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Marc Leishman has emerged as the best-placed Australian in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills, but everyone is chasing world No. 1 Dustin Johnson.
On a calmer day on Long Island the Victorian carded a second-round 69 to go with his opening 74 and at three-over par, he is tied-11th and in contention. He had a great chance to jump a little farther up the leaderboard at the 18th, but his birdie putt from four metres stopped a roll short of the cup.
The big man from Warrnambool loves the links-style courses and has shown himself to be prominent in majors, with top-10 finishes in the Masters this year and the Open Championship last year.
But all the players will need some help from Johnson, who is coming off a win last week that returned him to the top of the world rankings.
The American started early today and carded a three-under par 67 that left him at four-under overall and in control of the tournament that he won previously in 2016.
Two of the nine Australians who teed off on Thursday made the cut — Leishman and Aaron Baddeley, who is six-over par, tied-35th.
But Jason Day (79-73), Adam Scott (78-75), David Bransdon, Jason Scrivener, Lucas Herbert, Cameron Smith and Matt Jones did not get through. Scrivener was the closest, going up the last hole inside the cut-line but taking double bogey to miss out by a single shot at nine-over par.
Former world No. 1 Tiger Woods (78-72) missed the cut, but he was scarcely alone among the big names to have the weekend off. Rory McIlroy also going home along with Sergio Garcia, Jordan Spieth and Jon Rahm.
"The course is playing really long and it's definitely tough out there, but I felt like i played a really solid round. I hit some nice pitches from around the greens," said Johnson, who is the only player in the 156-man field who is under par.
His nearest-competitors are Americans Charley Hoffman and Scott Piercy at even-par.