Martin Kaymer is playing like the Germanator we all came to know when he won the 2010 PGA Championship and then a year later rose to No. 1 in the world. His shot shape is once again a gentle fade, but it took him 2 years to get it back after trying to change to a draw to better compete at the Masters.
After winning the Players in May he is now playing a brand of golf rarely seen in the U.S. Open. Kaymer set the 36-hole scoring record with another 5-under 65, this one without a single bogey to build a six-shot lead and leave the rest of the field in his dust at 10-under 130, breaking by one shot the record set by Rory McIlroy at rain-softened Congressional in 2011.
A thunderstorm pelted rain on Pinehurst overnight Thursday, slowing the greens by 2 feet though it didn’t make the course that much easier because the pins were in tougher locations.
The leaderboard looks like a typical U.S. Open, except for Kaymer. Dustin Johnson is in the trailing pack at -2 after he opened with a pair of 69s, a score he thought would be good enough to lead. Brooks Koepka, the American who is carving his way through the European Tour, birdied his last hole for a 68 and joined the group at 2-under 138 with Brendon de Jonge (70) and former PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who played in the same group with Kaymer and rallied for a 69.
The U.S. Open record for largest 36-hole lead is six shots by McIlroy at Congressional and by Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000, when he won by 15 shots.
In the afternoon flight Kevin Na reached 4 under and was on the back nine, with Brandt Snedeker, Matt Kuchar and Brendon Todd close behind. Phil Mickelson was tied for second early in the second round until he fell back with a pair of bogeys.
It’s tough for any golfer to make headlines in Germany, especially in a World Cup year.but at least Germany doesn’t start in Brazil until Monday.
Kaymer felt tired toward the end of the round, and it showed. He hit into bunkers on the sixth and seventh holes, and both times blasted out to short range. He also converted a difficult two-putt from the front of the eighth green.
So heading into this weekend it's a one man show and he will try to continue his aggressive play, and why ? “Because if you think of defending anything, then you’re pulling back, and that’s never really a good thing. You just want to keep going. You want to keep playing. You want to challenge yourself. If you can stay aggressive and hit the right shots. And that’s quite nice that it’s a battle against yourself.”
Graham DeLaet, the only Canadian this week, carded a pair of 75′s and missed the cut.
Live scoring click here
http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/us-open/leaderboard.html
Bryan Angus
(files from BBC, Reuters, europeantour.com, AP )
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