A disgusting end to the round is unfolding for MJ Daffue. His journey finds a thick pistachio just above a bunker on the left side of the street. With one foot in the sand, you can only send a powerless second to a bunker that protects the front of the green. He then passes one over the green and climbs a bench on the other side. It is a short, thick, thick side with a lie down. Oh, and you have to navigate a bunker. He tries to be a little too nice with his fourth shot, and only makes the ball reach the green. This was not far from sticking harder. It will have a putt from the strip from 20 feet for bogey.
This is awesome from Matt Fitzpatrick. He just kicked three boogies in a row. His 5-foot throw finds sand on the green edge, from where he baptizes at three feet, tidying up for the bird. This is a big change of momentum that brings it to -1.
Nick Hardy finds the par-five eighth in two. A couple of putts later, the 26-year-old from Illinois, making his first serious impression in a major championship, is in a lead at -3.
A hell of a fight for MJ Daffue on the 17th! His unit finds sand on the left. He is not far from finding the green with his second, but the ball falls backwards from the false forehead … and in an old divot. This is terribly unfortunate. But he rolls a safe putt along the shore, six feet beyond the hole, and makes it come back. He deserved it. Meanwhile, a third consecutive bogey for Matt Fitzpatrick, this is the result of a three to 4 putt, and he returns to the group on an even level, alongside the leader of the night Adam Hadwin, who sends his fourth bogey of the round to 2. Some great names in this ranking now!
-3: Daffue (17), Tarren, Lingmerth, McIlroy, Dahmen-2: Hardy (16 *), Scheffler (14), Buckley, NeSmith, Harman, Wise-1: Burns (15), Koepka (14), Reed (11), Rodgers, Morikawa, Piot, Rahm, Scott, Homa, Zalatoris, Hossler
A couple of hours ago, world number one Scottie Scheffler was making a chip at 5. Now he’s hitting one from the top of a bench, 50 yards on par-five 14 per eagle! You can’t keep a good Masters champion! Suddenly, after struggling to find something, he went ahead with -2! Sensational! He is spinning with Brooks Koepka, and after whipping a long green plate up to ten feet (this hole is 616 yards long), the two-time winner faces his own eagle! Suddenly -1, after hitting four times in the last four holes!
Now joint leader MJ Daffue stops the rot with an up and down from a deep bunker next to the 16th par-tres. It stays at -3. Meanwhile, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed is rejecting a good opportunity to join the group once behind Daffue & Co. He attacks a beautiful wedge on the 11th at ten short feet, but can’t make the sliding descent from right to left and stays. a -1. Still, shapeless for so long, Reed won’t be at all unhappy with the way things are going here.
An hour ago, Justin Thomas seemed to be doing his challenge again. Birdie at 1 saw the PGA champion return to par level. But after a step forward, the bogeys of 2 and 4 have sent him a couple back. He’s +2, he still hasn’t been able to keep up with how he saw him so close at last week’s Canadian Open in Brookline.
13-year-old Birdie for Scottie Scheffler, and even though he hasn’t brought his best yet, the world number one finds him just three paces from the pace at par. For his part, Adam Hadwin, aged 18 and 1, consolidates his position at -1. Despite all his pain this morning, the 34-year-old Canadian is still in the mix.
Scottie Scheffler hits the 6th hole. Photography: Charlie Riedel / AP
Updated at 16.27 BST
No, we won’t. But we know that Fitzpatrick can only send his third from where he is 25 feet away. He can’t make the savior putt, and these are back-to-back bogeys for English. It has -1. Daffue is also unable to save his peer on the 15th, and is reunited with the people he started the day with.
-3: Daffue (15), Tarren, Lingmerth, McIlroy, Dahmen-2: Hardy (15 *), Buckley, NeSmith, Harman, Wise-1: Burns (13), Fitzpatrick (12 *), Reed (9), Hadwin (9 *), Rodgers, Morikawa, Piot, Rahm, Scott, Homa, Zalatoris, Hossler
MJ Daffue sends his high sand shot over the flag 15 and 20 feet beyond the hole. You will have to do this if you want to retain sole ownership of the leadership. In the meantime, annoy Matt Fitzpatrick at 3 p.m. if you are lucky. The camera does not reveal the result. We will know soon.
MJ Daffue, coming out of this unnecessary bogey at 14, continues to struggle to climb 15. He sends his unit to the gallery on the right and throws his second into a deep bunker to the right of the green. The pin is also finished this way, so it is short and sloping. He will do very well to save his partner from there. If he doesn’t, he’ll go back to where he started the day … or worse.
A disappointing three-putt bogey by Matt Fitzpatrick at 2. He escapes the tie for the second. Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka’s consecutive birdies, at 11 and 12, and suddenly the double champion, unhappy with his 73 yesterday, are only five behind with +1.
-4: Daffue (14) -3: Tarren, Lingmerth, McIlroy, Dahmen-2: Hardy (14 *), Fitzpatrick (11 *), Buckley, NeSmith, Harman, Wise-1: Burns (12), Reed (9 )), Hadwin (8 *), Bland (8 *), Rodgers, Morikawa, Piot, Rahm, Scott, Homa, Zalatoris, Hossler
MJ Daffue throws his even putt at 14 left, and this is a six-hole bogey in a hole he would have expected to make birdie. Her shoulders drop. Just over an hour after being about an inch from a four-shot lead, his lead has been reduced to one. It has -4. Meanwhile, Sam Burns recovers well from his double bogey at 10 with birdie at 12, and returns to -1.
Daffue’s brave second ends just to the right of the green, albeit in a deep rough. He slows down through his chip and his ball gets dirty. He stabs his second attempt, but the ball goes six yards wide and he will have a tester to save his pair. Speaking of saving parity, this is what Hadwin does on the 17th. He finds his unit, sends his second to a green side bunker, and goes up and down bravely. It is a firm job, just as everything threatened to get out of hand. The leader of the night is still -1.
Hadwin sends a big hook to trouble for the third time today, this time at 17 years old. An opportunity that could have gone out of bounds. Meanwhile, some are bothering leader MJ Daffue, who is sending his unit at 14 to a concession stop on the left. He is entitled to a drop, but he loves the lie he has on a strip of carpet, and whips a wooden 3 over the heads of some very entertaining gamblers, with whom he exchanges a few funny pats. “I went through your head, sir!” “We trust you!”
Updated at 15.56 BST
Another change in the weather forecast. According to Sky Sports, storms are now expected around 13:00 local time, which is 18:00 in pounds sterling. If that were the case, we could have trouble getting everyone closer to the sunset … but it would be good news for those who start later, soften the greens and make them easier to hold. All the speculation, of course, and it’s changing by the hour, so let’s play it with the hooks.
Photography: Rob Carr / Getty Images
Updated at 16:00 BST
The leader of the night Adam Hadwin continues to go in the wrong direction. Its release launch at limits 16 of par-tres to the surrounding rough thickness. His wedge out is always meant to roll eight feet further, and he can’t return the saving putt. No compromise on stroke, he is always dying short and left. It has -1.
everything is wrong for Hadwin. Photo: Erik S Lesser / EPA
Updated at 15.39 BST
A double bogey six in the extreme 10th test of Sam Burns. Currently, the hole is playing tied for second place by difficulty, so going from tougher to rougher to the bunker would never reduce it. Go back down to par level. Also on parity, but heading in the right direction and joining his round after a horror start, is Justin Thomas. Birdie at 1, his second in three holes, and suddenly there is a renewed spring in the passage of the PGA champion.
The great Adrien Dumont de Chassart sounds like he should be driving down the French Riviera in a 1950s Formula 1 car made entirely of flammable metal, without a helmet, with a fagot on his way to a night at the casino. In fact, he is a 22-year-old amateur golfer from Belgium who is on the tee at the 5th par-quatre. He throws his shirt shot at the green. One bounce, then inches of avenue with the second. But the albatross hole in one was not to be. Shame; would have joined Chen Tze-chung, Shaun Micheel and Nick Watney as the only players to have made albatrosses at a US Open. Dumont de Chassart’s ball rolls down the green and into the backfield, from where he makes a couple of garden varieties. The small margins.
These are consecutive bogeys for Viktor Hovland. The best in Norway is unlucky on the 18th, their approach has failed to get past the bunker that protects the front of the green and sticks under the lip. He does very well when he crashes into the green, attacking the inlaid ball with his face wide open, but he can’t save a long pair, and the two shots he picked up on the 12th and 13th are snatched by 17 and 18. He reaches level 35, and returns to where he started at the even level of the tournament.
Nick Hardy has played in three previous U.S. Open, missed two cuts and finished the other in a 52nd-place tie. The 26-year-old from Illinois will like to improve significantly on this record from where he is right now. A 69 yesterday, and just made a birdied 2 to move to a tie in seventh place at -2, just three from MJ …