The 124th U.S. Open is underway at Pinehurst No. 2 in, well, Pinehurst, North Carolina.
From the jump, the field is chasing top-ranked Scottie Scheffler — who is on a heater not seen since Tiger Woods’ heyday. Scheffler will tee off in the afternoon wave (1:24 p.m. ET to be exact) along with Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele.
So far, there haven’t been many golfers under par.
Brooks Koepka, who has won this tournament twice, looked like he was making an early run for a third initially. After briefly holding a share of the lead, Koepka made three bogeys down the stretch to drop back to even par for the day.
Instead, it was Patrick Cantlay who grabbed the lead in the early wave. He made three birdies in his final five holes of the day to card his 5-under 65. That gave him a brief two-shot lead over the field entering the clubhouse. Ludvig Åberg closed the gap slightly with his 4-under 66 in what was his first ever U.S. Open round.
Woods, on the other hand, struggled. After a birdie to open his day, he made five birdies in seven holes around the turn before finishing with a 4-over 74. He’ll need a big outing on Friday in order to make the cut, something he failed to do last month at the PGA Championship.
If you’re looking for tee times, we have them right here.
If you’re looking for how to watch, we’ve got that covered, too.
If you want to check out the leaderboard, click here.
And if you want some help following along with the action, follow along below:
Live35 updates
-
Scheffler out of sorts early on
We’ve gotten so used to seeing near perfection from Scottie Scheffler as of late that it’s glaring when he’s anything but. But … that’s what we’re seeing thus far through four holes. He’s missed fairways both left and right, having to scramble a bit just to make par.
At the third, he put his tee shot into a leftside bunker, then found a greenside bunker, had a lengthy putt for par and came up short. It’s a bogey for the World No. 1.
-
Xander gets in red numbers
Xander Schauffele takes the early lead … in the battle of the big dogs. He birdies the second to get to 1-under. Scheffler and McIlroy are still at even.
-
The featured group is underway
The three top-ranked players in the world just happen to be paired together. Go figure.
Anyway, Scottie Scheffler (1), Xander Schauffele (2) and Rory McIlroy are off and running. All three carded pars on the first.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Brooks has company
Ludvig Aberg and France’s Matthieu Pavon have joined Koepka at 3-under. There aren’t a lot of birdies out there, but there are a few.
-
Tiger wrongway
Another miss on the approach for Tiger leads to another bogey. He drove the ball in the fairway at No. 2, only to need four shots to get down from 187 yards out. After a great start, his round is slipping away.
-
Brooks … again
There was a traffic jam at 2-under, then Brooks Koepka did Brooks Koepka things — in this case, draining a 30-footer for birdie — to get to 3-under through 10.
The day started with Scottie Scheffler as the favorite. Who would you take now?
-
Another (not good) one for Tiger
Two three puts in a three-hole span has Tiger now at +2. He had a look for birdie at No. 1 (his 10th), but left it 10 feet short. Yes, 10 feet short. He missed that for bogey, his third in four holes.
