Brian Harman hunts first major but McIlroy not ruling himself out of Open

• American on 10 under; Fleetwood second, five shots back
• Rory McIlroy: We'll see what the weekend holds'

Thirty-six holes down, a five-shot lead. The hunter has become the hunted. Ominously for Brian Harman, in the quintet of mainstream events where he has held any form of advantage at the halfway point, he has failed to win.

That statistic may alleviate stress among the remainder of the Open Championship field, who rubbed their eyes with amazement at Harman's 10-under-par aggregate. The American scoffed in the face of modest scoring at Royal Liverpool. His two-round score, 132, is the lowest for a Hoylake Open.