Pinehurst No. 2 was an unforgiving course for most of the golfers entered into the 2024 US Open on Thursday.

Only 15 players emerged with an under-par round. Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy led that group of players with a pair of five-under scores.

A lot of the focus will be on McIlroy’s quest to improve his five-under score on Friday, but his playing partners could turn in the better round scores. Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele each scrambled well on Thursday and both players could turn that into lower scores.

The field as a whole may struggle, though, because the course conditions are not expected to get any better. The morning wave of tee times may produce better scores, like it did on Thursday, but there could be some low rounds out there for players out of the afternoon wave as well, like we saw with McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau on Thursday.