While the most surprising round on day one at the US Open arguably came from Scottie Scheffler, it was quite jarring to see both Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy also well over par on Thursday at Oakmont.
It does appear that both Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy are in precarious spots after their opening rounds at the US Open. DeChambeau sits at three over par, while McIlroy is one shot further back.
It was a tale of two nines for McIlroy. The Northern Irishman was two under par for his first 10 holes of the day, before dropping six shots to tumble down the leaderboard.
Meanwhile, DeChambeau’s decline was a little more gradual. With that, it seems that both players need to be at least a little wary of missing the cut.
Rex Hoggard suggests whether he has more concerns about Bryson DeChambeau or Rory McIlroy after day one at the US Open
Of course, McIlroy went into the week desperately searching for some form. The Northern Irishman has been poor since winning The Masters in April. And he went into the third major of the year off the back of missing the cut at the RBC Canadian Open.
DeChambeau, on the other hand, has been in contention at almost every tournament he has played in recent months, including at both Augusta National and the PGA Championship. He is also the defending champion this week.
So perhaps it should not be a surprise that Rex Hoggard has told the Golf Channel Podcast that he would be more worried about DeChambeau’s opening round.
“I picked [McIlroy] to miss the cut so I was a little nervous through nine holes this morning because it looked like he had found a switch,” he said.
“But it goes back to what the struggles have been the last two tournaments and since the PGA Championship.
“He just does not have a driver he feels comfortable with. The last two tournaments he has given up more than five shots to the field off of the tee. That is not Rory McIlroy. He cannot contend or compete when he is doing that to the field and this particular golf course was always going to demand something out of him that he simply does not seem to have right now.
“That being said I think what we saw on the front nine probably was very encouraging.
“I would have more concern for a Bryson DeChambeau in this particular case than Rory, because of what we talked about on Wednesday, the idea that whatever Bryson did in his own mind at 2020 at Winged Foot to win that US Open, I think both of us agree, he is not going to be able to do that here. Bryson’s own words were that he can’t do that here. That is not something I can pull off, the rough is thicker and more dense, I can bomb it down there and I will have a wedge in my hand but it’s so much more difficult to get those wedges closer to the green than it was at Winged Foot so that strategy was not going to work.
“You can play this course two different ways and I don’t think that he has the bandwidth to play this course conservatively right now.”
The dilemma Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau may face on Friday at Oakmont
Given where they stand on the leaderboard, you would imagine that both McIlroy and DeChambeau will have one eye on the leaders and one on the cut line.
The good news for both men is that they are off much later on in the day. So they will have a decent idea of how the course is playing, and what is needed to ensure that they will be sticking around for the weekend.
And it will be interesting to see how that impacts their strategies. Oakmont is not a course to take huge gambles on, so perhaps they will be more focused on simply keeping themselves in the tournament.
But if there is low scoring earlier on in the day, DeChambeau and McIlroy may have no choice but to go out and attack more than they perhaps like.
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