McIlroy and Fleetwood take center stage at Carnoustie

[July 20, 2018]    By Tony Jimenez

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (Reuters) - Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood delighted the home galleries by surging through the field early in the British Open second round on Friday.

The 147th Open Championship - Carnoustie, Britain - July 20, 2018 Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy in action during the second round REUTERS/Paul Childs

The umbrellas were up and the waterproofs out as rain greeted the players at the start, in complete contrast to the blue skies and sunshine that have been in evidence all week.

McIlroy, seeking to end a four-year major victory drought, seemed to have an extra spring in his step after joining overnight leader Kevin Kisner of the U.S. at the top of the leaderboard.

While Kisner was resting up ahead of his 12:53 p.m. (local time) tee-off, the 29-year-old Northern Irishman charged his way to five-under-par with birdies at the seventh, 10th, 13th and 14th.

World number 10 Fleetwood was going even better, the Englishman reeling off a succession of birdies to get to four-under through 16 holes having begun the day on one-over.

Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen and American Zach Johnson, who lifted the coveted Claret Jug at St Andrews in 2015, were also four-under through 14 and 13 holes respectively.

Former world number one Tiger Woods made an indifferent start with bogeys at the second and third but he bounced back in style with birdies at the fourth and fifth to return to level-par.

Dustin Johnson, the current number one, has it all to do to make the cut. The big-hitting American is four-over through 14 holes.

(Editing by John O'Brien and Christian Radnedge)

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