The China Mail - Clark leads Burns by one as US Open back-nine drama begins

Clark's six-stroke lead when the day began quickly evaporated to a single shot after he made three bogeys in the first seven holes and Burns made four birdies in his first eight.

Clark was trying to complete a wire-to-wire victory while Burns, who began the day seven adrift, could match the greatest last-day comeback in US Open history, Arnold Palmer's seven-stroke rally in 1960 at Cherry Hills.

Clark was in left rough beyond the bunkers at the second hole then went over the green and chipped to three feet to save bogey, falling to six-under.

Burns, meanwhile, was on a roll. His approach at one landed inches from the hole to set up a tap-in birdie. He added a birdie putt from just inside eight feet at the third and sank a 26-foot birdie putt at the fifth to reach three-under.

Clark found a bunker and the right rough at four but pitched to 15 feet and made a par-saving putt.

Burns responded by sinking a birdie putt from just inside 50 feet at the eighth to reach four-under, only two behind Clark.

When Clark took missed a 24-foot par putt at the par-five fifth, his lead fell to a single stroke.

Burns missed the green on his approach at nine and made bogey but Clark missed a putt from just inside four feet to bogey the par-three seventh, his lead again only one.

Clark was in greenside rough at the ninth but chipped within inches of the hole and tapped in for par to keep his lead at the turn.

Burns, 29, seeks his first major title and first victory in more than three years. His most recent title came at the 2023 WGC Match Play event.

His best major finishes were shares of seventh at this year's Masters and last year's US Open.

Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler, who would complete a career Grand Slam by winning on his 30th birthday, opened with a bogey, going over the green on his approach and missing a nine-foot par putt.

He reached the fifth green in two and tapped in for par but stumbled again with a bogey at seven.

Second-ranked Rory McIlroy made six bogeys in firing a 73 to finish on six-over 286.

G.Tsang--ThChM