The world No 1 cut his power but struggled for precision and a double bogey at the last left him sure to miss the cut

It is usually all or nothing for Dustin Johnson. After an opening day when Carnoustie intimidated a few, seduced others and encouraged the usual suspects, the nervous dance towards the cut on a Friday that brought rain, wind and more frustration to the 147th Open proved too much for the No 1 player in the world.

It is odd to see such a magnificent athlete with all the required weapons swing violently between triumph and failure but his game is so finely tuned that, if it is marginally off, it can knock like an old banger. On day one, Johnson was a Rolls Royce with a spark plug missing. On day two, he charged and crashed. Four bogeys and a double cancelled out five birdies in a second-round 72 that will not save him from the axe.

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In January, the 34-year-old American looked primed to make 2018 a vintage year. After Justin Thomas briefly interrupted his reign as world No 1 in May, he took his crown back at the St Jude Classic and, a week later, finished third at the US Open, having led by four on the Friday evening.

There would be no Friday evening to remember here, despite a gutsy fightback. The 2016 US Open champion had the pedigree and the skill to destroy the course; what he lacked was patience.

On Thursday, he had gone for it, averaging 366 yards on the designated holes, hit only half the fairways overall, 58.3% of greens and his 33 putts did not help him much, either. Altogether, it was a failure of strategy and execution. As the partner of Wayne Gretzky’s daughter, Paulina, he was familiar with the concept of skating on thin ice.

On Friday, Johnson knew what he had to do: not go crazy. He cut back his tee shot ambitions on the selected driving fairways, hitting them an average 318 yards, a drop of 48 yards – but he still struggled for precision. While his putting improved, he found fewer than half the fairways and 56% of the greens in regulation.

A birdie and two bogeys put him three outside the projected cut before he had even reached the turn. When he blew up at the 18th for the second day in a row – a double bogey this time after a triple – he looked a forlorn figure.

Earlier, as the drizzle briefly subsided, rivals all around were dropping birdies like unused betting slips. His namesake Zach Johnson (who later revealed he is sometimes called Dustin but doubted DJ was ever called Zach) was playing just in front of him and already had three of them. Z would finish five shots in front of D on the day.

For Dustin, it remained a fight on two fronts: with his own game and with the course. He could not find his radar off the tee and, at six over with eight holes left and the main contenders disappearing from sight, the rain and wind rose, an irritant that also threw up the possibility that the cut-line could move.

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Johnson jutted his jaw at the odds and the weather. At four over, he grabbed a fifth birdie at 16 and had the gallery wondering. He was one outside the cut with two to play – on holes that had given up just four birdies to the 24 players who gone before him. But a bogey on 17 and the double on the last were knockout blows.

In 10 visits to the Open, Johnson has missed the cut twice, just failed to catch Darren Clarke at Sandwich in 2011, made the top 10 at Lytham in 2012 and again two years ago at Troon, as well as finishing well off the pace in 2013 and 2015. So, it is not always an enjoyable visit for an under-the-radar champion whose low-key persona and southern drawl disguise a fierce yet brittle competitor.

It would be little comfort for him that his distinguished compatriots Thomas (who went triple bogey, double bogey, double bogey mid-round) and Jimmy Walker were similarly crushed by one of the toughest courses in golf.