Key events
At the risk of belabouring the point, please let me quote Sky summariser Wayne Riley, who just announced that “the average round” this morning was 69. “That’s a good round now,” he observes. The current clubhouse leaders Kristoffer Reitan, Chris Kirk and Justin Rose (-2) swing their feet up onto the desk in unison.
… so does Scottie calmly walk in the par saver? Of course he does. He remains at -2, and that could be a subtle momentum-swinger. Bogey for Aaron Rai at 4, however; he slips back to -2, alongside Scheffler.
Rose also said that should the later starters fail to get off to a quick start, they may start doubting themselves as the wind gets stronger and the greens harden under the sun. So Scottie Scheffler won’t be in the best humour right now. Having missed that short birdie putt at 1, he sends his tee shot at 2 into the thick rough, from where he can’t generate the spin required with his wedge to hold the green. His chip up from the swale behind the green stops ten feet short, and this is a big par putt coming up.
Justin Rose, his work today done and looking very relaxed as a result, has just been speaking to Sky Sports. The gist of his interview: he felt the wind picking up and swirling around a bit towards the end of his round, and things are unlikely to get any easier from here on in. So the later starters will be cursing the good fortune of the early birds. Two phrases stuck out: “Less gettable as the day goes on” and “Hold on a second, why is it not so easy for me?!” Rose wasn’t captured on camera sauntering off whistling a jolly tune, hands in pockets, hello sun, hello birds, hello flowers. But that’s not to definitively say he didn’t do it. We just don’t know. He was certainly in a good enough mood.
Rory McIlroy joins the leaders! His tee shot at the drivable par-four 13th doesn’t fade as he intends, and ends up in a bunker on the left. But no bother. He splashes out to five feet, and tidies up for his sixth birdie of the day. (Just the one blemish on his card, at the 4th.) Meanwhile Jon Rahm follows up birdie at 1 with another at 5, and though Joaquin Niemann takes a step back with bogey at 17, it’s safe to say the big guns are assembling. Penny for the thoughts of Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy, no doubt keeping an eye on the clubhouse TV.
-4: McIlroy (13), Smalley, McNealy
-3: Schauffele (12), Rahm (5), Rai (3), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
Scottie Scheffler sends his wedge at 1 to five feet … only to shove the birdie putt wide right. A disappointing par in the circumstances, and he stares back at the hole with feeling. He remains -2. Meanwhile two consecutive birdies for Aaron Rai, at 2 and 3, and Wolverhampton’s finest is suddenly just one off the lead.
The defending champion Scottie Scheffler gets down to work … and sends a booming drive befitting his world number-one status miles down the 1st fairway. He’ll have noticed some of his biggest rivals making hay, and will be salivating accordingly. For example, here’s Joaquin Niemann, a king over the water at LIV, making birdies at 9, 10, 13 and 15, and now a kick-in eagle at 16. All of a sudden the 27-year-old Chilean is right in the thick of it.
-4: Smalley, McNealy
-3: Burns (16), Niemann (16), McIlroy (12), Schauffele (11), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (F), Kirk (F), Rose (F), Kaymer (14), Conners (8), Rahm (3), Cantlay (3), Rai (2), Åberg (1), Kim (1), Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas
Some other good early rounds of note. Brian Harman is in with a 66; the erstwhile Open champ is -1 overall. Taylor Pendrith has shot 67; the Canadian is +1. And Padraig Harrington, who won this tournament in 2008, has followed yesterday’s 69 with a 67. The 54-year-old veteran is level par for the week so far.
… and now joining McIlroy and Schauffele at -3: Sam Burns. He’s just made four birdies in a row, at 13, 14, 15 and 16, though he needed all of the hole with his short putt for the last of those. He’s five under for his round, and on course to match the best-of-day 65s of Reitan, Kirk and Rose. A fair chance those won’t be the lowest rounds today, mind.
Xander Schauffele fancies reclaiming the crown he won in 2024. He turned in 32, and now he’s just made his fifth birdie of the day at 11. He joins Rory as the only currently active member of the group at -3.
Justin Rose shoots 65
Justin Rose has rolled in two big putts on 18 already this week. Par savers both. And it’s three pars at the closing hole now, though he’s not so chuffed about this one, a 15-foot birdie attempt stopping just short. He cocks his head back in frustration, though it surely won’t sting for long, because that’s set the seal on a 65, and at -2 he’s right in the mix. He joins Kristoffer Reitan and Chris Kirk in the clubhouse lead.
-4: Smalley, McNealy
-3: McIlroy (11), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (F), Kirk (F), Rose (17), Burns (15), Kaymer (13), Schauffele (10), Conners (8), Rahm (3), Åberg, English, Kim, Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, is very much on the charge. He hit the turn in 32, taking advantage like others before him of the relatively benign early conditions. Now he’s made another, sending a lob wedge at 11 to six feet and rolling in the putt. He’s looking as confident as he looked irritated after that inexplicable run of four consecutive bogeys to close round one, and if he continues like this, and posts something out there, the leaders Alex Smalley and Maverick McNealy will have some work to do, with the wind expected to pick up a little bit later. Rory is -3.
Kirk, Reitan shoot 65
Oh dear. Kirk can’t make the par putt on 18 coming back … and then he misses the bogey tiddler. It’s not technically a four-putt, because the first was from off the front of the green … but it kind of is, isn’t it? He certainly wears the slightly drained look of someone who was one putt away from equalling major-championship history, and has somehow managed to make a 65 feel like a disappointment. He ends the day at -2 overall … as does last week’s winner at Quail Hollow, Kristoffer Reitan, who also signs for a slightly less dramatic 65 (if making two eagles on the back nine can be considered undramatic, that is).
Justin Rose was the next player after Michael Kim to get stuck in. He carded five birdies on the front nine, at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9, turning in 30. Another birdie at 13 was instantly cancelled out with bogey on 14, since when he’s been forced to make a series of staunch par savers. But they’ve all gone in. He’s hanging onto his score, and he’s one par away from a 65 that will revive his bid for a second major. To think he needed to make birdie on 9 last night in order to survive the cut … and chipped in for eagle! Rose is -2 overall.
Chris Kirk won’t be making his record-equalling 62. He takes Texas wedge from off the front of the 18th, and rattles a very excitable 45-foot birdie attempt 12 feet past. He’ll now have a job on to card 63.
The first sign that low scoring was afoot today was provided by Michael Kim. The 32-year-old, born in South Korea but representing the USA, has come out of a mid-career slump that saw him at one point miss 23 cuts in a row. He won the French Open last year, and has reestablished himself as a regular participant in the majors, if not one making any serious waves. He was due to miss the cut yesterday, and was +7 with six holes to play, but birdied 4 and 6 before chipping in for eagle at 9. Then this morning he birdied 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7, a run spoiled by a single bogey at 4. He turned in 30. Sadly a double bogey at 10 scuppered his momentum, and though he came close to making a hole-in-one albatross at the driveable par-four 13th – six feet short, for the record – he shot 37 on the back nine. Still, that’s a fine 67, a round he wasn’t expecting to play six holes from home yesterday. He’s level par overall. Kim is the current clubhouse leader, alongside Nicolai Højgaard, who shot 66 today.
Actually, let’s immediately revise that, because Chris ‘Captain’ Kirk has just raked in a long birdie putt across 17. It’s his eighth birdie of the day. Just the one bogey, and so a birdie up the last would give the 41-year-old from Tennessee a 62, equalling the lowest-ever round in a men’s major, a record jointly held by Branden Grace (2017 Open), Rickie Fowler (2023 US Open), Xander Schauffele (2023 US Open and 2024 PGA) and Shane Lowry (2024 PGA). Oh, and it gives him a share of the lead.
-4: Kirk (17), Smalley, McNealy
-3: Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (16), Rose (15), McIlory (9), Åberg, English, Kim, Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas
Here we go, then … and the scoring was much better this morning. The ball running further, the wind down. And as a result, a few players have made a run towards the top of the leaderboard. Let’s catch up on exactly how things stand at the minute, and then we can work out how we got here …
-4: Smalley, McNealy
-3: Kirk (16), Lee, Greyserman, Potgieter, Jaeger, Matsuyama, Gotterup
-2: Reitan (16), Rose (15), McIlory (9), Åberg, English, Kim, Scheffler, Puig, Young, Thomas
Preamble
It’s Moving Day at Aronimink! Here’s what the top of the leaderboard looked like after two attritional loops …
-4: Alex Smalley, Maverick McNealy
-3: Hideki Matsuyama, Chris Gotterup, Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Min Woo Lee, Max Greyserman
-2: Cameron Young, Justin Thomas, Scottie Scheffler, David Puig, Harris English, Si Woo Kim, Ludvig Åberg
-1: Andrew Novak, Kurt Kitayama, Aaron Rai, Jason Day, Patrick Cantlay, Jon Rahm
… here’s a selected list of big names to have missed the cut …
Michael Block, Im Sung-jae, Akshay Bhatia, Jimmy Walker, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark, Stewart Cink, JJ Spaun, Viktor Hovland, Sepp Straka, Keegan Bradley, Gary Woodland, Tyrrell Hatton, Brandt Snedeker, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner, YE Yang, Shaun Micheel, Max Homa and … Bryson DeChambeau
… and here are today’s tee times (all BST). Plenty of third-round water has already passed under the bridge – Moving Day has seen some movement, baby! – so we’ll get onto that immediately. Here we go! It’s on!
1245 Jhonattan Vegas, Alex Noren
1254 Nicolai Højgaard, Michael Brennan
1303 Taylor Pendrith, Johnny Keefer
1312 Christiaan Bezuidenhout, William Mouw
1321 Shane Lowry, Brian Campbell
1330 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, Daniel Berger
1339 Luke Donald, Elvis Smylie
1348 Michael Kim, John Parry
1357 Kristoffer Reitan, Padraig Harrington
1406 Daniel Brown, Chris Kirk
1415 Justin Rose, Brian Harman
1424 Rasmus Hojgaard, Sami Valimaki
1433 Kazuki Higa, Mikael Lindberg
1442 Keith Mitchell, Sam Burns
1451 Tom Hoge, Joaquin Niemann
1500 Alex Fitzpatrick, Denny McCarthy
1520 Sam Stevens, Chandler Blanchet
1530 Martin Kaymer, Matt Fitzpatrick
1540 Casey Jarvis, Matt Wallace
1550 Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson
1600 Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy
1610 Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele
1620 Sahith Theegala, Bud Cauley
1630 Ben Griffin, Ryan Gerard
1640 Collin Morikawa, Matti Schmid
1650 Nick Taylor, Corey Conners
1610 Daniel Hillier, Ben Kern
1720 Ryan Fox, Ryo Hisatsune
1730 Rico Hoey, Cameron Smith
1740 Haotong Li, Patrick Reed
1750 Jon Rahm, Andrew Putnam
1800 Jason Day, Patrick Cantlay
1810 Kurt Kitayama, Aaron Rai
1820 Ludvig Åberg, Andrew Novak
1830 Harris English, Si Woo Kim
1840 Scottie Scheffler, David Puig
1900 Cameron Young, Justin Thomas
1910 Min Woo Lee, Max Greyserman
1920 Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger
1930 Hideki Matsuyama, Chris Gotterup
1940 Alex Smalley, Maverick McNealy
