I watched every second of the 2024 US Open 2nd round and here are the best, worst, and funniest moments you might have missed

Rory McIlroy had an adventurous second round 72 at the 2024 US Open

Did you miss some of the action from the second round of the US Open at Pinehurst? Fear not, here are the highlights.

Day two of the US Open and we managed to get the second round of a major underway without any players being arrested ahead of their tee times. Success. 

The first round produced plenty of talking points, mostly about hair, oddly, but with no one following Scottie Scheffler in for a tight trim ahead of Friday’s round, I had to find something else to focus on at Pinehurst. Although with Robert Rock in the field, we’ll still talk hair at some point.

1. Pinehust flagsticks, who hurt you?

1a. You’ve got to be a very brave pole to do that to Tyrrell Hatton of all people. The Englishman had made birdie on the 12th to go to 3-under, but that near slam dunk ended up in a bogey on 13, with another to follow on the 14th hole.

1b. Who’s the bravest Pole of all-time? Answers in the comments below. (There are no comments.) I’ll have to go for Polish Catholic priest Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteered to die in place of Franciszek Gajowniczek at Auschwitz during World War II.

2. Things panned out a bit better for Hatton’s fellow flagstick-smasher Sepp Straka. The Austrian’s pin-bruising deflection led to a triple-bogey seven on the 3rd hole, but the golf gods did their bit on the 9th:

2a. Straka’s ace was the third in a US Open at Pinehurst, with all three being made at the 9th hole. Peter Jacobsen had one in 2005 in the third round, and Zach Johnson had one in 2014 in the final round.

3. When will players start having the flagstick tended on every approach shot?

4. Of course Bryson DeChambeau names all his clubs and it’s about as bonkers as that sounds.

4a. Why doesn’t he have a name for his driver or putter? His Krank driver could be called ‘Fandabidozi’, the catchphrase of Wee Jimmy Krankie.

4b. Wonder if Bryson DeChambeau has ever seen The Krankies.

5. Mackenzie Hughes got value for money on the 1st hole.

5a. If Pinehurst had a band, here’s what they’d have been playing during the Canadian’s back-and-forth short-game adventures:

6. Rory made the most Rory-esque par you’ll ever see on the 17th. A brilliant tee shot to the center of the green to avoid the false front was followed by a putt that rolled down that same false front and off the green. Just as the band were polishing their brass for another rendition of Thunder and Blazes (Entry of the Gladiators), the Northern Irishman saved his blushes by chipping in.

6a. How does that count for the stats? It’s a green in regulation, a one-putt, and a successful scramble?

6b. Is there a worse feeling than having to go back to your bag to grab a wedge after de-greening a putt?

6c. Yes. Speaking from personal experience, it’s when you then flub that chip and wish you’d just putted it again.

7. Scottie Scheffler, playing with Rory, didn’t enjoy the 5th hole. Greenside in two, he walked off with a double bogey, declaring “This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen”.

8. Get a move on, lads. The Scheffler, McIlroy, Schauffele group took one hour (60 minutes!) to play the 5th and 6th holes. 

8a. At one point, the 5th hole had four groups on it. 12 golfers, one hole. Did someone say “marshal”?

9. At that pace, you can pretty much see the grass growing around your feet, right? Well, kind of. Green speeds ranged from mid-13 to 14 on the Stimpeter early in the day on Friday, settling to low-to-mid 13s as play went on. All of the greens were double-cut before the second round, with selected putting surfaces rolled to maintain consistency of speed.

10. Want an indication of how tough some of the holes are playing? Approach shots on the 17th were finishing 90′ from the pin, on average. Reminder: these are the best players in the world.

11. Keep an eye out for any interactions between Bryson DeChambeau and Nick Faldo. Faldo seems to go out of his way to mock DeChambeau’s science nerdiness at every opportunity, and Bryson doesn’t appear to appreciate the joke. This was from a few years back, but I notice the same thing every time they’re on screen together or Faldo is talking about the 2020 US Open champ.

12. Bryson’s PR team deserve a payrise. “I’ve worked really hard to help people hopefully understand who I am a little bit better,” he said recently, when asked about the dramatic increase in his popularity.

Cheers for DeChambeau’s good shots at Pinehurst seemed louder than just about anyone’s (bar Tiger) on Friday.  

I’m one of many to have warmed to Bryson a lot in recent times. His YouTube channel helps, but it’s mainly just his obvious passion and love for the game that makes him hard not to like. He was still hanging around the course some three hours after he finished his round, chewing the fat with Smylie Kaufman and watching the action. There are certain pros you couldn’t imagine doing that in a million years.

Can’t please all of the people all of the time, though, as Sky Sports producer and director Nick German discovered:

13. The US Open returns to Pinehurst in 2029 and 2035. Will you be glad to see it back fairly regularly? It doesn’t necessarily have the appeal of a course like Shinnecock Hills or the vistas of Pebble Beach, but it’s one for the ‘purists’, for sure. 

13a. Here’s every course the US Open is due to visit between now and 2051.

13b. Do they need to plan them quite so far in advance? I don’t know where I’ll be next Tuesday, let alone in 27 years.

14. If you go through all the effort of making it through both stages of US Open qualifying, it would be a shame to not stay for the weekend. University of Kansas student Gunnar Broin cemented his place in the best fashion possible:

14a. Broin is the first active University of Kansas student to play in a major.

14b. He shot 65 and 68 in the Ohio State qualifying rounds last week to secure his place at Pinehurst.

14c. When I was a student, I drunkenly agreed to play in a university match that was due to tee off at 8am the following morning. I woke up around 9.30am, and only at that point did it occur to me that my golf clubs were back at the family home in Essex, two hours from Nottingham.

15. New TG writer Lewis Daff is the first person I’ve heard comparing Tiger Woods to the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum – and I respect him for that.

“Watching Tiger Woods now is like watching someone practice Kintsugi,” he says. “I know that it’s shattered and broken into too many pieces to count, but even when it’s been put back together in the most basic of repairs, I can’t take my eyes away from the beauty of seeing him try to conjure the magic again.” 

16. The warm weather robbed us of seeing this – let’s say “statement” – Malbon jacket on Jason Day. It was part of his scripting for Friday, but even the fashion-conscious Aussie wasn’t willing to wear an extra layer with temperatures in the 90s.

Looking like it belongs beside a race track, sadly Day’s second round was the pits – a seven-over-par 77 taking him to +8 for the tournament and on the fast track home.

17. Spare a thought for Bob MacIntyre. The proud Scot shot a 76 to reach +6 total and miss the cut, then watched his national team get thumped 5-1 by Germany in the opening game of Euro 2024.

18. Spare a thought for Tyrrell Hatton, too. “I guess in some ways, with it being harder, a lot of the guys losing their head, it sort of brings them to my level, because I lose my head every week,” he said after round one. “They kind of experience what it’s like in my head for a week.”

Asked what it’s like inside his head after his second round, he said: “Sort of internally screaming for the most part.”

19. Is Patty Ice the worst nickname in golf?

19a. No, it’s Phil ‘FIGJAM’ Mickelson, isn’t it? It stands for “F**k I’m good, just ask me,” if you’re wondering.

20. Why has no one told Tiger his collar is folded in on itself? Once you’ve spotted it, it’s all you can look at. Unless it’s a tactic to draw the attention away from that ropey Sun Day Red logo.

21. Robert Rock normally goes capless as it’s officially illegal to hide a head of hair that good, but even he wanted some shade from the sun on Friday. Don’t worry, though – he opted for an open-top visor number to keep those beautiful locks on display. The man knows what his audience wants, got to give him that. 

22. Majors are really hard to win, I get that, but I’d bet my last Oreo that Ludvig Åberg wins one in the not-too-distant future.

22a. Why does Åberg look more relaxed leading a major than I feel playing a midweek stableford? Actually, forget why. How?

23. That’s two major missed cuts in a row for Tiger. The last time he missed back-to-back major cuts was 2015, when he failed to make the weekend at the US Open, The Open, and the PGA Championship. After that, he underwent back surgery and skipped all four majors in 2016 and 2017, not making his comeback until the 2018 Masters.

23a. Tiger caused panic by saying “This may or may not be [my last US Open]” after his round, but let’s not get carried away by what a golfer said immediately after a bad result. Every medal I play has been my last medal for the past 15 years.

23b. There’s also the issue that Tiger needs a special exemption to play at Oakmont in 2025, unless he does something special to earn entry before then. That body does not look like it’s up for the 36-holes-in-a-day US Open final qualifying.

24. Tiger offered Justin Thomas some help on the range on Thursday afternoon after he struggled to an opening round 77.

Did it work? Not really. JT shot 74 in the second round to finish +11 for the tournament and miss the cut by some margin. He could be tapping up Charlie Woods for lessons soon.

25. Is there a more ridiculous way to make the cut than an ace on your final hole (a hole you tripled the day before), taking you from +7 to +5 in one swing and making the weekend bang on the number?

No. No there is not. See you Saturday, ‘Cesco.

25a. Before Friday, there had been two US Open aces in 6,096 attempts at Pinehurst No.2. Friday’s second round saw that number doubled thanks to Straka and Molinari.

26. But we won’t be seeing Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Bob MacIntyre, Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris, Jason Day, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, or Phil Mickelson, all of whom missed the cut.

27. Kudos to Sergio Garcia, who only made it into the US Open field on Monday as first alternate, for justifying his spot with impressive rounds of 69 and 71 to put him in the top-20 heading into the weekend.

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About the author

Rob McGarr – Contributing Editor

Rob has been a writer and editor for over 15 years, covering all manner of subjects for leading magazines and websites.

He has previously been Features Editor of Today’s Golfer magazine and Digital Editor of todays-golfer.com, and held roles at FHM, Men’s Running, Golf World, and MAN Magazine.

You can follow him on YouTube where – depending on what day of the week it is – he’ll either be trying his best to get his handicap down to scratch or shoving his clubs in a cupboard, never to be seen again.

Rob is a member at Royal North Devon, England’s oldest golf course, where he plays off a two-handicap.