ENGLAND's Justin Rose knows he will have to produce something special today if he is to maintain his chances of winning the Open at Royal Birkdale.
A second-round 72, following Thursday's 74, left him six over and a distance away from leader KJ Choi on one under. With bad weather forecast today scoring could be high but the 27-year-old, who finished joint fourth on the Southport links as an amat
eur 10 years ago, accepts he has to shoot under par to realistically be able to challenge on the final day.
"It leaves a lot of work to do for the weekend but it is certainly not out of it with some windy conditions," said Rose. "I think anything under par keeps you in it. There is a logjam of guys on two to four over so you have to presume some of those will play well. With a tough weekend there will be a lot of guys falling back. It is tough to keep the mindset up for all four days and sometimes that gives you the opportunity to work your way up the leaderboard.
"In terms of winning the tournament from here, there are some quality guys up there and not everyone is going to struggle. All I know is that I have to go out there and play some quality golf.
"I don't care what the weather is like tomorrow because it is the same for everyone. But for me at six back I need the wind." Meanwhile, Britain's Chris Wood emulated the 1998 feat of Rose by chipping in at the last to take a firm hold of the race for leading amateur at the Open. While Rose's spectacular finish came from the left rough, Wood chipped over the greenside bunker to send his ball diving into the cup. His birdie three at the 18th gave him a level-par 70 in the second round and a five-over total of 145, making him the favourite to clinch the amateur's silver medal at Royal Birkdale.
"Unbelievable," Englishman Wood, 20, told reporters after easily making the halfway cut. "To finish like that was something special. I probably pitched it a yard short of where I wanted to and it ran straight into the hole. I fancied holing it because I'm chipping well." Wood, winner of the English Golf Union's 2007 order of merit, has his father Richard caddying for him this week.
He also has a large following of family, friends and fellow club members supporting his bid to capture the silver medal for top amateur, won by Rose a decade ago when he tied for fourth. "Obviously the silver medal is my main goal. I've made the cut and now I've got to finish as high as I can," Wood added.
Adam Scott has set his sights on a third-round charge to set up a dream pairing with fellow Australian Greg Norman on the last day.
"Paired with him in an Open at the weekend would be awesome," world number four Scott said after carding a four-over-par 74 yesterday. "I'll have to play well tomorrow and hopefully I'll catch him on Sunday."
Scott ended a blustery day on four-over 144, four strokes behind second-placed Norman, his childhood idol.
"It's fantastic," Scott said. "He's probably the most experienced player at this point in contention and he certainly knows how to get it done on these types of courses. When he was one under today through nine and I was still around that mark, I was trying to get myself up there so I could play with him over the weekend."
Scott was level with 12 holes to play before bogeying the seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th. Although he birdied the par-five 17th, he offset that with another bogey at the last.
The full article contains 654 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
