Scheffler was far from the only one to endure moments of incredulity. <\/p>\n
His playing partner JJ Spaun hit his ball on to the par-three seventh green but by the time the defending champion reached the putting surface a gust of wind had sent it tumbling backwards into a bunker and into a scramble to save his par.<\/p>\n
The notoriously tricky par-three 11th hole did for Keegan Bradley’s ball in a similar way and while it did not cost him a shot, it underlined why 2010 winner Graeme McDowell had described Shinnecock Hills as “a torture chamber” in the build-up to his first major appearance in eight years after coming through qualifying,<\/p>\n
The Northern Irishman birdied the 10th and 11th to surge to the top of the leaderboard but his card was eventually littered with bogeys and he signed for a76.<\/p>\n
American Keith Mitchell looked set to be another falling foul of the unforgiving terrain when he reached the turn in 41. <\/p>\n
However, the 34-year-old became the first player in the tournament’s history to hit 40 or worse on one nine and break 30 on the other nine in the same round – his second-half 29 seeing him sign for a 70.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Australian Adam Scott became only the second man to play in 100 consecutive majors – joining the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who played in 146 on the trot. The 2013 Masters champion opened with a 73.<\/p>\n
That was the same score as two-time US Open champion Brooks Koepka, who won the last time Shinnecock Hills held this championship. <\/p>\n
They were a shot better off than England’s Tyrrell Hatton, while Spaun failed to make a single birdie as he posted a 77. <\/p>\n
But it is another former champion who is setting the pace in Clark, who has talked about seeking redemption for smashing a locker at Oakmont after missing the cut in this tournament 12 months ago. <\/p>\n
A run of birdie-birdie-eagle carried him clear of a seemingly rejuvenated Dustin Johnson and potentially on course for a 64 if he can par his remaining two holes when he concludes his first round on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Former world number one and two-time major winner Johnson rolled back the years with four consecutive birdies to put himself into contention before carding a double bogey on the sixth.<\/p>\n
Johnson, who will have birdie putt on the 15th hole to claw back a shot when he resumes his first round, is one of seven players at two under. <\/p>\n
That group also includes England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the title in 2022, and Spain’s Jon Rahm, who preceded him and also has a Green Jacket to his name. <\/p>\n
Bryson DeChambeau, who pummeled a drive a mammoth 427 yards down the 12th, after being propelled forward by a huge kick from Tuckahoe Road, is a shot further back. <\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick will face an 11-foot birdie putt on the eighth when he returns on Friday, while DeChambeau will have a 21-foot chance on the same hole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scheffler was far from the only one to endure moments of incredulity. His playing partner JJ Spaun hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}