Shane Lowry on top at US Open

Johnson held a one-shot lead when the delayed second round was finally completed on Saturday afternoon and quickly doubled that with a birdie on the first, before his pulled tee shot on the second hit a male spectator on the head and bounced under a concession stand.

Johnson finished his second round the night before at 4-under 136 (67-69) because of the earlier rain delays at Oakmont.

But it led to confusion over the entire back nine – for Johnson and for the guys trying to catch him.

Shane Lowry finished his third round on Sunday with a four-stroke lead in the U.S. Open here on Sunday. I’m not the player who’s going to go out and shoot 28 under par.

The world number 41 – coincidentally the same ranking a s Angel Cabrera when the Argentinian won at Oakmont in 2007 – was in danger of dropping a shot on the 18th when he left a long birdie attempt 10 feet short, but calmly holed for par before punching the air in delight. The hole turned bad when Johnson’s approached did not hit far enough into the green and rolled back down to the fairway.

Rickie Fowler and Bubba Watson also made an early exit.

But despite the tricky situation he made a world class up and down to finish the day on a high note and stay in touch with the leaders with a little over 18 holes to go.

Oakmont presents his next big chance. “Comparative to when it rained, when we went right back out, it was spinning like insane”.

Gregory Bourdy of France caught Johnson, and briefly passed him, it what was shaping up as the round of the week.

But for the rest of the leaderboard, winning the U.S. Open Sunday would be about putting their name on the trophy and in some cases, putting major failures behind them. Spieth needed four putts to get off the sixth green – a triple bogey – en route to a front-nine 39 and a 5-over 75 for the day. But a double-bogey on the par-4 third hole brought him back. “If you played well, there were pins you could get to”. Piercy, Garcia and Lowry all had second-rounds 70s while Bourdy surged into contention with a 67. Arkansas had advanced to the National Championship match against Texas A&M during the NCAA’s first year of match play format.

Daniel Summerhays, England’s Andy Sullivan and Lee Westwood and Jim Furyk – who won the U.S. Open in 2003 – are tied for seventh at 1-under.

McIlroy opened with a 77 and came charging off the opening tee. Miller was six shots out of the lead in the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont and shot a final-round 63 to win by one. And don’t forget Spieth, the defending champion, who knows how to win and has three full rounds to improve on the 2-over 72 he opened with.

Elsewhere, world number one Jason Day, the 2015 PGA Championship victor, is six shots off the lead after carding a 66, which included four birdies in his first five holes.

But when reigning PGA champ Jason Day struggled to a 6-over-par 76 in the weather-delayed first round of the national championship at Oakmont Country Club, well, many folks probably figured he could start looking ahead to the British Open, which he nearly won previous year.

In his favor is Oakmont. Or the Pebble Beach blowup in the U.S. Open, or, well, you get the idea.