Rory McIlroy was not alone in being spared little mercy as Winged Foot bared its menacing razor-sharp claws on day two of the U.S. Open.
McIlroy was dragged from his lofty first round perch of a share of third place at three-under and sent tumbling down the board on the back of a horror 76 to be sharing 22nd place at three over par.
Former Masters champ, Patrick Reed birdied the last in a round of 70 to lead the field by a shot at four-under par.
Bryson ‘The Scientist’ DeChambeau turned meteorologist in snatching the early second round lead and added a two-under par 68 to his opening 69 to be at three-under.
Three players – Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello, with Irish caddy Colin Byrne calling the shots along with former US Open winner, Harris English and Justin Thomas (65 & 73) – share third place on two-under.
American Jason Kokrak (68 & 71) was at one-under to make-up just six players under par through 36-holes and that is 15 less than the number who were under par on day one.
And while the average score of day one was 72.5 strokes, it had blown out to 74.6 midway on day two.
McIlroy, for a second day running, began on a bright note in holing a 12-footer from pin-high right before he sadly stepped aboard the Winged Foot bogey train.
There were dropped shots at two and three, a double-bogey at four when he found a fairway bunker and then deep rough right before slumping to four-over for the round with a bogey on five.
McIlroy’s ‘bogey train’ paused for a par on six before a terrible tee shot of just 128-yards at the par-3 seventh, some 20-yards shy of the flag for another bogey.
It was a nightmare train ride not seen by McIlroy in a major since his collapse in the final round of the Masters.
McIlroy finally jumped off, and showed the real McIlroy in landing a near 200-yard second shot at the ninth to just 10-feet before two-putting for an easy birdie ‘4’.
He headed into the back nine with back-to-back bogeys and while McIlroy grabbed a birdie at 12, he gave it back at the next.
And then much like day one, he closed with five straight pars to end the day sharing 22nd place but only seven back of the lead.
Three-time former US Open winner, Tiger Woods slipped to 10-over for the event, four shots outside the cut mark while William Hill (US) will be $US 45,000 richer with fellow US Open champ, Phil Mickelson missing the Winged Foot cut on 13-over.
An unknown Nevada punter had bet $450,000 on Mickelson at 75/1 to win a first US Open, and if successful it would have resulted in a $US 3.75m pay day, but alas.
And a third former US Open winner in Graeme McDowell was also headed home early to Orlando.
McDowell went into round after a roller-coaster 76 and much like McIlroy, he also could not get off the bogey train on day two.
GMac bogeyed his first, doubled his fourth, birdied the fifth and then slumped to six-over par for his round with eight straight bogeys from his sixth to 13th holes.
It sent McDowell further down the board at seven-over for his round and now 16-over for the championship.
McDowell also then bogeyed the 17th before a closing birdie in a round of a 10-over par 80 for a distant share of 135th place, one shot fewer than fellow Irishman James Sugrue.
McDowell’s highest round in a U.S. Open is a final round 81 in the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst.
Full scoring HERE
Leave a comment