Scheffler seizes the initiative as Brookline turns ‘nasty’ on day two
World No.1 recovers from early wobble to set halfway pace at US Open in Boston
WORLD No.1 Scottie Scheffler claimed a share of the early clubhouse lead as Brookline turned “nasty” on day two of the 122nd US Open.
Scheffler added a second round of 67 to his opening 70 to join world No.371 Nick Hardy at the top of the leaderboard on three under par.
The Masters champion was two over after seven holes but then birdied the eighth and 13th, holed out from 55 yards for eagle on the par-five 14th and picked up another shot on the 16th in his bid for an amazing fifth win in 2022.
“I just stayed really patient,” Scheffler said. “I was hitting it good pretty much most of the day. Two silly bogeys early in the round, but outside of that I hit it really good.
“If a few more putts would have fallen in versus [running] around the edge, it would have been a really special day. But three under was a good score for me.”
Speaking about his eagle on the 14th, Scheffler added: “I hit a great drive down the middle and then had kind of a funny lie where it was sitting on a downslope and it made that shot into the green much harder. I caught it a hair thin and hit the tree. Fortunately it didn’t hit the tree and come backwards, it kind of just fell down in front of it. Had a good lie and hit a good chip and it went in.”
England’s Matt Fitzpatrick recovered from a hat-trick of bogeys to play his final five holes in two under par and lie just a shot off the lead following a second round of 70.
“I played really, really well,” said Fitzpatrick, who was fifth in the US PGA last month and won the 2013 US Amateur at Brookline. “Three of my four bogeys were three-putts, so that kind of sums up the day.
“I felt like I hit the ball tee to green really, really good. I think I hit one chip shot all day, so that kind of summarizes how well I felt like I hit it. I feel like I’ve left a couple out there, which to say in a US Open is pretty rare, but it is positive going into the weekend.”
Twenty five players had recorded scores in the 60s in the first round, equalling the second most in tournament history and just two behind the record of 27 at Pebble Beach in 2019. But with a blustery wind helping to dry out the course, six-time major winner Nick Faldo predicted conditions would continue to get tougher over the weekend.
“It really is nasty, gusty, blustery, and there are some really tough holes,” Faldo, who lost a play-off to Curtis Strange in the 1988 US
Open at Brookline, said after completing commentary duties
for American broadcaster CBS.
South African qualifier MJ Daffue could attest to that after enjoying a three-shot lead when he holed from 80 feet on the seventh to reach six under par, only to play his last eight holes in five over.
“The back nine was disappointing,” said Daffue, who nevertheless had produced a contender for shot of the tournament by hitting his second shot off the carpet on the outside of a hospitality tent to near the green on the 14th.
“I did the simple things really bad but if you’d told me before yesterday I would be one under par in the top 15 after finishing my round today, I would have said yes.”
World No.8 Viktor Hovland had been just a shot off the lead after two early birdies, but bogeyed six holes in a row around the turn and dropped three more shots on the closing stretch to shoot a dispiriting 77.
Fitzpatrick played in the final group in the fourth round of the US PGA last month, but carded a closing 73 to miss out on the play-off between Justin Thomas and Will Zalatoris by two shots.
The tie for fifth was still Fitzpatrick’s best result in a major and he makes no secret of his desire to win one, or more, of the game’s biggest titles.
“They’re what’s important,”
he added. “Me and my manager, we’ve made our own category of legends of the game and said if you’ve got six majors you’re a legend.
“That’s how important the majors are; you are sort of put up on this pedestal of where the greats are. At the end of the day you only get four attempts a year, and that’s if you’re in them.
“To win one is extra special, and to win one is also extra impressive given that there’s so few of them, and that’s why Tiger [Woods, with 15] and Jack [Nicklaus, 18] are the best.”
Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, admitted he paid the price for a lack of preparation after comfortably missing the halfway cut in the 122nd US Open.
Before travelling to Brookline, Mickelson’s only “competitive” appearance since February was in last week’s inaugural LIV Golf Invitational Series event, where he shot 10 over par to finish joint 33rd in the 48-man, 54-hole tournament, which had no cut.
The six-time major winner, who has received 200m US dollars to sign up with the Saudi-backed breakaway circuit, fared no better in Boston as he followed a 78 on his 52nd birthday with a second round of 73 to finish 11 over.
“I enjoyed getting back out there,” Mickelson told a group of US outlets.
“The US Open is the ultimate test and you don’t really know where your game is until you get tested. I thought I was a little bit closer than I was, but I really struggled putting. I thought I was more prepared than I was.’’
Mickelson, who four-putted from 12 feet in the first round, took a four-month break from golf following the fallout from his explosive comments about the Saudi-funded breakaway and the PGA Tour.
He will make his next start in LIV Golf’s second event at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon at the end of the month, before heading to St Andrews for the 150th Open Championship.
“I’m pretty motivated to get back to work,” he added. “I feel I’m certainly playing better than I’m scoring and I’ll look forward to working on it.”
Mickelson was making his eighth attempt at completing the career grand slam by winning the US Open, an event in which he has finished runner-up a record six times. It is just the fifth time he has missed the cut in 31 appearances.