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and was second behind Miguel Angel Jimenez overnight, a remarkable story for an ageing five-time Open champion. But when he started slipping back in tougher conditions on Friday we thought the fairytale was over.

Marino, meanwhile, only found out he was in the tournament on Sunday, and only played his first ever round of links golf in practice on Tuesday.

He discovered it was to his liking, though, and the 29-year-old from Florida set the clubhouse lead at five under.

That seemed to dispel Watson's earlier notion that experience is the key to links golf and to Turnberry.

But the eight-time major winner rallied mid-round and joined his countryman back on top of the leaderboard going into the weekend.

Watson did it his way, drawing on knowledge and a competitive instinct honed over the years. Marino just said he was "having a blast", proving that both methods work fine if you play well.

As if to illustrate the point, 2003 champion Ben Curtis emphatically didn't.

Like Watson at Carnoustie in 1975, Curtis won as an Open debutant, but on Friday collapsed from tied second overnight to a 10-over 80, 15 strokes worse than round one.

Marino said: "I've never played anything like this before today. It was absolutely brutal weather."

Hunkered down under a woolly red hat all day, he added: "Obviously it's an advantage to have experience, but it can also be an advantage to not have experience."

, but it would have also told him that Friday's briskish winds and occasional showers were nothing in the grand scheme of things.

. His head rested on his hand, his eyes less sparkly than earlier in the week.

He revealed that playing partner Sergio Garcia had tried to chivvy him up on the 8th.

"Come on, old man," said Garcia. "I feel old," he told the Spaniard.

But he turned things around, and the countenance might be an awareness that things are getting serious.

Rather than a heart-warming curtain raiser and a trip down memory lane, he now has a realistic chance of winning.

"The one thing I'm doing very well is I'm putting the ball in the fairway," said Watson, who had his left hip replaced last October.

Not for the first time, he spoke of how spiritual this week was for him.

"I guess the memories are with me, all the wonderful memories I've had of playing links golf," he said.

"You know, walking down the fairways, walking up onto the greens, people showing their respect for me, showing my respect for them. It's been since 1975, 34 years I've played links golf. And it's a fabric of my life.

"To be able to be doing what I'm doing out here, making a few lucky putts here and there and still feeling like I have a chance to win, that's pretty cool at age 59. That's why it's kind of spiritual."

It won't be part of his life after next year, though, if the R&A stick to their guns and enforce the age cap of 60 for past champions.

Watson was asked whether, given the fact that just two years from his marching orders he is leading the Open, he thought this was crazy.

"Talk to Peter [Dawson, boss of the ]," said Watson, accompanied by that familiar wide-mouthed smile. What's not clear is what happens if he wins.

If it wasn't for Watson, the story might be another former champion , who is just one stroke behind aged 49.

Experience again? Well, behind him are Ross Fisher playing just his third Open, and his second, alongside hardened campaigners Jimenez, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh.

So it all comes back to just playing well whoever you are, though the pressure has yet to really begin yet.

And for one man, it won't.

That was Tiger Woods. The world number one will miss the weekend for only the sixth time ever in a professional tournament and only the second time in 49 majors.

, following the ridiculous whispers head of Royal Birkdale that it should be starred as being without Woods, who was injured.

He turned up this time and couldn't hack it.

A rookie and an old boy could, though.