The ‘unusual thought’ haunting gamers at this U.S. Open

PINEHURST, N.C. — Within the early-going of this 124th U.S. Open, you’d have been forgiven for pondering some variation of Right here we go once more. With three birdies and nary a blemish on his card, Brooks Koepka, simply 34 and already in possession of 5 main titles, was doing extra Brooks Koepka-at-the-majors issues: smashed drives, wise approaches, little to no dialog along with his taking part in companions — on this case, Collin Morikawa and a badly struggling Justin Thomas. Full Terminator mode.   

However then, as can occur on this most exacting of tournaments, the sweater started to unravel. Koepka’s first bogey got here after a three-putt on the par-4 thirteenth. The following after a tugged tee shot on the par-3 fifteenth. And a 3rd after a blocked tee shot made him play the 523-yard par-4 sixteenth as if it had been a three-shot par-5. An excellent-par 70 is nothing to stew about at a U.S. Open, however nonetheless, Koepka absolutely was pondering what may have been or, extra possible, ought to have been. We are able to’t say that with certainty as a result of afterward he declined to deconstruct his spherical.

After signing his card and rising from scoring in a subterranean room simply past the 18th inexperienced, Koepka was approached by a USGA media official who inquired if the golfer may do a brief interview with NBC/Golf Channel and, after that, on-site reporters.

“Nah, I’m all proper,” Koepka stated.

When the official gently pleaded, Koepka’s agent, Blake Smith, took over: “He stated no.”

No event silences gamers fairly just like the U.S. Open. One second you’re in a par groove and flirting with the lead, the subsequent you’re hitting the mistaken aspect of a turtleback inexperienced and staring down a 10-footer for bogey. Koepka is aware of the deal. He’s taking part in in his eleventh Open this week. In his earlier 10, all he’s finished is win two and end top-5 in two extra. His bodily instruments are one factor, however when he’s at his world-beating greatest, the asset that the majority separates Koepka is his psychological power. That, and the self-confidence to consider that he’s flat-out higher than simply about all of his opponents. He laid out the formulation for us again on the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black, 5 days earlier than he received that week:

“There’s 156 [players] within the discipline, so you work at the very least 80 of them I’m simply going to beat. You work about half of them received’t play properly from there, so that you’re all the way down to about possibly 35. After which from 35, a few of them simply — strain goes to get to them. It solely leaves you with a number of extra, and also you’ve simply acquired to beat these guys.”

That’s not cockiness. Properly, possibly it’s. However all of the greats assume that manner on the majors. Hogan absolutely did. Nicklaus most definitely did. Tiger, in fact. Ask the final man to win a U.S. Open on this Mensa examination posing as a golf course.

“This week, possibly 50 % of the sector don’t consider in themselves that they’ll do properly right here as a result of it’s a scary monitor,” Martin Kaymer, the runaway champion in 2014, stated Tuesday. “As I stated to my caddie earlier, mentally it’s such a humorous method this week as a result of normally you go on to the placing inexperienced and also you attempt to make birdie, you attempt to make the putt. Right here, it virtually creeps in that you just wish to keep away from the bogey, keep away from the three-putt, as a result of so much can occur. This can be a unusual thought. This can be a new thought.

“I talked to some gamers, and a bunch of them, they’ve their thought: avoiding the dangerous. I feel nice gamers, they’ve that positivity and that perception each single course they play. They don’t have that doubt.”

When you’re a 15-handicapper who typically wants three putts to get dwelling or two swipes to flee a bunker, what Kaymer is describing is in no way a international idea however moderately a well-recognized one. However to the world’s greatest gamers, protection will not be a technique they ceaselessly elect to train. Certain, it’s within the playbook however on web page 417.

“When you miss it quick aspect, it’s an auto bogey or increased,” Tiger Woods stated after his opening six-bogey 74 that possible dashed his hopes of weekend tee instances. “Being aggressive to a conservative line is I feel how you must play this specific golf course.”

On Thursday morning, Tony Finau acquired aggressive on an aggressive line: hitting a wonderful, swooping 5-iron on the par-3 sixth that he would later name his greatest shot of the day. The ball touched down 10 yards in need of the opening, scooted simply previous the cup after which stored rolling…and rolling…and buh-bye, off the inexperienced. Simply to be clear: Finau’s self-described greatest shot of the day missed the inexperienced.        

“The greens are proper the place they need ’em,” Woods stated. “A number of the pins had been proper up on the crest of the inexperienced. When you dumped the ball in the course of the inexperienced, it was into the grain then down grain.” (Translation: slower then quicker.) “That’s how the golf course goes to be arrange. We all know that entering into right here. Only a matter of placing the ball in right spots and simply making a bunch of pars and sometimes a birdie right here and there, it may be finished.”

Completed or undone. At U.S. Opens, there isn’t a lot in between.

“I knew each gap out right here is so powerful,” stated Morikawa, who made a pair of double bogeys but additionally a pair of closing birdies to scratch again to even for the day. “If I let it have an effect on me, you then may as properly simply name it over and simply type of stroll it on in.”

Unusual ideas, certainly.

Alan Bastable

Golf.com Editor

As GOLF.com’s govt editor, Bastable is chargeable for the editorial route and voice of one of many sport’s most revered and extremely trafficked information and repair websites. He wears many hats — enhancing, writing, ideating, creating, daydreaming of in the future breaking 80 — and feels privileged to work with such an insanely proficient and hardworking group of writers, editors and producers. Earlier than grabbing the reins at GOLF.com, he was the options editor at GOLF Journal. A graduate of the College of Richmond and the Columbia College of Journalism, he lives in New Jersey along with his spouse and foursome of children.