Ian Poulter has been forced to pack his bags and jet home from The 2018 Open Championship following a shocking second round at the unforgiving Carnoustie course
The Englishman carded an eyesore 10-over-par 81 on the Friday, as he ended his tournament with a total of +12 after two rounds of action.
Poulter, who was involved in a spat with a marshal last week, started off with a bogey on the 4th, but immediately cancelled that out with a birdie on the following hole. However, he then recorded a triple bogey on the 7th, while his back nine featured four bogeys and two double bogeys, with a birdie sandwiched in between.
As a result the 42-year-old plummeted down the leaderboard, with only a few players posting worse scores. However, Poulter isn’t the only high-profile name to miss the cut at the 147th edition of The Open.
With the projected cut at +2 the likes of Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Henrik Stenson, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson and Hideki Matsuyama are all expected to be absent from the weekend.
On the Thursday Johnson carded a five-over round of 76, which equalled the worst opening major round from a World No.1 - Seve Ballesteros (1986). The 34-year-old fared better on the Friday, with a +1 72, but bowed out on +6 overall, which he’ll be bitterly disappointed with.
In stark contrast Tommy Fleetwood was the talk of the town after a magnificent -6 on his second round, to move within one shot of clubhouse leader Zach Johnson (-6 overall), whereas Rory McIlroy is right in the thick of it on -4. However, Thursday’s overnight leader Kevin Kisner is likely to be the name at the top of the frame once again after he enjoyed a cracking start to his second round.
However, Poulter did somehow do this on Thursday…
