Not all bogeys are created equally.
The only thing worse than a three-putt bogey is a four-putt bogey, and if I’ve had first-hand experience of the latter, I’ve mercifully wiped it from the memory banks. But traumatic events are often repressed, so maybe I have.
For pros, par-5 bogeys are particularly jarring as they’ve got birdie and eagle in mind when they stand on the tee, and when you’ve got Rory McIlroy’s length, a red number on your card is almost expected.
Through a dozen holes of the opening round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, he was one-under. It was a number he’d have grabbed with both hands if you’d offered it to him on the first tee, but he could and probably should have been at least a shot lower.
Fifteen minutes later, he’d walked off the par-5 green at level-par for the tournament and breathed a heavy sigh of relief because he could easily have blown himself out of the tournament.
The rough at Oakmont has been the star of the show early in the week, but it wasn’t the five-inch, thick and juicy stuff that Rory was worried about after watching his drive sail wide right, it was the knee-high hay within the ditch hazard where his ball landed. Finding it was against the odds, but find it he did – or somebody did – and though he could’ve taken a penalty drop, he was able to hack out sideways. But only just.
His ball came to rest on the edge of the bunker, leaving him an awkward stance and another precarious shot that he proceeded to duff about 10 yards forward. Now buried at the bottom of the five-inch stuff, he managed to hack it 100 yards down the fairway, leaving him almost 180 yards out playing his fifth.
At this point, ‘seven’, ‘eight’, and even ‘nine’ were distinct possibilities, and with the course playing as easy as it’s likely to play before the cutline falls on Friday evening, it was looking like a potential sliding doors moment.
A good iron shot and an even better putt later, he was walking off with a ‘six’.
There’s a long, long way to go and at the time of writing, he’s not yet in the clubhouse and could yet implode and cede virtually all chance of victory, but if he hangs around and finds himself in the mix when Sunday’s final nine holes roll around, it could end up being one of the best bogeys of his career.
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