Golf/ US Open Championship:At least in a boxing ring, you know things are going to get messy. You know, more often than not, it'll be a bloodbath.

Yesterday, as the second round of the 107th US Open unfolded over an Oakmont course that started to bare its teeth, there was no physical evidence of assault, no blood on the manicured shirts.

But, the mental scars were visible in the haunted looks of players left battered and bruised.

Sure, there were exceptions to the rule, most notably England's Paul Casey who contrived to defy logic and re-energised his major ambitions with a round of 66, an 11-shot improvement on his opening effort.

Yet, the litany of horror stories - Phil Mickelson's run of six dropped shots in four holes in mid-round, Padraig Harrington's triple-bogey seven on the ninth among them - outweighed those tales of joyous deeds.

"It's just a mean golf course. It is set up tough, and there isn't a lot of leeway for poor shots," said Jim Furyk, in explaining that players would simply have to grin and bear it. The Ryder Cup player added a 76 to his opening round 71 to leave him on six over par.

Or, as Ian Poulter, put it: "There is no point in bitching or moaning that it is difficult. It's been set up the way it has been set up, so get on with it."

On a beautifully sunny day, the greens - softened and made more receptive than anticipated for Thursday's first round by thunderstorms on the eve of the tournament - regained their bite, with a number of them, especially the sixth and the ninth, verging on the edge.

Among those to putt off the green on the ninth were Phil Mickelson and Stewart Cink, while Mickelson's putting woes were further highlighted by four-putting the 10th for a double bogey in a round of 77, that left him on 151, 11-over, and dependent on the "10- shot rule" if he were to survive the midway cut.

"If I'm fortunate enough to make the cut, which would be unbelievable, I'm going to come back out tomorrow and try to put together a heck of a round . . . it could still be double-digits over par winning this," said a hopeful Mickelson.

Among the casualties of this most recent edition of the US Open, on a course set-up to ask the hardest questions in golf, were Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Davis Love, Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia.

Nobody said it would be easy, or that it should be; and, while world number one Tiger Woods was among those seeking to stay on the straight and narrow, the clubhouse lead was set on 142, two-over, by England's Justin Rose and Australian Aaron Baddeley.

Yet again, though, Rose - probably the freshest player in the field, having only played two tournaments (the US Masters and the BMW PGA) since late-February as he sought to avoid further damaging a back injury - showed his major credentials, with a second successive round of 71, while Baddeley followed up an opening round 72 with an impressive level-par 70 that hauled him into new territory in a major.

Rose got a couple of early kicks from the course, three-putting both the second and fourth while also bogeying the fifth.

On the second green, he needed to stem a nosebleed before attempting to make his par putt. "No, my caddie didn't hit me or anything," quipped Rose, who explained he was suffering from allergies and was sniffling when the blood started to flow. Undeterred, he got his round back on track with a birdie on the sixth which was followed by a run of nine pars before he birdied the 16th and parred his way home.

Following on from his fifth place finish in the Masters, Rose now believes he is ready to take the big step towards actually winning a major.

"I think Augusta was probably a big step forward for me in terms of learning and believing that I actually felt comfortable and that I could go ahead and win it.

"That's part of the maturing process, part of becoming a better player," he said.

Indeed, this 107th US Open is developing into a good one for the English.

Casey's round of 66 left him in the clubhouse on 143, three-over. "It's beyond my expectations . . . but I don't think we've seen the half of Oakmont yet," he remarked.

"I certainly don't want the US GA to make it any tougher (over the weekend).

"I wouldn't talk up the round and say anything other than it was one of my best rounds of golf ever and I got some lucky breaks, because it is brutal."

While Casey and Rose could look forward to the weekend with some degree of relish, Harrington's US Open campaign seemed to be falling apart after he suffered a triple-bogey seven on the ninth - which left him on eight-over for the championship at that stage - and he compounded matters by following up with a bogey on the 10th and a double-bogey on the 11th. He was 15 over par after 14 holes.

But Graeme McDowell, who started his final round with a 60-footer for birdie on the first only to suffer a run of three successive bogeys from the fourth, was managing to keep things intact by running off nine straight pars which left him on five-over for the championship with three holes of his second round remaining.