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Rory McIlroy is currently on the course during the third round of at Shinnecock Hills. Photograph: Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Key events
Xander Schauffele’s second into 8 takes a hot bounce through the green and nestles in thick oomska at the back. He’s forced to whip a lob wedge high into the air, and does very well to land it six feet from the pin. Then he rolls in the par saver. He’s -2. That could be big.
So could the birdie Scottie Scheffler makes at 15 that moves him to -1 with a birdie chance at 16 coming up: a 15-foot birdie putt absolutely rammed into the cup! He’s -1.
So could the mistake Rory McIlroy makes on 14, racing a three-foot par putt four feet past. He makes the one coming back, but that’s a bogey and he’s +1.
So could the wedge Wyndham Clark carves into a greenside bunker from 110 yards on 8! It’s all happening, and there, in short order, are four reminders that the picture at the US Open can change at the drop of a hat. Moving Day, ladies and gentlemen!
Wyndham Clark pulls his tee shot at the par-three 7th down the big bank to the left of the green. But he chips up to four feet, and teases in the missable right-to-left turner. That’s his second big up and down in as many holes, and he’s clinging on to his three-shot lead with great determination. The sort of behaviour that wins US Opens. He’s already got one, to be fair.
-7: Clark (7)
-4: Stevens (8)
-2: Burns (9), Schauffele (7)
-1: Kim (8)
E: Scheffler (14), McIlroy (13), Theegala (9), Thomas (9), Morikawa (8), M Fitzpatrick (7)
Tommy Fleetwood sends his tee shot into deep fescue down the right of 18. He thinks his ball is plugged, but he doesn’t get the ruling, and he’s forced to take his medicine, hacking out. Always out of position, he ends the day with a bogey, and signs for a level-par 70. He’s +1 overall, and isn’t out of this by any means. Not yet, with the leader still 12 holes from home.
Scottie Scheffler might have just kick-started his campaign! He bumps a chip up from the bottom of a swale at 14. He lands his ball on the flat ridge at the top, rolling it out, straight into the cup. The crowd roar and so does he, pumping his fist a couple of times, showing some rare emotion. The career slam not a pipe dream yet! He’s level par again.
Rory McIlroy drives the short par-four 13th green … but the ball breaks off to the left and into a bunker. He splashes out to ten feet, but his birdie effort always looks like missing to the left … until, that is, it suddenly turns right and stops one dimple’s width away from dropping. McIlroy drops to his haunches in irritation. He remains at level par.
“So many rocks, dude.” Xander Schauffele drawls in irritation as his splash out of sand on 6 takes a screeching right-hand turn upon landing. His subsequent putt from 15 feet bobbles erratically, too, and the two-time major winner might want a word or two with the greenkeeper later. He’s -2, and after a shaky first hour or so, this third round is trundling along most acceptably for the leader Wyndham Clark.
-7: Clark (5)
-4: Stevens (6)
-2: Burns (8), Schauffele (6)
-1: Kim (7)
E: Grillo (F), Fleetwood (17), McIlroy (12), Woodland (10), Cowan -a- (9), Theegala (9), Thomas (8), Morikawa (7), M Fitzpatrick (5)
+1: A Fitzpatrick (14), Scheffler (13), Mitchell (11), Hisatsune (10)
Make that four players. Rory McIlroy three-putts 12, and that’s a second careless bogey in three holes. He’s level par. Ah, hold on, it’s five again, because Tom Kim – coming off bogeys at 2, 3 and 6 – walks in an aggressive ten-footer on 7 to get back into the red. He’s -1.
Wyndham Clark’s second into 5 from 228 yards sets up a 17-foot eagle effort. His putt dies to the right of the cup one roll shy of dropping, but that’s a birdie that takes him back to where he started the day. A more comfortable cushion at the top is reestablished. There are just five players under par now. Shinnecock gonna Shinnecock.
-7: Clark (5)
-4: Stevens (5)
-3: Schauffele (5)
-2: Burns (8)
-1: McIlroy (11)
Birdie for Xander Schauffele at 5. He’s -3 again, but doesn’t get a share of second spot as his reward, because his playing partner Sam Stevens birdies too, and rises to -4. An updated leaderboard coming up, when we find out what leader Wyndham Clark does as he follows Schauffele and Stevens up the par-five 5th, because he’s on in two. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of Schauffele’s unexpurgated record at the US Open: T5-T6-T3-5-T7-T14-T10-T7-T12.
!
Tommy Fleetwood nearly holes out from greenside sand at 16 for eagle. He’s not looking when the ball skirts the edge of the cup, having turned around in strange disgust at what looked like a fine bunker shot, but reacts to the crowd’s excited yelling, spinning round just in time to watch the ball stubbornly stay up. Never mind, it’s a birdie that takes him into credit for his round today, and up to level par for the tournament. The man who finished runner-up here in 2018, breaking the course record on the Sunday in the process, isn’t out of this yet.
Scottie Scheffler is quietly launching a comeback. Birdie at 10, followed by an aggressive 25-foot birdie effort on 11 that only just fails to drop over the right lip. He’s +1 and right in this tournament, especially if Wyndham Clark … well, y’know. Meanwhile coming through next, it’s Rory McIlroy, who runs up a preposterous bogey at 10. He nearly drives the green, but then bundles an excitable chip up, through and over the back of the upturned putting surface. He hits a skinny wedge back up from the swale, 30 feet past, and that’s such a careless bogey. Back to -1, and while he saw the funny side of the first poor chip, he’s not smiling now.
Wyndham Clark settles the nerves on 3 by rolling a putt that’s the best part of 100 feet up to tap-in distance. Decent par save. But Matt Fitzpatrick can’t get up and down from the sand, and that’s bogey-bogey-bogey to start. He’s level par. However! Elsewhere, Justin Thomas, who also started with three bogeys, eagles 5 to return to level par. So all is not lost for the 2022 champion.
-6: Clark (3)
-3: Stevens (3)
-2: McIlroy (9), Burns (6), Schauffele (3)
-1: Mitchell (8), Theegala (5), Morkiawa (4), Kim (4)
E: Grillo (F), McNealy (9), Higgs (5), Thomas (5), Fitzpatrick (3)
McIlroy rolls in a confident par saver on 9. That’ll feel like a birdie given where he found his drive. He hits the turn in 33. Meanwhile some trouble for the pair in the final group: Matt Fitzpatrick’s approach lands in a greenside bunker, and he’s now staring at three bogeys in his opening three holes; Wyndham Clark finds himself waist-high in grass, and though he powers out to the front fringe of the green, he’ll have a long, long two putts for his par. An updated leaderboard to follow, when it all comes down.
A first birdie of the day for Sam Burns, at 5, and he joins Rory McIlroy at the -2 mark. But for how long will Rory stay beside him? Because McIlroy sends a wild drive at 9 onto the top of a fescue-covered knoll to the left. McIlroy lashes out, over the green, using the backstop to bring his ball back to the fringe. But he’s left with a long chip, and leaves himself a tricky downhill six-footer for his par. News of that anon. Meanwhile Sam Stevens can’t get up and down from 100 yards on 3, while Xander Schauffele is this time unable to get up and down from sand to save his par. A bit of slippage at the top: Stevens is -3, Schauffele -2.
Should Sam Stevens win this US Open, it’d be one of the great shocks in the tournament’s long, grand history. Perhaps not quite up there with Francis Ouimet in 1913, but perhaps the biggest since Orville Moody, who at 35 years old in 1969 had never won a PGA event before, and never would again. The 29-year-old Texan’s only career win is on the PGA Tour Latinoamérica, his best result in a major is a tie for 23rd in this tournament last year, and what’s more he started this week with a double bogey – so if he were to triumph, he’d become only the sixth player in history to do so after such a start. For the record, the others are Bobby Jones (1929), Craig Wood (1941), Arnold Palmer (1960), Tiger Woods (2008) and Lucas Glover (2009). Anyway, I thought I’d mention all of that while the going’s still good, because he’s just sent his tee shot at 3 into deep fescue down the right, forcing him to hack back out onto the fairway. Work to do to save his par.
We’ve not seen much, if anything, of Tommy Fleetwood since that eagle at 5. He’s been plodding away quietly, without fuss, a string of seven pars. But that’s been snapped by bogey at 13. He’s +1 overall. Meanwhile Scottie Scheffler continues to fail to take advantage of the slightly easier stretch towards the turn: pars all the way, unable to repair the early damage of that bogey-bogey start. The world number one is +2.
Everyone in the chasing pack requires leader Wyndham Clark to throw them a bone. And that’s exactly what he does at 1. His approach topples off the false front of the green, and he leaves his long uphill putt six feet short. His par effort shaves the lip on the left, the gallery OOH dramatically, and suddenly things look a little different at the top. How quickly that can happen. Meanwhile it’s a dropped shot for his playing partner Matt Fitzpatrick, who can’t get up and down from a greenside bunker.
-6: Clark (1)
-4: Stevens (2)
-3: Schauffele (2)
-2: McIlroy (7), Morikawa (2), Kim (2), Fitzpatrick (1)
While Rory was doing that, Maverick McNealy was failing to get up and down from a similar position at the back of 6. He hands one of his shots back. Then on the par-three 7th, McIlroy walks in a 16-footer and that’s three birdies on the bounce! Meanwhile Sam Stevens, the unexpected presence towards the top of the leaderboard, hooks a nervous opening drive over the gallery down the left of 1 … but then wedges his second from 120 yards, off hard pan, to seven feet. In goes the putt, and it’s all happening at the top!
-7: Clark
-4: Stevens (1)
-3: Kim (1), Schauffele (1), Fitzpatrick
-2: McIlroy (7), Morikawa (1)
-1: McNealy (7), Hisatsune (5), Theegala (3), Burns (3)
E: Grillo (F), Fleetwood (12), Conners (9), Mitchell (5), Woodland (4)
Rory McIlroy holes a monster on 6! A 66 foot, six inch effort from the fringe at the back! All the sixes! Up a slope and over a hump. Set off miles to the right, almost toying with toppling off the upturned bowl of the green to the side. But it’s perfectly judged, and swings back round to the left, eventually straightening up and rolling serenely into the cup! He smiles, chuckles and raises a clenched fist in the air as the crowd, who have his back, chant his name rhythmically. Ro-ree! Ro-ree! He’s -1 and Moving Day is, like pulp, moving, baby!
Rory McIlroy bounces back from the bogey at 3 with birdie at the par-five 5th. That was a fairly fuss-free four. Meanwhile his playing partner Maverick McNealy goes close with a 20-foot eagle effort on 5, but makes do with cleaning up for back-to-back birdies. He’s -2 overall, and things are finally beginning to heat up after a long build-up to Moving Day.
Justin Thomas and Harry Higgs drag each other down. Both players with a three-putt bogey on 1. A miserable start for two players for whom confidence, for differing reasons, will come at a premium this week. Higgs has missed 10 cuts from 14 starts on tour this season, while JT’s record at the US Open, for a player of his major-winning quality, and who has US golf in his DNA, is little short of pathetic: just two top-ten finishes in 11 appearances, while this is the first time he’s survived the cut since 2022. Both slip out of red figures, back to level par.
Corey Conners hasn’t enjoyed too many US Opens. Seven previous appearances have yielded five missed cuts, one injury withdrawal … and one top-ten finish, back in 2024. This week could be shaping up to be a rare plus point, though: the 34-year-old Canadian is going along very steadily indeed, a clean card with birdies at 5 and now 8, the latest thanks to a 30-foot right-to-left slider. He joins the small group in red figures for the tournament.
-7: Clark
-3: Fitzpatrick, Schauffele, Stevens, Kim
-2: Morikawa
-1: Conners (8), McNealy (4), Theegala (1), Burns (1), Thomas, Higgs
E: Grillo (F), Fleetwood (10), Kohles (9), Harman (5), Woodland (3), Hisatsune (3)
Scottie Scheffler powers out of the rough at the par-five 5th. He’s greenside, but shortsided, and there’s a bunker in the road as well. He can’t generate any spin whatsoever with his wedge from the hard ground, and leaves his speculative long birdie putt short. By his own stellar standards, Scheffler is firing on precisely no cylinders at the moment, and he’s wasting opportunities on the easier part of the course.
Grillo shoots 67
Par up the last for Emiliano Grillo, and given the hard, fast and blowy conditions, that’s an excellent 67 that won’t be bettered by many today. If at all. Having said that, the winds are expected to drop later in the afternoon, approaching the early evening, and with the leading groups going out so late, there might be a slight advantage to be gained there. So never say never. But Grillo is the early clubhouse leader at level par, and can expect to be part of the story tomorrow.
Par for Rory McIlroy at 4, who remains +1. He’s going around today with the in-form Maverick McNealy, who has top-20 finishes in both of the majors so far this season. Birdie for the 30-year-old Californian, and he moves into red figures overall at -1.
Scottie Scheffler’s putter continues to misbehave. A trademark approach at 4 sets up a nine-foot birdie chance, and it’s a fairly simple, reasonably straight putt. But he doesn’t hit it, the ball always dying to the left, never threatening to get hole-high. Quite a bit of evident frustration as he remains +2. That elusive US Open isn’t off the table yet, but assuming Wyndham Clark keeps his nerve and doesn’t do the field a big favour by collapsing, it’s coming close to the time where Scheffler will have to be a bit more proactive. Sending his tee shot into thick rough down the left of 5 won’t help his mood, especially as the second portion of the front nine is considered the most gettable stretch on the course.
Rory McIlroy leaves himself another monster putt, this time on 3. He doesn’t judge this 70-footer particularly well, leaving himself a ten-foot tester for his par. It’s always dying to the right of the cup, and he drops to +1. Emiliano Grillo also takes a step backwards, finding the bunker to the right of the par-three 17th, and having found himself shortsided, leaving himself too much to do after the chip out. Grillo slips back to level par for the tournament.
Emiliano Grillo birdies the par-five 16th – statistically the second-easiest hole on the course today – and he moves into red figures for the week at -1. The 33-year-old Argentinian, whose best finish by far at an US Open was his tie for 19th last year, is now four-under par for his round today.
-7: Clark
-3: Fitzpatrick, Schauffele, Stevens, Kim
-2: Morikawa
-1: Grillo (16), Thomas, Higgs, Burns, Theegala
E: 12 players, including Fleetwood (7) and McIlroy (2)
McIlroy is second in the putting stats this week. And on the long par-three 2nd, he further demonstrates why. He doesn’t take enough club into the wind at the 229-yard hole, and his five-iron only just finds the fringe at the front, with the pin near the back. He’s left with a 90-foot putt uphill, and he needs to pull his putter back to near knee-height before making the forward stroke. There’s plenty of left-to-right swing as well. But he sends it to tap-in distance. A par-par start for Rory that’ll feel like quite the accomplishment. Scottie would have paid cash money for it, for sure. McIlroy remains at level par.
There will be exceptions, of course there will, but as a rule, today will most likely be more about not slipping back than making huge strides forward. See Scottie Scheffler in the previous entry. He’s being followed in the group behind by Rory McIlroy, who also gets up and down from greenside sand at 1, but does so to save his par. A tickly little seven-foot left-to-right slider will have settled a few nerves. The 2011 champion remains at level par.
The world number one Scottie Scheffler is looking to complete a career slam this week. He’s not brought his best stuff so far, though, and after opening rounds of 72 and 68, started his weekend at level par. And it looks like his struggles are going to continue. He pulls his opening drive into the semi-rough down the left of 1, then sends his second into knee-deep fescue. His third trickles into a greenside bunker, and though he does well to get up and down, that’s an opening bogey … and he follows it with another at the par-three 2nd, finding more sand and not getting particularly close with his splash out. Scheffler slips back to +2 in short order.
Of the 54 players from the 72-strong field who have already played some golf today, there are only five currently under par for their rounds. Emiliano Grillo is the main mover: he’s three under after 15 holes, moving up the leaderboard to level par overall. Meanwhile Tommy Fleetwood started slowly with bogey at 3, but he’s cancelled that out, and then some, with eagle at the par-five 5th, and consolidated that gain with a sandy par at 6. He’s level par for the week as well, and as we’ve just seen, knows his way around this golf course all right.
Shinnecock weekends are usually brutal. Just ask Phil Mickelson. As just mentioned, only one player was under par after 26 holes eight years ago; there were none by the end of the week. (To be fair, eventual winner Brooks Koepka shot 68 on the final day to finish at +1, while runner-up Tommy Fleetwood broke the course record with a 63, but let’s not muddy the waters.) It’s perhaps more relevant to note that 11 players were under par at the halfway stage in 2004, but only two remained so by the time Retief Goosen won his second US Open on the Sunday. That latter tournament could well be what the USGA are going for here. Either way, it could be a long, hard grind this afternoon for some of the biggest names in golf.
Dylan Wu might have been the first to run up a big score today, but chances are he won’t be the last. The USGA kept the greens under strict control on the first couple of days, hence a relatively large number of players under par after 36 holes: ten this year, compared to one in 2018, for example. But they’ve let them off the leash today, giving them a trim, and the stimp reading has reportedly moved from just over 10 to just over 11. Throw in winds of up to 30mph today, and good luck everyone! The wind might drop a bit later in the day, so there could be a slight advantage to the leaders, but let’s not expect miracles.
Here we go, then … and what better way to start our much-admired Moving Day coverage with a hoary old observation? And it’s this: there isn’t a golfer on the planet who won’t have, at some point in their golfing life, wondered why on earth they bother, and why they’re doing this to themselves. The latest illustration of this maxim is Dylan Wu. The 29-year-old American and his caddie – his brother Jeremy, carrying the bag for the first time since seeing off cancer, but that’s another story - cavorted around the 18th green after a seven-foot par putt went in to become the final player to make the cut. And so to the 1st green this morning. A five-putt leading to a quadruple-bogey eight. Wu has ended his third round now, carding 82; only young Icelandic amateur Arni Sveinsson has shot a higher round this week (84 on Thursday). Why do we bother? Why do we do this to ourselves? But you know and I know that Wu will be back tomorrow, looking to improve on his current position, 72nd in a field of 72 at +16. He may well shoot under par. Golf’s like that. It’s why everyone bothers, and keeps coming back.
Preamble
It’s Moving Day at Shinnecock Hills! Here’s what the top of the leaderboard looked like after two tough treks around the oldest clubhouse in US golf …
-7: Wyndham Clark
-3: Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Sam Stevens, Tom Kim
-2: Collin Morikawa
-1: Justin Thomas, Harry Higgs, Sam Burns, Sahith Theegale
E: William Mouw, Ryder Cowan (a), Ryo Hisatsune, Gary Woodland, Akshay Bhatia, Keith Mitchell, Rory McIlroy, Maverick McNealy, Brian Harman, Scottie Scheffler, Alex Fitzpatrick
… here’s a selected list of big names to have missed the cut …
Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Rickie Fowler, Patrick Reed, Harris English, Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Smith, Si Woo Kim, Min Woo Lee, Sepp Straka, Adam Scott, Brooks Koepka, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and defending champion JJ Spaun
… and here are today’s tee times (all BST). Plenty of third-round water has already passed under the bridge, so we’ll get onto that immediately. Here we go! It’s on!
2pm: Dylan Wu, Jacob Bridgeman
2.11pm: Chris Gotterup, Eric Lee (a)
2.22pm: Peter Uihlein, Caleb Surratt
2.33pm: Marek Fleming (a), Robert MacIntyre
2.44pm: Nico Echavarria, Hideki Matsuyama
2.55pm: Bud Cauley, Neal Shipley
3.06pm: Laurie Canter, Michael Kim
3.17pm: Jackson Koivun (a), Miles Russell (a)
3.33pm: Patrick Rodgers, Emiliano Grillo
3.44pm: James Nicholas, Angel Hidalgo
3.55pm: Jordan Spieth, Joaquin Niemann
4.06pm: Russell Henley, Dustin Johnson
4.17pm: Ryan Fox, Michael Brennan
4.28pm: Pierceson Coody, Max Greyserman
4.39pm: Kurt Kitayama, Tyrrell Hatton
5.50pm: Cameron Young, Im Sung-jae
5.06pm: Adrien Dumont de Chassart, Spencer Tibbets
5.17pm: JT Poston, Ben Griffin
5.28pm: Andrew Putnam, John Parry
5.39pm: Jackson Van Paris, Ben James
5.50pm: Tommy Fleetwood, Ludvig Åberg
6.01pm: Keegan Bradley, Johnny Keefer
6.12pm: Ben Kohles, Justin Rose
6.28pm: Corey Conners, Aaron Rai
6.39pm: Zac Blair, Max McGreevy
6.50pm: Niklas Norgaard, Alex Fitzpatrick
7.01pm: Scottie Scheffler, Brian Harman
7.12pm: Maverick McNealy, Rory McIlroy
7.23pm: Kevin Mitchell, Akshay Bhatia
7.34pm: Gary Woodland, Ryo Hisatsune
7.50pm: Ryder Cowan (a), William Mouw
8.01pm: Sahith Theegala, Sam Burns
8.12pm: Harry Higgs, Justin Thomas
8.23pm: Collin Morikawa, Tom Kim
8.34pm: Sam Stevens, Xander Schauffele
8.45pm: Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark
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