ADAM SCOTT birdied the last to go to 1-under and lead the Australian contingent after the second round of the 2011 British Open at Royal St George’s.

In a congested leaderboard Scott (70) was just three strokes behind the joint leaders, Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke (68) and American Lucas Glover (70).

One stroke behind the leaders are American Chad Campbell (68), Germany’s world No.3 Martin Kaymer (69), first-round joint leader Thomas Bjorn (72) and Spanish veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez (71).

Scott leads five Australians who made the weekend cut, including Jason Day (71), Richard Green (71), and Robert Allenby (72) on 1-over and Canberra’s Matthew Millar (73) on three over.

The seven other Aussies in the field, including Geoff Ogilvy who finished at +7 will be winding their way home.

Pre-tournament favourite Roy McIlroy is still well in the hunt after a 69 put him at even par. Not so for the world’s number one and two Luke Donald and Lee Westwood, who missed the cut.

Shot of the day had to be Tom Watson (70) with his one-hop hole in one on the sixth, while fellow US veteran Tom Lehman also had a good day with a low round 67.

Scott was hoping a weekend of predicted foul weather would be to his advantage.

“I don’t want to spend the next two days in the rain,” he said. “But I wouldn’t mind if it played tough. I think that’d be good for me. Around this type of course it’s going to be tough to get the ball close.”

18 players within three strokes of leaders

Going into the third round the leaderboard is packed so tight that 18 players are within three strokes of the joint leaders.

With the cut falling at three over par all qualifiers for the final two rounds are covered by only seven shots.

There are 11 different nationalities among the leading 30 players.