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BROOKLINE, Mass. – Here at the US Open, we can file this report:
No one is talking about the golf.
“We’re praying that changes tomorrow,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “You don’t have to ask how we feel about it – ask the 156 players that are grinding it out there about getting to tomorrow.”
Fatigue might be setting in, but the divide at the top level of the sport is real. It’s happening. It’s not a media creation. PGA Tour players have defected to LIV Golf, and many more players will soon follow. But on that front, at least, the next four days should offer a much-needed respite from the torrent of talk focused on money, greed and allegiances.
Out of respect for the 122nd US Open, it’s unlikely that any more player announcements will come down during the tournament days, which should allow us an opportunity to savor what will be an increasingly rare sight: all of the top players in the same place, at the same time, in the same event.
And so if you’ve been consumed with the LIV-ly debate (sorry) about the rival tour, enjoy this brief shift in content.
Here are six reasons to be excited for this year’s third major:
The Phil Show
Pour one out tonight for Shane Lowry and Louis Oosthuizen – they were the two chaps chosen to tag along with Phil Mickelson for the first two rounds of this US Open (1:47 pm ET). It’s a particularly tough break for Lowry, an affable lad playing the best golf of his life who actually harbors aspirations of claiming a second major title. He’s going to get caught up in the Mickelson mayhem.
Yep, it’s going to be a circus, but it’d be a surprise if it turned nasty or hostile. Sports fans in general are a forgiving bunch who just want to be entertained by the stars, and golf fans in particular – even in these parts – are not prone to booing and heckling. Plus, it’s reasonable to wonder just how much the general sports fan – the folks who pay loose attention to a few majors a year, and nothing else – have even kept up with the melodrama that has fractured the sport into two pieces. Honestly, do they even know that Mickelson torched the PGA Tour on the way out the door and got into business with the Saudis? It sure didn’t look like it in the practice rounds here as Mickelson – in his aviator shades, with his logo-less apparel – popped his thumb and posed for mid-round selfies, as adored as ever.
A reminder: By the Tour’s own metrics, Lefty was the second-most popular player last season, just as he’s been for the past quarter-century. That matters.
Rory’s major-less drought… and his current run
McIlroy’s tournament chances tend to reflect his early-week mood. If he’s cheeky and expansive, he knows he’s in a good place. If he’s short or dismissive, more work is likely needed before his Thursday start.
This week was decidedly the former, and why not?
McIlroy was coming off a stirring weekend performance at the RBC Canadian Open, capped by a Sunday 62 in which he birdied the final two holes to deny reigning PGA champion Justin Thomas.
McIlroy is 31st or better in every major statistical category, but most promising for his major prospects is his short-iron play. Long considered the weakest part of his game – what, swing-wise, makes him such an elite driver of the ball is to his detriment with a wedge in his hand – McIlroy ranked inside the top 5 in the field last week from inside 150 yards . Prior to last week, he was outside the top 150 on Tour.
So was his wedge play an aberration, or a sign of improvement? Brookline’s small, sloping greens will expose any miscalculations or mis-hits. That part of the equation will determine his Open fate.
Full-field tee times from US Open
Major Sunday golf wars
OK, we promise – just a little LIV talk.
McIlroy’s victory on Sunday felt so impactful because it came after a tumultuous week that saw 17 Tour members get suspended and a meaningless exhibition take place where Charl Schwartzel walked away with (gulp) $ 4.75 million. For context, the winner of this US Open will receive “only” $ 3.15 million.
It felt like a signature moment for the pro-Tour contingent; a reminder of the power of legacy and history, nebulous concepts that seemed to have been overlooked in this pursuit of cold, hard cash. McIlroy’s post-round needling of LIV boss Greg Norman made personal how some players have viewed the divide.
And to be clear, there is a divide: There’s Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and the gang… and there’s Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Lee Westwood. One side in the interviews has been eloquent, principled, nuanced. The other has been evasive and unconvincing.
Now that they’re reunited, the Tour and LIV folks, we can only hope that they tussle at the top of the Open leaderboard. It’d be a fascinating dynamic to watch unfold – especially in the press tent.
The course!
The Country Club hasn’t hosted a US Open since 1988, when Curtis Strange defeated Nick Faldo in a playoff. It famously hosted the 1999 Ryder Cup, when the Americans staged a furious Sunday rally. And it returned to high-level competition again at the 2013 US Amateur, won by Matt Fitzpatrick, with Scottie Scheffler and Corey Conners also reaching the quarterfinals.
The track itself is a delight: par 70, right around 7,200 yards, with decently generous landing areas, thick rough and fun greens.
There’s also a wonderful pacing to the course: four difficult holes to start, then a gettable stretch from Nos. 5-9, then all you can handle on the back nine, including a dastardly par 3, the 11th, that could play as short as 98 yards for one of the rounds this week. There are beefy par 4s around 500 yards; there are also three that check in at less than 375 yards.
Variety is a good thing.
The varying states of Brooks and Bryson
Oh, to live in the halcyon days of summer 2021, when the only controversy was whether fans’ Brooksy! calls warranted an ejection.
Neither player has been much of a factor since then.
King Koepka has taken immense pride in his major performance, defying conventional wisdom by looking listless in regular Tour events but turning into Terminator at the events that matter most. But this year, a different story: A missed cut at the Masters, followed by a T-55 at the PGA. At the US Open he has lost to four players – total! – over the past four years, but never has he looked this disinterested, or his game was in this much disarray. It’ll be the ultimate test of his superpowers.
As for DeChambeau, he had a lost year because of hip and hand injuries. He missed the cut in his return to competition at The Memorial, but he promised that we’ll see a “very different Bryson” here. Swing coach Chris Como offered a similarly encouraging report, saying that the 2020 US Open champion looked good, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be competitively sharp after so much time on the shelf this spring.
The next-gen hopefuls
Will Zalatoris lost in a PGA playoff, his fifth top-10 in his last eight major starts. At a place where iron play will be at a premium, is there any reason to believe he can’t factor again late Sunday?
Sam Burns outdueled world No. 1 (and good buddy) Scheffler a few weeks ago at Colonial, and though he’s still to shine in limited major action, his through-the-bag completeness is too much to ignore. Talent always wins out in the end, and Burns has it in abundance.
Collin Morikawa can’t find his patented cut shot, but he’s one swing away from a turnaround. Viktor Hovland has hired a new short-game coach to address his glaring weakness. Xander Schauffele hasn’t finished worse than T-7 in this championship. Players winner Cameron Smith shortened his driver to (in theory) find the fairway more often and allow his sublime iron play to shine.
And, oh, how about this – only twice in the past five months has the Masters champion finished outside the top 20. An Open title would put an exclamation point on Scheffler’s already historic half-year – and, selfishly, it’d pause, if only temporarily, the endless cycle of tour-related news.
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