RAINING CHAMP?
Johnson pours it on to set pace
WHERE better than New York for Dustin Johnson and Tommy Fleetwood to demonstrate that if you want to do well at the US Open it is all about having the right state of mind.
While the locker room here has been filled with the sound of griping at the difficulty of the test, the tall American has got on with setting an imposing halfway target, while the Englishman has kept Johnson’s athletic stride in sight following a brilliant secondround 66 yesterday.
Both players had the worst of the draw over the first two rounds as well, but there is a reason on top of their prodigious ball-striking skills why Johnson is a past winner of this event and Fleetwood finished tied fourth last year.
The pair are among the most unflappable, and refuse to be sidetracked by things outside their control, like the ferocious rough and the bumpy greens.
The US Open is supposed to be the ultimate test of both a player’s game and mind, and no wonder chief organiser Mike Davis could not disguise his delight at seeing the pair on top.
‘I’ll take that score and run,’ said Fleetwood, who played with the eventual champion Brooks Koepka in the final round last year. ‘It was about hanging on for a while when the rain came in but then I got a little run going at the end.
‘Majors are all about handling yourself and I thought I did that last year, even though I couldn’t compete with Brooks, who was phenomenal that weekend. But it gave me the motivation to want to come back and have another go.’
Fleetwood birdied three of his last five holes to come home in 32 shots. That ties him with Henrik Stenson at one over par and in joint second place of those out in the morning wave yesterday.
But they still go into the weekend five shots adrift of the impressive Johnson, the champion at Oakmont in 2015. No player has ever won a US Open having won a title the week before, but the weight of history is just one more thing Johnson has made light of in establishing his lead.
The worst of the wind on day one, a prolonged bout of rain on day two, coping with the raucous hordes following his playing partner Tiger Woods . . . it all made no difference to Johnson, who followed up his first-round 69 with an excellent 67 to make the 14-time major champion look old by comparison. The runaway winner of the St Jude Classic last week played at a heavily watered Country Club course that could hardly be further removed from this test, Johnson is showing the all-round skills that make him such a worthy occupant of the world No 1 spot. He also underlined the scale of the task facing Woods if he is to start winning majors again.
From tee to green, Woods did not play badly but that oncevaunted short game is presently a long way short of the required standard. About the only putts he made came on his final two holes — and even then he still finished a full 14 shots behind Johnson.
‘I gave myself too much to do after my first-round 78,’ conceded Woods. ‘I got it going a little on my front nine today but needed to keep moving forward on the back nine. Unfortunately, I went the other way.’ Actually, one hole — the relatively easy first — appeared certain to cost Woods his place in the field at the weekend. It was his 10th hole yesterday and he followed up his triple bogey on Thursday with a double to all but seal his fate. Fleetwood and Johnson have a little previous when it comes to contending for titles. The Southport man came out on top when the pair duelled in Abu Dhabi 18 months ago for the victory that signalled his move into the bigtime. Two months later, Johnson got his own back in Mexico.
‘I’m just pleased at this stage to be sort of in contention,’ said Fleetwood. ‘I was six over par after 15 holes in the first round so to be only one over going into the third round, I’ve got to be pleased.’
Stenson, who won The Open two years ago, struggled in the rain before recovering with an inward half played in 32 shots for a 70.
As the afternoon players began their second rounds, the only man who stood between Johnson on four under and Fleetwood on one over was Ian Poulter, who still had 18 daunting holes to complete.
Justin Rose, who began on the same mark as Fleetwood, and Rory McIlroy, who needed a score in the sixties simply to make the cut following his calamitous 80 on Thursday, were also among the later starters.