Had loading issues getting into the Forum last night, so excuse the belated posting of my R1 report; played yesterday morning. It does take a while to gather the screenshots etc, so I do sympathize with everyone!
My putter was behaving much better here at Oakmont (unlike disastrous 3-putt nightmares I was having at St A's), and I had a great F9, making almost every key putt. Two costly course-management mistakes on #10 and #13 (the poor shot on the latter compounded by getting too greedy with the attempted bunker escape) marred what would have been an outstanding TIO round, but I'm very happy with my 67, which I think is my all-time low at Oakmont in Tough-It-Out (albeit from the Red tees).
Here's the card, etc:
And the story of the round... (pin placements listed first, then wind speed & direction; the next figure is the distance out for approach shot)
1 B pin :: 14@6 >218 good 2nd deliberately landed well short of the green but still couldn't hold... ran through back to what turned out to be big sidehill lie, overdid pitch 2yds past but very nice 6.5ft downhill curling save PAR
#2 L pin :: 15@130 >103 deliberately aimed away from left pin, and meant to click early to put a holding hook spin on the ball, but bad push meant it slid away 15yds long right; pulled lag a touch and went long left 8ft! Relieved to sink it left side! phew PAR
Great start to par first two tough holes...
#3 L pin :: 15@745 bad late-click mishit on 3H 2nd left me well short but still it was a GIR and a safe par; fractional miss ding on 40ft putt still somehow came very close to going in, 3.3ft save PAR
#4 R pin :: 16@9 nice D to cut corner, followed by routine 3W up the left >81 for 3rd, dinged lovely PW but surprised that it stopped quick on landing... 4yds short, nice ding on 10ft putt BIRDIE
Good start got better on the next with unexpected birdie putt...
#5 L pin :: 18@6 >128 slightly late with click on 2nd and lost power into bank (in retrospect should have gone in with less or no backspin and played for run-on over ridge) GIR but 20ft away; but made super 20ft curler (was really playing it conservatively to just trickle down, not expecting to make such a putt) wow! BIRDIE
... but missed out on this relatively easy par 3 ...
#6 B pin :: 13@430 wrong club hit 150 instead of 160 and well short 12yds; good lag, 2.2ft save PAR
#7 R pin :: 18@12 worried about landing into bank and rolling back off front, so played approach with topspin but too much- 29ft long; too hard with lag but not bad and sunk 2.7ft save PAR
#8 B pin :: 13@130 slight push and fractionally long 3W but very happy to see it stop on the green just 3yds away, and dinged beauty 9ft curler BIRDIE
#9 L pin :: 14@430 bad push on D into rough, doh! punched 3W forward and lucky to end up with nice yardage >97 for 3rd, slight push but 3yds short right was very nice result leaving uphiller, and sunk 8.6ft par save catching right edge, woo hoo! PAR
Very pleased with that front 9, only a couple of mistakes...
#10 B pin :: 14@10 pulled D and extremely lucky to hold fairway, but aargghh, made elementary error of leaving 2nd short of green, bad, bad bad -- you really have to go long and pitch back up from the rough to have best chance to save par on this hole (getting too cute with 2nd was really dumb!); flop from 26yds a little short of power 4yds away, and not high enough with 12ft curler attempt. 2.3ft putt BOGEY
#11 R pin :: 14@1 hit 3i to top of hill for flattest lie, and just held fairway; still had shot that seemed too risky to go for pin, and played to heart of green instead but only just made it through rough! Then got major bit of luck by sinking unlikely 33ft putt woo hoo! BIRDIE
Nice to make up for error on #10 with immediate bounce-back birdie, especially after messing up the approach... On to the very difficult par 5 ...
#12 L pin :: 18@9 R-L wind here was a help >162 3rd, very good 3rd dinged but impossible to get closer than running to back fringe; it landed before the green 40yds short of where it ended up, lol landed 134 ran to 174! great pace on dinged lag from 52ft fringe but never broke as expected, 2.7ft save PAR
Par was a great score on #12, so now I was -3 and feeling good with a couple more birdie opportunities to come. However ...
#13 B pin :: 18@445 It all unravelled here. Should have played a safer shot to middle of the green in retrospect, but wind tempted me into going for pin, and I had a fractional late click miss ding. It was a tiny miss but it flew way right into bunker, aargghh! Disaster! Then I made that error worse by trying ambitious recovery, and only got escape out onto top rough, chip from there ran way past (probably should have tried tiny flop instead but brain was well-addled by this point!), and pulled 21ft bogey try, 1.4ft left for very ugly DOUBLE BOGEY
Well, that was awful, but at least I was able to manage another bounce-back...
#14 F pin :: 15@830 >113 from significant sidehill lie, aimed well right and struck deliberate late-click beauty 8i to 1yd against slope and wind, and made 2.6ft BIRDIE
Now at -2 and facing the tricky 15th ...
#15 L pin :: 18@8 Another nice wind for this hole >203 lucky with early click mishit on 2nd (thankfully I'd aimed conservatively for heart of green), it just avoided left rough and rolled on; still left a tricky putt that had to flirt with right fringe: pulled the putt a little but good distance for 3ft save, good PAR
#16 R pin :: 18@630 Lucky to get headwind here, but not wanting to risk repeat of #13 disaster, I played safely long left 5yds, which actually left very makeable downhiller (which I should have remembered is extremely fast)... however I misread the break and was way too hard running it 5ft by, but safely in back uphill for PAR
#17 B pin :: 16@7 Yet another good wind making drive easier and assisting with stopping 2nd shot. Came in from >76 dinged PWfbs to 3yds long right, almost didn't give 8.5ft putt enough power, phew! was a ding 60 scale BIRDIE
Gotten back to -3 and just had to negotiate the last (and get through all the bloody screenshots, lol!) ...
#18 R pin :: 18@145 D >192 even though I was determined to get a GIR and leave a lag putt for easier par, I still went way long on 2nd with 3W, nearly holed nice flop though to 1yd. After doing all the screenshots etc, came back and nearly made mess of the putt with big early click (thankfully into the break) and it went in, phew!