Marc Leishman solid, disaster for Adam Scott

“If the ball moved, I would have called it on myself. My head was definitely looking down at the ball and I didn’t see it moving, but I’m out there signing for a 72 now.”

To add another layer of controversy, Lowry was caught by broadcast microphones earlier in the round saying “f— this place” after an errant tee shot on the 11th hole.

The fiery Irishman has now been caught on film saying the same three words at three of the four majors this year, adding to incidents at the US Open and the US PGA events.

Following the practice swing controversy, Lowry said he would not be called a “cheat”. After the penalty, Lowry’s scorecard changed to reflect a double-bogey seven on the 12th hole and a one-over par round of 72. He now sits even par for the tournament in a tie for 34th heading into the weekend.

Had he not been deemed to have breached a rule on the 12th, he would have begun his round on Saturday tied for 26th, alongside Leishman.

Local fans will once again turn out in their droves on Saturday to support Lowry and Northern Irish hero Rory McIlory, who put himself in contention by shooting 69, leaving him three-under for the tournament and a genuine chance of doing damage.

McIlrory will head into Saturday seven shots behind world number one Scottie Scheffler, who played an incredible second round of 64, which included eight birdies and one bogey.

Scheffler sits one shot ahead of 2022 US Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick, who is attempting to become the first Englishman to win The Open since Nick Faldo did in 1992.

American Brian Harman, who won The Open two years ago at Royal Liverpool and China’s Haotong Li are two shots back at eight-under par.

Queensland’s Elvis Smylie birdied two of the last three holes to finish three over and miss the cut by one, while Victorian Lucas Herbert nearly holed out from 162 yards on 18 to eagle the final hole and put himself within the cut line, but was ultimately too far back.

At two-over for the tournament, Day was actually inside the cut-line when he walked off the 18th green in the middle of the afternoon but was outside by the end of play.

If he was true to his word, Leishman would have been on his second pint of Guinness watching his fellow Australians toiling away when the first of two vicious bands of rain lashed the course.

The Victorian was in the first group on Friday morning (local time), which was both good and bad.

A 4am alarm clock was far from ideal, but it did mean he got the best of the conditions on a dry second morning at the coastal course.

“Everything felt pretty good. I putted well, [and] probably left a couple out there. I had a three-putt on [hole] 5, but that was a really tough pin. I drove it well, [and] didn’t hit any fairway bunkers today, which was good. That’s what killed me yesterday,” Leishman told reporters after walking off the 18th, where he pushed a birdie putt just wide after a beautiful eight-iron approach.

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He said he was happy overall.

“Obviously that little mishap on 13 there – it’s a bit scary when that happens. [There was a] Two-hole stretch that [I] didn’t sort of do a whole lot wrong apart from that tee shot on 13. ”

After birdying five of the opening 12 holes, Leishman made back-to-back bogies before steadying the ship to finish at one-under for the first two rounds.

“Yeah, obviously I would have liked to go a little bit lower, but we always do as golfers. Happy to be watching it on TV. I’ll probably have a pint or two of Guinness and enjoy my afternoon,” he said.

Royal Portrush won’t be a place Adam Scott will be racing back to, however.

The 2013 Masters champion came into the second round in decent striking form but had a disastrous day, carding an eight-over round of 79 to crash out of the tournament.

Scott made double bogeys on holes three, 11 and 16 and bogeys on nine, 10 and 18 on a day on which almost everything went wrong.

He was one of four Australians to finish in the last 20 on the leaderboard, with 2022 Open winner Cam Smith posting an equally disastrous seven-over round of 79, to insure the Queenslander missed the cut at all four majors of the year.

Ryan Peake finished eight over for the tournament after shooting 73 on Friday, alongside West Australian Curtis Luck who struck the ball well during the second round to shoot one under the card after a horror opening round of 80.

Luck admitted after the round that he has been struggling with significant health concerns, with neck, groin and back issues continuing to plague his ability to play and even practice consistently.

“The MRI has come back clean and my spine is in good order so we are just trying to figure out what the issue is with my movement patterns. I had to avoid a lot of activities to make sure that I was healthy enough to play here.

Fellow West Australian Min Woo Lee cut a frustrated figure across the two days, with rounds of 74 and 73 not enough to threaten the cut line at any stage throughout the tournament.

“Yeah, it was there, but also not, yeah, I just didn’t convert anything,” he told Australian reporters after walking off the 18th on Friday.

“It’s a course where it can bite you in the butt pretty quick.”

Sam McClure travelled to the British Open with the assistance of Golf Australia.