Brookline 'beast' bites back early

BROOKLINE • The US Open usually waits until the final day of its 72-hole crucible to toy with the world's best golfers. But perhaps in tribute to the venerable history of this year's host, vexing conditions - blustery winds, thick rough and fast greens - began to crush the wills and sap the souls of the players 24 hours early at the Country Club outside Boston.

With an under-par score a rarity, the top of Saturday's third round leaderboard was overhauled frequently. In the end, only a handful of this year's hottest golfers remained in contention, joined by some lesser-known names to set up a final-round slugfest against a course that co-leader, Will Zalatoris, called "an absolute beast".

Zalatoris' determined round of three-under 67, the lowest on Saturday, left him four-under 206, tied with Matthew Fitzpatrick of England, who shot a 68.

"This golf course is an absolute beast. It was brutal," he said. "You look at the Major champions who are on that leaderboard, it's going to be no small test (on Sunday)."

Jon Rahm, the defending champion, squandered a late lead in the round to fall one stroke behind.

The Spaniard's drive from the 18th tee dribbled into a bunker on the left side of the fairway. His first attempt to clear the bunker's high lip failed, and his ball rolled back into the sand. His next shot landed in the easy-to-find 18th hole front bunker. The combination of mistakes brought a messy end to Rahm's round - a double-bogey that dropped him into third place.

Afterwards, he said he misjudged how deep his ball had been in the sand. "I had a nine-iron in hand, that's plenty to get over that lip. Maybe I was trying to get too cute - looking for another birdie.

"But it doesn't really matter much. I'm content where I am and happy with how I played."

Three golfers were tied for fourth at two under - Keegan Bradley (69), Canada's Adam Hadwin (70) and Scottie Scheffler (71), the Masters champion who had a chaotic, inconsistent round.

Overnight co-leaders Collin Morikawa and Joel Dahmen struggled. Morikawa, who won the PGA Championship in 2020 and last year's British Open, shot 77 and fell back to two over. Dahmen (74) is at one-under 209.

Zalatoris was one of the few who rarely struggled on Saturday, with four birdies and only one bogey. Even when he badly sliced his last tee shot of the day 35 yards to the right of the 18th fairway, he landed in a corridor between a grandstand and another temporary structure.

Although 224 yards away from the hole, he had enough of an opening to lace a long iron into the famed mammoth bunker that protects the 18th green. From there, he splashed a spinning, gutsy shot from the sand and then sank a six-foot par-saving putt.

While Zalatoris is just 25, he is playing in his ninth Major and has already contended multiple times. Last month, he lost the PGA Championship play-off against Justin Thomas and finished second at last year's Masters. The American also tied for sixth at Augusta this year and at the 2020 US Open.

The narrow defeats in Majors have not demoralised him.

"I know I'm going to get one," he said after the PGA Championship. "It's just a matter of time."

But he also knows the battle against the Country Club's devilish, decades-old challenges will not be won, only survived.

He said: "That was the hardest golf course that I've ever played. It's just so easy to compound mistakes out here. Of course, you can do that in Major championships in general, but especially this one."

Fitzpatrick, 27, who won the 2013 US Amateur at the Country Club, bogeyed his first hole on Saturday but shot three under for the rest of his round.

He is aiming to become the first non-US golfer to win the US Amateur and US Open.

"At the end of the day you only get four attempts a year, and that's if you're in them," he added.

NYTIMES, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE