For the first time since 2021, there will be no Aussies playing the weekend at a major after the entire Aussie contingent missed the cut in the US Open.

Neither Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee, Lucas Herbert, Cameron Smith or Jason Day – who withdrew midway-through the first round with a back injury – could pull a rabbit out of the hat in the second round to make the weekend.

Adam Scott missed the cut in his 100th consecutive major. Getty Images

Smith and Herbert were both two shots below the cut-line and Lee three shots. Lee looked a chance to make the weekend before a four-putt triple bogey late in the round all but ended his hopes.

Scott was four shots out, meaning his 100th consecutive major will not be one to remember.

The 2021 PGA Championship was the last time no Aussie made the weekend, while the last time there were no Aussies in the US Open weekend was in 1959.

Kiwi Ryan Fox, who made the weekend a shot above the cutline, will be carrying the hopes of all antipodeans.

The most remarkable day belonged to Joaquin Niemann.

He had just made a nine on the sixth hole – his 15th hole of the first round – when play was suspended due to darkness. By the time he returned to the course the next morning to complete his round and start his second, that nine had become 11 thanks to a two-stroke penalty for a moment of madness missed by cameras.

Niemann had hit two drives out of bounds, hacked his way up the fairway, and at one point threw the toys out of the cot completely and launched his club into the fairway.

The USGA deemed it serious enough to skip the warning and go straight to the harsh two-shot penalty.

On Saturday AEST, he headed back out and finished his final three holes, signed for an 8-over 78, and then headed back out for his second round a whole different player.

He made five birdies in his first six holes, and eventually signed for a five-under 65 to make the weekend at 3-over, one shot inside the cut line.

He’s the first player in 97 years to make a 10 or worse in the first two rounds of a US Open and still make the cut.

“All the frustration that came inside me and had my club in my hand, and I couldn’t resist to throw it away,” Niemann said.

“There was no people, obviously. No one there. I’m not proud of it, but yeah, sometimes all the expectation of trying to play well and things doesn’t go your way, you get frustrated. And that was me there.”

The weather conditions meant players who played in the morning in the first round and the afternoon in the second were hit particularly hard.

Joaquín Niemann was slapped with a two-stroke penalty for throwing a club. Getty

They battled strong winds and fog in their first round, and by the time they teed off for their second round, the greens were becoming more and more treacherous as they baked under the sun.

Several other big names missed the cut too, including Bryson DeChambeau, Viktor Hovland, Jon Rahm, defending champion JJ Spaun, and Brooks Koepka.

A year after he found himself in hot water for a wild locker room rampage, Wyndham Clark has a four-stroke lead – the biggest 36-hole US Open lead since Dustin Johnson when the tournament was last held at Shinnecock Hills in 2018.

Clark’s 133 is also the lowest 36-hole score for a US Open at Shinnecock Hills.

The USGA promised it wouldn’t let the course get away like it did in the third round in 2018 and the final round in 2004, when the average score on the last day was 78.7 and no one broke par.

Shinnecock began to bake under a warm sun late Friday afternoon local time, with more of the same – and stronger wind – forecast for the weekend.

Surprisingly Clark reckons he isn’t playing his best golf and is also wary of what can happen at Shinnecock.

But he’s still hoping he can go low.

Wyndham Clark has a four-stroke lead of the US Open. Getty Images

“I really felt like I could be in double digits (under par),” Clark said.

“But you know, the great thing about that is I didn’t feel like I had my best, and I still am leading as of right now.”

Rory McIlroy had been closing on Clark until he started the back nine with three straight bogeys, and then erased a pair of birdies when he chipped from the back of 15th green into a bunker. He made double bogey.

He signed for a 1-over 71 and joined Scottie Scheffler in a group of 11 players at even-par.

So much depends on Clark. Maybe more depends on Shinnecock.

“If there’s a course where you feel like you still have a chance if you’re seven back going into the weekend like I am, it’s definitely this one,” McIlroy said.

– With AP