Steady Adam Scott in US Open contention thanks to ‘old-man-par golf'
'Old-man-par golf' is serving Adam Scott well at the US Open.
The 44-year-old Queensland has shot successive par rounds of 70 at the brutal Oakmont Country Club to be in a tie for fourth, just three shots behind leader Sam Burns heading into the third-round.
Scott is the best-placed of the surviving Australian contingent ahead of Jason Day (three-over), Marc Leishman (six-over) and Cam Davis (seven-over), while Cameron Smith (eight-over) and Min Woo Lee (nine-over) missed the cut.
'I'm playing old-man-par golf at the moment,' Scott joked.
'I guess I would have expected to be in this position if you said even par through two rounds.
'It's just hard out there. It's hard to keep it going when guys have got on a run. It seems like they've come back a bit.'
Scott is chasing as a second major to add to his 2013 Masters title.
'I'd be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend. Right now, that's really what I'm here to do,' he said.
'I feel like there's probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game is looking better. I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year.
'I feel like this is what I've been working towards. I was kind of in the mix late at the PGA (last month), and now putting myself in this one for the weekend.
'It's a long way to go, but I feel like my game is in good enough shape to do this.'
Day, who had a six-over 76 in the opening round, bounced back with a three-under 67 in the second round to also be in contention for a second major after winning the 2015 US PGA crown.
'It was a big day to come back and shoot three-under to make the cut,' Day said.
'I feel like you're going to make bogeys out here and try and get the birdies when you can.
'Three-over right now, if I can just keep climbing the leaderboard (and) get into contention (in the fourth round), that would be great.'
Day's second-round cause was helped by a better performance on the greens after adjusting his putter between rounds.
'I bent my putter. I just manually bent it myself,' he said.
'I stood on it. That's kind of how I used to do it back in the day.
'It just hadn't been looking very good to me personally I bent it enough to make it look more open, which is good.'
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