Wyndham Clark holds two-shot lead at US Open during blustery second round

[p]The 32-year-old American, the 2023 US Open champion, made eight pars before missing a three-foot par putt at nine to reach the turn at five-under, two strokes ahead of past US Open winners [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/johnson-dustin/UqNejxuE/"]Dustin Johnson[/a] and [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/fitzpatrick-matthew/6whOHmtf/"]Matt Fitzpatrick[/a] and Canada's [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/conners-corey/SABiQcB3/"]Corey Conners[/a].[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/clark-wyndham/x4NXN7qb/"]Clark[/a] parred two holes Friday morning to complete a six-under par 64 opening round after a Thursday fog delay led to a darkness suspension that left 50 players on the course.[/p][p]In his second round par streak, Clark found a greenside bunker at the sixth but sank a nine-foot par putt then just missed the left edge of the hole on a 19-foot putt at the par-three seventh.[/p][p]At nine, Clark lipped out on a 43-foot birdie putt then missed his comeback effort.[/p][embed guid="8288b43c-d023-48fe-b62c-844397aef01a" url="https://x.com/usopengolf/status/2067980928987586679" social-type="twitter" /][p]Consistency with wind, speedy greens and dense rough kept Clark at the top but also helped his top rivals.[/p][p]Johnson, the 2020 Masters and 2016 US Open winner, birdied two of three morning holes to shoot 66 then made a bogey at the third and eight pars in round two.[/p][p]England's Fitzpatrick, the 2022 US Open champion, parred his way through the front nine as well.[/p][p]Conners joined the three-under par pack with a five-foot birdie putt at the first hole, his 10th of the second round.[/p][p]American [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/woodland-gary/lQRqur2j/"]Gary Woodland[/a], the 2019 US Open winner, began with a birdie to reach four-under but made bogeys on four of the next six holes to fall back.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/thomas-justin/jV7EtuiD/"]Justin Thomas[/a], a two-time winner of the PGA Championship, went three-under on the back nine to make the turn on two-under alongside fellow American [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/schauffele-xander/OnIoiVkm/"]Xander Schauffele[/a], another two-time major winner.[/p][embed guid="54b62c91-6c4f-4ca1-8469-7a6f2a5f3e4e" url="https://x.com/usopengolf/status/2067981509202440539" social-type="twitter" /][p]Six-time major winner [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/mcilroy-rory/djwanksN/"]Rory McIlroy[/a], the world number two from Northern Ireland, was set for a late start after opening on 69[/p][p]Top-ranked [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/scheffler-scottie/bXfIuBYu/"]Scottie Scheffler[/a], who would complete a career Grand Slam with a victory this week, opened on 72 and goes off late as well.[/p]