OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA | Shall we begin with some wise words from a man who knows a thing or two about Oakmont Country Club, having won the 1994 U.S. Open there?
“Patience and endurance are your strongest allies and the thing with Oakmont is, you’ve got to play all the shots,” Ernie Els said of the par-70 course where he won the U.S. Open in extremely hot conditions in 1994. “The one-dimensional approach doesn’t cut it. You’ve got to shape the ball both ways off the tee and into the greens to counter the severe slopes. In 1994 I hit everything from driver to 4-iron [from the tees] to put myself in the ideal position to hit greens. That was key. I was No. 1 in greens in regulation that week and I had a strong putting week, too.”
So in the light of Els’ comments let us consider the first two rounds of Jon Rahm and Viktor Hovland, two of Europe’s 2023 Ryder Cup team and surely two of this year’s also. On Thursday Rahm did almost everything Els had said he should and his 69 was his sixth such first-round score in his past six U.S. Opens. “I am extremely happy,” the Spaniard said.
Rahm’s good play on Thursday was a continuation of his good form in LIV Golf, where he has finished in the top 10 of every event he has played in, and his tied eighth at the recent PGA Championship.
But in his second round at Oakmont, a 75 for a 36-hole total of 4-over-par 144, Rahm did far less. His driving was not so straight, his approach shots to the greens were not so accurate and his putting was worse. It is true that the greens were extraordinarily fast – rolling at somewhere between the upper 14s and low 15s on the Stimpmeter, and downhill putts were as easy as putting on ice. But whereas on Thursday he had taken 32 putts, on Friday he took 35.
What happened to Rahm on the 11th somehow summed up his day. He had dropped strokes on the eighth and the ninth and concern lingered on his bearded face as he made his way to the 11th tee and saw his drive end within inches of one of the ditches that occur on this course.
Rahm and Hovland were like two men on a seesaw. As Rahm fell, Hovland rose, despite fulfilling few of Els’ commandments.
As he waited for the green to clear up ahead of him and as he prepared to aim at a flagstick he could barely see, he prowled around, visibly edgy and sighing audibly. He took one practice swing, another and then a third. Then he moved around to look down the line of the intended flight. All the while birds sang overhead. In the distance an air-conditioning unit hummed. Suddenly there came a volley of whistles from an adjoining fairway.
In time, Rahm’s second shot rolled barely 3 feet off the putting surface and into the thick, clinging 5-inch grass no more than 15 feet from the flagstick. He could scarcely have touched his chip more gently and his ball traveled only a few feet in the air before landing on the putting surface and gaily running downhill, ending 35 feet past the hole. From there he took three putts.
Does any more need to be said?
Rahm and Hovland were like two men on a seesaw. As Rahm fell, Hovland rose, despite fulfilling few of Els’ commandments. His 68, as well as being seven strokes fewer than Rahm’s score, was an extraordinary confection, a Norwegian smorgasbord of one pitch-in eagle (on the 17th), five birdies, eight pars, three bogeys and one double bogey. What Els would have made of it can only be imagined.
Hovland was 1-over par when he started, at one point had got to 3-under and finished 1-under, at which time he was fourth.
Unlike Rahm’s, his face was creased in smiles at the conclusion of his round.
“Yeah, for some reason I’ve just been in a really nice mental state this week,” he said, a man who is not unfamiliar with dark moments on a golf course and is known to spend hours trying first to unravel and then to implement the secrets of his own golf swing. He tinkers with his golf swing as others change their shirts.
“It’s like, both my rounds have been very up and down,” Hovland said. “I feel like a couple times if it would have happened at another tournament, for example, I could have potentially lost my mind there a little bit. But I felt like I kept things together very well.”
He was asked for his reaction after enduring two rounds on such a difficult golf course in hot conditions. “Definitely tired, exhausted because you’re just focusing so much on every single shot. I’m very pleased with 2-under par, but also I know that I was 3 under at some point, and missed a short putt on 6 and three-putted No. 8, even though I did make really nice two-putts on 7 and 9. So it’s like very pleased, but also, man, that could have been a little bit lower, as well. But we’re in a really nice spot after two days, so I’m just kind of happy.”