MAMARONECK, N.Y. – All that hype over how tough the U.S. Open can be at Winged Foot Golf Club. All that history of so many scores over par on the difficult West Course.
Thursday brought a surprise: All those red numbers.
Justin Thomas led the way with six birdies and only one bogey from a bad lie in the bunker, finishing with a 25-foot birdie putt that he barely touched for a 5-under-par 65.
It was the lowest score in a U.S. Open at Winged Foot, which is hosting the United States Golf Association’s national championship for the sixth time dating to 1929. And it was worth only a one-shot lead over 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, Belgium’s Thomas Pieters and Matthew Wolff, a 21-year-old Californian making his U.S. Open debut.
Rory McIlroy, who has been struggling to get off to a decent start in the majors, opened with a 67 and tried to contain his disappointment it wasn’t lower. He had a pair of three-putts that held him back, one on the 329-yard sixth hole, where he hit driver onto the middle of the green and had to settle for par.