An unblemished second round has seen Adam Scott surge into hot contention at The Open after firing 5-under 67 to put the former World Number 1 at 7-under and two shots off the lead behind clubhouse leader, Danny Willett.

Scott is three strokes behind Dustin Johnson who is yet to complete his round after darkness halted play due to early morning rain delays.

As testing weather conditions caused havoc for players, Scott started round two steady, making par on the first four holes before a blitz on the back nine saw him sink three birdies in four holes to finish with the second best round of the day.

"Any time you can go bogey free at a major, it’s going to be a good round. And in these conditions, it was really good," said Scott.

"I kind of chipped my way around the golf course and never really seemed to get too far out of position, so I didn’t have to scramble too hard."

"I made a few good putts today because I left a couple out there yesterday, so it all kind of turned around, and very happy putting together 67."

Jason Day is sitting at 8-under midway through round two after play was suspended due to darkness. The Australian is still well in the race for the Claret Jug and 2-under thru 11 holes.

Geoff Ogilvy and Steven Bowditch climbed the leaderboard with a 4-under 68 and a 3-under 69 respectively and sitting at 5-under heading into round three.

Three late birdies in the final four holes and the luck of escaping inclement weather proved to be Ogilvy’s saving grace.

"Leaving here yesterday, it felt like I’d let a bit of an opportunity get away because it felt like this morning was going to be really hard," Ogilvy told AAP.

"But again, we missed the rain and got let off because we didn’t have to play in the rain."

"We definitely haven’t been hosed. It will be fun to watch if it does get windy."

Matt Jones struggled to follow up his impressive opening round of 4-under 68, with three bogies before the turn that saw him post 1-over 73 to join Greg Chalmers at 3-under.

Brett Rumford went back-to-back with another 1-under 71 and is 2-under going into the third round.

With the projected cut looming at even par, there are several Australians who are facing elimination, including Rod Pampling and Scott Strange, while John Senden, Adam Bland and Scott Hend are all 1-over midway through round two with play expected to resume at 7am Saturday (local time).

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