Oh dear. Dustin Johnson (-1) has just whiffed at a ball sitting deep in the rough attempting a short chip. He gets it away at the second attempt but that’s what this course can do, even to the best players.

Here are the remaining groups to tee off (all times BST). All these players are within five shots of the lead:

1828 Joohyung Kim (Kor), Brooks Koepka

1839 Thomas Pieters (Bel), Will Zalatoris

1850 Keegan Bradley, Xander Schauffele

1901 Davis Riley, David Lingmerth (Swe)

1912 Travis Wick (x), Callum Tarren (Eng)

1928 MJ Daffue (Rsa), Adam Hadwin (Can)

1939 Matt Fitzpatrick (Eng), Sam Burns

1950 Brian Harman, Patrick Rodgers

2001 Matthew NeSmith, Scottie Scheffler

2012 Nick Hardy, Beau Hossler

2023 Aaron Wise, Rory McIlroy (NIrl)

2034 Jon Rahm (Esp), Hayden Buckley

2045 Joel Dahmen, Collin Morikawa

There are more than 30 players out on the course, with another 30-ish to come, and only three of those out there are under par for their round today (and all three by only one shot). That indicates just how tough Brookline is playing today. If any of the leaders can shoot level par, there’s a good chance they will be in the mix come Sunday.

Thomas‘s (+1) iron approach to the first is a little short at the front of the green, and his putt to the back-located hole leaves him a tricky five footer for par. He rolls it in dead weight, and that should help him settle into the round.

Justin Thomas (+1) is away, choosing to play a three wood short of the bunkers on the first fairway, and it’s a nice straight hit to settle him into the round. Less conservative is his choice of trouser colour: not quite maroon, nor pink, but somewhere in the middle. Plum? They’re bold, anyway. Visual evidence when we get it.

Some of the best images from a beautiful day in Massachusetts which is just starting to heat up.

We are in to the group of players on +1 overnight, six shots back, which incudes major winners Justin Thomas, Justin Rose, Patrick Reed and Dustin Johnson. In any normal tournament that would seem like a gap worthy of challenging the lead on moving day, but this US Open is so tight, the conditions are so tough today at Brookline, and there is a huge pack of more than 30 players ahead of them.

Even so, you would expect one of these four to have a real crack at climbing the leaderboard today, and they will hope the wind only gets stiffer for the leaders later.

Joel Dahmen is some story. Dahmen, Buckley, Beau Hossler, NeSmith, Rodgers and Hardy made it to this week by earning spots via 36 holes of qualifying in a process that starts with nearly 9,000 entrants, whittles to 870, then ends with 65 joining the other 91 who had earned exemptions straight into the field.

“It will be a big weekend,” said Dahmen, who seriously considered skipping the qualifying process in exchange for a few weeks off. “We don’t tee off until 3:45 tomorrow. I typically have to be home at 5 for dinner. So, this will be different for sure.”

This is clearly a stiff test today and the leaders may even be happy with even par in this third round, by the looks of it. Tyrrell Hatton is one of those stuggling three-over-par for the day. The wind is swirling and the greens are firm, and it all makes for some very difficult conditions to control a golf ball.