Jackson Suber got a taste of links-golf vagaries in Round 2 of The Open, where he shot 1-under 69 to maintain a spot near the top of the leaderboard.
At 6 under, he was in solo second place when he signed his card.
The overnight leader, Suber made birdie on his second hole Friday to extend his advantage before making three consecutive bogeys on Nos. 6-8. He turned in 2-over 36, dropping to 3 under. Midway through his second round, which began at 7:30 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. ET), Suber was tied for fifth, one shot behind a quartet of leaders.
“Two of them, I hit two putts — they were only 20 or 30 feet — just way too hard, and kind of just settling myself down,” Suber said of his bogeys. “I even took a glance up at the leaderboard and saw it’s not like people were tearing it up.
“Just knowing that in a major things are going to get challenging at some point no matter how you play. Just being patient with that and letting the good golf come later.”
154th OPEN LEADERBOARD: ROUND 2 LIVE SCORING
And it did. He bounced back with birdies on Nos. 10 and 11 to get to even par for the round and 5 under for the championship. Despite another bogey at the 13th, he birdied both par 5s on the back nine, Nos. 14 and 17, to card his second-straight under-par round.
Suber said after Thursday’s opening 65, that he had never played links golf until Monday’s practice round at Royal Birkdale. In fact, he had never before been to Europe.
A former top-ranked amateur at Ole Miss, Suber made six birdies, one eagle and three bogeys in Round 1.