OAKMONT, Pa. — The two players who went head-to-head in the final round of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 had starkly different finishes on Friday at Oakmont Country Club.
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy recovered from an ugly start to his second round and beat the cut line by one stroke at 6 over par by sinking a short birdie putt at No. 18. Bryson DeChambeau, though, won’t see the weekend at this U.S. Open after posting a 7-over-par 77 to go 10 over through his two rounds.
DeChambeau beat McIlroy by a single stroke at Pinehurst when the latter bogeyed three of the final four holes.
The LIV golfer’s luck ran out Friday on his second nine, the front nine. A 13-foot birdie putt at No. 2 got him to 5 over for the championship, within eight shots of the lead.
However, after a bogey at No. 3, DeChambeau had to punch out of Oakmont’s thick rough at the fifth fairway and then skied his third shot into a bunker behind the green. He made double bogey there, followed by consecutive bogeys at Nos. 6 and 7.
McIlroy struggled with Oakmont’s sand early on. At the first hole, he barely got his ball out of a bunker he found off the tee, and his third shot missed the green in the back left corner. That double bogey was duplicated at No. 3 when he landed in another bunker and his second shot traveled an official 14 feet, 2 inches into the rough.
He steadied out with a string of pars and a 32 1/2-foot birdie putt at the ninth hole. One bogey and one birdie later, with the cut line in question, McIlroy landed his approach at No. 18 past the pin and put just enough backspin on it to help it catch a slope and trickle down within 5 feet.
At the time, the birdie was crucial because it was uncertain whether 6 or 7 over par would be the cut line. With 13 players left to finish one or two holes Saturday following a suspension for dangerous weather, the cut is expected at 7 over.
Neither DeChambeau nor McIlroy was available to reporters after his round.
They weren’t the only star players to let Oakmont get the best of them on Friday. Scottie Scheffler is 4 over after a five-bogey, four-birdie round of 71.
“It’s challenging out there,” Scheffler said. “I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. Felt like me getting away with 1 over today wasn’t all that bad. It could have been a lot worse.”
Four of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking — Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg (8 over), DeChambeau, Austria’s Sepp Straka (11 over) and Justin Thomas (12 over) — missed the cut. A fifth, Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, made it on the expected number at 7 over.
Others who won’t advance include Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay, Phil Mickelson and Australian Cameron Smith at 8 over; Tommy Fleetwood of England at 9 over; Dustin Johnson at 10 over; Englishman Justin Rose at 14 over; and Ireland’s Shane Lowry at 17 over.
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
