Live From 141st British Open: Leaders At A Glance

The 31-year-old American pushed the lead to 10 under with another course-record-equalling round for an Open at Lytham. Snedeker was four clear of first-round leader Scott, an afternoon starter, and eight clear of the next group in the clubhouse at two under par.

Luke Donald shot 68 to edge to two under alongside American Steve Stricker (71) and New Zealander Steven Alker, while Rory McIlroy carded a five-over 75 to slide to two over. Only the top 70 players and those tied for 70th will make the cut which is hovering between two and three over par.  American Phil Mickelson (78) and England's Paul Casey (79) both finished on 11 over par. England's Simon Dyson finished one under after a 67 and Padraig Harrington shot 72 for two over but Rickie Fowler, who also took 72, was flirting with the cut at three over.

Snedeker had six birdies and six straight pars to finish and has not leaked a single bogey after carding a 66 on day one. "I'm sure everybody in this room is in about as much of shock as I am right now," he told a news conference after his second round.

"My mantra all week has been to get the ball on the greens as fast as possible. Once I'm on there I have a pretty good handle on the speed of the greens.

"I'm just going to try and keep doing that over the weekend."

Donald kept himself in contention by swapping three bogeys for five birdies, including three in a row from the fourth.

"Again, it was a pretty solid round, tee to green," said Donald, who was without regular caddie John McLaren as he dashed to London to attend the birth of his first child. "The difference between yesterday's and today's round was I holed a few more putts.

"Still the only disappointing thing probably was I gave myself a lot of opportunities from 100 to 150 yards with the greens being pretty soft, not much wind. I wasn't quite sharp enough, hitting a lot of shots from that distance to 25 feet, and I felt like I could have created some more opportunities that way. "I'm certainly feeling more and more comfortable. Obviously where I am in my career I need to be contending. "

 

McIlroy, who began the day three under, said the turning point was the double bogey he made after taking two to get out of a greenside bunker on the short ninth and running up a double bogey.

"It wasn't the best day out there," he said. "I was doing pretty well just to hang in there around par on the front nine. And making a double, I couldn't really recover from that. I wasn't committing to my tee shots and I was in two minds a few times about what shots to hit off tees." The 23-year-old revealed afterwards he had paid for a hotel night for the man he hit on the head with a wayward drive and his friend. The pair, who were planning to camp, also received about £100 for dinner.  "I thought it was the least I could do," said McIlroy, who gave the youngster a signed glove at the time. "I didn't want him sleeping the night in a tent when he's got a massive gash in the side of his head."