U.S. Open 2026: What to know from Round 2 at Shinnecock Hills

While this U.S. Open has not yet shown us its peak trademark brutality, a number of intriguing storylines emerged heading into the weekend. Ten players are under par at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., - more than on Friday evening in 2018 (one) but fewer than in 2004 (11). A past champion has built a sturdy lead, but a bevy of accomplished players aren't too far in the rearview mirror. These are the top numbers and notes to know from day two of the 126th U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. 1. Wyndham Clark birdied three of his last seven holes in Round 2 and is at 7 under par, the best 36-hole score in a U.S. Open at Shinnecock. Clark leads by four shots, the largest 36-hole lead at this championship in eight years. Here at Shinnecock in 2018, Dustin Johnson carried a four-shot advantage into the weekend but shot 77-70 in the closing two rounds and finished third. Clark hit 15 greens in regulation in the second round, a career high for him at the U.S. Open. It continues a torrid run of recent play for the man who won this championship three years ago at Los Angeles Country Club: In his last four tournaments, he is a combined 59 under par, made birdie or better on 31 percent of his holes played and gained more than a stroke and a half putting per round. 2. Clark's ball-striking has been brilliant. He is second in the field in strokes gained tee to green and ranks in the top five in strokes gained approach and in average proximity to the hole. Clark hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation Friday, a career best at the U.S. Open. On approach shots from the fairway this week, Clark has averaged 31 feet on the nose. That's more than 10 feet better than the field average of 41 feet, 3 inches. This is the first time Clark has led after 36 holes in a major championship and his first outright 36-hole lead since the 2024 Players at TPC Sawgrass (he finished in a tie for second, one shot behind Scottie Scheffler). When Clark won the U.S. Open three years ago, he was one shot off the lead entering Round 3. Clark is the sixth player in the last 80 years to lead the U.S. Open by multiple strokes after both of the first two rounds. Four of the previous five went on to win, the exception being Bert Yancey in 1968 at Oak Hill. 3. Playing with Clark in the final pairing Saturday will be Matt Fitzpatrick, who preceded him as U.S. Open champion in 2022. It will mark the first time that past U.S. Open champions are playing together in the final pairing Saturday at the U.S. Open since 2012, when Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods went out last at The Olympic Club. Fitzpatrick did not make a birdie in his first 15 holes Friday before birdieing two of the final three. The Englishman flashed a brilliant short game, picking up more than three strokes on the field on shots around the green. Fitzpatrick is already a two-time USGA champion, winning the Amateur in 2013 and the Open nine years later. Only four players have won a U.S. Amateur and multiple U.S. Open titles: Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Woods and Bryson DeChambeau. Fitzpatrick could be the first player from outside the United States to pull it off. 4. Also sitting at 3 under is two-time major champion Xander Schauffele. The 32-year-old American was precise with his approach play, hitting 16 greens in regulation Friday. It's the 13th time Schauffele has hit at least 16 greens in a major championship round. Since the beginning of 2019, that's more than twice as many as any other player (Jon Rahm, six). Schauffele has finished in the top 15 in all nine of his U.S. Open starts. In the last 80 years, only one player has done that in 10 or more consecutive years at this championship: Nicklaus, who did it in 12 in a row from 1971 to 1982. Nicklaus won two U.S. Open titles during his streak (1972, 1980). Is this the week Schauffele gets his first? 5. Tom Kim and Sam Stevens round out the group at 3 under. Making his fifth U.S. Open start, Kim is beginning to assemble a stout resume at this championship. Since Kim made his debut in 2022, only Schauffele (69) and McIlroy (68) have more birdies or better at the U.S. Open than Kim (67). He's rolled in 136 one-putts in that span, one shy of Sam Burns (137) for most. Stevens is in uncharted waters. The Oklahoma State product has never been in the top five entering the weekend of a major championship. In 115 career PGA Tour starts, the 29-year-old American's best result is runner-up, achieved on three occasions. 6. Several other top American players are within striking distance. Collin Morikawa, seeking a third leg of the career grand slam, is five off the lead after a brilliant 65, his lowest career U.S. Open round. A year ago, Sam Burns led by one stroke after 36 holes before ultimately slipping down the leaderboard late Sunday. He's 1 under, six off the pace. As is Justin Thomas, a two-time PGA Championship winner whose best finish at the U.S. Open was a tie for eighth in 2021. World No. 1 Scheffler is at even par after a second-round 68. A weekend comeback from this big a deficit would be rare but not unprecedented at this championship. Six players in U.S. Open history have come from seven or more back after two rounds to win, the last being Tom Kite at Pebble Beach in 1992. 7. Miles Russell, who was born five months after Woods won the U.S. Open on a broken leg at Torrey Pines in 2008, has made the cut at Shinnecock. Russell started on the 10th hole Friday, going out in a bogey-free 33. He held on down the stretch, ultimately signing for a 1-over-par 71. Russell is a two-time AJGA Player of the Year, a list with just six other names all time, including those of Phil Mickelson and Woods. He sits at seventh in the World Amateur Golf Rankings this week. At 17 years, 7 months, 11 days old, Russell is the second-youngest player in the last 80 years to make the cut at the U.S. Open. Only Beau Hossler, who was about four months younger when he made the cut at The Olympic Club in 2012, was younger. 8. Joaquin Niemann attracted attention for unfortunate reasons in Round 1: The 27-year-old Chilean recorded an 11 on the sixth hole, a score buttressed by a two-stroke penalty for throwing a club. Niemann played his other 17 holes in a respectable 1 over and signed for a 78. Niemann lit up Shinnecock on Friday, making seven birdies in a 1 65, his lowest round in a major championship. By wiggling inside the cutline, Niemann seized an obscure slice of golf statistical history. Over the last 25 years (as far back as could be reliably confirmed), there is no other instance of a player making a score of 11 or worse on a hole and still making the cut in any PGA Tour event, major championships included. Niemann's best finish in a major is a tie for eighth place at last year's PGA Championship. 9. It was a disappointing second round for the two biggest stars of LIV Golf. A day after gaining more than three strokes on the field on the greens, Bryson DeChambeau lost more than three strokes putting, staggering to a second-round 75. DeChambeau made double bogeys at the third and fourth holes and never recovered. He's missed the cut in all three majors this year, the first time in his career he's missed three major cuts in a row. When play was called on Thursday, Rahm was the only player in the field without a bogey. That made his free fall on the leaderboard early Friday all the more shocking: Rahm made bogeys at four, six and seven, then four straight on the back nine before a double-bogey seven at the 16th sealed his weekend fate. It's the first time Rahm has missed the cut at the U.S. Open since 2018, the last time it was contested at Shinnecock. 10. In the end, the discrepancy in scoring by tee-time wave through two days wasn't overwhelming. Across both rounds, players who went out early-late had a scoring average of 0.53 strokes higher for the 36 holes than their counterparts on the other side of the draw. While more players in the late-early side made the cut (39 to 33), the players who are under par after two rounds were split down the middle, five to five. Twenty-eight of the last 30 U.S. Open champions have been in the top 10 through two rounds. In the previous four modern U.S. Opens held at Shinnecock Hills, the eventual champion has been at least two shots off the lead after 36 holes all four times.