DAVID Howell’s nervous afternoon wait proved worthwhile as he made the cut at the Open Championship today thanks to an excellent under-par second round.

Swindon star Howell was in the second group out on Friday morning at Royal Troon, teeing off at 6.46am, recording a one-under round of 70 to reach two-over overall.

That had him in a tie for 92nd place as he returned to the clubhouse and the Broome Manor pro had to sit and watch to see if the field came back towards him to give him any chance of moving up into the top 70 and ties that would keep him in the tournament over the weekend.

As it turned out, Howell’s round was one of the best of the day in tough conditions on the South Ayrshire Links, with just 20 players in the 154-man field shooting under-par rounds, and he was in a tie for 50th place as the final groupings complete their rounds tonight.

American Phil Mickelson continues to lead the way, following up his eight-under opening round of 63 with a 69 to reach 10-under overall. That is one shot clear of Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, whose six-under 65 was the best round of the day.

Starting three-over after a difficult opening round, Howell again got off to a slow start in the windy Scottish conditions, with bogeys at the second and fifth holes to drop to five-over overall.

However, from there the 41-year-old was able to click into gear and there were no further dropped shots in the remainder of his round.

Howell made his first birdie of the day at the par-three eighth and followed it up with another at nine to get back to where he started at three-over and go out in a level-par 36.

A run of six pars followed after the turn before the two-time Ryder Cup winner moved into red figures for the day with a birdie at the 16th.

Howell needed that to kick-start a grandstand finale as the rain began to fall to boost his chances of making the cut but he could only post a par-par finish to end the day one-under for two-over overall and his fate for the weekend out of his hands.

Luckily for him, the conditions worsened as the day went on and a host of players dropped down the leaderboard to keep Howell at Troon over the weekend.