Spaun grabs early U.S. Open lead, McIlroy two back

Riding a hot start fueled by a chip-in birdie on his opening hole, J.J. Spaun set the early pace at the U.S. Open with a 4-under-par 66 on Thursday at Oakmont Country Club.

Spaun began the first round on the inward nine and birdied Nos. 10, 12, 16 and 17 for a 4-under 31, a U.S. Open Oakmont record for the first nine holes of a championship. He held steady with all pars on the front nine.

It marked just the eighth bogey-free round at Oakmont in U.S. Open history and tied Andrew Landry in 2016 for the lowest U.S. Open first-round score here.

As of 7:15 p.m. ET, Spaun held a slim lead over South Africa’s Thriston Lawrence (67), with Brooks Koepka among those lurking at 2 under par.

The Los Angeles native narrowly missed the green at the par-4 10th hole but lined up his chip out of Oakmont’s 5-inch rough perfectly. He went on to make a tap-in at the par-5 No. 12, a 5-foot birdie at the par-3 No. 16 and an 11 1/2-footer at No. 17, a par-4 hole.

“It kind of set the tone for how the day was going to go. You’re not really expecting to chip it in,” Spaun said. “You’re just trying to get yourself within making distance for par.

“It was really nice to predict the lie, hit the shot exactly how you want to, and it kind of comes out, and it’s just feeding towards the hole and it goes in. It was a nice little wake-up call at 7:10 in the morning or whatever it was.”

Spaun, 34, has never finished inside the top 20 of a major. He has one title on the PGA Tour (Valero Texas Open, 2022) and lost a playoff to Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship in March.

Koepka had an eagle and two bogeys through 16 holes before making his only two birdies of the day at Nos. 17 and 18. The two-time U.S. Open champion was tied at 68 with South Koreans Sungjae Im and Si Woo Kim. Jon Rahm of Spain, Ben Griffin and Belgium’s Thomas Detry were part of a tie at 1-under 69.

Im was the only player to take the lead from Spaun, but it lasted all of one hole. After birdieing three holes on the back nine, Im rolled in back-to-back birdies at Nos. 1 and 2 for the outright lead at 5 under.

But he found Oakmont’s famed “church pews” bunker off the third tee, the first of several missteps on his way to consecutive bogeys.

McIlroy, meanwhile, birdied Nos. 11 and 12 for an early share of the lead Thursday before coming apart. After piling up four bogeys, he needed two tries to get out of the rough at the long par-3 eighth and made double bogey. He shot 41 on his second nine en route to a 4-over 74.

The Masters champion from Northern Ireland was using an older model of a TaylorMade driver after struggling with a newer model at the RBC Canadian Open. McIlroy had a driver ruled as non-conforming during the PGA Championship, owing to the original switch.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler didn’t fare much better in the afternoon wave, carding six bogeys in a 3-over round of 73.

Other notable names to shoot over par included Norway’s Viktor Hovland (71), Xander Schauffele (72), Hideki Matsuyama of Japan (74), Patrick Cantlay (76) and Irishman Shane Lowry (79).

Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau opened with a 3-over 73. At a course where 5 over par was the winning score in 2007, DeChambeau was asked if 3 over might top the leaderboard this weekend.

“If it doesn’t rain on Saturday, there is probably a decent chance,” DeChambeau said. “But I’m looking to shoot under par and give myself a better chance going into this weekend. …

“It was tough. It was a brutal test of golf. But one that I’m excited for tomorrow. If I just tidy up a couple things and get some momentum going my way, we’ll see where it goes.”