Ten Things to Know about Round 3 of the 123rd U.S. Open at LACC

The North Course at Los Angeles Country Club may not be destroying player's souls like some U.S. Open venues do.  But LACC North is identifying the best players this week and testing their complete games.

Moving Day at LACC saw the leaderboard tighten with a few more players join as contenders.

Here are 10 things to know about the third round.

Number 10:    Hole #15 officially played to a length of 80 yards in Round 3, the shortest par three in U.S. Open history. It played to a stroke average of 2.923 in Round 3, with 11 birdies, and 5 bogeys or worse.

Number 9:    Tom Kim matched a U.S. Open record by shooting a score of 29 over his first nine holes today. He is the fifth player to shoot a 9-hole score of 29 at this championship, and the first since Louis Oosthuizen in 2015 at Chambers Bay.

Number 8:    Fifty years ago, Johnny Miller overcame a 6-shot 54-hole deficit to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont CC. 

Number 7:    The last 49 U.S. Open championships have been won by a player who was either leading or were no more than 5 strokes out of the lead entering the final round. Additionally:

• 48 out of 49 winners were leading or within 4 shots of the lead
• 42 out of 49 winners were leading or within 3 shots of the lead
• 36 out of 49 winners were leading or within 2 shots of the lead
• 31 out of 49 winners were leading or within 1 shot of the lead 
• 22 winners were either tied for the lead or had the outright lead 
• 15 winners had the outright lead
• 27 out of 49 winners came from behind
• 22 out of 49 winners had at least a share of the 54-hole lead

Number 6:    Wyndham Clark ranks inside the top 5 this week in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee, Around the Green and Putting. Only once in his career did he rank among the top five in three of the four basic strokes gained categories (along with Approach the Green): that was at his win at the Wells Fargo Championship last month.

Number 5:    Rickie Fowler has been in the final group in the final round of a major championship twice before:

Number 4:    Rory McIlroy (OWGR #3) is in third place after 54 holes while Scottie Scheffler (OWGR #1) is in fourth place. This will be just the third U.S. Open in the last 20 years in which two of the top three ranked players in the world will be in the top 4 entering the final round. That also happened in:

• 2022 Scheffler (#1) was T-4 and Rahm (#2) was 3rd
• 2006 Mickelson (#2) was T-1 and Vijay Singh (#3) was T-4

Number 3:    Scottie Scheffler's hole-out eagle on #17 was his third eagle on a par 4 this season. Through 3 rounds, hole #17 is playing as the most difficult hole on the golf course this week. Scottie Scheffler is the first player in 20 years to make an eagle on the hardest hole of a U.S. Open championship. Amazingly, three players did that in 2003 at Olympia Fields. That year, the hardest hole was the par-4 12th hole (playing to a stroke average of 4.365). Tom Watson eagled it in the first round, Jerry Kelly in the second round and Angel Cabrera in the third round.

• 2014 U.S. Open with Martin Kaymer (finished T-2)
• 2014 Open Championship with Rory McIlroy (finished T-2)

Number 2:    This will be the third time that Wyndham Clark is playing in the final round of a major championship. It's his first time inside the top 50 after 54 holes.

Number 1:    Looking ahead to Round 4, Padraig Harrington (currently -1) could become the fifth player aged 50 or older to shoot under par for 72 holes at a U.S. Open, joining Steve Stricker in 2017 (-5), Julius Boros in 1973 (-1), Raymond Floyd in 1993 (-1) and Dutch Harrison in 1960 (-1).