Adam Hadwin of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan made Canadian golf history on Thursday by becoming only the second Canadian ever to be the leader after a round of the United States Open. Hadwin follows Mike Weir of Sarnia, Ontario, who led the 2009 United States Open in Bethpage Black 13 years ago. Weir had an opening round score of -6, and led Peter Hanson of Sweden by two strokes.
On Thursday, Hadwin shot an opening round score of four-under-par. The amazing thing is he only qualified because Paul Casey of England withdrew because of a back injury.
Even though Hadwin has the lead, there are 24 golfers within three strokes of Hadwin and are also under par. Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, the four-time major champion (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 and 2014 PGA Championship and 2014 British Open) and two-time Canadian Open champion (2019 and 2022), England’s Callum Tarren, Sweden’s David Lingmerth, American Joel Dahmen and South African MJ Daffue are one stroke back at -3.
Those at -2 are two-time major champion Dustin Johnson of the United States (2016 U.S. Open and 2020 Masters), 2013 U.S. Open champion Justin Rose of England, England’s Matt Fitzpatrick, and Americans Hayden Buckley, Matthew NeSmith, Brian Harman and Aaron Wise. Those at -1 are two-time major champions Justin Thomas of the United States (2017 and 2022 PGA Championship), Collin Morikawa of the United States (2020 PGA Championship and 2021 British Open), 2021 U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm of Spain, 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott of Australia, 2019 U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland of the United States, and Americans Patrick Rodgers, James Piot, Max Homa, Will Zalatoris, Beau Hossler, Nick Hardy and Jason Kokrak.