U.S. Open 2017: Golf world's biggest stars struggle and nine Round 1 thoughts
ERIN, Wis. -- If you want a summary of the first day of the 2017 U.S.
Open, here it is: There were as many amateurs under par on the day (2)
as there were top 10 golfers in the world.
Texas Longhorn Scottie
Scheffler shot a 3-under 69, and Texas A&M Aggie Cameron Champ
posted a 2-under 70. The best the OWGR top 10 could do was Rickie Fowler
(1st, -7) and Sergio Garcia (T19, -2). The rest of that top 10 was a
combined 26 over. What in the world?!
It all happened for
different reasons, too. Dustin Johnson (T102, +3) couldn't hit a
fairway. Neither could Rory McIlroy (T143, +6). Jon Rahm (T114, +4) was
kicking his bag all over Erin Hills. Henrik Stenson (T82, +2) went out
in 40. Hideki Matsuyama (T82, +2) needed an eagle hole-out to shoot
something respectable. Jason Day (T151, +7) nearly finished last in the
field. The whole thing was a mess except for Fowler and Garcia.
"We
might have a pillow fight putting contest, just to see if we can spark
anything," joked Jordan Spieth (T61, +1) of his pairing with Johnson.
"But, yeah, it was just off with putter and he had one bad hole. Yeah, I
played a lot of golf with him and have seen him at his best. And
everybody has off days one way or another."
Spieth, incredibly, hit 13-of-14 fairways and couldn't throw it in
the ocean on the greens. Johnson only hit 11-of-18 greens in regulation,
so his 75 was actually probably decent considering how penal the rough
is at this course.
Add it all up and we get a leaderboard
that is strong but not star-studded other than Fowler, who leads by one
over Paul Casey and Xander Schauffele (more on that in a second). U.S. Open leaderboards,
especially early on in the week, are almost always quirky. But this is
bizarre even for this tournament. On a new, unknown track that values
hitting tons of fairways and greens, it seems the balance of power would
tilt towards the best in the world. This is not the type of tournament
that levels the playing field. It is the type of tournament that
produces historic, elite winners.
And yet, we're looking at a
Friday in which 80 percent of the 10 best players on the planet will be
on cut watch. That's bad news for them and bad news for the tournament
... but tremendous news for your Round 1 leader.
1. Rickie Fowler's 65 was historic:The 7-under 65 from Fowler early on Friday
for the first-round lead tied the best score to par in U.S. Open
history (Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf in 1980 at Baltusrol), and the
scary part is that it could have been even better.
All of a
sudden this is Fowler's tournament to lose with nobody in the world top
10 within four strokes of him. Can he run out in front like Martin
Kaymer did in 2014 to his first major championship? He could, but I
don't think he will. This course is going to get nasty over the next 54
holes, and Fowler is going to have to brawl for his first big one.
Still, if he drives it like he did on Thursday (12-of-14 fairways), he'll be there until the very end on Sunday afternoon.
2. There were 44 golfers under par in Round 1:
In the last three U.S. Opens, there have been 50 golfers under par
after the first round ... combined. This broke the previous record of
39. It will be interesting to see if the USGA takes this as an affront
and lights them up the rest of the week or if the scores actually stay
steady or, gulp, even get better from here.
U.S. Open record for sub-par scores in 1st round is 39 at Medinah in '90. On pace for 42 at Erin Hills. #USOpen
3. Fairway accuracy was paramount: Of
the golfers in the top 10 on the leaderboard, only Marc Leishman hit
fewer than 10 fairways on the day. It was accuracy (and not distance)
that separated those who played great from those who did not. That
shouldn't be super surprising considering how long the rough around Erin
Hills is this week.
Compared
to recent US Opens, scoring is lower & more fairways/greens hit,
but only Merion was tougher after missing the fairway #USOpenpic.twitter.com/80qCVVXHiT
4. Paul Casey lurks: Maybe the most
interesting player currently in the top 10 other than Fowler is Casey,
who dropped a filthy little 66 late on Thursday afternoon that included
an eagle and six birdies (along with two bogeys). Fox dropped a great
stat that nobody has more top-5 finishes (11) than Casey since the
2014-15 season started without a win. He only has one PGA Tour win in
his career and no top 10s since 2007 so this would be unexpected to say
the least. 5. All the hole-outs: It seemed that there were an inordinate number of hole-outs on Thursday. Here is a collection of them all.
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