LOS ANGELES — Plot twist!
What began as a comedy — a squirt of seltzer in the face of Los Angeles Country Club with two players shooting 62s — is suddenly a drama.
“The course has played a little bit easier than everybody thought it would,” Rory McIlroy said Friday. “But I wouldn’t be surprised on Saturday, Sunday to see it bite back.”
Course bites man. That happened more than once Friday afternoon, when the sun peeked through the gray, the breeze picked up and the familiar U.S. Open really kicked into gear.
“The course is slowly starting to firm out, which makes the greens slightly faster,” said Tony Finau, who followed a 32 on the front with a 37 on the back. “I had some putts from above the hole, which obviously you don’t want to be, but I thought they were absolutely lightning.”
The North Course, which has never played host to a U.S. Open, is ready for its close-up. It didn’t look that way Thursday, however, when gray skies and a little bit of moisture had the fairways and greens softer than the United States Golf Association had hoped.
But snap judgments were as dangerous as snap hooks.
“I didn’t like what they were saying, how it’s too easy,” said Sam Bennett, who followed a 67 with a 68. “You still had guys shooting way over par. I think that just shows how good of a course this is, how it rewards good golf and bad golf still gets penalized.”
Asked to compare Friday’s setup with Thursday’s, Padraig Harrington said: “Tough, tough. Much tougher. They have lengthened the golf course substantially. Firmed the greens up a little. I don’t know if they have changed the pin positions from what they had intended, but with the longer golf course and the firmer greens, those pins certainly were difficult.”
Heading into the major, a common theme was that LACC would have holes at both ends of the spectrum — some easier than a typical Open, some harder. And that’s the way it’s starting to look.
Rickie Fowler, who opened with a scorching 62, had a lurching, Mr. Toad’s of a round Friday with eight birdies, six bogeys and four pars. At 10-under, Fowler holds a one-stroke lead over Wyndham Clark heading into Saturday's third round.
“It’s not that easy out there,” Fowler said. “Yes, I’ve made a lot of birdies, and that is doable out there. Until you’ve been on the grounds or been out there hitting shots, it’s still a very hard test.
“Is it the hardest U.S. Open? No. I think it’s a good, fair, hard test. ... The fairways look very wide because, yes, the mowed areas are wide, but where you have to hit it is very small. So the golf course is big and open but plays very tight.
“The greens, you can’t see how much slope there is and how thick everything is around. You hit fairways and hit greens, yes, you can score well, but you get out of position and it’s going to eat you up.”
