OAKMONT, Pennsylvania :Bryson DeChambeau has been a fixture on leaderboards at major championships but had a less-than-ideal start to his U.S. Open title defense at Oakmont Country Club on Thursday where thick rough and slick greens took their toll.
DeChambeau found himself hitting out of Oakmont’s ankle-high rough too often and struggled to find his groove on the speedy greens en route to a three-over-par 73 that left him seven shots back of leader J.J. Spaun and with plenty of work to do.
“This golf course can come up and get you pretty quick and you’ve just got to be on your game, and it got me, and I wasn’t fully on my game,” said DeChambeau. “Pretty disappointed with how I played.”
If recent history is any indication, DeChambeau will have a tough challenge ahead of him given each of the last four U.S. Open champions ranked among the top seven on the leaderboard at the conclusion of the first round.
DeChambeau is one of the game’s longest hitters and even though the fan favourite harnesses extreme power his inability to control his tee shots ultimately left him working out of the rough far more than he would have liked.
“Even for a guy like me, I can’t get out of it some of the times, depending on the lie,” said DeChambeau.
“It was tough. It was a brutal test of golf. But one that I’m excited for tomorrow. If I just tidy up a couple things and get some momentum going my way, we’ll see where it goes.”
The good news for DeChambeau, who is looking to become the first repeat U.S. Open winner since Brooks Koepka in 2018, is that he was not alone in struggling at Oakmont where only 10 players managed to break par in the first round.
The twice U.S. Open champion, who went close at the year’s first two majors, also feels he can make the necessary tweaks to his game this week.
“It’s not too far off,” said DeChambeau. “Just got to get the putting a little bit more dialed, and I’ll be right there because three-over could have easily been two-under today.”
