Tommy Fleetwood played all three rounds at Shinnecock Hills without ever going above one over par for the day. Steady, clean, controlled. Then the 18th hole in R3 happened, and suddenly his focus shifted from his own round to what the wind was about to do to everyone still out there.

“Disappointed with the last hole,” Tommy Fleetwood said. “I feel like the last hole was playing particularly tough today. I don’t know, I feel like so far this week when I’ve hit a poor shot, I’m not saying you shouldn’t get punished, but I did get really punished there. That’s a little bit frustrating, and made a mess of the last there.”

Here’s the thing: He made a bogey five on 18. A hole he felt took more than it should have. The 18th is 490 yards, par four. Blind tee shot. The green slopes from back to front. Deep bunkers on the approach. The wind runs right to left off the tee, and you need to find the right side of the fairway just to get a clean look at the green. Miss that, and the hole bites hard.

And the wind has been the story all week. It started with a fog delay on Thursday and never really settled. Saturday’s forecast had winds averaging 20 mph out of the north, with gusts up to 39 mph. And Fleetwood acknowledged this.

“It [wind] sounded like it was horrific first thing out this morning, and it calmed down a bit when we were playing, but it’s been — it’s been breezy. It’s been tough. Wind direction isn’t the easiest. It makes a couple of holes easier, but in general the way it’s blowing makes some of them play harder, as well.”

And he wasn’t wrong. For instance, Jackson Koivun’s bag took a tumble due to the wind while warming up on Saturday morning. Then there was Chris Gotterup, who tee’d off at 9:11 a.m. When the golfer attempted to mark his bogey putt, the ball kept rolling owing to the 20 mph winds.

Well, interestingly, during Round 3, Jordan Spieth faced the gusty winds. After hitting his approach on hole one, he broke into a jog toward his ball and was heard saying out loud, “Please don’t gust, just let me mark it.”

And his reason was justified, especially when we look at what happened with the defending champion.

Former champion JJ Spaun had it worse. His tee shot landed on the seventh green. He walked up, and a violent gust blew his ball clean off the putting surface and into a bunker. Under Rule 13.1d, because the ball was not lifted and replaced before it moved, Spaun had to play it from the bunker, instead of from where it originally came to rest.

So, considering everything that happened, one can understand why Tommy Fleetwood was disappointed.

He added that he would be watching what happens next. With 11 or 12 holes still to play for the later groups, and the gusts showing no sign of stopping, that was less of a casual comment and more of a quiet warning.