US Open golf 2023: second round – live updates

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Thanks for reading. The blog will return at 6pm BST Saturday for what promises to be a thrilling third round at LA Country Club. Good night!

36-hole leaderboard

Here’s the top 10 at halfway. A tantalising prospect for the weekend ahead and the expectation, too, that the course will play in fiery fashion, while the USGA will put the pins in fiendish positions.

-10: R Fowler (F)
-9: W Clark (F)
-8: R McIlroy (F), X Schauffele (F)
-7: H English (F)
-6: D Johnson (F), M W Lee (F),
-5: S Bennett (F), S Scheffler (F)
-4: C Smith (F)

Schauffele has given himself the chance to get to within two shots of Fowler. He’s arrested the flow of bogeys (three in a row from the 13th) and has 12-feet for back-to-back birdies to close.

It drops! He stuck in there and joins Rory McIlroy on 8-under.

Meanwhile, Jon Rahm only just makes it into the weekend. His increasingly bad tempered 73 has left him on +2 for the week.

Mr 50%.

The cut is set for +2. Notable names missing it include: +3 Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth. +4 Justin Rose, Corey Conners, Max Homa. +5 Adam Scott. +9 Jason Day. +14 Justin Thomas.

Rickie Fowler on his performance this week: “There’s been a lot happen in the last three years. There’s been a lot of going back and reminding myself what I’ve got and can do. There’s also been a lot of offense the first two days. But I’ll need to stay disciplined and that’s been a big part of my form the last six months.”

Jon Rahm is ailing. He opened his round with that thrilling eagle at the 1st but since then he’s added just one birdie and stumbled with four bogeys. He also faces a tricky par putt at the 17th and has just bellowed a loud expletive. He then missed the putt so that’s five bogeys. He’s +1 for the week and in a tie for 39th.

Rickie Fowler claims the halfway lead

Just a par at 18 (only his fourth of the second round) for Fowler. Last pre-weekend question: how close can Schauffele and Scheffler get to him?

-10: R Fowler (F)
-9: W Clark (F)
-8: R McIlroy (F)
-7: H English (F)
-6: D Johnson (F), MW Lee (F), X Schauffele (16)
-5: S Bennett (F), S Scheffler (17)

Scottie Scheffler is sneaking up behind the leaders. His second nine is the easier front nine and he’s so far made three birdies and five pars with only the 9th to play. That makes him -2 for the day and -5 for the week in a share of eighth.

Rickie Fowler’s approach to the 18th finds the putting surface, 26-feet from the flag. He needs par to tie Martin Kaymer’s record 36-hole low total of 130.

Fowler hits the top … again! His putter is deadly and he ticks the 17th. He’s already made 18 birdies this week with his 36th hole to come.

The 15th hole. Just 115-yards today and it’s seen everything from a hole in one (see below) to 22 bogeys and four double bogeys or worse.

Ouch. That tiny 115-yard par-three 15th has tripped up Xander Schauffele. A third consecutive bogey for him and now he has three long and difficult par-fours to come. He’s -6 for the week and three back of the lead.

But for how long? Fowler has hit a wonderful approach to 8-feet at 17.

A trio of Englishmen have been digging deep. Tommy Fleetwood played his last five holes of his second round in -1 to sneak inside the cut line on +2 for the week.

Tyrrell Hatton is -3 through 17 and in a tie for 40th on +1 – he, too, was the wrong side of the cut line before an improved effort today.

Justin Rose still has much to do but he is also -3 for the day through 16 and +3 for the week. He needs to find one more par breaker to join his compatriots in playing at the weekend.

Trouble at the top. Schauffele has made back-to-back bogeys to fall back to -7 and Fowler’s lack of interest in pars continues: he’s made a bogey at the 16th and returns to a share of top spot with Clark.

Ouch. Justin Thomas will soon be signing for an 81. Currently, only two players are set to finish below him this week. His victory in last year’s PGA Championship must be feeling an awfully long time ago.

“No one wants me to win another major more than I do,” said Rory McIlroy after his round today. Take a read of Ewan Murray’s report of it.

115-yards – no bother for Fowler. Here’s that birdie he just made at the 15th.

Fowler converts. It’s his 17th birdie of the week and he’s only played 33 holes! He’s also made just three pars in today’s round through 15 holes. Updated top end of the leaderboard positions:

-10: R Fowler (15)
-9: W Clark (F)
-8: R McIlroy (F), X Schauffele (13)

Change at the top. Schauffele makes bogey at the 13th to drop one back of the lead and, at the same time, Fowler hits his tee shot at the 115-yard par-three 15th to 8-feet.

Trends says what Fowler and Schauffele achieve in the next 90 minutes can have a big impact at the weekend. There are currently seven golfers within three shots of the lead – if Fowler and/or Schauffele go deeper they can take two or three out of that three shot zone.

Fowler and Schauffele have played early/late but look at this: they’ve been scoring against the grain, with their 62s yesterday and continued presence at the top end of the leaderboard. Scoring against par:

Dave’s favourite Barclay Brown is fighting hard to make the cut. His floppy hat and Ealing Films-like name are what attracted Dave’s attention but the English amateur can play, too. He’s +2 for the event with seven holes of the (easier) front nine to go. He’s a golf scholar at Stanford University so has a certain comfort level playing in California.

Im Sungjae has a different problem to Lowry. The Korean loves the Masters with two top 10s in four starts there but the other three majors? Just one top 20 in 11 appearances. It’s hard to fathom but he’s not changing the record book this week: he’s +7 for the week through 14 holes and tied for 123rd.

Shane Lowry is scrapping to make the cut. He’s level-par for the round and +2 for the week with four holes to play. Since the beginning of 2021 he’s finished top 25 in every major he’s played UNLESS it is this championship. That’s 8-for-8 at the other three, 0-for-2 in this one and currently in a share of 50th.

Fowler bounces back from his back-to-back bogeys. At the 12th he drains a 23-foot birdie putt and is back in double digits under-par, one clear of Schauffele and Clark on -10. Huge cheers from the galleries, that cool flap of the hand and a tiny nod of the head from the man himself.

Can Fowler and Schauffele cling on to a share of the lead on the back nine? Paul Azinger on TV commentary discusses the difficulties of a rising sea breeze and greens that are drying out.

Leaderboard update

The afternoon starters have hit a shaky spell and only two of them, the pre-round leaders, currently sit in the top eight – and they’ve both for the remainder of the tougher nine, the back nine, to encounter.

-9: W Clark (F), R Fowler (11), X Schauffele (10)
-8: R McIlroy (F)
-7: H English (F)
-6: D Johnson (F), MW Lee (F)
-5: S Bennett (F)

In contrast to Rahm, Scheffler has the easier nine to play and he’s made the ideal start with a birdie at the 1st. That takes him back to -3. Rory played that front nine in just 30 blows and Scheffler will be eyeing something similiar.

As I hand back to Matt, Fowler dribbles an unconvincing par putt wide of the hole at 11 and suddenly there’s a three-way tie at the top.

Bryson DeChambeau reached 6-under earlier after birdies at 1, 3 and 5. But the 2020 US Open winner suffered a head-exploding run of four bogeys in five holes from the 6th and is now back to -2 after 12. Another man with his name on this trophy, Gary Woodland, is also at -2 (11).

After starting with a blaze of glory called eagle at 1, Jon Rahm has been somewhat subdued. He managed a birdie at 6 but has given shots back at 4 and 7 to turn in 34. Tied 12th seems okay; eight off the lead is more problematical given those earlier stats about chasers never making up that kind of deficit in US Opens. Another negative is that the Spaniard has the harder nine still to play.

These two-shot swings at the top are becoming quite the thing. The dance continues as Schauffele birdies 8 to get back to -9 and Fowler drops back to -10 after finding sand off the 10th tee and never quite recovering the mistake. Let’s shuffle that leaderboard once again.

-10: R Fowler (10)
-9: W Clark (F), X Schauffele (8)
-8: R McIlroy (F)
-7: H English (F)

Max Homa has been one of the standout stars of the PGA Tour in the last couple of seasons. He’s won five times since February 2021, two of those coming in prestigious events on revered Californian courses: Torrey Pines and Riviera. He also once shot a 61 on this course. And yet, he just can’t get it right in majors. Ahead of this week, the world No. 7 had failed to post a single top 10 in the 15 majors he’s played. Expect that to become 16 as he’s +3 for the day, +1 overall (tied 44th) and has just arguably shanked one out of a bunker. What goes wrong for him in these events? Shrug emoji.

Sure, the scoring here doesn’t seem very US Open-ish. But it’s a bit much to say the numbers are like that of a regular PGA Tour event. Using high-level analysis (scrolling down some google leaderboards), I’ve computed that there are 19 players under par at Los Angeles Country Club right now. Last week in the Canadian Open, 64 players ended the week under par.

A random observation: Rory McIlroy (tied third), Jon Rahm (tied 12th), Romain Langasque (tied 20th) and Paul Barjon (tied 20th) are the only Europeans in the top 31 on the leaderboard. What does it mean? I’ve no idea. Viktor Hovland? He’s tied 32nd and 11 back after a bogey at 7.

Fowler at the 9th, an uphill par 3 measuring 168 yards, plays a smart shot into the heart of the green. That’s the eighth green in regulation he’s round on his opening nine and that’ll keep the grey hairs away in the pressured environment of a US Open.

But there’s frustration for Scheffler. He bogeys 17 and tumbles nine back from Fowler. That gap will need to close between now and close of play.

Another two-shot swing at the top and this time it goes in Fowler’s favour. Rickie’s pitch from short of the green finishes about 10 feet away although before he sizes up the putt, there’s a fist bump with Justin Rose who chips in for eagle. At +4, the cut line is in view again for the Englishman. Feeding off those good vibes, Fowler knocks in his putt to return to -11 while, hold the front page, Schauffele makes his first bogey of the tournament after a three-putt bogey at 7.

-11: R Fowler (8)
-9: W Clark (F)
-8: R McIlroy (F), X Schauffele (7)
-7: H English (F)

After making bogey at the short par-3 7th, Scottie Scheffler has rolled in a seven-foot birdie putt at 8, currently the sixth hardest hole on the course. At -3, seven behind leader Rickie Fowler, he sits alongside Jon Rahm so the top two players in the world rankings are officially hovering without quite getting to where they want to be. Seven back seems okay but no US Open winner this century has been more than six off the pace at halfway. That was Webb Simpson at Olympic Club in San Francisco 11 years ago.

A quick spin through some other players fancied to make a serious challenge this week. Viktor Hovland, a winner at Memorial two weeks ago, remains stuck on -1 after six opening pars; Max Homa is also at -1 after five pars and a bogey; Tyrrell Hatton, who started the day at +4, has climbed back above the cut line via birdies at 1 and 6 and sits at +2 after 8; Tommy Fleetwood is down at +3 again (after 9) after wasting a birdie-birdie start.

A two-shot swing up at the top. Fowler bogeys 7 but, after five straight pars, Schauffele birdies 6 from close range to go from three back to just one behind.

-10: R Fowler (7)
-9: W Clark (F), X Schauffele (6)
-8: R McIlroy (F)
-7: H English (F)

In the race for top amateur, Gordon Sargent (who Matt is convinced worked alongside William McGirt for the CIA and was present at Dealey Plaza/Watergate) is -2 and four clear. One of the chasers at +2 is England’s Barclay Brown. Remember him from the 2022 Open?