The Open, Day 2 Notebook: Joaco’s impressive rally; DJ, Brooks in mix

TROON, Scotland – Four shots in three different bunkers. Three putts. A quintuple bogey 8 – the worst kind of snowman in golf – on Royal Troon’s famed Postage Stamp hole.

RELATED: Burmester relishes being in contention entering the weekend at Royal Troon

Joaquin Niemann went from a tie for seventh on The Open leaderboard to tied for 47th midway through Friday’s second round. The damage had been done, but now his reaction was at hand. Would he let the one bad hole define his week … or was he ready to start clawing his way back into contention.

It turned out to be the latter. Birdie at 10. Birdie at 12. Birdie at 14. Birdie at 15. What should’ve been disaster became a rally cry.

Niemann fought his way back to even par for the first 36 holes at Royal Troon, leaving him in a tie for 11th going into the weekend. His opening 71 had been relatively drama-free. His Friday 71 was just the opposite – and a study in how to battle back from adversity.

“I'm pretty proud of the way I played after that hole,” the Torque GC captain said, “but if you ask me if I didn't make that 8 there, I could have been a few under par, I'd prefer that.”

Indeed. If he just pars the 120-yard hole, the shortest and fourth easiest hole on the course, he would be at 5 under and tied for second, two shots behind leader Shane Lowry. Instead, he’s got much more ground to cover, although with just 10 players in front of him and two days of who-really-knows weather conditions, the task doesn’t look completely daunting.

Still, the what-if question looms.

“What if? I mean, I have a saying for that, but I can't say it right now,” Niemann said. “I love to say it, but we'll leave it for after.”

Niemann was 1 under for his round when he reached the 8th. With a strong wind the left, he tried to hit a draw with a wedge to avoid the back left bunker. “I probably started too far right,” he said. “I'm not used to hitting draws when I take a wedge off. So, in that aspect, it's a tough shot for me.”

He finished in the back right bunker. Then the real misery started. His next shot came out too clean and into the bunker he was originally trying to avoid. He took two more shots to get out of that bunker – and his second ended up in the front right bunker.

He finally found the green with his fifth shot and proceeded to three-putt from 27 feet. “I was a little bit out of focus,” he said once he had putter in hand.

Afterwards, he consoled himself by focusing on the positives.

“I was playing great before that. I started really good, and I started hitting all my golf shots. One hole is not going to change that,” he said. “… You're always going to have tough holes, and you're going to try to recover out of that.

“That's what made me proud when I finished the round.”

And now he has a chance. Not sure if any major champion has ever carded a quintuple bogey. If that’s the case, Niemann would like to be the first. His confidence was pretty high Friday night.

“The way I look at it right now is happy to be in the position I'm in right now, happy to be at The Open playing late on Saturday, which is always fun,” he said. “Just going to go enjoy my day, and we'll see you here tomorrow.”

DJ MAKING MAJOR NOISE: The majors have not been kind to Dustin Johnson this year, but the two-time major winner insists his scores are not reflective of how he’s actually performing.

There was his two rounds at the Masters that he called the best “78 and 79 I’ve ever shot.” Then his backdoor top-50 at the PGA Championship when he closed with a 66. Then his missed cut at the U.S. Open when he was slowed by what he thinks was the flu.

“I haven't played great in them,” Johnson acknowledged of his major run in 2024, “but I feel like I'm playing better golf than my scores, if that makes any sense. I feel like I'm swinging well, I'm doing a lot of things really well. I'm just not getting the scores out of it.”

This week at The Open, he opened with a 3-over 74 and followed with a 2-under 69 that moved him inside the top 15 of the leaderboard, albeit eight strokes off the lead. Even with the improved results, the 4Aces GC captain still doesn’t think he’s getting the most out of his rounds.

“The misses, they were just barely off. Generally, when you're playing good, those misses you turn into pars instead of make a couple bogeys,” Johnson said.

Perhaps his late eagle in the second round is the sign that things are turning around. He hit a 7-wood 298 yards off the tee, then a 5-iron 263 yards to 24 feet, then drained the putt.

And how he’s lurking inside the top 15 at 1 over.

“I would have liked to get one more in there and get it back to even, but still as I sit now, it's not too bad,” he said. “Probably not going to be too far off. With a good weekend, you never know.”

BRYSON MISSES CUT: Bryson DeChambeau's stellar major run this season ended on Friday with a missed cut as he finished at 9 over after a 4-over 75.

"I didn’t play bad," DeChambeau said. "I just didn’t have things go my way, Like I said at the beginning of the week, you put marbles in a blender and you shake it up and that’s kind of what happens out here."

In the previous three majors, the Crushers GC captain finished a career-best T6 at the Masters, shot 20-under for solo second at the PGA Championship and won his second U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

Asked to assess his major campaign in 2024, DeChambeau said, "I’m happy with the way I played and I really don’t have the Open fully figured out yet."

BROOKS ‘DESERVING’ OF 73: Brooks Koepka failed to produce a birdie on Friday, but he did string together 12 consecutive pars to finish off a 2-over 73 that leaves him at 1 over through two rounds.

“I didn’t play very good today,” the Smash GC captain said. “Pretty deserving.”

The five-time major winner said after his opening 70 that had he some bad early swings, but he managed to overcome those with a string of four consecutive birdies.

Asked if Friday’s issues were a continuation of the day before, he replied: “Pretty much. Thought I had a lot better looks. Hit good putts. Just didn’t go in.”

WEEKEND WORK FOR MERONK: Adrian Meronk has reached the weekend of a major for the first time this year thanks to his 1-over 72 that leaves him at 3 over through two rounds.

The Cleeks GC player missed the cut for the first three majors this year. He said the combination of adjusting to life as a first-year LIV Golf player, along with a change in swing coaches after the Masters, impacted his play for the first half of the year.

“Obviously disappointed with other majors this year,” he said after Friday’s round, “but it's been a tough year for me, all of the changes … I think I needed some time to settle, and I think finally I can see some good signs that my game and myself are settling finally.

“I hope from now on I can just build something positive and keep going forward.”

Meronk is now working with Dave Phillips at the Titleist Performance Institute. Phillips also works with fellow LIV Golf players Jon Rahm and David Puig. He said the move away from his former coach after 14 years was simply a matter of needing a fresh voice to hear.

“It's a couple small, subtle changes because you can't make a lot of big changes during mid-season,” he said. “But it's just been on my mind. Masters and U.S. Open, I wasn't playing freely. PGA, I actually didn't play that badly. It just didn't go my way.

“Just the mind wasn't there, like I wasn't present in the moment, just thinking about swing and technique.”

Even so, the move already is paying off. Meronk recently had his best LIV Golf result in Houston when he finished second by a stroke to Carlos Ortiz while leading the Cleeks to their first-ever team title.

“It was a great sign,” Meronk said. “I actually came after two weeks' break being at home in Poland, so I did some good work there and prepared well, and just played really well in Houston. My mind was in a good place and the team played excellent. It was a great week for me and for the team.”

RAHM'S 'FANTASTIC' FRIDAY: Legion XIII Captain Jon Rahm shot a 1-under 70 and is lurking at 1-over and tied for 13th. "Obviously it was a fantastic day," Rahm said. "I would have signed anything around par, under par, and I told my dad, let's see if I can get back to even par for the tournament today."

Rahm was disappointed in bogeying the par-5 16th, the easiest hole on the course, and failing to convert a short birdie attempt at the 18th after a 404-yard drive and a brilliant shot of the bunker. On the flip side, he holed out from 49 yards for birdie at the ninth hole.

"I'm just a little frustrated I couldn't finish off the round," he said.

102 FOR PHIL: Phil Mickelson (+5) will play this weekend at Royal Troon. It's his 102nd made cut in 125 major starts and his first cut at The Open since 2018. He's 54 and second-oldest player to make the cut this week. Darren Clarke (+6) is 55. The HyFlyers GC captain's playing partner in Saturday's third round is American Davis Thompson, age 25.

RD. 3 TEE TIMES

All times local

9:25 am - Abraham Ancer (w/Masaveu)

10:30 am - Andy Ogletree (w/Song)

10:50 am - Phil Mickelson (w/Thompson)

11:10 am - John Catlin (w/Ferguson)

1:30 pm - Adrian Meronk (w/Kim)

2:20 pm - Jon Rahm (w/Siem)

2:45 pm - Brooks Koepka & Dustin Johnson

2:55 pm - Joaquin Niemann (w/Jordan)

3:25 pm - Dean Burmester (w/Scheffler)

SCORES THROUGH 36 HOLES

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