2014 British Open scores: Rory McIlroy leads, Dustin Johnson goes low

Rory McIlroy improved his status at the top of the British Open leaderboard, but a long list of top players remain in pursuit.

The afternoon, with strong winds blowing, was supposed to be the toughest time at Royal Liverpool on Friday. The morning wave played through some gusty conditions with several players struggling to post red numbers. The wind was supposed to continue and with the course drying up, the afternoon wave figured to be in store for a brutal round. Then, the wind died down and the late players went pin seeking. That's just the nature of the British Open.

Rory McIlroy was among the players who took advantage of the afternoon conditions. He began the day in the lead and that's exactly where he remained. Although he started with a bogey, it was his only dropped shot of the day and he carded seven birdies on his way to a second straight 66. Friday has been a troublesome day for McIlroy this year, but he overcame those demons to increase his lead to four strokes. At 12-under, he's in great position heading into the weekend.

McIlroy would have had the best round of the day if not for Dustin Johnson. The long-hitting Johnson also took advantage of the afternoon calm and turned in a bogey-free round of 65. Johnson played the par-5s at even during his opening-round 71. It was a different story in the second round when he carded three of his seven birdies on the par-5s. With the strong round, Johnson improved to 8-under and will join McIlroy in the final pairing on Saturday.

The top half of the leaderboard isn't short on notable names. Ryan Moore, Rickie Fowler, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen are among the players tied for third at 6-under. Jim Furyk is 5-under while Jimmy Walker is 4-under. Adam Scott at 3-under and Justin Rose at 2-under are also in the top 20 heading into moving day.

Tiger Woods is not among those players. He was unable to follow up his 69 with any success. He opened the round with a double bogey and followed it with a bogey on No. 2 to begin 3-over through two. He then ripped off 14 straight pars before running into serious trouble at No. 17. An errant shot and poor chip left him really scrambling. He wound up making a triple bogey on the hole and made the cut at 2-over only because of a birdie on No. 18.

Bubba Watson, Ian Poulter, Ernie Els and Harris English were among the players who missed the cut. Here is a complete look at the scores through 36 holes:

Place	Player	Score	1st Round	2nd Round
1	Rory McIlroy	-12	66	66
2	Dustin Johnson	-8	71	65
T3	Francesco Molinari	-6	68	70
T3	Ryan Moore	-6	70	68
T3	Rickie Fowler	-6	69	69
T3	Sergio Garcia	-6	68	70
T3	Charl Schwartzel	-6	71	67
T3	Louis Oosthuizen	-6	70	68
T9	George Coetzee	-5	70	69
T9	Jim Furyk	-5	68	71
T9	Marc Warren	-5	71	68
T12	Robert Karlsson	-4	69	71
T12	Jimmy Walker	-4	69	71
T12	Victor Dubuisson	-4	74	66
T15	Adam Scott	-3	68	73
T15	Marc Leishman	-3	69	72
T15	Edoardo Molinari	-3	68	73
T15	Thomas Bjorn	-3	70	71
T19	Bill Haas	-2	70	72
T19	Justin Rose	-2	72	70
T19	David Howell	-2	72	70
T19	Matteo Manassero	-2	67	75
T19	Stephen Gallacher	-2	70	72
T24	Shane Lowry	-1	68	75
T24	Byeong-Hun An	-1	72	71
T24	Branden Grace	-1	71	72
T24	Hideki Matsuyama	-1	69	74
T24	Graeme McDowell	-1	74	69
T24	David Hearn	-1	70	73
T24	Kristoffer Broberg	-1	70	73
T31	D.A. Points	E	75	69
T31	Gary Woodland	E	75	69
T31	Thongchai Jaidee	E	72	72
T31	Phil Mickelson	E	74	70
T31	Jason Dufner	E	70	74
T31	Keegan Bradley	E	73	71
T31	Gregory Bourdy	E	75	69
T31	Chris Rodgers	E	73	71
T31	Ben Martin	E	71	73
T31	Darren Clarke	E	72	72
T31	Matt Kuchar	E	73	71
T31	Hunter Mahan	E	71	73
T43	Kevin Stadler	1	73	72
T43	Chris Kirk	1	71	74
T43	Martin Kaymer	1	73	72
T43	John Senden	1	71	74
T43	Billy Hurley III	1	73	72
T43	Matt Jones	1	71	74
T43	Chris Wood	1	75	70
T43	Brooks Koepka	1	68	77
T43	Paul Casey	1	74	71
T43	Henrik Stenson	1	72	73
T43	Angel Cabrera	1	76	69
T43	Ryan Palmer	1	74	71
T43	Brian Harman	1	72	73
T56	Jamie McLeary	2	73	73
T56	Charley Hoffman	2	74	72
T56	Kevin Streelman	2	72	74
T56	Brendon Todd	2	73	73
T56	Brandt Snedeker	2	74	72
T56	Jason Day	2	73	73
T56	Zach Johnson	2	71	75
T56	Kevin Na	2	76	70
T56	Koumei Oda	2	69	77
T56	Thorbjorn Olesen	2	75	71
T56	Stewart Cink	2	71	75
T56	Tom Watson	2	73	73
T56	Luke Donald	2	73	73
T56	Matt Every	2	75	71
T56	Tiger Woods	2	69	77
T56	Jordan Spieth	2	71	75
T56	Rhein Gibson	2	72	74
Cut line 2-over
T73	Hiroshi Iwata	3	70	77
T73	Shawn Stefani	3	73	74
T73	Nick Watney	3	72	75
T73	Graham Delaet	3	71	76
T73	Lee Westwood	3	71	76
T73	Rafael Cabrera Bello	3	70	77
T73	Oliver Fisher	3	72	75
T73	Dawie Van Der Walt	3	71	76
T73	Kiradech Aphibarnrat	3	72	75
T73	Ashley Chesters	3	70	77
T73	Justin Leonard	3	74	73
T73	K.J. Choi	3	72	75
T73	Ian Poulter	3	73	74
T73	Paul McKechnie	3	76	71
T73	Yoshinobu Tsukada	3	69	78
T73	Oscar Floren	3	73	74
T89	Brendon de Jonge	4	78	70
T89	Cheng Tsung Pan	4	74	74
T89	Boo Weekley	4	69	79
T89	Danny Willett	4	74	74
T89	Miguel Jimenez	4	75	73
T89	Bubba Watson	4	76	72
T89	Billy Horschel	4	73	75
T89	Ryo Ishikawa	4	74	74
T89	Ross Fisher	4	74	74
T89	John Daly	4	77	71
T89	Paul Dunne	4	75	73
T89	Cameron Tringale	4	74	74
T89	Erik Compton	4	71	77
T89	Hyung-Sung Kim	4	72	76
T89	Freddie Jacobson	4	70	78
T89	Ben Curtis	4	74	74
T89	Mikko Ilonen	4	70	78
T89	Harris English	4	72	76
T89	Brett Rumford	4	75	73
T89	John Singleton	4	78	70
T89	Hyung-Tae Kim	4	75	73
T110	Scott Stallings	5	75	74
T110	Yusaku Miyazato	5	72	77
T110	George McNeill	5	76	73
T110	Rhys Enoch	5	73	76
T110	Patrick Reed	5	78	71
T110	Juvic Pagunsan	5	76	73
T116	Jonas Blixt	6	75	75
T116	Gonzalo Fdez-Castano	6	74	76
T116	Tommy Fleetwood	6	74	76
T116	Matthew Baldwin	6	76	74
T116	Anirban Lahiri	6	75	75
T121	Victor Riu	7	74	77
T121	Y.E. Yang	7	75	76
T121	A-Shun Wu	7	75	76
T121	J.B. Holmes	7	74	77
T121	Jamie Donaldson	7	79	72
T121	Chesson Hadley	7	79	72
T121	Justin Walters	7	77	74
T121	Masanori Kobayashi	7	78	73
T121	Bernd Wiesberger	7	72	79
T121	Todd Hamilton	7	77	74
T131	Tyrrell Hatton	8	75	77
T131	Pablo Larrazabal	8	75	77
T131	Ernie Els	8	79	73
T131	Richard Sterne	8	73	79
T131	David Duval	8	73	79
T131	Padraig Harrington	8	74	78
T137	Webb Simpson	9	76	77
T137	Nick Faldo	9	76	77
T137	Tomohiro Kondo	9	76	77
T140	Brendan Steele	10	74	80
T140	Scott Jamieson	10	77	77
T140	Paul Lawrie	10	79	75
T143	Roberto Castro	11	74	81
T143	Russell Henley	11	75	80
T143	Jin Jeong	11	77	78
T143	Bradley Neil	11	79	76
T143	Chris Hanson	11	81	74
T148	Matthew Southgate	12	80	76
T148	Chris Stroud	12	79	77
T148	Peter Uihlein	12	77	79
T151	Dong-Kyu Jang	13	78	79
T151	Joost Luiten	13	81	76
T151	Mark Wiebe	13	79	78
154	Sandy Lyle	22	82	84
155	Bryden Macpherson	26	90	80

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