Pars still matter at a U.S. Open, even after Gil Morgan’s round shook the USGA

OAKMONT, Pa. —  His name is Gil Morgan. Dr. Gil Morgan. He was an optometrist. He was also a good enough pro golfer to win tournaments. And to be the first golfer 10-under par halfway through an Open.

That was 1982 at Pebble Beach. And although he didn’t win—Tom Watson did, chipping in for a birdie on the 17th to beat Jack Nicklaus—that round had an effect on the set-up of the tournament. 

The Open was supposed to be brutal. No one was supposed to be 10-under par, as Morgan was for a while. When Ben Hogan won in 1951, he called Oakland Hills in Detroit a monster, and the late Tony Lema once said the Masters is fun, the Open is not.

The Open still is a difficult test but no longer impossible. The golfers that tee off Thursday in the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont, just east of Pittsburgh, are so skilled that virtually nothing can stop them from scoring.  

When you have players such as the world’s number one, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy—who just completed his own grand slam by taking the Masters—and Jon Rahm, who has a U.S. Open and a Masters, expectations are for great competition.

Scheffler, who won the PGA at Quail Hollow a month ago, to go along with his two Masters, played in the 2016 Open here and missed the cut.

“That was a tough pill to swallow,” said Scheffler, “missing the cut by one.”

He was learning then. Now others are learning from him.

“But what I really remembered was coming back the next year (he meant coming back to the Open which in 2017 was in Erin Hills in Wisconsin) and I think I made like a putt on 18 to get into a playoff in qualifying, ended up getting through the playoff and qualifying and coming in finishing low am.”

Now he just finishes low in everything.

Scheffler was the favorite coming into this Open, understandably, and has the consistent game worthy of an Open choice.

Yes, the setup requires accuracy and good putting, but what else would you expect from the nation’s championship?

“I’d say there’s definitely a strength factor coming out of the rough,” said Scheffler. “This golf course, there’s not many trees out there, but there’s so many bunkers. I don’t really know if this is a golf course you can necessarily just overpower with a kind of bomb and gouge type strategy, especially with the way the rough is.”

Two weeks ago, at the Memorial, McIlroy spent more time explaining why he didn’t come into the Media Room for interviews at Quail Hollow than talking about his game. But now he seems to have that problem corrected. It’s golf that concerns him.

“You have to have your wits about you this week,” said McIlroy, who did play here in the ‘16 Open. “It’s still a big brute of a golf course, and you’re going to have to have your wits about you this week throughout the bag, off the tee, into the greens, around the greens.” 

That’s no surprise at a U.S. Open.