Spaun isn't an unknown quantity and him getting in the Playoffs at The Players probably deserves more respect from me than I give it but The Players has always been a strange tournament that has often produced a strange leaderboard … I don't think anybody behind him is afraid of him running away with anything. I'll say that I'd be impressed if he shoots 73 or better tomorrow.
Koepka probably got more out of his round today than he played so that's encouraging for him … his round today reminded me a bit of some of the stuff I saw with Bryson around Augusta where there were some smoke and mirrors early that caught up with him eventually. Let's see how tomorrow goes as he's not really been stringing rounds together as of late in Majors.
Most impressive round for me today was Rahm … he looked to be in solid control of his game and putting himself in a position where he was having relatively low stress. I think he would take 3 more 69's and take his chances.
Also need to acknowledge that Spieth probably was unlucky today to shoot even … I'll continue to say that courses where par is a good score set up well for him as his "Seve ability" gets him out of trouble that he's going to get into on any course anyway.
Rory will be an interesting watch tomorrow as he had the Jekyll and Hyde 9's … if he's able to go shoot something like 67 or 68 tomorrow and pull himself up to +1 or +2 after 36 holes he won't be in a terrible spot come the weekend
Not surprised at all with Scottie's day as I said before the tournament … this is a course that accentuates his "weaknesses"
I still suspect that anything at or better than par will be a great number come Sunday with the forecast coming …
Today was probably the best scoring conditions that you can get.
Tomorrow will likely get a little rougher and I wouldn't be shocked to see the scoring average jump by a full shot tomorrow.
The weekend is going to have a lot of weather challenges and if it puts water on the course then you're going to get a combination of the course playing longer and the rough becoming even more of a challenge as those thick lies just get heavier and more inconsistent.
Not really concerned about it getting too easy if it’s wet. As you said the wet rough and I’d add that Oakmont has so many hard pin options that if gets wet they’ll find some spots that they wouldn’t dare put pins on if it was dry.
If it gets soft you're just going to see a laundry list of tucked pins ranging from 3-6 yards on embracing everything being tucked
If the ground gets saturated and you lose rollout then you're going to have a course that's just going to play insanely long and difficult … the nature of the green complexes isn't going to eliminate the difficulty of getting the ball close
Nobody at anything up to probably about +4 is really out of the tournament yet but they will need a good one on Friday to get themselves back within striking distance … ideally up to even but no worse than +1 heading into the weekend
What today proved is that there's a good score out there if you can execute shots and roll some putts …
What today also proved is that if you start getting wayward you can take yourself out of the tournament quickly
Spaun has played well this year, so I’m not counting him out. I doubt he’s got the juice to win, but like Jhonny Vegas at the PGA, I expect him to stay near the top all week and be in the conversation til the end. Brooks and Rahm are the guys to watch at this point. If either of them is under par tomorrow, I imagine they’ll be the leader heading into the weekend. I think tomorrow is going to be a bloodbath. I think the scoring average could be as much as a couple shots higher. For guys like Bryson, Scottie, Spieth, and Rory, a 68 could rocket them up the leaderboard and position them well for the weekend. I think Morikawa is the guy to watch. He hit a lot of good putts today that didn’t drop, and he has the accuracy to avoid big numbers, which lurk on every hole at Oakmont.
Hovland, Burns, and Berger are all really good players who’ve never broken through with a major. If they can get to the clubhouse under par, they’re going to be sitting pretty at the end of the day. The bloodbath I predicted seems to be coming to fruition.
If Hovland believed in himself I would too. Jack once told Trevino when Lee was struggling - Lee if you only knew how good you are you'd beat all of us. Then Lee did from 68 to 72
Comments
Props to Speith for hitting the ball all over the place and being -1.
The modern Seve
For real. Seve won more majors including one where he got up and down from the car park but both never gave up on a hole or round
Brooks with 15 feet for birdie on 18, currently at -1. Feel safe saying it now. Let’s go!
-2. It’s on.
My in progress takes …
Spaun isn't an unknown quantity and him getting in the Playoffs at The Players probably deserves more respect from me than I give it but The Players has always been a strange tournament that has often produced a strange leaderboard … I don't think anybody behind him is afraid of him running away with anything. I'll say that I'd be impressed if he shoots 73 or better tomorrow.
Koepka probably got more out of his round today than he played so that's encouraging for him … his round today reminded me a bit of some of the stuff I saw with Bryson around Augusta where there were some smoke and mirrors early that caught up with him eventually. Let's see how tomorrow goes as he's not really been stringing rounds together as of late in Majors.
Most impressive round for me today was Rahm … he looked to be in solid control of his game and putting himself in a position where he was having relatively low stress. I think he would take 3 more 69's and take his chances.
Also need to acknowledge that Spieth probably was unlucky today to shoot even … I'll continue to say that courses where par is a good score set up well for him as his "Seve ability" gets him out of trouble that he's going to get into on any course anyway.
Rory will be an interesting watch tomorrow as he had the Jekyll and Hyde 9's … if he's able to go shoot something like 67 or 68 tomorrow and pull himself up to +1 or +2 after 36 holes he won't be in a terrible spot come the weekend
Not surprised at all with Scottie's day as I said before the tournament … this is a course that accentuates his "weaknesses"
I still suspect that anything at or better than par will be a great number come Sunday with the forecast coming …
Today was probably the best scoring conditions that you can get.
Tomorrow will likely get a little rougher and I wouldn't be shocked to see the scoring average jump by a full shot tomorrow.
The weekend is going to have a lot of weather challenges and if it puts water on the course then you're going to get a combination of the course playing longer and the rough becoming even more of a challenge as those thick lies just get heavier and more inconsistent.
We can now mention Rahm
Not really concerned about it getting too easy if it’s wet. As you said the wet rough and I’d add that Oakmont has so many hard pin options that if gets wet they’ll find some spots that they wouldn’t dare put pins on if it was dry.
Scottie and Bryson at 3 over aren't out at all but they need a good round
Rory is still ignoring the media at 4 over
Scottie had to replace his driver at the PGA same as Rory. He just didn't cry about it
Agreed
If it gets soft you're just going to see a laundry list of tucked pins ranging from 3-6 yards on embracing everything being tucked
If the ground gets saturated and you lose rollout then you're going to have a course that's just going to play insanely long and difficult … the nature of the green complexes isn't going to eliminate the difficulty of getting the ball close
Nobody at anything up to probably about +4 is really out of the tournament yet but they will need a good one on Friday to get themselves back within striking distance … ideally up to even but no worse than +1 heading into the weekend
What today proved is that there's a good score out there if you can execute shots and roll some putts …
What today also proved is that if you start getting wayward you can take yourself out of the tournament quickly
Brooks is the real leader at -2. Tons of good players at +4, that is the cutoff.
Spaun has played well this year, so I’m not counting him out. I doubt he’s got the juice to win, but like Jhonny Vegas at the PGA, I expect him to stay near the top all week and be in the conversation til the end. Brooks and Rahm are the guys to watch at this point. If either of them is under par tomorrow, I imagine they’ll be the leader heading into the weekend. I think tomorrow is going to be a bloodbath. I think the scoring average could be as much as a couple shots higher. For guys like Bryson, Scottie, Spieth, and Rory, a 68 could rocket them up the leaderboard and position them well for the weekend. I think Morikawa is the guy to watch. He hit a lot of good putts today that didn’t drop, and he has the accuracy to avoid big numbers, which lurk on every hole at Oakmont.
Me and Joaquin Gonzalez shared a hearty laugh in the media room over this quote
The Bannon curse strikes again. Looks like you guys jinxed Brooks too.
And Scottie. I finally gave him some praise after the PGA
I was right though. Since the world rankings started in 1986 the #1 player has won the US Open only three times.
Tiger, Tiger, and Tiger
The jinx rules only apply when they are on the course.
It appears I jinxed Morikawa as well.
Morikowa is frustrating. Doesn't seem to have the fire to be great. Goes on a run and falls back. Misses short putts. I guess that's golf
Hovland, Burns, and Berger are all really good players who’ve never broken through with a major. If they can get to the clubhouse under par, they’re going to be sitting pretty at the end of the day. The bloodbath I predicted seems to be coming to fruition.
If Hovland believed in himself I would too. Jack once told Trevino when Lee was struggling - Lee if you only knew how good you are you'd beat all of us. Then Lee did from 68 to 72
Hovland has it all except upstairs at this point