U.S. Open: Five things to watch from Chambers Bay on Saturday
The U.S. Open rolls on this weekend, the field lightened by half. It’s been a challenging but winnable battle for the players so far. That won’t continue. As the leaders prepare to tee off at Chambers Bay on Saturday, here are five key storylines to watch.
1. Patrick Reed: Golf’s version of a wrestling heel is playing in only his sixth major, and he’s never finished higher than a tie for 22nd in any of them. Yet here he is with a share of the lead heading into the weekend. Reed is an insanely talented golfer who’s just as likely to drain an eagle putt as bang a chair over someone’s head, but he could come off the top rope and pin this course, and this tournament, on Saturday afternoon.
2. Four of one, five of another. Which way will the first and 18th holes play? The two must combine for nine strokes, meaning one must be a par 4 and the other a par 5, but turning the 18th into a long par four infuriated several players on Friday. Jordan Spieth called it the “dumbest” hole he’d ever played. Chances are it’ll be set up for the par-four on Sunday afternoon, but with the USGA, you never know.
3. Heir Jordan. Joining Reed atop the leaderboard is Spieth, defending Masters champ and the only guy who can win a Grand Slam this year. The knock on Spieth had long been that he couldn’t win with a Sunday lead, but Spieth put a stake through that particular legend in Augusta. Amazingly enough, he’s the only major winner in the top 10, and might just be the steadiest of the bunch. If he’s still in the hunt on Saturday evening, he’ll become the overwhelming favorite.
4. Watch the clock. Scores get worse the later the day gets, and with the leaders teeing off late, there could be a lot of scores nastier than an Alice in Chains guitar solo. Combine that with some likely devilish pin placement – five bucks says there’ll be a pin on one of those passing trains – and you’ve got the makings of a wicked Saturday afternoon course. Anyone who makes a run earlier in the day (Adam Scott? Justin Rose? Rory McIlroy?) could find themselves in better-than-expected position by the time the sun sets on Saturday.
5. Jason Day. He’s steadily moving up the “next guy to win a major” rankings, but a scary moment on Friday put all this golf silliness in perspective. Day collapsed on his final hole, a victim of a flareup of vertigo. A doctor has declared the episode a benign one, but it’s stil uncertain whether he’ll play on Saturday. If he does, he’ll almost surely have a full medical contingent tracking his every move.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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