Too Close to Call

After two days of the 105th U.S. Open, the clear-cut winner is the course at Pinehurst No. 2, while everything else resembles a rugby scrum.

There stands a three-way tie for the lead, only five players are under par and the championship could take a dozen turns over the next 36 holes and 36 hours.

Olin Browne, Retief Goosen and former Pepperdine star Jason Gore share the 36-hole lead at two-under 138, with K.J. Choi and Mark Hensby one shot back.

That’s Gore, G-O-R-E.

Does he believe in miracles?

“It’s halfway, and halfway’s not too far,” Gore said after shooting three-under 67 on Friday.

Gore was the out-of-left-bunker story of the day, but not the only one.

Four players are at even-par 140, including Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia, and Tiger Woods lurks three shots back at 141 overall after shooting one-over 71.

Forty-six players are within eight shots of the leaders and even Phil Mickelson, who almost shot the temperature with his seven-over 77, is still in the mix at six-over 146.

It was a pine-cone crazy day, one during which Woods might have been disqualified for breaching golf etiquette when he raked his short stick on the ninth green after missing a putt.

“I wasn’t exactly very happy with myself,” Woods said.

And did anyone expect two-time Open champion Ernie Els to be tied for 57th heading into the weekend?

It was a day when no one seized control and the leaderboard could have been replaced by a roulette wheel.

David Toms was three under on his back nine and then, in the span of two holes, went from a tie for first to 17th after finishing double bogey, triple bogey.

Browne, the first-round co-leader, had the lead alone at four under until he went bunker-to-bunker on a wayward sand shot and made double bogey on the par-three sixth hole.

Goosen also got to four under at one point before giving two shots back, all while trying to make sense of a week in which no one seems to care that he is the defending U.S. Open champion.

Goosen, whose almost robotic consistency does not endear him to American galleries or golf chroniclers, followed his first-round 68 with an even-par, even-keeled 70.

The people who follow Goosen’s group -- and there are fewer than you think -- are more apt to let out yawns than roars.

“Following Retief is soothing, isn’t it?” one patron said from the fairway after Goosen hit his second shot on the par-four second hole.

Goosen was mildly miffed earlier this week when only a handful of reporters bothered to attend his pre-tournament news conference.

“I don’t know what the guys want me to do,” he said. “Do they want me to do handstands when I make a putt and all that kind of stuff?

Goosen may well be lulling his way to a third U.S. Open title since 2001.

“He’s very calm, very cool, very patient, and that’s the way you have to be,” Woods said of Goosen’s demeanor. “I mean, you can’t have highs and lows at a U.S. Open because it’ll bite you.”

Goosen’s leaderboard company today includes Browne, a 46-year-old scrapper, and the 31-year-old Gore, whose bio in the U.S. Open media guide barely takes up half a page because, well, it has been that kind of career.

He fought his way into this event by earning one of six spots in sectional qualifying at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

He was a star in college, winning Pacific 10 titles at Arizona and then helping Pepperdine to the 1997 NCAA championship.

Big things were expected, and he expected them of himself, but he has mostly kicked around in the minor leagues -- with only three Nationwide Tour wins to his credit.

Gore even spent some time on the Golden State Tour, where players have to put up their own money to enter.

He joked Friday that this was not the first time he has led the U.S. Open. He also qualified in 1998, ultimately missing the cut at 13 over par.

“I was one of the first groups out and holed a wedge on the first hole at Olympic [Club] and I was the first guy to make a birdie at a U.S. Open, so this is old hat for me,” he said, tongue obviously in cheek.

Gore later turned more somber on why his career did not get off to a better start.

“The day I turned pro I found my dad dead on the floor in our house,” he said.

Gore’s father, Sheldon, died of a heart attack in 1997.

“So it kind of tends to put a damper on things,” Gore said. “But it’s taken a little while to get back over that and try to become myself again.”

Gore played in the afternoon Friday, with James Driscoll and D.J. Brigman, and it was one of those fuzzy-filled days you dream of as a kid.

Gore had three birdies on his front nine, and two on his back side. His only slip-ups came with bogeys on No. 11 and No. 15.

He shot one-under 34 on the front and then slowly started working his way up the leaderboard. He couldn’t help taking a few peeks during his round.

“Yeah, a couple times,” Gore said.

He likes to kid around, but he says sharing the lead at the U.S. Open is not a joke.

“I feel like I should belong, and haven’t proved it yet with my golf,” he said. “But deep down inside I think everybody out here feels like they belong. That’s the No. 1 thing you’ve got to keep believing.”