Fierce second day in the most difficult golf test of the year

The US Open is always a great championship and there are many seasonings for this to be the case, but for me there is always something that happens year after year: the board is always very tight and usually there is no one who takes much advantage in the early rounds.

This edition at The Country Club is no exception and all the players that will be on the weekend are separated by only 8 shots. With half of the championship to go, I can assure you that everyone who made the cut knows they have a chance of winning.

Those who played in the morning suffered more than those in the afternoon. The wind and sun in that part made the greens start to turn yellow, some spots appeared on the surfaces and the USGA came out to give them a refresh when the morning groups had finished. Someone may think that this is not fair, but the regulation provides for it. The greens at the US Open are often on the verge of becoming unplayable and it’s always best to be on the right side of that limit. In 2018 when the championship was played at Shinnecock Hills the greens got away from them and the USGA received a lot of criticism from the players.

On that Friday morning, the number 1 in the world appeared to play his last 11 holes at 5 under par, signing 67 shots, and remaining two behind the leader with 36 to play. Without a doubt Scottie Scheffler is a great candidate and not many come with the same degree of confidence. Also in the morning played Sam Burns, a 25-year-old who won three times this season, who also walked away with 67 shots and got into the fight. The 2017 and 2018 winner was the other standout for that part of the day. Brooks Koepka He knows how to win these great championships, he was the same as he was years ago, and although he is 5 behind the leader, he should never be ruled out.

With what we saw early, we all prepared ourselves to see a massacre in the afternoon, but everything changed to the delight of those who had to play at that time. A storm approached and threatened to suspend the game because it brought electricity, it became cloudy, some drops fell and the wind dropped considerably. At the end of the day the storm moved to the south, the sun shone again and it was a perfect afternoon to play at The Country Club.

Colin Morikawa graduated from the University of California in May 2019. He quickly turned professional and made his US Open debut that year. Less than two months later he won his first tournament on tour. In 2020 the pandemic arrived and golf had a break for a couple of months. When activity resumed, Morikawa lost the first tournament in the playoffs, but a month later he won again. The majors were all played on different dates and the PGA Championship traveled to San Francisco. Alli Morikawa hit one of the great blows in the history of the championship on Sunday and kept her first big one. The world was already looking at this boy with different eyes and in February 2021 he won his first World Golf Championship, but the best was yet to come. He traveled to the south of England to play the Open and at Royal St. Georges he dazzled the world by making all the putts he needed in the last 9 holes to withstand Jordan Spieth’s onslaught. The 21/22 season started with several top 10 finishes, including two second places and a fifth place in the Masters, but he himself took it upon himself to tell us that his swing was not where he wanted it to be.

After two rounds at the US Open, he is the leader tied with Joel Dahmen, a player who emerged from qualy, who has only one victory on tour, and who will play in the final group of a major for the first time on Saturday. It is also very common at the US Open for some name with few scrolls to appear at the top of the board, but few are able to withstand the pressure of the weekend.

Morikawa has defending champion Jon Rahm of Spain and 2011 winner Rory McIlroy within one stroke. Rahm won in Mexico a little over a month ago and McIlroy did it last week in Canada. In that same group appears another young man like Aaron Wise and the little known Hayden Buckley, who has just missed the cut in his last 4 tournaments. Nothing is said and everything remains to be seen in the most difficult golf test of the year. To make matters worse, the forecast is for very low temperatures for the weekend and stronger wind than the first two days.

The US Open we all want to see. The one where the pairs celebrate and where the players have to fight in a way they don’t do the rest of the year. Patience will be the name of the game, and whoever has it will lift the trophy on Sunday.

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