Once again, McIlroy plays a safe iron to the green - the 18th.

This is extremely good percentage play from the 31-year-old four-time major winner.

An outside birdie opportunity.

Davis Thompson needs to take a selfie with a leaderboard and quickly. He is playing some sparkling golf.

A drive down the middle of 11, an iron to the heart of the green, and a putt into the centre of the hole. Simple game.

A good strike off the tee from Justin Thomas, while Tiger Woods' effort is similar before it drifts into that unforgiving deep grass. Unlucky. Doesn't help the back, those shots.

"Oh, come on now, get right." There's no player who talks to his ball more than Jordan Spieth. The 2015 US Open champion is flicking a wedge on to the ninth green after going from rough to rough with his first two.

His third gets on the wrong side of a ridge running through the middle of the green so he's left himself 50 feet from the hole - it's a par-five though, and he takes two putts.

And off he goes to the 10th tee, chuntering to himself some more. A decent front nine for the 2015 champion.

Justin Thomas does do that little bounce up as his putt on the eighth from Zone 6 of the green nearly arrives at Oxford Circus, only to shoot off to Bond Street. He makes par.

Morikawa's putt takes an unwelcome break at the lip of the hole - it's bogey for him and Woods.

Oh my word McIlroy!

He almost holes another birdie on the 17th. That long putt didn't even get him excited.

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After finding seven of the first nine greens in regulation, Davis Thompson is facing his first real test on the par-three 10th.

He pushed his tee shot a fraction but a fraction at Winged Foot can result in a hefty penalty.

The 21-year-old remains calm though, flicking his ball out of the four-inch deep rough to a couple of feet. Tap-in par and move on.

.... Tiger's who shows his frustration with his iron, after escaping from the horrid beardy rough on the fringes of the eighth fairway. His ball scuttles low down the fairway and straight into a bunker, a good 100 yards short of the green.

This is going to be a long one.

McIlroy on the 17th is a little frustrated. He's safely on the green, but obviously thinks he should have got closer on the par-four hole.

An outside chance of a birdie.

Better to be in his position than...

Davis Thompson must feel like he’s dreaming. The American amateur leads the US Open after nine holes of his career debut! Wow!

-3 Thompson (a) (9),

-2 English (9), McIlroy (7*), Conners (6*)

-1 Wu (12), Poston (11), Wallace (10), Todd (9), Detry (9*), Matsuyama (8), Reed (8), Simpson (8*), Thomas (7), Ishikawa (5)

A par putt for Woods at the seventh after his long-ish birdie attempts strolls past the hole. He needs to be making those soon.

Davis Thompson is human. He's left scratching his chin after seeing his 15-foot birdie putt wander off to the right of the hole on the ninth.

I reckon the amateur would have taken three under at the turn a couple of hours ago.

McIlroy is set for par on the 16th - a safe par. He looks mildly disappointed - but put him through an X-ray and there are party poppers exploding around in his mind.

England's Tyrrell Hatton is dropping back to level par. Hes staring down a 25-foot par putt on the 17th (his eighth). and he lags it up to a couple of feet.

Compatriot Paul Waring is also playing his eighth hole, but he started on the first.He too is bogeying though and moving back to level par.

Winged Foot biting back.

McIlroy plays another wonderful iron to within puttable distance on the 16th.

This really is old school Rory at the moment.

England's Danny Willett is not finding birdies so easy to come by. The 2016 Masters champion has had one in his opening seven holes, but that came amid four bogeys and he's at three over.

Ian Poulter is also over par after two bogeys and three pars in his opening five holes.

Easy does it for the two heavyweights.

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He cannot believe it.

US Ryder Cup player Patrick Reed, for a moment, looks as if he's trying to work out where his tee shot from the par-three seventh went until he realises it went straight into the hole. He double bogeyed the fifth.

Remarkable! Within the first few hours of this major.

Both Woods and Thomas will have putts for birdies on the sixth after beautiful approaches.

Collin Morikawa, who missed the fairway, faces a tougher task. Much tougher.