If Davis Love wins his first Open championship on Sunday one moment in his second round today will be replayed on television time and time again.
When the 39-year-old's drive down the long 14th at Royal St George's bounced sharply right his reaction was instant.
"Oh no," said Love.
But the ball, heading for out of bounds, kissed one of the white posts that lines the hole and came back into play.
"I didn't see it happen, but the guy (a marshal) put his hand up to indicate it was good and then somebody told my caddie it hit the stake.
"It was a great break - it saved me a stroke or two."
And that stroke or two enabled Love to go on and complete a 71 and reach halfway on the one under par total of 141.
On another day of challenging winds and pin placings which Love and others described as the toughest they had ever seen, that was good enough to take him into the weekend two in front of Dane Thomas Bjorn and little-known South Korean SK Ho.
Joint fourth on two over are Scotland's Alastair Forsyth, Sergio Garcia, last year's runner-up Thomas Levet, first day leader Hennie Otto, Americans Kenny Perry and Ben Curtis and Paraguayan Marco Ruiz, another who was on nobody's list of likely contenders before the off.
For a while it looked as though Tiger Woods might become the man to catch, but the world number one, recovering brilliantly from his opening triple bogey seven on Thursday to be one under after eight holes, four-putted the 381-yard 12th and finished in a tie for 11th spot four behind.
Defending champion Ernie Els scored the round of the day, hitting back from his opening 78 with a 68 to stand four over and back in contention.
At the Masters in April Els began with a 79 and followed with a 66. He had a chance to pull off an amazing victory there, but eventually finished joint sixth.
Gary Murphy leads a somewhat blunt Irish challenge on another forgettable day for Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke.
Murphy, who qualified courtesy of his fourth placed finish at Loch Lomond last weekend, picked up shots at the second and third to improve to level par.
However, bogeys and nine, 15 and 16, mixed with a double bogey seven at 14, saw his challenge falter somewhat and lies five over par following a round of 74.
Next best is Padraig Harrington, a 73 dropping him back to six over, seven strokes off the pace. However, the Dubliner will know he remains in contention with the field so bunched but will need to improve if he is to challenge on Sunday evening.
Two strokes further back lies Darren Clarke after a second successive 75 saw him flirting with the cut at eight over. Also through by the skin of his teeth is Paul McGinley who underwent a patchy round carding five bogies and three birdies for a round of 73 and a score of eight over.
While all four Irish players manages to book their places for the weekend, David Duval led an illustrious list of former champions who failed to survive the cut.
Duval, the 2001 Open winner at Lytham, slumped to a 19-over-par two-round total of 161, 11 shots worse than the cut made at eight over, and the former world number one was reluctant to discuss his slump in form.
"That's exactly why I don't want to talk because you weren't out there and none of those people were out there, and so you're asking me about the same old stuff," he told reporters.
"I played 32 good holes of golf and made three triples (bogeys) and a quad and I'm out of the golf tournament."
Sandy Lyle, who won the Open at Sandwich in 1985, 1999 champion Paul Lawrie, 1997 winner Justin Leonard and Mark Calcavecchia , who lifted the Claret Jug 14 years ago, also failed to make the weekend along with last month's US Open champion Jim Furyk.
Former major winners Bernhard Langer, never out of the top three in his three previous Opens at Sandwich, Jose Maria Olazabal, Corey Pavin, David Toms, Hal Sutton, Jeff Sluman and Lee Janzen also missed the cut, as did England's Lee Westwood and Justin Rose.
Three-times Open champion Nick Faldo, former winners Mark O'Meara and Tom Lehman, US Masters champion Mike Weir and last year's U.S.PGA winner Rich Beem narrowly survived after finishing on eight-over-par totals of 150.