“I was in the rough eight times (off the tee) and on seven of those I could not make the green. That is a lot of shots to make up and I didn’t putt particularly well.”

Unheralded Americans Olin Browne and Jason Gore, alongside Retief Goosen, lead the competition on two under par.

Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson, first and second in the US Open a year ago, went in opposite directions in the second round at Pinehurst.

While Mickelson had his worst round in the championship for over a decade, a 77 that dropped him from one under par to six over and included six bogeys in a nightmare seven-hole stretch, Goosen moved into a share of the lead.

With a chance to become only the third player since the Second World War to make a successful defence of the trophy – Ben Hogan and Curtis Strange were the others – the South African, also champion in 2001, added a 70 to his opening 68.

Browne, at 46 trying to become the oldest-ever winner of the title a week after shooting a 59 in qualifying for the event, scored 71, while Gore produced a 67 bettered only by Swede Peter Hedblom’s 66.

Europe’s hopes of a first win since Tony Jacklin in 1970 were still alive and kicking.

Lee Westwood, still suffering from a chest complaint, and Sergio Garcia, seeking back-to-back victories on the US Tour, are in joint sixth place on level par after scoring 69 and 72 respectively.

A closing bogey from Luke Donald, however, dropped him to two over with a 73 and it meant that he narrowly lost his two-day duel with Tiger Woods, round in 71 for one over.

Colin Montgomerie, who had hoped to be in the thick of things given his more favourable early tee-off time, instead began with a double bogey seven and with a 75 slipped to seven over alongside Ernie Els (76).

When first Browne and then Goosen got to four under there was a danger they would miss the halfway cut.

Only the top 60 or those within 10 strokes of the lead qualify for the final 36 holes, but with shots being dropped like confetti all around the course they made it on both counts.

So did Ian Poulter and debutants Jonathan Lomas and Nick Dougherty on six over, though Poulter nearly had another putt come out of the hole and for the second day running spoke to an official.

That was thanks to David Toms, leading with two holes to play on three under, finishing double bogey, triple bogey. McGinley was even at the airport when told he was still in.

Mickelson said: “It’s a tough course. I don’t know what to say – it’s a tough course. I putted pretty poorly, especially the short ones. That was the biggest thing.

“You just can’t play aggressive here. The more you try to make birdies the more bogeys you are going to make.

“I think that 36 pars would have an outside chance at winning and that’s kind of what I am going for.

“I can’t change the way I want to play the course because it’s a very conservative set-up that I have. I think I still have a good shot, but I have got to play some good golf. Everybody is going to struggle.”

Montgomerie was in perfect shape after two shots on the long 10th, but pitched into the guarding bunker, went over the green and saw his putt up the slope fail to make it.

After his next attempt he was left with a six-footer to avoid an eight and he did well to make it.

“I had an horrendous start. A terrible, terrible start,” he said after posting a seven over halfway total of 147.

It was not until the difficult 16th – a hole where he was one of only four players to birdie yesterday – that Montgomerie missed a fairway, but having found a bunker there he came up short of the green and failed to hole from eight feet.

When he bogeyed the 442-yard 18th for the second day running, almost putting off the green, he was down in joint 80th spot.

Covering the front nine in one over with a bogey at the fifth was as good as he could let it be, but after a round without a single birdie he added: “It’s amazing how difficult you can make a course.

“This has to be the toughest of any US Open course. There are just no greens at the end of what you are doing. My irons are not quite good enough and I am not holing any putts, but it’s just so hard.

“I hit three good shots at the 10th. I was an inch short with the third of them.”

Hedblom set a course record a week after qualifying at Walton Heath in sensational fashion. He sank a seven-iron for an eagle two on the 15th, then birdied the last three to avoid a play-off.

David Howell and Paul Casey pulled out before the round. Howell injured an abdominal muscle warming up, but Casey gave no reason. He was dead last after an opening 85, but a United States Golf Association spokesman said they would not be happy if there was no medical reason.

US Open Leaderboard:

138 Olin Browne 67 71, Retief Goosen (Rsa) 68 70, Jason Gore 71 67

139 KJ Choi (Kor) 69 70, Mark Hensby (Aus) 71 68

140 Michael Campbell (Nzl) 71 69, Vijay Singh (Fij) 70 70, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 69, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 68 72

141 Adam Scott (Aus) 70 71, Jim Furyk 71 70, Brandt Jobe 68 73, Tiger Woods 70 71, Rocco Mediate 67 74, Steve Allan (Aus) 72 69

142 Tommy Armour 70 72, Luke Donald (Gbr) 69 73, David Toms 70 72

143 Peter Hedblom (Swe) 77 66, Steve Flesch 72 71, Steve Elkington (Aus) 74 69, Nick O’Hern (Aus) 72 71, Bob Estes 70 73, Nick Price (Zim) 72 71, Steve Jones 69 74

144 Richard Green (Aus) 72 72, Fred Funk 73 71, Ted Purdy 73 71, Angel Cabrera (Arg) 71 73

145 Charles Howell 77 68, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 74, Fred Couples 71 74, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 77 68, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 74 71, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 71 74, Corey Pavin 73 72, Peter Lonard (Aus) 71 74, Peter Jacobsen 72 73, Tim Clark (Rsa) 76 69, Kenny Perry 75 70

146 John Daly 74 72, Phil Mickelson 69 77, Stephen Ames (Can) 71 75, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 72 74, Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 72 74, Jonathan Lomas (Gbr) 72 74, Nick Dougherty (Gbr) 72 74, Bob Tway 71 75, Ian Poulter (Gbr) 77 69, JJ Henry 73 73, Rob Rashell 74 72

147 Stewart Cink 73 74, Tim Herron 74 73, Colin Montgomerie (Gbr) 72 75, Davis Love 77 70, Mike Weir (Can) 75 72, Craig Barlow 76 71, Bill Glasson 74 73, Ernie Els (Rsa) 71 76, Justin Leonard 76 71, John Cook 71 76, Jeff Maggert 72 75, Jerry Kelly 76 71, Bernhard Langer (Ger) 74 73, Tom Pernice 74 73, DJ Brigman 74 73

148 Chris Nallen 76 72, Frank Lickliter 75 73, Paul McGinley (Irl) 76 72, Lee Janzen 74 74, JL Lewis 75 73, JP Hayes 77 71, Thomas Levet (Fra) 75 73, (x) Ryan Moore 75 73, Chad Campbell 77 71, (x) Matt Every, Graeme McDowell (Irl) 74 74

149 Peter Hanson (Swe) 76 73, Carlos Franco (Par) 74 75, Tom Lehman 77 72, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 75 74, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 74 75, Robert Allenby (Aus) 72 77, Zach Johnson 74 75, Toru Taniguchi (Jpn) 70 79, Euan Walters (Aus) 76 73, Derek Brown 75 74, Jerry Smith 78 71, John Rollins 75 74, Matt Kuchar 75 74, Todd Hamilton 75 74

150 Spencer Levin 73 77, (x) Trip Kuehne 75 75, Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 75 75, John Merrick 77 73, Scott Verplank 76 74

151 Padraig Harrington (Irl) 77 74, Ian Leggatt (Can) 75 76, Stephen Gallacher 79 72, Eric Axley 81 70, David Oh 74 77, Nick Gilliam 76 75, James Driscoll 76 75

152 Shaun Micheel 78 74, Stuart Appleby (Aus) 81 71, David Duval 76 76, Jay Haas 82 70, Steve Conran 77 75, Steve Lowery 78 74, Craig Parry (Aus) 77 75

153 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 77 76, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 79 74, Bart Bryant 79 74, Casey Wittenberg 75 78, Clint Jensen 77 76, Yong Eun-yang (Kor) 74 79, (x) Luke List 82 71, Chris DiMarco 71 82

154 Joe Ogilvie 79 75, Rich Beem 78 76, Brandt Snedeker 79 75, Scott McCarron 76 78

155 Robert Gamez 77 78, Nick Jones 80 75, Scott Gibson 77 78, Len Mattiace 76 79

156 Ben Curtis 76 80, David Hearn 77 79, Aaron Barber 74 82

158 Michael Ruiz 79 79, (x) Lee Williams 79 79

159 Rod Pampling (Aus) 80 79

160 (x) Pierre-Henri Soero (New Cal) 83 77, Sal Spallone 79 81

161 Wil Collins 82 79

164 Conrad Ray 80 84.