Shane Lowry creeps closer to another Claret Jug as his rivals fall flat on their faces amidst challenging conditions at the Open

While Rory McIlroy was being sliced and cut among the gorse bushes of Troon, another son of Ireland was heading for a couch to put his feet up.

For a man who doesn’t consider himself much of a runner, Shane Lowry is moving at tremendous pace here at the Open Championship. Where others of greater standing have faceplanted, he just keeps creeping closer to a jug he knows rather well.

With a full weekend to navigate, anything can happen between now and Sunday evening. In this weather, on this stretch of land, there are countless places where Lowry might lose a ball or his mind, and his trip to the 11th hole in the second round is all the proof he needs. We will come back to that corner of horrors in a moment.

But for now, isolated blips aside, the 2019 champion has been masterful in his handling of such a severe test. For his Thursday 66, good for second behind the cracking tale of Daniel Brown, read the 69 strokes he deployed in 35mph gusts to move into the clubhouse lead by two on Friday.

It was quite brilliant, the work of a man suited to this most peculiar kind of canvas and equipped to flourish in the recent storms that have battered the Ayrshire coast. McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland, Cameron Smith, Ludvig Aberg and Tiger Woods are a sample of the elite names who missed the cut of six over par, but Lowry was having the time of his life.

‘To be leading this tournament after two days, it's why we're here,’ he said as the breezes grew outside the media tent.

‘I’m going to sit back and watch a bit of golf in the afternoon and see where it leaves me. The job is to try to put myself in a position to win this tournament on Sunday, and that's what I'll try and do.’

If anything might have disrupted his sleep on Friday night, it was the dangerous company of those beneath him on the big yellow scoreboards. Five shots back, on two under par, sits world No 1 Scottie Scheffler after a second straight 70. He is yet to find his best, but his mere presence will be especially unsettling.

In closer proximity is Justin Rose, who was five under after sinking a 41-foot monster of a putt on the last and in the midst of a fabulous mission. He first came to our attention as a 17-year-old amateur in this tournament and at 43 has acquired enough links secrets to compensate what age has taken.

He only made it into this field via qualifying a couple of weeks ago, but he is a real threat. Indeed, the 68 he compiled, buffed up by two birdies in his final three holes, was one better than Lowry’s loop and more impressive for the fact he was a later starter on a day that grew gnarlier by the hour.

With only one bogey in his two rounds, Rose has been a study in clutch putting, and yet he has not been as eye-catching as the man next to him in a tie for second – Daniel Brown. If his first-round 65 was a jolting surprise, owing to his world ranking of 272 and an experience bank of zero previous majors, his 72 was evidence of his resilience. The 29-year-old was expected to tumble away and remains right there. Brilliant.

The difficulty of staying still should not be underestimated, because this weather has decimated the scoring. Whereas 17 players were under par at the end of the first round, that figure was down to 10 towards the end of the round.

There is no doubt Lowry had a marginally easier time of it, but he excelled. There was a nine-foot birdie at the first, an 82-yard wedge to one foot for another at the par-five fourth and a mild slip via a greenside bunker when he bogeyed the fifth. That stroke was regained with an 11-footer at eight, but the strength of his game was in the approach play. He had those irons under tight control, piercing the front-nine headwinds with a crafty low flight.

Lowry’s debacle – because almost everyone has had one – came at the 11th. He flirted with the railway track on the right after slicing from the tee, but after finding his ball he then botched his second. A cameraman distracted him on the backswing and his yanked iron flew across the fairway and buried itself deep into a gorse bush.

Drama followed. Having played a provisional to the green to give him a decent shot at escaping with a bogey five, he was subsequently informed his original ball had been found. Lowry could be heard sharing some exasperation, meaning he would need to take his chances with a drop by the bush. After a 20-minute delay, he left with a double bogey.

‘To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a six,’ he said. It wasn't a disaster - I was still leading the tournament.’

A birdie at 16 and a fifth of the day at the last, from 20 feet, kept him there. From a parochial perspective, it was heartening to see Rose giving chase after holding his nerve over multiple six-foot putts. Alongside Brown, they are leading the challenge to stop a clock that has ticked for 22 years since this tournament had an English winner.

‘When I won the US Open in 2013 it was our first since Tony Jacklin (1970), so those are nice moments,’ Rose said. ‘But you're never thinking of it - we are pretty selfish from that point of view. This was a nice day.’

Same goes for Brown, the revelation of the tournament so far. ‘Hopefully I can continue lingering around on Sunday,’ he said. Bigger names have been blown away in that quest already.