Runner-up last year at Royal Liverpool, Day is 1-under for the Championship, six shots back of leader Shane Lowry.

The rest of the Australian contingent struggled on day two, with Adam Scott unable to keep things going from his positive start, carding a 6-over 77 today to slip into a share of 54th, just inside the cut-line.

Also unable to find the game he had on day one was Min Woo Lee, who’s 9-over 80 today means the West Australian will unfortunately not feature in the weekend play at Troon.

Trio of Elvis Smylie, Jasper Stubbs and Cam Smith all improved on day two, but it was a long way back from their tough starts, and all have missed the cut.

Stubbs, who’s exemptions from winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur have now come to a close, can hold his head high. Bouncing back today from his 9-over start, with a 1-over 72.

3-under on his front-nine, Stubbs looked like he might be able to claw himself back, however it was not to be. The young Melbourne amateur will undoubtably take endless lessons away from his week at Troon regardless.

A strong contender for the highlight of Day’s second round may well be the fact that he did not have a single blemish on his card. Three birdies and 15 pars is a scorecard many would have taken at the start of the day.

“I played really nice today and I’d like to play like that over the next two days, but I’ve just got to kind of take it one shot at a time,” said Day.

Jason Day's Friday saw him go three-under.

Here's where he made the difference in round two.@nttdata | #ShotView | #NTTDATAWall pic.twitter.com/rSWXbikhiN

— The Open (@TheOpen) July 19, 2024

Day made back-to-back birdies on holes two and three to start the day but had to wait until hole 13 for his next, and final birdie, unlikely in itself.

“It was tough conditions yesterday, but this morning it sat down for us — it was still a little bit windy out there, but it sat down for us through 12 holes, kind of,” he said.

“Then, yeah, it was nice birdieing on 13 out of the rough there, then just kind of nice and steady.”

Although happy to be in contention at the halfway mark, Day acknowledges that the weekend at a major championship is a different challenge completely.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he said.

“We’re going to have rain tomorrow from what the forecast is. I know the wind is going to be a little bit down because of the rain, but once you’re dealing with that type of element, the ball starts to kind of square off everywhere.

“Then we’re back to some wind on Sunday, so it’s just like you kind of just wake up and take it as you’re going along the round because the guys in the morning won’t have better weather conditions than what I’ll have or vice versa. We might turn around.

“So just kind of try to get myself in contention on Sunday, and then anything happens on Sunday.”

The 152nd Open Championship is live onFox Sports, available on Foxtel and Kayo.

Australasian scores:

T7 Jason Day -1

T38 Ryan Fox (NZ) +4

T54 Daniel Hillier (NZ) +5

T54 Adam Scott +5

MC Kazuma Kobori (NZ) +7

MC Min Woo Lee +9

MC Elvis Smylie +9

MC Michael Hendry +10

MC Jasper Stubbs (a) +10

MC Cameron Smith +12

(Photo by Luke Walker/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)