By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          The unfamiliar became a little too familiar for Russell Henley.

          After one of his best rounds at the British Open on Thursday, wind helped disrupt Henley’s momentum on Friday and he dropped from the contending pack and into a tie for 18th, with nine others.

          Henley’s aim off the tee struggled, no thanks to a frisky wind that frustrated most of the 156 players left, and it pushed him to a 4-over day, good for 2 over for the tournament.

          At least he didn’t turn in an 8, like Joaquin Niemann did on No. 8 (though he responded with four birdies after that for a second straight even round).

          Henley was close on several putts, but also had a few uncharacteristic short-game shots while avoiding major trouble.

Leaderboard

          He hit a 9-footer on 16 for his first birdie of the day.

          Henley had only one bogey in Thursday’s first round en route to a 2-under 69.

          Consecutive bogeys on 3 and 4 pushed Henley to even early Friday. He struggled with two poor shots on 3, tee shot and second, and barely missed a par shot. A similar scenario prevailed on 4, with Henley almost coming up with a quality par save.

          On 8, he uncharacteristically was off on a par putt of just less than 8 feet.

          Everybody in front of him was done, Henley tying for 12th, eight shots back.

          But he couldn’t gain ground. A bogey on 12, thanks to a tee shot into semi-rough and a wind-interrupted second shot, dropped him a spot during a round still without a birdie.

          Meanwhile, Royal Troon was a royal pain for plenty of higher-ranked players.

          No. 15 Wyndham Clark was done at 16 over, No. 3 Rory McIlroy was amid a 6-over round after 7 over on Thursday and No. 7 Sahith Theegala at 6 over through 10.

          No. 6 Ludvig Aberg at 10 over through 12 after a par Thursday was in trouble, while No. 12 Akshay Bhatia and No. 10 Sungjae Im were among those sweating out a cutline that had dropped to plus 7.

          Ditto Bryson DeChambeau.

          Tiger Woods packed up at 14 over.

          A tee into light rough set up a bogey on 12, and a missed 9-footer led to another one on 14, dropping Henley to 5 over for the day, 3 over for the tournament, but still in the top 30 and safely within cut range.

          A 20-foot birdie try was just right on 15, for par, and he broke the birdie-less streak a hole later to get within nine of leader Shane Lowry. He closed with two nice pars, and near birdies.

          And all those aforementioned names in trouble missed the cut, which was 6 over, except for Im. McIlroy finished at 11 over, Woods at 14, Clark at 16.

Henley tees off Saturday at 8:40 a.m. EST, with Matthieu Pavon.