OAKMONT, Pa. — Even a rain-soaked Oakmont didn’t keep the U.S. Open from delivering its usual dose of frustration. Just not the kind anyone expected. ADVERTISING Defending champion Jordan Spieth, who had spent five days preparing on the firm and
OAKMONT, Pa. — Even a rain-soaked Oakmont didn’t keep the U.S. Open from delivering its usual dose of frustration.
Just not the kind anyone expected.
Defending champion Jordan Spieth, who had spent five days preparing on the firm and fiery greens of Oakmont, posed over a wedge into the 17th that landed behind the hole, spun back and kept rolling until it trickled down a slope into the bunker.
“You’ve got to be KIDDING me! How is that in the bunker?” Spieth said before slinging his club toward the bag.
Masters champion Danny Willett sat in a cabin behind the seventh tee for more than an hour as his group waited out the first of three rain delays. When the weather cleared, players were sent back onto the course without having a chance to warm up again.
“You’re in a U.S. Open, they don’t give you a chance to even hit a few balls,” Willett said, and he wasn’t alone in that observation.
Most frustrating of all?
Only nine players finished the first round, and 78 players didn’t even tee off. Play was to resume at early on Friday.
It was the worst rain delay in a U.S. Open since no one finished the opening round at Bethpage Black in 2009 in a tournament that ended on a Monday.
The first round was suspended for third and final time just as 28-year-old qualifier Andrew Landry was finishing up a dream round in his U.S. Open debut. Coming off two straight bogeys, Landry drilled his approach to about 10 feet on the par-4 ninth when the horn sounded as a violent storm approached. He was at 3-under par.
“I was trying to get it in,” Landry said. “But it’s hard when you’ve got a couple of 60-footers out here. And it’s the U.S. Open. So you’ve just got to be patient with it.”
Willett, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler could not get off the course soon enough. They played in the same group and were a combined 14 over through 13 holes. Fowler has missed the cut in three of his last five events.
