SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – When it comes to his first U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, Emiliano Grillo can’t recall – or at least refuses to – a single fond memory from his missed cut eight years ago.
“It was a blur,” Grillo said. “I’m not going to go there. I hated every minute of it.”
Grillo was surprised when reminded that he only failed advancing to the weekend by a shot that year. It felt more like 100.
But that was then, and now, Grillo found himself sitting inside the interview room on a warm, windswept Saturday afternoon at Shinnecock, his 3-under 67 setting the early pace by three strokes, right about the time the final pairing of Wyndham Clark and Matt Fitzpatrick were rolling their final putts on the practice green.
“I thought we were going to get nine very windy and then nine not so windy, but it just kept going up. It never slowed down,” Grillo said. “I played solid all day. … 3 under par, or any under par, in a U.S. Open, you’d always take it.”
Hours earlier, Grillo caught a few glimpses of one of about a half-dozen televisions in the locker room and player dining. He saw Dylan Wu, in the first group out, five-putt the first green. In the next pairing, Chris Gotterup marked his ball, replaced it, then watched a gust of wind move it about 15 feet away from the hole. Grillo appreciated the forewarning.
He began his round with five straight pars before throwing a dart into the difficult par-4 sixth, which had just caused the world’s top-ranked amateur, Jackson Koivun, to topped his second shot into the only pond on the course and card double bogey.
“Probably the shot of the year,” Grillo said of his 215-yard approach to 2 feet that kickstarted a run of four straight birdies.
He followed with a beauty from 177 yards to 8 feet at the par-3 seventh, then rolled in an 18-footer at the par-4 eighth and 25-footer at the par-4 ninth.
“When you stand on the 10th tee with 4 under par in the U.S. Open, you’re just rushing to get it done and finish it,” Grillo said.
He holed a couple mid-range, momentum-saving putts at Nos. 10 and 11, for bogey and then par before trading a birdie at the par-5 16th with bogey at the par-4 17th. His 67 was nearly seven shots better than the field average with about five hours left in the day.
Tied for 11th at even par, Grillo reckoned if the wind died down like was forecasted, he’d probably be seventh entering Sunday. But about an hour after he said as much, Clark and Fitzpatrick had already combined to play the first three holes in 4 over.
Grillo could soon find himself in an unfamiliar position, contending with 18 holes to go in a major. He owns just one top-10 finish (T-6, 2023 Open Championship) in 29 previous major starts. Making this week’s performance even more surprising, Grillo, a two-time PGA Tour winner who hasn’t finished worse than 93rd in FedExCup points in 11 straight seasons, arrived at Shinnecock at No. 123; the top 100 after this fall keep their cards.
“It’s hard, man,” Grillo said when asked what he’s learned over the years about himself in major championships. “Like everybody is grinding so much. Everybody is practicing so much. … It’s hard to beat these guys. It’s not like I haven’t played well. I’ve been in contention a few majors here and there, but it’s just hard golf courses, hard setups. You have to be patient. You have to be on top of your game. Then you have to get lucky, get lucky with the draw. There’s a lot of things out there that needs to be together in order to beat these guys that are really, really good at it.
“I don’t think I’m that bad, but I feel like I need to play really good to compete with these guys out here.”
On Saturday, at least, everything came together for Grillo.
File this one into the memory bank.
