Johnson takes lead into weekend
Dustin Johnson has a four-shot lead and is the only golfer under par heading into Saturday’s third round at the U.S. Open.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Dustin Johnson handled the worst of the weather and wound up as the sole survivor to par at the U.S. Open, taking a four-shot lead into the weekend at Shinnecock Hills with plenty of reminders of how it can all go wrong.
Some of them from Johnson’s own experiences.
Most came from the final hours Friday in pristine weather from those trying to catch him.
Johnson endured the wind and two hours of rain that made Shinnecock play even longer by dropping only one shot, never putting himself in position to make a big number and holing a 45-foot birdie putt on the par-3 seventh that carried him to a 3-under 67.
“You’ve got to play really good golf if you want to shoot a good score, and I like where par is a good score on every hole, no matter what club you’ve got in your hand, what hole it is,” Johnson said.
No matter the weather, Shinnecock can punish anyone in a New York minute.
Ian Poulter was one shot out of the lead and in the middle of the fairway with two holes to go when one bad shot led to a few more that were even worse — a bunker shot over the green, a chunk into the hay, a chop short of the green and a triple bogey on No. 8. He made bogey on his last hole for a 72.
“There’s a disaster on every single hole,” Poulter said.
That left Charley Hoffman the only other player under par until he missed the 18th fairway and had to make a 5-footer to escape with bogey and a 69.
Johnson was at 4-under 136 as he goes after his second U.S. Open in three years.
Tiger Woods won’t be around to see how it turns out, and he had plenty of company.
Woods closed with back-to-back birdies to salvage a 72. He still missed the cut in a major for the fifth time in his last eight tries, this time by two shots. Rory McIlroy missed the cut for the third straight year in the U.S. Open, unable to recover from his opening 80.