They Said It…
Scottie on Catching Wyndham Tom Kim overcoming rough Rd. 3 start
By Roy J. Akers – www.skyviewsports.net
As Moving Day progressed throughout Saturday, the wind had dried out the greens and the false fronts around the circumference of the greens moved good golf shots into very bad results. The ten golfers who were below par became four when the leaders made the turn. Rory kept riding the line between red and black on the scoreboard, and Scottie Scheffler makes an appearance on the front page of the leaderboard.
Wyndham Clark is your leader
Ten golfers entered Saturday below par. Only five golfers will enter Sunday’s play with a red number next to their leaderboard name. Clark put together a gutsy round with birdies rallying around his bogeys and clutch putts. Clark rolls in an eagle on 16 and puts together a round of even par 72. His six shot lead going into Sunday is the third largest since WWII.
The Movers and Shakers
Scottie Scheffler gave himself plenty of opportunities on Saturday, after starting his round with a pair of bogeys to start his round. Four birdies on the back nine, including 14-15-16 put him at -2. A bogey put him at -1 on 17, and a very short three-foot birdie miss on was his first miss all week less than five feet. Scheffler has won all of his majors when leading and has not come from behind in his career. He will have to do that to win the 2026 US Open. Scheffler on what he expects from the USGA on Sunday. “Yeah, the fairways were starting to firm up yesterday. Then the greens today started to firm up. There were still some kind of — you could see on the greens, you’d see some pretty green grass and then some very brown grass, so there was a little bit of mystery in terms of how the ball was going to react when it hit the green. But once again, that’s just part of the challenge of U.S. Open is judging the conditions and putting yourself in the right spots and hitting great shots.I feel like if you hit a great shot, you’re going to get rewarded. Good shots are going to be borderline. I assume going into tomorrow they’re going to continue to get firmer and firmer.”
Tom Kim
The biggest accomplishment for Tom Kim was to keep himself in the hunt for the US Open title. He is one of four golfers seven shots behind Clark entering Sunday. Kim had four birdies and six eagles on his two-over 72.
Emilio Grillo in the hunt
Grillo improved on Saturday 42 spots on the strength of a three-under 67. Grillo birdied 6-9 and enters Sunday at even par, but well behind Clark. Grillo, reflects on Sunday. “Yeah, obviously very windy. I looked at the weather this morning. I thought we were going to get nine very windy and then nine not so windy, but it just kept going up. It never slowed down. I played solid all day. Four birdies on the front nine. Obviously, when you stand on the 10th tee with 4-under par in the U.S. Open, you’re just rushing to get it done and finish it.”
Sunday is NO More
Justin Thomas was tied for 7th entering Saturday’s play. He lost 22 spots by carding a five over 75. Three bogeys to open the round and a triple on 12 pushed Thomas well back in the pack. Thomas did have an eagle on the par five fifth.
When it starts out with a Snowman
Dylan Wu can play golf. He just did not play very well on Saturday. Two golfers played to 12-over, including Wu and James Nicholas. Wu starts out with a snowman on the first, and the day never got any better. Wu was eight over after six holes and played out to 44. His lone birdie on ten was the only highlight. Four more bogeys going in and Wu’s 82 was a bad day at the office. Hopefully, Wu plays better Sunday. In his career dating back to 2018, Wu has made just over half of Tour cuts and nearly 4-million.
