LYTHAM ST. ANNES, England – Luke Donald has had the weight of a country on his shoulders here at Royal Lytham & St. Annes while searching for his first major championship.
The Englishman rebounded from an opening-round 70 and shot 68 Friday at the Open Championship to stand at 2 under par to put him safely inside the top-10 heading into the weekend.
“The difference between yesterday’s and today’s round was I holed a few more putts,” Donald said. “Still the only disappointing thing probably was I gave myself a lot of opportunities from 100 to 150 yards with the greens being pretty soft, not much wind. I wasn’t quite sharp enough, hitting a lot of shots from that distance of 25 feet, and I felt like I could have created some more opportunities that way.”
Donald began the round shaky and made bogey on the third hole but then rattled off three consecutive birdies before adding another one at No. 8. But two bogeys on the inward nine holes stalled a successful round and Donald is eight shots behind leader Brandt Snedeker.
“Obviously where I am in my career I need to be contending,” Donald said. “Obviously this was a good solid two rounds, and looking forward to the weekend.”
