Min Woo Lee and Cameron Smith are leading the Australian charge early on day two at the US Open while another countryman has tumbled down the leaderboard on Saturday.

All eyes are on Lee and Smith though, with the duo sitting inside the top 10 after solid opening days saw the pair both placed seven strokes off the lead with rounds of one-under 69.

Lee is tied for 6th at six-under having hit the longest drive of the tournament on Saturday, with a 407-yard tee shot which he later wedged to 12 feet for birdie on the 555-yard 16th hole.

Meanwhile, Smith improved to four-under with a birdie at the eighth and just one hole left for his round and sits 10th.

The news is not as good for fellow Australian Cam Davis, who made birdies at six and 18 in a two-over opening day but has since tumbled to 11-over.

Adam Scott and Jason Day also remain out of contention with Lucas Herbert the closest to the leading duo of Smith and Lee, sitti even par.

SURPRISE LEADER EMERGES AS ANOTHER HOLE-IN-ONE STUNS

Elsewhere, Wyndham Clark fired a three-under-par 67 on a “spicier” Los Angeles Country Club North Course to take a one-shot lead on nine-under par early in the second round.

A day after Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele shot tournament-record 62s to lead an historically low-scoring first round, LA Country Club bit back.

Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick had the third ace of the week at the par-three 15th, but fireworks were rare on Saturday.

There were implosions, however, including Dustin Johnson’s quadruple bogey at the second hole, where the two-time major champion was in a fairway bunker off the tee and entangled in a barranca on the way to an eight.

Long-hitting Clark, who won his first PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow last month, steered a relatively steady course with four birdies and a bogey.

His nine-under total of 131 saw him edge in front of Fowler and Schauffele, who were just warming up as he completed his round having regained the solo lead by getting up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker at his penultimate hole, the eighth.

Clark’s day also included an impressive birdie from dense rough near a greenside bunker at 14, where he rolled in a 13-foot putt, and a 45-foot birdie putt at 16.

Harris English was his nearest rival in the clubhouse, carding the top round of the morning with a four-under par 66 for 133.

Johnson clawed back from his calamitous second hole with five birdies and a bogey for an even par round that left him where he started on six-under, third in the clubhouse on 134.

Four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, meanwhile was six-under through 15 holes after a roller-coaster of a round that had already included five birdies and four bogeys.

After Friday produced the lowest ever scoring average in a US Open first round of 71.38, the US Golf Association was expected to try to toughen things up.

USGA chief championships officer John Bodenhamer vowed organizers wouldn’t make it “stupid hard.”

“You’ll see some things we had planned for Friday anyway and if we get the conditions we’re hoping for, I think you’ll see a little a little different, a little spicier golf course,” he said.

The afternoon was shaping up to be just what the USGA had in mind. The sun was starting to peek through the stubborn clouds as Fowler prepared to tee off, with Schauffele due off two groups behind him, raising the prospect that things would be even tougher for the leaders as the course dried out and firmed up.

“Much tougher,” Ireland’s Padraig Harrington said of the morning conditions.

“They have lengthened the golf course substantially. Firmed the greens up a little.

“I don’t know if they have changed the pin positions from what they had intended, but with the longer golf course and the firmer greens, those pins certainly were difficult.”

At two-over Harrington was right on the projected cut line. Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, a six-time US Open runner-up who needs only his national championship to complete a career Grand Slam, was right outside it at three-over.

Masters champion Jon Rahm was among the afternoon starters — hoping to gain ground after a one-over par 71 on Thursday.

World number one Scottie Scheffler, meanwhile was aiming to build on an opening 67.

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ROUND ONE WRAP: Miracle escape seals US Open history as red-hot Rory sends statement in awkward LIV truce

NIGHTMARE HOLE AS DUSTIN JOHNSON IMPLODES… THEN RECOVERS

Two-time major winner Dustin Johnson said the Los Angeles Country Club North Course was harder than a pair of US Open first-round 62s made it look — and he hammered home that point with a quick quadruple bogey.

Johnson, the 2016 Masters and 2020 US Open winner, had seven birdies in a six-under par 64 on Thursday that put him two off the lead shared by Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele — who both broke the previous record for a low round at the US Open.

But Johnson said there was plenty of trouble lurking on the LACC North Course, hosting the US Open for the first time, and he found it at the second hole on Saturday, where he was in a fairway bunker off the tee.

From there, he found the left rough and the barranca, taking a penalty drop on the way to an eight at the par-four hole.

It was his third career quadruple bogey in a major championship and his first since the first hole of the final round of the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits.

Johnson recovered well though and finished the day six-under.

“[I] got off to a wonderful start there with quad on two, I just settled back down. I know I’m swinging well and doing everything pretty well so just had to focus and not push it,” Johnson told Sky Sports.

“The course is tough, when you drive onto the fairway just be as aggressive as you can. I played pretty solid after number two.

“I’ve made bad numbers before, I didn’t really hit that bad a tee shot. I just had to regroup a little bit, I know I’m swinging well and I played solid from there to house.

“Game just wasn’t quite sharp enough, especially going into Augusta. And then going into the PGA didn’t drive it well going into the weekend. At any major you have to drive well. After two rounds I’m there where I want to be going into the weekend.”

LEADERBOARD — TOP CONTENDERS

T1: Wyndham Clark -9

T1: Rickie Fowler -9

3: Xander Schauffele -8

T4: Harris English -7

T4: Rory McIlroy – 7

T6: Dustin Johnson -6

T6: Min Woo Lee -6

AUSSIES IN THE FIELD