BROOKLINE, Massachusetts – Eight players spent time at the top of the rankings, all kicked – some worse than others – on the US Open, which felt like the toughest test of golf on a cool, windy afternoon at the Country Club .
Saturday was a classic US Open, all about survival.
Will Zalatoris and Matt Fitzpatrick kept the damage to a minimum, giving them another crack in a big championship that is 18 holes and feels much longer.
Zalatoris, who lost in the playoffs at the PGA Championship last month in the Southern Hills, made just one stopper, a stunning beast achievement from a Brooklyn court, for a 3-under 67.
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“I felt like I shot 61,” Zalatoris said. “Whenever I made a mistake, I managed to get away with it or do a miracle.”
Fitzpatrick played in the final group of the PGA Championship. The 27-year-old footballer from England is now on a familiar field at The Country Club, where he won the US Amateur Tournament in 2013. He was just as stable and escaped with three birds in his last five holes for 68.
Most indicative: They did not make any double waves.
That put US Open defending champion John Ram out of the lead. The Spaniard thought he had seen everything, including a backhand shot from the base of a tree in the eighth hole, until he made three swings of sand in two bunkers.
Ram’s first shot from a fairway bunker hit his lip and almost rolled into his imprint. His next hit found a clogged lie in the green bunker and two hits later he had 71 and went from 1 forward to 1 behind.
Ram was not upset by his swing at the last hole. If nothing else, he said it was getting dark and didn’t notice his ball sitting in the sand. The USGA sent the final group at 3:45 p.m. to maximize television exposure. And maybe he tried to take too much.
Anyway, he wasn’t in the mood to look anywhere but ahead.
“I have 18 holes and I only have 1 shot back,” he said. – This is important.
Zalatoris and Fitzpatrick were 4-under 206, the same 54-hole lead when the US Open was last at The Country Club in 1988.
It’s not like Ram had full rights to lead. This Saturday in Brooklyn was so wild that Ram was the last of the eight players to have at least part of the lead at one point. Three of them did not even finish in the top 10, including two-time grand champion Colin Morikawa.
Morikawa, who shared a 36-hole lead with Joel Dahmen, had double gods on the seventh and 13th holes and could have a third after a wedge cut to number 4, except he made a 25-foot shot for a mascot. He finished with 77.
Seven of the 12 best players to take part on Saturday made at least one double stopper.
Rory McIlroy was not on that list. His was rather slow bleeding, mostly from a stroke that didn’t hold. He made a bird in his round of 16 finals.
All this and this US Open was far from settled.
“It was one of the hardest days on a golf course I’ve had in a long time,” McIlroy said. “I just had to do it and I did it in the back nine. Playing that quarterback for equal money today was a really good effort, I thought. I just stayed in the tournament. That’s all I was trying to do. Just keep hanging around. “
After a wild third round, Fitzpatrick was named the +330 favorite in the Caesars Sportsbook, followed by Zalatoris (+350), Rahm (+400), Scottie Scheffler (+550) and McIlroy (+800).
Twenty-three players were below par in the third round. There are only nine left with 18 holes left, all separated by 3 shots.
This includes a local star – maybe not Francis Wimet, but Keegan Bradley is old enough in Beantown to hear his name chanting loudly and proudly as he marches up to the 18th Green. A former PGA champion, he called it “probably the highlight of my life.”
He gave them a reason to cheer. Three through seven holes, Bradley responded with passion and birds, five of them in his last 11 holes for 69.
He is 2 strokes behind Adam Hadwin (70) and Scheffler. McIlroy returned to 3rd, along with Sam Burns, 71, and Damen, who didn’t make a bird in his round of 16 but stayed in the game because there were no big mistakes.
The average score was 73.5 and only seven players violated the face value. Danny McCarthy scored in the 3rd over. He completed his 68 before even the leaders arrived on the course. By the end of the day he was equal to 11, 5 strokes behind.
The US Open played as one.
“I knew it would be difficult,” Damen said. “I didn’t know it would be so difficult.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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