Danny Willett needs to rediscover magic as Fitzpatricks make weekend at the Open despite troubles at 17 and Dan Bradbury goes down fighting

Yorkshire’s first ever major winner has been plagued with peaks and troughs in form ever since that landmark win at the 2016 Masters.

A lot of that can be attributed to a back injury that he has had to manage for much of his career, and the fact very few golfers exist at the among the highest echelons of the game for long.

He has still retained a ruthless streak, notching notable victories at the DP World Tour Championship, the BMW PGA Championship and the Alfred Dunhill Links in the years since his Augusta triumph, which points to a man who knows how to close out a tournament when it comes to the crunch.

But speaking candidly to The Yorkshire Post on Thursday after an opening-round 73 at Royal Liverpool left him battling to make the cut, Willett conceded: “We’ve not been good for three or four months, unfortunately.

"I had a really nice run January, February, early March and then had three or four weeks off after the Players and just couldn’t quite get back a few of the feelings I was having and we’ve kind of struggled since.

"I’ve had a couple of reasonable finishes, nothing great, it’s not been amazing.”

But despite that, the 35-year-old stressed who learnt the game at Rotherham Golf Club still retained the hunger to succeed and the work-rate to help him get back to the top of the mountain.

"I’m still working pretty hard, moved back to the UK 10 days ago for the summer events so there’s been a lot going on, but nice to be at home and really nice out there to have a British crowd and we’ll see if we can build on the few nice feelings I had out there,” he said.

"The hunger is still there. I despise not playing good golf, I despise seeing people beating me, it never leaves a good taste in your mouth.

"I still want to achieve quite a lot more in the game. In order to do that I've got to pull my finger out and start playing better.”

He did that on Friday, just doing enough in the morning round to make it into the weekend at Hoylake.

Willett got himself back to one over with a birdie at five but then put his participation over the weekend in jeopardy with three successive dropped shots from the 13th.

“I had to come outside sideways of three bunkers which obviously is kind of the penalty at times,” he lamented.

He birdied the controversial par-three 17th, golfing karma perhaps for coming out in support of a polarising hole, to sign for a 72, three over par which at the time was outside the cut line but progressed towards qualification for the weekend as the wind picked up in the afternoon.

Willett will be joined by two fellow Sheffield golfers, former US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick - who was looking good at one under par for the tournament and inside the top 20 until he triple-bogeyed 17 - and Alex Fitzpatrick.

The 24-year-old younger brother of Matt carded a one-under-par 70 to move to two over for the tournament and greatly improve his chances of making the cut.

Fitzpatrick, who teed off in the first group of day at 6.35am, undid some of his good work with back-to-back bogeys at the 16th and 17th but recovered to birdie the last.

After all the pressure and attention that has accompanied his appearance in Hoylake, Fitzpatrick admitted he was relieved to be back in the clubhouse after an anxious walk up the 18th.

The qualifier said: “I was still very stressed. I was three over playing the last. I didn’t know what the cut was going to be – if it was going to be three, if it was going to be two.

“It could go to four for all I know, but at that point all I was thinking about was trying to get up and down and give myself a putt for birdie, and luckily I did.

“As soon as the ball went in, just a massive weight off my shoulders.

“It was a long grind out there. I definitely didn’t have my best game by any means.

“I’m happy I’m in the clubhouse now and not out playing still.”

Matt Fitzpatrick is on the same two-over-par mark as his younger brother after that costly 17th.

He pulled his tee shot left of the green and into a sandy “native area” from which he needed three attempts to escape, albeit only into a genuine bunker.

From there Fitzpatrick did superbly to regain his composure and hit a brilliant fifth shot to inside three feet before tapping in for a dispiriting six.

He parred the last for a second successive 72.

Bradbury goes down fighting

Daniel Bradbury’s Open adventure is over despite improving on his first round on his second-day’s play at Royal Liverpool.

The 23-year-old from Wakefield, debuting in the Open by virtue of his win at the Joburg Open in November, shot a 73 on Friday to finish seven over par for the tournament.

The damage had been done with double bogeys on the sixth and 18th holes of his first-round 76, and meant when he teed off in the fourth-to-last group he knew he needed to score under 70 to make the weekend.

Bradbury gave it a good go, though, having six bogeys and four birdies in an eventful round, highlighted by a birdie four on the last where the day before he’d taken seven shots.