Shinnecock Hills has proven to be a tough test for U.S. Open players thus far. While many will bitch and moan about balls rolling off the greens and say that it is too difficult because they want to see a bunch of birdies, I disagree.
The fairways were widened. The greens were expanded. Players have plenty of opportunities to take advantage of the course, yet because the winds are gusty on the island and there is no rough around the greens in which players can rely upon to stop their ball from running off of them, their strategies must change. Players can no longer expect to hit the ball onto the green and see it stop a foot over. Instead, they’re watching as their balls roll 20 yards over the green to a collection area leaving them with a very difficult chip back up onto the green.
I enjoy this because it shows not only which players have the overall game to handle not only the conditions, but also the ability to place the ball in the proper spot on the green while dealing with the winds.
So far, four guys have handled the course well. Ironically, two of those have won the Houston Open in the last few years…Russell Henley and Ian Poulter.
However, the guy that many wouldn’t expect to be here, Dustin Johnson, is. Obviously, many have underestimated his abilities as a complete golfer and have written him off as nothing but a long hitter. That couldn’t be farther from the truth as he is dominating in so many statistics that it is clear to anyone with a brain that he is A LOT better than just a long drive.
Johnson carded a first round … nice … 69, along with Henley, Poulter, and Scott Piercy.
Of the four of them, I feel like Johnson and Poulter have the best chance at holding onto the lead and or sticking around until Sunday.
***
While those guys were taking things in stride, several, as we posted earlier in the day, did not.
Tiger Woods got off to a horrible start with an opening triple-bogey and bogey, but found his form until the 11th hole when he carded another bogey. He then added a double-bogey on the 14th and one on the 15th to quickly drop from +3 to +8.
Tiger wasn’t the only one who struggled though, just check the list below…
- +5 – Jimmy Walker
- +5 – Brooks Koepka
- +5 – Hideki Matsuyama
- +5 – Sergio Garcia
- +5 – Tommy Fleetwood
- +6 – Daniel Berger
- +6 – Bryson DeChambeau
- +7 – Bubba Watson
- +7 – Phil Mickelson
- +8 – Jordan Spieth
- +8 – Jon Rahm
- +8 – Ernie Els
- +8 – Tiger Woods
- +8 – Adam Scott
- +9 – Jason Day
- +9 – Charl Schwartzel
- +10 – Rory McIlroy
- +11 – Keegan Bradley
Honestly, FOX is probably shaking right now at the thought of all of these guys missing the cut. It’s not great for them to have only DJ and Rose around the top of the leaderboard at a major championship on the weekend and an Ian Poulter lead would probably destroy US ratings.
Friday is going to be very important, but don’t expect the guys who are +7 right now to turn in clean cards of -4 and make it to see Saturday.
PS – I’ll get this hot take out of the way now…
Maybe Rory shouldn’t have played those other 18 rounds at courses that aren’t Shinnecock.