Two American golfers made the biggest jumps on Day Two amid a middling pack of golfers that all trail overall leader Rory McIlroy at the 2011 U.S. Open. Specifically, it’s Bo Van Pelt and Patrick Cantlay who have enjoyed the best days thus far at Bethesda’s Congressional Country Club by going -4 apiece to close out the first half of the year’s second major.
Cantlay is a 19-year-old who reversed his +4 from the first day with six second-day birdies to finish at even overall. That ties him at No. 17 on the leaderboard after being at No. 84 at the end of day one. Van Pelt, meanwhile, birdied four holes today and had no bogies to also finish at -4 and nearly made up for a disastrous +5 first round. Van Pelt moved from No. 111 to 30 in today’s action.
Of course, everyone stands in McIlroy’s tall Irish shadow at this point, since the 22-year-old shot a -5 today and leads with an overall -11 score. Y.E. Yang, who has yet to tee off, stands at -3 after the first day and remains second overall since today was harsh to several golfers who were previously atop the leaderboard with McIlroy.