In-form Forsyth on course to be best of British

Paisley native's experience of playing in strong wind serves him well as fellow countrymen see challenges blown away

As the field tried to tiptoe its way past a giant, desperate not to incur the wrath of Sandwich, it was aptly one of the quiet men of the European Tour who was creeping his way up the leaderboard. By day's end, Alastair Forsyth was challenging to be the leading Briton in the Open, the Glaswegian having one of those rarest of things next to his name - a round under par.

The 28-year-old's 70 brought him in to two over par and, as bogey greeted bogey on scorecards everywhere, he stood on the brink of the top 10 of his first Open. Delighted, excited, gobsmacked, thrilled? No, Forsyth was merely "chuffed" and "looking forward" to the next part of the saga.

But then, when you have not missed a cut for 17 tournaments, finished in the top three three times, the top 10 four times and amassed more than £500,000 to stand in seventh place on the European Order of Merit, you have every right to expect to see your name up in lights, even if your peers are weighed down in the gloom.

Darren Clarke, Justin Rose, Lee Westwood and Paul Casey all wore the expression of the condemned, and it was left to Forsyth's unheralded countryman Andrew Oldcorn, the ultra-consistent Welshman Phillip Price and that lasting lover of the Open, Gary Evans, all at four over, to provide the nearest challenge in the clubhouse in the race to be the home hero.

Mark Roe, meanwhile, was threatening to leave the lot of them trailing as he played the first seven holes in six under par and was denied seven straight threes only when his eagle putt on the 532-yard par five ran around the hole. With the feared back nine to come, the 40-year-old's theatrics were in danger of throwing Forsyth back to the shadows this most unobtrusive sportsman has become used to.

"I hope I do attract the interest if I am the leading Briton," Forsyth said after a round during which steadiness was very much the order. There were no spectacular putts, no mid-irons to hole-side, just a three-iron to 10 feet for his first birdie at the par-four eighth and a nine-iron to a similar distance for his second on the par-five 14th.

In between, there was an ugly patch of blue signifying a solitary bogey on the par-four 10th and, apart from that, a sea of black highlighting his 14 pars. "I thought I deserved better than I got yesterday, so it was a good score today," he said. "I scrambled well when I had to and that's something you need to do around here even though you are playing well because you are going to miss greens."

As a native of Paisley, where wind is no stranger, Forsyth knows what he is talking about. "I didn't grow up on links but I have played a lot of these courses. It does help a bit and it does blow an awful lot up in Scotland," he said. "There were times out there when some of the par threes were straight into the wind and it kind of reminded me of playing at home 10 years ago when it was blowing a gale."

They helped blow him all the way to win European Tour qualifying school in 1999 and in the intervening years he has established himself as a respected professional who won his first Tour title in Malaysia last year. No previous experience will have acclimatised him to the pressure that could be awaiting him this weekend, however. "It's the biggest tournament in the world but you just have to treat it like any other tournament and not get too involved in the whole thing and just enjoy it," he said. "It would be easy to get overawed."

Just as it was easy to get overheated for Rose, who gave a curt "I have nothing positive to say" following a second-round 80 to go with his opening 79. The last time the 22-year-old played a strokeplay tournament here, 17 over par was the winning total in the English Amateur Championship. Seven years on, however, all Rose's score of 159 was good for was a weekend off after missing the halfway cut.

So too did his fellow Englishman of the future, Casey, who salvaged some pride with a level-par 71, but it was still not enough to repair the damage of a first-round 85. "I thought the course was set up too tough [on Thursday]," the 25-year-old said. "Whether the conditions were misjudged I don't know, but a lot of guys looked stupid and I was one of them. I was embarrassed to come out again and it would have been easy not to, but I don't give up."

Casey was in good company with Paul Lawrie, the 1999 champion, crashing out and Clarke and Lee Westwood all worrying where the cut would fall. At six over, Ian Woosnam was assured of his place but was looking no further than his bed after a 6.41am start.

"Who wants to get up at 4.30am and play golf? I've never done that in my life before," said the Welshman, who opened with three bogeys. "I was still asleep I think. But I didn't dream of that start - I was thinking birdie, birdie, birdie. I slept quite well actually and I didn't even have a drink last night. But I'm going to have one now. It's too windy to go and practice."

Woosnam came back with four birdies in six holes to turn in 35, but bogeyed the 10th, 13th and 15th and double-bogeyed the 17th in a tired finish for a 75. The moniker, Woosie, had never seemed so well coined.