After a 21/5 winner on Thursday, David John is siding with Patrick Reed on day two of the US Open at Erin Hills.
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I am not too sure what the USGA will make of the favourable scoring on day one but the fiendish devils at the top could toughen things up a fair bit for Friday’s action.
The deep rough is as penal as expected in the build-up when players strayed too far right or left but a few more testing flag positions will ensure scores in the 60s are less frequent.
The field flips around and the extremely scoreable conditions Thursday’s morning wave got could be a distant memory come late Friday so a bit of adaptability will be required if things dry out and any potential thunderstorms miss Erin Hills.
Rickie Fowler was undeniably the star of day one as he plotted his way around beautifully but I was impressed by Patrick Reed’s approach and feel he could have the beating again of Matt Kuchar and Francesco Molinari (2009BST).
The Ryder Cup rabble-rouser is an aggressive player by nature but has twigged on pretty quickly that hitting fairways is the key to attacking around this golf course and was on the short grass 13 out of 14 times from the tee-box.
There were a couple of mistakes but his strategy also yielded six birdies and although 2017 might not have gone quite to plan so far, Reed really thrives when he has the chance to build up a bit of momentum.
I have always felt his personality is the type to rise to the occasion in his national championship and can now put himself in position for a push towards the title over the weekend.
Elsewhere, former winner Justin Rose could be tempting from the early starters with him likely to grind out a score against Jason Day and Rory McIlroy after the latter duo produced some toxic stuff on day one.
They surely could not be much worse though and may be spurred into a revival bid to make the cut so I will leave it up to Reed to deliver later in the day.
Posted at 0655 BST on 16/06/17.
