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Mexican amateur Morales grabs early US Open lead / Photo: © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP
Mexican amateur Morales grabs early US Open lead
Mexican amateur Omar Morales stole the early US Open spotlight Thursday, topping the leaderboard at three-under par through nine holes at Los Angeles Country Club.
The 20-year-old University of California at Los Angeles student, who came through qualifying to book his spot in the third major championship of the year, opened with a birdie at the par-five first and added another at the short par-four sixth.
He found himself alone atop the leaderboard after a birdie at the par-five eighth.
American Dylan Wu had also reached three-under through six holes, showing birdies were possible on a morning when overcast skies and intermittent mist greeted the early starters.
Wu gave a shot back at the par-three seventh to join a group of players at 2-under on the course as the marquee names were teeing off.
Masters champion Jon Rahm opened with a 15-foot birdie at the par-four 10th.
However, world number one Scottie Scheffler was in trouble right off the bat, finding a fairway bunker off the tee at the par-five first and a greenside bunker on the way to a bogey at a hole he had assessed before the tournament as "gettable."
It didn't augur well for the 2022 Masters champion, who said the front nine on LA Country Club's North Course offered the best scoring chances before a back nine that closes with "a lot of long, hard, difficult holes."
Scheffler is among the few in the field who have played competitively at LA Country Club, a jewel of a course that club members have largely preferred to keep to themselves.
The course, tucked in among the mansions of Beverly Hills in the shadow of Hollywood, is hosting the US Open for the first time. Scheffler played it as part of the US Walker Cup team that beat Britain and Ireland in 2018.
The event is the first major golf tournament since last week's surprising news that the PGA Tour and DP World Tour would unite with the Saudi financiers of the upstart LIV Golf League.
That will make for a spicy afternoon group with Brooks Koepka, last month's PGA Championship winner and the first LIV Golf member to capture a major, joined by Rory McIlroy, the PGA Tour's most vocal defender, and Japan's Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion.
Koepka, a five-time major winner, won the 2017 and 2018 US Opens and was second at the Masters in April before taking his third PGA crown. He has been in fiery form this year, showing no sign of woes from playing 54-hole LIV events.
"I'm pretty sure I know what it takes to compete in majors," Koepka said.
Scheffler teed off alongside two-time major winner Collin Morikawa and Max Homa, both of California.
Homa, a six-time PGA Tour winner, set a course record of 61 in winning a 2013 Pacific-12 collegiate championship.
Rahm, who could overtake Scheffler for world number one with a victory or runner-up finish, won the 2021 US Open down the coast at Torrey Pines, captured his second major title at this year's Masters and has won four events this year in all.
Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick of England will start in the afternoon alongside Cameron Smith, the reigning British Open champion, and American Sam Bennett, who turned pro after earning low amateur honors at the Masters.
A. Williams--BTZ
