Willett stakes Open claim

Westwood’s ISM stablemate Danny Willett is now five under through 10 holes.

The delay meant that 65-year-old, five-time former champion Tom Watson’s farewell to the tournament that came to define his career, was consigned to near darkness at the end of the day.

His highest finish in a major was 15th in the Open in 2013.

Westwood tees off at 2.12pm tomorrow, with Owen starting his second round at 11.33am and Willett off at 8.11am.

Willett will receive much more attention Saturday, something the guy with a “relatively normalish life” says he’ll relish.

“I think it’s a childhood dream and looking up there it’s still a little bit surreal but something I’m going to have to get used to, otherwise no point in being up there”, he said.

“It will be a traditional last two days for the Open, albeit a day later than planned”.

Dawson said that, while there was more hard weather coming in, he did not expect it to be severe enough to derail the Monday finish.

“But it’s always a work in progress and it’s nice that it’s kind of come off this week”.

The last English victor of the Open was Nick Faldo in 1992 at Muirfield.

The 43-year-old Nottingham Forest fan, who has lived in America for the last 13 years as he plays on the PGA Tour, had started the Open by becoming the first clubhouse leader – after being the first group out of the whole tournament before 7am on Thursday morning.

It was reward for a fine display which sparked as Willett birdied the second after a lob wedge to 12 feet.

At the short par four ninth he holed out from 20 feet before completing back-to-back birdies at 10. As a result, the Brit was able to afford bogeys at 15 and 17, but the tail of that tandem is a virtual par given that The Road Hole averaged 4.833 in the opening round and did not yield a par breaker. As big as the greens are at the Old Course, he might face a similar putt this week.

Willett quit college at age 16 after just a month, went to Jacksonville State University in the United States, and dedicated his life to golf.

Afterwards he could reflected on a solid display while the later starters faced tougher conditions.

Two shots back is Glaswegian Warren, 34, after rounds of 68 and 69.

Willett, a 27-year-old from Sheffield who is aiming to become England’s first Open champion in 23 years, has steadily risen to 39th in the world this year.

“I am marrying people on Saturday and baptising babies on Sunday – we’re really busy as we had always planned to fly out next week to watch him in Switzerland instead”, he said.