Calm conditions for early starters

The players chasing shock leaders Thomas Bjorn and Tom Lewis were today hoping to take advantage of perfect conditions in the second round of the 140th Open Championship.

Unlike yesterday, the early starters at Royal St George's were greeted by a warm morning with no wind as they set about catching Denmark's Bjorn and 20-year-old English amateur Lewis.

Bjorn had defied the worst of the conditions yesterday to card an opening 65, five under par, which was not matched until late in the day when Lewis took advantage of calmer weather to shoot the lowest score by an amateur in Open history.

However, 33 players were within four shots of the lead, with US Open champion Rory McIlroy recovering from a poor start to card a one-over-par 71 alongside world number one Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.

Despite the good conditions, none of the early starters were making an immediate impact on the leaderboard, with American Kyle Stanley and Spain's Pablo Larrazabal - recent winner of the BMW International in Munich - remaining two under par after three and two holes respectively.

Scotland's Peter Whiteford had picked up one of only three birdies carded so far, a three at the fifth following a bogey on the fourth, getting him back to level par.

Darren Clarke, second at Troon in 1997 and third at Lytham in 2001, missed a good chance to close the gap to the leaders when he failed to convert a birdie putt from eight feet on the first.

And former US Open champion Lucas Glover also let a birdie chance slip by in the following group to remain one off the lead at four under.