Defending champ Bryson DeChambeau, fellow major winners miss cut at Oakmont

Defending U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau arrived at Oakmont with a philosophy that has served him well in his career.

“I’m going to be as fearless as I can possibly be out there,” he said Tuesday.

Oakmont Country Club rejected that plan.

DeChambeau followed up a 3-over 73 in the first round with a 7-over 77 in the second round Friday and missed the cut by three strokes.

Starting on No. 10, he made three straight bogeys on Nos. 14-16. On No. 5, he drove into the left rough and was only able to advance his second shot 59 yards. He made double bogey and followed that up with two more bogeys on Nos. 6 and 7.

He hit five of 14 fairways and seven of 18 greens — stats that are sure to lead to a rough day at Oakmont.

DeChambeau was hardly alone in his struggles. A handful of big-name players headed home early after missing the cut.

Dustin Johnson, winner at Oakmont in 2016, shot a pair of 75s to join DeChambeau at 10-over.

U.S. Open winners Wyndham Clark (8-over), Lucas Glover (8-over) and Gary Woodland (10-over) and six-time major champ Phil Mickelson (8-over) also missed the cut.

Shane Lowry finished at 17-over and was caught on camera referring to Oakmont with a profane three-word phrase that ended with “this place.”

Among the players who slipped in under the cutline: Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffele at 6-over and Patrick Reed at 7-over.

Bad Day, good Day

Jason Day shot 6-over-par 76 on Thursday, which left a bitter taste in his mouth. So he went right to the putting green after his round to work on his stroke and do some … club maintenance.

“I bent my putter. I just manually bent it myself. Stood on it,” Day said. “That’s kind of how I used to do it back in the day. It just hadn’t been looking very good to me personally, kind of looks a little bit hooded, the grip’s on a little bit closed too, so that’s not a positive for me. But I bent it enough to make it look more open, which is good.”

It was good. Good enough for him to finish 3-under-par in Round 2 to put him at 3-over for the tournament.

“Putted a lot better today,” said Day, who is 39th in the Official World Golf Ranking. “Just started missing a few greens. Then kind of settled it a little bit with a birdie on 6 and 7 for me. It was a big day to come back and shoot 3-under to make the cut.”

Day’s round included an eagle on the par-5 12th hole.

“Just driver and then a 3-wood just to about 20 feet,” he said. “I think it was over 300 yards to the pin, but slight down slope on the second shot, it was going to be tough to try and clear the front part, that’s just about 30, 40 yards short and left, so played a little bit right, hit a nice shot in there and then obviously rolled in a good putt there too.”

Vogt bows out

Seneca Valley grad Matt Vogt, a former caddie at Oakmont County Club, was the story of the golf world last week after qualifying to play in the U.S. Open at his former workplace.

The Indiana dentist hoped to achieve a dream of contending for a U.S. Open trophy, but the course had other plans for the feel-good story.

“It’s been a crazy week and I hope I made everyone proud,” Vogt said.

He shot an opening-round 82 on Thursday and 81 on Friday to finish the tournament at 23-over-par to miss the cut.

“I hope to build on it from a golf standpoint,” Vogt said Friday. “From a life standpoint, I’ll have this memory forever coming back to Oakmont for an Open and I’ll cherish it for sure.”

George Duangmanee shot a 35-over-par to finish in last place.

How did they rate?

Adding 23 yards to the eighth hole upped the difficulty level Friday. The 299-yard par-3 No. 8 was the hardest hole on the course when play was suspended late in Round 2 with a stroke average of 3.630. There were just two birdies, to go with 66 pars, 69 bogeys and 14 doubles.

The 465-yard par-4 ninth hole, which played as the toughest hole Thursday, was the fourth toughest on Friday, with a stroke average of 4.510.

The easiest hole on Friday was the drivable 305-yard par-4 No. 17, which allowed two eagles and 43 birdies and had a stroke average of 3.910.