Round Four: Sunday

Denny McCarthy, of Rockville, never found his usual rhythm of hitting fairways and making birdies in bunches, as he put up a methodical round of 36-36–72, 2 over par for the U.S. Open course at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash. One of six amateurs to make the cut at +5, he finished tied for 42nd with a score of 7-over-par 287 that included earlier rounds of 71-73-71.

With the course set-up using the first hole as a par-4 and the last hole as a par-5, the layout was played at 7,384 yards to a par of 35-35–70.

McCarthy, 22, an Argyle Country Club member who had his older brother Ryan as a caddy, as he had when he qualified for the 2010 U.S. Amateur at the same site, ended with two bogeys, one birdie on the front nine and one bogey on the back. In earlier rounds, he had three birdies, four bogeys; two birdies, five bogeys on the front and four birdies, three bogeys and one double-bogey on the back.

Brian Campbell, Irvine, Calif., who recently finished his senior year at the University of Illinois, was the low amateur, closing with a 68 for 285. McCarthy and Ollie Schniederjans, a two-time All-American from Georgia Tech, who bogeyed his 72d hole to finish 73-287, tied for second.

Ironically, McCarthy created more excitement in a practice round than in the Open, when he scored a hole-in-one with a 202-yard 5-iron shot at the ninth hole on Wednesday, June 17.

Billy Hurley, III, of Annapolis, Maryland’s other Open entry, shot 80-72–152, and failed to advance.

Round Three: Saturday

Denny McCarthy had another up-and-down day on Saturday, June 20, but a strong finish enabled him to shoot a one-over-par 71 in the third round of the U.S. Open for a 54-hole total of 215 at Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington. Most of his statistics were best-efforts so far, as he reached 10 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens. He had an average driving distance of 322.5 yards, with thirty-three putts. Six amateurs made the cut and McCarthy trails only Ollie Schniederjans (214) and Jack Maguire (214).

A birdie-birdie finish not only improved McCarthy’s standing on the leaderboard, but sent him into Sunday with some momentum. As he explained it, “Momentum — absolutely. I am looking forward to a good last round. Same game plan. I’ve started really strong the first three days physically and mentally, hitting the right shots, putting the ball in the right spots, giving myself looks. I haven’t converted on [all of] those looks, but I’ve started off solidly and given myself chances. If I keep doing that, maybe a few more will drop for me.”

As for his third round, “I came out of the gate really well, parring the first three holes. Then it got hard. I played an absolutely perfect hole on 4 — it’s one of the hardest holes on the course — and walked away with bogey.”

“It’s a hard stretch [holes] 4 through 7. I’ve bogeyed 4 the last two days, and 5 all three days. After that, I knew I would need a strong push to keep it together. I made good pars at 6 and 7, birdied 8, and parred 9 to shoot one-over on the front. I was pretty pleased with that.”

“Starting on the back, I piped a drive on 10 from the back tee [473 yards to the green] with the wind in my face. I hit a great second shot and walked away with double-bogey. I was looking to maybe go back to even or stay at one-over. Instead, I go to three-over. That was a tough point in the round for me. The place where it changed the most for me was at number 11, where I was looking at double-bogey to go four-over for the day. I hit a good drive and a second shot, but the ball rolled down the hill on the left and I had a really tough up-and-down and wound up making a 40-footer for par. Then I birdied 12 and I think that really saved my round. After a bogey at 15, I really finished strong with those birdies to finish one-over par for the round, five-over for 54 holes.”

Asked about having a perspective coming, he declared, “I didn’t have any expectations. I’m just here to enjoy the week. It’s been a great experience so far, but I haven’t had much time to enjoy it. Maybe later. Right now, I’m in full tournament mode and I’m really focused. It’s been a great week so far and I’m going out there and enjoying the last round.”
Round Two: Friday

Denny McCarthy, from Rockville, shot 73 and was among the early second-round finishers at the U.S. Open on Friday, then had a long, suspenseful wait to see if his two-round total of 144 was enough to make the cut. As play continued, there were a lot of changes and McCarthy, 22, saw his name climb the leaderboard just by standing by and watching. With the field reduced to 60 and ties from a starting group of 156 players, it turned out to be enough, and then some, as the cut fell at 145.

McCarthy started on hole number 10, and went to the turn even par. He managed one birdie, at the par-3 third, but four bogeys dropped him back. For the round, he reached 7 of 14 fairways, 10 of 18 greens, and ended with 30 putts.

Billy Hurley III, from Annapolis, Maryland’s other U.S. Open entry, rebounded from an opening-round of 80 and put up some impressive numbers in a second-round two-over-par 72. He eagled the par-4 12th, played at 284 yards from the rear teeing ground to a front left bowl on the green, with the flagstick visible from the tee. He drove the green and made the putt from about 15 feet. Along with the eagle, he had no birdies and four bogeys. He hit twelve of fourteen fairways, fifteen of eighteen greens, but had thirty-five putts to finish at 152.
Round One: Thursday

Denny McCarthy, of Rockville, and Billy Hurley, III, of Annapolis, found various levels of success in working their way through the first round of the 115th U.S. Open at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., June 18. McCarthy, in his first Open, minimized his mistakes in shooting 1-over-par 35-36–71, while Hurley, in his second Open after making the cut last year, encountered some big numbers and finished 39-41–80.

McCarthy started birdie-bogey, added a bogey at the fifth, and a great birdie at the treacherous 602-yard, par-5 eighth — something most of the leaders did not do — to turn even. Two bogeys in the middle of his back nine marred his effort, but he got one back.

“I pretty much did what I had planned to do,” McCarthy said, “kept my highest score as a bogey, which was good. That was one of my goals — no doubles — and I did that. I was looking at double [on the fifth] but bore down and made a good bogey.

I gave myself a lot of looks [at birdie] on the back nine, but did make the pars. Then, all of a sudden, I didn’t make the pars, going bogey, bogey. Going to 14, I was still even, looking to get a couple of birdies and the next thing I know I’m a couple over.

“I had to grind it out and my brother [Ryan, his caddy] did a great job of keeping me focused. Another thing, when we got up on 15, suddenly a wind is blowing right in our faces. To that point, we hadn’t felt any breeze at all for the last hour or two, and now we were facing three open holes so they played really tough. I played the three in even par and I’m pretty pleased with that. Those greens all had right hole locations and with right-to-left wind, it was hard to get close to the hole.

“The strategy won’t change for the second round — find the fairway, choose the proper side of the green and hit it. Give yourself a chance at birdie and be sure to secure the par.”

Hurley’s outlook was about the same, but things just did not work as well. Still, throw out three bad shots and he’s only two over par for the round.

“I hit a lot of good shots and a couple of really, really bad ones,” the PGA Tour member said, “and there were some bad breaks on top of bad shots.

“It started coming undone at the par-5 eighth. I hit a really bad 9-iron shot and missed the green right — just the place you don’t want to be. The ball bounced down into the fescue; I hit up to the left and back to the right and wound up with an eight.

“A bad tee shot at 10 led to a double-bogey, but from there to 17 I played well. At the par-3 17th, I hit a bad bunker shot — the bunker didn’t have any sand in it — and I skulled the ball over the green and wound up with a six.

“We’ll take it as a learning experience. I’m playing well, just hit a couple of loose shots. . .that’s golf; that’s U.S. Open golf. You hit bad shots, you make big numbers; that’s just how it goes.”

Report courtesy of the USGA.

Practice Rounds

Denny McCarthy begins play in his first U.S. Open this afternoon (June 18), but he already has a hatful of memories from his practice rounds at Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash.

McCarthy, from Rockville and an Argyle Country Club member, arrived in the Pacific Northwest Sunday night and on Monday he enjoyed a practice-round group that included Masters champion Jordan Spieth and Cole Hammer, 15, this year’s youngest entry.

As it developed, that was a mere warm-up to an experience he enjoyed Wednesday, when he went off with playing companion Cody Gribble. They got to the par-3 ninth and Gribble got a roar from the crowd when he hit to within six feet from the upper tee, but McCarthy had his own response.

“I didn’t think there was any way I was going to match it,” said McCarthy, 21, and a recent University of Virginia graduate, “but the crowd was going wild for him, so I stepped up and hit a tee shot that looked like it was never going to leave the pin.”

“A guy behind me said, ‘Great swing. That looks really good.'”

The 5-iron shot from 202 yards into the wind landed about 10 feet short of the hole and rolled in.

“The whole place went wild down there [around the green],” McCarthy said, “and we went wild in the tee box. It was pretty cool.” He got an ovation and tossed the ball into the gallery.

McCarthy had seen the course before when he played in the 2010 U.S. Amateur — which was his second consecutive Amateur (he lost in the first round of match play) in a streak that now has reached six in a row, including making the semi-finals last year — but that experience enabled USGA officials to make some changes in the ensuing years. For this tournament, the course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., will be played in a range of 7,200 yards and 7,600 yards to a par of 70. Although par will remain at 70, it is likely holes 1 and 18 will be played as either a par 4 or a par 5 and there is plenty of room for flexibility in the tee boxes and the hole locations. Players with experience from the 2010 Amateur, with a few quotes from Denny, are discussed in this article by the USGA.

McCarthy, one of 16 amateurs in the field, and PGA Tour regular Billy Hurley, III, a Naval Academy graduate a decade ago who makes his home in Annapolis, qualified for the championship at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville last week, each finishing the 36-hole grind with medal-sharing scores of 138.

McCarthy has a 4:11 p.m. EDT tee time off the first hole Thursday afternoon and will go off hole 10 at 10:11 a.m. Friday. Hurley will go right behind him with times of 4:22 p.m. and 10:22 a.m.

-Reported by John Stewart with on-site information provided courtesy of the USGA