Expectant Fisher is daddy cool

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Ross Fisher’s fairytale of winning The Open Championship and then flying home to witness the birth of his first child is still on after a second round 68 at Turnberry.

Fisher was due to become a father on Tuesday and has a private plane on standby ready to whisk him down to his home in Surrey should his wife Jo go into labour.

The 28-year-old is three under par at the halfway stage and very much in contention, but insists he will walk off the course even if he is seven shots ahead on the final day.

“I am shutting everything else out of my mind while I am on the course,” he said. “But if the call comes that the baby is imminent, I’m out of here, whatever the position in the Championship.

“The dream scenario would be to win here on Sunday and then fly home to be at the birth of our child. Seeing Jo give birth to our first child after winning The Open would be an absolute fairytale.”

Fisher would already have a hand on the Claret Jug if he could have played every hole on the Ailsa course like he has played the final three over the first two days.

After finishing his opening round 69 with a hat-trick of birdies, Fisher also hit three-in-a-row from the 15th on his return.

“I went out there with the mindset of trying to make as many pars as I could, and keep the bogeys off the scorecard,” he said.

“It was difficult after the turn, with the wind coming right across. You had to hit it right off line on some holes, which is always difficult. The pins were very difficult as well, tucked in the corners.”

Fisher, who is currently fourth in The Race to Dubai, will enter the world top 20 if he finishes well this week. And the Englishman admits that his fifth place in the US Open at Bethpage last month has seriously raised his level of expectations.

“My game is ready to win the biggest and best tournaments,” he added. “I competed with the biggest players and the best players in the world at the US Open and I came up just short.

“I lost by three shots, but hopefully we can go a little bit better this week.”