A LINKS course really wouldn’t be a links course without a changing wind, and the world’s best players would have been prepared for what Mother Nature served up in Southport.

Yet, despite knowing it was on its way, very few had the sort of response required as Open Championship dreams were blown away over the course of 18 holes.

Just ask Paul Casey, Adam Scott or Jason Day; to name just three to have fallen foul before Jordan Spieth had even arrived at the first tee box in even stronger mid-afternoon gusts.

The strong breeze may have finally brought the very best out of Rory McIlory, on the front nine anyway, but there were more blue numbers than red across the scoreboard as some of the best golfers in the world struggled to cope.

For a man who had shipped four strokes from his first five holes on Thursday, McIlroy carried on from the magic he had shown on the back nine that day to climb back up the leaderboard.

It was vintage stuff from the Northern Irishman, who showed all the hallmarks of a four-time major winner by displaying what was required to move into position to threaten the lead over the weekend only for a couple of late bogeys to blemish an otherwise fine round of two-under 68.

Royal Birkdale had bared its teeth and Casey’s Open Championship dream lie in tatters.

Casey was the Englishman leading the way when he teed off in overcast conditions, with a little light rain and the wind blowing at 8.25am alongside Rickie Fowler and Scott. Neither of those could get any rhythm going either on the West Lancashire coast, even if Fowler coped far better than his partners.

Casey had the look of a man whose frustrations had got the better of him in front of huge crowds. He had seen his overnight four-under par totally blown away in the south-westerly breeze – and on his 40th birthday of all days.

This was supposed to have been a special occasion. Instead he will hope life begins at 40 plus one day after the horror show of this appearance. He was never able to recover from the bogey at the second which stemmed from a shocker of an approach in deep rough and he found the bunker.

There was another dropped shot at the next and another run of back-to-back bogeys at six and seven. A fifth bogey arrived at 13 despite a chip in from the greenside rough, and all while American Matt Kuchar maintained his position towards the top of the leaderboard on four-under in the group behind.

Kuchar, finishing with a one over 71 after dropping shots at 16 and 18, said: “It’s kind of what we know about the Open and I think that's what people enjoy about it, it’s watching the hard wind, the rain, the guys just trying to survive out there.

“Today is my day. I get to kick back in the afternoon and watch the guys just try to survive is pretty much all you can do.”

Casey, with his initials PC and the number 40 stitched into his white golf shoes on his big (bad) day, had to wait until the 15th to post a birdie on his card. Having outlined his love for links golf less than 24 hours earlier, he suddenly had the look of man wishing he was back in Arizona; even more so when his day ended disastrously by bogeying the last two.

Fowler and Scott both finished runner-up in this neck of the woods at Royal Liverpool (2014) and Royal Lytham (2012) respectively, but they were also caught out by the blustery conditions – to at least make the birthday boy feel slightly better (if that was possible).

Scott, sporting a camel jumper and sunglasses all the way round, made birdie at nine and 17 but those only marginally improved a second round 74 that had quickly undone the good work of his 69 the previous day.

He said: “I think the straight downwind - howling 20-mile-an-hour straight downwind - is a tough wind to warm up in. You get no rhythm. The ball hardly gets airborne. It is cold. The ball doesn't want to go up in the air, it's just getting knocked down.

“It took me a few holes to figure out where my comfortable spot was. It's not a day you want to be thinking about your swing when you've got a play with so much feel, and you're aiming 30 yards left of where you'd normally look, and just swing, and the wind moves it.

“You just want to be free swinging. And I was fighting myself a bit out there, so it wasn't that easy out there for me. Anything in the 60s is a hell of a round out there.”

Bright coral jacket-wearing Fowler, the younger golfer’s favourite and the man attracting the huge galleries throughout his five hours on the course, coped with the conditions better. He was the first person to birdie the sixth on the day and repeated the trick at the seventh on his way to a second one-over 71.

Fowler said: “This round was better than Thursday’s for me. I got it around and made a couple of good birdies early, a couple of dumb bogeys with some three-putts. I could have turned it into a little better round than it was. But it wasn't easy out there.

“I love playing in the wind. It creates a bit of a challenge, and I felt I did a good job of it. A couple of bad swings, but really take those two three-putts and just two-putt and I shoot under-par, which is a great score out there.”

Fowler’s score was hardly the mark of a champion, but if he can show the same mental strength over the weekend then the Claret Jug could yet prove to be in his grasp at Royal Birkdale – even if McIlroy could have something to say about that.