The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
LEADERBOARD LOGJAM AS TOP NAMES DEPART
Quartet shares second-round lead Johnson, McIlroy and Day miss cut
ERIN, WIS. » The biggest surprise at this U.S. Open was not who was leading, but who was leaving.
Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day — the top three players in the world, all of them professing expansive Erin Hills to be perfect for their games — spent Friday cleaning out their lockers after missing the cut.
Left behind was the biggest 36hole logjam in 43 years at the U.S. Open.
Paul 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.
Brooks 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 Brian Harman and Tommy Fleetwood of England, 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.
FROM PAGE 1 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 experience,” 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 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.