Oh, such an almost perfect day

Golf:HOW DO you measure greatness? In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the character Malvolio remarked, "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."

Yesterday, we got a hint of greatness. Not from some fictional character, but from a real, living human being who just happened to play golf in this 111th US Open at Congressional Country Club as if from another universe.

Rory McIlroy touched those of us walking inside the ropes, seated in grandstands and gathered on hillsides with a form of golfing wizardry. It was mesmerising, almost the stuff of fantasy.

In golf, numbers are the bottom line; they are all that matter. And McIlroy’s numbers were beyond compare with any of the legendary greats. Jack Nicklaus. Tiger Woods. Nobody had ever gone as low at the mid-point of the US Open, traditionally golf’s toughest major of them all.

Half an hour before his scheduled tee-time, we witnessed a rare touch of human frailty on a day of extraordinary deeds. McIlroy couldn’t find a coin marker, with the result his manager Stuart Cage approached a couple of nearby television reporters to borrow one.

Only one more display of frailty surfaced in his actual round, with his last approach shot to his last hole, a shot that found a watery grave. But even that one loose shot couldn’t dampen what was an extraordinary exhibition of McIlroy’s latest steps towards fulfilling destiny. Half-way there.

Back to the start. To roars of “Go Phil!”, “Go Dustin!” and “Go Rory!” off the first tee on a warm morning that hinted at the heat that would follow as the day progressed, those roars would later centre almost exclusively on McIlroy as he turned the second round into a one-man-show.

For long stretches, it seemed as if Johnson wanted to simply slink back into the shadows as he battled to stay in the slipstream of his playing partners as McIlroy and Mickelson went on a birdie blitz on the front nine.

“Go Phil!” shouted two men who should know better to Mickelson as he trooped off the seventh tee just after Lefty had grabbed his second successive birdie on the sixth.

A subtle turn of the head from Mickelson; it was a gesture sufficient to send the pair delirious. “You got the nod from Phil,” one shouted at the other.

Perhaps they should have looked for the nod from McIlroy, for he was the true chosen one on this day in US Open history.

The proof was provided on the fifth, a short Par 4 – measuring 350 yards – yesterday and seen as a respite before the brutally long Par 5 ninth. Here, McIlroy hit an iron off the tee and, with 114 yards to the hole, hit his approach and kept his pose. He knew it was good. But how good? It pitched 30 feet past the hole and spun back, being sucked into the tin cup, as if by some magnetic power, for an eagle two.

There was no nod from Mickelson. There was more, a genuine grin and an actual round of applause from the four-time major champion and five-time US Open runner-up. McIlroy shook his head and did a little fist pump with his caddie JP Fitzgerald, shook his head again, and then regained his composure. He had started the day at six-under following his 65 on Thursday and birdies at the fourth and sixth and the eagle on the eighth had moved him to 10-under and running away from the field.

How do you take that in? McIlroy soaked in the applause of the galleries, and simply got on with the job.

On the 10th tee, as he stood in the shade of a parasol as they looked down towards the green where Steve Stricker, David Toms and Retief Goosen were putting out, someone in the mass of people around the clubhouse shouted to the Ulsterman.

“Ease up on them, Rory,” came the call. Which was promptly ignored. McIlroy was in the mood for more, negotiating his way through the tough 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th before mustering another birdie on the 14th hole.

On the Par 4 14th, playing 454 yards in the second round with the hole in the front centre of the green, McIlroy hit a six-iron from 190 yards to six feet. Of course, he rolled in the putt.

As McIlroy, Johnson and Mickleson walked to the 15th tee, the enormity of what was unfolding hit Mickelson. “We’re not going to be worrying about the 10-shot rule,” said Mickelson, a reference to the USGA rule than anyone within that margin of the 36-hole leader would make the weekend cut. Instead, the other rule – that the top-60 and ties would survive – was in vogue.

Nobody wanted McIlroy’s masterclass to stop. After hitting his four-iron approach to the Par 5 16th to set up another eagle, Fitzgerald, his caddie turned, and said: “I didn’t think I would see a shot better than the one to the 14th. But that was even better.”

McIlroy didn’t convert the 10-foot eagle putt, but he tapped-in for a birdie that was followed by another from 15 feet on the 17th to create another piece of US Open history: he became the first ever player in its storied history to reach 13-under-par.

“The game’s easy when you hit it straight and make every putt, it’s a wonderful game,” observed Mickelson afterwards.

“No course is too tough when you hit it like that. Rory played terrific – it was fun to watch, although I (tried not) to see too much of it.”

The double-bogey on the last? Having pulled his drive into the trees left, McIlroy – hitting whilst spectators were still absorbing Mickelson putting his approach into the lake – sought to turn his second shot around the trees towards the front of the green but overcooked it. He ran up a double-bogey to perhaps provide a reminder of human frailty.

For all that, it was a mesmerising show. He had provided a hint of greatness. Now, he has a weekend to achieve it.