This week is a bit of a slow sports week. The best options to watch are the World Cup which is in the Group Stage now. However, I will come back around and do an update/preview of the Knockout Stage (when the teams get down to the final 16). Today, I’ll talk about the US Open tournament which had some crazy happenings. Then, Tuesday through Thursday, I’ll do an NBA Draft series reviewing the top picks, potential strategies and the like with the Draft itself on Thursday, June 21st.
US Open
To me, the US Open is the toughest of the majors for a lot of reasons. The US Open is the longest tournament, so it hurts the middle level drivers. When you look at the last 3 years, you have 2 bombers winning the tournament. Plus, the US Open always challenges players with crazy conditions. Shinnecock is a very difficult golf course. However, the USGA did not do the players any favors this weekend.
Major Cuts
Tell me when in a PGA tournament you would have this list of names not making the cut. For the newbies, in professional golf, the tournament starts with a very large number of players to start. In this US Open, there were 155 players who start the tournament. Then, after 2 days, the top 67 players were allowed to continue while the rest go home. Let’s look at the names on this list:
- Tiger Woods
- Jordan Spieth
- Rory McIlroy
- Jon Rahm
- Bubba Watson
- Jason Day
- Sergio Garcia
- Matt Kuchar
- Keegan Bradley
- Martin Kaymer
The cut line through 2 days was +8. So, that means that to be a top 67 player this year, you had to shoot 8 strokes above par in 2 rounds, that is nuts. They said that the course officials were trying to make the course really hard with unusual pin placements, drier greens, and of course the normal course conditions. Well, it worked.
Saturday Moving Down Day
In golf tournaments, Saturday is called “Moving Day” because the eventual leaders of the tournament make a move up the leaderboard typically. The hardest thing to do is be in contention, and so Saturday is the key day to give the player a chance to win the tournament. Well, I understand that the early groups benefitted from average conditions. However, the winds shifted on the course from the South, which makes the course almost unplayable. Going into to Saturday, #1 player in the world, Dustin Johnson was one of only 3 players under par. DJ was -4 with a 3 shot lead.
Well, DJ shot a 77 putting him +3 after the 3rd round. He was still tied for the lead, though. His training partner and defending champ, Brooks Koepka shot +2, but he was tied for the lead, too. A couple of guys who went out in the AM jumped up the leader board – Tony Finau (now famous for dislocating his ankle in the Par 3 before the Masters – as he popped it back in and played well that weekend) put up a 66 to grab a share of the lead. Also, Daniel Berger shot a 66 to get in the lead, too.
The Mickelson
The rest of the field got crushed. Phil Mickelson, on his birthday, was playing ok, but on Hole 13, something happened that you may never see again. Phil missed a putt on the green that had a slope past the hole. So, as the ball eased past the hole and down the hill, Phil ran up to it and actually putted the moving ball back towards the hole. Yes, that is not legal. At the time, the announcers didn’t know what was happening. Did Phil just get frustrated? Did he lose his mind temporarily? After the round, he said he did it intentionally despite the penalty. Phil took a 10 on the hole, which is +6 over par on one hole. That score led to an 81 and effectively eliminating him from contention. Golf purists thought besides assessing the 2 stroke penalty, that Phil should be disqualified from the tournament. To me, he did the shot and took the penalty, move on, but on talk shows across America, people are debating this point.
Here is the video: https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/tennis/phil-mickelson-has-meltdown-on-13th-green/vp-AAyJknL
On Saturday, only 3 players went under par for the round, as opposed to 4 in Round 1 and 14 in Round 2.
Final Round
The Shinnecock course crews spent a lot of time watering the greens to give the players a better shot to score on Sunday. They also changed the pin placements, so the holes were not so punitive if people had good shots but putts on crazy slopes. So, Sunday the tournament got exciting. 14 players went under par.
My guy, Rickie Fowler who shot an 84 (+14 for the Round!!) on Saturday had no shot on Sunday, but he put up a 65 in the Final Round really signaling that Shinnecock could be had.
The best performance was by Tommy Fleetwood. Fleetwood was 6 shots back to start, then he got hot. On the front 9, he was rolling with 4 birdies and just one bogey. However, on the back 9, he was on fire – 4 straight birdies on Holes 12, 13, 14 and 15. Unfortunately, he missed birdie putts on 17 and 18, which could have given him a single round record. Still Fleetwood’s 63 on this course is incredible and launched him in the Top 3.
The tournament would fall into the Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson group – the last 2 US Open Champs – Koepka defending his championship and DJ the 2016 winner. On the front 9, DJ struggled on holes he needed to birdie on. Koepka shot birdies on 3 of his first 5 holes to take control. DJ was able to birdie the 8th hole to get within 1 stroke at the turn. On the back 9, Koepka started with a birdie on Hole 10 to get the lead back to 2, and the critical 14th hole left DJ with a bogey giving another stroke to the lead. Both players got birdies on the 15th, and then with 3 holes to play, Koepka only had to hang on with a 3 shot lead. He did despite putting up a bogey on 18 and a DJ birdie. Brooks Koepka finishes +1 for the tournament and 1 shot ahead of Fleetwood and 2 shots over DJ.
Brooks Koepka became the 7th player to repeat as US Open Champion and the first since Curtis Strange did it in 1989 – 29 years ago.
Aftermath
I think the USGA will probably look long and hard at the course conditions for 2019. Yes, the Sunday round probably saved the tournament. However, it is not a fun viewing experience seeing the best of the best not make the cut and shoot way over par. No players under par for the tournament. Only 15 players shot better than +10 for the tournament. That is insane to me. The course was just too hard, and the hole placements and course conditions contributed to that, which is controllable.
Alright, next stop The Open (the 147th) will be played at Carnoustie in Angus, Scotland starting on Thursday, July 19th.
Wegs