OAKMONT, Pa. — The day began peaceful and calm, the temperature comfortable and the venerable Oakmont Country Club course probably as easy as it is going to get during this U.S. Open.
You get the sense that a few of the early starters who saw the course get a bit more difficult as things progressed lamented opportunity missed on Thursday as the air got warmer, the course drier and the conditions far more difficult.
“I thought with the wind being down, if you were hitting it really, really well, you could kind of hit some fairways,” said two-time major winner Xander Schauffele. “But if you’re out of position, forget it. And it of course held true. It was brutal.”
Schauffele birdied his last two holes to shoot 72, a 2-over-par score that trailed early leader J.J. Spaun by a stroke.
Spaun also played earlier and didn’t make a single bogey, a performance to tell the grandkids about. Few were going to make it around the treacherous course without at least one mistake, but Spaun did—although he saved par from off the green a remarkable six times.
He was the only player among the morning wave—78 players—to play the course without a bogey or worse. Thriston Lawrence, who contended at the British Open last summer won by Schauffele, finished a shot back with a 67. Only five players were under par in the morning.
And it’s a great way to start the tournament because the conditions are not likely to get easier.
“I’m assuming the greens will just get faster,” Schauffele said. “So I can probably make an adjustment for that. I felt I hit the ball decent enough to shoot something better than 2 over. But the rounds can get away from you quick and that was one slipping a little bit, so it was nice to make that last one on 18 and flip that one on 17, as hard as it was.”
Rory McIlroy was one of the players who had his round slip away. Starting on the 10th hole, he birdied the 11th and 12th and then made all pars through the rest of his first nine.
But McIlroy had a horrific front side, making four bogeys and a double bogey to shoot 41 and go from 2 under to 4 over with a 74. The Masters champion who had a frustrating PGA Championship where he tied for 47th did not speak to reporters afterward and declined to answer pool questions from a USGA media official.
It wasn’t that difficult to see what went wrong. A small mistake here or there can lead to plenty of problems.
At the long par-3 8th, which was playing 278 yards, McIlroy missed the green in heavy right rough, left his pitch short in the rough and then still left himself 14 feet for bogey and missed. That is how quickly it can get away.
The defending champion was also lamenting lost chances. Bryson DeChambeau shot 73, making just two birdies and failing to avoid problems over his final nine holes.
“Just didn’t get anything out of it. I kept it 1 under through 7, through 8, perfect drive on 9, and this golf course can come up and get you pretty quick and you’ve just got to be on your game, and it got me, and I wasn’t fully on my game,” DeChambeau said. “Pretty disappointed with how I played.
“It’s not too far off. Just got to get the putting a little bit more dialed, and I’ll be right there because 3 over could have easily been 2 under today.”
As for the course, DeChambeau said it played as advertised—extremely difficult.
“Absolutely. I think the rough is incredibly penalizing,” he said. “Even for a guy like me, I can’t get out of it some of the times, depending on the lie. It was tough. It was a brutal test of golf. But one that I’m excited for tomorrow. If I just tidy up a couple things and get some momentum going my way, we’ll see where it goes.”
Schauffele, DeChambeau and McIlroy are well down the leaderboard, although things change quickly at a U.S. Open. Still, they had an afternoon to ponder the possibility that they might have already seen Oakmont at its easiest.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Oakmont Was (Briefly) Gettable Thursday But Big Names Failed to Take Advantage.
