St Andrews — If Danny Willett still did not have the brightest of smiles on his face after setting a tough clubhouse mark on day two of the 144th Open Championship, you can blame his mum.
It’s all gone a bit bonkers on Twitter!!! 
great first 2 days!! Never a bad place to be!! Looking forward to an interesting weekend.
The 27-year-old Yorkshireman had put together another fantastic round of golf – a three-under par 69 that gave him a two-shot lead over Marc Warren, Zach Johnson and Adam Scott mid-way through the second round yesterday, but was brought down to earth pretty soon when he received a text from his mother.
“I just had a text message from my mum saying ‘Well done, you’ve made the cut’,” said Willett, ranked 39th in the world after some brilliant results in the last few months.
While it may have been a fine effort from Willett’s mother, Elizabeth, to keep her son grounded, there was no denying the Englishman was the real star on a rain-curtailed second day of the Championship.
In all, play was suspended for three hours and 14 minutes after a brief start in the morning, before a storm moved in and dumped 19mm rain in an hour over St Andrews. Links courses have great drainage, but that much rain left huge puddles on the fairways and filled up a few of the 112 bunkers on the golf course.
Willett was soon out on the golf course when play resumed at 1pm UAE time, and continued his love affair with a course on which he is a combined 41-under par in his last 10 rounds.
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Willett birdied the second, fifth and ninth to make the turn in 33, before another birdie on the 10th gave him a three-shot lead at that time over Johnson.
A couple of three-putt bogeys – on the 15th and 17th – reduced the gap, but Willett hit a great drive on the 18th hole to the edge of the green and pitched to eight feet for a closing birdie.
“It’s been two really good solid rounds of golf. I think probably the back nine is what’s kind of done it with some really good, solid shots there that did not put me in too much trouble or stress,” said Willett, who won the million-dollar NedBank Challenge in South Africa towards the end of last year and was third in the WGC-Cadillac Match Play this year.
“It’s a childhood dream and looking up there on the leaderboard, it’s still a little bit surreal, but something I’m going to have to get used to, otherwise no point in being up there.
“You can’t really put it out of your mind but it’s pretty cool. Leading the Open is what you dream about. For Brits especially, it’s the major you want to win and here at the Home of Golf it’s a little bit more special.”
When asked what made him tick at the Old Course, Willett said: “It kind of suits a fader. You kind of hit it middle of the golf course and kind of fade it back down the fairway around here.
“Ball flight and control…I’ve done pretty good around links golf courses throughout my career. We obviously played a lot as an amateur. I seem to kind of control the ball quite well, and you can hit different shots and cut it against the wind or draw it against it to make your distance play a little bit easier.
“It’s just one of them places. It lends itself to good golf. You play well, there’s a good score out there.”
Johnson, who shot a battling 66 in terrible playing conditions on Thursday evening, made four birdies yesterday, but was undone by three bogies on the back nine.
Despite following it up with a 71 in much better conditions, Johnson remained upbeat about his chances.
“It’s going to be a lot of great golf to get to that point (a win),” said the former Masters champion.
“You just never know what’s going to come about with the conditions and the factors presented, but I feel like mentally I’m in a place that I can combat essentially whatever comes my way, just because there’s a little bit of confidence.
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to, and I get that. My outlook right now is really just to keep doing what we’re doing, trying to stay physically and mentally fresh, and just enjoy the ride because this is just a lot of fun.
