How two U.S. Open contenders were undone by one of Pinehurst's shortest holes

PINEHURST, N.C. – Pinehurst’s 13th hole measures under 400 yards and doesn’t have a single water hazard or penalty area on it, but it still provided enough trouble to derail two contenders Saturday.

Both Ludvig Åberg and Tony Finau made triple-bogeys on the course’s second-shortest par-4 to fall out of contention late in the third round. Åberg and Bryson DeChambeau, playing in Saturday’s final group, were separated by just two shots when they arrived at the 13th tee. DeChambeau was 7-under par and in the lead, while Aberg was 5-under. They were separated by five when they finished the 368-yard hole.

Åberg (2 under) trails 54-hole leader DeChambeau by five strokes into Sunday, with Finau one stroke further behind.

Åberg’s trouble started off the tee after he missed just his sixth fairway of the week. His problems were exacerbated when he played the penal version of ping-pong that can occur on the course’s trademark turtleback greens. Åberg’s 146-yard approach from the native area landed just short of the green, then rolled down the steep slope that fronts the putting surface on this uphill hole.

His third shot seemed to be struck thin, carrying just past the hole before rolling into a greenside bunker. His sand shot, though it was not traveling very fast as it passed the hole, rolled off the front of the green. Åberg watched with his hands on his hips as his ball traveled past the spot from where he had played his third shot. His fifth shot was too strong, running 27 feet past the hole, and he two-putted for seven. He had to make a 4-footer for triple.

"Obviously what happened to me on 13 is not ideal," Åberg said afterward. "It doesn't necessarily change the way that you try to approach this golf course. I think there's only a certain way you can play it. If you don't play that way, you're going to get punished. That's what I did."

Åberg’s struggles forced DeChambeau to wait several minutes before hitting his 7-foot birdie putt, which would have given him a three-shot lead. The short birdie attempt came after an incredible approach from a fairway bunker after DeChambeau missed the fairway with an iron. He just missed his birdie try, but still held a two-shot lead after Rory McIlroy made bogey two holes ahead.

Finau, playing in the day’s third-to-last group, was 4-under par and just three behind DeChambeau when he arrived at No. 13. Finau hit the fairway but his approach shot spun off the green and down the same slope fronting the green. Finau used a putter from 30 yards away but hit it too strongly and saw his ball come to rest in the same bunker that Åberg would find. And, like Åberg, his bunker shot rolled through the green. His fifth shot stopped 7 feet from the hole, but Finau couldn’t convert the putt for double.

"Obviously 13 is going to jump out at me as a hole that was the toughest pin on the whole championship, in my opinion," Finau said. "That green is pretty crazy right there where that pin is. Just wrong time to miss a shot."

Pinehurst’s penal slopes struck again.