Gary Woodland turned a long drive at Shinnecock Hills into a small show on Wednesday, June 17, sending one past Scottie Scheffler and Sam Burns on the 14th hole and making sure they knew it. After the shot, Woodland pointed a rangefinder their way, then pulled out his phone and pretended to call them.
The gap, Woodland later said, was 63 yards. That was enough to make the moment land, because it came during U.S. Open practice at a course where every extra yard matters and players are already measuring one another against the wind, the turf and the pressure of the week ahead. Josh Berhow wrote on X that Woodland had bombed one past Scheffler and Burns at Shinnecock and said the joke followed immediately.
Woodland's round the next day gave the exchange more weight. He made birdies on 3, 4 and 5, recovered from an early bogey and was 2-under through 15 holes in Round 1 on Thursday, June 18, before play was suspended. At that point, he was tied for second, a sharp contrast with the year before, when he had missed the cut.
Scheffler's day moved in the opposite direction. He was chasing the career grand slam at the U.S. Open, but heavy fog delayed tee times by about two hours and strong winds of 35 to 40 mph made scoring harder for everyone. Even so, Scheffler finished the opening round at 2-over par after five bogeys and one double bogey on the par-4 8th hole, which made Woodland's practice-range flex look even sharper in hindsight.
That is the edge in the story: Woodland had the better number in the warm-up act, and the better start when play was finally underway, but the round was still unfinished when the suspension came. What remained unknown was simple and important for Woodland himself — whether he would finish the round with that position intact when play resumed.
