The Open 2017: In-form Ian Poulter lays down a challenge to Matt Kuchar and leader Jordan Spieth

Ian Poulter has laid down a challenge for the two Americans ahead of him at the Open.

“I’m ready to go out there toe to toe with anyone this weekend. I’m loving it. I really am. This is a massive bonus for me to be in this position. I haven’t played a major for a little while. And I can’t wait. I’m excited. I’m pumped up.”

The Englishman is tied third at three under par along with US Open champion Brooks Koepka. They are just one shot behind Matt Kuchar and three behind leader Jordan Spieth, the World No.3 and two-times major winner.

“The crowds inspire me on every hole,” Poulter said after his second round 70.

“They’ve come out in their thousands and they’re loud. It’s amazing. I’m playing hard for them as well because they’re giving me a lot of energy on the course.”

What they wouldn’t give to inspire Poulter to channel his fist-pumping, wild-eyed Ryder Cup pomp to hunt down his American rivals.

“This isn’t quite the Ryder Cup, but it is The Open Championship,” Poulter said trying to keep his adrenaline under control. But he’s not fooling anyone. The home crowd are going to roar him on to beat the Americans and claim the Claret Jug on Sunday.

“I think it’s going to be difficult for me to talk about that right now,” Poulter said. “For me to use up mental energy thinking about holding that Claret Jug, there’s a lot of golf to be played. I’m going to love to grab that thing with two hands, if I can. I think you can guess how good it would feel like after the year I’ve had,” he said.

The danger might not be Kuchar, who grins like he’s had a facelift, but Spieth who already has a reputation for staring down his opponents. “I feel great,” Spieth said.

“Any time you’re in the last group of a major at the weekend, you get nervous but I’ll embrace it.” Aberdeen’s Richie Ramsay is fifth at two under par while Burton’s Richard Bland is one under but it is a Northern Irishman that can be expected to make a charge with Poulter at the leaders.

He’s Rory McIlroy. He knows what the eff he’s doing. Gone was a jabbering wreck of self-doubt that prompted his caddie to swear at him to remind him who he was at what he was capable of. The Anglo Saxon verbal kick up the backside that McIlroy received from his caddie on Thursday was still resonating in round two.

It is hard to fathom what on earth is going on between the ears of the World No.3. McIlroy was back to swaggering like a gunslinger who had moseyed into town to clean up Birkdale of all the baddies that would dare to take his sheriff’s badge. He is one under par, back in contention for the weekend, and fired up for a tilt at a second Claret Jug and a fifth major victory.

“To be in after two days and be under-par for this championship after the way I started, I’m ecstatic,” McIlroy said.

There was no need for a tongue lashing from his caddie this time, he said. “He does do it quite often, it’s just whether it penetrates my head is a different thing,” McIlroy said. “He tries to keep me as positive as he possibly can. And sometimes I get down on myself. We’ve been together for nine years now. He knows what to say out there and what not to say. And he definitely said the right thing yesterday when I needed it.”

On a day when the wind was gusting at 35mph in the morning and the flagsticks were bending like old men waiting at bus stops, and the afternoon players were battered with torrential rain that stopped play for 15 minutes, McIlroy and his caddie had an animated post mortem on the 18th tee after his final tee shot had been picked up and dumped left by yet another gust.

“It was going against the wind. And everything,” McIlroy said. It summed up the battle on the links he has endured.

“When the wind is this strong you just have to go with it. It’s so hard to work against it,” he said. “It's not as if I went through war out there. It was just a round of golf. I just stayed patient. This was definitely the round that got me back into the championship. I was very proud of myself that I hung in there,” he said.

Among former champions to miss the halfway cut were Phil Mickelson at 10 over par and John Daly who finished triple bogey, bogey for a 12 over par total then barrelled his way off the course like a wind-lashed rhinoceros.

Last word, though to an emotional Mark O’Meara, the 1998 champion at Birkdale who finished 11 over par and, at 60 years old, has played his last Open.

“This is the greatest championship. I don’t know what else to say,” he said.

“I felt the warmth of the crowd, obviously coming up the 18th hole. I’m not Tom Watson, I’m not Jack Nicklaus, I’m not Arnold Palmer, I’m just a guy who in '98 was lucky to win the championship and hoist the Claret Jug. I’ll miss this championship,” he said. “But I’ll always watch it.”