The 2025 Open Championship, round two: Marc Leishman makes cut, Cam Smith misses fails again
Nine Australians were in the field at the start of The Open, just one remains with Marc Leishman flying the flag and Cam Smith left to rue yet another failure at a major.
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Marc Leishman saved Australia from an Open Championship wipe-out as Cameron Smith ended the worst majors season of his career with another missed cut on a dark day for his compatriots.
Leishman (-1), who only halted a three-year absence from the majors earlier this year in the US Open, is back doing what he does best at the top level after firing a three-under 68 on Friday night (AEST) to edge up the leaderboard at Royal Portrush.
He’s still a long way from world No.1 Scottie Scheffler (-10), who took a stranglehold on the claret jug with a second round 64.
But the news was far worse for the other Australians, with all eight of his countrymen failing to make the weekend in Northern Ireland, highlighted by Smith’s fade out and Adam Scott’s collapse.
Smith’s ultra consistent majors record – he made 23 of his last 27 cuts before this year, including a famous Open win at St Andrews – is a thing of the past as he couldn’t back up a solid opening round, signing for a seven-over 78 on Saturday morning (AEST).
He finished the tournament at eight-over, seven shots beyond the cutline.
Scott (+9), who was playing his 97th consecutive major and was in the final group at the US Open last month before finishing tied-12th, had a day to forget with a 79 and will need to wait until the Masters next April for another shot at a second major.
Jason Day (+2) waited 9.30pm local time to find out if he had squeezed inside the cutline, but German Matti Schmid made a clutch up-and-down for par on the last to keep the number at one-over.
It left Leishman as the only one of the nine-strong contingent to fly the Australian flag on the weekend.
The rest made for grim reading: Elvis Smylie (+3), Lucas Herbert (+4), Min Woo Lee (+5), Curtis Luck (+8) and Ryan Peake (+8) all missed the cut. It was shades of Royal Portrush in 2019 when Smith was the only Australian to compete on the weekend.
At one stage Leishman was five-under on his round, but made a mess of his tee shot on the par-three 13th en route to back-to-back bogeys.
Making his move.
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 18, 2025
Scottie Scheffler is into the joint lead. pic.twitter.com/nGy4mVP4oE
It did little to dim his satisfaction at a tournament he thinks is best suited to him, having lost a playoff in 2015.
“It’s a bit scary when that happens,” Leishman said of the shank. “Obviously you try to block it out of your head, but they do say the hardest shot in golf is the one after a shank. I felt like every shot coming in was that shot.
“It was tough, but you’ve got to laugh about it and hope it doesn’t happen again for a while.”
Leishman was steaming after a three-putt bogey on his last hole in the first round, highlighting his frustration with the pace of play, with rounds bordering on six hours. His group sped through in four hours and 45 minutes being first out on Friday.
“I always say to my wife, ‘if I’ve had a bad day on the course, just give me 10 minutes and I’ll be good’,” Leishman said. “I think you got me about the eight-minute mark.
“But everything felt pretty good (in the second round).”
Leishman has three top-six finishes in The Open, but hadn’t made the cut since 2018 at golf’s most historic tournament.
Smylie (70) fought illness to finish with a memorable birdie on the last, and Lee (73) struggled to make an imprint with 14 consecutive pars to finish his second round.
Luck, who has battled to play any golf in recent months with a series of debilitating injuries, posted a pleasing one-under 70 after his first round finished in near darkness after 10pm local time.
Asked how he’d prepared for the Open Championship given his injury issues, Luck said: “Good question. I’ve done f--- all. I mean I’ve had so many (injuries), it’s amazing.
“I obviously stopped playing in May last year with an injury and I think just such a big change, a drastic change in daily routine.
“I’ve had so many other little niggling things because at this point the thing that was causing me the most part of my dramas is now not, and I’ve got a bunch of other things in place that are causing issues. I literally just wasn’t capable of doing as much as I’d like.”
Leishman makes move during round two
Links devotee Marc Leishman surged up the leaderboard – and even had time to laugh off a golfer’s worst nightmare in a shank – as a host of compatriots struggled during the second round of The Open.
Leishman (-1), who ended a three-year absence from the majors earlier this year in the US Open, is back doing what he does best at the top level after firing a three-under 68 on Friday night (AEST) to edge into contention at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
As Adam Scott flamed out and missed the cut with a demoralising 79, Australia’s other golden oldie took advantage of being out in the first group of the day to ensure he would be a factor on the weekend.
At one stage Leishman was five-under on his round, but made a mess of his tee shot on the par-three 13th en route to back-to-back bogeys.
It did little to dim his satisfaction at a tournament he thinks is best suited to him, having lost a playoff in 2015.
“It’s a bit scary when that happens,” Leishman said of the shank. “Obviously you try to block it out of your head, but they do say the hardest shot in golf is the one after a shank. I felt like every shot coming in was that shot.
“It was tough, but you’ve got to laugh about it and hope it doesn’t happen again for a while.”
Leishman was steaming after a three-putt bogey on his last hole in the first round, highlighting his frustration with the pace of play, with rounds bordering on six hours.
His group sped through in four hours and 45 minutes being first out on Friday.
“I always say to my wife, ‘if I’ve had a bad day on the course, just give me 10 minutes and I’ll be good’,” Leishman said. “I think you got me about the eight-minute mark.
“But everything felt pretty good (in the second round).”
Leishman has four top-six finishes in The Open, but hadn’t made the cut since 2018 at golf’s most historic tournament.
Scott (+9), who is playing his 97th consecutive major and was in the final group at the US Open last month before finishing tied-12th, had a day to forget with an eight-over 79 and will need to wait until the Masters next April for another shot at a second major.
Elvis Smylie (+3) fought hard with a one-under 70, including a memorable birdie on the last.
Beauty of Open venue belies beastly test requiring monk focus
Is it possible something so beastly can also be so beautiful?
One second the television cameras are panning across a stunning coastline, where the sun is almost eternal in high summer, the next it’s showing dozens of fans combing through horrid shrubbery with such desperation like they’re looking for a lost contact lens. Needn’t matter, it was only the ball of Brooks Koepka they couldn’t recover.
But there’s one part of this course which intrigues: Calamity Corner. Augusta can have its not-a-blade-of-grass-out-of-place Amen Corner, but the real prayers this week will be at the 16th hole at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
Normal everyday golfers would stand on the tee and shake at the knees; a 205-metre par-three, with a staggering ravine to the right, ready to swallow up the hopes and dreams of many a claret jug contender. Ludvig Aberg hit it so far down he took four clubs with him to the bottom to assess his weapon of choice.
By the time he got there in his first round, Ryan Peake’s The Open campaign was in chaos. A golf round is nothing compared to the chaos which engulfed his earlier life – bikie, five years in prison for serious assault, trying to stay on the right side of his cellmates – but it was a different chaos nonetheless.
Finally, he found calm. Whack!
“When you’re seven-over, not much worse can happen,” Peake shrugs. “So, it was easy to get up there and pull the trigger.”
He hit the ball to within two feet. Tap-in birdie. Calmness.
Maybe not as calm as an ordained monk.
Thailand’s Sadom Kaewkanjana is a name only golf sickos would know.
Two years ago, he took a break from the sport to train as a Buddhist monk. He came back and qualified for The Open by winning in Korea, shot three-under 68 at Royal Portrush to start this event – one shot off the lead – and then explained how putting the clubs down helped train his mind. He birdied 16.
“It’s made me (have) a lot of focus,” the world No.262 said. “Forget everything outside, just live in the present. So, I really enjoy being a monk.”
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At the opposite end of the leaderboard was Australian Peake.
Not many would have predicted he would make the cut, but who would have thought he would ever be here after spending so long in the lockup? He was frustrated when he came off the course with a six-over 77 … and a signed glove from playing partner Phil Mickelson.
“His caddie gave away golf balls as we were walking off the tee, and I yelled out, ‘what about me?’ And he had a laugh,” Peake says.
“He thought I was being sarcastic, and he said, ‘are you serious?’ I said, ‘no, I’m deadly serious. Can you sign a glove as well?’ He’s your hero growing up. My own boy is out here this week and he loves him as well.”
In this part of the world, everyone’s first, second and third hero is obvious: Rory McIlroy. Phil who?
The last time McIlroy teed off in The Open at Royal Portrush six years ago, he looked at a fairway which was lined with thousands of devotees. The first hole has out of bounds left and right. To a golfer even as skilled as McIlroy, it would have been easier to split the G on a local Guinness than keep his first ball somewhere in play. He went beyond the white stakes, signed for a quadruple bogey, sucked every ounce of air out of the electric gallery, and missed the cut by just one after a second round surge.
This time, it was bogey. Better. Don’t mind he straight pulled a three-foot tiddler for par. It was a big improvement on the form guide … and classic McIlroy.
You’re captivated with him, but never confident. He’s ride or die, thrilling and infuriating, vulnerable and venerable, provocative and pragmatic.
Most of all, he’s Northern Ireland’s.
His dad, Gerry, made a surprise appearance on the practice range this week, almost sneaking up behind his son to spook him. Rory turned around and gave him a hug, not once, not twice, but a few times. His smile hasn’t been broader all week.
A pastor now lives in the McIlroy family home in Holywood, just outside Belfast. He worries about keeping the outdoor putting green built for a young Rory in good condition to honour McIlroy’s legacy, even though he barely plays himself.
As expected, McIlroy got hot after the opening hole and the huge crowds snaked their way over the swales and down the slopes to follow him. Almost as expected, then he went ice cold, dropping three shots in four holes. He eventually finished with a one-under 71, three shots shy of the lead on a congested leaderboard.
“I feel the support of an entire country out there, which is a wonderful position to be in,” McIlroy says. “But at the same time, you don’t want to let them down. So, there’s that little bit of added pressure.”
There’s a monk who can maybe help with that.
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