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Brooks Koepka caps a record week with US Open title

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(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Canadian Press

Brooks Koepka received a short piece of advice from a valuable source on the eve of the final round at the U.S. Open.

Defending champion Dustin Johnson was doing most of the talking.

“It was a long phone call for us – it was like two minutes,” Koepka said. “But he just said a few things, and just stay patient. And I’ll win if I stay patient and just keep doing what I’m doing.”

What he did looked awfully familiar Sunday at Erin Hills, minus any mess involving the rules.

With athleticism and power, and four straight putts over the back nine that allowed him to pull away, Koepka capped off his hardscrabble journey around the world and found stardom at home as the U.S. Open champion.

He closed with a 5-under 67, only realizing after his par on the final hole that a birdie would have set yet another U.S. Open record in a week filled with them.

Koepka finished at 16-under 272, matching the lowest score to par first set by Rory McIlroy six years ago at Congressional.

Tied for the lead with six holes to play, Koepka holed an 8-foot par putt on the 13th hole that gave him confidence with his stroke and momentum to pour in birdies on the next three holes to turn the final hour into a celebration of another young star in golf.

The 27-year-old Koepka wound up winning by four shots over Brian Harman, who was done in by back-to-back bogeys right when Koepka was making his run, and Hideki Matsuyama, who closed with a 66.

“That’s probably the most emotion I’ve ever shown coming down the stretch,” Koepka said. “It feels amazing to get my name on this trophy with so many other great names. It’s truly an honour.”

Emotion? The most he displayed was a light fist pump, his hand clenched a little tighter with each birdie, and a double fist pump on the 18th when he tapped in for par.

It’s not much different from Johnson.

They are close friends on the golf course and in the gym, and they play a similar game of power off the tee, a clean strike with the iron and a knack for looking calm even as the pressure is ramping up.

And now their names are on the U.S. Open trophy, one after the other.

It capped quite a journey for the Floridian. Without a card on any tour when Koepka got out of Florida State, he filled his passport on the Challenge Tour with stamps from Kazakhstan to Kenya, Scotland and Spain, India and the Madeira Island.

One night in Scotland, he called his agent and wanted to come home, even though he was leading the tournament. He had been on the road for so long, in so many different countries, and was feeling lonely.

He won the next day to graduate to the European Tour. The next year, he earned a spot in the U.S. Open through a qualifier in England, and his tie for fourth at Pinehurst No. 2 helped him earn a card on the PGA Tour.

Koepka took it from there – a victory in Turkey against a strong field, his first PGA Tour victory in the Phoenix Open, his first Ryder Cup and now a major championship.

“To go over there, I think it helped me grow up a little bit and really figure out that, hey, play golf, get it done, and then you can really take this somewhere,” he said.

Koepka became the seventh straight first-time winner of a major championship, and it was the first time since 1998-2000 that Americans won their national championship three straight years.

Tommy Fleetwood, who played alongside Koepka and closed with a 72 to finish fourth, played the Challenge Tour a year before Koepka arrived.

“It gives you a good grounding,” Fleetwood said. “Obviously, Brooks dealt with it amazingly. He came and kicked everyone’s (behind) over there, didn’t he? But he’s proven for a long time how good he is. Now he’s done it in a major.”

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., stuggled to an 8-over 80 to finish the tournament 9-over 297.

It was only fitting that Koepka left Erin Hills with yet another record matched or broken.

McIlroy finished at 16-under 268 when he won on rain-softened Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open. But the low scoring went much deeper than that.

Only six players had ever reached double digits under par in the previous 116 times at the U.S. Open. McIlroy and Tiger Woods (12 under at Pebble Beach in 2000) had been the only players to finish there.

This week alone, nine players reached at least 10 under and seven finished there.

Xander Schauffele, a rookie on the PGA Tour playing in his first U.S. Open, birdied his last hole for a 69 to tie for fifth at 10-under 268 along with Bill Haas (69) and Rickie Fowler (72), who was poised at yet another major to win only to fall back.

Fowler started one shot out of the lead at the Masters this year and shot 76. He was only two behind when he made the turn, but bogeys on the 12th and 15th holes – and no birdies until No. 18 – ended his hopes.

Justin Thomas, coming off a 9-under 63 that matched the major championship scoring record and was the first 9-under round at a U.S. Open, went out in 39 and closed with a 75 to tie for ninth.

The week ended with 31 players under par, breaking the U.S. Open record of 28 players at Medinah in 1990. There were 133 sub-par rounds, nine more than the previous record in that 1990 U.S. Open.

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Brooke Henderson LPGA Tour

Brooke Henderson wins Meijer LPGA Classic to collect fourth LPGA title

Brooke Henderson
( Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Canadian Press

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Brooke Henderson made it a special Father’s Day.

With father and coach Dave Henderson and other family members watching, the 19-year-old Canadian won the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday for her fourth LPGA Tour title, holding off Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson by two strokes in cool, windy conditions.

“It was just like the perfect day,” the Smiths Falls, Ont., native said. “My dad is my coach, he’s a great father to both my sister (caddie Brittany) and I, and he’s one of our best friends. He’s with us all the time, and he gave me a lot of lines early in the week that I didn’t know, that I wouldn’t normally take without him there. But he said, ‘If you want to win and you want to contend, you need to take these lines off the tee.’

“I did that and I had an advantage over the rest of the field all four days. So this win, I say it’s for him, but it really is for him because I probably wouldn’t have done it without him.”

Henderson closed with a 66 on the Blythefield layout that was reduced to a par of 69 – the fifth hole was played as a par 3 instead of a par 5 – the final two rounds because of flooding.

Wie finished with a 65, and Thompson had a 69.

Henderson finished at 17-under 263 and earned $300,000. She led after each of the first two rounds, shooting 63-67 at a par of 71, and had a 67 on Saturday to drop a stroke behind Thompson.

Henderson won twice last year, taking the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship for her first major, and successfully defending her title in the Cambia Portland Classic.

But she hadn’t won an LPGA tournament since, a winless drought that spanned nearly a year before breaking it Sunday.

“It’s kind of been a little bit tougher season for me, I haven’t got the results that I’ve been really looking for,” Henderson said. “But this week I played really well and things kind of started to turn around for me. So to get my fourth win is super exciting and I’m just excited for the rest of the summer now.”

Henderson had three birdies in a bogey-free round. She birdied Nos. 7 and 8, while Thompson faltered.

“I missed a short one on 10, which I would have liked to have, but then I made a great birdie on No. 11,” Henderson said. “I had zero bogeys on a day like today where it was super windy. And any day on Sunday, there’s that little bit of extra pressure and you’re in contention so you want to play really well so you might push a few more shots than you would like.”

Thompson was 1 over on the first five holes with two bogeys.

Thompson hit one of the longest drives of the day on No. 9, put her approach shot within 20 feet and made the birdie putt to tie for the lead. But she bogeyed No. 10 to fall out of the lead.

“I hit my driver great the whole day, so that was definitely a positive,” Thompson said. “I didn’t roll the putter that well today. It is what it is. I hit two great last putts. I almost made the two long ones.”

Wie shared the lead early in the round and wound up with five birdies and no bogeys.

“It was tough out there,” Wie said. “The wind just started blowing and it was just interesting. Some spots are really wet, some spots are dry, but overall I felt like I played good this week and I’m happy about it.”

Su Oh (64), Madelene Sagstrom (65) and Moriya Jutanugarn (66) tied for fourth at 14 under.

Second-ranked Lydia Ko had a 68 to tie for 10th at 12-under. Top-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn, coming off a playoff victory last week in Canada over Thompson and In Gee Chun, had a 69 to for 22nd at 9 under.

Henderson said she’ll be taking the next week off after playing in a charity event Monday in Rhode Island. Her next tournament will be KPMG PGA Championship, where she’ll look to defend her title from last season.

“It’s really exciting and it gives me a lot of confidence going into that tournament knowing that I’m coming off a win,” she said. “Hopefully I can go there to Olympia Fields and defend the championship that really defined my career last year.”

Henderson is the 15th different winner on the LPGA Tour in 2017 and the first from Canada. She is the youngest winner on the LPGA Tour in 2017 and the youngest since her last victory.

PGA Tour Americas

Robby Shelton leading at GolfBC Championship, Jared du Toit T9

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(Mackenzie Tour - PGA TOUR Canada)
Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada

Wilmer, Alabama’s Robby Shelton cruised to a 6- under 65 on Saturday at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf and Country Club to extend his lead to three shots at the GolfBC Championship, the third event of the 2017 Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada season.

The former University of Alabama standout made five birdies and an eagle against just one bogey on the day, finishing the day with a six-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to lead by three over Ridgeway, Virginia’s Adam Webb heading into the final round.

“I’m striking it really well, and a few putts fell for me on the front nine to get the momentum going,” said Shelton, a three-time 1st team All-American at Alabama and a past U.S. Walker Cup team member. “I just cruised and everything’s working out for me.”

Beginning the day with a one-shot lead, Shelton found himself tied with Webb, Camarillo, California’s Johnny Ruiz and Costa Mesa, California’s Jake Knapp in the early going but put together a flawless front nine, capped by a 50-foot birdie putt at the ninth to take the outright lead.

“I’m throwing darts, and luckily a few putts fell,” said Shelton, who said the three-shot cushion puts him in the driver’s seat for Sunday’s final round. “I can put it on cruise control and hopefully someone doesn’t go stupid low.”

The 22-year old also benefited from some local knowledge on Saturday, with Gallagher’s Canyon Club Champion Dwayne Henry as his caddie for the weekend. “It was great. He definitely helped me with some reads, and it’s pretty cool to have the club champion on the bag,” said Shelton.

Webb shot a 6-under 65 to hold solo second, while Ruiz, Knapp and Danville, California’s Cody Blick were a shot further back in a tie for third at 13-under.

Shelton’s 2015 Walker Cup teammates Lee McCoy, Hunter Stewart and Jordan Niebrugge are also Mackenzie Tour members this season.

Shelton has held the solo lead after each round this week. The last player to lead outright after each round at a Mackenzie Tour event was Joel Dahmen at the 2014 Syncrude Boreal Open presented by AECON.

The last player to hold at least a share of the lead after each round of a tournament was Adam Cornelson at the 2016 Bayview Place Cardtronics Open presented by Times Colonist.

Team Canada National Team golfer Jared du Toit is T9 after a course record 10-under-par 61 on Saturday. Du Toit is playing in his second event as a professional .

““I was just thrilled to play the weekend and to go try and shoot a great score. I love playing as a single, so that was awesome for me. I tried to birdie every hole and give myself a good look, and I played well,” said du Toit.

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LPGA Tour

Lexi Thompson has 1 shot lead over Brooke Henderson in Meijer LPGA Classic

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(Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Canadian Press

Lexi Thompson shot a 64 on Saturday on the Blythefield layout reduced to a par of 69 because of flooding, giving her a one-stroke lead in the Meijer LPGA Classic.

The fifth hole was played as a 111-yard par 3 instead of a par 5 because of the flooding from overnight rain.

Coming off a playoff loss to Ariya Jutanugarn last week in Canada, Thompson had six birdies – four on the back nine – and a bogey to reach 15-under 196.

“It was just a matter of staying patient,” Thompson said. “I knew I was hitting it well on the front nine, I just wasn’t making the birdies. But I hit it well all day, so it was all a matter of hitting the shots closer and I guess just taking advantage of like No. 11, reaching that one in two, and making a few putts for birdie.”

Her only bogey was on the par-4 seventh.

“It was just a stupid club coming in,” she said. “I should have just played short of the green, that’s where you have to miss it, and I hit it long. Just a bad miss, stupid mistake.”

Brooke Henderson, the leader after each of the first two rounds, had a 67 to drop into a tie for second with Lee-Anne Pace (61), Sung Hyun Park (62) and Jenny Shin (63).

Thompson won the Kingsmill Championship last month in Virginia for her eighth LPGA Tour title after losing the ANA Inspiration in a playoff after being penalized four strokes for a rules violation reported by a television viewer.

At Rancho Mirage in early April, Thompson was given the four-shot penalty with six holes to play in the final round. She had a 15-inch putt on 17 in the third round when she stooped to mark the ball, and quickly replaced it about an inch away. The television viewer contacted the LPGA Tour the next day, and officials determined it was a clear violation.

Thompson was assessed a two-shot penalty for where she replaced the ball, and because it happened the day before, she received a two-shot penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard. She went from a three-shot lead to one shot behind, and eventually lost to So Yeon Ryu in the playoff.

Henderson birdied Nos. 12 and 13 and closed with five pars.

“I made that long one from off the green on 12 that wasn’t really expected and that kind of gave me some energy,” the 19-year-old Canadian said.

Pace had two eagles and five birdies.

“My irons were really good,” the South African player said. “Obviously, all the par 3s, that helps. I was looking at birdie almost every hole, which is quite nice. I was never really in trouble except on 10, I missed the drive left, but that was really the only thing. There were a couple of long putts I made, unexpected putts actually. ”

Shin made a long putt on No. 14 for her fifth straight birdie. But on 17, she pushed her approach shot and wound up on the bottom of the green, and took her only bogey of the round.

Hyo Joo Kim (65) was 12 under, and Lydia Ko (64), Michelle Wie (64), Moriya Jutanugarn (67) and Carlota Ciganda (68) followed at 11 under. Ko dropped to No. 2 in the world Monday after an 85-week run at the top. The top-ranked Ariya Jutanugarn, Moriya Jutanugarn’s younger sister, was 9 under after a 64.

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PGA Tour

Justin Thomas shoots 63, trails Brian Harman by 1 at US Open

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(Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
Canadian Press

Justin Thomas landed a 3-wood on the 18th green where some players couldn’t land a wedge, leaving him an 8-foot eagle putt that he calmly made for a 9-under 63 that matched one U.S. Open record and broke another.

It also put him squarely in the mix to capture his first major.

On an Erin Hills course that again lacked enough wind to be the stern test that the U.S. Open wants, Brian Harman weaved his way through traffic at the top of the leaderboard Saturday for a 5-under 67 and a one-shot lead over Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Tommy Fleetwood.

Thomas became the fifth player to shoot 63 in a U.S. Open and the first player at 9 under. And if his hot pink pants were not enough, he did it in style. He had 310 yards to the hole when he hit 3-wood that could have led to big trouble if he went too far long or left.

“Oh gosh, Jimmy, be good,” he said to caddie Jimmy Johnson when the ball was in the air, and it was close to perfect. The ball landed on the front of the green just soft enough that it rolled out 8 feet by the hole.

Thomas poured that in to become the 29th player with a 63 in a major championship.

“The finish was awesome. I’d love to have another one of those,” said Thomas, who posted at 11-under 205.

The way this U.S. Open is going at Erin Hills, he might need it.

Only six players had ever reached 10-under par or lower in the previous 116 U.S. Opens. There are five players in double digits at Erin Hills.

Harman was at 12-under 204.

Koepka also reached the green in two on the 667-yard closing hole for a two-putt birdie and a 68. Fleetwood was poised to take the lead until his pitch to the 18th wasn’t strong enough and his next shot went beyond the flag and down the slope some 70 feet away. He got that up-and-down for a bogey and a 68.

Rickie Fowler, sharing a house with Thomas this week, was being left behind until he ran off three straight birdies and shot 68. He was 10 under.

Not to be overlooked was Si Woo Kim, who captured The Players Championship last month. He shot 68 and was only three back.

Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford, B.C., slid down the leaderboard. He shot a 3-over 75 and is 1 under for the tournament.

Even with the course drying out, there simply was not enough wind to frighten anyone on their game.

Thomas, the 24-year-old from Kentucky who is a major away from joining the young elite in golf, only added to a year of low numbers. He made an eagle on his final hole at the Sony Open in January to shoot 59, and he went on to break the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record.

The U.S. Open didn’t seem to faze him, and he delivered a variety of big shots that led to his sensational finish.

He rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 5 from the edge of the green that broke so severely that he stood with his toes facing the hole and rapped the ball toward his left foot. It took a hard turn to the right and rolled in. In the hay left of the 12th fairway, he gouged it out with a 9-iron and watched it roll to 10 feet.

And with the tees moved up on the 15th hole to make it reachable, Thomas hit a 3-wood that rolled off the back slope of the green to 6 feet. He two-putted for birdie, and he rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th.

“It doesn’t matter how long, how whatever the course is,” Thomas said about the longest course in major championship history. “When you give us soft greens, good greens and not much wind, you know there are going to be some good scores. I was just happy that I was the one that was able to take advantage of it today.”

But the work is not done.

Of the five other players who shot a 63 in the third round at a major, none went on to win. Most of them had to come from far back going into the weekend, and it was difficult to put together two good rounds.

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Epson Tour

Canada’s Brogan McKinnon T3 after round two of Decatur Forsyth Classic

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(Symetra Tour)
Golf Canada

Mississauga, Ont., native Brogan McKinnon carded a 6-under-par 66 to move into a tie for third at 7-under-par at the Symetra Tour’s Decatur Forsyth Classic at Hickory Point Golf Course in Decatur, Ill.

McKinnon started the day T43 after an opening round 71 (-1). She recorded six birdies and no bogeys Saturday to sit six shots back of Thailand’s Chorphaka Jaengkit who is 10-under-par (66-68).

A graduate of Team Canada McKinnon has one career top-10 on the Symetra Tour. Her best result this season was a T52 at the Fucillo Classic of NY at Capital Hills at Albany.

Anna Kim (Toronto, Ont.) is T26 at 3-under-par.

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Team Canada

Team Canada’s Maddie Szeryk wins Women’s Western

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(WWGA)
Austin Stanton / Golf Canada

Team Canada Amateur Squad Golfer Maddie Szeryk def. Dylan Kim (Sacshe, Tex.) 3 and 1 in a 36-hole match to to become the first Canadian to win the Western Women’s Golf Association Amateur Championship at River Forest Country Club in Elmhurst Ill.

The London, Ont, native built a 3-up lead through the first 18 holes that she never relinquished. Kim got within 2-down with three to play,  but a par-birdie finish by Szeryk secured her the victory.

“We still had 18 holes left so I could have gone 3-down but I stuck to my game plan and pretended it was a new match and that we were all square and tried to play my game and keep going,” said Szeryk

A junior at Texas A&M, Szeryk started the week strong and never looked back. She was the No. 2 seed in the 64-women match play bracket after opening 73-70 to sit 1-under-par after 36 holes of stroke play qualifying.

Through multiple weather delays Szeryk won six matches, only going the full 18 holes once, in the semi finals against Sophia Schubert (Oak Ridge, Tenn.).

The 20-year-old is coming off a record setting year with the Texas A&M. Her 71.24 season stroke average and 128 birdies were both Aggies records. She won the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational and finished T13 at the NCAA Division I Championship, earning her First-Team All-American honours.

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The 117th Women’s Western Champion Maddie Szeryk,  along with (Left to Right) River Forest CC president Dave Carlquist, Finalist Dylan Kim, Finalist and River Forest CC General Manager Jeff Schenkel.

Szeryk and her Team Canada Amateur Squad teammates Naomi Ko, Grace St-Germain, and Jaclyn Lee won the Maschmeyer Cup in Elmhurst this week for the best team score.

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PGA Tour Americas

Robby Shelton maintains lead at GolfBC Championship

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(Mackenzie Tour - PGA TOUR Canada)
Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada

Wilmer, Alabama’s Robby Shelton managed a 3-under 68 on a windy afternoon at Gallagher’s Canyon Golf and Country Club to maintain his lead at the GolfBC Championship, the third event of the 2017 Mackenzie Tour – PGA TOUR Canada season.

The former University of Alabama standout holed out for eagle at the fifth hole and notched three birdies and two bogeys to lead by one over Folsom, California’s Kevin Lucas and Costa Mesa, California’s Jake Knapp through 36 holes at Gallagher’s Canyon.

“I’m striking the ball really well. That’s not a problem right now,” said Shelton. The 22- year old didn’t hole as many long putts as he did in an opening 8-under 63 Thursday, but was still pleased with how he played. “I didn’t putt as well today, but when you hit fairways and hit greens, you have a lot of opportunities. It feels like I putted bad, but I really didn’t.”

The 2015 U.S. Walker Cup team member took the lead with a closing birdie at the 18th hole, getting up-and-down from short of the green to take the solo overnight lead.

“I really wanted the lead going into tomorrow,” said Shelton. “I hit driver off the tee and that was a little aggressive, but I think it’s the play on that hole. The shot wasn’t that tough and luckily I did it and finally got a putt to fall, which was really nice.”

Lucas matched the day’s best round with a 7-under 64, while Knapp carded his second straight 66 to reach 10-under through two rounds. Australia’s Oliver Goss and Dunedin, Florida’s Lee McCoy were a shot further behind at 9-under.

“This third week, I’ve kind of found my game. These guys are good, there’s no doubt about that. You know the (winning) number’s gonna be low, so you have to be comfortable going low,” said Lucas. “There’s going to be a certain number every week, and it’s going to take some low rounds and your bad rounds still have to be under par.”

Shelton finished third at the 2015 Barbasol Championship on the PGA TOUR, the highest finish by an amateur on the PGA TOUR since Phil Mickelson won the 1991 Northern Telecom Open.

He earned exempt status for the 2017 season by winning the USA East #1 QSchool. He opened his 2017 season with finishes of T20-T14 and ranks 21st on the Order of Merit.

Check out the second round highlights below.

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Epson Tour

Canadian Anna Kim T8 at Decatur Forsyth Classic

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(St. John's Athletics)
Golf Canada

Canada’s Anna Kim carded an opening round 4-under par 68 to sit T8 at the Symetra Tour’s Decatur Forsyth Classic at Hickory Point Golf Course in Decatur, Ill.

The Toronto, Ont., product recorded four birdies and no bogeys Friday to sit three shots back of Linsey Weaver (Scottsdale, Ariz.) who posted an opening round 7-under-par 65. Kim’s 68 was her lowest score of 2017 season.

A graduate of the Team Canada Development Squad, Kim is playing in her third Symetra Tour tournament of the season. Her best result came last week at the Four Winds Invitational at Blackthorn Golf Club where she finished T69.

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PGA Tour

The top 3 miss US Open cut, leaving 4-way tie for the lead

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(Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Doug Ferguson/ Associated Press

The biggest surprise at this U.S. Open was not who was leading, but who was leaving.

Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jason Day – the top three players in the world, all of them professing expansive Erin Hills to be perfect for their games – spent Friday cleaning out their lockers after missing the cut.

Left behind was the biggest 36-hole logjam in 43 years at the U.S. Open.

Paul Casey chopped his way to a triple bogey, only to respond with five straight birdies that carried him to a 1-under 71 and make him the first to post at 7-under 137. He set the target early under warm sunshine, and even as the wind tapered in the afternoon, no one could catch him.

Brooks Koepka had the lead until he turned a birdie chance into a bogey on the par-5 first hole after making the turn. He didn’t make a birdie the rest of the way and had to settle for a 70. They were joined by Brian Harman and Tommy Fleetwood of England, who each had a 70.

Right behind was a trio of players that included Rickie Fowler, who went 28 holes before making his first bogey and then went three holes without making a par. Fowler shot a 73 and was still very much in the hunt at a second straight major.

The four-way tie was the most after two rounds in a U.S. Open since Winged Foot in 1974, back when the names were more familiar for a major – Raymond Floyd, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Hale Irwin, who went on to win his first major.

The last six majors have been won by first-timers, and that cycle has a good chance to continue. The top 18 players on the leaderboard going into the weekend have combined for zero majors. Only a half-dozen of them have even experienced Sunday contention in golf’s biggest events.

“Tomorrow will be a very cool experience,” Fleetwood said. “It’s still Saturday – 36 holes is a very long time in a U.S. Open. Anything can happen.”

Just about everything already has at Erin Hills.

A commercial blimp crashed to the ground and caught fire just outside the course Thursday, about the time the county health department was analyzing samples that confirmed evidence of the E. coli bacteria in water at a hydration station near the 12th hole. The USGA is providing complimentary bottled water the rest of the week. There have been no reports yet of anyone getting sick.

And then Friday, a 94-year-old man at the tournament for the first time stopped breathing while in a grandstand on the sixth hole and died of what Washington County officials said appeared to be natural causes.

Next up is a weekend without most of the biggest names in golf. The cut for the top 60 and ties was at 1-over 145, tying a U.S. Open record set in 1990 at Medinah.

Johnson was hitting it so well that he appeared to be safe even when he was on the cut line. But then he three-putted from long range on the 13th and the 14th, and lost all hope when he missed the green on the 17th while going after the flag. He shot 73 and missed the cut by three.

“I couldn’t have shot any higher,” Johnson said. “I couldn’t possibly shoot any higher than I did. I just struggled on the greens. It’s simple.”

Day never had a chance, following his career-worst 79 in a U.S. Open with a 75. McIlroy came to life when it was far too late. He made four birdies over the last six holes to salvage a 71, but he still missed the cut for the second straight year.

Joining them with a weekend off – British Open champion Henrik Stenson, Alex Noren, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose and Adam Scott. That left only four of the top 12 in the world to play the weekend at Erin Hills.

Fowler has the best chance, even though he lost so much ground over the final two hours. He went from pouring putts into the centre of the cup to burning the edges, and his 39 on the back nine cost him the lead, though not his chances of breaking through for that first major.

“We’re in a good spot,” Fowler said. “Looking forward to the next two days.”

Casey discovered how little it takes to make a big number in the U.S. Open – and at this U.S. Open, how a recovery is never too far away.

Casey laid up in the rough, took two chops to get out of more rough behind the 14th green, and staggered away with a triple-bogey 8 that might have ruined his day at Erin Hills. Moments later, he began a run of five straight birdies that put him right where he wanted to be going into the weekend.

“Not every day you enjoy a round of golf with an 8 on the card, but I’m a pretty happy man,” Casey said. “Yeah, it was a bit of a roller coaster. I guess it’s rare you get through a U.S. Open or any major without some kind of a hiccup.”

Canada’s Adam Hadwin is T24 at 2-under-par after a second round 74.

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