Jordan Spieth was happy to bury the memory of his nightmare finish to the opening round at The Open after a 67 on Friday left him firmly in contention at Carnoustie.

The defending champion sits at three under at the halfway stage of the tournament, three behind leading duo Zach Johnson and Kevin Kisner.

Spieth looked on track to finish at the top of the leaderboard by the end of Thursday's play too, only to drop four shots over the closing four holes.

While the American bogeyed the 16th for a second time in a row, he was "happy" to be back in the running after the second round.

"Yeah, one over on the last four certainly beats yesterday," Spieth said. "I didn't know at the beginning of the week that I'd take that.

"I thought maybe I'd have an opportunity to hit a couple of good shots there, but I don't hit any long irons until really the last four or five holes. It's kind of like my swing just got a little off there.

"But it was a phenomenal up and down for bogey. I thought that was a huge save today.

"And then giving myself two putts on the last two holes was all I could ask for. So very happy to be back in the tournament."

Spieth also revealed he had made an adjustment to his putting stroke between rounds, though he still feels there is room for improvement in that area of his game.

"I made a change even from yesterday to today on the practice green that allowed my arms to do more of the work, which is what I'm looking to do," he added.

"It's getting there. It's not quite [there] - maybe 60, 70 per cent of the putts I'm hitting. They're set up exactly like I want them to, and there's still a few where it looks kind of weird to me, and I feel like I have to manipulate it.

"But it's come a long way in the last few months, no doubt."