US Open Championship 2013: Stars Who Won't Rebound from Slow Start

The 2013 U.S. Open Championship is only two days in, but some household names have already dug themselves a hole.

Those holes aren’t impossible to climb out of, especially for the former U.S. Open champs who find themselves buried. However, the stars who are already in catch-up mode haven’t shown anything in this or other recent major tournaments to lead one to believe that they’ll bounce back strong enough to leapfrog the leader by Round 4’s conclusion.

Here are three players who entered the weekend as favorites, but will exit disappointments.

3. Adam Scott

Scott misses Augusta.

The 2013 Masters Tournament champion would need a miracle to win back-to-back majors now. He’ll enter Round 3 at seven-over par after hitting six Day 2 bogeys. Sitting tied for 44th and eight strokes behind the leaders Phil Mickelson and Billy Horschel, Scott is just lucky he didn’t miss the eight-over-par cut.

2. Rory McIlroy

“I’m very happy,” McIlroy said after his Day 2 performance, per Michael Whitmer of the Boston Globe. “Right in there for the weekend. I don’t think I’ll be too far away by the end of the day. In a nice position going into the last two days.”

Happy isn’t how McIlroy should be feeling midway through the U.S. Open. He sits at three-over par and tied for 14th.

When McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open, he led after Round 1. When he won the 2012 PGA Championship, he was in the top five, in striking distance of the lead, throughout. McIlroy has never been able to mount a huge comeback in a major PGA Tour event, and he won’t this weekend.

1. Tiger Woods

Like McIlroy, Woods also showed contentment with his play Friday.

“I played really well,” he said, according to the Boston Globe. “Maybe I could have gotten one or two more out of it, but it was a pretty good day.”

ESPN Stats & Info suggested that Woods didn’t play well enough:

One could imagine the old Woods beating such odds, but not the golfer who hasn’t won a major since 2008. His drought will continue. 

David Daniels is a breaking news writer at Bleacher Report and news editor at Wade-O Radio.