2024 U.S. Open takeaways: USGA delivers with Pinehurst setup, Bryson DeChambeau continues major resurgence

PINEHURST, NC – Majors outside of the Masters depend on the course and weather to determine what type of tournament will take place. Included among these factors are the weather leading up to the event and the way the host organization sets up the golf course. As there are countless factors and not all of them are controlled by humans, the result can be a little complicated.

In 2021, Kiawah Island seemed like a perfect golf course for the PGA Championship. Each shot had consequences, good and bad. This week remembers that week. The setup is somehow satisfying for players (Scottie Scheffler, who is 5 years oldcalled it “fun”), fans and even us in the media (who have yet to find a golf tournament we can’t tear apart).

The first ingredient of a great setting is a great golf course, and Pinehurst is certainly one of them. No Laying Up explains why it is particularly excellent for golf championshipsbut this week is also a credit to the USGA, which has structured a test that rewards and punishes players for different types of shots.

“It’s funny, I feel like Xander [Schauffele] and my shots, we both landed probably at the same distance [on the 15th hole]”, explained Rory McIlroy, who sits T5 in 3 under after 36 holes. “But his was a little more aggressive and a little more to the right toward the pin, so it stayed on the edge. Mine was a little more to the left, where the slope is a little steeper. Mine went back down. He made a 10-foot birdie putt, and I’m trying to do well to save par.”

These are appropriate consequences.

“Like I said, you just have to be very precise. If you’re going to the left of the hole, you’re going to have to land at least at the height of the pin, if not a little beyond it. But that’s the big advantage of this golf course. If you try and succeed, Xander got that reward on the 15th hole today, and I didn’t.

“It’s fun,” Schauffele added, agreeing with Scheffler. “It’s tough. It’s a tough golf course; it really is. It’s rewarding. You hit a good golf shot and you’ll be rewarded. You get a little greedy, you try to hit a shot where you shouldn’t, it bites you real quick. It makes you Think about the instant regret for not taking the medicine.

This should continue over the next two days as Pinehurst continues to bake in the sun. The USGA has exercised complete control over the course thus far and can make many adjustments if it chooses this weekend.

So far it has been perfect and this should continue on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are eight other thoughts on the first two rounds of the 124th US Open.

2. Ludvig Åberg looks perfect: So that’s really your first US Open? No one has won their first US Open in 111 years. No one has led in their debut in 39 years. And yet, this is no accident. Ludvig Åberg can win the 124th US Open with certainty.

Here are their rankings so far this week.

• Greens in regulation: 1st
• Fairway hits: 1st
• Strokes gained off the tee: 1st
• Strokes gained when changing the ball: 1st
• Position on the leaderboard: 1st

Perhaps the most impressive thing about watching Åberg at the Ryder Cup last year was the way he played. Sure he gets up and down internally, but he rarely gets emotional and is never truly shaken. That’s clearly serving him well at this US Open, and now he’s picking up a second-place finish at Augusta National and a potential victory at Pinehurst. Is it possible we are underestimating his ceiling?

3. Rory McIlroy is in adulthood: What’s notable about McIlroy’s first two days at Pinehurst is that he’s playing sensible and adult golf. His distance control has been incredible, he’s picking the right lines and he’s not trying to do too much. Rory hit 24 of 28 fairways and 27 of 36 greens (top five in both categories). He is outside the top 75 in placement, but in the top five on the leaderboard. He showed the perfect way to play a modern US Open.

And sure, it helps when you hit 360 yards off the tee, but that hasn’t typically been his problem in major championships. Apparently it was mental errors or distance control that affected him in recent years. They were both right this weekend, and now he’s made people believe what has sometimes become unbelievable: that he really is going to end the streak and win the fifth major championship of his career.

4. The 5th Confused: The world’s top three players were beaten by the par-5 5th – playing the easiest hole on the course this week (by far) – as they combined to score 4 points on Friday. Both Scheffler and Schauffele saw their balls land on the green and roll into the home zone, only for their shots to miss and their balls to roll down the hill. In short, it was a complete and total mess.

“You can hit a good shot,” Schauffele explained. “It’s like a bunker. You don’t really trust what’s underneath compared to a real bunker. There’s a ton of sand in the bunker. You want to hit it hard, on the ground. You’re worried about whether there’s more sand or less sand. That bit of hesitation isn’t good when your margin isn’t that good.

“It’s doable. I’m sure there will be a highlight of someone hitting the holeshot or hitting a really close shot. It’s very doable. We just made a mess of it.”

This they did.

5. The Greatest Showman: CBS Sports’ Joe Musso dubbed Bryson DeChambeau “The Greatest Showman” at this year’s PGA Championship, and it’s been more of the same at this week’s US Open. Following Bryson for a while on Friday, it was shocking how pro-DeChambeau the crowds were. Shocking! This was also the case at the Masters and PGA, but it could be argued that it even increased this week.

Bryson is loving it and his piece has deserved the praise it is receiving. DeChambeau recently said the best golf he played came before his 2020 U.S. Open win, and confirmed that performance at this year’s major championships is back to the level it was at in 2018, when he won four times on the PGA Tour. When asked why, he gave credit to his equipment.

“I can’t tell you how important it is to have things that work for you,” he said. “For anyone listening, it’s possibly the most important thing you should do if you’re trying to improve your game, especially at the elite level. I can play with a junior group on YouTube, but that will never happen. It’s the same as having your own golf clubs, where you can control your swing every day.

“It’s a really good piece of equipment, and as I’ve said before in other press conferences, I’m getting a little bit older and realizing that there’s more to life than just golf, and when I’m here, I appreciate the time I have out here, and I hope to continue the fun I can show others.”

DeChambeau is someone who looks at problems from every angle imaginable, and his solution to the professional game lately has been the 3D-printed irons he put into play at the Masters.

No matter the source of his confidence, it’s clear he’s delighted to be the toast of the big season. And now he’s in a great position for his second US Open in five years. It’s not necessarily the course anyone believed he would thrive in, but this better version of him is clearly capable of conquering any course that comes his way. He should be in this until the end.

6. How long has it been: In 26 of the last 28 US Opens, the eventual winner has been within three shots after 36 holes (the exceptions being Webb Simpson in 2012 and Brooks Koepka in 2018). If that happens, this week’s eventual champion will be one of the following.

• Ludvig Aberg (-5)
• Bryson DeChambeau (-4)
• Thomas Detry (-4)
• Patrick Cantlay (-4)
• Matthieu Pavon (-3)
• Rory McIlroy (-3)
• Tony Finau (-3)
• Hideki Matsuyama (-2)

7. The Scottie Scare: Two NFL seasons have been played since the last time the current No. 1 player in the world missed a cut. He (barely) saved it in the end with three straight pars after his double on the par-5 5th hole (see above), but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. And now, Scheffler will almost certainly miss out on what would have been his sixth win of the year, barring a miraculous 65-65 finish. He’s probably happy to play on Saturday after thinking his week was over.

“I don’t think 5-over is going to get me to the weekend,” he said. “But I’m proud of how I fought today. I gave myself a good chance. I really felt like I did a great job yesterday. Today, I just couldn’t make the shots fall. This golf course can be unpredictable at times, and maybe has gotten the better of me in the last few days. I’ll sit and think about where we’re going last few days and find out.”

8. No Rounds in the 70s: One of my favorite major championship narratives is when a player shoots something in the 80s and something in the 60s, but nothing in the 70s. This week’s competitor is Sam Bairstow, who went 84-67 in the first two rounds. Eighty-four, sixty-seven!