Sahith Theegala shot a three-under 67 in the second round of the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and moved into tied-seventh at one-under-par by the halfway stage. After starting with a 72, he climbed from tied-49th overnight into the top 10 as the tournament turned toward the weekend.
That move matters now because Theegala is the leading Indian-origin golfer in the field at the halfway point, with Akshay Bhatia also inside the hunt at tied-11th and Aaron Rai still in range at tied-22nd. For readers following the Indian connection, this is the round that changed the picture: Theegala did enough to stay among the contenders when the cut line and the leaderboard were both hardening around him.
The round had a sharp shape to it. He birdied the 10th and 12th holes, gave a little back with bogeys at the 15th and 17th, then finished strong with birdies on the eighth and ninth holes. The score was good enough to recover from his opening 72, but it was not enough to close the gap to the top. Wyndham Clark added a one-under 69 after his record-opening 64 and led by four shots at the halfway mark, with Theegala six shots back of the pace. Clark's 36-hole total was the lowest ever recorded at Shinnecock Hills, a number that explains why the rest of the field now needs a chase rather than a steady climb.
That is the friction in this leaderboard: Theegala’s best round of the week still left him trying to catch a player who has already put the championship into record territory. Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffele, Sam Stevens and Tom Kim were four shots behind Clark at three-under, while Collin Morikawa stood sixth alone at two-under, which leaves little room for error if Theegala wants to keep moving up over the final two rounds.
Elsewhere, the weekend picture narrowed. Akshay Bhatia posted a second successive even-par 70 to sit tied-11th at level-par, while Aaron Rai bounced back from an opening 74 with a three-under 67 to reach tied-22nd at one-over-par. Sudarshan Yellamaraju missed the cut after rounds of 73 and 72, and Manav Shah did not advance after rounds of 73 and 74 in his maiden major. Shah was the first player from the Indian Golf Premier League to compete in one of golf's four biggest championships, a debut that ended before the final two rounds began.
Theegala has given himself a weekend chance, but the scale of Clark’s lead means the next 36 holes are about pressure as much as scoring. If the Indian-origin contingent is going to stay in the story through Sunday, Theegala will have to turn a good round into a run that can actually threaten the front of the board.
