Zalatoris, Fitzpatrick share US Open lead as The County Club bares teeth
BROOKLINE—England’s Matt Fitzpatrick and American Will Zalatoris, each chasing his first major title, shared the lead after Saturday’s third round of the US Open as brisk wind and brutal rough tormented golf’s top stars.
Fitzpatrick birdied three of the last five holes at The Country Club but a closing bogey left him level with Zalatoris, last month’s PGA Championship runner-up, on fourunder par 206, one ahead of defending champion Jon Rahm after 54 holes. “I knew it was going to play hard and I just needed to stay patient,” Zalatoris said. “I knew if I make an early bogey or two, don’t change the game plan, don’t try to get extra aggressive because that’s how you make a mess of it.”
Zalatoris, also last year’s Masters runner-up, fired a three-under 67 while Fitzpatrick, the 2013 US Amateur winner at The Country Club, fired a 68.
“Wind was really strong. It made it tough,” Fitzpatrick said. “You had to be switched on with the way you were hitting it, where you were missing it, and I think that was why it was a great challenge. Really happy with my score.”
The Country Club bared its teeth in formidable conditions to humble world number two Rahm, four-time major winner Rory McIlroy, top-ranked Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and two-time major winner Collin Morikawa among others.
“It was one of the toughest days on a golf course I’ve had in a long time,” McIlroy said after a 73.
Fitzpatrick can match Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the US Amateur and Open on the same course, Nicklaus doing it at Pebble Beach.
“It gives me an edge,” the Briton said. “To come back here and play so well again, it gives me growing confidence round by round.”
Fitzpatrick found a bunker at 18 and missed a 21-foot par putt while Zalatoris escaped a bunker to five feet and parred 18.
“This place is a beast,” Zalatoris said. “It was brutal.”
Spaniard Rahm stumbled with early bogeys, one at the par-5 eighth after his tee shot landed behind a tree, but birdied the par-5 14th, sank a 29-foot birdie putt at 15 and birdied 17 only for the unrelenting course to strike again.
At 18, Rahm found a fairway bunker and blasted his second shot into thick grass that batted it back into the sand. His third was a “fried egg” into a greenside bunker and he blasted out and two-putted for 71.