Zach Johnson making an early move at Erin Hills

This is his sixth year on the Tour and fifth U.S. Open. “I guess it’s rare you get through a US Open or any major without some kind of a hiccup”.

And they had even more company.

Johnson, who won at Oakmont at year ago and added another five victories in the last 11 months, played the closing six holes at Erin Hills in 3-over par to miss the 36-hole cut by three strokes.

“It’s been an off-putting week for me”, Spieth said.

Thomas finished in style, and it had nothing to do with his hot pink trousers. He had five three-putts over the two days (Jordan Spieth, playing in his group, had none) and averaged 2.0 putts on the 24 greens he hit in regulation (that’s 0.23 higher than his average this year, which only ranks 177th).

Fleetwood found his way to the top with a rather ordinary four-birdie, two-bogey round. “Yesterday (Thursday), I just hit some shots close and made some putts”.

Thomas poured that in to become the 29th player with a 63 in a major championship.

“The finish was awesome”. “It is always cool to be part of some sort of history in golf”.

“This is my first time in contention in a major, so whatever happens I’ll be doing my best and seeing how well I can finish”, he said. “So I switched it around and it’s a very different feel after the first few holes”. “Obviously, I paid the price for it today”.

And he still has a long way to go.

The links-style layout, the longest course to stage a US Open, had the most sub-par scores in a first round at the championship, while the one-over-par cut matched the record low previously set in 1990 at Medinah. Brian Harman finished the day at 12 under, then surmised, “I’d have about a 10-shot lead in most Opens”. McIlroy chalked his poor play up to rust and lack of competitive rounds.

“It was a good day for me”, Stricker said. He got that up-and-down for a bogey and a 68.

Leishman is now sharing 13th place, three shots off the pace.

“I started feeling a couple of rounds at Colonial like that, where I really felt like I was seeing the lines, I was confident going into it”. Fowler shot a 73 and was still very much in the hunt at a second straight major. That ailment prevented him from hitting balls on the range this week and he was relegated to working on his chipping and putting.

He was at 8 under at the end of the day, and never got back to double digits. We looked for players who could find the bounding fairways and attack while avoiding the fescue.

The tournament-leading foursome held a one-shot lead over a trio of contenders that includes first-round leader Rickie Fowler.

This is only his second U.S. Open, finishing 27th in 2015.

Zach Johnson holed an 8-foot putt on the par-3 ninth for his third birdie of the front nine. Thomas rolled in an 18-footer that went right to left from the edge of the green. In the hay left of the 12th fairway, he gouged it out with a 9-iron and watched it roll to 10 feet. But heavy rain, which has softened greens and made fairways more forgiving, levelled the playing field dramatically. “I think at this point in time I just need to play”.

But the work is not done. McIlroy came to life when it was far too late. And if that’s not enough of a traffic jam at the top, 18 players are separated by three shots to start the third round.

The last six majors have been taken by first-time winners.