US Open: Cuts and nicks around the Oakmont course

It has been a brutal week. Who would have predicted a final pairing that contained Shane Lowry and Andrew Landry? In this feature we look at five interesting aspects from the week in Pittsburgh.

1. Rory McIlroy lead a litany stars that were forced off the course at the end of the second round. The 2011 US Open champion is missing a major cut for the first time since the 2013 Open. He hasn’t won a major title since picking his fourth at the 2014 PGA Championship
2. Phil Mickelson has been a US Open runner on six different occasions. His hopes of plugging the only major gap on his resume came unstuck when he joined the long list of stars that missed the cut
3. There were eleven amateurs that started the tournament this week. Ten of them fell under the sword, leaving the field to Jon Rahm over the weekend. He earned an exemption to the field by the top ranked amateur in the World Amateur Golf Ranking.
4. Several former champions, not including McIlroy, also missed the cut – including Ernie Els (1994 winner at Oakmont), Retief Goosen (2001, ‘04), Geoff Ogilvy (2006), Lucas Glover (2009), McIlroy (2011), Webb Simpson (2012) and Justin Rose (2013).
5. There was no shortage of fancied players that missed the cut. The list included players such as Patrick Reed, William McGirt, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Jimmy Walker, Brandt Snedeker, Hideki Matsuyama and Smylie Kaufman.

The course at Oakmont was made incredibly hard for players, with the greens behaving nearly like a surface of glass. Putts raced from one end to another like they were on a ski slope.

The fact that Lowry made a 65 in the third round, playing across two days is an incredible feat of focus and determination.