OAKMONT, Pa. — Jon Rahm, the U.S. Open champion at Torrey Pines, shot a 5-over-par 75 on Friday to stand at 4-over and was hot when he got off the course, furious with his putting.
“I didn’t make a putt. That was the main difference,” Rahm said. “I didn’t play bad. I played quite good golf. Didn’t see anything go in beside a 7-footer on 7. That’s it. That’s a very hard thing to deal with to try to shoot a score out here.”
Asked to put the first two days into perspective, Rahm said, “Honestly, I’m too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective. Very frustrated. Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn’t sniff the hole, so it’s frustrating.”
Rahm took 35 putts in a round in which he hit 12 of 18 greens, and at the time he finished his day, he was ranked 109th in the field in putting, losing three strokes to the field.
Victor Perez had a hole-in-one on the par-3 sixth hole, draining a 7-iron.
He was 2-over par at the time, and that moved him to even par.
He sits at 1-over for the tournament entering the weekend.
“Obviously, a hole-in-one takes a little luck,” Perez said. “I was trying to hit something maybe 15, 20 feet past the hole, and it maybe spun a little bit more and bounced in, so I was a little fortunate, which I’ll definitely take going into the weekend.”
Incredibly, the ace was Perez’s second one this month. He had one in a casual round at home in the Bahamas.
“I guess I’m on a hole-in-one run at the moment,” he joked.
Perez’s ace was just the second in a U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.
Scott Simpson hit one on No. 16 in 1983 in the first round.
Overall, Perez’s was the 54th hole-in-one in U.S. Open history.
Phil Mickelson, a record six-time runner up and playing in his 34th U.S. Open and out of exemptions into the field after this year, had a chance to make the cut on the final hole but missed his birdie putt to finish 8-over.
Amateur Ben James eagled No. 17 in the second round.
The last amateur to make an eagle at Oakmont during a U.S. Open was Rahm in 2016 (12th hole, third round).
In 11 of the last 12 U.S. Opens, the eventual winner was among the top five on the leaderboard at the end of the second round.
The exception over this period was Matt Fitzpatrick, who was T-13 after 36 holes in 2022 at The Country Club.