Winged Foot was at its ruthless best in round two as only three players in the field broke par for the day.

After shooting a two-over par 72 on day one, Herbert overcame two double-bogeys to fire a four-over par 74 in his second round.

At the halfway mark he's six-over par and in a tie for 49th, 10 shots behind leader Patrick Reed at four-under.

Reed is one of only six players under-par with two rounds remaining.

Herbert made the cut on the back of his brilliant short game.

The 24-year-old struggled off the tee and only hit four of 14 fairways.

He mad a double-bogey on his opening hole - the par three 10th - and bogeys on the 12th and 14th holes left him four-over through five holes.

Herbert saved his round by making some crucial par putts on the treacherous Winged Foot greens.

On the 13th hole he holed a four metre putt before sinking an eight metre par putt on the 16th and another four metre par save on the 17th.

A double-bogey six on the par-four first hole put Herbert in danger of missing the cut.

However, he dug deep and bounced back strongly with back-to-back birdies on the second and third holes.

The birdie on the seventh came via a superb seven metre putt, while he holed out for birdie from the greenside bunker on the third hole.

Another superb chip narrowly missed for birdie on the sixth and he made pars on his final three holes to finish four-over for the day and six-over for tournament.

Six-over par was the cut line, so Herbert finished in front of world-class players Collin Morikawa (+7), Tommy Fleetwood (+8), Tiger Woods (+10), Justin Rose (+10), Marc Leishman (+11), Henrik Stenson (+11) and Phil Mickelson (+13).

Herbert's form with the flat stick has him tied for fifth in putting for the tournament.

Cameron Smith is the best placed Aussie at four-over, with Adam Scott at five-over and Herbert and Jason Day at six-over par.

In Saturday night's third round Herbert will play alongside American Chesson Hedley.