WINGED CLIPPED
Open course not as fierce as feared in first round
By MARK CANNIZZARO
What was expected to be a bloodbath Thursday at Winged Foot turned out to be nothing more than a warm bath.
Instead of wreaking havoc on the field of 144 players, mighty Winged Foot was somewhat tame for the opening round of the U.S. Open, producing a stunning 21 players in red — under-par — numbers.
Before the tournament began as they played practice rounds, most players predicted the final score by tournament’s end to be somewhere north of par, as it was for four of the five previous U.S. Opens at Winged Foot.
To the contrary, the leader, Justin Thomas, carded a 5-under 65, which was the lowest score ever recorded in the six U.S. Opens played on the venerable West Course.
Thomas is followed closely by Patrick Reed, whose round was buoyed by a hole-in-one on the seventh hole, Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff, all of whom are 4-under par. Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood and Louis Oosthuizen are all two shots back.
“Yeah, 65 is fun no matter where you play, especially at Winged Foot,’’ Thomas said. “It’s one of the best rounds I’ve played in a while tee to green. I was in a really good frame of mind and I was focused. I just was sticking to my routine and playing every shot, as opposed to getting ahead of myself.
“It’s one of those rounds where it’s just kind of like, next thing you know, you make the putt on 18, you’re done for the day.’’
Thomas put an exclamation point on his round with a long birdie putt on 18 to take the solo lead among the first wave of players in the first round. Thomas was hardly basking in the lead after one round, though.
“It’s helpful with three days left, but it’s not even remotely close to being over,’’ he said. “As great of a round and fun as it was, it’s over with now, and I need to get over it because I got 54 more holes to try to play well and shoot some good scores.’’
McIlroy, who hasn’t won a major championship since 2014, felt pressure to get off to a good start.
“The first round of a major, you’re always anxious to play well, and maybe I’ve overthought it at times,’’ he said. “I just went out today and just took what was given to me a little more relaxed and played really nicely.
“I played the par-3s really well, played those in 3-under for the day. I drove the ball better. I put the ball in play much more than I have done in the previous few weeks. That bodes well. Hopefully, I can keep that going over the next three days.’’
The consensus among the players as they completed their respective rounds, was that Thursday was their one chance to get after Winged Foot.
“We had kind of ideal conditions out there for the first round of a U.S. Open,’’ Adam Scott said after shooting 71. “There’s no wind and the greens are soft still. So, these scores of 4-under or whatever is very, very realistic if you do hit enough fairways.
“The pin placements I felt were generous today, a little bit Augustalike. When you hit the right shot at the right time, it’s going to move towards the pin. Provided you did the right things at the right time, there were some birdies to be made.
“I kind of feel like that’s the M.O. of this tournament. Thursday there are often scores that do get shot in the U.S. Open and gradually the course cranks up. I see it playing tougher the next few days.’’ Westwood agreed. “As the golf course firms out and a little bit of wind picks up, which is likely, and the pin positions obviously get tougher, it won’t yield as many low scores,’’ he said. “Today was obviously the day to get off to a decent start and get some credit.
“It’s very condition dependent. I’m not shocked to see somebody shot 5-under par and see a few scores right behind him. It would surprise me if 5-under is not the best score of the week at the end of the week. If anyone shoots any lower than that, they’ll have really played well.’’