2024 U.S. Open: Despite record-low scores, Pinehurst No. 2 is playing tough and may get even more arduous

PINEHURST, NC – Before the start of the 124th U.S. Open, only four golfers had broken par for the championship in the three times No. 2 Pinehurst has previously hosted the event. That brought many predictions centered on carnage ahead of this week’s fifth hosting, as the national championship returns to the Sandhills of North Carolina. However, with 18 holes recorded, we not only saw some low numbers, but also three of the seven lowest scores ever played at the US Open hosted by Pinhurst.

Co-leaders entering Friday, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay, tied Martin Kaymer’s record for lowest score (65), which he achieved twice on his way to victory at the 2014 US Open. Ludvig Åberg’s 66 points equaled the mark set by Daniel Berger (2014, fourth round) and Peter Hedblom (2005, second round).

So is Pinehurst No. 2, a course that has punished the world’s best golfers at the U.S. Open for the past 25 years, suddenly playing easier than anyone expected?

Donald Ross’s bowling green complexes, with slippery lanes and native areas, create unpredictable lies that throw golfers a curveball. It requires creativity compared to some of the automatic tracks they see during regular rotations. Maintaining the greens on approach shots and then cleaning up the mess when you don’t is crucial to avoiding the big number, which – as Collin Morikawa can tell you – can be a hindrance to a solid round of championship golf.

Morikawa played 16 holes at 4 under on Thursday, but double-bogeys at the par-3 9th and the par-3 15th left him at par for the tournament.

“I don’t think there are many that you can label as ‘screaming birdie opportunities,’ but from 20 feet, you are able to make a lot of putts and putt yourself up,” Morikawa explained. “Doubles hurt. I wanted to minimize bogeys and doubles as much as possible. … I think the amount of birdies I made shows I can still shoot a low score.”

Morikawa repeated what many described throughout the day: There is a formula for having chances to score. It’s a defensive style, which McIlroy described as “conservative.” But if the focus is on holding greens (McIlroy hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation), you’ll end up with more birdie putts than you’d pay for the run-off penalties that can accompany more aggressive attacks at some downright diabolical pin locations.

McIlroy also acknowledged that there was some luck in his record-tying round; he was lucky that his distances to the greens were “good numbers” that allowed him to make full strokes. He also believes the entire afternoon wave was fortunate that cloud cover and mid-summer humidity prevented the greens from really baking and firming up.

Pinehurst as a whole played more than three strokes over par – eight strokes behind the leaders. And although there are 15 players under par after the first round, only eight of them are 2 under or better.

We see these record low numbers at the top of the leaderboard and wonder if the US Open has become weak, but that is a mistake. It is individuals who are the anomalies, not the course conditions at Pinehurst No.

If the scores are largely the same on Friday, the projected threshold will likely be around 4 over. And while Kaymer was running away from the 2014 US Open with a par 65 in the first two rounds, the Pinehurst No. 2 was cooking the rest of the field with a 6-point cut.

Pinehurst is not a cheat code course, but rather a dress code that must be respected. If golfers can meet the standard of what #2 asks of them, they could achieve success that seemingly few on the course are achieving.

Will this tournament gain more momentum in response to these few low scores? McIlroy pointed to the conditions as a benefit to his successful afternoon, but Cantlay credited the favorable weather as the reason for his low score in the morning wave.

Cantlay, who has finished in the top 10 in every major tournament except the US Open, is concerned about the game’s progress in terms of atmosphere and setup. He suggested that playing on a windless Thursday would perhaps be “the easiest [the course] will play all week.” But he doesn’t imagine that will necessarily continue, at least if the USGA decides to let things settle into the weekend.

“With the weather cooperating, it being hot, I imagine they could make the golf course as difficult as they want. With the Bermuda greens and no rain forecast, I expect the golf course to be very difficult over the next few days,” he said.

If you’re a golf fan and you want the U.S. Open to be carnage, if you want to see golfers fighting to score in the same way as weekend warriors, you’re certainly rooting for the field to destroy the leaders . But the sample size of all 156 competitors suggests this is still a tough edition of the US Open, and perhaps regression to the mean is in order for the lucky few who made it down on the first day of the championship.