Canada's Brad Fritsch Makes Cut At U.S. Open As David Hearn Misses
Brad Fritsch Will Be The Lone Canadian To Tee It Up On The Weekend At Chambers Bay In The 2015 U.S. Open - Image Credit Alfie Lau
by Alfie Lau
A quick turnaround for Edmonton’s Brad Fritsch cost him some strokes, but didn’t prevent him from making the cut at his second US Open at Chambers Bay.
Fritsch, in the first group out off the 1st tee at 7 a.m., started the day at even par and got it into red numbers with a birdie at the par-5 first hole.
But then a couple of poor swings led to three consecutive bogeys and it was an uphill struggle for the resident of North Carolina who also gets sponsorship from the Ottawa Senators.
Fritsch would finish with bogeys at 7, 9, 11 and 18, offset by birdies at 16 and 17, to finish at (+4) 74 for the day and (+4) after two rounds. It’s the first made cut at a US Open for Fritsch, who missed the cut in 2006 at Winged Foot after shooting (+16).
Fritsch said he had to wake up before the sun rose to get into his normal game-day routine. Predictably, it wasn’t the optimal circumstances.
“I think the four o'clock wake-up call was probably part of that,” said Fritsch. “I don't do that very often. I just didn't get a great warm-up in. My coach left yesterday, might have something to do with it. I felt like I did things we normally do in warm-up. I didn't hit a lot of good shot in the warm-up.”
After leaking away all those shots on the front nine, Fritsch was able to steady the ship, always cognizant of what he needed to do to get into the weekend at Chambers Bay.
“I always know where I stand. I knew I had probably four shots to play with today. I used those up really fast,” said Fritsch. “I knew where I stood and just glad to get those birdies on 16 and 17.”
The back-to-back birdies gave Fritsch a cushion as he played the 514-yard 18th, a hole Jordan Spieth said didn’t make any sense and was a “dumb hole.” Fritsch seemed to have a similar opinion.
image credit bryan outram
David Hearn Was Disappointed By Missing The Cut But Still Encouraged By Elements Of His Game Going Forward
“18 just such a hard hole. It's not a great par-4. You are trying to carry it 275, but not run it out 320. With these fairways, it's going to roll a lot. I hit 3-wood to the right, and subsequently it's a much harder shot in with 5-iron for me,” said Fritsch. “Just a hard hole.”
Fritsch enters the weekend relaxed, knowing he has to be patient above all else.
“If you get frustrated and you try to press out here, when you start pressing, it kills you,” said Fritsch. “What I learned in my two years on tour was that 1- and 2-under par for the most part on weekends is actually pretty good. It's the 3- and 4- overs that put you so far back. So I'm going to play it the same way. It's hard to be aggressive out here. It's just so hard. Unless you spin the ball a ton, it's hard to get it close. It's hard to fire at flags.”
It was a much tougher story for Brantford, ON’s David Hearn, who opened with a (+2) 72 and got it as low as (+1) after making birdie at the 12th, his third hole of the day.
But bogeys on three of his next four holes had Hearn scrambling, with no margin for error. Another bogey on the second hole was erased by a birdie on the fourth to get Hearn back to the cut number of (+4), but three bogeys in his final 5 holes had the Canuck trunking his way out of the Pacific Northwest.
Hearn would finish with a (+5) round of 75 to finish at (+7) 147 for the tournament. Hearn, playing in his fourth US Open, missed the cut in 2005 and 2008 before making it in 2013 at Merion and cashing a cheque for $88,579 for his T21 finish.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” said Hearn. “I hit a lot of shots that were close, but I missed by a bit and I seemed to pay the price for every miss. . . I had higher expectations for here than leaving after two days.”
Hearn said he hit his irons well and while he liked the greens at Chambers Bay more during the opening round, he found they got harder and bumpier to putt as the sun came out Friday and took any moisture out of the greens.
Hearn will take next week off, choosing not to play the Travelers in Hartford, and play again at the subsequent event, the Greenbrier in West Virginia.
“I did a lot of good things here overall,” said Hearn. “I feel like my game’s so close.”
www.twitter.com/AlfieLau