I’m not sure it’ll be that soon. I’m northwest of Oakmont and it’s still pouring here. The storm is moving kind of weird for the area where the overall storm is moving west to east but it’s spreading out east to west. 5 minutes before it started rainy here there was a less that 10% chance of rain. The radar is pretty unreliable right now.
Bogey on 1 - drive it into the right rough, hacked 100 yards to the left rough, ran it on to the left side of the green, 30’ putt from the left fringe with 15 feet of break to 3’.
Bogey on 2 was a perfect flighted sand wedge that hit the flag stick and rolled back 50 yards.
Rory had good looks at birdie on 3, 4, 5, 12, and 15 that he couldn’t convert, in addition to the 5 birdies he did make.
There is a low number out there for someone to step up and take it.
Early watching seems like you can hit a lot of greens because the balls aren’t running/bouncing off the fairways into the rough, but the putts are still hard to pay off.
He’s had a couple slip ups, most notably the tee shot on 3 that could have been in real trouble on the far side of the church pews but it was so bad that he ended up on a great spot on the 4th fairway. He’s had a couple others like that.
But every time he’s actually gotten into a bad spot he’s got it back into position and paid off the par. It’s been really impressive with how much everyone else has given some back in those spots.
I think the guy in 3rd, 2 off the lead, hunting for his ball on the first hole is relevant coverage. I’d rather see that than some guy no one’s ever heard of tap in some meaningless, context free birdie on the back 9.
There is zero wind here today and the clouds are mostly burnt off. It was really pleasant this morning with cloud cover and slight breeze but it is getting really muggy.
He got really lucky on his front 9. Way left on one but it was so far left he ended up on top of the grass that was trampled down by the spectators. He left a chip short on 2 that would have rolled back down the slope a couple hours later. He had a pitch out of the rough that landed short and would have stayed in the rough more often than not but bounced it onto the green.
That bit of firmness since this morning has really brought out all of the little nuances in the greens. The margin for error is so much tighter now than it was this morning.
The greens were really receptive early this morning. There was definitely a window where you could make some birdies if you stayed out of the rough. That window appears to have been closed. At around 9:00 this morning there were 10-11 guys under par.