‘Impatient’ Cameron Smith sets Open pace with Rory McIlroy still in touch

• Australian leads on 13 under, two ahead of Cameron Young
• Defending champion Collin Morikawa misses cut

For Cameron Smith, a record. No player had taken just 131 shots over two rounds of a St Andrews Open Championship until the man with golf's most famous mullet pulled the Old Course apart. Smith's Friday 64 affords him a two-stroke lead at the halfway point of the year's final major. Now for the hard part.

Should he prevail here, he would become the first Australian since Greg Norman to lift the Claret Jug. There would be a touch of poetry attached to that situation, given the R&A's decision not to invite Norman to events for past champions early in tournament week. As Norman's position at the forefront of LIV Golf attracts controversy, Smith has emerged as his country's most regular major challenger.