Key events
The defending champion Bryson DeChambeau gets a lucky break with his opening tee shot. He sends it towards Fleetwood Country down the left, but his ball stops on a pathway trodden down by the paying punters. He sends his second onto the front of the green, but the camber takes the ball off to the right and nestles up against the fringe. He doesn’t make a good contact with his putt, which bobbles then races ten feet past the flag. He can’t make the one coming back – “Misread!” he yelps – and that’s a messy opening bogey for last year’s winner.
Tommy Fleetwood came so close to this title in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills, his final round of 63 not quite enough to pip Brooks Koepka. That year’s runner-up hopes to go one better this time round, but he’s not off to the best start, sending his tee shot at 1 into a ditch down the left. He’s forced to take a penalty drop, and does well to eventually limit the damage to bogey by tickling in a 12-foot putt. He’s +1.
While Alistair Docherty was faffing about, his playing partner Zac Blair made the first birdie of the week with a 30-foot rake across 10. But never mind that, because Maxwell Moldovan, playing in his fourth consecutive US Open, holes out from 189 yards (!) on 1 to make the first eagle of this 125th edition. It’s some shot as well, landing on the front of the green, appearing to slow towards a halt, only to somehow keep rolling, keep rolling, keep rolling and in. The greens are lightning, did anyone say?
-2: Moldovan (1)
-1: Blair (2*), Spaun (1*), Åberg (1*)
Let’s start as we mean to go on … by acknowledging the first double bogey of the week. All hail Alistair Docherty, who might be the first but sure won’t be the last. The 31-year-old Korn Ferry Tour regular from Washington state requires two attempts to chip up onto the green from a short-sided position on 10, and he’s +2 in short order.
Preamble
Earlier this week, the DP World Tour socials collared a few pros and asked them what an 18-handicapper would shoot at Oakmont this week. The most generous estimate was 120; Bryson DeChambeau guessed 100, but that’s just on the front nine. Several of them were certain they’d have to walk in, having lost all of their balls.
As for the pros? Take the last couple of US Opens to be held here. Angel Cabrera won in 2007 with a final total of +5. In 2016, Shane Lowry held a four-stroke lead going into the final round only to shoot 76 and let Dustin Johnson in. This place – the jungle rough, the upturned-saucer greens, the excitable needle on the stimpmeter – makes mincemeat of the best of them. The lowest winning total at a US Open here is -5, and it took Ben Hogan to manage that, for goodness sake. (To be fair, Johnny Miller and Ernie Els won with -5 as well, Miller shooting the first-ever 63 in a major while doing so, but let’s not cloud the issue.)
So this should be fun. Yes it will. Here are the tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST, (a) denotes amateur). It’s on!
Starting at hole 1
11.45 Trent Phillips, Kevin Velo, (a) Matt Vogt
11.56 Chandler Blanchet, Alvaro Ortiz (Mex), Doug Ghim
12.07 (a) Evan Beck, Justin B. Hicks, Maxwell Moldovan
12.18 Keegan Bradley, Harris English, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
12.29 Jose Luis Ballester (Spa), Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele
12.40 Wyndham Clark, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Gary Woodland
12.51 Akshay Bhatia, Robert MacIntyre (Sco), Matt McCarty
13.02 Cameron Davis (Aus), Thomas Detry (Bel), Davis Thompson
13.13 Richard Bland (Eng), Lanto Griffin, (a) Trevor Gutschewski
13.24 Ryan Gerard, Edoardo Molinari (Ita), Sam Stevens
13.35 (a) Noah Kent, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), Thorbjoern Olesen (Den)
13.46 Jinichiro Kozuma (Jpn), (a) Cameron Tankersley, Chase Johnson
13.57 Philip Barbaree, Brady Calkins, Riley Lewis
17.30 Sam Bairstow (Eng), Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Frederic Lacroix (Fra)
17.41 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Joe Highsmith, Ryan Fox (Nzl)
17.52 Jacob Bridgeman, Victor Perez (Fra), Adam Schenk
18.03 Brooks Koepka, Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Justin Thomas
18.14 Sam Burns, Nicolas Echavarria (Col), Denny McCarthy
18.25 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Collin Morikawa, Scottie Scheffler
18.36 Corey Conners (Can), Jason Day (Aus), Patrick Reed
18.47 Daniel Berger, Bud Cauley, Joaquin Niemann (Chi)
18.58 Tony Finau, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Chris Kirk
19.09 Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Stephan Jaeger (Ger), (a) Benjamin James
19.20 Laurie Canter (Eng), (a) Justin Hastings (Cay), Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (Den)
19.31 Roberto Diaz (Mex), Emilio Gonzalez (Mex), (a) Frankie Harris
19.42 Joey Herrera, George Kneiser, Grant Haefner
Starting at hole 10
11.45 Zachary Blair, Alistair Docherty, Scott Vincent (Zim)
11.56 Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa), Jordan Smith (Eng), Eric Cole
12.07 Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Taylor Pendrith (Can), J. J. Spaun
12.18 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Adam Scott (Aus)
12.29 Ben Griffin, Maverick McNealy, Andrew Novak
12.40 Shane Lowry (Irl), Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Justin Rose (Eng)
12.51 Patrick Cantlay, Lucas Glover, Si-Woo Kim (Kor)
13.02 Brian Harman, Phil Mickelson, Cameron Smith (Aus)
13.13 Brian Campbell, Justin Lower, Niklas Noergaard (Den)
13.24 Johnny Keefer, (a) Jackson Koivun, Davis Riley
13.35 James Hahn, Mark Hubbard, (a) Michael La Sasso
13.46 Chris Gotterup, (a) Mason Howell, Joakim Lagergren (Swe)
13.57 Zachary Bauchou, Jackson Buchanan, (a) Lance Simpson
17.30 Will Chandler, Andrea Pavan (Ita), Takumi Kanaya (Jpn)
17.41 (a) Bryan Lee, Guido Migliozzi (Ita), Preston Summerhays
17.52 Max Greyserman, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa), Matt Wallace (Eng)
18.03 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Russell Henley, Nick Taylor (Can)
18.14 Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm (Spa), Jordan Spieth
18.25 Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Sung-Jae Im (Kor), Sepp Straka (Aut)
18.36 Tom Hoge, J. T. Poston, Cameron Young
18.47 Michael Kim, Matthieu Pavon (Fra), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven)
18.58 Nick Dunlap, Marc Leishman (Aus), Aaron Rai (Eng)
19.09 Matthew Jordan (Eng), Carlos Ortiz (Mex), Yuta Sugiura (Jpn)
19.20 Trevor Cone, Ryan McCormick, (a) Zachery Pollo
19.31 James Nicholas, (a) Tyler Weaver (Eng), Riki Kawamoto (Jpn)
19.42 George Duangmanee, Harrison Ott, Austen Truslow