SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. — Every first round of a major, I feel like Stefon from that SNL skit: This round had a little bit of everything!
Mostly because it did. We got angry (and disbelieving) Scottie, a Rorycoaster round, somebody shooting a “neither nine in the 30s” even par round and some of the best golf conditions of this year (or any year) … until they went away.
Let’s get right to work.
Name drops: Stefon, Adam Scott, Max Homa, Cashmere Keith and Ludde.
Today’s newsletter is presented by our friends at Turtlebox.
Weather was a big story at Shinnecock on Thursday, and it’s a big story when it comes to Turtlebox. Their products — both the Ranger and the Original (Gen 3) — can withstand basically anything you throw at them.
Fog delays may affect the U.S. Open. They do not affect the Turtlebox. Neither does rain, wind or anything short of a player angrily pounding it with a driver after a so-so major championship round (and perhaps not even that).
You know who could use some calming music on his Turtlebox after a frustrating first round and range session (which we will get to below)?
This guy.
Both of the above Turtlebox products are waterproof as well as drop, crush and dust-proof. There is not much you can do to them that is going to affect their ability to deliver music in your backyard, on your fishing trips or while you’re trying to figure out your swing and win the grand slam enjoying some golf.
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Thank you to Turtlebox for being a supporter of our work and now let’s get to the news.
1. First things first. You may be wondering about the questionable images above. They sprung out of a conversation I had with Shane Ryan in the media center today about who has the hairiest arms on Tour. Major weeks are long, please give me some grace.
Anyway, the consensus answers were DJ, Cam Young, Sam Burns and the guy I think is probably the medalist here, Max Homa. Not the content you pay for (that’s after the jump) but honestly maybe the content you should pay for.
[Jason here] As someone who draws a lot of forearms, Stewart Cink has my vote. All of the hair from his head has migrated to his arms.
2. Let’s talk about the golf course. I thought it ruled. Could it have been a bit firmer and faster given that the wind wasn’t quite what we thought it would be during the first round? Absolutely. Did it still play insanely difficult because the wind was up more than usual? It did … at least until the golden hour.
Listen, it was not ideal that Wyndham played 16 holes in 6 under and the scoring average dropped from +3.9 in the morning to +2.8 in the afternoon. That’s major championship golf, though. Sometimes you’re in the good wave, and sometimes you’re not. But if you’re the USGA, you can’t set it up fast and firm when 40 MPH winds are in the forecast. Because if they arrive, you have to call players off the course, and you’re criticized going that way.
It’s a difficult situation for the hosts. Maybe even impossible. And I would rather them error on this side of things and take more control of the course over the last three days than play chicken with the wind on Day 1 and churn out a mess of a golf tournament.
Two things really stood out to me in the morning wave from both being out there and watching some on TV.
1. How difficult it was to even reach some of the greens in regulation. The 16th felt like it was playing 800 yards. The scoring average there was nearly 5.4 early on, which is insanely high for any golf hole, even at a major championship.
2. It was not difficult to hold greens — even in the wind — but it was tough to catch a piece of them. Example: Rory had a hook-y lie on the 9th hole (his last of the day) and hit a draw that rode the wind too much and missed the green entirely.
These are extremely fun shots to watch when it’s windy, even when golf balls are spinning back. When the wind is down, though, they do need to firm up the greens, or it’s going to be fish in a barrel over the weekend.
3. One thing I was thinking about today as it relates to the distance debate — that the president of the United States weighed in on! normal sport! — is as follows: How far is too far for those who are anti-rollback? Yes, I was thinking about Rory hitting a drive 396 and Bryson hitting one 427 and yes both of those are outliers (that I regret using as examples!), but it got me considering the extremes a bit more.
What if someone learns to consistently hit drives 450 yards? Or 500? Would anti-rollback folks be pro-rollback at that point? Or is there not a limit at which they would be in favor of rollback? There must be, right?
The rollback debate reminds me of the way we talk about censorship. Everyone (I should say, almost everyone) is in favor of censorship when it comes to the media (TV, internet, etc.). There aren’t very many people who believe that everything should be allowed to be shown to everyone at all times. So we all agree on censorship, it’s just a matter of where your line is.
I believe the same is true of rollback. I think almost everyone agrees that regulating equipment is necessary (which is important!). It’s just a matter of where each individual draws the line and also who is drawing the lines.
I am obviously creating extreme examples (500-yard drives) of the point I’m trying to make, but it does matter that everyone (who is reasonable) is seemingly on the side of governance being good and that we’re just bargaining about what the distance limit should be. That’s an entirely different thing than being on opposite sides of the argument.
Bryson will be ready for his Friday morning tee time.
4. Here is a podcast I did recently where I talked about being a dad and living out my faith in a public forum. We’ll get to some of the individual play after the jump below.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,056 of them) and includes some thoughts on Scottie’s round, Rory’s round and a few other thoughts on Round 1 of the 2026 U.S. Open.
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