️ Updates from the first round at Aronimink Golf Club️ Official live leaderboard | Follow us on Bluesky | Mail ScottAronimink could prove a playground for the big hitters, with accuracy off the tee not a deal-breaker. There’s plenty of scope to whistle drives hither and yon: Rory McIlroy has described “strategy off the tee” as “pretty non-existent”, while Scottie Scheffler says “you can hit it pretty far offline” and still “kind of get away with it”. Good news for the likes of Bryson DeChambeau, then, though to be fair he blasts his opening tee shot, at 10, down the middle of the fairway. Gary Woodland won his US Open in similar circumstances; the popular veteran, whose win at the Houston Open a couple of months back was one of the feelgood stories of the year so far, is level par through his first two holes, 10 and 11.Here we go, then, and let’s begin with the aforementioned “on-song Matt Alex Fitzpatrick”. He only got his PGA Tour card last month, courtesy of winning the Zurich Classic with his older brother Matt. That gave him a two-year exemption Stateside, plus secured his invite to this tournament. Since then he’s made the top ten at the Cadillac Championship and threatened to win last week at the Truist. Now he’s become the first player this week to reach the -2 mark, opening with birdies at 1 and 2. Admittedly he went out in the very first group, and he’s since dropped a stroke at 5. But he did do that, and he’s currently one of several players under par. Early days and quite a bit of golf yet to play, of course. Continue reading...