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Johnson leads as Round 2 curtailed

St Andrews - Floods, fireworks and farewells were the order of the day as a rain-interrupted second round ended with Dustin Johnson occupying first place on the leaderboard in the 144th British Open on Friday.

Open Championship: Round 2 leaderboard

The big-hitting American was 10-under-par for the championship through 13 holes, one stroke clear of England's Danny Willett (69), when darkness ended play just before 10pm with several groups still out on the course.

After early morning thunderstorms caused play to be suspended for more than three hours, it was always inevitable the round would have to be carried over into Saturday.

Sharing third place on eight under were 1999 champion Paul Lawrie (12 holes) and Australian Jason Day (11).

The day, though, belonged to five-times Open champion Tom Watson and triple former winner Nick Faldo.

Watson, 65, playing in golf's oldest major for the last time, missed the cut on his swansong appearance and was given an emotional send-off by the crowd when he walked off the final green with the light fading.

Faldo, who turns 58 on Saturday, also failed to qualify for the weekend on his last outing at a St Andrews Open, although he refused to close the door unequivocally on his major championship career.

"I think that might be my last week (in a British Open)," he said.

The fireworks were supplied by Englishman Willett, who took advantage of the calmest conditions of the day to squeeze five birdies in a three-under-par round that left him on 135, nine under.

"I said yesterday it could be Armageddon today and it was this morning," he told reporters.

"Luckily we didn't have to play in the rain. The wind we had was a good wind for St Andrews, a 20 to 30-yard wind. It was playable, you can certainly hit golf shots and it wasn't too ridiculous."

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