Mark him as a quadruple cheater on the scoreboard. And a warning to the rest of the field.
A day after the USGA warned players that the US Open at Shinnecock Hills would play stronger and faster over the weekend, Dylan Wu proved those weren’t empty words.
Teeing off at 9 am local time on the first pairing Saturday’s third roundWu became familiar with the new conditions. After teeing up his ball, hitting it straight into the fescue, Wu hit it on his approach and left the fairway, then chipped the ball onto the green and faced a 34-foot putt.
This is where the fun began.
“I miss. I miss. I miss. I do,” Seve Ballesteros once said of a Masters four-shot.
Wu’s version included an additional loss.
His first attempt went three feet beyond the hole. The second grazed the cup and settled two feet away. Third, well, you can see where this is going.
Moments later, Wu had recorded a snowman 8 on one of Shinnecock’s friendlier par-4s.
He can’t say he wasn’t warned. After two days of relatively mild and welcoming conditions, the players were told on Friday evening to expect a tougher test over the weekend. Green speeds, the USGA said, would increase from roughly 10.5 to 11 on the Stimpmeter, while the course would be set to “play progressively harder.”
The advance announcement matched the USGA’s transparent approach this week at Shinnecock, where course conditions became a flashpoint during the club’s last two Opens in 2004 and 2018.
Saturday morning began with some of the harshest conditions of the week, with gusts topping 35 miles per hour.
Appearing on NBC Live’s coverage of the US Open, USGA CEO Mike Whan called it the windiest morning he could remember at the club.
“Listen, I know everybody wants it as hard as you can make it,” Whan said. “At the same time, we want to play golf. We don’t want to get to a point where we can’t play golf because the balls aren’t going to stay on the fairway. It’s definitely going to be tougher, it’s definitely going to be a little tougher than it has been. But I think we’re going to have to pay for that by Sunday to get through today somehow. As we can feel it’s very meaningful right now.”
By late morning, the winds had moderated somewhat. But Wu didn’t have it much easier. He was nine years old the day he made the turn.
