Rory McIlroy knows more than anyone that there is no easy way to win a US Open, and especially so on a links like Shinnecock Hills which historically has played as one of the toughest examinations of all Major venues.
If the Northern Irishman is to claim a second career win in the championship, then there remains no other option than to do it the hard way in chasing down midway leader Wyndham Clark who stood imperiously atop the 36-holes leaderboard on seven-under-par 133, four shots ahead of his closest pursuers.
McIlroy lay further adrift, seven behind, after a roller-coaster ride of a second round on the hilly Long Island links: a second round 71 – which featured four birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey – contrived to cast him in the role of pursuer, but not without hope and especially so with the prospect of the course firming up over the weekend.
“When you are chasing, it’s sort of counterintuitive,” claimed McIlroy, adding, “but, for me, [knowing] that everyone else in the field is going to make bogeys, if I can limit my mistakes and pick off a few birdies here and there, that’s really the strategy.”
RM Block
McIlroy, whose only US Open win came at Congressional in 2011 and who has finished runner-up twice in the last three years, also pointed to how Brooks Koepka made a weekend charge in winning in 2018 on the last occasion that the championship was held on this famous old links.
Back then, Koepka trailed Dustin Johnson by five strokes before making a successful defence in claiming back-to-back US Opens.
In McIlroy’s case, it would need to be an even bigger comeback of seven strokes.
“If there’s a course where you feel like you still have a chance if you’re seven back going into the weekend like I am, it’s definitely this one,” insisted McIlroy, in tied-11th, who identified limiting mistakes as critical to his effort.
McIlroy added: “It’s not as if you can go and chase on this golf course. You just got to play super solid and hit fairways and hit greens and take your chances when they present themselves. I feel like I’m playing well enough to pick off a few birdies here and there.”
World number one Scottie Scheffler – needing only the US Open to follow McIlroy into the Grand Slam club – moved into the weekend on the same 140 mark as McIlroy, after the American added a 68 to his opening round 72.
Clark held a four strokes lead through 36-holes over the quartet of Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Sam Stevens and Tom Kim.
Clark’s seven-under-par 133 belied the historical data associated with past championships.
In the previous five iterations of the championship on this famed course, a total of just three players – Retief Goosen (-4) when winning and Phil Mickelson (-2) in finishing runner-up in 2004 and Raymond Floyd (-1) when winning in 1986 – had ever finished with sub-par totals.
The USGA’s more cautious course set-up for the opening two rounds, fearful of losing the greens especially, with strong winds in a forecast that didn’t actually come to pass, enabled players for the most part to find a way, even if a number of poor souls – among them Jon Rahm, who followed a 68 with a 78 for 146 to miss the cut – found the questions posed too tough to answer.
And Dustin Johnson seemed to be more like his old self in getting into contention only for a series of unfortunate errors mainly with the bunkers – a double bogey five on the 11th and a quadruple bogey eight on the 15th – ruining a good card, coming home in 41 strokes, and eventually signing for a 77 that left him on 143.
And while Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, frequently hit some wayward drives into the fescue grasses, the 32-year-old American contrived to manufacture the type of recovery shots more out of the old Seve Ballesteros or even Jordan Spieth playbooks. It made for an eventful and productive homeward run, one bogey – on the par 5 16th where he got a fried egg lie in a fairway bunker – to go with three birdies.
Clark was among those who failed to finish their first rounds on Thursday and answered a 4am alarm call Friday to complete that opening , a 64, before going back out for a second round 69 to assume the 36-holes lead. His bed, initially, and then a plan to watch the USA World Cup match were on his mind on signing his scorecard.
“I really felt like I could be in double digits, but you know, the great thing about that is I didn’t feel like I had my best, and I still am leading as of right now. Hopefully I can bring my A-game on the weekend,” said Clark.
