The Open 2018 leaderboard: Who is leading after Round 2?

The cutline has passed and now only 79 players remain to battle it out for the 2018 Open Championship. Who leads the field, who is contending and who is leaving Carnoustie early?

The second round of the 147th Open Championship began Friday morning with everyone chasing the 5-under leader Kevin Kisner. The morning pairings were forced to try to keep their rounds under par as the infamous rains of Carnoustie blew in early. Many odds-on favorites would go on to miss the cut completely while fan favorites and underdogs alike rose up the leaderboard.

After setting the pace on Thursday, Kisner seemed to be dialed in as he brought the lead all the way up to 8-under par during his second round. As the fates often do on the closing stretch at Carnoustie, they once again tempted the leader and inevitably made him pay. Following a wayward tee shot to the left, Kisner tried to get his ball up and over the dreaded Barry Burn hazard and came up short, resulting in a double bogey to end his round.

With Kisner falling back to 6-under that welcomed a tie for the lead with the morning’s clubhouse leader, Zach Johnson. The 2015 Open Champion shot a Friday round of 67 to get himself to the top of the leaderboard. By days end Kisner and Johnson would be briefly joined by Zander Lombard, Pat Perez and Tony Finau but none of the three could hold onto a share of the lead.

Here are the Top-5 and other notables from the full leaderboard following the second round of the 2018 Open Championship.

T1. Kevin Kisner -6
T1. Zach Johnson -6
T3. Tommy Fleetwood -5
T3. Pat Perez -5
T3. Xander Schauffele -5
T6. Rory McIlroy -4
T6. Tony Finau -4
T11. Jordan Spieth -3
T11. Rickie Fowler -3
T18. Brooks Koepka -1
T29. Jason Day E
T29. Tiger Woods E
T29. Phil Mickelson E
T65. Henrik Stenson +3
T65. Patrick Reed +3
MC. Justin Thomas +4
MC. Sergio Garcia +4
MC. Justin Rose +4
MC. Dustin Johnson +6
MC. Bubba Watson +6

Once again in a major championship the round of the day belonged to English sensation Tommy Fleetwood. Much like he did at the U.S. Open this past June, the Southport sensation, who owns a share of the course record at Carnoustie, tore through the rain and wind with the low round of the tournament thus far at 65. Already this year he has shown his ability to handle major pressure, with still two rounds left can 2018 be Fleetwood’s year to hoist the Claret Jug?

Next: Top 10 moments in The Open history

The prevailing story of Friday’s cutline was those the reigning top two in the Official World Golf Rankings. World No. 1 Dustin Johnson improved his opening round of 76 with a 72 but it was still three shots shy of the cutline. Following Thursday’s start of 69 and inside the top-10, the second ranked Justin Thomas turned in a round of 77 on Friday to miss the weekend by a single stroke.