Bland & Henley -- Who? -- Tied for Lead in U.S. Open

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SAN DIEGO -- Sometimes the U.S. Open can be viewed as a Who's Who of Golf. That was the case in 1960 when golf's past (Ben Hogan), present (Arnold Palmer) and future (Jack Nicklaus) came together at Cherry Hills and contended for the title down the stretch. Palmer's come-from-behind victories in the '60 Masters and  in the '60 Open -- where he drove the green on the 346-yard, par-4 first hole and shot a final-round 65 -- are almost universally considered to be the beginning of golf's golden age.

The Opens in 1982 (Watson chipping in to beat Nicklaus at Pebble Beach) and 2000 (Tiger going 12 under and beating the field by 15, also at Pebble Beach) are two other notable examples. 

There are other times when Opens  are more of a Who's He? or Who Are They? kind of event.

That's the case so far at the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Russell Henley was a co-leader after a first-round 67 (4 under par), and he shares the lead with Richard Bland after 36 holes. Bland, a 48-year-old Englishman, is a tribute to persistance. He has been playing on the European Tour for a little more than two decades, and he won for the first time in May, at the British Masters -- in his 478th try. He shot 67 on Friday to join Henley at the top of the leaderboard with two-day total of 137.

Unlike Bland, Henley wasted no time winning once he joined the PGA Tour. He won his first time out, at the Sony Open in Hawaii in 2013, with a tour-record 72-hole score of 256 (24 under). He's won twice since, but he hasn't won since the Shell Houston Open in April of 2017. 

Henley has never had a top-10 finish in a major. Bland hasn't, either, but this is only the fourth major that he's played in.

Their not-so-dazzling credentials notwithstanding, both Bland and Henley have been playing well during the current season. Bland's victory is evidence of that. Henley has three top-4 finishes so far in the 2020-21 PGA Tour season. Both are hitting lots of fairways and greens, and Henley has made only three bogeys in two days at Torrey Pines, which is quite an achievement at a U.S. Open. (He would have gotten through the first two days with only two bogeys if he hadn't three-putted the green at the par-5 ninth hole for a bogey to conclude his round on Friday.)

But neither Richard Bland nor Russell Hensley is a household name. 

"I'm sure he knows nothing about me, either," Henley said, after conceding that he didn't know much about Bland.

There are, however, some bigger names lurking close behind Henley and Bland. 

Louis Oosthuizen, a former British Open champion (2010) and a runner-up to Phil Mickelson at this year's PGA, was tied with Henley after the first round, and he's only one behind, now tied for third at 138, along with Matthew Wolff, after a 71 on Friday. Wolff is a former Oklahoma State All-American with an idiosyncratic swing who bombs his tee shots and won in only his third time out on the PGA Tour, at the 3M Championship in 2019 at TPC Twin Cities. More recently, he's had psychological issues. Basically, golf ceased to be enjoyable for him because he was putting so much pressure on himself. He took two months off this spring, and says he is now getting back to having fun on the course.

Another player who shot 67 on Friday is Bubba Watson, a two-time Masters champ (2012 and '14) who has been one of the longest hitters in tournament golf for 15 years. (He finished No. 1 in the driving distance stats in 2006, '07, '08, '12 and '14.) He, too, has had psychological issues -- "I have anxieties. I have doubts." --  but he has won 14 times on the PGA Tour. Those victories have come on seven courses; so he tends to play well in the same places, and he has won at Torry Pines, in the 2011 Farmers Insurance Open.

Watson is tied with Jon Rahm for fifth at 139. 

Rahm, of course, was the biggest story in golf two weeks ago, when he shot a third-round 64 and led the Memorial Tournament by six strokes -- only to be informed as he walked off the 18th green that he had tested positive for Covid 19. That meant he had to withdraw from the competition. He also had to self-quarantine for 10 days, a period that ended just before the Open began.  

A little further back, tied for 13th at even-par 142 is the defending champion, Bryson DeChambeau. During the last few months, DeChambeau and two-time Open champ Brooks Koepka (2017 and '18) have become Golf's Odd Couple, sniping at each other in the press and in social media. Koepka is also part of the eight-way tie at 142. So he and DeChambeau could have been paired together on Saturday, but they aren't. 

Koepka opened with a 69 on Thursday, but hit only five fairways and seven greens in regulation on Friday. It was all he could do to shoot 73. 

DeChambeau seems headed in the opposite direction. He shot 73 in the first round. Afterward, he practiced so long, they had to turn the lights on for him at the range. That didn't help. But he said he woke up in the middle of the night, and that was when the solution to his Round 1 swing problems came to him. 

What he needed to do, he said, was stabalize his right hand, and not release it until after he made impact with the ball.

It worked. DeChambeau shot 69 on Friday. 

There are three players with major Minnesota connections in the field. Two of them made the cut, and one missed. 

Tom Hoge, the former two-time MGA State Amateur champ from Fargo, is tied for 21st  at 143 after a 71 on Friday. He was flirting with the cut, which came at 4-over 146, after he bogeyed the 15th, but he capped off his round with a pair of birdies, at the 17th (509 yards, par 4) and 18th (653, par 5).

(Four of the par 4's at Torry Pines this week are playing over 500 yards -- and Torry Pines is at sea level!)

Just making the cut on the number was Troy Merritt, the former Spring Lake Park star who was an NCAA Division II All-American at Winona State, then transferred after his sophomore year to Boise State, where he became a Division I All-American. He bounced back from a first-round 75 with a 71 for a 146. Starting on the back nine, he was 2 over after four holes Friday, but he birdied the 507-yard, par-4 14th and the 18th, then parred all nine holes on the front nine.

Just missing the cut was Erik Van Rooyen, the South African who was the Minnesota's No. 1 player in 2012 and '13, and won the State Amateur in 2012. He shot 74 on Thursday; so he couldn't afford many mistakes on Friday. An early birdie at the par-3 third was offset by a bogey at the 679-yard, par-5 ninth, but he was still inside the cut. A double bogey at the long par-4 15th and bogey at the par-3 16th did him in. He birdied the 509-yard, par-4 17th, but he needed to birdie the 18th, as well, and didn't.

Another player who was flirting with the cut for much of the day was the new PGA champ, 51-year-old (as of Wednesday) Phil Mickelson, a six-time major champion -- and the oldest major champion ever. He made several impressive par saves on his final nine to remain at plus 3, and then birdied the 18th hole to put up a 69 for Round 2 and a combined 144, which assured his continued presence in the tournament over the weekend.  


U.S. Open

At Torrey Pines (South Course)

Par 71, 7,652 yards

San Diego

Second-round results 

T1. Richard Bland                    70-67--137

T1. Russell Henley                   67-70--137

T3. Louis Oostuizen                 67-71--138

T3. Matthew Wolff                    70-68--138

T5. Bubba Watson                   72-67--139

T5. Jon Rahm                          69-70--139

T7. Kevin Streelman                71-69--140

T7. Mackenzie Hughes           73-67--140

T7. Xander Schauffele            69-71--140

T21. Tom Hoge                      71-71--143

T58. Troy Merritt                    75-71--146

Missed cut -- 146

Erik Van Rooyen                    74-73--147