What everyone really wants to know, however, is how to watch Spieth, Rory McIlroy and some of the other top golfers in the world do their thing live at Oakmont Country Club.
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The 116th edition of the U.S. Open gets underway today at Oakmont Country Club with a number of story-lines on the horizon.
Argentina’s Angel Cabrera delivered a superb display of ball-striking to win the U.S. Open when it was last played at Oakmont in 2007, and yet he could manage only a five-over-par total of 285.
Dustin Johnson needed only one round to get right back in the mix.
Johnson was at 4-under 136, two shots ahead of anyone else who completed the second round in the rain-delayed U.S. Open. It was the best opening round in 10 majors held at Oakmont, beating a record shared by Ben Hogan and Tom Watson.
“History is history”, Landry said. “I’ll just go out and practice and play and develop a game plan on how I want to play”.
“Everything you read about him, he’s such a fantastic person and he has done so much for the game of golf”, Fitzpatrick said at the annual Rolex U.S. Open evening in honour of Palmer, who won the 1960 championship at Cherry Hills.
Landry, a 28-year-old qualifier ranked No. 624, was long gone when Johnson went to work. Not since Bob Tway in 1986 at Shinnecock Hills has a U.S. Open rookie had the outright lead after 18 holes.
Spieth was asked at the Memorial which was the tougher way to lose a major: with two bad swings on the 12th hole at Augusta National or with two missed putts on the 72nd hole like Johnson at Chambers Bay?
There were only eight rounds under par all week at the last U.S. Open at Oakmont. Tiger Woods announced earlier this month that he would not be physically ready to join the field at Oakmont Country Club.
Aron Price, who birdied the first hole in the opening group to briefly lead the tournament, fell away with a 76 to be nine off the pace.
“The last couple of competitive starts, I feel like I’ve played pretty well”.
“You know you’re going to be put under a lot of pressure on basically every single golf shot you hit out there”.
“When you start to think about the U.S. Open and the draconian nature of the setup and the stars that it produces”, said Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee, “it’s a constant tug of war between apprehension and awe”.
Sergio Garcia, Shane Lowry and Scott Piercy each shot 68.
“If you look at the scores here over the years and the tournaments they’ve played, if you shoot even par, you’re going to do very well”.
“It’s a challenge not being able to warm up, too, going out there and trying to hit tee shots at the U.S. Open, but it is what it is”.
Lee Westwood was not the only Englishman in contention for a maiden major title as Andy Sullivan and Lee Slattery survived a 36-hole marathon in the US Open at Oakmont.
He said the course the players faced on day one was a vastly different test to what they had seen in practice.
“It’s not the start I wanted, that’s for sure”, Fowler said. With almost 14,000 trees on the course chopped down over the last 20 years, there are blind shots aplenty.
It never got better in time for the Open, when he wore a protective sleeve on his wrist, shot 74-77 _ 151 and missed the cut.
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Defending champion Jordan Spieth was one of those, a birdie at the par-5 third taking him to one under.
