But the ball, heading for out of bounds, kissed one of the white posts that lines the hole and came back into play.

“I didn’t see it happen, but the guy (a marshal) put his hand up to indicate it was good and then somebody told my caddie it hit the stake.

“It was a great break – it saved me a stroke or two.”

And that stroke or two enabled Love to go on and complete a 71 and reach halfway on the one under par total of 141.

On another day of challenging winds and pin placings which Love and others described as the toughest they had ever seen, that was good enough to make him the man to catch.

For a while it looked as though Tiger Woods might be that man, but the world number one, recovering brilliantly from his opening triple bogey seven on Thursday to be level par with seven to play, then four-putted the 381-yard 12th for a double bogey.

The last three of those were from inside three feet, but even with that further setback to his hopes of winning back the trophy he captured at St Andrews in 2000 Woods is there and looks the main threat to Love.

Another is Sergio Garcia, who put an unhappy first half of the season behind him to be in contention for a first major crown.

For half the day Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth held the clubhouse lead on his Open debut – indeed his major debut – on two over after a superb 70.

Forsyth, one of the rising stars of European golf, commented: “Obviously there’s a long way to go, but I played great. Conditions were not as windy as yesterday, but they were still pretty tough.”

Only one player all morning bettered Forsyth’s round, defending champion Ernie Els hitting back from his opening 78 with a 68 to stand four over and back in contention.

At the Masters in April Els began with a 79 and followed with a 66. He had a chance to pull off an amazing victory there, but eventually finished joint sixth.