The dreaded horn signalling dangerous conditions sounds as Thriston Lawrence lines up a putt from under four feet for a par on the ninth.
The South African will have to come back on Saturday to finish off his second round.
There have been some BIG scores over the first two days here at Oakmont.
It is such a great achievement to make a US Open but the toughest test in golf delights in spitting out players.
Here’s the bottom of the leaderboard…
- +35 George Duangmanee
- +27 Justin Hicks, Justin Lower
- +23 Brady Calkins, Matt Vogt (amateur)
- +22 Will Chandler
- +20 Trevor Gutschewski (amateur), Matt McCarty, George Kneiser, Yuta Sugiura
Basically you’ve got over three times as many players at 20 over or higher, then under par.
It’s getting dark and very wet around Oakmont now, and Thorbjorn Olesen, who is battling to make the weekend, has a posse of officials attempting to help him try and find his drive up the ninth which skipped into the fescue.
He has three minutes to find this but they don’t appear to be even looking in the right spot.
A penalty stroke looks to be incoming for the Dane.
It is sheeting it down at the minute at Oakmont so caddie Theunis Bezuidenhout stands on the ninth tee with his umbrella over Thriston Lawrence’s ball and driver before he tees off.
His drive goes down the right of the fairway. It’ll be a tough approach from there, with greenside bunker guarding the pin.
Stephen Watson
BBC Sport Northern Ireland at Oakmont
Shane Lowry reacts to what he describes as “one of the stupidest things I have ever done.”
Lowry was penalised after lifting his ball without marking it on the 14th green.
The action is not over yet and Thriston Lawrence, who at one stage led by three strokes is heading up the 299-yard par-three eighth.
The South African actually drifts right there but saves his par with a 10-foot putt to remain on the top page of the leaderboard graphic I can see.
Everyone loves an ace.
22 seconds of pure sporting goodness. Just don’t mention the triple-bogey eight at the 12th!
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More from Australia’s Adam Scott, after shooting a second straight level par round of 70 to share fourth:
“I guess I would have
expected to be in this position if you said even par through
two rounds. It’s just hard out there. It’s hard to keep it
going when guys have got on a run. It seems like they’ve
come back a bit. I’m playing old-man-par golf at the
moment.
“I feel like this is what I’ve been working towards. This is really where my mind goes at the start of every
year and what I think about. I have put together a nice career, but I think
another major would really go a long way in fulfilling
my own self.
“The big events are all I’m really playing for.”
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America’s JJ Spaun has been talking about his two-over round of 72 that leaves him one back of leader Sam Burns:
“I knew it would
be hard to back up a bogey-free four under at Oakmont in the
U.S. Open. So I’m just glad that I kept it together.
“I was
even par — I was actually one under through five maybe six, so I
still was hitting a lot of good shots, making a lot of good
conversions, and I’m glad I kind of kept it together,
“With the venue we’re at, it’s still a pretty decent score and I’m happy to still have a shot going into
the weekend.”
Thomas Detry was one shot off the lead at one stage in the second round but he tidies up for par on the 18th rueing three double bogeys in his final five holes.
Right Phil, what you got?
It’s slightly left-to-right and he gives it every chance. It’s looking in all the way… until the final 12 inches when the ball slides by on the low side. Could his last shot at a US Open be a six-inch tap-in?
A par finish and a pair of 74s adds up to eight over and one outside the cut line.
Will this be his last US Open? His exemptions have expired (he got a five-year one for winning the 2020 US PGA Championship) and his world ranking is nowhere because of his LIV involvement.
His only route in is to win next month’s Open, or hope for a USGA special exemption. Which may well happen.
Australia’s Adam Scott won the Masters in 2013 and by the sounds of it fancies his chances of claiming a second major title:
“I’d be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend. Right now, that’s really what I’m here to do, and I feel like there’s probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game is looking better.
“I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year. I feel like this is what I’ve been working towards. I was kind of in the mix late at the PGA, and now kind of putting myself in this one for the weekend. It’s a long way to go, but I feel like my game is in good enough shape to do this.”
I’m still getting used to seeing Phil Mickelson striding down the fairway in colours other than black.
He’s sporting a turquoise shirt and white slacks today. He fires straight at the pin and the ball gets a bit of action off a slope and comes to rest pin-high, 20 feet from the hole.
Phil’s got a look at the birdie he requires.
Kim Si-woo finishes with a bogey on the 18th but he’s well placed heading into Saturday at two over along with the likes of Brooks Koepka.
Russell Henley is also on that mark and has been for hours. The American made three birdies in his final four holes and he’s been creeping up the leaderboard with his feet up since finishing.
What a stretch of holes it has been for Thomas Detry…
The Belgian birdies the fourth and then has a bit of horror show with doubles on five and six before making a three on the par-four seventh.
The 32-year-old missed the cut in the first two majors of the season but barring a late collapse he will be fine here and well in contention.
As I write that he doubles the eighth, his fourth of the round, and that dropa him down from a tie for fourth into a tie for ninth.
Phil the thrill gets a little giddy with his par putt, racing it a good eight feet beyond the hole and he’s suddenly playing ping-pong across the green.
His bogey putt sidles three feet past and he finally drops his ball in the hole for a double-bogey six. He’s going to need to birdie the last to have any chance.
Now if Phil Mickelson sticks around for this weekend he will be the oldest player to make the cut at the US Open since Tom Watson in 2010, who was 60 years and 287 days old at the time.
Lefty is 55 on Monday and would also be the fifth oldest player to make the cut at a US Open since 2000.
He’s on the 17th and is making a bit of a mess of it. His drive ends up in a popular place, just short of the green but in ankle deep rough. Usually a wizard from this kind of spot, he can only dunk his ball a yard or two in front of him and into sand. And from there, he almost flies the green. A long par putt coming up and with the cut line hovering between +6 and +7, he needs this.
Perfect timing for Rory and Co to walk off the 18th as plenty of umbrellas come out across Oakmont.
It must have felt like it was raining all through the second round at times today for former Open champion Shane Lowry, who coughed up five shots in the first four holes before finishing eight over for the day.
Justin Rose fared marginally better with a seven-over 77.
Rory McIlroy clatters his drive long and straight down the 18th. He is some 44 yards longer than the field average today and has hit eight out of 14 fairways.
His second is wonderful wedge that flies past the pin but grips the putting surfance and catches the slope to take it back down towards the cup. This for a birdie and in it drops.
The Northern Irishman has a little laugh although I’m not sure if he happy or not to be hanging around for the weekend.
Thriston Lawrence is all over the place on the long par-five fourth. He’s certainly getting his steps in and decides to take his medicine after finding the rough off the green with his third.
His fourth takes hm backwards across the green to 55 feet and three putts later he is over par with a double.
