The Open: Rookie Barclay Brown on course to emulate fellow Sheffield golfer Matt Fitzpatrick at St Andrews

The 21-year-old who represents Hallamshire Golf Club in a leafy suburb of the Steel City added a second-round 70 to the 68 he opened with around the Old Course to comfortably make the weekend in his first major.

It also gives him a three-shot cushion in the race for the silver medal, as prestigious an award as any in the amateur game and only four players are left fighting for it.

Sam Bairstow of Hallowes Golf Club is among them after he shot a second successive 72 in the second game out to make the weekend cut right on the even-par mark.

Italian Filippo Celli is sandwiched in between the two South Yorkshiremen on three under but it is Brown, with his bucket hat and unflappable game who is looking the most assured out there.

“Silver medal remains the main goal for the weekend,” he told The Yorkshire Post just moments after signing for a 70 and doing a round of TV interviews.

“That was the goal coming into the week and now I just want to go out over the weekend and hit as many good shots as I can.”

He certainly has the game and the confidence to succeed.

Brown, who is three years into a five-year golf scholarship at Stanford in northern California, has been in strong form all summer, not least in the Open qualifier he won at Hollinwell and in the first two rounds at St Andrews.

“I had that confidence. I knew it would be difficult but I knew I was playing some good golf and fortunately I was able to put two good rounds together at the right time,” says Brown.

“I’m absolutely buzzing to be here for the weekend. I was not ready to go at all. I’m over the moon that I get to be here for another two days.

“The Open experience is living up to expectations, and far exceeding them.”

The echoes with Fitzpatrick nearly a decade ago are striking.

Both were from the same club, both well-spoken and well-mannered, both rising amateurs unnerved by the challenge of mixing it with the elite professionals of men’s golf.

Fitzpatrick won the silver medal at Muirfield in 2013, using the achievement as a springboard to go on and win the US Amateur, the high amateur at the US Open and then win at a rate of one tournament a year on the European Tour until his crowning moment at Brookline last month when triumphing at the US Open.

“It was obviously brilliant to see him do that,” says Brown. “I know how hard he’s worked and how much he’s put into that.”

Brown has been working at his own game since joining the junior ranks at Hallamshire when he was five, the emphasis on the short game there helping him transition into such a strong amateur.

At St Andrews he has had to mix attacking instincts with a respect for the course.

Tricky pin positions have been the Old Course’s best form of defence so far this week, but the wind also caused Brown problems on Friday.

“The wind flipped round on 14 which meant we played nearly all day into the wind, which was tough, that scared me a little bit,” he admitted.

It certainly helped him on 16 when, fresh from a birdie on 15 that got him back to level par for the round, Brown attacked a pin tucked behind a bunker that had been playing tough all day.

“Fortunately we had a bit of a spinny lie in the rough and it was straight into the wind so we knew it was going to stop fairly quickly,” he said.

“And maybe it spun a little more than we thought it would. Maybe it was a bit of luck but it’s nice to have.

“I think I’ve done a pretty good job of being conservative when I need to, I’ve definitely played a little safer off the tees than I have into the greens, you’ve got to respect the golf course.

“But there comes certain points where you have to make some birdies as well with how well those guys are playing at the top of the leaderboard. It’ll be the same mentality on Saturday, maybe a little more aggressive. We’ll see what the weather brings and what my swing brings.”

Aaron Jarvis, from the Cayman Islands, (69) also made the weekend right on the even-par mark.

However, Japan’s Keita Nakajima (75) and South Africa’s Aldrich Potgieter (76) headed home on three over and six over respectively.