After birdieing the 10th hole Friday morning, it looked like Dustin Johnson was on his way to making some serious noise heading into the weekend at the U.S. Open.
By the time he finished the second round, he was closer to the cut line than the top of the leaderboard, where he had been hovering earlier in the day.
Johnson finished 3-over par to make the cut, along with five other LIV Golf players, but two of the league’s biggest stars, Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, found themselves leaving the east end of Long Island earlier than expected.
Rahm missed the cut for just the second time in his last 27 major starts.
DeChamebau is just two years removed from his second U.S. Open win, but has missed the cut in consecutive U.S. Opens, as well as missing the cut in three straight majors.
DeChambeau and Rahm declined interview requests after their rounds, but DeChambeau had suggested he may miss the cuts in all four majors this year during an interview with Flushing It Golf earlier in the year.
“That’s just golf,” he said.
Johnson looked as though he could carry the LIV mantle as the big story of the weekend, sitting one back of the lead after the turn Friday, before the back nine got the better of him.
The soon-to-be 42-year-old double bogeyed No. 11 before posting back-to-back bogeys and then taking an eight on the par-4 15th, changing the course of his day from being 4-under to 4-over.
“Very frustrating because I felt like I played really solid today,” he said after his round. “Hit a lot of good putts that didn’t go in and really, I hit a good shot on 11, but just the wind got a big gust and it came up short.”
The U.S. Open performance from LIV’s talent pool comes as questions continue to swirl surrounding the viability of the league after this season.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund is withdrawing its financial support after this season, forcing the rebel golf league to search for funding elsewhere.
Reports also have indicated that the PIF could pull its funding earlier than announced.
The questions have caused plenty of uncertainty for the futures of the players who have called the league home since its inception in 2022.
Asked whether the uncertainty surrounding the LIV situation weighed on his mind coming into the U.S. Open, Caleb Surratt told The Post it did not.
“It’s all really out of my control,” said Surratt, who joined LIV Golf in January 2024 and is playing in his first career major. “I’m a golfer and I kind of leave all that to the executives. We’ll see what happens, but I just know that good golf takes care of everything. I’m just trying to get off to a good start in majors.”
Though Johnson made the cut Friday, his exemption for future U.S. Opens will expire after this year.
Asked if would he go through a qualifier next year if he didn’t qualify through other means, Johnson said he would have to “wait and see.”
“That’s a long time away,” Johnson said, “but yeah, I want to play.”