Lee and Fox fail to break par but remain in mix
Late bogeys have blighted Danny Lee’s opening round at the US Open.
The Kiwi golfer got to two-under par after 13 holes at Winged Foot, but dropped two shots in his last five holes — including three bogeys and a birdie — to slip to even par for the day.
Lee is five shots behind leader Justin Thomas, in a share of 22nd.
The other New Zealander in the field, Ryan Fox, had a tough day, carding four-over in a birdieless round to sit tied for 92nd, yet wasn’t distraught with his performance.
“I was just a little off from the tee. I had a lot of decent shots that ended up missing fairways by a couple of yards,” he says. “It’s just absolutely dead around Winged Foot, I didn’t make a birdie, which is probably the first time I’ve done that in a long time. It was just a bit blah, really.”
Fox started on the front nine and was off the pace early with a bogey on the second hole. He achieved 10 consecutive pars before dropping another shot on the 13th and a further two bogeys before finishing. But the Kiwi is not worried about his game, and felt an element of comfort.
“I wasn’t really in trouble too much, and I didn’t look like making any doubles. There was definitely some signs of life. I hit some decent iron shots, my short game was tidy.” Fox knows he is still in the mix. “The scoring is certainly going to come back in the over par direction in the next few days. I just need to have a decent day [today] to get myself back in the tournament.
“I think still anything around even par is probably going to win this golf tournament. Potentially if it firms up and the wind blows a little bit, the guys at the top will come back . . . it definitely will be over par, like it has been in previous years.
“Everyone’s going to have a bad day around here at some point and hopefully that was me [yesterday].”
For all the hype and history of the punishment Winged Foot has doled out over the years. Thomas took advantage of a surprisingly soft and gentle morning with a five-under 65, the lowest score in six US Opens on this tough Tillinghast design.
All that got him was a one-shot lead over Patrick Reed, Thomas Pieters of Belgium and Matthew Wolff, the 21-year-old Californian making his US Open debut.
Rory McIlroy was among those two shots behind on a scoreboard filled with red numbers, an unusual sight at a Winged Foot course that has never yielded so many rounds under par — 21 — in the opening round of a US Open.
“It’s helpful with three days left but it’s not even remotely close to being over,” Thomas said of his best start at any major. “As great a round and fun as it was, it’s over with now, and I need to get over it.”
He played with Masters champion Tiger Woods and PGA champion Collin Morikawa, who couldn’t get done fast enough.
Woods was in five bunkers through five holes and then appeared to steady himself with three straight birdies around the turn to get under par, but only briefly. He made three bogeys coming in, still had a chance to post a reasonable score and then let it get away.
From short of the steep shelf fronting the 18th green, he flubbed a flop shot, pitched the next one about eight feet beyond the pin and missed the putt to take double bogey for a 73.
“I did not finish off the round like I needed to,” Woods said.
Neither did Morikawa, who shot 40 on the back nine for a 76.
Pieters and Wolff dropped only one shot along the way while playing in the afternoon, when the greens became a little more difficult because of all the foot traffic. Even so, low scores — at least by Winged Foot standards — kept coming.
Louis Oosthuizen shot 30 on the front nine, after starting on 10, including a shot he holed from the fairway on No 2 for an eagle. He shot 67 and joined the group that included Lee Westwood and McIlroy.
“There’s a couple of guys that went a little lower than maybe expected,” McIlroy said. “But it’s not as if the rest of the field are finding it that easy.” Raise your hand, Phil Mickelson. Returning to the scene of a double bogey on the 72nd hole that cost him the 2006 US Open, Mickelson opened with two birdies and still struggled to break 80. He went rough-to-rough on the 18th and shot 79. Dustin Johnson, the No 1 player in the world, couldn’t make putts and shot 73. With AP