“It's probably nicer than playing the U.S. Open,” said Fitzpatrick with a smile.

“Yeah, I wouldn't say I necessarily feel as much pressure. The pressure, he's going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He's an exceptional player. He's World No. 1, and we're seeing Tiger-like stuff.

“I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament. For me obviously I hope I'm going to have some more home support than him, but it's an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year.”

“Ultimately in golf it's up to the player, and I felt like Shane was put in a pretty tough situation there when they were zooming in on his golf ball. In the rough it's hard to tell. From what I looked at very briefly on the video, it looked like it was very difficult to see if the ball was moving -- sorry. If the ball moved. The camera was kind of zooming in as stuff was happening.

“One of the great things about the game of golf is that you call your penalties on yourself. This situation, I think it was just -- it was a very tough spot for Shane to be put in. He handled it really well. It's obviously very frustrating. It's frustrating for me as a competitor of his and a player to watch him after kind of deal with that because the last thing you want to be known in the game of golf is somebody who cheats.

“I'm not going to state a strong opinion here in the media on whether or not I thought he deserved the penalty, but all I'm going to say is it was a very tough situation for him to be put in, and I thought he handled it really well.”

“Well, I didn't know anything happened until walking up the 15th fairway and then the rules official came over and told me that there was a possibility the ball moved on the 12th for my second shot,” Lowry revealed after his round.

“I've asked him, how many shot penalty is that if it did, and he said, two. Obviously then I feel like I'm on the cut mark then, which is not very nice. I feel like I played well on the way in and then obviously waited to see.

“I was in there with the rules official and wasn't arguing my case, but I'm disappointed that they don't have more camera angles on it. The one zoomed in slow motion -- they're trying to tell me if it doesn't move from the naked eye, if you don't see it moving, it didn't move.

“I told them I definitely was looking down towards the ball as I was taking that practice swing, and I didn't see it move. I'm still not sure whether it was or not, but I had to take the penalty and I just get on with it.

“It's obviously very disappointing. I felt like I played really, really well today. And yeah, that's hard to take. Look, I'll just have to dust myself off and get out there tomorrow and give it a go.”

"I wouldn't say I necessarily feel as much pressure.

"He's going to have the expectation to go out and dominate. He's an exceptional player. He's world number one and we're seeing Tiger-like stuff.

"I think the pressure is for him to win the golf tournament. For me obviously I hope I'm going to have some more home support than him, but it's an exciting position for me to be in given where I was earlier this year."

He may not have the lead heading into the weekend but two rounds of 67 and 66 have put Matt Fitzpatrick in a great position.

He said: "I felt like every facet of my game was on today and I felt like I really played solid. To take advantage of the opportunities I had out there was obviously really positive.

"I'm giving myself an opportunity to win the golf tournament, but there's still a hell of a long way to go.

"Obviously the aim of the game is to stay in it for as long as possible and hopefully you can pull away right at the death. I'm obviously 50 percent there.

"We'll see what the weekend brings."

Scottlie Scheffler has his eye on the record score at Royal Portrush as he lines up another birdie opportunity on the 18th.

Again, he’s placed himself with a straight putt but this time he leaves it short and has to settle for a round of 64.

That’s seven under for the day and he charges into the lead ahead of Matt Fitzpatrick.

Scheffler heads into the clubhouse with a score of -10 at the halfway stage of the tournament.

He’ll take some beating over the weekend.

Shane Lowry receives a thunderous round of applause and cheers as he strides up to the final green.

He two putts for a par and finishes off with a round on one-under, the same as yesterday.

Good consistency from the former Open champion who will hope to push on tomorrow.

It’s been a frustrating day for Jon Rahm. One full of near misses and slight errors.

He audibly gasps as a simple par putt slides past the hole and drops him down to level par for the tournament.

Rahm will be here for the weekend and he’ll hope the finer margins fall his way.

His playing partner, and defending champion, Xander Schauffele also bogeys and drops to -2.

Northern Ireland's Tom McKibbin will miss the cut at his home Open after ending the second round on three over par.

He said: "It's very frustrating. I started off lovely and I was playing lovely. I was one under after seven and made a silly mistake on eight.

"It's been a frustrating last two days. I've played some really nice golf. I think it's the best I've played in the four majors I've played in. There was just a few silly mistakes.

"It's very frustrating with the way I think I've been playing. I birdied the first and made some really nice chances, and to drop those shots that I didn't think were too poor of a shot, they were more of a mistake, that's what is more frustrating than anything.

"It was a great week, the whole way through with the crowds and everything, but it wasn't meant to be."