SOUTHAMPTON, New York — When the U.S. Open opening round finished early Friday, five past champions littered the first page of the leaderboard. Two of them kept their standing after round two. The first is Wyndham Clark, the 2023 champion who is 7 under (a 36-hole Shinnecock record) and leads by four shots after the morning wave. The second is Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 champ (3 under) now joined in the chasers group by two-time major winners Xander Schauffele (3 under) and Collin Morikawa (2
under). Clark, who led by four shots when play was called due to darkness Thursday night, was up around 4 a.m. on Friday to finish the first round with a two-shot lead over 2016 U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson. Fitzpatrick and Gary Woodland, the 2019 champ, were three back. Jon Rahm, the 2021 champ, was in a group of five men who were four shots behind. While Clark shot a 1-under 69 in round two — despite missing four consecutive fairways on the back nine
— Johnson (77 in round two), Woodland (73) and Rahm (seven bogeys and a double in his first 16 holes) all went backwards. Schauffele, who won the PGA and the Open Championship in 2024, briefly held a share of the lead Thursday before four bogeys in a seven-hole stretch for an opening 71. On Friday, he found his sterling U.S. Open form with a 4-under 66. Schauffele finished in the top 15 in all nine of his previous U.S. Open finishes, a record beaten only
by Jack Nicklaus. Morikawa matched the best round of the morning — a 5-under 65. The 2020 PGA champion and 2021 Open champion is still managing a back injury that forced him to withdraw from The Players on March 12. “There’s still some shots that I can’t hit, and that’s a little unfortunate,” said Morikawa, who celebrates his first Father’s Day as a dad on Sunday. “I’ve got enough shots out here to be able to work with.” Johnson, who is 41 and in the
last year of his 10-year U.S. Open exemption, looked like the Johnson of old in the first round after becoming an afterthought at majors since joining LIV Golf in 2022. But he reverted to recent form on Friday, going from 4 under to 4 over during a five-hole stretch capped by a quadruple bogey. The afternoon wave is headlined by Rory McIlroy, who begins the day at 1 under.
U.S. Open, Wyndham Clark, Shinnecock, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Gary Woodland, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy