After 19 months as the Masters champ, Woods will apparently be putting the green jacket on another player Sunday. He then went over to watch Cabrera Bello, whose second shot missed the green to the left. Kuchar missed the Masters cut for only the second time. Mickelson drove into a batch of pine trees, then actually went backward when his second shot ricocheted off one of the trees. Mickelson also shot 79 in the second round of the 2016 and 2018 tournaments.
Maybe because the two players atop the leaderboard heading into Round 3 at the U.S. Open are not exactly — how to put this? More irritating, from the players’ perspective, is that Reed seems to thrive in tough spots like the one he finds himself in at the moment. If the past is prologue, almost no one else on the ground at Winged Foot has a realistic shot. The one thing you can be sure of is that Winged Foot will be at the center of the drama. “The wind can make a par-3 course difficult, so put that on a U.S. Open setup, it’s going to be even more so,” Schauffele said.
Patrick Reed embraced every aspect of it Friday when the U.S. Open lived up to its reputation as the toughest test in golf, and so did Winged Foot. Amateur champion and current muscleman who powered and putted his way to a 68, the lowest score on a day Winged Foot played to an average score of 75.25. After an opening round in which 21 players broke par, Winged Foot allowed only three players under par. Because I’m pretty tired.”There's still 36 holes to go, and no indication that Winged Foot is going to get any easier. “I love when it’s hard, when you have to be creative on all different golf shots,” he said.
Hoge, tied for the first-round lead with Harold Varner III and Roger Sloan, kept in front with a steady 2-under 68 to get to 10-under par. Hoge, whose best-ever tour finish was a second at The Greenbrier this season, was asked what it would take for his first PGA Tour win. Like Kim, Gooch shot 65 to get into the foursome on top. He had six birdies, including two of his final three holes, to move up. Kokrak was in a group of seven one shot further back along with past Wyndham champ Webb Simpson, who shot his second straight 66.
