By Frank Pingue
BROOKLINE, Mass. (Reuters) – Adam Hadwin may have entered uncharted territory by grabbing the first-round lead at the U.S. Open on Thursday but remained a picture of calm throughout and credited his caddie for keeping him grounded on the big stage.
Hadwin, with Joe Cruz on his bag, fired a four-under-par 66 at The Country Club outside Boston which marked his lowest score in 63 career rounds in major championships.
For his efforts, Hadwin earned his first lead/co-lead after any round in a major and yet he looked as if he had been in that position many times before.
“I think Joe is so even-keel that looking at him you would never know if I was five-under or five-over, which is great. That’s what you want to have as a player,” the 34-year-old Canadian told reporters.
“Like I’ve mentioned, I’ve been trying to work on that myself. I’m trying to be a little bit more even-keel, maybe a little less emotional on the golf course even though it comes out at times.”
Whereas once there would have been fits and slammed clubs after missed shots, Hadwin was a picture of poise playing a tournament known as golf’s toughest test while on a layout that features tight fairways, lush rough and small greens.
After his first bogey of the day, at the par-four third, Hadwin kept a smile on his bearded face and went on to birdie five of the next six holes to surge up the leaderboard.
He also followed his only other bogey with a birdie even while dealing with the tougher afternoon conditions as the wind started to pick up.
“Not much better of a start to a U.S. Open I don’t think that you can ask for,” said Hadwin. “I did a lot of good things. Got a nice run there midway through the front. I do think there’s a few more scorable holes as long as you hit good quality golf shots there.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Brookline, Massachusetts; Editing by Stephen Coates)
