Who is leading The Open Championship after Round 2? Day 2 leaderboard explored

Brian Harman is the surprise leader of The Open Championship after the second round. The American golfer had a solid performance on Friday, including a spectacular close for the round.

Harman started his second round very strong, with four consecutive birdies on the front nine. He then strung together 12 holes for par and closed with a magnificent eagle on the difficult 18th hole.

Tommy Fleetwood remained among the leaders of The Open Championship, now as runner-up. The Englishman, who was born and raised less than 30 miles from Hoylake, played for even par the round and kept his overall score at -5.

Sepp Straka sits in solo third in The Open Championship after a round that was one on the front nine and a completely different round on the back nine. Straka came out of the first nine holes with +1 after two birdies, a bogey, and a double bogey.

However, on the back nine, it looked like he was playing a different course. He carded four birdies in a row (six in total) against only one bogey to close the round at -4 and climb 29 places on the leaderboard.

Of the top pre-tournament favorites, Rory McIlroy is T11 with a decent round (-1). Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, and Brooks Koepka made the cut at the limit. Others like John Rahm and Cameron Smith have also stayed away from the frontrunners.

Matt Fitzpatrick goes into the weekend as runner-up: The 151st Open Championship - Day Two (Image via Getty).

Special mention for the first-day leader at The Open Championship, Christo Lamprecht, who went from exceptional to trivial and posted a second round of +8 with eight bogeys. The amateur champion made the cut, however, and will be looking for better days over the weekend.

Several illustrious players sat out The Open Championship's weekend. Such is the case of Collin Morikawa, Talor Gooch, Phil Mickelson, and Dustin Johnson, among others.

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The Open Championship: Leaderboard after Day 2

Here is the leaderboard of The Open Championship after the second round. Only players who made the cut are included:

1 Brian Harman -10

2 Tommy Fleetwood -5

3 Sepp Straka -4

T4 Min Woo Lee -3

T4 Shubhankar Sharma -3

T4 Jason Day -3

T7 Adrian Otaegui -2

T7 Emiliano Grillo -2

T7 Jordan Spieth -2

T7 Cameron Young -2

T11 Matthew Southgate -1

T11 Thriston Lawrence -1

T11 Rory McIlroy -1

T11 Max Homa -1

T11 Guido Migliozzi -1

T11 Michael Stewart -1

T11 Matthew Jordan -1

T11 Stewart Cink -1

T11 Henrik Stenson -1

T11 Wyndham Clark -1

T11 Nicolai Hojgaard -1

T11 Antoine Rozner -1

T11 Richard Bland -1

T11 Laurie Canter -1

T25 Alexander Bjork E

T25 Tom Kim E

T25 Viktor Hovland E

T25 Hideki Matsuyama E

T25 Marcel Siem E

T30 Alex Noren +1

T30 Abraham Ancer +1

T30 Thomas Detry +1

T30 Oliver Wilson +1

T30 Byeong Hun An +1

T30 Adrian Meronk +1

T30 Thomas Pieters +1

T30 Joost Luiten +1

T30 Jordan Smith +1

T39 Alex Fitzpatrick +2

T39 Zack Fischer +2

T39 Brendon Todd +2

T39 Romain Langasque +2

T39 Gary Woodland +2

T39 Christiaan Bezuidenhout +2

T39 Corey Conners +2

T39 Zach Johnson +2

T39 Sungjae Im +2

T39 Jon Rahm +2

T39 Tyrrell Hatton +2

T39 Brandon Robinson Thompson +2

T39 Hurly Long +2

T39 Rikuya Hoshino +2

T39 Patrick Reed +2

T39 Louis Oosthuizen +2

T39 JT Poston +2

T39 Kurt Kitayama +2

T39 Matt Fitzpatrick +2

T39 Cameron Smith +2

T39 Xander Schauffele +2

T39 Bryson DeChambeau +2

T39 Sami Välimäki +2

T62 Danny Willett +3

T62 David Lingmerth +3

T62 Richie Ramsay +3

T62 Ryan Fox +3

T62 Victor Perez +3

T62 Christo Lamprecht (a) +3

T62 Andrew Putnam +3

T62 Scott Stallings +3

T62 Padraig Harrington +3

T62 Patrick Cantlay +3

T62 Brooks Koepka +3

T62 Scottie Scheffler +3

T62 Adam Scott +3

T62 Rickie Fowler +3

T62 Robert MacIntyre +3