\n
Californians Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele lead on eight under after recording the US Open’s first 62s.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nFormer champions Dustin Johnson and McIlroy led the chase but bogeyed their last holes to end six and five under on a day of unusually low scoring.<\/span><\/p>\nFrenchman Mathieu Pavon and American Sam Burns both aced the 15th.<\/span><\/p>\nThey were the 49th and 50th holes-in-one at the championship, which was last played in the city in 1948 and is making its first visit to exclusive Los Angeles Country Club.<\/span><\/p>\nAmerican Wyndham Clark birdied the last to post a 64 and join Johnson at six under while Brian Harman is level with McIlroy after a 65.<\/span><\/p>\nScottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau add more star power to a stacked leaderboard, both five shots adrift, while a frustrated Jon Rahm shot a 69.<\/span><\/p>\nCalifornia dreamers set new US Open record<\/h3>\n It’s been quite a journey for Fowler, one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour, who went from a career-high fourth in the world ranking in 2016 all the way down to 173rd just a year ago.<\/span><\/p>\nThe 34-year-old, one of just four players in history with top-five finishes in all four majors in one season, failed to qualify for the past two US Opens but marked his return in some style.<\/span><\/p>\n“It has been long and tough. It’s a lot longer than you ever want it to be,” Fowler said after his record round. “It’s been so worth it and now being back.”<\/span><\/p>\nXander Schauffele chased Rickie Fowler all the way to a record US Open round<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhile Fowler tied the US Open record with 10 birdies in his round to counter two bogeys, current Olympic champion Schauffele had eight birdies in a bogey-free round.<\/span><\/p>\n“It’s a great start. I hit a lot of really good shots,” said Schauffele, who like Fowler is yet to win a major. “Rickie was just right in front of me and I was playing really good golf so thought I may as well just chase him down.<\/span><\/p>\n“You have to play hard here, dig your way around.”<\/span><\/p>\nJohnson and McIlroy in pursuit<\/h3>\n For a notoriously slow starter in the majors, McIlroy’s 65 on the quirky par-70 layout represents a huge improvement for the Northern Irishman as he looks to end his nine-year wait for a fifth major.<\/span><\/p>\nMcIlroy made five front-nine birdies – his best effort in majors – on the back of some explosive driving off the tee. <\/span><\/p>\nAnd he played solid golf on the back nine, adding one more birdie before making his only mistake at the 18th – playing an air shot from the greenside rough before making an 11-foot putt to drop just one shot.<\/span><\/p>\nRory McIlroy was visibly disappointed with his bogey on the last hole<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nJohnson came flying home with five birdies on his back nine but he too made a mistake on the 18th.<\/span><\/p>\nHe missed the par-three ninth green by a good 20 yards and his ball plunged into a bunker by the 18th green. He took three from there to drop his only shot of the day and finish two off the lead.<\/span><\/p>\n“The golf course is in perfect condition,” said Johnson. “I really like it. You just have to drive it well or you have no chance.<\/span><\/p>\n“The course was set up really nicely. I would imagine the next few days you’re going to see the golf course set up as hard as they want to.”<\/span><\/p>\nScheffler, DeChambeau and best of the rest<\/h3>\n World number one Scheffler bookended his round with a bogey on the first and last, but found a spark around the turn with five birdies in eight holes to card a creditable 67.<\/span><\/p>\nThat scored was matched by 2020 US Open champion DeChambeau, who had an eventful round with six birdies and three bogeys.<\/span><\/p>\nLocal favourite Max Homa, who was born in Los Angeles and holds the course record of 61, is just a shot further back on two under while Viktor Hovland is one under after a round of highs and lows that included a hole-out eagle from 175 yards and a double-bogey seven.<\/span><\/p>\nNorwegian Hovland, 25, has come close in the past three majors, playing in the final groups in both last year’s Open Championship and last month’s US PGA Championship.<\/span><\/p>\nReigning Masters champion Rahm looked largely frustrated with three birdies and two bogeys in his one-under 69.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Spaniard has a great record in California, with five of his PGA Tour wins coming in the state – including his 2019 US Open victory at Torrey Pines in nearby San Diego.<\/span><\/p>\nJordan Smith is the leading Englishman after shooting a level-par 70 that featured five bogeys and five birdies, while defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick headed to the practice range after signing for a 71.<\/span><\/p>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rickie Fowler failed to qualify for the past two US Opens but now holds the championship’s record score -8 R Fowler (US), X Schauffele (US); -6 D Johnson (US), W Clark (US); -5 R McIlroy (NI), B Harman (US); -3 S Scheffler (US), B DeChambeau (US), H English (US), S Bennett (US), SW Kim (Kor), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10537,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10535\/revisions\/10537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/sport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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