Packed leaderboard missing only one thing: Major winners
Four players tied for 36-hole lead; cut score ties record
ERIN, Wis. — An 11-year-old golf course shaped from Wisconsin pastureland was sure to bring something different to the U.S. Open.
This might have been more than anyone was expecting.
The four players tied for the lead — Paul Casey, Brooks Koepka, Brian Harman and Tommy Fleetwood — created the largest 36-hole logjam in 43 years at the U.S. Open. None has ever won a major, and neither have the next 14 players behind them.
On the longest course ever for a major, the cut was the lowest at the U.S. Open since 1990.
And for all the birdies and blunders at Erin Hills, the most compelling image Friday came from the parking lot, where one star after another left town after missing the cut.
Dustin Johnson. Rory Mcilroy. Jason Day. It was the first time since the world ranking began in 1986 that the top three players missed the cut in any major.
Eight of the top 12 players in the world won’t be around for the weekend at Erin Hills, leaving a tournament as open as the land on which it was built.
Casey chopped his way to a triple bogey, only to respond with five straight birdies that carried him to a 1-under 71 and make him the first to post at 7-under 137. He set the target early under warm sunshine, and even as the wind tapered in the afternoon, no one could catch him.
Koepka had the lead until he turned a birdie chance into a bogey on the par-5 first hole after making the turn. He didn’t make a birdie the rest of the way and had to settle for a 70. They were joined by Harman and Fleetwood, who each had a 70.
Right behind was a trio of players that included Rickie Fowler, who went 28 holes before making his first bogey and then went three holes without making a par. Fowler shot a 73 and was still very much in the hunt at a second straight major.
The four-way tie was the most after two rounds in a U.S. Open since Winged Foot in 1974, back when the names were more familiar for a major — Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Hale Irwin, who went on to win his first major.
The last six majors have been won by first-timers, and that cycle has a good chance to continue. The top 18 players on the leaderboard going into the weekend have combined for zero majors. Only a half-dozen of them have even experienced Sunday contention in golf ’s biggest events.
“Tomorrow will be a very cool ex-
perience,” Fleetwood said. “It’s still Saturday — 36 holes is a very long time in a U.S. Open. Anything can happen.”
Just about everything already has at Erin Hills.
A commercial blimp crashed to the ground and caught fire just outside the course Thursday, about the time the county health department was analyzing samples that confirmed evidence of the E. coli bacteria in water at a hydration station near the 12th hole. The USGA is providing complimentary bottled
■ Money putt: Jason Kokrak made a 16-foot putt on his final hole, No. 9, for a birdie that got him to 1 over — good enough to make the cut.
■ Key statistic: Thecut,at1over,tied a U.S. Open record set in 1990 at Medinah.
■ Noteworthy: A 94-year-old man stopped breathing while in a grandstand on the sixth hole and died of what officials said appeared to be natural causes.
■ Quoteworthy: “I’m not here on the weekend, so it’s unfortunate. But at least I’ll get to sit in air con(ditioning) and watch the guys tear it up on the weekend.” — Day after missing the cut.
■ TV: Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., KVVU5. water the rest of the week. There have been no reports yet of anyone getting sick.
And then Friday, a 94-year-old man at the tournament for the first time stopped breathing while in a grandstand on the sixth hole and died of what Washington County officials said appeared to be natural causes.
Next up is a weekend without most of the biggest names in golf. The cut for the top 60 and ties was at 1-over 145, tying a U.S. Open record set in 1990 at Medinah.