can compare.

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Spieth is on a path to being mentioned alongside Hogan, Snead, Nelson, Nicklaus and Woods. You aren’t capable of being considered in the same breath as those fellows if you don’t win majors. You can’t win majors unless you can hit the golf ball extremely well.

I plead guilty to being biased toward Spieth. I do expect him to win but to do so he is going to have to not only drive it more accurately on Saturday and Sunday at Royal Birkdale, but he also has to exorcise some demons.

Remember the shot Spieth hit on 17 at Chambers Bay in 2015? He made double but still won. He lost the 2016 Masters on number 12 on Sunday with the same miss and did the same thing this year on number 12 on Sunday to knock himself out of contention. He made the same miss at this year’s Byron Nelson and it caused a missed cut.

Every one of those swings was made under pressure and the result was a shot hit way short and right of where it was intended. Spieth is one of those swings away from letting the entire field of players who survived the cut back into this year’s Open Championship.

Next: Royal Birkdale's Champions

The story line for Saturday and Sunday will of course be about the weather but it ultimately will be about Jordan Spieth adding his name to the list of great Champions Royal Birkdale has produced, and Jordan Spieth being 3/4 complete of a career Grand Slam. Royal Birkdale just somehow makes itself historic. Regardless of the weather.

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