Patrick Cantlay finds form with an opening round 65 at the US Open

LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia, who reached his 25th consecutive U.S. Open as an alternate this time, led a contingent of five morning finishers by shoot 1-under 69 – a bogey-free effort with a lone birdie at No. 5.

Thu, 13 Jun, 2024 - 21:05

Scott Michaux, Pinehurst, North Carolina

By his standards, Patrick Cantlay has been kind of a mess this season. Aside from his solid third at Harbour Town and his blown final-round lead at Riviera to finish fourth, he’s posted no other top-10 finishes. He was a non-factor in the Masters, PGA and Players Championship and missed the cut last week at the Memorial.

So naturally it was Cantlay who fired the closest thing to a flawless round at Pinehurst No. 2 on Thursday morning, yielding only one bogey in a 5-under 65 to stake an early one-shot lead over U.S. Open rookie Ludvig Åberg in the 124th U.S. Open.

Cantlay paced the field in strokes gained into and around the greens, which are Pinehurst No. 2’s most devilish challenges.

“I knew going off at 7:40 in the morning, it’s going to play maybe the easiest it will play all week, with the lack of wind and probably the softest we will see it,” Cantlay said. “I’m really happy with the round I played today.”

Cantlay looked more like the guy who buried every putt he looked at in the Ryder Cup last fall, holing the necessary 7- and 8-footers that keep a good round alive in the U.S. Open. It’s been an area of his game that hasn’t been particularly fruitful this season and held him back.

“I’ve been working really hard on my game, and usually when you make just a couple changes and you’re working really hard, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.

“I think around this golf course, you're going to leave yourself putts inside eight feet. That 4- to 8-foot range, it’s important that you hole out. I did that well today.”

It didn’t hurt that his first birdie of the day didn’t require a putter, as he holed a 35-foot bunker shot on No. 11 to kickstart his day. Other than his lone bogey on the par-3 15th, he added birdies at 18, 1, 5, 6 and 8.

“Got off to a good start, bunker shot on 11; played pretty solid most of the way,” he said. “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.”

Sweden’s Åberg, who finished runner-up in his major debut at the Masters and missed the cut at the PGA, suffering only two bogeys en route to a 4-under 66. France’s Matthieu Pavon eagled both par-5s to get to 5-under through 10 holes but gave a couple back to settle for 3-under 67. Tony Finau bogeyed his last (the par-3 ninth) to shoot 68.

“Not a lot to complain about,” said Åberg. “I felt like those times where I kind of got myself out of position a little bit, you just try to get back into play as easy as you can, give yourself a chance for a par.”

“Obviously to shoot under par in a U.S. Open, which is a championship that I love, it’s always great,” Garcia said. “To go bogey-free is even greater. It’s something that I give a lot of respect to, and I’m very proud of. I’ve had the pleasure of playing this championship 25 years in a row, so not a lot of people get to do that, so I’m very, very happy to be here, and that’s why I keep trying to qualify and make it here.

“Very happy about the way I played, the way I managed my game throughout the whole round, and how patient I stayed all day.”

Brooks Koepka, with two U.S. Opens among his five major wins, got to 3-under through 10 holes but gave it back with bogeys at 13, 15 and 16 to finish level 70.

With even hotter weather and continued sunshine expected through the weekend, Thursday is probably as good as it will get for the 156-player field.

“With the weather cooperating, it being warm, I imagine they can get the golf course as difficult as they want,” Cantlay said of the USGA setup crew. “With the Bermuda greens and no rain in the forecast, I expect the golf course to play very difficult in the next few days.”

Plenty of players found it hard enough on Thursday. Phil Mickelson – a six-time runner-up in the U.S. Open including in 1999 to Payne Stewart at Pinehurst – shot a 9-over 79, which was saved from being dead last in the morning wave by qualifier Charlie Reiter’s 80. Two-time PGA champion Justin Thomas shot 77 and Will Zalatoris 75.

Dustin Johnson and Tiger Woods both shot 74.

“I thought I did the one thing I needed to do today, which is drive the ball well. I did that, I just didn't capitalize on any of it,” said Woods.

“I think I three-putted, what, two or three times today? If I clean that up, if I get a couple iron shots not as loose as I did, I’m right there at even par. It can go so far the other way here, the wrong way. It’s just so hard to get back. This is a golf course that doesn’t give up a whole lot of birdies. It gives up a lot of bogeys and higher.”