U.S. Open leaderboard 2015: Rory McIlroy makes a run, finishes at even

Update: McIlroy couldn’t keep the pace up and the birdie at No. 13 proved to be his last of the day. A pair of bogeys coming in dropped him back to even par for the tournament as he finished with a 4-under round of 66.

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Starting the day at 4-over and eight strokes off the lead, Rory McIlroy needed a dominant round if he was going to have a shot to win the U.S. Open. He still has holes to play, but he’s in the process of doing just that. McIlroy has gone from an afterthought at the start of the round to fifth place.

The course has yielded a few more under par rounds on Sunday and the No. 1 player in the world is taking full advantage. He currently has a clean scorecard with six birdies and no dropped shots through his first 13 holes. He got rolling in the right direction right off the bat with a birdie at No. 2. Back-to-back birdies at Nos. 7 and 8 helped him make the turn in 32. Two more quick birdies on the back nine and all of a sudden McIlroy is under par for the tournament. His run continued on No. 13 when he drained a long birdie put to move to 2-under.

The leaders are certainly capable of making similar runs to what McIlroy is doing, but he has a good opportunity to post a low number and put the pressure on. The back nine has been the easier side all week, so McIlroy might not be done. A couple more birdies coming in and McIlroy might pick up a share of the lead and set the clubhouse number at 3- or 4-under. McIlroy is playing beautiful golf on Sunday and has hit 9-of-10 fairways and 10-of-12 greens in regulation.

He is just two strokes off the lead, which is currently held by Branden Grace, Dustin Johnson and Jason Day. Here is a look at the current leaderboard. For a live leaderboard, head over to USOpen.com.