Grégory Bourdy’s Bogeys Are Par for France

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OAKMONT, Pa. — Grégory Bourdy, the 34-year-old Frenchman who briefly held the lead at the 116th United States Open on Saturday and also threatened to shoot a record-tying 63, knows his homeland’s golf history.

Asked to name the last, and only, Frenchman to win a major golf championship, Bourdy did not hesitate.

“Yes, 1907, Arnaud Massy,” he said.

With a smile, he added, “That was a long time ago.”

At the halfway point of this year’s Open, Bourdy was a challenge to a 109-year trend. And for about an hour he had a legitimate shot to shoot 63, matching the lowest score ever recorded in a major championship. But then the golf gods overburdened Bourdy with ill fortune at the very end of an otherwise brilliant second round.

“That is golf,” he said. “I played perfect golf, and then I played less than perfect golf.”

All these years later, Bourdy, born in Bordeaux, France, is a distant connection to Massy, the man whose singular achievement he is trying to replicate. Massy’s victory at the 1907 British Open, coupled with a book on golf he later wrote, helped popularize the game in France, which hosts the Ryder Cup on the outskirts of Versailles in two years.

On Saturday, Bourdy, who shot 71 in the first round at Oakmont and 67 in the second round, wondered if he could get his countrymen to turn off soccer this weekend to watch golf.

“I hope so, because France plays tomorrow,” he said of the national soccer team. “So for two days they can watch golf.”

For a few hours Saturday, the global golf community assembled at Oakmont was eyeing Bourdy very closely. After 14 holes, he was six under par at the par-70 Oakmont layout. In one 10-hole stretch, he had five birdies and an eagle.

Bourdy bogeyed the opening hole of his second round but then birdied the fifth and sixth holes. At the ninth hole, he rolled in 30-foot putt for his third birdie of the round.

Bourdy, who has won four tournaments on the European Tour, was just getting started.

From the 11th fairway, Bourdy had 137 yards to the hole and a 9-iron in his hands. He landed his ball about 8 feet behind the flag and watched it spin back into the hole for an eagle.

“Yeah, that was just a beautiful thing,” Bourdy said. “I love the place. I love that it’s so hard. It’s an amazing, amazing place. Amazing atmosphere, amazing course. I think it’s perfect for a major.”

After birdies on the 13th and 14th holes put him at six under par for his round, Bourdy, who is ranked 126th in the world, was giddily pumping his fists and probably thinking about applying for Oakmont membership. All around the golf course, his name was atop the leaderboards.

“I noticed,” Bourdy said with a grin.

But as much as he should be commended for being the rare golfer to praise Oakmont for its difficulty, Bourdy eventually learned that all kinds of unforeseen trouble lurks on the grounds. How else could he explain hitting two nearly flawless shots to start an 18th hole that ended with a double bogey?

Bourdy’s dreamy pursuit of 63 had more or less ended with a bogey at the 16th hole and a par on the 17th when his birdie putt lipped out. But on the punishing closing hole at Oakmont, Bourdy’s tee shot split the fairway. He then hit a 5-iron on a straight line directly at an 18th hole placed in a valley of the cavernous green.

Bourdy’s ball landed on the top of a crest and paused. At that juncture, it could have rolled forward and might have ended up close enough for a tap-in birdie. Or Bourdy’s ball could have rolled backward all the way off the green. And it could come to rest in a large divot.

Which is what happened.

“Any chip from that spot is hard,” Bourdy said. “The divot made it just about impossible.”

Bourdy tried chunking the ball forward and advanced it only about 5 feet. His next pitch up the hill stopped about 6 feet from the cup, but Bourdy missed the bogey putt.

“Two almost perfect shots,” he said. “I guess I could have aimed a little more left to minimize the risk on that last green.”

The most unforgettable attempt to become the first Frenchman since Massy to win a major championship occurred in 1999, when Jean van de Velde needed only a double bogey on the final hole to win the British Open. Van de Velde instead made triple bogey and lost in a playoff.

Bourdy, who earned his trip to Oakmont this year at a qualifying event in England, was asked Saturday if he was good enough to become the first French golfer to win a major since 1907.

“Of course, it’s possible,” he said, still smiling 20 minutes after his second round was complete. “I know it’s possible, and that’s the main thing. Then, we’ll just have to see.”