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PORTRUSH, United Kingdom: Rory McIlroy continued to battle driving woes during a topsy-turvy front nine of his second round at the British Open on Friday, as 2023 champion Brian Harman moved into the lead at Royal Portrush.

Home favorite McIlroy was level par at the turn and one-under for the tournament, five strokes behind Harman, as he continues his bid for a second Claret Jug.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, one shot off the overnight lead of four-under, is among the later starters and could face rainy conditions in the afternoon.

Harman, who won by six shots at Hoylake two years ago, started with consecutive birdies before another on the par-five seventh hole took him into the outright lead.

The American reached six-under for the tournament through his first 11 holes, one shot clear of Tyrrell Hatton, Danish youngster Rasmus Hojgaard and Harris English.

McIlroy delighted the crowds surrounding the opening hole with a birdie to immediately move to two-under after his first-round 70.

The world number two, who only found two of 14 fairways on Thursday, leaked a drive on the second well right but still saved par despite having to take a penalty drop.

His roller-coaster tournament continued with bogeys on the third and fifth holes sandwiching another birdie on four, as his errant driving prevented him from taking advantage of excellent scoring conditions.

Justin Rose, who lost to McIlroy in a play-off at the Masters in April, made his first bogey of the tournament on the sixth hole but was three-under overall after his front nine.

McIlroy’s playing partner Tommy Fleetwood bounced back from an opening 73 with three straight birdies to start his second round, moving to two-under for the tournament through nine.

Robert MacIntyre, hoping to become the first Scottish major champion since Paul Lawrie in 1999, surged into contention with three birdies in his first seven holes to reach three-under.

Two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau bounced back from his disastrous first-round 78 with three birdies on the outward half to give himself an outside chance of making the cut.

Joint overnight leader Jacob Skov Olesen hit two shots out of bounds off the first tee and made a quadruple-bogey eight.

Scheffler also battled struggles off the tee in his opening round but still managed to fire a three-under 68.

The PGA Championship winner will have his eyes firmly set on the top of the leaderboard when he gets his second round under way at 3:10 p.m. local time (1410 GMT).

“When it’s raining sideways, it’s actually, believe it or not, not that easy to get the ball in the fairway,” he said on Thursday.

Other afternoon starters including Matthew Fitzpatrick and Li Haotong, who were both tied for the overnight lead on four-under par.

Reigning champion Xander Schauffele resumes his title defense on even par, while Jon Rahm and Shane Lowry, the 2019 winner at Portrush, will be looking to improve from one-under.

LAS VEGAS: Manny Pacquiao insisted he was back, and from a purely technical standpoint, he was correct.

Back in the ring. Back as a headliner.

But back to what he was when Pacquiao was one of the planet’s most dominant fighters, building a massive fanbase and a gold-standard resume that put him in the International Boxing Hall of Fame last month? That is the real question.

He will get a chance to answer it Saturday night when the 46-year-old from the Philippines will try to take the WBC welterweight belt from Mario Barrios. It will be Pacquiao’s first fight since losing by unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugas nearly four years ago. His last victory occurred in 2019, a split decision over Keith Thurman.

“Saturday night, it’s going to be a great fight,” Pacquiao said. “It’s been a while that I’ve been out of the ring, but I’m still active and exercising all the time. I’m going to prove to everyone that I’m in great condition.

“I’ve been enjoying training camp like I did in the past, just like when I was 26 years old. The discipline is still the same. Even with my layoff, my passion is still there.”

Barrios, a 30-year-old from San Antonio, is a -275 favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook to spoil Pacquiao’s return. But he needs to bounce back from a split-decision draw on Nov. 15 against Abel Ramos that dropped his record to 29-2-1, 18 wins by knockout.

“Manny is one of a kind,” Barrios said. “He’s not an easy style to copy in training camp. We’ve gotten a lot of different southpaw looks, so I’m feeling extremely comfortable.

“It feels amazing to be in this position. I poured everything into this sport since I was (a) kid, and now I get to walk the (Las Vegas) Strip with my family and see my name all over. It’s something that I’ve always dreamed of. Now it’s my job to show why I’m going to continue to be the champion.”

The buildup to this bout hasn’t come with the usual forced hatred that envelops many title fights. The combatants even chatted during the standard face-off pose at Wednesday’s news conference and then broke into laughter.

Hard to imagine that happening at a Gervonta Davis presser.

Barrios cautioned not to read too much into the mutual respect and admiration when it comes to what the action in the ring might look like, that each boxer would bring his all.

Pacquiao enters with a resume that includes 12 world championships in eight divisions as well as a 62-8-2 record with 39 KOs. He’s considerably older and gives away about seven inches in height to the 6-foot Barrios.

Pacman is back, but how back he truly is will be revealed Saturday night.

“I’ve been a challenger many times and it’s always the same feeling,” Pacquiao said. “I’m excited to take the belt. He’s a good fighter also, but our job is to entertain the fans. We’re going to give them a real fight.”

In the co-main event, WBC super welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 14 KOs) will face Tim Tszyu (25-2, 18 KOs). Fundora emerged with a split-decision victory over Tszyu on March 30, 2024.

The WBO stripped Fundora of his belt for taking the rematch rather than face mandatory challenger Xander Zayas.

“It doesn’t matter what happened in the first fight because we have the second fight coming up,” Fundora said. “Tune in Saturday, because it’s going to be another great war.”