Who Are These People and Why Are They Atop the U.S. Open Leaderboard?

It’s not unusual to have one or two unknown players in or near the lead after the first two rounds of a major golf tournament. Of course, it’s not who leads Friday evening, it’s who leads on Sunday. God, that’s such a cliche.
↵
↵After two rounds at this year’s U.S. Open, the leaderboard is total anarchy. Tiger Woods is 11 shots back, as is Angel Cabrera. Zach Johnson didn’t come close to making the cut. Neither did Padraig Harrington. Even sentimental favorite Phil Mickelson is seven shots back, though he is tied for 12th place.
↵
↵The men at the top? Ricky Barnes, Lucas Glover, Mike Weir, Peter Hanson, David Duval (yes, the David Duval), and Azuma Yano. Or, in terms of their world rankings, #519, #71, #21, #74, #882 and #117.
↵
↵NBC’s coverage has focused primarily on the bigger-name players, and that’s fine; people do actually care more about Tiger Woods, who’s almost a dozen shots off the pace, than they do Azuma Yano, who’s tied for fourth place.
↵
↵Among the “name” players (other than Duval) who are serious contenders right now, 13th-ranked Sean O’Hair is lurking at minus-2, tied for seventh. Weir obviously is in the mix. Retief Goosen is gaining momentum after getting back to even par. And don’t count out Mickelson, either.
↵
↵Other than that ... that’s about it.
↵
↵Wouldn’t it be wild if Duval ended up taking this, though? He was starting to turn into Ian Baker-Finch.↵