“The history here is this is a frontrunner’s course, and with the weather coming in, I like Brian Harman’s position. He’s one of the putters on that board that you really can trust.” – Paul Azinger on Brian Harman (-10, Leader)
“This could be a serious moment for him. He could be way out in front and he’s got to live with that. Suddenly, that big of a lead? It puts a lot of expectations on your shoulders.” – Nick Faldo on Harman
“This place (has) thick rough, devastating bunkers and it flips the game upside down, so this leaderboard looks like something we never thought it was going to look like.” – Brandel Chamblee on Live From The Open
STAMFORD, Conn. – July 21, 2023 – NBC Sports presented exclusive second-round coverage of the 151st Open Championship from Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England, across USA Network and Peacock, capped by Live From the Open studio coverage on GOLF Channel and Peacock.
Exclusive third-round coverage begins tomorrow at 5 a.m. ET on USA Network and shifts to NBC and Peacock at 7 a.m. ET.
151st Open Championship – Second Round Leaderboard
| Player | Total |
| Brian Harman | -10 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | -5 |
| Sepp Straka | -4 |
| Jason Day | -3 |
| Min Woo Lee | -3 |
| Shubhankar Sharma | -3 |
| Jordan Spieth | -2* |
*multiple players tied at -2
Weekend Coverage Schedule
| Date | USA Network | NBC/Peacock |
| Saturday, July 22 | 5-7 a.m. | 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. |
| Sunday, July 23 | 4-7 a.m. | 7 a.m. – 2 p.m. |
ON COURSE CONDITIONS
Paul Azinger on the 17th hole: “’Little Eye?’ It’s more like “Evil Eye’…scariest shot on the whole golf course.”
John Wood on the fescue: “I think this fescue rough is perfect because you can pull off a shot but it takes a lot of skill and good judgment. It’s not pitch-out stuff.”
Brad Faxon on Live From the Open: “Royal Liverpool really showed its mettle right out of the gates…it was fiery, the greens got firmer, there was cross-winds…No. 17 showed some drama…17 double bogeys, a triple by Matt Fitzpatrick, and I’m wondering if Old Tom Morris is looking up there, saying ‘don’t you bad-mouth my golf course!’”
Brandel Chamblee on Live From the Open: “This place (has) thick rough, devastating bunkers and it flips the game upside down, so this leaderboard looks like something we never thought it was going to look like.”
ON BRIAN HARMAN (-10, Leader)
Azinger on the leaderboard: “The history here is that this is a frontrunner’s course, and with the weather coming in, it’s going to be hard to put up a big score. It’s going to be easy to play for par, it’s going to be hard to play for birdie. I like Brian Harman’s position…He’s one of the putters on that board that you really can trust.”
Azinger on Brian Harman’s second round score of 65: “That’s a career round. There’s no two ways about it. The guy could have a huge lead by the end of the day…He’s giving himself a real opportunity to win a Claret Jug. He’s shot lower scores, he shot 61 a few years ago on the PGA TOUR, but nothing like this. Never at a bigger place or bigger time has Brian Harman put up a score like that.”
Nick Faldo following Harman’s second round 65 and eagle on No. 18: “This could be a serious moment for him. He could be way out in front and he’s got to live with that. Suddenly, that big of a lead? It puts a lot of expectations on your shoulders…to come out of a good round yesterday and to follow it with that? That’s really special. Guys on the golf course are going to say, ’10-under, are you kidding? I’m battling and I’m at 2-over.’”
Chamblee on Live From the Open: “Just an extraordinary couple of days everywhere, but in particular on the greens where he just had 49 putts.”
Mike Tirico: “He finishes the first two rounds 67-65, 132 strokes – exactly what Tiger and Rory did in their first 36 holes when they won the Open here in 2006 and 2014.”
ON TOMMY FLEETWOOD (-5, 2nd)
Chamblee on Live From the Open: “He seems to be, among all the players out here making concessions to distance, he makes concessions to accuracy and tries to tone things down a bit…you can understand it in these conditions. But (he’s) great around on and around the greens (and) that really is the strength of his game.”
Azinger: “He has completely held it together.”
Dan Hicks: “When Fleetwood is in the groove, he can stay that way for awhile and he takes precision in these big championships.”
ON HARMON/FLEETWOOD THIRD ROUND FINAL PAIRING ON OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP ALL ACCESS ON PEACOCK
Billy Ray Brown: “That’s going to be a big test not just for Fleetwood, but for Brian Harman playing against the home crowd. That’s not going to be easy. He’s having to sleep on the lead…He’s got almost a full day and a half as he waits once he got done.”
Trey Wingo: “Thinking can be really bad for you in this game. And if you have that much time to think about a position that you’ve never really been in before, and weather obviously is going to be a big part of what plays out over the weekend…the weather is going to be as big of a factor over the weekend as to who wins this Championship as is the play by anybody.”
Brown: “No doubt. And you said something about thinking…one of my caddies always said, ‘You know, you hurt the team once you start thinking, Billy Ray.’ (laughs) …. It’s definitely true. All of these leaders that are coming down tomorrow are just going to have to play their game, and that’s hard to do at an Open Championship.”
ON JORDAN SPIETH (-2, T-7th)
Faldo after Spieth’s birdie at 6th hole to tie for second place: “Here we go. He must be loving looking at this leaderboard…nobody really up there (has won), Cink has a major…he’s the major man from a few years back. If it’s a scrambling weekend, look out for Jordan Spieth.”
Terry Gannon on Jordan Spieth’s shot from the lie on 7th hole: “Nick, for a second I thought you were going to say Jordan is taking ‘The Long and Winding Road’ here at 7.”
Nick Faldo: “Save that one for 17 or 18 on Sunday.”
Smylie Kaufman: “It’s been impressive to watch Jordan on the par-3s today. He’s been inside of 20 feet basically on all of them and there are no easy par-3s on this golf course…but, he’s missed some short putts today.”
Dan Hicks: “These Open Championships really free him up to be the artist.”
ON RORY MCILROY (-1, T-10th)
Faldo on McIlroy’s second round 70: “A lot of work and a lot of effort.”
Faldo on McIlroy hitting driver into the fairway bunker on 15th hole: “He knows it’s there. If you really must avoid them, then you don’t hit driver.”
ON SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER (+3, T-61st)
John Wood: “The normally completely-in-control-of-his-irons Scottie Scheffler has been anything but that today.”
Hicks: “The world No. 1 has worked as hard as we can remember to make it to the weekend.”
ON MATT FITZPATRICK (+2, T-39th)
Brad Faxon on his triple bogey on the 17th hole: “He won’t have anything good to say about this hole for the rest of his life. Disaster.”
Azinger: “Let’s face it – his first shot was horrible and if you hit a poor shot like that at 17, you are going to pay the price.”
ON CHRISTO LAMPRECHT (+3, T-61st)
Faldo on tee shot far with driver left on 4th hole followed by a provisional: “What is he thinking? Have another go? My goodness. Seriously, when you can’t even count down from 10 backwards right now, you shouldn’t be doing this. What is going on?...he really has hit it here, there and everywhere.”
--NBC SPORTS--
