Fox, Lee struggling at US Open
Lights go out for Kiwis in Massachusetts: Battle ahead to stay on the pace and make cut
Kiwi golfers Ryan Fox and Danny Lee struggled to keep pace yesterday with the leaders in the first round of the US Open in Massachusetts.
Fox, playing his second major of the year, finished his first day at The Country Club in Brookline with a 4-over 74, eight strokes behind leader Adam Hadwin of Canada.
Fox made three birdies, five bogeys and a costly double bogey at the 15th in difficult windy conditions to sit in a tie for 102nd.
Fellow New Zealander Lee, who also had a late tee-off time, had a tougher day, with a 6-over 76, including seven bogeys and just one birdie.
Both will have plenty of work to do to make the cut.
On the LPGA Tour, Lydia Ko had an up-and-down day at the Meijer LPGA Classic in Belmont, Michigan. Ko shot a 2-under 70 but trails American Jennifer Kupcho by five shots after the first round.
Hadwin can be excused for the opening round of the US Open — the so-called toughest test in golf — giving him a chance to exhale.
Hadwin was home in Canada last week for his own national open, an even bigger deal because the pandemic had cancelled the Canadian Open the previous two years and the golf-mad fans brought enormous energy.
Plus he has been immune from the endless chatter and speculation of the Saudi-backed rival league that consumed attention all week at The Country Club.
Small wonder he walked off yesterday with a 4-under 66 for this best score in 63 rounds at major championships and a one-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and four others.
“Nice to get down here and a couple of days’ rest and get going for this week,” Hadwin said. “Not that the golf course gets any easier. But, yeah, it definitely felt a little more relaxed than last week.”
Any lingering thoughts of the rival league came from McIlroy — not from anything he said but with the golf he played.
This time, his bold statement came a clean card and a few tough pars required at the US Open. McIlroy didn’t make a bogey until his final hole when he missed the green and flung his club, a brief fit of anger that revealed as much desire as frustration.
He had a 67 that left him in the large chasing pack with four players, all of whom had to go through 36-hole qualifying — Callum Tarren of England, David Lingmerth of Sweden, MJ Daffue of South Africa and Joel Dahmen.
At the opposite end was Phil Mickelson, who celebrated his 52nd birthday — on the golf course, anyway — with a four-putt double bogey on his way to a 78.
Hadwin ran off three straight birdies to finish the front nine in 31, and he dropped only one shot on the back nine for his 66. His previous low score in a major was 68 on three occasions, most recently the first round of the 2020 PGA Championship at Harding Park.
McIlroy has become a leading voice on the PGA Tour in recent years, particularly with his rebuke of the Saudi-funded series that is disrupting golf. Yesterday was a reminder he’s pretty good at his day job, too.
McIlroy made two straight birdies late in his round to become the first player to reach 4-under, only to miss the ninth green and make his only bogey.
“It has been eight years since I won a major,” he said. “And I just want to get my hands on one again.”
Even with a good start, and coming off a victory last week in the Canadian Open, it doesn’t figure to be easy for McIlroy or anyone else. The Country Club might be as accommodating as it gets all week, with moderate wind and cloud cover keeping the sun from making greens crispy and firm.
And the best anyone could do was a 66.
The group at 68 included twotime major winner Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the US Amateur at Brookline in
2013.
McIlroy, the first to shut down talk of rival leagues in 2020, spoke passionately this week about building on the legacy handed down by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus. For those taking the guaranteed money for
54-hole events, he said it felt like “the easy way out”.
But now it’s time for golf, and there a vibe of relief that focus could turn to a US Open that first came to Brookline more than a century ago. Yesterday was more about birdies and bogeys — mostly the latter in a US Open — and a place in history.
No other major is more open — roughly half the 156-man field has to qualify — and it showed.