Not easy, and now it's breezy at US Open as wind adds to challenge

Published on Saturday 19 June 2010 22:13

GRAEME McDowell emerged as the halfway leader in the US Open while Phil Mickelson briefly tamed a Pebble Beach course that has tormented the world's best players for two days.

• Phil Mickelson has come into contention at Pebble Beach

WIND was expected to add to the vexing mix at Pebble Beach last night when US Open leader Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and challengers including Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els set off in the third round.

Small, fast greens, heavy rough and ocean cliffs have been enough to perplex a field that produced only five players under par through 36 holes. A forecast of winds approaching 20mph would make the test that much more difficult.

Masters champion Mickelson, aiming to win his first Open after five runner-up finishes, expected conditions to get harder in the final two rounds.

"Typically the weekend of a US Open the greens get firmer, the pin placements get tougher, the rough usually is not cut so it grows a little bit longer," he said after a dazzling second-round 66 lifted him within two shots of McDowell. "It just gets more challenging."

That seemed to be the case for Tiger Woods, who endured a difficult start to his third round.

The 14-time major winner had won the first of his three US Open Championships by 15 strokes at Pebble Beach in 2000, the widest margin of victory in majors history.

Ten years on and he began the third round seven strokes behind McDowell.

After parring the first hole, Woods bogeyed the par-four second and then took a six at the third for a double bogey to fall to six over par before rallying with birdies at the fourth and fifth.

McDowell was set to tee off with Johnson, a winner on the course in February when he successfully defended his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title, in the final pairing of the day at 3.50pm local time.

South Africa's Els and 18-year-old Ryo Ishikawa were in the penultimate group, while Mickelson was paired with Germany's Alex Cejka, one of four players on level par after 36 holes, including England's Paul Casey.

Rather than Woods, US Ryder Cup stalwart Justin Leonard, Sweden's Henrik Stenson and Italy's Edoardo Molinari were making the most significant moves towards the top of the leaderboard.

Leonard birdied both the first and second to get to one over par after two holes, while Stenson was three under for the day after ten holes at two over par, where Molinari joined him having responded to his bogey at the second with birdies at the third, sixth and ninth.

Englishman Ross McGowan also got to two over after he birdied the second hole. Compatriot Luke Donald and former world No.1 David Duval had both reached three over par.

Donald, currently sixth in the world rankings, opened with a bogey but sent down back-to-back birdies at the third and fourth, with Duval three under for the day after 11.

Thongchai Jaidee had given fans an early treat with the first hole in one of the week.

Birdies had been hard to come by for the tournament tailenders on another cool, overcast morning and Jaidee had been no exception until he sent his eight-iron shot 181 yards to the hole at the par-three fifth.

Starting at seven over par, the Thai golfer had bogeyed the second hole and double-bogeyed the fourth before his ace at the next, the seventh recorded in the five US Opens held at Pebble Beach and the first at that hole since Bill Brodell holed out from 180 yards in the 1982 second round.

Despite the first hole in one in a US Open since 2006, when Sweden's Peter Hedblom aced the 238-yard third hole at Winged Foot, Jaidee finished with a three-over-par 74 to close at 10 over.

Tom Watson, the 1982 champion when the US Open made its second visit to Pebble Beach following Jack Nicklaus's victory 10 years earlier, continued his steady improvement on his return to the course as he carded a one-under 70 to close at six over, the 60-year-old having opened with a 78 and fired a second-round, level-par 71.

Reigning Open champion Stewart Cink, who beat Watson in a play-off at Turnberry last July, finished with a level 71 to stay at seven over while Spain's Sergio Garcia shot a 73 to slip to nine over for the week.