Brooklyn, Mass – Per Colin Morikawa And his successive years of winning a specialty is A Joel Dhaminwho only four years ago would have been happy to even play in one game.
John Ram He is the reigning US Open champion, one shot off the lead. He will be playing this weekend at The Country Club with Hayden Buckleywho studied while playing in Missouri because he thought he would need to find a job after college.
Dozens of players separated by two bullets in the weekend include the top three players in the world rankings and four of the best seven players: the Masters Champion Scotty SchefflerArcher, Rory McIlroy and Morikawa.
“I think it’s great for golf that the highest-rated players and the best players are there, especially in a tournament where the really best end up winning,” Ram said.
It also includes two rookies to the PGA Tour and two players who have never won a Tour before.
Indeed, this US Open has something for everyone. She just doesn’t have Phil MickelsonWho missed the cut by eight shots.
Morikawa was looking for something in his game and found “baby drawing” instead of his traditional fade, and it worked beautifully at Brookline. He equaled the championship’s low score on Friday with a 4-under 66 for a share of the lead with Dahmin, a cancer survivor and everyone else popular in golf.
Ram did his best to keep up with Eagle and a series of big hits that felt just as valuable. Ram was 67 and he was in the group of five with a single shot. This included McIlroy, a win at the Canadian Open, who hit his back stride nine with three birds on his last four holes for 69.
Schaeffler, the No. 1 player in the world, who blasted off a level 5 green 14 for an Eagle put the Texans back into the mix with a score of 67, shouldn’t be overlooked. He was twice behind him. .
Morikawa, Ram and Schaeffler combined to win four out of nine major teams. Then there is McIlroy, who has four majors on his own, but none since 2014.
“It’s the US Open,” Morikawa said. “The past few days are a huge confidence booster for me this weekend, and hopefully we can do some detachment somehow.”
The idea of the US Open is to identify the best players. Some of them require some introduction to competing for the big championship this weekend.
Start with Dahmed, who will never be accused of taking himself seriously, even if he takes his game seriously. He considered dropping out of the 36-hole qualifying twice last week, before it started and after the first round.
But he stuck with it, and he has 68 on Friday, playing in the last set of Raid for the first time. He joined Morikawa at the age of 5 under 135.
“We don’t play until 3:45 tomorrow,” Dahmin said. “Usually I have to come home at 5 for dinner.” “So this will definitely be different.”
The first group shot behind includes Buckley, who wasn’t at the US Open until he made it 20 feet in a playoff to finish last in his playoffs 11 days earlier.
He was fading, like many others, with Three Ghosts during a five-hole stretch around the bend when he got back on the track. The birds in the last two slots gave him 68 again.
Also in 136 were Aaron Wise, with one PGA Tour win and nothing better than a tie for 17th place in his previous nine majors; And the Bo Hauslerwho debuted at the Olympic Club weekend as an amateur teen in 2012 but has since been unheard of in the majors.
They were examples that the US Open for all does not stop at just qualifying for the right to play the toughest test in golf.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.