PINEHURST, N.C. — Are we having fun yet? After two days of sorting through the pretenders and contenders at the U.S. Open—with Pinehurst No. 2 slowly but surely becoming the menace that many players feared earlier in the week—the on-course drama ramps up for Saturday’s third round.
Ludvig Aberg carries a one-shot lead after 36 holes, following an opening 66 with a Friday 69 that might have actually been a better performance given the tougher afternoon conditions facing the field. The 24-year-old Swede is playing in his first U.S. Open but looks once more like a seasoned professional, having impressive hit 26 of 28 fairways and 30 of 36 greens in regulation in his opening two rounds, leading the field in both categories. Were he to win on Sunday, Aberg would be the first U.S. Open rookie to claim the title since Francis Ouimet in 1913.
Playing in the final pairing with Aberg on Saturday will be a veteran who knows from winning the U.S. Open, 2020 champ Bryson DeChambeau. The 30-year-old is coming off a runner-up finish at the PGA Championship in May after a top-10 at the Masters in April. If there’s a more confident player right now, it’s hard to find him.
Tied for second with DeChambeau and playing in the penultimate group will be Patrick Cantlay and Thomas Detry. The former is an accomplished winner on the PGA Tour who’s has struggled to contend in majors but perhaps has gained some inspiration from close friend Xander Schauffele’s breakthrough at the PGA last month. The later quietly is coming off a T-4 showing himself at Valhalla but is making just his ninth career start in a major.
Twenty players are within five shots of the lead, including a major champions Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Xander Schauffele and Sergio Garcia. And 74 made the cut at five-over 145.
Here are the tee times for Saturday’s third round. All twosomes will play off the first tee.
8:44 a.m. — Ryan Fox, Sahith Theegala
8:55 a.m. — Brooks Koepka, Francesco Molinari
9:06 a.m. — Matthew Fitzpatrick, Max Greyserman
9:17 a.m. — Justin Lower, Dean Burmester
9:28 a.m. — Tom McKibbin, Brandon Wu
9:39 a.m. — Luke Clanton (a), Brendon Todd
9:50 a.m. — Ben Kohles, Shane Lowry
10:01 a.m. — Cameron Young, Scottie Scheffler
10:12 a.m. — Tommy Fleetwood, Greyson Sigg
10:23 a.m. — Austin Eckroat, David Puig
10:39 a.m. — Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley
10:50 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Wyndham Clark
11:01 a.m. — Aaron Rai, Neal Shipley (a)
11:12 a.m. — Si Woo Kim, Daniel Berger
11:23 a.m. — Matt Kuchar, Cameron Smith
11:34 a.m. — Gunnar Broin (a), Brian Campbell
11:45 a.m. — Martin Kaymer, Jordan Spieth
11:56 a.m. — Harris English, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
12:07 p.m. — Adam Svensson, Mark Hubbard
12:18 p.m. — Isaiah Salinda, Davis Thompson
12:29 p.m. — Min Woo Lee, Emiliano Grillo
12:45 p.m. — Denny McCarthy, Adam Scott
12:56 p.m. — Chris Kirk, Jackson Suber
1:07 p.m. — Sepp Straka, Brian Harman
1:18 p.m. — Nico Echavarria, Sam Bennett
1:29 p.m. — Nicolai Højgaard, Seonghyeon Kim
1:40 p.m. — Frankie Capan III, Taylor Pendrith
1:51 p.m. — Russell Henley, Sergio Garcia
2:02 p.m. — Stephan Jaeger, Sam Burns
2:13 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Zac Blair
2:24 p.m. — Corey Conners, Tim Widing
2:40 p.m. — Akshay Bhatia, Xander Schauffele
2:51 p.m. — Tyrrell Hatton, Tom Kim
3:02 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Matthieu Pavon
3:13 p.m. — Tony Finau, Rory McIlroy
3:24 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Thomas Detry
3:35 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Ludvig Åberg