Thoroughly enjoyable tournament so far. The course has been daunting as all get up at times, but has still yielded scoring to those willing to play it smart. Avoiding the blow up holes has been massive and we’ve already seen a few great golfers and former major winners (Collin, Brooks) succumb to some big numbers once they’ve found the greens.

I don’t know that we’ll see them ease things up considering the leaders are halfway to double digits, but either way I think the current conditions are pretty fair for a U.S. Open.

Happy to have cashed in early on the newsletter matchup with DJ trunk-slamming. My eyes now turn to the protein-fueled YouTube star as my lone outright with a chip, chair and a chance.

Stat Leaders

Our guy Ludvig hasn’t led a category over the course of the first two days, but he does obviously lead in the two places that matter: Strokes Gained: Total & the actual leaderboard.

Off The Tee

Round 1: Bryson DeChambeau +2.83 SG
Round 2: Rory McIlroy +2.12 SG

Approach

Round 1: Nico Echavarria +3.72 SG
Round 2: Xander Schauffele +3.84 SG

Around the Green

Round 1: Patrick Cantlay +3.88 SG
Round 2: Akshay Bhatia +3.04 SG

Putting

Round 1: Matthieu Pavon +4.44 SG
Round 2: Sam Burns +4.89 SG

Round 3 Tee Times

We were so close…

Rory and Cantlay (along with his caddie Joe LaCava) were ALMOST paired together. It would have made for some interesting TV after the dust up at the Ryder Cup last year in Rome. Alas, we’ll just have to settle for the final Saturday groupings of Rory/Finau, Detry/Cantly, & Aberg/Bryson. Not too shabby.

All tee times ET (already underway)

8:44 a.m. — Theegala, Fox

8:55 a.m. — Molinari, Koepka

9:06 a.m. — Greyserman, Fitzpatrick

9:17 a.m. — Burmester, Lower

9:28 a.m. — Wu, McKibbin

9:49 a.m. — Clanton (a), Todd

9:50 a.m. — Kohles, Lowry

10:01 a.m. — Young, Scheffler

10:12 a.m. — Fleetwood, Sigg

10:23 a.m. — Eckroat, Puig

10:39 a.m. — Morikawa, Bradley

10:50 a.m. — Poston, Clark

11:01 a.m. — Rai, Shipley (a)

11:12 a.m. — Si Woo Kim, Berger

11:23 a.m. — Kuchar, Smith

11:34 a.m. — Broin (a), Campbell

11:45 a.m. — Kaymer, Spieth

11:56 a.m. — English, Bezuidenhout

12:07 p.m. — Svensson, Hubbard

12:18 p.m. — Salinda, Thompson

12:29 p.m. — Min Woo Lee, Grillo

12:45 p.m. — McCarthy, Scott

12:56 p.m. — Kirk, Suber

1:07 p.m. — Straka, Harman

1:18 p.m. — Echavarria, Bennett

1:29 p.m. — Højgaard, Songheyon Kim

1:40 p.m. — Capan III, Pendrith

1:51 p.m. — Henley, Garcia

2:02 p.m. — Jaeger, Burns

2:13 p.m. — Blair, Horschel

2:24 p.m. — Widing, Conners

2:40 p.m. — Schauffele, Bhatia

2:51 p.m. — Tom Kim, Hatton

3:02 p.m. — Pavon, Matsuyama

3:13 p.m. — McIlroy, Finau

3:24 p.m. — Detry, Cantlay

3:35 p.m. — Åberg, DeChambeau

Cutline Casulties

Due to a massive group at +5, “60 and ties” turned out to be 74 golfers.

There was definetly a difference in how the course played as the day went on, but it was consistent both days. You can see in Rob’s tweet below that both waves were not only within a quarter stroke of each other, but they both produced exactly half of the golfers who made the weekend (37).

A few surprises headed into the weekend, including Sergio Garcia, who worked his way in via being an alternate through qualifying. Last man in the field, Jackson Subar (who replaced Jon Rahm after his WD) also made the cut in his first U.S. Open with a 69-73.

Notables that missed the cut:

• Viktor Hovland +6

• Max Homa +6

• Jason Day +8

• Will Zalatoris +8

• Rickie Fowler +8

• Justin Thomas +8

• Dustin Johnson +9

You probably saw it, but one man who DID NOT miss the cut was Frankie Molinari. I’ve never seen anything like it and honestly even if I live to 100, I may not ever see anything like it again.

Hole in Ones are very cool, but I would still contend that Sahith’s shot was better, cooler and brought a higher degree of difficulty. Especially after his disaster round on Thursday. After opening +7 through his first six holes, he’d regroup and get it together to shoot -2 over the next 30 and find the weekend.

Bits and Bobbles

Bryson is becoming more and more likable, which helps me give him a pass on this. Strange behavior, but it’s what we’ve come to expect from him I suppose. I have an outright ticket and he’s playing well, so again, I’m a bit more forgiving of his weirdness.

And finally, Claire filling in for Justin Ray in my “stat to hurt your brain” segment.

One hundred and forty-two straight cuts.

We’ll check back in early next week for the Travelers! Enjoy the weekend, and if you’re still able, CALL YOUR DAD TOMORROW!