At the U.S. Open, it’s Rory McIlroy and a lot golfers you don’t know
Of course you do on that last one, but they’re all up there, so many that at 5:42 p.m. Thursday, there was a seven-way tie for first between some people you know and some you never thought you would know: MJ Daffue, Joel Dahmen, Matt Fitzpatrick, Adam Hadwin, David Lingmerth, McIlroy and Callum Tarren.
It became the second straight major in which McIlroy announced contention early, following on his opening 65 at the PGA. “I’m going into tomorrow with the mind-set of, ‘Let’s keep it going,’ rather than, ‘Where is the cut line?’ or whatever,” he said, having refrained from digging himself the chasm he has during some of the 28 long and blurry majors since his last major win at the 2014 PGA Championship.
“This has been a year in the making, really,” Hadwin said. “We set out on a journey, I think, last March, [swing coach Mark Blackburn] and I. Not of changing the golf swing but changing the club face in the swing, which may be more difficult in and of itself.”