Rory McIlroy is just two shots off the halfway lead heading into ‘moving day’ at the US Open as he looks to hunt down Rickie Fowler at the top of the leaderboard.
McIlroy covered his last nine holes on Friday in five under par to card a second round of 67 at Los Angeles Country Club, leaving him at -8 for the championship, as Fowler set the pace at -10 after a birdie-laden 68.
Fowler leads fellow American Wyndham Clark by one shot, who took advantage of generous fairways and soft morning conditions to reach nine under, while Xander Schauffele is two back alongside McIlroy after finishing strongly to shoot a 70 in the tougher afternoon conditions.
Harris English sits alone at -7 with Min Woo Lee and two-time major champion Dustin Johnson lurking at six under par. World No 1 Scottie Scheffler battled well to finish on -5 alongside Sam Bennett while, earlier on Friday, defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick enjoyed a memorable moment with the third hole-in-one of the week.
Follow all the action from ‘moving day’ at the 123rd US Open:
US Open 2023 live updates
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Rickie Fowler leads the 2023 US Open overnight on -10 after a pulsating second round of 68
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Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele right in contention two strokes back at -8, with Wyndham Clark on -9
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Leaderboard (all tee times BST): -10: Fowler (2340);
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-9: Clark (2340);
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-8: McIlroy (2329), Schauffele (2329);
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-7: English (2318);
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-6: Johnson (2318), MW Lee (2307);
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-5: Bennett (2307), Scheffler (2256);
US Open 2023 – third round
19:32 , Luke Baker
Welcome back to The Independent’s coverage of the 2023 US Open. It’s ‘moving day’ in Los Angeles and Rory McIlroy is in prime position to move closer to ending that major drought as he sees Rickie Fowler atop the leaderboard.