2011 U.S. Open, Round 2: Rory McIlroy Dominating The Field At 11-Under

After setting a variety of records on the second day of the 2011 U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy is flying high and seemingly untouchable. He has a six shot lead going into Saturday, but as we’ve seen in the past, he’s not bulletproof. This is the third major championship McIlroy has lead, and his collapse at the Masters just a couple of months ago is fresh in everyone’s mind. Both that performance and his double bogey on the 18th hole on Friday are reminders that the Northern Irishman has an 80 in him.

Behind him is a man who already has a major win to his credit, Y.E. Yang. Perhaps adding to the impressive nature of that achievement, he won his PGA Championship by coming from behind to defeat Tiger Woods. We know that McIlroy has a collapse in him, and we know that Yang has a comeback in him. Everything seems too perfectly set up for a crazy momentum swing.

Rory McIlroy is in control at Congressional Country Club after nearly two rounds of play at the 2011 US Open. McIlroy followed up a first round 65 with a 66 on Friday to take a commanding lead over the field. His score of 11-under is six shots better than Y.E. Yang, who sits in second place at 5-under for the tournament.

McIlroy had safely navigated the course throughout the first day, finishing 35 holes without a bogey until he hit the 18th hole of Friday. It was there he made his first mistake of the week, putting his second shot into the water and missing a putt for bogey to card a double-bogey. Even with the six on the final hole, McIlroy still finished the round at 5-under for the day.

Any watcher of golf will tell you never, ever, ever to declare a winner before a tournament is over, but if we were ever to do so, we would surely do so after the second round of the 2011 U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy is in the clubhouse with an enormous lead, and nobody else on the leaderboard appears capable of catching up to him.

Presently, McIlroy’s closest competition is Y.E. Yang. The South Korean, who entered Round 2 at 3-under, has sustained a pair of bogeys on the back nine Friday. Through 14 holes, he’s 4-under for the tournament, well behind McIlroy’s 11-under.

When Rory McIlroy finished his second round at the 2011 U.S. Open, he was eight strokes ahead of the next closest golfer on the leaderboard. The best chance the field has is for someone to try to chip away at the margin and make a move over the weekend. Y.E. Yang may just be the golfer to do it.

Yang was 2-under at the turn and now 5-under for the tournament, putting him six strokes back of McIlroy. Sill a lot of ground to make up, but he has nine more holes today and then the weekend. And, as we’re all aware, McIlroy is capable of an epic meltdown.

Rory McIlroy continued his assault on the 2011 U.S. Open on Friday, following up an impressive first round score with another monster day at Congressional. McIlroy, the 22 year-old phenom who fell apart at the Masters just a few months ago, is clearly poised to bounce back from his past failure in a big way.

So far, he couldn’t ask for a much better start to the tournament. He’s leading by a whopping eight strokes as the field heads into the weekend, and at one point Friday, he had the lowest score of any U.S. Open golfer, ever. He ultimately double-bogeyed the 18th hole, but even in the face of that misstep, he’s still head and shoulders above his peers. After his second round, he talked to ESPN.

Rory McIlroy’s second round of the 2011 U.S. Open wasn’t quite perfect, but it was still better than just about any score the tournament’s ever seen. McIlroy leads the field at Congressional by an astonishing 8 strokes, finishing Day 2 at 11-under par.

McIlroy’s round might have been even more impressive if not for a double-bogey on the 18th hole, but even with that misstep, he still heads into the weekend at Congressional sporting a comfortable lead over the competition. After Rory in front, the next closest competitor is Y.E. Yang at 3-under, and then a cluster of golfers tied at 2-under, including Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, and Zach Johnson.

It’s been a little more than two months since his collapse at the Masters, and Rory McIlroy is looking to prove that it is now a distant memory. The 22-year old from Northern Ireland is destroying the 2011 U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club, building a 10-shot lead in the second round.

After shooting a 4-under on the front nine, including an eagle on No. 8, McIlroy continued his torrid pace with three more birdies on the back nine, holes 14, 16 and 17. For the day, he’s now 7-under thru 17, and is an astounding 13-under for the tournament. McIlroy’s closest competitor is Y.E. Yang, who is nine shots back (he begins his second round at 1:35 p.m. ET).

Through one and a half rounds at the 2011 U.S. Open, Rory McIlroy is unstoppable. After finishing Round 1 on Thursday atop the Open leaderboard with a 65, McIlroy is scoring early and often again in Round 2, posting a 4-under through nine holes.

McIlroy wasted no time padding his lead, birding his second and fourth holes of the day. Then, on the par 4 7th, McIlroy holed his iron shot from the fairway, giving him an eagle and taking him to 10-under for the tournament. He is now a full seven strokes ahead of the next closest competitor.

The first day of the 2011 US Open in the books and Rory McIlroy is atop the leaderboard once again. A first round 65 propelled McIlroy to the front of the pack as he tamed the course at Congressional Country Club. Scores were high on Thursday -- a staple of the US Open -- and with setups gradually increasing in difficulty throughout the week, low scores will be that much harder to come by.

Friday brings cuts at the US Open and a large chunk of the field will be gone before the weekend’s final two rounds. As of now, the projected cut line stands at 4-over, but is expected to fluctuate throughout the day. Bo Van Pelt, Lucas Glover, Miguel Angel Jimenez and many others are flirting with the cut line, and currently sit below the projected cuts.