Matt Wallace happy to be 'ordinary' as he makes major move at Birkdale

Matt Wallace was determined not to get overawed by his surroundings after a second-round 67 put him into a strong position heading into the weekend at The Open Championship.

The Englishman is well known for showing his emotions, be that a fiery reprimand of himself after a poor shot or his tears after missing out on the Ryder Cup team.

And while he admits he is "juiced up" for "the best championship in the world", he will be trying to stay on an even keel over the weekend at Royal Birkdale.

"It's that cliché isn't it? It's just the same again," he said.

"I like that phrase: ordinary golf on a special occasion. That's all we're trying to do, play ordinary golf like today and yesterday but it's The Open Championship so let's keep it like that because it gets me juiced up, I like it."

No Englishman has won The Open on English soil since Tony Jacklin in 1969 and much of the focus coming into the week has been the prospect of local favourite Tommy Fleetwood or World Number Three Matt Fitzpatrick ending that drought.

That has allowed Wallace – a five-time DP World Tour winner who also has a PGA TOUR victory on his CV – to come in under the radar but as he walked up the last, it was clear he had plenty of local support.

"That was seriously special," he said. "And I know you won't believe it in terms of early in the day, but from the fifth hole, the short one over there, man, the amount of people saying, 'go on, Matt' and egging me on and pushing me because you've got an Englishman at the top of the leaderboard.

"Wentworth, my home club, I get that a lot and it's brilliant. But I haven't been in contention up there as much as I'd want to to get the support like I did out there.

"But I just still have this as the best championship in the world, and it's the best crowds, and they love their golf. All I want to do is try and entertain them as much as possible and give them something to cheer for."

With the wind due to get up as the day went on, the 36-year-old carded five birdies and two dropped shots from the second group of the day to get to four under at an event where he has a best finish of a tie for 40th in six appearances.

Extremely firm and fast conditions mean players need to maximise every advantage available to them and Wallace admitted he felt he had been fortunate with the draw.

"I played nice," he said. "Started great. Knew the conditions kind of similar to yesterday morning were going to play into our hands.

"I said to (caddie) Jamie, I think we had the second best tee time out of the lot, which would have been the first group out from yesterday and today. So took advantage of that.

"Played some really good stuff to start the day. A little frustrating not to birdie the par fives there from position. Didn't hit the shots I'd like to, so clean that up and, yeah, very happy.

"I just need to stay on my processes, which I was doing really well out there, especially with the putts. That last putt on the 18th there was exactly a good sign for me that I could implement what I've been trying to do in that moment.

"Didn't play how I wanted to down the stretch there in terms of some of the second shots, but the putts were decent, so that was my main thought."