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SOUTHPORT : Greg Norman continued to defy the wind, the rain and the march of time as he moved into the outright lead of the British Open after his second round at Royal Birkdale on Friday.
The veteran Australian, bidding to become the first man in his fifties to win a major tournament, combined sublime putting with some vintage scrambling as he put together a second level par round of 70.
That left him a shot clear of Colombia's Camilo Villegas, who surged up the leaderboard after an extraordinary round of 65, and late starters Retief Goosen and Mike Weir.
Villegas's round was four better than anyone else has managed on a course some of his rivals have denounced as ridiculously tough.
But even the 26-year-old's fireworks could not wrest the limelight away from a man more than twice his age.
Norman, who married tennis legend Chris Evert last month, spends more time on the tennis court than on the golf course these days.
The 53-year-old fits in tournaments when business commitments and injuries allow and he is making his first appearance at the Open since 2005.
But he still knows his way around a links course and he can also still rival the world's best with a putter in his hand, as he proved by sinking a 50-foot putt for birdie on the first green to get to one under par.
The sixth, comfortably the toughest hole on the course, threatened to undo his round after he found deep rough on the right of the fairway close to where Phil Mickelson lost a ball on Thursday.
Norman was obliged to hack out and failed to get his pitch close, forcing him to settle for a double bogey six.
But another monster putt on the seventh enabled him to birdie the short seventh and a three at the eighth cancelled out the damage done at the sixth.
Seven solid pars followed but Norman really had to scrap to keep his round together over the last three holes.
A superb recovery from a greenside bunker, played with his feet outside the trap, salvaged par at the 16th and he needed to hole another two long putts to turn what could have been a 6-5 finish into 5-4.
Playing a couple of groups ahead of Norman, Villegas was making light of the blustery conditions with a total of eight birdies, five of them on the last five holes.
It could have been even better: at the 18th, the Colombian's second shot, from deep rough on the left of the fairway, was destined for the centre of the hole only to bounce off the pin to some 20 feet away.
He holed the birdie putt however to complete a 2-4-3-4-3 finish and a remarkable score for someone who started the day with bogey fives on his first two holes.
"I putted a hundred times better than yesterday. It was a fun round," he said.
Rocco Mediate, Graeme McDowell and Robert Allenby, the overnight leaders and the only players to break par in their opening rounds, all dropped off the pace.
Mediate, who lost an 18-hole play-off to Tiger Woods at last month's US Open was still at one under as he reached the turn.
But the American ran up a double bogey at the 11th to fall back and needed a birdie on the last, where he hit an eight iron to within six inches of the pin, to finish with a 73.
Northern Ireland's McDowell matched that score but Allenby was three over for the day with one hole left to play.
Pre-tournament favourite Sergio Garcia was in danger of slipping out of contention as he fell back to five over after 12 holes.
The Spaniard's erratic putting was in evidence again, a miss from three feet on the opening hole being followed by one dropping from 75 feet for birdie at the fourth.
The first round leaders had been fortunate to play their opening rounds late in the day on Thursday, by which time the atrocious weather that derailed the likes of Vijay Singh and Ernie Els had abated.
Conditions remained tough on Friday morning and were predicted to deteriorate over the course of the day, leaving later starters including Goosen and Wier facing the prospect of playing both their first two rounds in the worst conditions.
- AFP /ls
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