Brooks Koepka ended the first day of the 2019 US Open at Pebble Beach at two-under 69, which was four behind the leader, Englishman Justin Rose’s 65. But after the first six holes and then after 12, Koepka was four-under and had two Par-5s coming up. Instead he bogeyed Par-4 13th and 17th and did not birdie on the Par-5s. Nothing to get alarmed about; it’s only the first day of a Major. And he loves Majors. We know that.

Koepka is World No. 1; he’s won four Majors in the last 23 months. Four of his six PGA Tour wins are Majors. After missing the cut in his first two Majors back in 2012 (US Open) and 2013 (Open), he has not missed a cut in the next 20. His last eight Majors have produced four wins, two Top-6 finishes, besides a T-13 (2017 PGA) and T-39 (2018 Open). Overall in 22 Majors, he has four wins, eight Top-5s and 10 Top-10s.

Phenomenal seems a mild word for Koepka.

These days, there cannot be a major golf conversation, or a conversation on Golf’s Majors — whichever way you want — without Koepka being at the centre of it.

Yet… the guys who made the promo at Fox, which is televising the 2019 US Open, forgot to put Koepka in it!

Unthinkable seems a mild word.

“There’s a commercial running now that Fox put up to preview the US Open, and I’m not even in it,” said an incredulous Koepka. “It’s just mind-boggling — like, how do you forget that?”

By the way, Koepka, who has won the last two US Opens, is going for a three-peat, which has not been done since 1905, when a Scot, Willie Anderson, won it for the third straight time.

Does Koepka know about Anderson? Well, kind of… “It’s hard to win the same event three times in a row; I don’t know how many times it’s even been done on the PGA Tour, let alone a major championship,” said Koepka. “About Willie Anderson, it’s funny, we were in Scotland, I think it was last year, and we saw his name on a building. I guess it was where he used to live or something like that, which is pretty cool. But I don’t know too much about him. I haven’t Googled him.”

As many as 39 players had cards in red numbers — that’s not common at US Opens. It is the most for the first round since the 2017 edition at Erin Hills and it tied Medinah’s 39 in 1990. The 27 rounds in 60s is the most in a US Open first round.

Rose called it a fun day of golf. He told the media, “I guess the round was going nicely. I was 3-under par, had a rough patch, had to scramble, work hard, keep my round together. Even when I made a mistake, I was willing to accept. And then got rewarded with a hot finish … [taking] a good round to a great round.”

Rose’s 65 equalled Woods’ 65 of 2000, the year when Woods won by 15 (yes, 15) shots. That was also around the time (1998-99-2000) when Rose, then a newly minted pro, was struggling. He missed his first 21 cuts after finishing Tied-4th at the 1998 British Open in his last start as an amateur. That has changed.

Rose has one Major to Woods’ 15, but he has an Olympic gold, which TW does not! There’s not many pros who can say that they have something, that Woods does not.

Woods shot 70 on the first day — his three birdies and the blunderous double bogey came in a run of four holes. After two straight birdies on sixth and seventh, Woods finished with 11 straight pars for a 70. “Pebble Beach, you have the first seven to get it going, and after that it’s a fight,” Woods said. “I proved that today. I was trying to just hang in there today. Rosey proved the golf course could be had.” He is T-28, but not out of it.

Phil Mickelson, who has five Majors and six US Open runner-up finishes against his name, shot 72, but he feels he is not out of it either.

Rickie Fowler, widely seen as the ‘best active player’ without a Major, hit almost every fairway and carded 66 and he had nine birdie looks of 15 feet or under in his round.

His verdict: “You can’t go win the golf tournament today (the first day), but you can take yourself out of it or put yourself in a position where you’re just trying to fight your way back.”

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