A major drought could give way to a major breakthrough at the U.S. Open
LOS ANGELES – Golf, a concoction with a fiendish knack for saying no, might well stand ready to spend Sunday saying a mighty yes to someone who has spent recent years hearing no often. That’s because a kinetic leaderboard after three rounds of the 123rd U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club brimmed with long-familiar contenders the four major golf tournaments have snubbed, or snubbed of late.
They snub more than they nod, after all.
Yet the snubbing might stop for somebody really sick of it if the winner turns out to be Rickie Fowler, who is tied for the lead with Wyndham Clark at 10 under par after some dramatics on No. 18; or Rory McIlroy, who loomed one shot back after adding a 69 to his 65 and 67; or even Xander Schauffele, who spent the first hole Saturday taking three shots to exit a fairway bunker – the first two caromed backward and won the empathy of all golfers – yet who stands five shots off at 5 under.
Those three may own the many hearts who ache for multimillionaire golfers everywhere. Fowler has gone all 47 previous majors of his career without winning one, and he started missing them entirely earlier this decade when his form plummeted. McIlroy hasn’t won one in his past 32 tries after winning four of out of 15 at one point. And Schauffele just reached his 25th major looking for his first win despite a record aglow with 10 top-10 finishes.
Of course golf, being rude and all in general, might opt for the two other players who frequented the top five during a third round played in the preposterously sunny sun of Los Angeles. It might nod at Clark, a 29-year-old sleek and bearded Coloradan in his seventh major who scored a maiden win on the PGA Tour last month in Charlotte, North Carolina, and said he had had moments “multiple times this year where I catch myself daydreaming about winning.” Or it might look to Harris English, the 33-year-old Georgian in his 26th major who has played the U.S. Open quite well – fourth at Winged Foot in New York in 2020 and third at Torrey Pines near San Diego in 2021.
Clark spent the day at or near the top and got over a groaner of a chip on No. 12 that went 2 feet, 9 inches, according to the official stats. He hung around despite some malfeasance on No. 17 that led him to someplace the mowers don’t visit and caused a drop and a bogey. He replied to that with an approach on No. 18 that should have included violin accompaniment, starting at 170 yards and ending at 6 feet, 2 inches. When he made that putt and Fowler missed a 4-footer stunningly, Clark went from two back to tied atop. English reached 10 under at one point – one of only four players to get there this week of surprising birdie frequency – then bogeyed Nos. 11, 12, 14 and 18 to retreat to 6 under while hopeful.
Don’t look now, but golf might even hurl more hosannas upon Scottie Scheffler, the 2022 Masters champion and No. 1 player in the world. As he stood Saturday amid the fairway at No. 17, the toughest hole on the course this week, Scheffler remained in the second tier of the leaderboard, at a not-bad 4 under yet mired all week in the bubbling-under category. That’s before he struck the kind of beauty that can portend larger beauty. It landed on the left edge of the green, began rolling and stated its clear intent to dunk itself straight into the cup from 196 yards.
That brought him rapidly to 6 under, and the 22-foot putt he steered in for birdie on No. 18 got him to 7 under and some serious contention. It left him with a 68 that looked fine as this 126-year-old course with its first major continued its evolution through the week from tame (Thursday) to less tame (thereafter).
“No, could not see the ball go in,” Scheffler said, “but there was a nice crowd there on the grandstand behind the green. I saw where it landed, and I thought it could funnel out to the green and I’d have a look for birdie. And then you could see everybody as the noise started to kind of rise, got excited, and then they erupted.”
All along, this has felt like Fowler’s tournament, the way he streamed to the first 62 in the barbed-wired history of this event Thursday, to the way he added a 68 on Friday and reached 18 birdies in his first 36 holes (the most at that stage in any U.S. Open since Gil Morgan crafted 14 at Pebble Beach in 1992), and the way this week has cemented his molt from a career downturn at the start of this decade that left him often absent or half forgotten at majors.
Now, with six top-10 finishes this season, he has reached that point where he utters things such as, “I wouldn’t be in this position had I not gone through the last few years.” He added: “I have a better understanding of everything. I know more about my swing, myself, my mental approach.”
When he birdied the par-5 No. 1 after knocking it from 76 yards to 5 feet, he reached 11 under and looked like he might run off some. Through the day he lost the lead, nibbled back and got it again. It did not hurt when, on No. 13, he went ahead and made your everyday, run-of-the-mill 69-footer for a third birdie on the day and a 21st on the tournament. All went well until that last par putt and a rare groan.
McIlroy’s gilded plight after all this time might have had its best reflection in his comment here, “No one wants me to win another major more than I do,” a statement that might have overlooked golf writers desperate to stop typing about the drought. His drives here have coaxed a lot of gasps, and he opened Saturday with a good, old 388-yarder along the left fairway on No. 1.
He birdied that after his 17-footer for eagle said hello to the hole and then edged off to the left, and he, too, looked capable of running off a bit. He birdied No. 3 to boot and reached 10 under. But after he bogeyed No. 4, he staged his own sea of steadiness, parring 10 of the next 12 holes.
His partner in a starry duo, Schauffele, staged more of a carnival, starting with that bunker at No. 1 when he looked forlorn in the sand, two shots caroming backward and the second one almost smacking him. He wound up bogeying that par-5, a feat after the sand follies, then bogeying Nos. 3 and 5 to plunk to 5 under, then birdieing Nos. 6, 8 and 9 to get back to 8 under, then bogeying Nos. 13, 14 and 17 to get back to 5 under.
It left him tied for sixth with a quiet Dustin Johnson, and it made it end up looking like this, too, probably wouldn’t be Schauffele’s long-awaited week to win – not that he doesn’t know how to hear the word “no.”