Golf-Clark shines, McIlroy heats up midway through U.S. Open second round (updated)

Travel + Leisure

16/06/2023 19:36

(Updates with results and quotes)
    By Rory Carroll
       LOS ANGELES, June 16 (Reuters) - 
    Wyndham Clark took advantage of generous fairways and soft
course conditions to jump to the top of the leaderboard while
Rory McIlroy overcame a sluggish start to card a 67 midway
through second round action at the U.S. Open on Friday. 
  
        Clark drilled his fourth birdie of the day on his
penultimate hole to take the outright lead at nine-under par, a
shot ahead of overnight leaders Rickie Fowler and Xander
Schauffele, who went out in the afternoon wave. 
  
        "Fairways are pretty wide out here so you can just bomb
it," said Clark, who won the Wells Fargo Championship last
month. 
  
        McIlroy birdied four of his last five holes including
the par-three ninth where he narrowly missed a hole-in-one to
move within a shot of the lead. 
  
        "I thought it might have hit the hole, which would have
been...," said McIlroy, trailing off. 
  
        "But I'll take a two there. Obviously a great way to
finish the round and a bit of a reversal of yesterday where I
made that bogey at the last." 
  
    The shot of the day so far came when Matt Fitzpatrick nailed
a hole-in-one at the par-3 15, making him the first U.S. Open
defending champion to record an ace in the tournament's 123-year
history.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N38825A
        LIV Golf's Dustin Johnson made a mess of his second hole
and finished with an unsightly quadruple bogey to tumble down
the leaderboard but he battled back to card even par 70 and stay
in the hunt going into the weekend.
  
        Course conditions have been favourable for scoring due
to a thick marine layer blanketing Los Angeles but the sun began
to shine and wind picked up just as the second wave went out on
Friday. 
  
        Firmer conditions should make the course located in the
heart of Los Angeles a more fitting challenge for the world's
best at a major that prides itself as being the greatest test in
golf. 
  
    The tournament is the first major since the bombshell
announcement that the PGA Tour and rival circuit LIV would form
a unified commercial entity. A report on Thursday indicated the
U.S. Justice Department would review the plans.

 (Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York
Editing by Toby Davis and Christian Radnedge)
 ((Amy.Tennery@thomsonreuters.com; 917-361-8594;))