US Open golf 2023: third round – live updates | US Open

Fox is in the fairway at 14. It’s taken him just two hours and 15 minutes to get that far. That’s speedy but nothing compared to this!

Shane Lowry birdied 2 and 3 to get back to level par and, after a brilliant chip from a tough lie off the green, he’s added another red number at that “giveaway” 8th to go -3 for the day and -1 overall. He’s currently in a tie for 19th, nine behind Fowler.

Ryan Fox, playing alone, is sprinting around LA CC. He’s now at the 13th just as the second group out walk off 9. Fox is -2 for the day after trading four birdies with two bogeys so getting on with it is certainly working well for him.

Tommy Fleetwood hasn’t had the week he wanted but how about this for an approach to the par-5 8th. Playing for some bounce, his ball lands 40 feet short of the putting surface, rolls up and onto the green and finishes around seven feet away. He has that shortish eagle putt to return to evens for the tournament.

In the Sky commentary box, Paul McGinley expects to see some 65s today, describing the par 5s at 1 and 8 as “giveaways”.

Rahm’s eagle try from just off the 8th green shaves the hole on its way past. That’s a birdie though and the Spaniard is -2 for the day and even par for the tournament.

Six players are -2 on their rounds so far: Ryan Fox (after 10), Rahm (8), Shane Lowry (7), Patrick Cantlay (4), Cameron Young (3), Abraham Ancer (2). All have moved into a tie for 30th. Scoring is surprisingly good but this is the easier nine and, to be fair, I’ve just mentioned a lot of exceptional golfers. Two lesser lights, Spain’s David Puig and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa (once tipped for greatness, admittedly) are both +3 after 5.

Adam Hadwin has provided some hot social media content this week. As well as being rugby-tackled to the ground by a security guard for spraying champagne at Nick Taylor to celebrate the first home win at the Canadian Open since 1954, he also helicoptered a club into a bush yesterday. Despite that act of frustration, he scraped through to the weekend on +2 and is still there after 7 holes today.

His wife, Jessica Hadwin, is also a very good follow on Twitter.

And the first thing those scorers do is log an Ancer eagle after a brilliant approach to three feet at 1 from the Mexican, who now plays on the LIV Tour. It vaults him to even par.

In contrast to Cantlay, Rickie Fowler has carved out a strong majors career without quite getting over the line and winning one. He’s a three-time runner-up, has eight top fives and in 2014 the Californian posted tied fifth at the US Masters, tied second at both Opens and tied third in the US PGA. Some going. Coach Butch Harmon has told Fowler to keep an aggressive mindset this week and it’s shown with a hard-to-fathom 18 birdies over his first 36 holes. Here’s a reminder of the leaderboard and a clip of Fowler looking ahead to day three.

-10: R Fowler
-9: W Clark
-8: R McIlroy, X Schauffele
-7: H English
-6: D Johnson, M W Lee
-5: S Bennett, S Scheffler
-4: C Smith

The mysterious case of Patrick Cantlay in the majors has continued this week. This was supposed to be a big chance for the man who was born and bred in California and has past knowledge of the course but he’s fluffed his lines yet again. Cantlay is the world No. 4 and yet has just one top seven in the majors in 25 attempts since he showed early promise by finishing as Low Amateur when 21st in the 2011 US Open at Congressional (the one Rory won by eight). He’s started with a birdie and a par today but he’s dawdling down in tied 41st – 11 back – and yet another good opportunity has slipped through his fingers. As I write this, Sky Sports show Cantlay’s 20 footer for birdie at 2 hanging on the lip and refusing to drop. It rather sums things up.

A pair of birdies for Shane Lowry at 2 and 3 and he’ll have a 40-footer at 4 for a hat-trick of red numbers. That good start has taken him up to even par alongside Fox, who has collected a couple of pars at 5 and 6. Rahm has followed his opening birdie with three pars so is still over par for the tournament at +1.

Sky Sports’ coverage has started and Nick Dougherty and Rich Beem are bathed in sunshine as they set the scene. Flags are fluttering in the background. Beem looks through the pin placements and describes 5 as “brutal” and 7 as “diabolical” but also says 9 and 14 are “pretty straightforward” while 13 is “something of a gift”. The early scoring is certainly good though but there’s some moisture in the greens and they’ll dry out as the day progresses.

Let’s get to the course and check in on some of the big names who have already started. Jon Rahm cut a hugely frustrated figure yesterday as he basically shot himself out of the tournament after a 73 which left him 2 over and 12 off the lead. He’s started birdie-par today to nudge back to tied 40th but the Masters champion is way too far back to challenge. Ditto Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry: also one birdie and one par to start which returns them to +1. Kiwi Ryan Fox is going solo today after an uneven number of players (65) made the cut which fell at +2. I’m not sure if LA CC has their own version of Masters marker Jeff Knox but Fox is enjoying himself so far with two birdies and three pars in his opening four holes to lift himself from joint last to tied 30th.

Pin placements for round three. File them under ‘tough’, ‘wicked’, ‘brutal’ etc etc.

Erm, time zones eh. Okay, let’s break the news to those on UK time as there is no way of getting around it. The last two-ball today – Rickie Fowler and Wyndham Clark – heads out at, erm, 11.40pm. That’s pretty pretty late. Still, no pain, no gain. It’s Sunday tomorrow and those who stick it out until maybe 4am will get rewarded by a 7am wake-up call and a lovely Father’s Day card from the kids. Smashing. Here are those tee-times.

Starting at hole one (all times BST)

17:33 Ryan Fox (NZ)
17:44 Adam Hadwin (Can), Jon Rahm (Spa)
17:55 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Shane Lowry (Ire)
18:06 Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), David Puig (Spa)
18:17 Ben Carr (US), Sebastian Munoz (Col)
18:28 Patrick Cantlay (US), Russell Henley (US)
18:39 Padraig Harrington (Ire), Cameron Young (US)
18:50 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Aldrich Potgieter (SA)
19:01 Samuel Stevens (US), Maxwell Moldovan (US)
19:17 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Patrick Reed (US)
19:28 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Kevin Streelman (US)
19:39 Jordan Smith (Eng), Adam Svensson (Can)
19:50 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Jacob Solomon (US)
20:01 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
20:12 Collin Morikawa (US), Gordon Sargent (US)
20:23 Yuto Katsuragawa (Jpn), Patrick Rodgers (US)
20:34 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Brooks Koepka (US)
20:45 Billy Horschel (US), Sahith Theegala (US)
21:01 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
21:12 Bryson DeChambeau (US), Si-Woo Kim (Kor)
21:23 Ryan Gerard (US), Keith Mitchell (US)
21:34 Sam Burns (US), Austin Eckroat (US)
21:45 Andrew Putnam (US), Eric Cole (US)
21:56 Nick Hardy (US), Romain Langasque (Fra)
22:07 Denny McCarthy (US), Gary Woodland (US)
22:18 Ryutaro Nagano (Jpn), Dylan Wu (US)
22:29 Brian Harman (US), Justin Suh (US)
22:45 Tony Finau (US), Charley Hoffman (US)
22:56 Scottie Scheffler (US), Cameron Smith (Aus)
23:07 Sam Bennett (US), Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
23:18 Harris English (US), Dustin Johnson (US)
23:29 Rory McIlroy (NI), Xander Schauffele (US)
23:40 Wyndham Clark (US), Rickie Fowler (US)

Preamble