They are at the halfway point at the British Open and Tiger is within striking distance, lurking just 2 strokes behind. its a very crowded leaderboard as 40 players are within 5 strokes going into tomorrow's third round. Here's the leaderboard:

1. Ernie Els -6 F
1. Padraig Harrington -6 F
1. Shigeki Maruyama -6 F
1. Bob Tway -6 F
1. Duffy Waldorf -6 F
6. Soren Hansen -5 F
6. Carl Pettersson -5 F
6. Des Smyth -5 F
9. Stephen Ames -4 F
9. Thomas Bjorn -4 F
9. Thomas Levet -4 F
9. Colin Montgomerie -4 F
9. Mark O'Meara -4 F
9. Ian Poulter -4 F
9. Nick Price -4 F
9. Tiger Woods -4 F

Other Notables:

Sergio Garcia -2

Chris DiMarco -1

Davis Love III +1
Justin Leonard +1
David Duval +1
Justin Rose +1
Greg Norman +1

Phil Mickelson +2

Some big names who missed the cut:

Vijay Singh
Tom Lehman
Jim Furyk
Hal Sutton
John Daly
Billy Andrade

After his 81 on Saturday, Tiger shot a 65 today to finish at EVEN for the tournament. Today's good weather this morning will allow the guys teeing off early to score well, but you never know with the weather at the British Open. Later today, it could be monsoon like and the afternoon groups could be in trouble.

Congrats to Ernie Els for winning the British Open title. Els was tied with Steve Elkington, Stuart Appleby and Thomas Levet (a Frenchman who was doing his best Jean Van de Velde impression down the stretch of regulation) after 18 holes. they played 4 playoff holes of pretty mediocre golf. After that Elkington and hunky Appleby were ousted. Els won on the first hole of sudden death with the first truly great shot of the playoff. He blasted out of the bunker to within two feet of the flag.

And props to Tiger Woods for bouncing back from yesterday's disappointing 81 to shoot a 65 today and finish at EVEN for the tournament. The ratings must have really taken a hit with Tiger out of contention. And Ernie Els with three relative unknowns in a playoff hacking up the course didn't exactly score high on the interest meter I'm sure.