By DOUG FERGUSON AP Golf Writer
PINEHURST, N.C. — Rory McIlroy sent his 20-foot birdie putt on its way at the 18th hole Thursday and started walking toward the cup when the ball was still some 6 feet away from falling. It looked like the walk of a four-time major champion in control of his game on a Pinehurst No. 2 course that demanded every bit of that in the U.S. Open.
Turns out that was about the only thing that didn’t go according to plan.
“I thought I’d left it short. That’s why I walked after it – full disclosure,” McIlroy said. “It looked good, though.”
He looked as good as ever, posting a bogey-free opening round in a major for the first time since last winning one 10 years ago in the British Open. His 5-under-par 65 gave him a share of the lead with nemesis Patrick Cantlay in a first round that had a little bit of everything.
Scottie Scheffler was over par in the opening round of a major for the first time in two years, Collin Morikawa had two double bogeys and still shot 70. Tyrrell Hatton dropped his club on impact at the par-3 17th hole, kicked his club, watched it land on the green and made birdie.
The final touch was McIlroy’s final birdie.
“A great way to finish,” he said. “The way I played today, the way I hit the ball, the way I managed myself, I felt like that score was pretty deserved.”
Cantlay, a former UCLA and Servite High standout, played in the morning beneath a full sun, holing out from a bunker for birdie on his second hole and making a pair of birdie putts in the 20-foot range in an otherwise tidy round marred by only one bogey.
Pinehurst No. 2 was both playable and punishing, yielding 15 rounds under par, the same number as the last time on this Donald Ross gem in 2014.
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler did not have one of them. The world’s top-ranked player, coming off his fifth win of the year at the Memorial, was a picture of frustration – clean-shaven and with a fresh haircut – as he didn’t have his usual control off the tee.
He still managed a 71 and was very much in the game.
Tiger Woods couldn’t say the same. After a good start, he had five bogeys in a seven-hole stretch around the turn for a 74, his 12th consecutive round in the majors without breaking par.
McIlroy was in control from the start, hitting 6-iron to 7 feet at the 528-yard fourth hole – the toughest par 4 on the course – for birdie, and then chipping in from the front of the green on the next hole.
He has the advantage of towering iron shots that land softly, and they were usually pin-high and away from the domed edges of the Donald Ross greens that cause so much trouble.
McIlroy has won majors the last three times he has started with a bogey-free round – at Hoylake in the 2014 British Open, at Kiawah Island in the 2012 PGA Championship and at Congressional in the 2011 U.S. Open.
“Getting off to a good start is important to try to keep yourself up there, because you have to give yourself as big of a cushion as possible, knowing what is lurking around the corner,” McIlroy said.
Ludvig Aberg, in his U.S. Open debut, hit his tee shot to 6 feet on the scary par-3 ninth hole for birdie and a 66. Every major is something new for the rising star from Sweden, who only turned pro a year ago. He was runner-up in the Masters.
Bryson DeChambeau, the runner-up at Valhalla in the PGA Championship last month, and Matthieu Pavon of France were at 67.
Sergio Garcia had the other bogey-free round – 17 pars and a birdie – in his 25th consecutive time playing the U.S. Open. He also played in the morning and didn’t seem particularly alarmed by Cantlay’s 65. That matches the low opening round in four U.S. Opens at Pinehurst No. 2.
“There’s always going to be someone that hits the ball great, everything goes his way, makes a couple of bombs, and you can shoot it,” Garcia said. “You might see someone shooting another 66 or 65 or something like that. I think as the course gets even firmer, even faster, a tiny bit of breeze comes up here and there, it’s going to be difficult to shoot those kind of scores.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise to see Cantlay contending given he has no real weakness in his game, except for his performance in the majors. He has only four top-10 finishes in his 26 major starts since returning from a serious back injury in 2017, and only one real chance at winning one.
Patrick Cantlay waves after making a putt on the ninth hole during the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday in Pinehurst, N.C. The former UCLA and Servite High standout has a share of the lead after shooting a 5-under-par 65. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II )
McIlroy and Cantlay never saw eye-to-eye during their time on the PGA Tour board as it tried to negotiate an agreement with the Saudi-backers of LIV Golf, and McIlroy was on the losing side in a tense fourballs match in Rome last fall when Cantlay buried a 45-foot putt at the end.
Cantlay watched his best friend in golf – Xander Schauffele, who opened with a 70 – finally win a major last month. His start was enough to at least wonder if his time is coming next.
“I’ve been working really hard on my game,” Cantlay said. “And usually when you make just a couple changes and you’re working really hard, it’s just a matter of time.”
Cantlay isn’t known to be verbose on many subjects, particularly when it comes to his performance in golf’s most important championships. He also has rejected notions that his time on the PGA Tour board during the divide with LIV Golf has been a distraction.
Whatever the case, this was a good day of work.
But it was still a test, and some of the scores would indicate that. Viktor Hovland had to make a tough par at the end for 78. Justin Thomas had a 77 and Will Zalatoris, who typically thrives in the majors, was at 75. Dustin Johnson joined the group at 74.
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka was sailing along and dropped a 35-foot birdie putt for birdie on the par-5 10th to reach 3 under in the morning. He had three bogeys coming in and had to settle for a 70.
Morikawa, the La Cañada product who has played in the final group at the first two majors of the year, hit a decent bunker shot on the par-3 ninth that rolled by the cup 2 feet and then took a slope and stopped rolling 80 feet away, leading to double bogey. He took another double bogey on the par-3 15th and still managed a 70 by holing a bunker shot on the par-3 17th for birdie and finishing with a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th.
“Hit two poor shots and one bad bunker shot. It wasn’t that bad on 9,” he said. “But other than that, I felt like I played pretty good. Very, very happy I got out with even par after today.”
RARE ROUND FOR SCHEFFLER
Scheffler had played 21 holes all season when he was over par for a tournament, yet that’s where he found himself after a bogey at the par-4 third. He spent the rest of the day over par, too, balancing a pair of birdies with two more bogeys for a 1-over 71 that left him in contention but with ground to make up.
Even playing alongside previous major winners McIlroy and Schauffele, it is not often that Scheffler brings up the rear of any group.
Scheffler arrived this week as the overwhelming favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, to win his third major. He has won five of his last eight tournaments, including his second Masters, and was coming off a victory at the Memorial, where a 2-over 74 at Muirfield Village in the final round was still enough for a one-shot win over Morikawa.
The last time Scheffler was over par in consecutive rounds was the British Open at Royal Liverpool nearly a year ago.
“Every week we play, he seems to build a bigger lead, and somehow make the mountain even taller for all of us to climb,” Schauffele said earlier in the week. “That’s all he’s been doing, and hats off to him for being so consistent.”
Scheffler wasn’t far off his usual brilliance at Pinehurst on Thursday.
On the the third, Scheffler’s tee shot barely trickled into the native grass, and his approach looked good until it bounced off the contoured green and into a bunker. He missed his par putt so badly that he started walking the moment he hit it.
At the par-3 sixth, Scheffler managed to get his tee shot onto the massive green. But his lag putt was poor, leaving about 18 feet for par, and that miss dropped him to 2 over for only the second time at any point in a tournament this year.
Scheffler got a shot back at the seventh, when he hit his approach from 164 yards to 12 feet and made birdie. But he also missed a 12-footer for birdie at the 10th, and one from a bit longer at the 11th, that could have provided him some momentum.
His biggest blunder – only one, really – came at the par-4 16th, when his tee shot went so far left that it rattled among the fans like a pinball before settling into the pine straw. He caught a break when a tower was in his way, giving him a free drop and a clean look at the green, but his approach wound up in a collection area and he made another bogey.
Scheffler finished strong, though, on a day when perseverance was rewarded. After watching McIlroy and Schauffele hit nice shots into the long par-3 17th, he stuck his own inside them. And with a confident stroke, Scheffler rolled that 12-footer dead-center of the cup for his final birdie of the day.
He added a tap-in par at the 18th, and after signing his card, headed right to the practice range for some early evening work.
INCONSISTENT DAY FOR TIGER
Woods started with a birdie on Thursday, putting him into the red and atop the leaderboard, and turning back the clock 25 years to when a phenom still on the rise first played the national championship on this course.
The next 17 holes contrasted the player he once was with the player he is now.
Woods drove the ball exceptionally well, threading narrow fairways flanked on each side by native grasses, and he made a couple of long putts to save pars. But he also hit far too many wayward iron shots on a course that demands accuracy, and his deft touch around the greens abandoned him more than once on the way to his 4-over 74.
“I was somewhat conservative in some of my end points. Then again, I didn’t hit the ball very well either,” explained Woods, who found 12 of 14 fairways in regulation but hit just half the greens. “It’s not where I wanted to be on a lot of holes.”
To be fair, the famed course can at times be borderline unfair.
Woods hit several shots that would have produced good birdie chances most anywhere else, but instead they rolled off the wildly contoured greens and came to rest in collection areas. That was the case at the par-3 ninth, his final hole of the day, when his approach appeared to be so safely aboard that he plucked his tee and began heading toward the green.
That’s when a groan began rising from the crowd. Woods looked up to see his ball starting to trickle, pick up speed, and come to rest 30 yards down the fairway. His birdie chance had become a testy pitch-and-putt par save to finish the round.
“It’s hard to get the ball close,” Woods said. “In most golf courses you play, you hit shots into where it’s feeding off of slopes into flags, where it’s collecting. Here, everything is repelling. It’s just hard to get the ball on top of the shelves.
“You know if you miss it short side, it’s an auto bogey, or higher.”
Woods at least avoided the big numbers Thursday, and while his round easily could have been even par or better, it at least kept the three-time U.S. Open champ in the mix to make the cut. That alone was an improvement over his last time out in the PGA Championship at Valhalla, where two triple bogeys during a second-round 77 kept him from playing the weekend.
More good news: The battered body that has so often betrayed Woods in recent years seemed to be up to the task.
Woods, who missed the last U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2014 while recovering from the first of four back surgeries, rarely grimaced on his morning march. The relatively flat layout, at least compared to places like Augusta National, helped his cause, as did the weather, which was hot and humid and kept those aching joints from locking up.
He also benefited from an early tee time, giving him almost 24 hours exactly to recover for Friday’s round.
“I’m hoping I don’t get too tight in the car ride back. I can get tight in air conditioning,” said Woods, who in fact went straight to the driving range after his round, and began working on those inconsistent irons.
He should have had a suspicion they might be a problem.
“I was pretty one-dimensional early in the week, which is interesting. I was drawing the ball a lot. Now I’m cutting the ball a lot,” Woods said, before flashing a wry smile. “Welcome to golf.”
Welcome to inconsistency. And that might be the product of infrequency.
Woods had not played a U.S. Open round since Winged Foot in 2020, thanks mostly to all those injuries – five back surgeries, four knee surgeries and the procedure to piece together a shattered right leg and ankle from his 2021 car crash.
“I’m physically getting better as the year has gone on. I just haven’t been able to play as much because I just don’t want to hurt myself pre, then I won’t be able to play in the major championships,” Woods said. “It’s pick your poison, right? Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”
Woods admitted he hopes his body will allow him to begin playing more often. Playing this weekend would be a good start.
ISN’T THAT SUBER
Jackson Suber felt the nerves building as he stepped up for his opening tee shot in his first U.S. Open.
The 24-year-old alternate who got a call-up due to Jon Rahm’s withdrawal didn’t show much worry after that, even on this unexpectedly big stage.
Suber finished at 1-under 69 in the first round, sitting just four shots back of the co-leaders. He finished with five birdies on the afternoon, quite a debut for a player who went from being lined up to play in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Wichita Open to the last entrant in a major.
“I’m sure I’m pretty tired right now,” Suber said. “I don’t know if I feel it. The first hole when I got up there, I was really nervous. And after the bogey on two, I kind of settled in a little bit. … And then it started to feel like a normal golf tournament.”
Suber arrived at Pinehurst on Sunday for practice rounds, though he had a flight booked to Wichita for Wednesday morning and remained uncertain whether he would depart. But Rahm withdrew Tuesday because of a foot injury, opening the door for Suber – ranked 239th in the world and 44th on the Korn Ferry Tour.
Suber had earned nearly $372,000 during his career, but has failed to make the cut in both PGA Tour events he has played.
He sat at 2-under after 13 holes before back-to-back bogeys, including a missed short putt on 15, to fall back to even. Yet he followed with a birdie on 16 to regroup, then tapped in for par on 18 to close the afternoon.
“I always believed I could do this,” Suber said. “You never know if you’re actually going to do it. But I feel like I always knew that was in me.”
SHIPLEY’S PATIENCE
Neal Shipley finished his college career at Ohio State and is ready to take the next step. Just not right now.
He was exempt to the U.S. Open as the runner-up in the U.S. Amateur last summer. But unlike the winner, Nick Dunlap, Shipley had to remain an amateur to play in the U.S. Open. And he wasn’t willing to give that up.
“We talked about it, but the experience, that’s really what we’re after right now,” Shipley said after opening with an even-par 70. “It would be great to get a check this week, make a cut. At the end of the day, I want to guarantee that I get that experience out here.”
Shipley already has a major experience. He played the final round with Tiger Woods at the Masters and was low amateur.
His next start is expected to be on the PGA Tour Americas in Canada. The purse is $225,000.
British Amateur champion Christo Lamprecht also was exempt for the U.S. Open. He chose to turn pro, went through qualifying and missed out.
“It’s a marathon really. It’s not a sprint,” Shipley said. “So what happens here this week and the next nine months, it’s not going to define my professional career. I know there’s a lot of good golf ahead of me. I don’t feel the need to press my luck qualifying.”
WHAT’S IN THE CUP?
Scheffler seemed a little startled when he went to pull his golf ball out of the cup after making a putt on No. 8.
As Scheffler bent over and started to lift the ball out, but he quickly let go of it. He went to grab the ball twice more, but seemed unwilling to put his hand all the way in the cup. At that point caddie Ted Scott walked over with the flagstick in one hand, bent over and quickly pulled the ball out with the other.
The two shared a laugh as they walked on to the ninth tee.
It’s unclear what was in the hole as Scheffler did not address it after the round.
It was day full of odd sights.
There was also Schauffele firing a wayward shot on No. 12, dropping his club and watching the ball sail left toward the fans behind the ropes – straight into a plastic bag holding tournament merchandise and sitting on the ground in the sandy, pine-needled rough.
THE MAD HATTON
Tyrrell Hatton shot 68 on Thursday, including a birdie on the 17th hole for the temperamental Englishman. He dropped the club when he made contact on his approach shot, tried to kick the club when it was on the ground, looked up to see it on the green. He then made the putt.
It was a rare break on a day of grinding, but part of that is what Hatton enjoys.
“With it being harder, a lot of guys sort of losing their head, it sort of brings them to my level because I just lose my head every week,” Hatton said. “It’s a challenge. I’ve done really well today. It’s only going to get harder from here I think. Imagine they won’t be overly pleased there’s a couple of guys at 5 under.”
‘WILLIE WON’T GO HOME’
Willie Mack III figures he has played on 30 mini-tours during his professional career, or about four times as many as he has PGA Tour starts, and he even spent one year living in his car because money was so tight as he chased his dreams.
So imagine what went through his mind Thursday, when Mack had three birdies during an opening 1-over 71 that left him in the mix at the U.S. Open – and ahead of names such as Matthew Fitzpatrick, Woods and Justin Thomas.
“I played in some big tournaments before,” Mack said. “Not as big as this. I feel like if your preparation is good and you stick to your game plan, all you got to do is execute. I think I did pretty good with that today.”
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The 35-year-old from Flint, Michigan, played college golf at Bethune-Cookman before turning pro. He played last year on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he made $45,872 – total – by making the cut in nine of 20 starts. To put that in perspective, the player that makes the cut but finishes last at Pinehurst No. 2 will make $42,000 this week. The winner gets a record $4.3 million.
GETTING DICEY
Sam Bennett was among those who noticed how much firmer the greens had become at Pinehurst No. 2 as the week has progressed.
“Yeah, they got some bounce on them for sure, but I don’t think they can get them much more firm with how fast they are,” said Bennett, who shot 69. “But if it does, it’s going to get dicey.”
McIlroy said players got lucky because there was humidity early in the day and some cloud cover. He and playing partners Scheffler and Schauffele might catch a break by going off early on Friday.
“Selfishly for me, getting back out there in the morning, it’s going to be nice,” McIlroy said. “Hopefully the clouds clear away and it’s a nice clear day for the guys in the afternoon. But it definitely wasn’t quite as fiery as I expected it to be this afternoon, which has yielded some decent scores.”
AP sports writers Aarond Beard, Steve Reed and David Skretta contributed to this report.