American Gary Woodland leads the field by two shots going into the weekend at the U.S. Open after firing a stunning round of 6-under 65 in round two.
American Gary Woodland leads the field by two shots going into the weekend at the U.S. Open after firing a stunning round of 6-under 65 in round two.
Joining Tiger Woods and Justin Rose as the only players to have reached the score in a U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, Woodland’s bogey-free round was exciting to watch, with a final birdie on his last hole, the par-4 9th the icing on the cake.
A pleasing round of 1-under saw Justin Rose move to 7-under for the tournament so far after playing in the morning field to sit two shots behind Woodland and one ahead of third-placed Louis Oosthuizen.
Aaron Wise and Rory McIlroy round out the top-5 on the leaderboard at 5-under the card with McIlroy bringing some of his best game to the Pebble Beach Golf Links layout in round two.
After failing to make the cut at the past two U.S. Open Championships, Adam Scott will progress to the final rounds of the 2019 tournament.
Despite starting his round with back-to-back bogeys on holes 1 and 2, Scott reignited from there to fire birdies at 4, 6 and 9 to make the turn at 1-under.
With a single bogey at 13 and birdies on 14 and 15, Scott’s second round of 2-under 69 keeps the Queenslander within reach of the front-runners.
“Overall shooting in the 60s at a U.S. Open is a good thing. I’m happy with that,” said Scott.
“It was a tough start, had me on the back foot. I’m playing well. I had to stay patient and stick in and wait for my chances.
“I got it back under par through 9 and then tried to hold on coming in. Always in a U.S. Open, even in these nice conditions, it’s a fine line. It’s easy to drop a shot.”
Jason Day’s round started on one of the course’s toughest holes; a double-bogey on the par-4 10th pushing his 1-under day one score to 1-over early in the day. Further bogeys at 11 and 17 moved Day to 3-over before a birdie lightened the load to see him through the turn at 3-over.
Day was able to fight back, however, finishing round two with a 2-over scorecard for a total of 1-over, level with Marc Leishman and enough to see the pair through to the weekend.
Cameron Smith was the last of the Australasian contingent to confirm his spot in round three, making a required birdie on his final hole, the 9th.
Sitting outside the projected cut on his approach to the final hole following a double-bogey at 8, Smith’s composed approach saw him through, finishing round two at 1-over.
Even par in round two kept Matt Jones at a 3-over total, while Aaron Baddeley and Ryan Fox completed their 2019 U.S. Open efforts at 5-over the card after the cut was made at 2-over.
New Zealand’s Daniel Hillier and Australians Marcus Fraser and Brett Drewitt struggled through the second round with totals well over par, sitting at, 7-over, 10-over and 11-over respectively.
Cameron Smith and Jason Day will play side-by-side in round three as the first of the Aussies too tee off, taking to the 1st tee at 2:59am AEST. Watch live from 5:00am on FOX SPORTS Australia channel 503.