Pinehurst ripped up

Martin Kaymer began his second round at the US Open echoing Rory McIlroy’s heroics of three years ago.

By the end of the day at Pinehurst No.2, the German was making some history of his own, as he took this major by the scruff of the neck, heading into today’s third round.

Like McIlroy at Congressional in 2011, Kaymer held a three-shot lead after the first round thanks to an opening 65, which had been good enough for the Irishman to land his first major championship come the Sunday.

The 2010 US PGA champion and last month’s winner of The Players, though, yesterday went one better than his Ryder Cup team-mate, shooting a second consecutive five-under-par 65 to move to 10 under after 36 holes and take a firm grip on the second major of the year.

If McIlroy’s wire-to-wire win had put the Down man into the record books, Kaymer is already rewriting them. His 10-under total, featuring just one bogey, is the US Open’s lowest score for the first 36 holes, bettering McIlroy’s rounds of 65-66 while the pair are the only players to be in double digits under par at this stage of a US Open.

Like Congressional in 2011, when the Maryland course was tamed by heavy rainfall, Pinehurst is not baring its teeth as predicted. Kaymer was in the field that week and watched McIlroy take it apart.

“I played Congressional and I thought, ‘how can you shoot that low?’” the German recalled last night. “And that’s probably what a lot of other people think about me right now.

“But it will be quite interesting to talk to Rory about it, how he felt... I’m sure he must have played so solid without making many mistakes and that I think is the main thing in Majors, that you avoid the big numbers.

“Today I didn’t make any mistakes, didn’t make any bogeys, so if you putt well, you can make up some ground or in my case I could keep going. It’s just very good golf.”

Like Congressional, Pinehurst has also been softened by rain but after a relatively low-scoring day on Thursday yielded the lowest first-round scoring average (73.23) since 2003, the second-round pin positions were tougher in order to make amends for the greens’ receptiveness. Not that it mattered to Kaymer.

Starting the day three ahead of Na, Brendon De Jonge and Graeme McDowell at five under, Kaymer signalled his intent with a birdie at his first, the par-five 10th and dropped more in at consistent intervals, his fourth, seventh, 12th and 14th holes and stayed mentally strong enough to get home without giving any shots back.

“That was a lot of success so far the last two rounds,” he said. “I played very solid again, very similar to yesterday. The last three, four holes I got a little bit tired, I didn’t swing it as good as the first 14 holes, but I could make a couple of good up-and-downs, especially on six and seven... made a good two-putt on eight. The way I play golf right now, it’s just really satisfying. It’s very solid, not many mistakes.”

Graeme McDowell had predicted 10 to 12 birdies over four rounds would be enough to win this tournament. McIlroy had targeted 14 or 15 as the required number. Kaymer already has 11, five of them coming yesterday in his bogey-free round, and those predictions were being revised last night as the chasing pack tried to figure out how to reel in the leader.

Kaymer’s admission of tiredness at day’s end will give the chasers hope, even if they were seven shots behind, with Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama and Americans Kevin Na, Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker and Brendon Todd at three under with holes still to play.

Dustin Johnson, De Jonge, Keegan Bradley and Brooks Koepka were in the clubhouse on two under with world number one Adam Scott level par after a three under 67.

McDowell and playing partner McIlroy were battling through their second rounds to stay in the chasing pack. Having started the day with high hopes at two under, 2010 champion McDowell birdied his first hole, the 10th, with a 25-foot putt but dropped five shots over the next nine holes, including a double-bogey six at the par-four 18th.

McIlroy, who posted an opening one-over 71, bogeyed the 10th but got to Level alongside Scott thanks to birdies at the 14th and then third, which McDowell also birdied to improve to one over with five to play.

There was no worrying for them over cutlines, which were projected to exclude everyone at six over and worse, thus taking out Ireland’s Shane Lowry and Darren Clarke as well as the likes of Luke Donald, Bubba Watson, Jason Dufner and Hunter Mahan, who played the wrong ball, Jamie Donaldson’s on the 18th fairway, the two-stroke penalty for which his caddie John Wood took responsibility and cost him his place in the weekend’s play.