US Open: Americans Phil Mickelson and Billy Horschel joint leaders at halfway

A birdie on the last kept Phil Mickelson in a share of the US Open lead at halfway with fellow American Billy Horschel, as difficult conditions made scoring hard at Merion.

Mickelson was 3-under after the first round, but he struggled on day two and gave up his lead to Horschel before sinking a long putt on the last for a 2-over round.

The American, who has been the Open runner-up five times but never won, is level with Horschel, who grabbed four birdies and a bogey to register the day's best round.
US Open Leaderboard:

NameScoreTotalPhil Mickelson (U.S) +2 -1
Billy Horschel (U.S) -3 -1
Luke Donald (ENG) +2 E
Steve Stricker (U.S) -1 E

The English duo of Luke Donald and Justin Rose and American Steve Stricker are one shot back on level par, with England's Ian Poulter (14 holes) and Taiwan's Tseng-Chung Pan (nine holes) also even with the card but yet to finish.

The rain delays from day one had a knock-on effect, as play was suspended with 69 players out of the field of 156 unable to complete their second rounds due to darkness.

It was a bad day for Adam Scott, who had been 3-under after 11 holes before the rains came on day one, lost five shots on the resumption to finish with a 72.

He then shot a 5-over 75 to leave him on 7-over after 36 holes.

"I was a little disappointed with the way I played today," he admitted after the round.

"I just lost my rhythm early this morning when it was a bit cold and windy and just fought with it all day long and the putter kind of cooled off. So I would have liked to make some putts and then you're always happy."

John Senden was the best-placed Australian on 1-over after two rounds. Senden shot a second round 71 to put him in a tie for eighth.

"It (the Merion course) demands good ball-striking, I think, and good putting," he said.

"I like hitting the long irons well. There's a lot of long irons off the tee and a lot of long irons into the greens. So if I play my game and hit them well, hopefully I'll do well.

"And the same thing last year at Olympic. It probably didn't measure that long, but it was a lot of long second shots, and the par 3s are long there.

"The same sort of deal. I think this golf course is similar."

Matthew Goggin is just outside the top 10, one shot back on 2-over.

Jason Day could not complete his round and is 3-over after 14 holes, with Geoff Ogilvy one shot further back in the clubhouse.

Scott's playing partners Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy were within striking range, four shots from the lead on 3-over. Both men had level-par 70s in the second round.

The cut is hovering around 9-over, with Aaron Baddeley on 8-over with five holes left.

The two Australians who will definitely miss the cut are Marcus Fraser (12-over) and Marc Leishman (13-over).