Could be a first for the U.S. Open.
Tony Finau and Daniel Berger started the third round tied for 45th at seven-over par, pretty much out of contention — 11 full shots behind overnight leader Dustin Johnson.
Then the U.S. Open happened.
Berger and Finau played early, both getting out before 11 a.m. while Shinnecock Hills was still in a state of slumber. By early afternoon, both posted four-under par 66s and wondered how far back they’d be from the leaders by the end of the day.
“It hasn’t necessarily gone my way this year,” Berger said after he was through, “but I’ve done a lot of the right things, and it’s more about just letting it happen and not putting too much pressure on myself. Today I did that. I just went out there and played golf and added up the score at the end of the day, and it happened to be a good one.”
Finau, who contended at The Masters, will be on center-stage with Berger in the final pairing.
“Feels good. I played really nicely, especially for my last 15 holes,” Finau said. “I got off to a rough start. I bogeyed the 2nd hole, bogeyed the 3rd hole, a couple over early. But, you know, I kind of, I rolled the ship in nicely. I was able to bounce back with a birdie right away on 4, and then really got fortunate, you know, to make birdie on 5. There’s two fairways on 5. I was aiming at the left one and ended up hitting the right one.
“Out here, usually when you make a bad swing, you can make a bad number. Most of the time you’re going to make a bad number. But I was able to get away with a bad swing there. Hit a 3 iron right at the green and get up and down for birdie. So it was nice just to get those back right away. I think that was a huge part of the round today.”
The two tied Tommy Fleetwood for best round of the tournament.
Both will be in uncharted territory Sunday. Neither has played in the final pairing at a major.
