Henley overcomes rough start and is among few handling Oakmont after two rounds of the U.S. Open
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Updated: 8:45 p.m.
Leaderboard
Apparently Oakmont will catch up to most everybody this weekend.
It caught Russell Henley for awhile on Friday.
The Stratford grad was one of the few highly ranked players to shoot even or better on Thursday, and it looked like trouble on Friday, but he regrouped and finished strong for a 2-over 72.
And it’s doubtful anybody heard him complain.
By the time he was done, around 2 p.m., with three dozen players still to tee off and another 50 or so having finished, Henley had jumped to a tie for 16th.
Life got better as Oakmont continued its abuse, with only five players out of 156 shooting even or better through two rounds, and that helped push Henley into a tie for eighth.
Rain and lightning stopped play for the night at around 8:15 p.m., with 15 players – only four within the cut line - still in the round.
Only 15 players were even or better on Friday, some players making huge jumps – like Sam Burns shaving seven shots off and moving up 32 spots into the lead, and Max Greyersman exploding 86 slots into a tie for 12th – and others dropping off a cliff – like the 53-position drop by James Nicholas and 71-spot crash by Kevn Velo.
Fourteen players were 10-over or worse on Friday, George Duangmanee turning in a nightmare 35-over score, last by eight shots.
Shane Lowry, ranked 13th and 11th, was 17 over and top-30 Justin Rose 14 over, tying for 125th as play concluded for the day.
The cut line was 7 over early, and stunningly stayed there, allowing Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama, Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Brian Harman – the latter four in the top 25 – to keep playing. At 7 over.
Done: Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover and Phil Mickelson at 8 over, Min Woo Lee and Bud Cauley and Tommy Fleetwood at 9 over, No. 3 Sepp Straka at 11 over, and No. 5/4 Justin Thomas at 12 over.
Henley flirted with the cutline early, and then stormed into safety.
Closing with birdies on three of the final four holes gave him momentum, but was actually somewhat unnecessary – so bizarre is the weekend already – to clinch making his first majors cut of the season, breaking an 0-for-2 streak, and in impressive fashion.
By the time he was done the front nine, Henley had dropped into a tie for 51st around 10:30 a.m., with more than half of the field still to tee off, including then-leader J.J. Spaun, who shot 2 over and is only a shot out of the lead.
The day began with a tease and two pars for Henley.
Then came two off-target shots on No. 3, with a missed putt inside 10 feet for his first bogey.
He couldn’t save par on 5 with a 10-footer after finding a rough off the tee. He almost managed that on No. 8, just missing a 19-footer for par.
Henley hit the native area on No. 9, the fifth fairway off the tee he missed on the front nine.
That left him 4 over through nine.
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler lost two strokes through his first 10 holes, falling to 5 over tied for 69th, still ahead of 11 top-30 players. No. 3 Sepp Straka was 2 over for the day after nine, 10 over for the tournament.
The back nine was better.
He resumed hitting fairways off the tee, and settled for par on par-5 No. 12 after just missing an 11-footer.
A bogey on 14 broke the streak of four straight pars, Henley almost escaping a hole during which he went from bunker to fairway to rough.
But everything came together with birdies on 15 – drilling a 20-footer - and 16 – hitting a 14-footer – followed by a par and then a day-ending birdie on 18.
Scheffler escaped the danger zone, but Straka never came close to making the cut, which mid-afternoon was a whopping 7 over, expected to settle around 5 over. Straka was done at 11 over, among the bottom 35.