Rory McIlroy acknowledges the crowd after his birdie at the 18th – image USGA
Patrick Cantlay and Rory McIlroy, after their opening rounds of 5 under 65, lead the US Open at Pinehurst # 2 on a day in which scoring proved a lot better than most were predicting ahead of the event.
33 players are at even par or better under and close to 50 are within six of the leaders as the championship enters day two.
Cantlay is playing his 9th US Open and although without a top ten in those eight previous starts, he has yet to miss a cut and has finished inside the top 15 at each of his last three appearances.
“I made a bunch of putts inside, eight feet,” said Cantlay. “I think around this golf course, you’re going to leave yourself putts inside eight feet. That four- to eight-foot range. It important that you hole out. I did that well today.
“I thought the golf course played pretty difficult. But drove it well. A lot of balls on the fairway. Left the ball in the right spots, for the most part.”
McIlroy, perhaps playing with the freedom of a more settled personal life now that his divorce has been called off, was bogey-free in his round.
McIlroy referred to the fact that in more recent years he has embraced the concept of the US Open and the typical USGA setups for the event. He did win by eight shots at Congressional very early in his career but that was on a golf course that was set up more like a PGA Championship test and on a golf course softened by rain.
“I really don’t think I embraced U.S. Open setups probably 10 years into my U.S. Open career. Played my first one in ’09, and I think I really changed my mindset around them in 2019, that one in Pebble, and since then I’ve also started to enjoy this style of golf a lot more.
“It’s a lot different than the golf that we play week in, week out. I really appreciate that, and I’ve started to appreciate golf course architecture more and more as the years have went on, and I’ve started to read more about it and understand why golf course architects do certain things and design courses the way that they do.
“Just becoming more of a student of the game again, and I think because of that I’ve started to embrace golf courses like this and setups like this.”
McIlroy also talked about the approach he is taking into US Opens in more recent times.
“I think just super conservative with my strategy and my game. I think with my demeanor, just trying to be super stoic. Just trying to be as even-keeled as I possibly can be. I really feel like that’s the thing that has served me well in these U.S. Opens over the past few years.
“Just trying to be 100 percent committed to the shots and 100 percent committed to having a good attitude.”
McIlroy and Cantlay lead by one over arguably the game’s next superstar Ludvig Aberg who after finishing runner-up on debut at the Masters now finds himself very much into contention on debut at the US Open.
Aberg talked about the need for discipline in US Open style set-ups.
“I think staying very disciplined is important. There’s a lot of pins where you don’t really think about going for. So me and Joe, my caddie, we have a lot of good conversations about certain areas that you try to hit it on.
“It’s difficult to be very, very precise with the numbers and those things. But try to get a gauge on where to hit it, where to miss it, make sure that we stay disciplined towards things.”
Adam Scott tees off at the 4th today – image USGA
Adam Scott, playing in his 23rd consecutive US Open after getting a late start in the event, ground his way to 1 under with two to play but got caught up to the left of the par 4 8th hole (his 17th), took two more to reach the green, and then two-putted for a double bogey to slip to 1 over.
He would however birdie the par 3 9th from 20 feet, his last hole of the day, to finish at even par and just five from the lead. Scott will have an early tee time tomorrow to advance his cause.
Jason Day and Cam Smith are at 1 over, Day recovering from a horror start when 3 over through six to be well enough placed and like Scott will have an early tee time tomorrow.
Min Woo Lee and New Zealander Ryan Fox are at 3 over, Jason Scrivener at 4 over and Cam Davis at 7 over.
