Oregon golf coach Casey Martin shot a five-over 75 today at the U.S. Open in San Francisco, finishing his run at the Olympic Club at +9, one shot below the cut-line of golfers advancing to weekend play. Martin had another day of massive drives and solid ball-striking, but he couldn’t get many puts outside of eight feet to fall for the second straight day.
“I hit a lot of putts that looked good,” Martin said.  “The speed didn’t quite match, and they just, I was on the edges for a lot of 20, 30 footers and never really got one to drop and I really needed a couple to go in.”
Martin got his round off to a good start, sinking one of his longer putts of the week for birdie on the 11th hole, and finished out the back nine – Martin’s group started off of hole number nine on Friday – before running into trouble on the dangerous front nine, bogeying holes four and five and needing his best shot of the round on hole six to escape with a par.
A mishit bunker shot on seven – Martin hit five bunkers during Friday’s round – and a barely missed par putt on eight sealed the end of his time at the Olympic Club after just two rounds back on the national stage.
“It was extremely difficult,” Martin said. “Obviously it’s just so hard to hit, especially on the side to hit those fairways and it’s so awkward after the tees and when I did miss a fairway I had a really bad lie on one and couldn’t advance it very far.
“Just missed a lot of putts and hit a few loose shots when it was important.”
Martin’s performance at the U.S. Open, while not enough to advance to weekend play, was better than some of the world’s best players. World-number-one Luke Donald finished his San Francisco experience at +11, and young star Rory Mcllroy finished one worse than Martin’s score.
Martin was also hopeful that his appearance and performance at the Olympic Club would bolster his recruiting efforts for the University golf team, though he wasn’t so sure, remarking:
“We’ll see. The rain (in Eugene) hurts the recruiting.”