Scolding lights a fire under Koepka
Koepka, Rahm lurk behind Spaun at Oakmont; DeChambeau digs hole; Stray Shots
Birdie-birdie finish lifts Brooks Koepka in position to win a third U.S. Open (Mike Ehrmann/USGA)
OAKMONT, Pa. — With the presumptive favorites all floundering in the first round at Oakmont Country Club, five-time major winner Brooks Koepka and his fellow multiple-major-winning LIV Golf compatriot Jon Rahm stepped up Thursday afternoon and put themselves in prime position to put their names back on the U.S. Open trophy.
“I feel good. It’s nice to put a good round together. It’s been a while,” said Koepka, a two-time U.S. Open winner (2017-18), after a birdie-birdie finish let him sign for 2-under 68 and tied for third just two shots behind leader J.J. Spaun.
Rahm, who won the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in 2021, shot a 1-under 69 to open tied for sixth.
“I’m extremely happy. I played some incredible golf to shoot 1-under, which we don’t usually say, right?” said Rahm, whose birdie-eagle combo on Nos. 3 and 4 got him into the red. “Not many things I could really say about today.
“The only thing I could think about is the putt on 12. That was a short birdie putt that I should have made. It was a bit of a misread and a bad stroke. I feel like those are the moments early in the championship that can test you a little bit, and you’ve got to get over it quickly because it is Oakmont, so you say that happened and move on. I think I did really good at staying patient.”
The crowd tied for 11th at even par includes major winners Jordan Spieth, Collin Morikawa and Adam Scott.
The tournament favorites put themselves behind the eight-ball at Oakmont, with world No. 3 Xander Schauffele (T33, 2-over), No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau (T49, 3-over) and No. 2 Rory McIlroy (T62, 4-over).
“I thought with the wind being down, if you were hitting it really, really well, you could kind of hit some fairways,” said Schauffele, who rallied with two late birdies to shoot 72. “But if you’re out of position, forget it. And it of course held true. It was brutal.”
Koepka’s score comes a little bit out of nowhere, having missed the cut in both the Masters and PGA Championship this year. He hasn’t really contended in a major since winning his fifth at the 2023 PGA a month after finishing runner-up to Rahm at the Masters. He ranks a disappointing 14th in LIV Golf this season, his lone bright spot a runner-up in Singapore.
“I would say from the first weekend in April until about last week, you didn’t want to be around me,” Koepka said. “It drove me nuts. It ate at me. I haven’t been happy. It’s been very irritating. It’s a lot. I mean, I had to apologize to Rick, Pete, Jeff, Blake, my wife, my son, everybody. I wouldn’t have wanted to be around me.”
His swing coach, Pete Cowan, chewed him out in a bunker during Monday’s practice round — something Cowan hasn’t done to that extent since 2017 at Erin Hills when it triggered Koepka’s first major win.
“I don’t like having ‘yes’ people around me. I just want somebody to tell me the truth, tell me what's going on, what they see,” said Koepka. “If I start swaying from being Brooks Koepka, then I want someone to call me out on it, and he did a helluva job on it.
Koepka’s coach Pete Cowan scolded him out during Monday’s practice (Mike Ehrmann/USGA)
“I’ve been working hard, just got into some bad habits and bad swing positions,” Koepka said. “We worked pretty hard last week, (coaches) Pete Cowen and Jeff Pierce were on me pretty good, and Pete got into me again on Monday, in the bunker for about 45 minutes. I just sat there, and he scolded me pretty well.”
After Schauffele, DeChambeau and McIlroy each struggled to get through the morning without shooting themselves out of the tournament, Scheffler was poised to take advantage of the late-early draw as Koepka and Rahm did and get in front of those guys. But he was up-and-down all day, with six bogeys off-setting the three birdies he posted.
“Slow day. I made some silly mistakes out there, but at the same time, I made some key putts and some good momentum saves in my round, but overall just need to be a little sharper,” Scheffler said.
“I felt like today I did a pretty good job of that after the start, had kind of a sloppy bogey on 3, sloppy bogey on 4, and then another bogey on 6 and all of a sudden I’m a few over par. On this golf course, when you get over par early, it can feel like a daunting task. I did a good job of battling, and if I’m a little sharper tomorrow, I think I can score a bit better.”
J.J. Spaun got out early — before the sun became searing, before the greens turned to concrete, before the U.S. Open really even got started Thursday. Of course, it wasn’t easy, the U.S. Open never is. But the one-time PGA Tour winner who lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at the Players Championship earlier this year managed his way around Oakmont without making a bogey, posting a 4-under 66 that stood all day as the first-round lead.
South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence, who challenged last summer at the Open Championship, shot 67 while Koreans Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im are tied with Koepka at 2-under. There were just 10 players under par.
Spaun was the only player all day without a bogey, although he saved par from off the green six times.
“I kind of came out here with no prior history at Oakmont, not really knowing what to expect even U.S. Open-wise. This is only my second one,” said Spaun. “I don’t know if that freed me up in any aspect, but I just tried to kind of take what the course gave me. I hit a lot of good shots and tried to capitalize on any birdie opportunities, which aren’t very many out here. But I scrambled really well, too, which is a huge component to playing well at a U.S. Open, let alone shoot a bogey-free round. I’m just overly pleased with how I started the tournament.”
McIlroy, the Masters champion, let his round slip away after playing the back side in 2-under. His second nine, on the front, was horrific with four bogeys and a double to shoot 41. For his fifth consecutive major championship round, McIlroy declined to comment.
Defending champ Bryson DeChambeau has work to do to get on leaderboard at Oakmont (Jeff Haynes/USGA)
‘Untidy’ DeChambeau falls behind in defense
By Alex Miceli
OAKMONT, Pa. — While certainly not defeated after an opening 73, the defending U.S. Open champion walked away disappointed in a round that showed glimmers of success but ultimately drowned in a morass of heavy and thick rough.
Bryson DeChambeau came to Oakmont to defend his U.S. Open title for the second time, attempting to match Brooks Koepka (2017-18), Curtis Strange (1988-89), Ben Hogan (1950-51), Ralph Guldahl (1937-38), Bobby Jones (1929-30) and John McDermott (1911-12) have done since Scotland’s Willie Anderson won three straight from 1903-05. That only two players have successfully defended Strange in the golf’s modern era speaks to the enormity of the endeavor.
Add Oakmont as part of the equation and the challenge becomes even more daunting.
“This golf course can come up and get you pretty quick, and you just got to be on your game,” DeChambeau said after shooting a 3-over with two birdies and five bogeys. “And it got me — I wasn’t fully on my game. Pretty disappointed in how I played.”
While consistently outdriving his playing competitors — two-time major winner Xander Schauffele and reigning U.S Amateur champion Jose Luis Ballester of Spain — DeChambeau struggled to take advantage of his length by missing most of his putts on the right edge.
Even when he had chances to stick a dagger into one of Oakmont’s holes, DeChambeau would make mistakes as he did on the par-5 12th hole when he hit his drive 366 yards into a good lie in the playable intermediate cut.
With 287 yards left, DeChambeau hit a 6-iron that ran through the green and into rough behind the green. It would take three wedge shots just to get it on the apron, where he rolled in a 25-foot putt for a bogey and a small piece of redemption.
“I should have hit a 7-iron. I should have just run it up there instead of trying to get cute with it,” he said. “That’s the U.S. Open for you, and I gotta be more dialed in than I was today.”
DeChambeau blamed his inability to judge the green speed for most of his issues on Thursday. Those struggles were clear from strokes gained stats, where DeChambeau suffered on the greens by almost two full shots.
“It was a brutal test of golf, but one that I’m excited for tomorrow,” DeChambeau said. “I just think tidying things up and getting my head back in tiptop shape for tomorrow is what I'm focused on doing.”
His chances of successfully defending are now in grave danger. Nine of the last 11 U.S. Open champions were among the top 10 on the leaderboard at the end of the first round, including DeChambeau last year (T4) at Pinehurst. Each of the last three champions at Oakmont were in second place (outright or tied) at the end of the first round: Ernie Els in 1994 (T2), Angel Cabrera in 2007 (second) and Dustin Johnson in 2016 (T2).
Of the last 26 U.S. Opens winners, 24 were among the top-20 (and ties) at the conclusion of the first round. The exceptions are Brooks Koepka (T46 in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills) and Webb Simpson (T23 in 2012 at The Olympic Club).
DeChambeau will need to do better than both as he sits Txx and seven shots behind first-round leader J.J. Spaun.
“It depends on the conditions,” DeChambeau said when asked if 3-over could be the winning score on Sunday. “If it doesn't rain on Saturday, there is probably a decent chance, but I’m looking to shoot under par and give myself a better chance coming this weekend.”
Stray Shots: Oh Canada … and OH!-kmont
By Peter Kaufman
1. Philly Mick: Controversial, uber-talented, winner of six majors, certainly in the discussion for being a Top 10 player of all-time, Mickelson may ultimately be defined by being the Heartbreak Kid at U.S. Opens (runner-up a record six times without a win in 34 career starts). Is Father Time finally going to deliver a knockout punch to his career-slam dreams? His exemptions via his 2021 PGA victory run out for the US Open this year, and a darling of the USGA Mickelson is not.
LIV’s original and most (in)famous player has been a non-factor in his last nine major outings — six missed cuts and nothing better than T43 in the other three. He will be 55 on Monday. Certainly his U.S. Open career is over after Oakmont, right? He says so, not believing he will receive any special exemption from the USGA going forward (he was offered one in 2021 but ended up not needing it).