Fijian golfer Vijay Singh and all other top 10 golfers competing in the British Open were sent packing out of the tournament as Beastly Birkdale rose to the top when the cut fell.
World top tenners Geoff Ogilvy (3rd), Stewart Cink (6th) and Vijay Singh (10th) were all casualties and they will head home to join the injured No.1 Tiger Woods watching the weekend's action on TV.
Others to depart were last year's US Open champion Angel Cabrera and Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez, the man who currently tops the European Tour's money list.
World No. 3 Ernie Els nearly joined them, but he squeezed in right on the cut at nine under as did English hopes Lee Westwood and Paul Casey.
KJ Choi of South Korea led the tournament at one-under par.
Past winners of the Old Claret Jug fared poorly with Paul Lawrie (1999), Mark O'Meara (1998), Tom Watson (1975, 1977, 1980, 1982 and 1983), Mark Calcavecchia (1989) and John Daly (1995), who finished a whopping 29 over par and at the bottom of the pack, all axed.
Sandy Lyle (1985) had already departed after walking off the course in disgust after 10 holes of his first round on Thursday.
But there was a long-overdue return to form for the 2001 champion David Duval.
Having made just the one cut in the 12 US PGA Tour events he had played this year, the 36-year-old former world No.1 was desparate for some glimpses of his past form.
He achieved that with an excellent 69 to follow up on his opening round of 73 and comfortably made it through to the weekend at two over -- a good effort a player now ranked 1,087th in the world.
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