U.S. Open 2017 leaderboard and scores: Hideki Matsuyama is playing beautiful golf

We’ll be missing the top three players in the world for this weekend’s U.S. Open finish, but it’ll hardly be without major storylines. Perhaps it’ll even be golf’s most captivating star playing the main role come Sunday evening.

Rickie Fowler owned the headlines for most of the first two days at Erin Hills, but it’s a crowded leaderboard atop America’s national championship. Through two rounds, two Americans — Brooks Koepka and Brian Harman — share the lead alongside two Englishmen — Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood — at 7-under par. Fowler seemed as if he was on cruise control for the first nine on Friday, holding the lead at 9-under par, before making his first three bogeys of the tournament on the 11th, 12th, and 13th holes and falling one behind the quartet of leaders.

Let’s get to the other major notes from a long day on the Kettle Moraine.

Have you ever seen something so beautiful, so magical, so majestic.

Let’s start with a simple, bold statement: Hideki Matsuyama played the best round of golf I’ve ever seen in person on Friday. Not talking most impactful round, or biggest moment, or even score. I followed Fowler, Matsuyama, and Jon Rahm for a good chunk of the day on Friday — and I’ve never seen a dude hit so many shots just on the screws. It was a clinical dissection of a brutally large golf course. A show. A concerto. Joga bonito.

It’s not often a guy turns in a 7-under 65 in the US Open and we’re talking about how it could’ve gone better. But he still had a number of near-misses with the putter that could’ve put us into beyond-Johnny territory. Just one shot off the tournament record to par. Historical. That’s the type of performance Matsuyama put forward on Friday. What should be scary for the rest of the golf world is just how typical such a performance could be from the Japanese star all the time.

After early exits from Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy, and Jason Day, he’ll be the highest-ranked player remaining in the field this weekend. Don’t be shocked if he takes home the title come Sunday night.

Since the inception of the Official World Golf Ranking, never had the top three players in the world all missed the cut at the same major. That’s now no longer the case.

Despite all the lip service about how Erin Hills’ length might play to their advantage, Johnson, McIlroy, and Day will all exit stage right before the weekend begins. In fact, only four of the world’s top ten players made the cut at Erin Hills — Matsuyama, Fowler, Sergio Garcia, and Jordan Spieth. Woof.

For McIlroy, the struggles came as a surprise — even after his injury layoff.

“You play 54 holes around here before the golf tournament, I felt really, really comfortable. I drove the ball well, my irons were good. Everything was in good shape,” McIlroy said. “But you never really know until you put a card in your hand and you’re under the gun little bit. And some of the weaknesses and flaws that are in my game at the minute showed up over the last couple of days. It’s good to see those and see what needs to be worked on.”

Start here: Jon Rahm is a star. He’s a future superstar, a huge talent, and he’s going to win majors. Multiple.

Having said that, there’s been a bit of talk growing louder and louder about the 22-year-old’s on-course antics when things turn south. The Spaniard struggled alongside Fowler and Matsuyama, and he got rather demonstrative through the course of the round. I watched him club toss, moan, and struggle through most of the front nine, with an outburst on the seventh tee sticking out in my mind. Kevin Van Valkenburg caught this later in the round:

Having said all that, I’m personally not one to get worked up about on-course demeanor, or anything of the like. Ask any of my high school or college teammates, I was a god-danged lunatic on the course myself in my playing days! It’s not particularly helpful to implode mentally, but I’ve never particularly understood golf’s desire to shame those who show passion — positive or negative. This is entertainment.

There are plenty of things in the world to get worked up about at the moment. Golf course cussin’ is not one of them! Rahm is 22. He’ll be fine.

Hey, who’s that quietly lurking just four shots down the leaderboard? That’s your newly minted Masters champion, Sergio Garcia, of course. Two quietly solid weekday rounds have him at 3-under for the championship.

Garcia admittedly said he wasn’t striking the ball particularly well coming into the week, but if the golf course toughens up into the weekend, few are better suited. Erin Hills is a balllstrikers’ paradise, and Sergio’s been the gold standard in that department on tour for nearly two decades. But post-Masters, we’re perhaps seeing a new, more confident Sergio who doesn’t require his A-plus game to be confident. And if conditions get more US Open-like this weekend?

“When the course is tougher, I think I have an advantage. But at the same time, you have to be more on when it gets like that, or you’re going to struggle,” Garcia said after Friday. “We’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”

The first thing to strike your senses when walking a couple of holes at Erin Hills? The place is huge. It’s a golf course that feels more like an arena built specifically for the U.S. Open. There’s ample space for every possible bit of infrastructure across the 600-some-odd acres on the Kettle Moraine property. If you’re looking to cut a few pounds or sleep well at the end of the night, walk a loop at Erin Hills.

But beyond the simple conditioning that it might take to hoof it around this place, the bigness of the golf course boils directly into the architecture. The fairways are big landing strips, and if you’re able to place your ball off the tee, you’re gonna be in great position. Erin Hills’ three defenses are supposed to be the wind, the undulation, and the fescue. If the first doesn’t show up, this place isn’t crazy difficult for as big and long of a track as it is.

But as we head to the weekend, you can be certain the USGA will try it’s damnedest to get the field moving in the opposite direction. The problem? I’m not sure what much more they can do to the golf course without turning the greens into oil slicks. Winds aren’t expected to pick up that much until Sunday, and the course could be scoreable once again.

And for a USGA that’s perhaps gone too far the other way over the last decade, that’s totally fine.

Here’s your leaderboard at the midpoint: