The 2015 champion Jordan Spieth is currently demonstrating the benefits of finding the fairway. Never the most accurate from the tee, he’s yet to hit one, and as a result he’s dropped shots at 1, 3 and 4. He’ll need all his scrambling genius this week, and he demonstrates that, too, getting up and down from sand at the short par-four 5th to haul himself back to +2. Spieth’s combined score for last four opening rounds at the US Open is +18. He’ll need to go some to put a dent into that surprisingly awful record today.
Henley is quickly joined at the top by Collin Morikawa. The reigning Open champion could be very dangerous here this week, with approach play at a premium to Brookline’s often small and tightly guarded greens. The best iron player in the world birdies 2 and 5, and while it’s early doors, the leaderboard is already taking shape.
-2: Morikawa (5), Henley (3*)
-1: Buckley (7*), NeSmith (7), Vick -a- (6), Scott (4), Muñoz (3)
Russell Henley is making his eighth start at the US Open this week. The 33-year-old from Georgia has yet to finish in the top ten, but he did tie for low amateur in 2010 at Pebble Beach, and enjoyed his best result last year at Torrey Pines with a tie for 13th. He’s started fast today, following up birdie at 10 by almost holing out from 180 yards at 12. He taps in for a second birdie and becomes the first man to reach -2.
Shall we start with news of the defending champion? It only seems right. Jon Rahm won last year’s event at Torrey Pines by steering in two big left-to-right breakers on 17 and 18. Golf being golf, his flat stick is letting him down as he sets about his defence. Short putts missed at 3 and 4, one for par, another for birdie, and he’s +1 so far. The second miss was a particular shame, as he’d sent a delightful short iron into 4, using the right-to-left slope of the green to gather his ball to four feet. Having said that, it was a downhill putt, and you don’t want to be leaving yourself too many of those this week.
Preamble
Yes, yes, the LIV Tour has been hanging around the run-up to the 122nd US Open at Brookline like a bad smell. But let’s not allow it to linger, for none of the players involved with the breakaway tour are considered particularly likely winners of the USGA’s flagship event. In fact, three of the top four favourites this week – Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas and defending champion Jon Rahm – have been vocal in their defence of the PGA Tour, while the other – new Masters champion Scottie Scheffler – gave the new format some side-eye ahead of last week’s Canadian Open, pointing out that “maybe outside of DJ”, he hadn’t “really noticed anyone missing this week”. Ouch!
Other dudes have to be taken into serious consideration. The Players champion and Masters nearly man Cam Smith. The FedEx champ Patrick Cantlay. Sam Burns, a three-time winner on Tour this season. The in-form Matthew Fitzpatrick. PGA runner-up Will Zalatoris. The two-time major winner Collin Morikawa. Hideki Matsuyama. Shane Lowry. Im Sung-jae. Xander Schauffele. Tony Finau. Viktor Hovland. Jordan Spieth. The Sonics. The Sonics. The Sonics.
Brookline is mainly remembered these days for the 1999 Ryder Cup, Justin Leonard, Ollie’s line, all that. But it’s hosted three previous US Opens, won by Curtis Strange in 1988, Julius Boros in 1963, and most famously of all, the amateur Francis Ouimet in 1913. A fame-infused roll call, right there.
Speaking of which, some of the big names go out early. It’s going to be a long day, so without further ado, here are the starting tee times for the first round. Pick your favourite and settle down for four days of major-championship golf. Three-round confections with shotgun starts have nothing on the United States Open Championship, baby. It’s on!
Starting at hole 1:
11:45 Matt McCarty, (a) Michael Thorbjornsen, Erik Barnes
11:56 Matthew NeSmith, Patrick Rodgers, (a) Travis Vick
12:07 Troy Merritt, (a) William Mouw, Andrew Putnam
12:18 Collin Morikawa, James Piot, Jon Rahm (Spa)
12:29 Max Homa, Adam Scott (Aus), Jordan Spieth
12:40 Daniel Berger, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel
12:51 Sebastian Munoz (Col), Alexander Noren (Swe), Harold Varner III
13:02 Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Cameron Young, Will Zalatoris
13:13 (a) Stewart Hagestad, Grayson Murray, Adam Schenk
13:24 Branden Grace (Rsa), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Guido Migliozzi (Ita)
13:35 Beau Hossler, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), Kalle Samooja (Fin)
13:46 Richard Mansell (Eng), Roger Sloan (Can), Tomoyasu Sugiyama (Jpn)
13:57 Keith Greene, Benjamin Silverman (Can), (a) Caleb Manuel
17:30 Kevin Chappell, Andrew Novak, Chase Seiffert
17:41 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Brian Stuard, Nick Hardy
17:52 Sam Horsfield (Eng), Shaun Norris (Rsa), Cameron Tringale
18:03 Sung Jae Im (Kor), Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi), Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
18:14 Tony Finau, Viktor Hovland (Nor), Justin Thomas
18:25 Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Min-Woo Lee (Aus), Seamus Power (Irl)
18:36 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Dustin Johnson, Webb Simpson
18:47 Shane Lowry (Irl), Phil Mickelson, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa)
18:58 Danny Lee (Nzl), (a) Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Nick Taylor (Can)
19:09 (a) Nick Dunlap, Jim Furyk, Adam Hadwin (Can)
19:20 Richard Bland (Eng), Ryan Fox (Nzl), Rikuya Hoshino (Jpn)
19:31 Jonas Blixt (Swe), Bo Hoag, Todd Sinnott (Aus)
19:42 Sean Jacklin (Sco), (a) Charles Reiter, Isaiah Salinda
Starting at hole 10:
11:45 Hayden Buckley, Fran Quinn, Callum Tarren (Eng)
11:56 (a) Sam Bennett, Kurt Kitayama, Denny McCarthy
12:07 Wil Besseling (Ned), Wyndham Clark, Brandon Matthews
12:18 Si Woo Kim (Kor), Sepp Straka (Aut), David Lingmerth (Swe)
12:29 Victor Perez (Fra), Davis Riley, Scott Stallings
12:40 Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Xander Schauffele
12:51 Brian Harman, Russell Henley, Kevin Kisner
13:02 Keegan Bradley, Marc Leishman (Aus), Aaron Wise
13:13 Stewart Cink, Francesco Molinari (Ita), (a) Laird Shepherd (Eng)
13:24 Marcel Schneider (Ger), Joseph Bramlett, Chan Kim
13:35 Joel Dahmen, Lanto Griffin, Jinichiro Kozuma (Jpn)
13:46 (a) Fred Biondi (Bra), Harry Hall (Eng), Chris Gotterup
13:57 Luke Gannon, Chris Naegel, Andrew Beckler
17:30 Sean Crocker, Jediah Morgan (Aus), Taylor Montgomery
17:41 M. J. Daffue (Rsa), (a) Maxwell Moldovan, Yannik Paul (Ger)
17:52 Adria Arnaus (Spa), Talor Gooch, Tom Hoge
18:03 Sergio Garcia (Spa), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Kevin Na
18:14 Abraham Ancer (Mex), Sam Burns, Thomas Pieters (Bel)
18:25 Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Smith (Aus)
18:36 Corey Conners (Can), (a) Austin Greaser, Luke List
18:47 Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Rose (Eng), Gary Woodland
18:58 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Patrick Reed
19:09 Harris English, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Jason Kokrak
19:20 (a) Ben Lorenz, Davis Shore, Samuel Stevens
19:31 (a) Adrien Dumont (Bel), Daijiro Izumida (Jpn), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe)
19:42 Brady Calkins, Ryan Gerard, Jesse Mueller