June14 USOpenSam

Sam Walker hit the second shot of the day in the 107th US Open and showed no signs of nerves, splitting the fairway with his first drive. His approach found the middle of the green and he two-putted for par.

That’s what you have to do in US Opens – and if you can do that 72 times in a row, you’ve got a good chance of winning this week.

Walker repeated the exercise at the 2nd and then he stiffed his approach to four feet at the 3rd. When he sank that and sank his birdie putt at the 3rd (and this is one to tell the grand-kids) he led the US Open. True, he only led it alone for three minutes (by then Boo Weekley had birdied his first, the 10th). But no one can take that away from him and the handful of family members who had travelled over with him to Pittsburgh were sent scurrying for their cameras to take a picture of the leaderboard.

Sam, whose rounds of 67, 71 at Walton Heath last month were good enough to get him one of the nine places on offer, hails from a sporting family. His brother, Josh, played for Manchester United Reserves for five years and his cousin, Tom Whitehouse, is a fellow European Tour pro. He has, however, had mixed success in his seven years as a pro, with a best career finish of tied 5th in the 2004 Madeira Island Open.

Nor has recent form suggested he might do something this week. In his last 10 tournaments he has missed the cut in nine of them. What a week this could turn out to be.