Richard Mansell fired a remarkable 68 in extremely testing conditions at the Old Course, St Andrews to lead the 2022 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by two shots at the halfway stage. Leaderboard
Having opened his second round at the sixth hole due to the shotgun start at all three host courses on Friday morning, Mansell made four early birdies to climb to the top of the leaderboard.
But as the weather got worse on the Scottish coast, the battle to avoid losing ground became the priority and the Englishman had to make do with a bogey and nine pars in his next ten holes.
He finished with a flourish, though, birdieing the fifth from six feet despite being buffeted by the wind, to head into the weekend on ten under par.
Swede Alex Noren was Mansell's nearest challenger on eight under after carding five birdies and two bogeys at Kingsbarns Golf Links.
Dane Niklas Nørgaard Møller and Frenchman Antoine Rozner were in joint-third after their 74s at St Andrews and Carnoustie respectively.
The stunning 68 was the lowest round of the day across all three courses.
Johannes Veerman & Will Ahmed and Christiaan Burke & Bruce Mitchell co-lead the team event on 19 under par.
Eddie Pepperell had a day to remember, making a magnificent hole-in-one at Kingsbarns' eighth hole.
Canada's Aaron Cockerill playing here for the first time, found out what links golf at St Andrew's can be all about.
After a stunning -7 65 on Kingsbarns on a sun drenched Thursday which saw him T7 with 7 birdies at 11 pars, the storm came in over the North Sea overnight and the players woke up to howling winds and torrential rain which worsened as the day went on.
At the par 4 15th he hit a full tee shot which only travelled 211 yards into the wind. It was 1 of 9 bogeys on his way to a hard fought 81 which will see him drop 65 places T72 at +2.
The cut will be made after Saturday's round which he will play at Carnoustie, in what is expected to be more strong winds.
Bryan Angus
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