GOLF/US Open: Something really weird has been happening in this part of the world known as Olympia Fields, something entirely alien to what this championship is suppose to be all about.

"It's life, captain, but not life as we know it," Spock once remarked to Jim Kirk in Star Trek. Here, it's a case of golf, but not US Open golf as we have come to know it. The brutal demands normally placed on practitioners have simply not materialised. It's been too easy.

In the past, in US Opens, we've become accustomed to the world's top players trudging off the course like broken men. This time, they're smiling - most of them - for heaven's sake.

What's happened? Well, the wind - on the outskirts of this windy city - has stubbornly stayed away. And so has the sun, hidden by low-lying grey clouds. The result is that players are finding the narrow fairways more often than they have a right to do; and, for good measure, they've been firing approach shots into soft greens that are more receptive than they should be.

Nobody has done the job of shooting low better than Jim Furyk. Yesterday, the American added a 66 to his first day's work of 67 for a midway total of seven-under-par 133 - to set a 36-hole record for the US Open - which enabled him to open up a gap, and form a cushion, on those in pursuit.

His was an awesome display, hitting 17 of 18 greens in regulation and hitting 10 of 14 fairways, which all contrived to produce a bogey-free round that, if he'd holed his share of putts, could have been even better.

Still, there were no complaints from a man who has been the butt of jokes for his unconventional swing.

"David Feherty used to love making comments about my swing," recalled Furyk. "He'd say things like I looked like a man trying to kill a snake in a phone booth, or something like that. I didn't take it personally. In fact, I thought it was funny. If you can't poke fun at yourself, it is no fun."

Unconventional swing or not, it has worked well for the first two rounds.

"I've put myself into a great position," he admitted, "and I need to go out and keep doing the same things over the weekend." Furyk had four birdies - all from inside 10 feet - in his round to take a three-shot lead in the clubhouse over Nick Price, Eduardo Romero and Fredrik Jacobson.

One of those who caught a close-up view of Furyk's exemplary play was Darren Clarke, who was in the same group along with Phil Mickelson.
Time and time again, Clarke and Mickelson out-drove Furyk; but, time and time again, Furyk sent his iron shots towards the flag and managed to hole more birdie putts too. "Jim was playing a different course to the rest of us," quipped Clarke. However, Clarke is not out of the title race by any means. Far from it, in fact. Yesterday was a notable one for the Irishman in that it was the first time - coming in his 30th round - that he managed to record a sub-par round in the US Open. Clarke's round of 69 for one-under-par 139 left him six shots behind Furyk, but, as he opined, "not out of contention".

Once again, the putter was the root of much of Clarke's anguish - and birdie putts went begging on a number of holes, most notably on the eighth and ninth when, after grabbing birdies on the previous two holes, he missed putts from four feet.

"I left a lot of shots out there," admitted Clarke. "I had a lot of opportunities and went close a lot of times, but, you know, one under in a US Open is never too bad. If I keep on hitting the ball the way I have, who knows?"  Clarke's ball-striking throughout his second round was as pure as anyone's - and, on the 18th, he launched a massive drive of almost 380 yards down the middle of the fairway which brought a comment of, "fast cars and big cigars," from an awe-struck American spectator positioned behind the tee. "I liked that," said Clarke, who warned that the course could toughen up over the weekend. "If it gets windy and the greens firm up, then it is going to be every bit as difficult as last year (at Bethpage)," he claimed.

Meanwhile, Padraig Harrington - a later starter - was level-par for his round after 10 holes, leaving him one-under for the championship. Also out on the course, Australian Stephen Leaney was emerging as the main challenger to Furyk. Leaney had reached five-under par - two- under for his round - with six holes remaining to play.

Others were also making second-round moves: Vijay Singh was four-under on his card (and the championship) after 11 holes, and Tiger Woods, who started on level-par, had moved to three-under after 13 holes.

For the first half of this championship, it has been quite remarkable how well some of the old timers have performed. Tom Watson is hanging on to the fringes of contention - five shots behind Furyk - but in even closer proximity of the lead are Price, now 46, and Romero, who turns 50 next year.

"This kind of golf course is what we need more of, and I am not just saying that because I shot 65 today," insisted Price. "This course allows shot-makers to do well, and it is not about driving the ball 290 yards through the air. You have to play, to manipulate the ball here and you have to have the ability to hit soft iron shots and put the ball on the correct places on the greens." Although Furyk had grabbed the initiative at the midway stage, the tame conditions were contriving to produce a more open list of contenders than anyone could have envisaged.

Price, whose last major win came in the 1994 US PGA, was among those who believed he had a right to be there.

"Maybe I'm hanging onto a dream," he said, "but I still feel I have an outside chance."

Furyk, more than anyone, should be aware that those in pursuit have no intention of going easy on him. For those who survive the midway cut, the real work has yet to start. Titles are won on Sundays, not in the first two rounds.