Jungle terrain lay to the right of the fairway bunkers on the fourth hole. Hay, wispy stuff that would have any farmer licking his lips, but not Paul Dunne.
He gingerly walked through the knee-high grasses before finally reaching his destination, a steep grassy bank above the sand trap. Then, he looked and looked, and, eventually, the search proved productive. He located his golf ball.
Welcome to the US Open, kid!
As a professional golfer with a tour card, these examinations are what you aspire to; the toughest of questions asked and answered.
And, there and then, Dunne – the 24-year-old from Greystones – showed why he has hardly skipped a beat since turning pro. He got on with the challenge. Although the ball could barely be seen, Dunne powered his lob wedge behind the ball and propelled it up the fairway, pitched from 50 yards to tap-in distance and salvaged his par.
Indeed, when Dunne’s alarm had sounded at 4.15am for his debut appearance in the US Open here at Erin Hills, this was precisely the sort of challenge he’d anticipated.
Only, his round – as it turned out – proved be anything but uniform. For the first 11 holes, his driver was like a bold child and it was his putter which saved him time and time again. For the final seven holes, the driver found its rhythm and the putter turned cold.
In the end, Dunne signed for a disappointing three-over-par 75, which means a climb to survive the cut, more a drumlin to ascend rather than a mountain in his second round. Not what he wanted, but not a disaster. It’s in his own hands. Achievable.
As it was, the opening tee shot off the first – which requires a carry of 280 yards – was what brought nerves, rather than the championship itself.
“I was a little nervous just because I couldn’t miss it left. If you can’t carry the corner on the first, I think it’s the toughest tee shot. If you can, it’s so wide. It was borderline whether I could carry it or not.”
He did, but pushed the drive into the rough which set him off on a front nine where he grinded and made a number of par saves.
Only birdie
First, though, came his only birdie of the round. On the second. After his approach stopped just short of the green, Dunne coolly and calmly rolled in a 10-footer. Fist-pump time with Chinese golfer Hao Tang Li, who also birdied. The board carriers changed the numbers. Red. One-under.
Dunne grinded. A pitch from the upslope fronting the third green to eight feet. Par save.
The fourth, a marvellous par save after pushing his drive into the grassy slope. “There was such a big bank in front of it that I couldn’t get any more than a gap wedge on it. I had to get it up so quickly to get over the grass bank that the best I could do was 110 yards. If the bank wasn’t there I could hit the green. It was similar to being in the bunker,” he explained later.
In the gallery, a member of a local wrestling club wore a tee-shirt which seemed to reflect Dunne’s grit and resilience:
“We don’t back down,
We don’t lie down,
If we get knocked down,
We don’t stay down.”
But Dunne was hit with a bogey on the Par 5 seventh, after his drive found a fairway trap and, after splashing out, his approach was pulled left into heavy rough. He didn’t get up and down, and he was back to level par.
Then came back-to-back bogeys on the 10th and 11th. And, ironically, just as his driver started to behave, his putter became the troublesome club whenever it was needed.
“I gave myself a lot of chances for the last seven holes. I’d six good chances, and missed them all . . . I just missed putts coming in, could have finished level par really,” he said.
The one bogey in the midst of all those chances came from nowhere. A good drive on the 17th left him with a 192 yards to the pin. His eight-iron airmailed the green, he chipped to five feet and the putt refused to drop. Three-over.
“Any satisfaction? Not, not much. I left a lot out there. When I got a couple over I knew I needed to make a couple coming in and I gave myself loads of chances and just couldn’t make them . . . the condition of the course was amazing. Every course in America seems to be in amazing condition when you play it. The greens are pure and soft. The rough is bad but the fairways are wide. You have to hit the ball well, tee-to-green it is obviously long but with the greens being soft there is plenty of chances. I just didn’t hit the ball well enough.”
And so it was that Dunne headed for the range, to iron out a few wrongs. To give it a shot to make the cut. A guess at what he’d need in the second round?
“Three-under, maybe. You don’t have to chase out there to shoot three under, the chances kind of come at you.”
