2019 US Open

[Carolina Speed]

I have been able to watch some of the first two rounds. Third round leaderboard turning out excellent with many storylines. Except for the nauseating endless Woods worshipping even though he's out of contention, it has been a great tournament.

1. Woodland -9. Former college basketball player turned golfer goes on to win a major?
2. Rose -7. Rose looking for a second US Open.
3. Oosthuizen. -6 Career second place slam winner. Looking for another Major.
T4. Wise. -5
T4. McIlroy. -5 Looking for a fifth Major. hasn't won one since 2014.
T6. -4. Kuchar, Can he finally break through in a Major?
T6. -4. Koepka. Can he win 3 US Opens in a row?
T11. -3 A. Scott
T19. -2 Furyk. At 49 years old still in contention.
T27. -1 Spieth. At just 25 years old looking for a fourth Major. Has had his chances, but looks to be out of contention.
T32. E. Woods.
I will be traveling on a rare Sunday for business, so I hope to be in my hotel room in time to see the ending.
BTW, Happy Father's Day to all the CF Fathers. I am a proud father of five wonderful children!

 

[Don Wassall]

Some tremendous golf was played yesterday in the third round. Quite a few clutch pars made via long putts and chips, just really impressive to watch Woodland, Rose, Koepka and others play so well under such pressure.

Woodland: -11
Rose: -10
Koepka: -7
Oosthuizen: -7
Reavie: -7
McIlroy: -6
Kuchar: -5

The fourth round should have the highest scores of the tournament due to pin placements and the drying out of the course. Can Gary Woodland hang on and win his first major when no one expected him to be among the leaders? I'd love to see Koepka win it again, if for no reason other than how the media will be forced to slowly continue to acknowledge his greatness. If not Brooks, then Rose, McIlroy and Oosthuizen in that order. Based on yesterday's play, my guess is that Rose will outduel Koepka and win his second U.S. Open. If Rory can finally do well on the par fives he could mount a successful charge. He shot a 61 in the final round last Sunday to win the Canadian Open by a runaway seven strokes.

 

[Flint]

Woodland holds off Koepka to win his first major. Congrats to the guy who showed some moxie down the stretch. He's probably another one and done major winner, but it shows how deep the talent pool is.

 

[Don Wassall]

Yeah, I kept waiting for Woodland to wilt, but he was very tough mentally under tremendous pressure. Seemed like Koepka was going to wear him down, but he hung tough and played very very well.

Reminds me of when an unexpected non-Tiger would arise and hold off Woods in the occasional major when Tiger seemed destined to win, like Trevor Immelman and Zach Johnson at The Masters and Y.E. Yang at the PGA.

I also like that Woodland looks to be an alpha male, same as Koepka. His usual look gives the impression that he's more likely to punch someone in the face that offends him than he is to burst out crying like so many White men do these days after triumphing in sports.

Koepka has finished second, first and second in the three majors this year and doesn't look to be going anywhere any time soon, though the British Open is always a different animal than the other three.

 

[BeyondFedUp]

Enjoyed it seeing Woodland win actually. The long drain on 18 to win it will be forever etched in my mind:

 

[Don Wassall]

Enjoyed it seeing Woodland win actually. The long drain on 18 to win it will be forever etched in my mind:

That was a fantastic putt to cap off a fantastic tournament by Gary Woodland. His chip on 17 was the key shot of the tournament. It looked for sure that he was looking at a bogey on the par three 17 as his tee shot was about a hundred feet from the pin on an hourglass shaped green, which caused him to chip his second shot downhill toward the cup. Similar shots from the same area all went well past the pin to the edge of the green, resulting in pretty much an automatic bogey, as the announcers were predicting for Woodland. But he hit a perfect chip that nearly went in the hole and stopped close enough for a tap in, a shot as memorable as Tom Watson's famous chip in at Pebble on 17 in 1982 and Jack Nicklaus's nearly holed one iron tee shot on the same hole in 1972.

While that was going on, Koepka had a good shot at birdie at 18, which if he had made it would have tied him with Woodland had Woodland bogeyed 17. But Koepka missed his ten footer and Woodland hit his perfect chip, game, set and match.

BTW, Woodland is now the 11th ranked player in the world after the Open, after being 25th going into it, so while it was an upset it was far from as unlikely as some over the years.