Golf’s big three — Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau — was hoping to put on a show for the gathered crowd at Oakmont Country Club. The three had large galleries throughout the practice round leading up to the start of play Thursday and were three of the favorites in the sportsbooks.

That didn’t happen, though, as all three found out Oakmont is no joke and doesn’t care how lofty your ranking is. If you don’t make good shots, you struggle and eventually go home without a trophy.

There is obviously a lot of golf to be played, and something tells me these guys will have something to say before it is over. But it goes to show how difficult the course can be if even the best of the best can’t overcome a few mistakes.

The rough is as advertised, and all three had issues at times with it. The greens are fast and difficult. All three had issues on the greens. The sand is deep and difficult to get out of and — checks notes — yep, all three had difficulty in the sand.

It feels like DeChambeau and Scheffler will figure it out, as both were a lot more unlucky than bad, and it won’t shock me if those two get back into the thick of it by Sunday. That’s especially true for DeChambeau, who just missed a few putts and hit the ball reasonably well for the entire round.

“For whatever reason, I just couldn't get the speed of the greens dialed in,” said DeChambeau, who finished the day 3-over. “I was in the collar a couple times, just three-putted on those holes and three three-putts and doing whatever happened on 12, then No. 9, three-putting there, too. I mean, it could have been a couple-under round pretty easily.”

Scheffler finished 3-over but, like DeChambeau, had some tough putts just miss and got a little unlucky on No. 13 to take a bogey. He hit the ball well and has been playing really well this year, so there is no reason to think he isn’t going to be a major factor in this.

Those two will almost assuredly recover before it is too late, but I don’t know if McIlroy will because his demeanor and his game suggest he would rather be anywhere right now than playing golf and in the spotlight. Maybe that is a poor read on my part, but I don’t think so and honestly I will be more shocked if he puts it all together than I will be if he misses the cut.

McIlroy hasn’t played well in recent weeks, as he is coming off of his first missed cut of the season at the RBC Canadian Open. He shot 71-78 at that event and ended up being sent home before the weekend began.

He then admitted earlier in the week he had been struggling with his new driver, he was struggling to stay motivated now that he won the Masters (and completed the career Grand Slam) and then said he played Oakmont last week and needed to go birdie-birdie on 17 and 18 just to shoot 81.

On Thursday, things started well, as he birdied two of his first three holes to go 2-under through three and while he wasn’t able to build on that for the rest of his front nine, he didn’t give any shots back, either. He was 2-under as made the turn and seemed to be in a good place, as he parred the difficult 18th (he started on No. 10) to keep him in contention.

But something happened — weekend hackers would call it the “turn hot dog effect” which is to basically find an excuse for why a good round fell to pieces after the first nine holes (i.e., “the hot dog made me ill”) — between McIlroy’s ninth and 10 holes, and he transformed from the player who won the Masters to the player who missed his last cut.

On the par-5 fourth, he needed three — maybe four, I lost count — shots to get the ball out of the rough and then needed a miracle putt to save bogey.

Then, on the sixth hole, he missed a bunny of a putt, but he made up for that on No. 7, as he blew another short putt by the cup. Hole No. 8 has been written and talked about for a week, and McIlroy made sure it lived up to the billing, as he sailed his tee shot into the right rough, then missed the chip out of the rough, needed one more chip, then two-putted for an ugly five.

It was a terrible second nine for McIlroy, but the funny thing is nobody around him or that covers him seems to be surprised. This is who he has been in recent weeks, and his body language suggests he will be OK with duck hooking a few shots into the Church Pew bunkers, taking another 74 and going home.

I would have asked him what his thoughts were and what was going on when his round was falling apart, but as has been his recent MO, well, he didn’t speak to the media after the round. Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise, either, because earlier this week, he was needlessly prickly in his news conference and said one of his goals this year is to say no to as many requests and obligations as possible.

Clearly McIlroy has the game and the experience and all that good stuff to get back into the competition and there are probably some people holding out hope he will. There are some who believe he is the best player on the tour regardless of Scheffler’s ranking and that his talent will always prevail.

I used to be one of those people, but I don’t know that we are watching the proud Masters champion right now and I am not sure we will see that guy at all this weekend. The signs have been there all along that maybe he wasn’t as focused on golf as he needed to be, and nothing we saw Thursday from him would change anyone’s mind about that.

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