The Japan Times - Zalatoris grabs US Open lead as course crushes contenders

The Country Club bared its teeth in formidable conditions as the 7,254-yard layout humbled defending champion Jon Rahm, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, top-ranked Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa.

Zalatoris, also a runner-up in last year's Masters, barely avoided disaster himself on 18, a tee shot right into trampled rough and second into a bunker answered with a great third shot and par putt from just outside five feet to end his round.

When he reached the safety of the clubhouse on four-under 206, Zalatoris was one stroke ahead of Rahm and England's Matt Fitzpatrick with Scheffler, McIlroy and Morikawa among those two shots adrift on the course.

Zalatoris, in only his ninth major start, sank a 40-foot birdie putt at the par-3 second, a 15-footer to birdie the fourth and answered his lone bogey at the seventh with birdie putts from 19 feet at nine and five feet at 15 before his narrow escape at 18.

American Scheffler, seeking his fifth title of the year, endured amazing extremes, holing out for eagle from 101 yards at the par-5 eighth for a two-stroke lead as the crowd roared only to double bogey the par-3 11th and follow that with back-to-back bogeys.

His second chip from greenside rough at 11 set up a 25-foot two-putt and Scheffler followed with a three-putt bogey at 12 and a 17-foot par miss at 13.

Spanish world number two Rahm stumbled with bogeys at the par-3 second and eight but was 3-under after 11 holes.

American Morikawa went bogey-double bogey at the par-3 sixth and par-4 seventh and was 2-under through 10.

Northern Ireland's world number three McIlroy endured nightmare putting with three bogeys and a short birdie miss in the first six holes. He made a 12-foot birdie putt at 11 only to find rough and bogey 12, falling back to 1-under.

In the clubhouse on 208 after a 69 was American Keegan Bradley, the 2011 PGA Championship winner.

Scheffler, trying to match Tiger Woods as the only world number ones to win the US Open, would be the first to manage the US Open-Masters double since Jordan Spieth in 2015.

Reigning British Open champion Morikawa also captured the 2020 PGA Championship and would be the fastest to claim three career major titles by winning his 11th major start.

McIlroy seeks his first major title since 2014. He won last week's PGA Canadian Open and could become the first player since 1934 to win the week before and then capture the US Open.

Rahm could become only the second non-US player to win consecutive US Opens after Scotsman Willie Anderson took three from 1903-1905.

- Johnson LIV Golf's best -

Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series players went against US PGA Tour members for the first time after the US Golf Association decided against banning LIV rebels despite a PGA Tour ban imposed on 17 who played last week's LIV Golf debut event in England.

But only four of 15 LIV Golf players made the cut and LIV players were a combined 103-over par through three rounds.

Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson closed with a bogey to shoot 71 and stand on two-over par 212.

Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open winner, birdied the first and last holes with four bogeys and two double bogeys in between to shoot 76 and stand on 218.

England's Richard Bland fired a 72 to stand on 214, two better than 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, who shot 75.

Last week's LIV event had a top prize of $4 million from a golf record $25 million purse.

The US Open's $17.5 million payout will bring the winner a record $3.15 million, more than the $2.7 million top prizes at this year's Masters and PGA Championship.

Y.Hara--JT