[Photo: Getty images]

Jason Day made good on his promise to shoot under par and get back into the Open Championship mix on day two at Royal Troon.

The former world No.1 carded a three-under-par 68, one day after a 73, to improve to one-under overall and six shots behind second round leader, Shane Lowry (69) at seven-under.

Day, who was T2 at last year’s Open at Hoylake, got off to a flyer with two early birdies helping him to make the turn in two-under. One more birdie at the par-4 13th, and no bogeys, gave the 2015 PGA champion a 68.

“It definitely was (a good start); sometimes when you know that you’re going to get tough conditions, trying to get anything around even par is a good score. We got lucky with the [Thursday afternoon/Friday morning side of the] draw, I feel,” Day said after his round. “It was tough conditions yesterday but this morning, it calmed down for us. It was still a bit windy out there, but it calmed down for us through the first 12 holes.

“At that time we turned, around Nos.11 and 12, were really difficult because of all of the gorse bushes, but once we turned, everything kind of opens up. “You still don’t want to miss fairways, but you have kind of got a little bit more leeway with regards to your misses.

“It was nice to get off to a good start and then make birdie on 13 from out of the rough.

“It’s [tempting] because even though it’s tough and the wind is off the right for the first six or seven holes, you have still got a lot of opportunities if you get yourself decently far enough down the fairway,” he said. “The hard thing is, do you want to take the gamble and push it up on one, two and three clubs, for instance? I hit a 3-wood on No.3 and that was when the wind was probably half of what it is right now, for instance. And I was only a couple of paces from the water’s edge, so I ended up taking advantage of that, which was nice, and birdieng, that which was good. “But once you start making that turn, like kind of starting 9,10,11 and 12, through that stretch there, that’s when you kind of have to hold on a little bit.”

Meanwhile, Adam Scott carded a 77 to drop to five-over but he will make the cut by one shot. Min Woo Lee (80, nine-over), Jasper Stubbs (72, 10-over), and 2022 champion Cam Smith (74, 12-over) were all assured of missing the cut six-over projected cut. Elvis Smylie was in the afternoon wave, having played 11 holes and at eight-over he needed to pick up at least two shots to make the weekend.