2014 U.S. Open scores and results: Martin Kaymer runs away from Phil Mickelson, everyone else

Martin Kaymer hits the midpoint of the U.S. Open with the lowest score in the 114-year history of America’s national championship. Kaymer backed up that startling opening round 65 with another round of 65 on Friday to get to 10-under. He’s the first player ever -- in any of the major championships -- to start with those two dazzling numbers.

Kaymer held an eight-shot margin on the field for most of the day, but Brendon Todd “closed” it to six shots with a round of 67 in the afternoon draw. That matches the largest 36-hole lead in the U.S. Open, joining Rory McIlroy (2011) and Tiger Woods (2000). He’s just the sixth player to reach double-digits at the U.S. Open, at any point, whether it’s 36 or 72 holes.

We thought Kaymer might have a chance to go low early on Friday morning after Pinehurst was hit with a downpour overnight. The Donald Ross design was softened up a bit by the rain, and those turtleback greens we keep hearing about were slightly more receptive. And still, Kaymer was playing a different course than everyone else, getting safely off the tee, striking his irons, and rolling putts. At one point, he had one-putted 10 of 13 greens between that ridiculous back nine of the first round and his quick start on Friday. As he kept pushing the number eventually to double digits, you thought someone else might make a run to get within range but the advantage just kept growing. It had to be deflating for the afternoon wave who strolled up to the first tee down eight or more shots before ever hitting a ball on Friday.

Kaymer has generally closed when he’s held the 36-hole lead, and this isn’t your normal lead. It’s an historic margin, and of course there’s always blowup opportunities at a U.S. Open, but it’s hard to see anyone chasing him down.

He’s also not some unknown guy who put together two fleeting days. Kaymer is a former No. 1, a major winner, the Players Champion from a month ago, and has drilled a Ryder Cup clinching putt under the most intense conditions. With no thick Bermuda rough at Pinehurst, it’s also hard to imagine Kaymer completely imploding. There were a few loose iron shots on his second nine on Friday, but the form has been there all year and right now he’s just a perfectly tuned German machine.

Todd is a solid player having a career year, but he’s not exactly the tested talent to put the fear in Kaymer. Kevin Na, Brandt Snedeker, and Dustin Johnson are some other top Americans in the red, but again it’s a separate “B Group” that’s seven and eight shots back. Johnson is the most talented of the group of chasers, but his putting has been atrocious and inhibited any serious run at Kaymer.

If the USGA makes the conditions tougher, as is their wont, that would only seem to help Kaymer and completely take out the possibility for movement and one of those low mid-60s rounds.

Before Kaymer, Phil Mickelson was the biggest story of this U.S. Open but it’s looking like the six-time runner-up doesn’t have a chance of completing the career slam (or even getting a seventh second place result). Mickelson started his day with two birdies in his first three holes, but then it came undone again with the putter. He called that part of his game “pathetic” last week in Memphis, and it was pretty terrible on Friday at Pinehurst. He’s 193rd on the PGA Tour on putts from five feet and in, and as he noted Friday evening, he’s just “throwing four or five shots away” per round up on the greens.

He’ll be around for the weekend, which is more than Bubba Watson or Jason Dufner can say, but there’s no real hope of him getting that putting turned around for the final two days. He’s already experimented with two different grips in each of the first two days. Phil seemed to check out towards the end of his round on Friday, coming in with a 3-over 73 to put him 13 shots back of Kaymer.

Here’s where everyone stands after 36 holes in North Carolina: