Day 1 of the 2022 U.S. Open is in the books, with Adam Hadwin (four under) grabbing the early lead at Brookline. Rory McIlroy leads a group of five at three under, and he’s a whopping 11 strokes better than Phil Mickelson, who shot 78 and is tied for 144th. What was your biggest surprise from Thursday?
Jessica Marksbury, senior editor: For me, it’s Phil. I mean, I know it’s a bit far-fetched to expect him to really contend this week, but I certainly expected him to summon a lot more than that.
Josh Sens, senior writer: I actually thought Mickelson had about a 50/50 chance of breaking 80, given that he hadn’t played much and his head clearly isn’t in a great place. So the round he put up did not surprise me in the least. And I expected the big-name LIV guys to struggle for some of the same reasons: too much swirling around them. Sure enough, Na, Oosthuizen, Gooch, Garcia all struggled. In that sense, DJ’s tidy round comes as (slightly) unexpected. But really, maybe the biggest surprise was that there weren’t any big surprises. A few outlier leaders are par for the course.
