South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence was a stroke behind the leader, JJ Spaun, after the first round of the US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Plum, Pennsylvania Lawrence’s 67 included six birdies, a double-bogey and a bogey.
It’s been a difficult start to life in the United States for Lawrence since he earned his way onto the PGA Tour from where he was performing so well on the DP World Tour. But, for those who saw how he performed in last year’s Open Championship in Troon, perhaps the fact that he found form again in what is widely regarded as the toughest test of golf is no real surprise.
“Maybe the challenge brings a bit more focus to the game,” said Lawrence. “With tough golf courses there’s not many options. It’s either fairway or rough. If you’re in the rough, you chip out, and it’s the same for everyone. I feel like there’s some courses in America where I miss the fairway by a yard and it’s not nice, but someone missed it by 40 yards and they could make birdie.
“Tough courses, it’s 99 percent fair for everybody because if you’re in the rough, you’re chipping out, doesn’t matter what. Like I said, my strength is driving, so on a tough golf course if you manage to keep it in play, anybody is going to play good golf if you keep it in play from the tee on this golf course.”
He was particularly pleased with the focus he brought to his round. “I sort of made it a goal of mine to commit on every shot, and I got that right about 99 percent of the time,” he said. “There’s always going to be doubt in your mind as this golf course being so tough.
“But yeah, just the all-around game was good from the tee. It started… that’s where the golf starts on this golf course is from the tee. You need to give yourself a chance to get to the green.
“Yeah, I was in the fairway most of the time and gave myself a lot of good chances and managed to execute the iron shots as well and made a couple of nice putts and nice par saves.”
He was also pleased with how he regrouped from his errors, such as the double-bogey on the ninth. “I think what gave me confidence is looking at the leaderboard afterward on nine,” he said. “When I made double, I saw I’m still top 10 or 11 or whatever. That sort of made me just realise again that bogeys, you don’t lose much when you make bogeys around this golf course or in this tournament.
“I didn’t hit a terrible drive, took my punishment, laid up with a sand wedge, tried to keep it under the hole with my third shot but just a bit too short. Hit my first putt to six foot, not bad, and lipped out for double. It’s not like I did much wrong. You’re going to get punished if you hit it in the rough, and I was.
“Bogey would have been nice, but like I say, seeing that leaderboard, it just made me realise, again, you’re not losing too much, especially in that situation I was.”
Behind Lawrence, Christiaan Bezuidenhout opened with a two-over 72, on a day on which only 10 players of the 156 broke par. He had a share of 33rd, while Jacques Kruyswijk’s three-over 73 put him in a share of 49th. Erik van Rooyen had a 75 and was in a share of 79th.
