Halfway through the 2014 US Open, the race isn’t for the title; it’s for second place.
Germany’s Martin Kaymer shot his second straight 65 on Friday, dropping to 10-under par, setting a new US Open record for lowest score through two rounds and opening up a six-stroke lead entering the weekend.
Kaymer played a bogey-free second round and has just one bogey through the first 36 holes. He’s being chased by American Brendon Todd, who had the second-best round of the day, a 3-under 67 to make it to 4-under.
Todd was also bogey-free on the day. He’s ahead of a tie for third between Kevin Na and Brandt Snedeker, both at 3-under.
There are plenty of familiar names rounding out the Top 10, but one of them is going to have to get hot or have Kaymer grow considerably colder in order to make a charge.
FedExCup 2013 winner Henrik Stenson is tied for fifth at 2-under; while Rory McIlroy are tied for 10th at 1-under.
Adam Scott, 2013 Masters winner, fired a 3-under 67 to tie Todd for the second-best round on the day to get to even par and a tie for 14th.
Last year’s US Open winner, Justin Rose, overcame a rough Thursday start to climb into a tie for 20th at 1-over with his second-round 69. Rose was tied for 50th when the day started.
Not as fortunate was defending British Open champion Phil Mickelson, who looked like a contender in the early going, starting the round with birdies on No. 2 and 3 to drop to 2-under par.
But Mickelson stumbled from there, with bogeys on No. 6, 8, 10, 14 and 18 to finish the day 3-over, dropping from 16th to a tie for 33rd at 3-over.
Scott was the most impressive riser of the day, jumping from 68th to 14th with his 3-under 67, along with American Billy Horschel, who jumped from 106th to a tie for 33rd with his 2-under 68 after staggering to an opening-round 75.
On the other end of that stick were Harris English, who followed up a 69 with a 5-over 75 to fall from sixth to a tie for 44th and Jamie Donaldson, who dropped more than 100 places from 16th to 129th.
English was plain bad from the get-go, with three straight bogeys on No. 2 – 4 and five total on the front nine.
Donaldson was drastically worse. He birdied No. 2 to climb to 1-under, then had a span of three bogeys and a double bogey between No. 4 and No. 8. He recovered slightly with a birdie 2 on No. 9, then fell apart completely on the back nine with three bogeys and two doubles to finish with an 11-over 81.
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