A 67-year first for Australian men’s golf at the U.S Open didn’t quite have the sport-wide reverberation it might have deserved.

It was Saturday morning local time, a Socceroos misfire at the World Cup in a spicy showdown with Team USA, as well as Friday night footy fallout and a full round to come across all codes taking most focus.

As the cut line was confirmed after the second round at Shinnecock Hills, not one of the four Australians remaining in the field was on the right side of it.

Major centurion Adam Scott, Cameron Smith, Lucas Herbert and Min Woo Lee all succumbed to the searching test in the Hamptons, after Jason Day had already withdrawn due to injury, leaving another Monday major morning in Australia to pass with nothing much to cheer for.

It was the first time since 1959 that no Australian made the weekend of a U.S Open.

Cam Smith missed another major cut at the US Open. (Photo by Mike Mulholland/Getty Images)

Leading in to the tournament, the celebration was plenty for 45-year-old Scott; the 2013 Masters champ who became just the second player, after Jack Nicklaus, to play 100-consecutive majors.

Less celebrated was another significant moment in Australian golf, and sport, being the 20th anniversary of Geoff Ogilvy’s own magic U.S Open triumph at Winged Foot.

That success was the first men’s Australian major win in over a decade, coming after Steve Elkington won the 1995 PGA Championship.

Prior to “Elk’s” win, there had been two Aussies hold aloft the claret jug across three years, with Ian Baker-Finch winning the Open Championship at Birkdale in 1991, and Greg Norman, for a second time, at Royal St George's in 1993.

Just before IBF saluted, Wayne Grady shocked the world by winning the 1990 PGA Championship.

That was three Australian major champions in four years, five in six including Elkington.

Australian men’s golf was punching significantly above its weight, and the success preceded the next golden generation as the likes of Scott, Ogilvy, Stuart Appleby and Robert Allenby and others took on the world.

That run of major wins created an increased sense of expectation; that major trophies would be raised on the regular by such a strong cohort of talented, tenacious Australians taking on the world.

Expectation has not, however, been matched by reality.

Adam Scott couldn't get going in major 101. (Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images)

Instead, since Elkington in 1995, just four Australian men have been crowned major champions; that’s four in 31 years, four wins from 120 majors.

Is that record okay? They say it’s the hope that kills you.

Winning any time is hard. Winning majors is at another level, so maybe the 17 Australian major winners, men and women, since Jim Ferrier planted a flag and won the PGA Championship in 1947, is about right as a return from a country yet to pass 30 million inhabitants.  

However, the hope remains, and it made the lacklustre U.S Open showing that much harder to take on the back of a lean year already in the majors before the final one of 2026, back at Birkdale next month.

Smith has delivered the best result, finishing in a tie for 7th at the PGA Championship; a bold showing plenty hoped was the start of a form turnaround for the 2022 Open Championship winner, whose major exemptions are running out.

Instead, however, his missed cut at Shinnecock was his seventh in the past eight majors. Sigh.

Scott, too, has missed two of three major cuts this year. Herbert was playing just his second major out of the past 10; his move to LIV lifting his bank balance and enhancing his enthusiasm for the game, but it makes winning majors hard.

Then there’s Min Woo Lee. As Norman’s run in the 1990s stirred the next generation to action, so too did the likes of Scott and Day and Ogilvy provide the aspirational material for Lee.

It was a disappointing U.S Open for Min Woo Lee. (Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images)

He is no new kid on the block anymore though, about to turn 28, and has 20 majors under his belt. Lee is a man for the masses, his popularity thriving after diving headlong into the online space to push his brand, and five professional wins is evidence enough of his abilities at the top.

But he too has missed the major cut at five of his last six outings. Early missed cuts could have been expected, but just one top-10 finish - is that enough from a player as talented as he is?

Then there’s the question of the next level.

Lee was the youngest Aussie at the U.S Open. The only one aged under 30. Where is the next generation ?

Elvis Smylie is yet to play a U.S Open or a Masters, and having also shifted, surprisingly, to LIV, his path to both looks difficult.

Travis Smyth played his second major at the PGA Championship, his first coming four years earlier at the Open Championship.

Smyth, 31, is the reigning Australasian PGA Tour order of merit winner.

Smylie won the same title the year before, hastening his major debut.

But what of David Micheluzzi, the 2022-23 winner, and Jed Morgan, the 2021-22 winner, who also won an Australian PGA Championship. Neither played in majors beyond the ones earned by their OOM wins.

Scott is 45, and despite a call from Baker-Finch for majors to exempt him going forward to keep his streak alive, can it be realistically expected that he competes against a top-50 dominated by U.S and European players?

Smith, it seems, has lost his major mojo, not for lack of effort it must be said. Maybe LIV’s potential demise could be the best thing for him; get him back competing with the world’s best, on better golf courses more often.

Day couldn’t even get through 10 holes before his back went. His history of injuries is cause for  ongoing concern. 

Hope springs eternal, of course, but how long should so much be expected of so few?

Turning to Birkdale, all three are going around again, as are Lee and Herbert, with Smyth and Smylie getting another go, too.

Joining them will be Australia’s latest major debutante, Cameron John.

He doesn’t even have a photo with his name on The Open’s website, so new is he to the major arena.    

However, it’s another Australian in a major, one of eight in the Open, eight chances to deliver that Monday morning magic once more.