BROOKLINE, Mass. — Some of the lasting images over the first few days of the U.S. Open were of golfers being tormented by the assorted land mines at The Country Club.
Rory McIlroy couldn’t contain his frustration on Thursday in the opening round, slamming his club repeatedly into the sand after going bunker to bunker.
Footage of that temper tantrum on the fifth hole lit up social media.
So did his romp in the fescue on Friday, needing three shots to advance the ball out of the thick grass to the right of the green on No. 3.
Then there was Phil Mickelson’s four-putt from 12 feet on Thursday. And Justin Thomas’ chip on the 10th hole Friday from the tall grass that went 5 feet, setting up a double bogey.
Yes, The Country Club can be sinister.
But for the most part, the formidable Brookline venue wasn’t an unbearable beast.
That is, until Saturday.
There was one more obstacle added to the list that frustrated golfers on moving day.
The course basically bit back thanks to a wind change and much colder conditions than the previous two days, with temperatures in the low 60s at the start of the day, then again, toward the end of the day.
Of the first 20 groups out, or roughly two-thirds of the players, 36 shot over-par, two were even, with only four golfers under par.
Mother Nature and the course clearly prevailed to set up an incredibly close leader board heading into the final round Sunday.
On Thursday and Friday, there was a southwest wind. On Saturday, it came in from the northwest, with wind gusts up to 25-to-30 mph.
Without a doubt, the wind offers one of the best defenses for the course against low scoring.
To that end, there wasn’t a ton of red on the scoreboard as the day played out.
Denny McCarthy, out with the early groups, said the greens were firmer with the chillier conditions.
He broke down some of the trouble spots.
The par-4, 499-yard 10th?
“No. 10 was a par-5 today. It says par-4, but it’s a total par-5. I was almost thinking I couldn’t even clear (the cliff),” he said. “They didn’t move the tee up that much, and 275 covered the cliff straight into a 25-mile-an-hour cold wind, so I don’t usually have that in my bag, so I was looking a little more left. That was a really hard hole today.”
The par-4, 450-yard 12th?
“Even though 12 is down off the left, it’s a front pin. It’s really hard to kind of land it and keep it there,” McCarthy said.
The par-3, 131-yard 13th?
“Thirteen was brutal. I birdied 13 today. That might be a skin,” he said with a laugh. “Honestly, I hit a perfect smoke draw 3-wood and then a flighted 6-iron to 13 feet and made it. I felt like that was an eagle really.”
Tell that to a stunned Scottie Scheffler, who was comfortably in the lead at 6-under until flying the green, needing two shots to get the ball out of the rough, and two-putting for a double-bogey.
Said Scheffler: “It definitely played like a U.S. Open out there.”
McCarthy, who shot a 2-under-par round of 68, one of the better rounds on the day, is at 1-over-par for the tournament.
“I like playing in hard conditions,” he said, “so it was a great day for that type of opportunity for me to come out and shoot a decent number and watch the guys in the afternoon have to play this place. (Laughing.)”
Thomas has drain issue
PGA Champion Justin Thomas was undone by a difficult lie next to a drain on the par-4, fourth hole.
Thomas’ drive settled to the side of a drain, but he wasn’t awarded any relief, given where the ball sat in relation to the drain didn’t affect his stance or swing.
A visibly upset Thomas kicked and cussed as his ball landed in a cross bunker some 55 yards from the green. He got the ball up to the fringe from there, and two-putted for bogey.
Following the round, Thomas explained his anger.
“To me it was around a drain, and very clearly in my stance and my ball was sitting differently than it would be if that drain was not there,” he said. “I called an official to get a ruling on it, and in the spirit of the game I didn’t — I wasn’t going to hit the drain. I felt like I very easily could have told her that I was going to and gotten a free drop, but I wasn’t.
“It’s unfortunate because it was a great drive, and I had a pitching wedge in my hands, and I could only hit the ball — I only hit it 100 yards. I mean, yeah, it’s very clear that my stance and where my ball was was altered and sitting bad because of that drain, but didn’t get a drop from it. That’s just how it is. You have to be able to hit the drain to get a drop.”
According to a release put out by the USGA, Thomas didn’t get relief because his ball didn’t “touch, or wasn’t in or on the obstruction, or the obstruction physically interferes with the player’s area of intended stance or area of intended swing.”
Thomas wound up shooting 2-over-par 72, and sits at 3-over par.
Eagle finally lands on No. 5
For all of the talk players had of trying to drive the 310-yard, par-4 fifth hole in an attempt to get an eagle, it took until Saturday with the hole playing into the wind for someone to finally convert.
Joohyung Kim from South Korea was the first to get down in 2. And he played short and chipped in.
The nineteen-year-old came up well short of the two bunkers that guard the front right corner, leaving himself 53 yards from the hole. The ball took three hops before checking up and rolling in for the 2. That moved him into red numbers from 1 over to 1 under.
Patriots in the house
Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer and long snapper Joe Cardona played the course last month. Cardona, and several other Patriots including Nelson Agholor, Hunter Henry, David Andrews, Damien Harris, and Dietrich Wise were on hand for Round 3.
A few Red Sox also took in the major, including Jackie Bradley Jr.
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Staff reporter Keith Pearson contributed to this report.
