Day Two at the U.S. Open: Making the Cut
Cameron Wilson hits out of a greenside bunker on the par-3 7th.
SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (June 15, 2018) -- The game within the game continued on Friday as Shinnecock Hills hosted the 118th US Open. While Dustin Johnson, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Henrik Stenson positioned themselves for a chance to lift the US Open Trophy on Sunday, the vast majority of the pros and amateurs who came through Local and Sectional Qualifying had their sights set on the more modest goal of playing on the weekend.
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The cut, which reduced the field to the low 60 and ties, came after Friday’s second round, and Cameron Wilson’s eight-over finish left him as the sole local player on the right side of the number. His rounds of 75 and 73 were good enough to keep him in the championship.
“I wasn’t even thinking about [the cut] until I got to the seventh or eighth hole [his 16th and 17th of the day],” Wilson said after the round. “I knew I was in really good shape midway through my first nine, and then I made a couple of bogeys in a row and thought, Ok, where do I have to be at?”
After Thursday’s difficult conditions, the USGA and the weather gods provided an easier golf course on Friday. The wind from the north was lighter than the previous day’s southwest wind, and some of the more accessible hole locations were used in conjunction with a few tees moved forward. As a result, scores were nearly three shots lower across the field than in the first round.
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But just as Thursday’s wind was unexpected, so was Friday morning’s rain. “I didn’t even bring my umbrella,” said Wilson. “It was in my car.” Other pros sent friends and family scrambling to the locker room for their raingear, or to the pro shop for an emergency purchase. The cool conditions meant that the ball didn’t carry as well as it had the day before, and the different wind direction changed how each hole played. The rain softened the greens somewhat, and when the afternoon proved sunny and nearly windless, scoring conditions were as good as they can be at Shinnecock.
“It’s just a hard golf course,” said Mike Miller, who played in the morning, as did Wilson. Miller was disappointed with his 78 that left him far south of the cut line. “I drove it a couple of times into the left rough, in places where you can’t hit it, and wound up compounding the error.”
Theo Humphrey found something to feel good about, lopping twelve strokes off his score from the opening round. His 72 was bettered by just twelve of the seventy-eight golfers who teed off in the morning wave. Stewart Hagestad birdied two of the first four holes but settled for a 74.
Previous Coverage: Miller | Humphrey
Wilson, the former MGA Jerry Courville Sr. Player of the Year and NCAA Individual Champion, is playing in his third US Open. After stints on the Web.com Tour in 2015 and 2017 and the PGA Tour Latinoamerica circuit in 2016, he has taken an extended break from competitive golf. “These are literally my fourth and fifth competitive rounds of the year,” he said. “I played local qualifying, then sectional qualifying, and now I’m here.”
He was cruising along comfortably on Friday at five over before bogeying the par-five fifth hole (his fourteenth of the day), the sixth, and the seventh. He gathered himself for a textbook par on the eighth hole, and on the difficult ninth his approach shot left him thirty-five feet above the hole, but he lagged to within a foot of the cup and tapped in to seal his spot on the weekend.
“[The scoreboard] said the projected cut was at [plus-]nine, and I certainly didn’t want to three-putt,” he said afterwards. “I thought I had a little bit of wiggle room, but it was a nice putt and I was glad I didn’t have to sweat the next one.”
In the end he didn’t have the wiggle room he thought, but fortunately his score of 148 put him in a tie for 58th place. Now his next putt will come in the third round, and he’ll play four rounds in a US Open for the first time. “The funny part is I know I can play better than I just played, I know there are places where I can get better. But I think that my game is still there. Probably it’s somewhat revealing that I didn’t compete at all [before qualifying].” Asked about his future plans, he said, “I’m only planning on playing tomorrow and Sunday.”