U.S. Open 2019 live blog: Brooks Koepka off to unbelievably hot start, Gary Woodland maintains lead

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U.S. Open Sunday is one of the most anticipated days of the golf season. Father’s Day coincides with the conclusion of our country’s national championship—surely a highlight for any golf fan. This year is no different, with Pebble Beach playing host to the finale of its sixth U.S. Open in history.

RELATED: U.S. Open 2019: A lead in a major makes for a long night, and a lonely walk

Gary Woodland has his first 54-hole lead in a major of his career, leading Justin Rose by just one stroke. Woodland, who owns three PGA Tour wins in his 10-year career, also has just two top-10 finishes at majors in his career. He hasn’t played that way this week—making just two bogeys over the first 54 holes. But J-Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champ, is right on his heels. As are two four-time major champions, Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy. Who will join the illustrious group of Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Tiger Woods and Graeme McDowell as U.S. Open champions at Pebble Beach? We’ll find out in a few hours.

(All times eastern time)

3:12 p.m.: Rickie Fowler started the week one off the lead with an opening 66. That was followed by a 77, which is why Rickie isn’t amongst the leaders on the weekend. But he did register an early highlight on Sunday:

3:06 p.m.: Tiger makes an opening bogey, as his chip from in front of the green came up about 16 feet short. Tiger now finds himself 12 back of Gary Woodland.

2:56 p.m.: Tiger Woods kicks off his final round at the first hole, hitting an iron shot that just rolls into the first cut of rough. Alongside him, Marc Leishman’s shot just rolls up against the collar. Both players are even-par, so they’ll be non-factors just 11 shots back. But there’s a lot to play for—world-ranking points and some serious money. Plus, of course, prestige.

FOX just put up a graphic that kind of tells the story of Tiger’s week at the U.S. Open. The field is 42-under on holes 1 through 7 this week, whereas Tiger is even-par. You have to take advantage of those easier opening holes to score well at Pebble Beach. And Tiger hasn’t done that this week.

2:45 p.m.: Just over half the field has now teed off in their final rounds, and what we’ve seen from the early action is that there some low scores out there. Swede Marcus Kinhult had the round of the morning going thus far, sitting at 5-under through his first 15 holes. And Bryson DeChambeau just made a big-time birdie at the eighth hole to get to 4-under for his round. Bryson is 1-under for the tournament, good for T-23. There are a bunch of under-par rounds thus far … a product of the benign conditions for another day at Pebble Beach. The players have gotten lucky with the weather all week.

As we get ready for the next couple of groups to get started—here’s a really interesting look at the final-round hole locations, as they compare to February’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Of course, the pro-am is a completely different animal, with the biggest difference being the fairway lengths and rough height. But here’s how the hole locations, differ, too:

Here are the last three hours of pairings for Sunday at the U.S. Open:

11:23 a.m. — Rickie Fowler, Alex Prugh

11:34 a.m. — Nick Taylor, Shane Lowry

11:45 a.m. — Haotong Li, Viktor Hovland (a)

11:56 a.m. — Tiger Woods, Marc Leishman

12:07 p.m. — Jason Day, Tyrrell Hatton

12:18 p.m. — Jim Furyk, Matt Fitzpatrick

12:29 p.m. — Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Cantlay

12:40 p.m. — Scott Piercy, Francesco Molinari

12:51 p.m. — Dustin Johnson, Brandon Wu (a)

1:02 p.m. — Nate Lashley, Abraham Ancer

1:13 p.m. — Adam Scott, Xander Schauffele

1:24 p.m. — Byeong Hun An, Matt Wallace

1:35 p.m. — Henrik Stenson, Jon Rahm

1:46 p.m. — Graeme McDowell, Danny Willett

1:57 p.m. — Chesson Hadley, Matt Kuchar

2:08 p.m. — Rory McIlroy, Louis Oosthuizen

2:19 p.m. — Chez Reavie, Brooks Koepka

2:30 p.m. — Justin Rose, Gary Woodland

RELATED: U.S. Open 2019: A lead in a major makes for a long night, and a lonely walk

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