It was not a good day for the three golfers with Utah ties at the 125th U.S. Open on Thursday, but at least PGA Tour stalwart Tony Finau ended it well.
Finau made a birdie on No. 17 and then rolled in a 41-foot putt to save par on No. 18 at Oakmont Country club.
Finau finished at 6-over 76, while former BYU golfer Zac Blair led the Utah contingent with a 4-over 74. Preston Summerhays, who was born in Farmington and twice won the Utah State Amateur, carded a 78 in one of his first tournaments playing as a professional.
Blair was tied for 62nd, Finau was tied for 99th and Summerhays was tied for 124th with just a few golfers left on the course. All three will have a difficult time making the cut after Friday’s second round, but it is not like anybody is running away with the tournament after the first round.
American J.J. Spaun shot Thursday’s best round, a 4-under 66, while Thriston Lawrence of South Africa is alone in second place at -3.
Playing in his fourth U.S. Open, Blair started well with a birdie on the par-4 10th hole, his first. But the Ogden native who currently lives in Orem mostly struggled from there, picking up only one other birdie in his round.
He made a 3 on the par-4 2nd hole, which got him to +1 on the day. He made a 17-foot putt for the birdie, two days after his 122-yard putt from the fairway on No. 1 in a practice round went viral.
However, he followed that picker-upper with a bogey on No. 3, and finished the long day with bogeys on 8 and 9 to finish at 4-over 74.
Blair, who tied for 26th last year at Pinehurst No. 2, is in danger of missing the U.S. Open cut for the first time since 2019 at Pebble Beach Golf Links.
Finau is playing in his 10th U.S. Open, and is in danger of missing the cut at the national championship for the first time since 2022 at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Finau made a double bogey on the second hole and a triple bogey on the 10th hole, basically ruining his round, and his tournament, with those two costly holes.
He finished well, though, making a birdie on No. 17 after driving into a greenside bunker on the 327-yard par 4. He chipped out nicely and made the 8-footer for the birdie.
On No. 18, Finau blasted his shot out of some gnarly greenside rough far from the hole, but drained the long putt to stay within 10 shots of the leader.
Like Blair, Summerhays also made a birdie on hole No. 2, but unfortunately for the recent Arizona State graduate that was one of only two birds he made Thursday. He stuck his approach from 75 yards out to 10 feet, and made the putt.
On the difficult par-3 8th hole, Summerhays made a 2 by sinking a 19-footer.
Summerhays struggled on the two par-5s, making a bogey on No. 4 and a double bogey on No. 12, the 618-yard beast that caused a lot of trouble on Thursday. An errant tee shot that found Oakmont’s long rough right of the fairway was the original culprit, followed by another tough shot out of deep grass just 79 feet from the hole.
Summerhays will tee off from No. 1 at 4:56 a.m. MDT Friday, while Finau will go off No. 10 at 6:13 a.m. MDT. Blair will go off No. 1 at 10:30 a.m. MDT.