Henley stays steady, stays atop U.S. Open leaderboard after two rounds
Updated
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
Russell Henley’s second round of the U.S. Open was pretty unspectacular.
Which was very good, in the big picture.
Henley was mighty steady as he played in rare air at Torrey Pines in San Diego, hardly flinching after starting the day sharing the lead and finishing the day sharing the lead.
He will cringe with his finish, missing a very makeable par putt that would have given him the outright lead. Henley bogeyed the final hole of the day, and had to settle for being tied for the lead in one of golf’s majors.
His only bogey of the round gave him a 70 on Friday and a two-round total of 130.
“It feels very fair out there,” Henley told reporters. “It feels like you just have to put the ball on the correct side of the hole. So far it's been really fair. It's just been really difficult.”
Henley is tied with Richard Bland, both 5 under. Henley was tied after the first round with
Louis Oosthuizen, who is tied for third with Matthew Wolf. Henley and Bland tee off at 4:35 p.m. Saturday.
Henley took the lead momentarily with a birdie on his penultimate hole, No. 8, which he birdied on Thursday. But the bogey on 9 dropped him back into a tie.
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It was a steady confidence-boosting round with all pars, other than two birdies and the bogey. Henley is looking for his first top-10 finish in a major, this being his 27th try.
“I found it a little bit tougher to get under the hole and get some good birdie looks,” Henley said. “Still very fair, but just a little tougher to get some putts where you feel like you're not playing defense. So I was really happy with my round.”
Bland shot 4 under for a 67 and the lead out of the earlier groups, and Louis Oosthuizen went par to stay a 4 under, also in an early group.
Henley started on No. 10, and reeled off eight straight pars. Then he birdied his final hole, and that put him back into a tie for first.
The momentum continued when he found the bunker on No. 1. He lipped the cup and was able to save par.