US Open Leaderboard 2013: Updates on Golf's Top Stars on Day 3

Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott all came into Day 3 of the U.S. Open with hopes of contending for the championship on Sunday. But they certainly didn't play like it. 

Course conditions seemed to ease up a bit on the tournament's third day. With two days to dry out after the initial rains that delayed play on the first day, the course was a bit more forgiving, and Phil Mickelson alluded to the prime conditions at the beginning of the day, per Matt Ginella of the Golf Channel:

However, while Mickelson turned the better conditions into yet another solid round, the three highest-ranked golfers in the world struggled to make an impact. All three tallied scores well-above par. 

Here's a closer look at the Day 3 for each of golf's most popular stars. 

Tiger Woods

After firing a 70 in the second day to put himself in striking distance on the leaderboard in Day 2, Woods needed a big day to make the full-fledged leap into contending. As Dave Shedloski of Golf World Magazine noted, he opened up play with a birdie. It appeared as though the world No. 1 was ready for a big day:

However, things started going downhill from there rather quickly. After scoring par on No. 5, he went on to score bogey in three of the next four holes, per Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker. As Bob Harig of ESPN notes, Woods' chipping was a big reason for the struggle:

Woods would salvage the rest of the front nine by going par in the next three holes, but troubles awaited on the back nine, where he started off with a bogey on No. 10. According to Shedloski, it was just the second bogey on No. 10 all day:

Woods would go on to continue collecting bogeys, including this one on No. 16 after missing an easy par putt. 

Overall, it was an ugly day for Woods as he would finish out on the 18th with his seventh bogey of the day to finish six over par and nine over for the whole tournament. 

Rory McIlroy

Based on Tiger's favored status heading into the U.S. Open, he probably would have been thrilled to know he would match his rival stride for stride. They both shot 73 in Round 1 and a 70 in Round 1, but neither contended as well as expected. 

Unfortunately for the No. 2 player in the world, he continued to follow in Tiger's footsteps, scoring birdie on No. 1 and not doing much else positive the rest of the round. 

McIlroy started his bogey streak on No. 2, as Bob Harig of ESPN highlighted, and accuracy with the driver was an issue:

And it would continue to be a dominant theme throughout the day, as McIlroy hit plenty of drives that looked like this:

Overall, it was a forgettable day for him. He finally separated himself from Tiger, though. His two birdies and seven bogeys put him at five-over for the day and one stroke ahead of Tiger on the overall leaderboard.

Adam Scott

Coming in just above the cut, Adam Scott needed a huge day to get back in contention at Merion—he didn't get it. 

It seemed like he was ready to make his move at the beginning of the round. He birdied No. 2 and 4 to get to two-under for the day, and even after going bogey back to back on No. 5 and 6, he rebounded with birdie on No. 8 to get to one-under for the first nine.

But the wheels soon came off for the 2013 Masters champion. After picking up another birdie on No. 11, Scott went into total collapse mode for the dreaded home stretch. He would go bogey on holes 14 to 17, including a disappointing double bogey on No. 15. 

The Masters put Scott in position for 2013, but his U.S. Open performance showed just how volatile someone's stock can be from major to major.