Rory McIlroy Head And Shoulders Clear Of US Open Field In Surprising Driving Distance Chart

Rory McIlroy battled his way home on Friday afternoon at Oakmont to make the US Open cut after a disappointing opening round and poor start to his second day.

The five-time Major champion birdied two of his final four holes to make the weekend by two strokes, where he trails leader Sam Burns by nine.

McIlroy is putting on a driving display this week and is using the TaylorMade Qi10 driver after moving away from it at the RBC Canadian Open last week, where he had the Qi35 model in play.

In his pre-US Open press conference, he revealed that he wasn't using the right driver last time out and worked on finding a new one at home after comfortably missing the cut at TPC Toronto.

His new big stick is working very well this week in Pennsylvania, as the Masters champion is comfortably atop the driving distance chart with an average of 339.8 yards, a full 11.8 yards clear of Trevor Cone in 2nd with 328.

He averaged 348.1 yards in round two, which was a mammoth 44.2 yards ahead of the field average, 303.9 yards.

McIlroy ranks 11th in Strokes Gained: Off the tee through 36 holes with +1.56, having found 15 of 28 fairways so far.

We're used to seeing Bryson DeChambeau right near the top of the driving distance numbers during Majors, but the defending champion was surprisingly well down the list. He is also one of the many big names to miss the US Open cut after shooting 10-over-par for 36 holes.

DeChambeau was down in T44th with an average of 'just' 311.2 yards, which trailed McIlroy's total by 28.6 yards.

Leader Sam Burns is 61st in the list with an average of 308 yards, while 2nd-placed JJ Spaun is 81st with 303.2 - proving that driving distance isn't the be-all and end-all this week.

The man at the bottom of the driving distance list is amateur Bryan Lee, who missed the cut with a score of +16. Lee averaged 263.6 for the first two days, a whole 76.2 yards behind McIlroy.

How driving distance is measured at the US Open

The driving distance list must be taken with a pinch of salt, however, as the numbers are only based off of two holes. Drives are measured on Oakmont's 7th and 15th holes and the average is then based on those two standalone drives.

This is how driving distance numbers are always measured, and the holes tend to be running in different directions to ensure a more balanced final average.

US Open driving distance after 36 holes

• 1. Rory McIlroy - 339.8 yards
• 2. Trevor Cone - 328 yards
• 3. Chris Gotterup - 326.2 yards
• 4. Evan Beck (a) - 326 yards
• 5. Ben Griffin - 325.4 yards
• 6. Akshay Bhatia - 324.6 yards
• 7. Cameron Young - 324 yards
• 8. Nick Dunlap - 323.2 yards
• 9. Jon Rahm - 322.8 yards
• 10. Sam Stevens - 322.6 yards