Key events
An opening bogey for the six-time runner-up Phil Mickelson, the result of an errant drive on 1. Matteo Manassero’s woes continue: he follows up his triple bogey at 10 with a double at 12 and now bogey at 14. He props up the early leaderboard at +6, but you can bet your last buck someone will be joining him down there soon enough. Meanwhile up the other end, another early starter hits the front: Logan McAllister, a 24-year-old qualifier from Oklahoma making his US Open debut, hits a sensational second at the par-five 5th from 254 yards to seven feet, then steers in the putt to card the first eagle of the week.
-2: McAllister (5)
-1: McKibbin (5*), Power (4*), Morales -a- (3), Widing (3*), Woods (2*), Kuchar (1*), Finau (1*)
A similar fate befalls Matt Fitzpatrick on 11. His ball lands softly in the centre of the green … but not softly enough to hold on. Over the back he goes, and his putt up the bank almost comes back to his feet. He decides to chip second time around, and screeches his ball to a halt four feet from the flag. Possibly what he should have done the first time around. He rolls in the putt to limit the damage to bogey, and he’s back to level par. Meanwhile over on 14, McKibbin chips up to eight feet then walks in the par saver. This already feels like a proper US Open. Brutal but brilliantly entertaining.
An opening birdie for major-title nearly man Matt Kuchar at the par-five 10th. Up on 14, meanwhile, a first test of patience for Tom McKibbin, who looks to have sent a perfect second into the green, only for the ball to slo-o-o-owly topple off down a bank to the right. With not much green to work with, he’s got some work ahead if he’s to get up and down from there.
Tiger Woods is out early, and the three-time champion hasn’t taken long to make his mark. He sends his second at the par-five 10th into the tatty scrub to the right of the fairway. But he wedges his third from 60 yards to 12 feet, then walks in the birdie putt. He’s not lost it. Birdie too for the 2022 champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who is going round with Woods today. And up on 13, a birdie for Tom McKibbin, the 21-year-old from Holywood, the same club a certain Rory McIlroy played as a young pup. He’s already got the European Open on his CV, and some folk will tell you he has the potential to go as far, perhaps even further, as the 2011 champion. Well, making his major debut this week, he’s off to a good start.
-1: McKibbin (4*), Power (3*), Morales -a- (2), Woods (1*), Fitzpatrick (1*)
Seamus Power, who tied for 12th at Brookline a couple of years ago, birdies 11 to join the lads at -1. On Sky, pundit Rich Beem explains how the way Pinehurst is set up – not so much in the way of particularly penal rough, but lots of sand and scrub, and turtle-back greens with lots of dramatic run-off – could play into the soft hands of another Irish star, Shane Lowry. A top-drawer chipping game, and a reputation for being able to conjure something up to get out of bother, is a positive boon this week. Here, that being said, how about Jordan Spieth, who may be out of form and a 66-1 outsider in some places, but has Seve-esque escapology skills, and won at Chambers Bay in 2015 when the ball was rolling all over the shop? Each-way could be your friend.
… so there’s something rather sweet about the first birdies of the week being made by amateurs! Parker Bell, a 20-year-old who plays for the University of Florida, birdied 1, some way to begin your debut round at a US Open; the 21-year-old Mexican Omar Morales, playing in his second consecutive US Open, soon matched the feat. It can’t last – it won’t last – so it’s only fair to mark their achievement with the first leaderboard of the week.
-1: Bell -a- (1), Morales -a- (1)
As the sun rose, Carter Jenkins, Logan McAllister and Michael McGowan took the first shots of this tournament at the 1st. Meanwhile over on 10, Rico Hoey, Matteo Manassero and Tom McKibbin were starting out at 10. With much discussion regarding the difficulty of Pinehurst No.2 this week, it’s perhaps instructive to note that of the six players mentioned above, only McAllister and McKibben managed par. Jenkins made bogey, Hoey and McGowan doubled, and Manassero began his round with a triple-bogey eight, the result of a putt from the bottom of a swale coming back to his feet. Welcome to the US Open, ladies and gentlemen!
Preamble
The world number one Scottie Scheffler is the very short-priced to win his first US Open and his sixth PGA Tour event in his last nine starts. He’s already got this year’s Masters Tournament and Players Championship in the bag, and let’s be honest, there’s a fair chance he’d have landed the PGA Championship too, had he not been farcically arrested on the Friday morning, and had the Tour chaplain standing in for his regular caddie on Saturday. The man’s as cool as a long glass of Arnold Palmer on the porch in the summer shade. If he’s not in the mix come Sunday afternoon, it’ll be a surprise.
Then again, the US Open is golf’s hardest test, and can make a mug of anyone. (The defending champion Wyndham Clark has been pointing out to anyone that will listen that the hard, fast, domed greens are “borderline”, so expect some high-jinks.) It’s a tournament that often throws up a surprise winner – Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick, Gary Woodland, Graeme McDowell and, at the last two US Opens held at Pinehurst, Michael Campbell and Martin Kaymer – so take your pick from a star-packed field. The usual suspects will of course fancy their chances – Scheffler, the new PGA champ Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, the resurgent Collin Morikawa, Viktor and Ludvig, Bryson and Brooks – so there’s plenty of potential for a major for the ages.
Here are the tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST, (a) denotes amateurs). It’s on!
Starting at hole 1
1145 Carter Jenkins, Logan McAllister, Michael McGowan
1156 (a) Parker Bell, Frederik Kjettrup (Den), Christopher Petefish
1207 Max Greyserman, Casey Jarvis (Rsa), (a) Omar Morales (Mex)
1218 Corey Conners (Can), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Stephan Jaeger (Ger)
1229 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn), Francesco Molinari (Ita)
1240 Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas
1251 Rickie Fowler, Adam Hadwin (Can), Phil Mickelson
1302 Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Sahith Theegala
1313 Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Matthieu Pavon (Fra)
1324 Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Robert Rock (Eng), (a) Neal Shipley
1335 (a) Stewart Hagestad, Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Mac Meissner
1346 Jim Herman, (a) Bryan Kim, Isaiah Salinda
1357 (a) Colin Prater, Charles Reiter, Carson Schaake
1730 Brandon Thompson (Eng), Jason Scrivener (Aus), (a) Brendan Valdes
1741 Sam Bairstow (Eng), (a) Santiago De la Fuente (Mex), Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra (Spa)
1752 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Kurt Kitayama, Taylor Moore
1803 Jason Day (Aus), Harris English, Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor)
1814 Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler
1825 Wyndham Clark, Nick Dunlap, Brian Harman
1836 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Jon Rahm (Spa), Jordan Spieth
1847 Keegan Bradley, Martin Kaymer (Ger), Shane Lowry (Irl)
1858 Akshay Bhatia, Eric Cole, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
1909 Alexander Noren (Swe), Taylor Pendrith (Can), Brendon Todd
1920 (a) Jackson Buchanan, Brian Campbell, Thomas Detry (Bel)
1931 (a) Gunnar Broin, Maxwell Moldovan, Taisei Shimuzu (Jpn)
1942 John Chin, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor), Riki Kawamoto (Jpn)
Starting at hole 10
1145 Rico Hoey (Phi), Matteo Manassero (Ita), Tom McKibbin (NIrl)
1156 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn), Seamus Power (Irl)
1207 Seong-Hyeon Kim (Kor), Justin Lower, Tim Widing (Swe)
1218 Sam Burns, Lucas Glover, Cameron Smith (Aus)
1229 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Tiger Woods, Will Zalatoris
1240 Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, Matt Kuchar
1251 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Tony Finau, Dustin Johnson
1302 Justin Rose (Eng), Webb Simpson, Gary Woodland
1313 Daniel Berger, Ryan Fox (Nzl), David Puig (Spa)
1324 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Sam Bennett, Edoardo Molinari (Ita)
1335 Cameron Davis (Aus), Austin Eckroat, Adrian Meronk (Pol)
1346 Zachary Blair, Aaron Rai (Eng), Davis Thompson
1357 Willie Mack III, Richard Mansell (Eng), (a) Ashton McCulloch (Can)
1730 Grant Forrest (Sco), Greyson Sigg, (a) Wells Williams
1741 Chesson Hadley, Mark Hubbard, Adam Svensson (Can)
1752 Beau Hossler, Victor Perez (Fra), Adam Schenk
1803 Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Nick Taylor (Can)
1814 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Tom Hoge
1825 Bryson DeChambeau, Max Homa, Viktor Hovland (Nor)
1836 Peter Malnati, J. T. Poston, Sepp Straka (Aut)
1847 Jake Knapp, (a) Gordon Sargent, Cameron Young
1858 Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk, Adam Scott (Aus)
1909 (a) Benjamin James, Ben Kohles, Denny McCarthy
1920 Frankie Capan, (a) Luke Clanton, Andrew Svoboda
1931 Harry Higgs, (a) Hiroshi Tai (Sgp), Brandon Wu
1942 Otto Black, Chris Naegel, Joey Vrzich
