Min Woo Lee, Cam Smith boost Aussie push at the US Open

Ian Chadband | June 17, 2023

Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith have made their move to spearhead the Australian challenge at the US Open, moving smoothly up the leaderboard on the second morning at the Los Angeles Country Club.

Lee, the rising star of the Australian game, shot a 5-under-par 65 to move to six under for the championship at the halfway mark while Smith, just two behind, recorded a 3-under par 67 as they both moved into the top 10 among the early wave on Friday.

But they were still adrift of American Wyndham Clark, who was the early leader in the clubhouse on nine under.

The Australians impressed on a day when defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick enjoyed another memorable moment with a hole-in-one and Rory McIlroy also remained in touch with the leaders.

Fitzpatrick recorded the third ace of the week on the 115-yard 15th in the second round, his tee shot spinning back into the hole just as those of Matthieu Pavon and Sam Burns had done on Thursday.

However, Fitzpatrick could not see where the ball had landed and was walking off the tee before the roar from the crowd sparked some enthusiastic, if rather belated, celebrations.

It lifted Fitzpatrick from one over par to one under, but he had slipped back to one over by the time Clark set the early clubhouse target.

Clark added a 67 to his opening 64 to take over at the top of the leaderboard from Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele, who were among the later starters.

Fowler and Schauffele had both shot 62 in the first round to record the lowest score in US Open history and equal the lowest in any men’s major, while the scoring average of 71.38 was another tournament record.

LIV Golf’s Dustin Johnson went bogey free until his final hole on Thursday and ran into more trouble on Friday morning with a quadruple bogey on the par-four second that saw him tumble down the leaderboard.

The tournament is the first major since the bombshell announcement the PGA Tour and rival circuit LIV would form a unified commercial entity. A report on Thursday indicated the US Justice Department would review the plans.

With agencies