Scottie Scheffler insisted Shinnecock Hills offered a ‘good battle’ throughout a windy opening spherical on the US Open, the place lots of the world’s greatest struggled in one other robust main take a look at.
The long-lasting New York course had produced controversy the final two occasions it hosted the US Open, with no participant breaking par in the course of the remaining spherical of the 2004 contest earlier than slick greens and questionable pins produced third-round chaos within the 2018 version.
There have been considerations that robust winds would trigger issues once more this 12 months, with predicted gusts of over 40 miles per hour on Thursday, inflicting the USGA to take motion to keep away from disruption from a ‘problematic’ forecast.
The USGA diminished the velocity of the greens and syringed them between the morning and afternoon waves, decreasing the prospect of balls blowing off the super-fast greens, whereas gusts barely weaker than forecasted additionally prevented the wind from inflicting a stoppage.
Sustained gusts nonetheless left gamers battling to interrupt par, with simply six of the 78 gamers within the morning wave capturing a spherical within the 60s, whereas Scheffler’s bid to finish the profession Grand Slam opened with a two-under 72.
“It felt like a day where a lot of good shots were going to get punished is,” Scheffler stated. “You needed to be hitting an important shot should you wished to keep away from a punishment. I believe good [shots] would put you in some robust spots.
“Overall, it was a really challenging day. If you told me when I was staring at my par putt on nine that I would post two over today, I would definitely have taken it. It was a good battle.”
Enjoying companion JJ Spaun noticed a tee shot on a par-three cease on the inexperienced however roll right into a bunker earlier than he may attain it, whereas a number of gamers skilled balls oscillating with out it being sever sufficient to halt play.
“Obviously it got quite windy, but you couldn’t have asked for a better set-up,” Padraig Harrington stated. “There obviously was a couple of tough holes, but all the tees were up. The pins were as easy as can be. Greens were soft. So it was a tough test but very, very fair.”
Tommy Fleetwood added: “I think they did an amazing job of making it as fair as you could possibly make a test of golf today, with the conditions that they had.”
McIlroy: Pars ‘have been going to be good’ on ‘prudent’ set-up
Play was halted for 2 hours early on the opening morning for fog, leaving the primary spherical unable to be accomplished earlier than darkness, whereas winds usually are not forecasted to be as robust over the ultimate three days.
“It was tough around here without wind, and then it was blowing pretty hard – really hard,” Keegan Bradley stated after an opening-round 70. “The USGA did a great job setting the course up because if the greens were any faster or firmer, we might not be playing right now.”
Rory McIlroy had carded an opening-round 80 when the US Open was final held right here in 2018, however the world No 2 was pleased to complete under-par this time regardless of closing a one-under 69 with back-to-back bogeys.
“The greens are pretty slow and quite receptive,” McIlroy stated. “I believe they must be. It is a difficult golf course already, and you place 30-mile-an-hour winds on high of it, it assessments the perfect gamers on the planet fairly nicely.
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Rory McIlroy briefly jumped into the US Open lead in the course of the opening spherical after a sensational eagle on the par-five fifth
“I think they were prudent with the course set-up. Especially starting with 156 [players] the first two days, you just want to get everyone around without too much issue. They set the course up for that, at least today.
“Went out with the mindset that pars have been going to be good and should you may decide up a few birdies right here and there, that is all the time a bonus. Simply minimizing the errors – I did that for probably the most half.”
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