Pinehurst (United States) (AFP) – Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg and France’s Matthieu Pavon shared the early lead in Thursday’s first round of the US Open at Pinehurst.
Koepka, chasing a third US Open title after wins in 2017 and 2018, birdied the par-5 fifth and par-4 seventh then reached 3-under as he began the back nine.
Koepka, among 12 LIV Golf players in the field of 156, dropped his approach at the fifth to three feet and sank the birdie putt, made a seven-foot birdie putt at seven, then reached 3-under with a birdie putt from just beyond 30 feet at the par-5 10th.
The 34-year-old American, whose most recent title came last month at LIV Golf Singapore, has also won three PGA Championships, the most recent last year at Oak Hill, the first major won by an active member of the Saudi-backed upstart series.
Sweden’s sixth-ranked Ludvig Aberg, runner-up at April’s Masters in his major debut, began on the back nine and birdied the par-4 11th and 12th holes.
Aberg sank birdie putts from just inside 19 feet at 11 and from 32 feet at 12, but fell back with a bogey at 14 after missing a nine-foot par putt, only to birdie the 18th and first holes, each on putts of about four feet.
Pavon, seeking his first major title at age 31, sank an 18-foot eagle putt at the par-5 fifth and a birdie putt from just inside 38 feet at the par-4 eighth to share the lead.
In January, he became the first Frenchman to win a US PGA Tour event since 1907 with a triumph at Torrey Pines.
One stroke adrift on 2-under were Americans Patrick Cantlay, Russell Henley, Tony Finau and Willie Mack III plus Italy’s Edoardo Molinari.
The formidable 7,543-yard layout tested players with lightning-fast elevated domed greens, sandy waste areas and native wiregrass.
Tiger Woods, a 15-time major winner struggling to overcome severe leg injuries from a 2021 car crash, opened with a birdie at the par-5 10th, sinking a putt from just inside 12 feet.
But he stumbled back with bogeys at 16 and 17 and another back-to-back bogey run at the first and second holes to fall well off the pace.
– Top three out late –
World number one Scottie Scheffler, second-ranked Xander Schauffele and third-ranked Rory McIlroy tee off together in the afternoon feature group.
Scheffler is considered the man to beat with five US PGA Tour victories this year, the most by any player at this stage since Tom Watson in 1980.
Two-time Masters champion Scheffler has 12 top-10 showings in 13 starts this year and could match 15-time major winner Woods as the only players to win a US Open while atop the world rankings.
Schauffele won last month’s PGA Championship for his first major title, snapping a two-year win drought.
McIlroy has five consecutive top-10 finishes at the US Open, improving every year in the run to place second in 2023.
Seventh-ranked Collin Morikawa, a two-time major winner, was on level par through 10 holes.
Morikawa shared third at the Masters in April and fourth at last month’s PGA Championship.
He was runner-up to Scheffler at last week’s Memorial tournament.
With Monday’s qualifying deadline looming, Morikawa is clinging to the fourth and final US berth for the Paris Olympics behind Scheffler, Schauffele and defending US Open champion Wyndham Clark.
Six Americans can overtake him, but five of them need a victory to do it.
© 2024 AFP
