Former Ole Miss golfer Jackson Suber stays in contention as The 154th Open heads to the weekend

Jackson Suber went to bed on Thursday as the solo leader of The 154th Open, his first lead in a major of his career, but on Friday he will go to be a chaser but still in strong contention as the tournament at Royal Birkgale Golf Club makes the turn and heads to the weekend. The former Ole Miss golfer followed up his opening round 65 with a second round 1-under 69 and is two shots back of the lead head into Saturday’s third round. He is now tied with Cameron Young at 6-under for the tournament after Young shot a 67 in his second round. Both Suber and Young are chasing Lucas Herbert who shot a historical 8-under 62 for his second round. The lowest round in a major which was tied by Sam Burns who also shot 62 to get to 5-under for the tournament. The key moment of the tournament for Suber could be how he responded after recording three bogies in his final four holes of the front nine. A birdie on the second hole was erased with bogies on holes six, seven and eight to post a two-over 36. From there Suber shot a 33 on his back nine with the aid of four birdies and one bogey to keep his hopes of winning his first major tournament well and alive. “Two of them, I hit two-putts. They were only 20 or 30 feet, just way too hard, and kind of just settling myself down, Suber said after his round. “I even took a glance up at the leaderboard and saw it’s not like people were tearing it up. Just knowing that in a major things are going to get challenging at some point no matter how you play. Just being patient with that and letting the good golf come later.” Suber also battled the quick turnaround of having an afternoon tee time on Thursday followed by a morning tee time on Friday. With roughly six or so hours of sleep he admitted there was some fatigue he had to overcome throughout the second round. The two-shot deficit held off the afternoon wave and Suber kept his second-place spot with Young. Bryson DeChambeau made a charge but was assessed a two-stroke penalty for improving his lie on the fifth hole to finish at five-under. World’s No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler finished at four-under after shooting a 68 on Friday. Suber will be either in the final group of Saturday’s third round of the penultimate group. The third round pairings were not released yet at the time of this story being published. Television coverage will start at 4 a.m. CT on the USA Network before shifting to NBC at 6 a.m. CT.