U.S. OPEN NOTES

A funny thing happened on the way to the 18th green: Chris Perry crawled there.

“I thought it would be kind of funny to throw up the surrender flag and the last 10 feet just crawl to the green on my knees,” Perry said. “It was pretty comical.”

Perry made par on the last hole to finish with a 76 and a 17-over 297 total.

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The first indication that with a light mist falling, softer greens meant Pinehurst would play slightly easier came when Dudley Hart turned in an early one-under 69--seven shots better than his 76 on Saturday. Hart finished at 11-over 291.

“On this course, you can’t really get too frustrated,” he said. “If you lose your composure a little bit, you can shoot sky-high. You never know. You need to keep hanging around and keep grinding.”

Of course, Pinehurst didn’t turn out to be all that easy. Vijay Singh’s 69 had the only other round under par.

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From amateur Hank Kuehne, who shot a 78 and finished at 26-over 306: “I didn’t finish last.”

No, that honor went to Daly, with a 29-over 309.