Willett looking forward to weekend

Danny Willett fired his second consecutive sub-70 round at the Open Championship to remain in contention heading into the weekend.

The Englishman recorded a three-under par score of 69 on Friday to move on to nine-under par for the tournament at the halfway stage at St Andrews.

The 27-year-old began the day one shot behind overnight leader Dustin Johnson and was forced to wait before he could begin his second round after torrential rain delayed the early morning action for three hours and 14 minutes.

When he did finally get on the course the world number 39 took advantage of the benign conditions by securing birdies at four of the opening 10 holes without dropping a shot.

The wind began to strengthen as the Yorkshireman’s round continued and he dropped shots at 15 and 17 before responding superbly to birdie the last and put himself in a fantastic position.

Willett, whose most recent victory on the European Tour came at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in December, admitted afterwards that the back nine was particularly testing and he was relieved to have picked up a shot at the last.

He said: “It was a tricky back nine. At 15 I got a bit of a flier and went long and at 17 just got on it a little bit instead of holding it up the right. From 50-70 feet they are not gimme two putts. It was nice to birdie the last, we hit some good golf shots today and it’s a good score.”

The Brit remains hopeful that the wind does not get any stronger over the weekend and admitted that he is looking forward to the next couple of days.

He continued: “Hopefully it’s the same strength tomorrow and I think we’re in for a great weekend. You can’t put it out your mind – leading the Open – it’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Tagged Danny Willett, St Andrews, The Open