Brookline (United States) (AFP) - Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa and fellow American Joel Dahmen shared the US Open lead as they began Saturday's third round with world ranking leaders Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler in hot pursuit.
The stage was set for high drama at The Country Club with several unheralded contenders also in the mix at a 7,254-yard layout where golf has been played since the 1890s.
Seventh-ranked Morikawa, chasing a third different major crown in as many years, and 130th-ranked Dahmen, whose lone PGA Tour win came last year in the Dominican Republic, were on five-under par 135 after 36 holes.
World number two Rahm, the defending champion, and third-ranked McIlroy, a four-time major winner, began on 4-under alongside Americans Hayden Buckley and Aaron Wise.
Wise opened with two pars while McIlroy left a 16-foot putt on the edge of the cup to bogey the par-3 second and fall to 3-under, where Buckley tumbled after an opening bogey.
Masters winner Scheffler, trying to match Tiger Woods as the only world number ones to win the US Open, sank a 24-foot birdie putt at the first hole and answered a bogey at the par-3 second with a four-footer for birdie at the third to reach 4-under.
Reigning British Open champion Morikawa, 25, also captured the 2020 PGA Championship and would be the fastest to claim three career major titles by winning his 11th major start.
Australian Peter Thomson holds the record, having taken his third major triumph at the 1956 British Open in his 12th major appearance.
Dahmen, 34, is a cancer survivor who considered withdrawing from his final qualifier to rest for PGA events.Now he leads the field by making 28 of 36 greens in regulation.
McIlroy seeks his first major title since 2014.The 33-year-old Northern Irishman took 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.
Spaniard Rahm, 27, could become only the second non-US player to win consecutive US Opens after Scotsman Willie Anderson took three from 1903-1905.
American Scheffler, 25, has won four times this year and could become the first man to win two majors in one year since Brooks Koepka in 2018.
He would be the first to manage the US Open-Masters double since Jordan Spieth in 2015 and just the seventh ever after Spieth, Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Craig Wood.
Johnson LIV Golf's best
The US Open brings the first matchup of Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series players against US PGA Tour talent after the US Golf Association refused to ban LIV rebels despite PGA Tour bans imposed on 17 who played last week's LIV Golf debut event in England.
However, only four of 15 LIV Golf entrants made the cut.
Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson sank a 17-foot birdie putt at the first hole and answered a bogey at six with a birdie at the par-5 but a bogey at 10 left him on 1-over after 11 holes.
Bryson DeChambeau, the 2020 US Open winner, had four bogeys and a double bogey on the front nine and another double bogey at 13 to stand 9-over through 15, next-to-last among pros who made the cut.
England's Richard Bland sandwiched a bogey-bogey start and bogeys at nine and 10 around two birdies to stand 4-over with Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champion who made bogey at six, 10 and 11.
LIV players were a combined 89-over par through two rounds.Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson and 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia were among those missing the cut.
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.Last week's LIV event had a top prize of $4 million from a golf record $25 million purse.
