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Casey climbs US Open leaderboard

16/06/2007

England's Paul Casey stunned the field with an astonishing round of 66 on the second day at the US Open at Oakmont, moving him up to eighth place.

Casey had begun the day on seven-over-par after a lacklustre opening round. However his second round was the best of the day.

The conditions at Oakmont have proven to be as tough as many experts believed before the tournament and leader Angel Cabrera is the only player not over-par after two days.

But Casey's round belied all those factors as the world number 16 fired in three birdies in five holes at the start of his round, having started at the tenth tee.

A dropped shot on the course's toughest hole, the 18th, was the only blemish on his performance.

On the front nine the 29-year-old managed eight pars and one birdie on his way to a round of four-under, a score that was ten strokes better than the tournament average, a feat countryman Justin Rose described as "unbelievable".

Casey said: "This is possibly the toughest golf course I've ever played. Sixty-six is way beyond my expectations, and I'm still a bit surprised at the score I shot.

"The goal was to go out and make the cut but I made a couple of birdies early on and the confidence sky-rocketed."

Casey is now just three shots behind Cabrera, one stroke behind a group of four players on three-over-par.

The Englishman said he felt birdies could be made as long as he continued to play good golf shots.

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