Dustin Johnson wasn’t just playing the hardest U.S. Open venue on the planet, Oakmont, but he also had forces gravitating against him. Again. At this point, he nearly expects to experience some type of outside forces working against him while he’s in contention at a major championship in the final round.
The USGA released a statement Monday afternoon, saying it regretted the “distraction” caused by the organization’s decision to wait until the end of Dustin Johnson’s round to decide on the ruling regarding the potential infraction that occurred on the fifth green. As the USGA rules officials repeatedly stated afterwards (to the point of absurdity) in interviews and a press conference (which was more like a parody), the whole point was for the USGA to make the correct ruling.
Upon reviewing the video evidence (see below), the officials decided that it “more likely than not” (ugh, so 51%) that Dustin caused the ball to move because apparently the officials disregarded DJ’s word and claim he grounded his putter and shortly after the ball moved.
It wouldn’t be a major championship with Dustin Johnson in contention if there weren’t some type of ridiculous drama involved — whether it was trying to chip left-handed and imploding in the final round to lose a three-shot lead (2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach), grounding his club on the 72nd hole in the controversial bunker-not-a-bunker debacle (2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits), hitting a 4-iron out-of-bounds coming down the stretch (2011 Open Championship at Royal St Georges), three-putting from 12 feet on the 72nd hole on “bumpy” greens to miss out on an 18-hole playoff against Jordan Spieth (2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay), and posting two scores over par after holding the 36-hole lead (2015 Open Championship at St Andrews).
Well, we’re finally sort of back on track in terms of the day and the round, but of course, there are still some players who have to return back to the course at the crack of dawn to finish their remaining holes. Most notably, the current leader Shane Lowry, who is three-under on his round and five-under total, has four holes to play. Others include Andrew Landry (E through 13, -3 total), Lee Westwood (-1 through 15, -2 total), Sergio Garcia (E through 14, -2 total) and Dustin Johnson (+2 through 13, -2 total).
But thanks to the deluge earlier this week, Oakmont hasn’t shown its teeth, with the course still giving up birdies and low scores and several good names took advantage of the benign conditions to surge up the leaderboard.
Wow, I’m honestly a bit confused or just disoriented as to what the heck is happening out there at Oakmont because of the weather delays that messed up the rest of the week. So, the players in Thursday’s morning wave finished their first rounds on Friday morning — only nine players completed 18 holes on Thursday — and then had the rest of the day off. Then, the guys originally in Thursday’s afternoon wave played the first round and then most of them finished the second round, as well.
Yep, 36 holes at Oakmont in a U.S. Open — sounds about as fun as digging ditches all day. I’m serious. I know they’re playing professional golf for a lot of money, but hey, you’d have to pay me that much to do what they did today. However, those guys actually got the better end of the draw, believe it or not.
If you wished you could have watched the first round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything. With the heavy showers that fell Wednesday night and into Thursday, the course was soggy and soppy and completely different from the treacherous Oakmont — considered the most difficult of all U.S. Open venues, which says more than enough — that the players experienced in their practice rounds.
Some were critical of the USGA’s decision to not allow the players to warm-up again on the driving range and practice putting green (OK, that’s a little extreme) after a weather delay that lasted 79 minutes on Thursday. (I mean, look, I get it, golfers are very OCD, and even a few years ago, the idea of NOT hitting balls before a casual round almost gave me a panic attack, but I’m sure the USGA was just trying to get in as many holes as possible.)
Okay, it’s been a hectic couple of days and insomnia appears to continue to become a serious issue. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I just wanted to post my picks before first-round play got too far underway.
I am going to quickly go through the main things and i”ll expand on them if needed after I get some sleep, and can see and think straight — or at least better, which I hear helps when writing and making sense are the goal.
[Ed. note: OK, I’m seriously I’ve been procrastinating so much lately. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’ve never procrastinated like this EVER. No joke. Well, I apologize for the rambling. And I haven’t actually gotten to the good stuff yet, but shouldn’t take me along after my nap. I can’t keep my eyes open. And I should probably not publish this, but you know how I like to live life on the edge! I need to edit out most of the rambling. I should just do it now. ]
Man, don’t you kind of wonder what Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler were talking about in the above picture during their practice round Tuesday? I’m sure it wasn’t anything too riveting — and hopefully it was something other than golf, but I don’t know, obviously.
What I hope is happening is that Rickie is convincing Rory to join SnapChat. I mean, Rickie has put on his A-game snapping this week. Only three Tour pros that I know of at least have been active per usual on the best social media app (at least in my experience so far) to give fans an inside look at Oakmont this week. I mean, do I even have to tell you who they are? Rickie, Justin Thomas and Smylie Kaufman.
I have some serious *breaking* news for you guys: Oakmont is a tough track. Yeah, no shit, right? Of course, it is — it’s a U.S. Open venue! No, but seriously, it makes the average U.S. Open course look like the rinky-dink muni you play wearing a t-shirt and cut-offs while you shotgun PBRs. That’s right. Oakmont eats most other venues for breakfast.
I haven’t seen that much of the course yet (walking at least nine with some guys tomorrow morning!), but I’ve seen enough and spoken to enough players/insiders to know how difficult, strenuous and mentally taxing it is. It will certainly be interesting to see how players deal with the part of the game between the ears this week. I mean, it looks like it could be pretty traumatizing if you’re not playing well and things start moving in the wrong direction.
The USGA announced groupings and starting times for the first two rounds of the 2016 U.S. Open Championship, Thursday (June 16) and Friday (June 17), on Friday. Oakmont Country Club will max out at 7,219 yards as a par-70 (in other words, it’s beastly). The field of 156 players will play the first two rounds before the low 60 scores and ties decide the cut.
The USGA has fun with its pairings in the past, but it seems like it’s backed off a little ever since receiving some backlash a few years ago for the heavyweights group. I mean, okay, maybe that went a tad too far, but no need to ruin the fun for everyone! Still, the USGA definitely has the best groupings out of the four majors.
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