Moving Day at Pinehurst No. 2 saw players rise and fall up and down the leaderboard on another steamy day at the 124th US Open.
Here are 10 things to know about round 3 of the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst.
Number 1: The field scoring average through three rounds is 73.103, which is nearly identical to it was through 54 holes of the 2014 U.S. Open at Pinehurst (73.195).
Number 2: Nine of the last 10 U.S. Opens were won by a player who was among the top 2 on the leaderboard at the end of Round 3. The exception is Jon Rahm, who was T-6 after 54 holes at Torrey Pines in 2021.
Number 3: Rory McIlroy finds himself inside the top 5 on the leaderboard at the halfway point of the U.S. Open for a third year in a row. He was T-3 after 36 holes in 2022, T-3 after 36 holes in 2023 and enters today’s third round T-5. Only five other players since WWII had such a run at the U.S. Open: Dustin Johnson (3 years in a row, 2014-2016), Scott Simpson (4, 1988-1991), Jack Nicklaus (3, 1971-1973), Arnold Palmer (3, 1962-1964) and Ben Hogan (5, 1952-1956). Johnson, Nicklaus, Palmer and Hogan all won at least once during the streak. Simpson did not.
Number 4: Rory McIlroy enters the final round of the U.S. Open inside the top 10 for the sixth year in a row. It would be the longest such streak since Ben Hogan did that 12 times in a row, from 1940 through 1956. Six others have had a streak of six or more in a row: Walter Hagen (10, 1919-1928), Willie Anderson (9, 1898-1906), Gil Nicholls (8, 1904-1911), Bobby Jones (7, 1920-1926) and Stewart Gardner (7, 1900-1906).
Here is McIlroy’s 54-hole rank after each of the last five U.S. Opens:
- 2019 Pebble Beach 6th T-9
- 2020 Winged Foot 7th T-8
- 2021 Torrey Pines T-4 T-7
- 2022 The Country Club T-7 T-5
- 2023 Los Angeles CC 3rd 2nd
- 2024 Pinehurst 2nd
- Dustin Johnson 2010 Pebble Beach 82 T-8, lost by 5
- Retief Goosen 2005 Pinehurst 81 T-11, lost by 8
- Jim Furyk 2003 Olympia Fields 72 Won by 3
- George Burns 1981 Merion 73 T-2, Lost by 3
- Hale Irwin 1979 Inverness Club 75 Won by 2
- Frank Beard 1975 Medinah 78 T-3, lost by 1
- Miller Barber 1969 Champions GC 78 T-6, lost by 3
- 2018 Memorial (outright lead), won in a playoff over Kyle Stanley and Ben An
- 2018 Northern Trust (outright lead), won by 4
- 2018 Shriners Hospitals for Children (tied for lead), won by 1 over Patrick Cantlay
- 2019 3M Open (tied for lead), finished T-2, 1 shot behind Matthew Wolf
- 2021 BMW Championship (tied for lead), lost in a playoff to Patrick Cantlay
So Brysons never not closed the deal on a solo 54 hole lead👀
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