It was another day at Hoylake and another defense was added to the course’s repertoire. Not that Hoylake suddenly became U.S. Open tough.

The winds largely absent during the first round emerged on Friday, consistently blowing 15-to-20 mph early on and at a bit of a milder pace in the afternoon.

Maybe the elements weren’t quite the gale force conditions that met players at Royal Birkdale in 2008, but the extra kick of wind proved to be a bit disruptive.

The benign weather on Thursday netted 48 subpar rounds and 19 rounds in the 60s. Those numbers dropped on Friday with 38 players under par and 14 below 70.

The danger off the tee is still unwise to ignore. You can get away with some erratic driving for a time, but continue to search the full extent of Hoylake’s confines and the course will bite back hard and fast (See: Gorse and Woods, Tiger).

The course is the background though, with the players forming the championship narrative.

With that, we turn to the competitors making the most pressing Day Two headlines.

The Rory McIlroy Show (Again)

The charge of the youth brigade was powerful on Thursday, instigated by its leader, Rory McIlroy.

The minions (mostly) fell back on Day Two, but that didn’t stop Mclroy from grabbing for some more gold.

In this year’s previously one-sided McIlroy-Friday bout—not to mention the 80 he put up after leading the Open following 18 holes in 2010—the Northern Irishman landed a series of right hooks to his greatest nemesis in 2014. An opening bogey didn’t portend a promising day, but sometimes the first hole is an awful predictor.

McIlroy’s combination of excellent drives and loose approaches produced a net zero-over the next three holes, but he married the two thereafter and the man could not be stopped.

The 25-year-old two-putted for birdie on No. 5, lasered an approach to seven feet at the next for another and knocked it to eight feet on No. 8 for a third birdie in four holes. Now 8-under and two clear of the field, McIlroy capitalized on possibly his greatest attribute: whipping the competition into submission when he gets out ahead.

After missing a 12-footer on nine, McIlroy made a fantastic up-and-down from deep rough for birdie on the par-5 10th (even if he later admitted the chip shot was lucky).

A gorgeous tee shot on No. 15 to five feet yielded yet another birdie, a 396-yard drive on No. 17 pushed him toward another red number and a deft pitch and holed five-footer on the last capped off a second-round 66 that left him 12-under for the tournament.

In the end, McIlroy moved into the weekend with a four-shot lead. He missed a couple of golden opportunities in the beginning of the back nine but he also made great par saves at Nos. 14 and 16.

We all know by now that McIlroy possesses elite front running skills at major championships. He’s already blown out fields twice (at the 2011 U.S. Open and 2012 PGA Championship), so we must seriously consider the possibility that we are in a third rendering of this trend.

Pondering this outcome becomes more essential when you realize that McIlroy isn’t relying on extraordinary play from one part of his game.

His ball-striking for the most part has been severely in groove, potent to the max when in sync. But McIlroy has experienced brief spells of ineptitude on that end, be it from poor drives or lackasical irons, and his short game picked up the necessary slack.

The sole part of his game failing to qualify as a strength is his putting. The importance of the flatstick is minimized at the Open Championship though, and McIlroy’s work on the greens is merely average this week rather than a significant anchor.

Whatever McIlroy’s flaws, this isn’t a position he folds from. Even with a full 36 holes to go, it would be quite shocking if he doesn’t raise the Claret Jug on Sunday.  

Phil and Tiger (Especially) Fail to Inspire

Phil Mickelson’s round two performance was confusing, but nothing out of the norm for him.

Mickelson began the day 2-over and in need of a fantastic score to shove his name back into the mix. Those hopes immediately turned bleak.  Lefty hit his first three fairways, still missed the green twice and failed to convert on one of his par efforts. Now 3-over, Mickelson appeared to be fighting to survive the cut.

How was Mickelson going to remedy his woes when bullets down the middle weren’t doing any good? Simple. Just hit it way right!

The strategy netted unbelievably good results. He spun it back to inches for birdie on No. 4, nailed his second to 10 feet on the next hole and rolled in the eagle putt. Mickelson moved back into the fairway on No. 7 and stiffed his second to five feet.

About to be 3-under for the round, back in red numbers and in the midst of a serious Friday explosion, Mickelson inexplicably missed the shortie.

He lost his brief chance to post a spectacular score. A bogey at the next sapped his energy further and he closed with an uninspiring nine pars and one birdie for a 70.

Mickelson’s round went from potentially awful to tantalizingly outstanding to a decent result. Strange, and it puts him in the extremely desperate fringes of contention.

As for Woods, it was really a bitterly disappointing day. Windier conditions dictated more aggressive play from the tee box, but Woods pulled out drivers on his first two holes—a shocking deviation from his previous conservative driving strategy at Hoylake. The results were disastrous, as Woods started double bogey-bogey in the first two holes.

While Tiger wasn’t awful during the second round, his long game never clicked and the putter wasn’t particularly warm. After the second hole, that added up to 14 consecutive pars, a triple bogey and a birdie in posting a 5-over 77 that allowed him to make the cut on the number.

Maybe it’s not totally fair to stuff these two in the same category today, as Mickelson played easily better golf. But both are in the same position after 36 holes: returning for the weekend, but likely out of the running for the Claret Jug.

A mix of challengers behind McIlroy

George Coetzee, 5-under, has shot rounds of 70-69 and sits seven shots behind Rory McIlroy in a tie for 9th place. 

The leaderboard after 18 holes seemed to be dripping with bigger names and plenty of supreme talents continue their stay high on the leaderboard at Friday’s end, but the lot of the top positions have spread out more to golf’s middle men.

George Coetzee, a virtual unknown to many but in fact a solid European Tour winner from the South African golf factory, made the morning run, birdieing four of six holes on the back nine to race out to 6-under and tie for the lead before posting at one shot worse.

The Molinari brothers, firmly among the solid but unspectacular, are in contention still. Edoardo drifted back to 3-under but is tied for 14th and Francesco is in a tie for third at 6-under.

Marc Leishman (3-under) and Robert Karlsson (4-under) can put themselves in the thick of the hunt if McIlroy falters.

The big names up there are Adam Scott (3-under), Jim Furyk (5-under), Louis Oosthuizen (6-under), Charl Schwartzel (6-under), Sergio Garcia (6-under), Rickie Fowler (6-under) and Dustin Johnson (8-under). That’s four major champions, one of them a former Open Championship winner within nine.

When it comes to trying to chase down McIlroy, there are plenty of candidates in place. But I wouldn’t say it’s an overwhelmingly intimidating group attempting to wrestle Rory’s grip. And I don’t expect any of them to overthrow Rory in the end.

Stat of the Day: Phil Mickelson was 3-under when he missed the fairway and 1-over when he hit it. More specifically, Mickelson was 3-under on Nos. 4, 5 and 10. He got lucky with a trampled down lie on the fourth, but stuffing it to six inches was no easy task from there.

His lie was legitimately poor on No. 5, but he knocked it to 10 feet for eagle. AND HE HIT IT OUT OF BOUNDS ON THE 10TH! He then did the most Phil Mickelson thing ever and scored a par.