US Open 2015 Results: Biggest Winners and Losers from Day 1
The first day of the 115th U.S. Open was, as is the norm, full of noteworthy moments.
The morning wave of players took advantage of benign conditions at Washington's Chambers Bay course, with Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson completing their circuits with matching five-under 65s to share the early lead. Success in the afternoon was harder to come by, though amateur Brian Campbell's late-day 67 was a shot off the four-under score posted by Patrick Reed earlier in the day.
Reigning Masters champion Jordan Spieth is in the hunt after a 68, as is veteran Phil Mickelson, who took the first step toward completing a career Grand Slam with an opening 69.
Meanwhile, Tiger Woods' career spiral continued with his worst-ever U.S. Open round, a 10-over 80.
The waves of players will flip-flop Friday, with the guys who played late for Round 1 getting a crack at early conditions for Round 2 and vice versa.
And we'll be back to take a look at the second round, too. But in the meantime, we welcome you to peruse our list of the biggest winners and losers from Day 1 at the 2015 U.S. Open.
All quotes are from television broadcasts unless otherwise noted.
Winner: Dustin Johnson's Recovery
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Dustin Johnson's par putt on his 18th hole stopped two revolutions short. But that was all he really could complain about for the day, especially considering where his career stood not too long ago.
The soon-to-be 31-year-old (his birthday is Monday) took a self-imposed sabbatical last summer to "seek professional help for personal challenges," and he completed Round 1 of the second major he's played since with a share of the lead after firing a five-under 65.
Swede Henrik Stenson birdied four of his last five holes to equal Johnson's 65.
"I think he's walking off with a 65 thinking his dinner's going to taste pretty darn good," Fox Sports 1 analyst Joe Ogilvie said of Johnson on Thursday's broadcast. "The space between his ears is the territory that he most has to conquer. He's a guy whose matured both on and of the golf course. Having a kid, for a guy like Dustin, is very maturing."
Johnson, who shared a threesome with Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott, opened his round on the par-70 course's back nine before finishing with holes 10-18. He birdied the first, fourth, fifth, seventh, 11th and 12 holes he played and was bogey-free until the aforementioned short miss on the last.
"I'm very, very pleased with my round today," he said at a post-round media gathering. "All in all, I thought I had a great day."
Johnson hit 11 fairways and 14 greens and gave Ogilvie a feeling that he was on the verge of living up to his No. 7 pre-tournament spot in the Official World Golf Ranking.
"He's got to look at this course like 'This is my time, I'm prepared. I'm ready to go,'" Ogilvie said. "He has everything that he needs to be No. 1 in the world. He's got what it takes to win multiple majors."
Loser: Rickie Fowler's Momentum
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Top-fives in each of 2014's majors put Rickie Fowler onto "most likely to win a major" terrain.
But it won't be happening this weekend.
The popular 26-year-old's visions of lofty duels were gone by Thursday's midpoint after he posted a bogey, two double-bogeys and a triple-bogey on hole Nos. 6 through 9 in the first round.
The Californian's ugly nine holes were the low end of a particularly somnambulant threesome that grouped Fowler with a similarly struggling Tiger Woods and Louis Oosthuizen, who were each four over after nine.
Fowler, Woods and Oosthuizen finished 81, 80 and 77, respectively, a combined 28 over par.
"We were happy to be upright, alive and moving on with the day," Fowler told Fox Sports 1 after the round. "I'll see what I can do tomorrow. You never know. But today was a 'golf happens' kind of day."
Winner: Jordan Spieth
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More so than any player in the field not named Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth is dueling with history.
The 21-year-old who lapped the Masters field two months ago for his first major victory can add another handful of bullet points to the resume with a win in the Pacific Northwest.
And even though he ended Thursday night in something other than the U.S. Open lead, the consensus was that he'd done enough to get himself into a potentially trophy-hoisting position.
"It may not be the lead," said Fox Sports 1 analyst Morgan Pressel. "But it may be the best round of the day."
Spieth agreed.
"It was a good, solid day," he told Fox Sports 1 after the round. "You shoot two-under at the U.S. Open. I'd have signed for it at the beginning of the day. Another two-under round would be a great goal."
A win for Spieth would make him the sixth player in history to win both the Masters and the U.S. Open in the same year. The youngster played the U.S. Amateur at Chambers Bay in 2010 and shot 83.
"You can’t win a Grand Slam unless you win the first (major), so I’m the only one with that opportunity this year," he told the Press Association (via the Guardian). "So I’m going to go ahead and focus on this week and see if I can put myself in contention."
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Loser: 2nd-Wave Golf
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It happened far later than anticipated, but Mother Nature did eventually make a first-round impact.
Though the morning wave of players teed off before noon ET and was routinely able to stay at or go below par, the guys who got underway after 5 p.m. ET encountered far more of the Puget Sound crosswind that made an already challenging course even more difficult.
Fox Sports 1 analyst Joel Klatt said the breeze had kicked up to 13 mph across the terrain at No. 11, where the threesome of Rickie Fowler, Tiger Woods and Louis Oosthuizen immediately proceeded to send approach shots from the fairway into a long fescue mound to the right of the green. The players were shielded from the wind in the fairway, but their shots were impacted when they got up in the air.
"Now, they're really contending with something different," Klatt said. "The wind is definitely picking up and suddenly this feels a lot more like a U.S. Open championship. When we looked at this in the beginning, we figured if anybody got through the afternoon from one-over to one-under, they’d be in terrific shape."
Winner: Mike Davis' Setup
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The television images and pre-tournament coverage promised tumult.
And had the opening round indeed devolved into a maelstrom of high numbers and angry players, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis would have been the cursed name on everyone's sneering lips.
Instead, star after star arrived at the media tent with high praise for the embattled leader.
"I thought it played terrific. I thought it played the way we expected," Phil Mickelson said after his opening-round 69 at at a post-round media gathering. "There was nothing hokey or crazy with pin positions or the way it played. It is one of the more difficult courses to walk, but that's part of the test."
Mickelson's only quibble came from the inconsistency of speed from green to green.
"That's the only thing I can possibly think of that's not positive," he said. "That's the only thing that I could possibly say was not just wonderful."
First-round co-leader Dustin Johnson, who birdied six holes and bogeyed one while shooting 65, shared Mickelson's sentiment.
"I thought the setup was great," he said. "They had some tough flags and they had some pins you could get close to. They did a really good job. This is definitely an interesting golf course. It's a fun one to play. I enjoy playing here. It's golf that I really like to play."
Patrick Reed, 24, playing his second career U.S. Open, actually suggested some more hurdles would be good as the tournament progresses.
"I expected it to be a little firmer than it was today," he said. "I knew if it stayed overcast it had the chance to play a little softer. If you hit a poor tee shot you're going to be penalized for it. I like the setup and I hope it continues playing hard, getting faster and becoming even more of a challenge."
The only significant dissent came from Sergio Garcia, who tweeted after his even-par 70 that the "greens are as bad as they look on TV."
Loser: Rory McIlroy (ish)
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He was the pre-tournament favorite and ended the first round seven shots off the pace. But while Rory McIlroy’s initial 18 holes correctly place him on the negative side of the initial winner/loser line, there’s probably no player with a better chance at reversing perception within 24 hours.
The Irishman shot a two-over 72 Thursday and left Chambers Bay feeling like he’d wasted a chance at something bigger after hitting 10 of 14 fairways and 14 of 18 greens.
“It was frustrating, especially how I felt I hit the ball from tee to green,” he said to a post-round media gathering. “I thought I drove the ball great, I thought I hit my iron shots very, very well. I definitely thought it was a day where you could shoot under par and I didn’t take advantage of that.”
McIlroy arrived as the top-ranked player in the world in spite of a late-spring slump that saw him miss cuts at the BMW PGA Championship and the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after he’d won the Wells Fargo Championship by seven shots. He won the British Open and the PGA Championship last season and had a fourth-place finish at the 2015 Masters.
And in spite of the middling start, his ambition is to remain among the leaders.
“There is no reason why I can’t go out tomorrow and shoot a similar score to what Henrik (Stenson) or Dustin (Johnson) shot out there this morning,” McIlroy said. “But again I feel like I’m very capable of it with the way I’m hitting the ball, I just need to get something going on the greens.”
Winner: The Dark Horses
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One thing Thursday proved is that the leaderboard is not reserved for the world's top 10.
Though it's not shocking to have the sixth- and seventh-ranked players sharing the first-round lead, it may be a tad jarring to see who else is within driving distance of Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson.
Amateurs Brian Campbell and Ollie Schniederjans finished their initial U.S. Open rounds under par at minus-three and minus-one, respectively, while red numbers were also achieved by off-the-radar commodities like Ben Martin (minus-three), Joost Luiten (minus-two), Marc Warren (minus-two) and Cody Gribble (minus-two).
Utah native Tony Finau finished his first round at minus-one as well.
Even 51-year-old Scotsman Colin Montgomerie—a three-time U.S. Open runner-up (1994, 1997, 2006)—put himself in a surprisingly competitive position at minus-one.
"It does feel great,” he told the John Huggan of the Guardian. “In practice I was shooting more like 80. But this morning the course was softer. The greens were pretty receptive early on and allowed scoring. You have to carry the ball on to the surfaces and often that is right on my limit. So 69 was super. To break 70 was more than I was expecting."
Loser: The Tiger Woods Mystique... Again
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Fox Sports 1 analyst Joe Ogilvie spoke with a golf fan's optimism.
"Tiger Woods has gone from the greatest golfer that any of us have ever seen to someone who we don't know what he can shoot. Will he shoot 85 or will he shoot 70?" he said. "Can you imagine what the golf world would do if this guy got it to five-under at any time today? He's the great unknown."
It didn't take long before the mystery faded, and not in a good way.
The 14-time major winner's inconsistency belied his former greatness on hole after hole—with good drives followed by poor approaches, and sound approaches leading to missed putts—before it ultimately wrapped with a shockingly ineffective 10-over 80. He bogeyed eight holes, triple-bogeyed one and didn't post his first positive number until sinking a three-foot birdie putt on No. 16.
Over five hours, it was like seeing Michael Jordan reduced to a 10-minute bench player.
"I'm not very happy, that's for sure," Woods said at a post-round media gathering. "It was a tough day, I got off to a bad start and couldn’t quite get it turned around. It's just one of those things, you’ve got to work through it. I try as hard as I can, but I can't seem to get the consistency."
Woods did crack a smile when referencing his playing partner, Rickie Fowler, who shot 81.
"The bright side is at least I kicked Rickie’s butt today," he said.
Woods' highest previous U.S. Open round was a 77, and Thursday's spiral came two weeks after he'd shot 85 at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio—the worst round of his professional career. His only worse round in a major was an 81 at the 2002 British Open.
It was the eighth time in nine events this season that Woods started with a bogey, and, without a particularly unlikely comeback on Friday, will prolong a major drought that stretches back to 2008.
"Golf is a game of confidence, and Tiger is having a crisis of confidence," Ogilvie said. "The mistakes I see from Tiger now are fundamental. Back in 2001, we stepped on the first hole and we knew he was better than us. He knew he was better than us and we knew that he knew he was better than us. Now it looks like fear. It looks like stage fright."
Fifteen years ago Thursday, Woods completed the 2000 U.S. Open with a 15-shot victory.
"It's certainly hard to watch the best player of our generation play like this," Ogilvie said.
Winner: Phil Mickelson
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It's practically impossible to win the U.S. Open on a Thursday.
But as Phil Mickelson clearly knows, it is quite possible to lose one.
The 45-year-old (since Tuesday) got as far as three under par at one point on the front nine but ultimately birdied once and bogeyed three times on the back en route to a one-under 69.
"I'm very pleased with how the round went," he said at a post-tournament media gathering. "I shot under par the first day at the U.S. Open. You don't want to have to fight to come back the whole time."
He hit 14 greens and nine fairways in the round, which came on the 25th anniversary of another 45-year-old—Hale Irwin—capturing the 1990 U.S. Open and the 50th anniversary of another Hall of Famer, Gary Player, completing his career Grand Slam with a championship at the 1965 U.S. Open.
Mickelson has won each of the other three majors but has never finished better than second (six times) at the U.S. Open. According to Ryan Ballengee of Yahoo Sports, Mickelson conceded during a pre-tournament media session that capturing the elusive title provides lingering drive even after he's accomplished nearly everything else.
A win this week would make Mickelson the sixth player to complete the career Slam. He and Jack Nicklaus already share a dubious honor, each having finished second at all four majors.
"I've always been somebody, ever since I was a kid, that got motivated by failure, that worked harder because of failure," Mickelson said. "Some people get discouraged by that, and it almost pushes them away. But for me it's been a motivator to continue to work harder and get over that hump."
Loser: A Kaymer Repeat
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The last time we saw Martin Kaymer on a U.S. Open golf course, he was ablaze.
A native of the former West Germany, Kaymer shot consecutive 65s to open the 2014 event at Pinehurst and coasted through the weekend on the way to an eight-stroke win—his second career major after he'd previously captured the 2010 PGA Championship.
Eighteen holes on Thursday, however, and the fire looked out.
Kaymer played the back nine first and was two over at the turn following bogeys on the fifth and sixth holes he played. He rose to three over after another bogey on No. 11, then had an interesting eagle/double-bogey sequence at 12 and 13 before a birdie at 15 settled the round back to what ended at 72.
The two-over round puts him seven shots off the lead shared by Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson.
Winner: Michael Putnam, Local Hero
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Washington native Michael Putnam wasn't just a novelty act after all.
The local hero struck the first tee shot, played the first round and owned the initial course record at Chambers Bay when it was opened in 2007, and he was given the honor of hitting the first tee shot again Thursday as the facility hosted its inaugural major championship.
Putnam, who lives two miles from the course, carded a bogey five on No. 1 and posted another red number on the seventh—but he steadied himself on the back nine and actually birdied a pair of holes (Nos. 12 and 18) to wind up at even-par 70. Statistically speaking for the round, he hit 10 fairways, 15 greens and putted 35 times.
In three previous U.S. Opens, he's missed one cut (2005) and finished tied for 55th (2007) and 45th (2011).
Loser: Bubba Watson's Sand Game
12 of 12It doesn't happen often, but once in a while even an elite pro looks like a duffer.
On Thursday, it was Bubba Watson's turn.
The two-time Masters champion saw how the other half lives from a green-side bunker at the par-four 10th hole, taking a big swing only to see the ball squirt flaccidly about two feet to his left.
He was able to exit the sand on his second attempt but wound up carding a double-bogey six—his second of the round—before rallying to finish the day at even-par 70.
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