Bryson DeChambeau wins his second U.S. Open title. Lilia Vu wins playoff on LPGA Tour - Golf (2024)

The Canadian Press - Jun 18, 2024 / 6:46 pm | Story: 493067

The PGA Tour and the Saudi backers of LIV Golf reached consensus on several items during its meeting its recent meeting in New York. Commissioner Jay Monahan cautioned players Tuesday night “there is still work to do” before any agreement.

Monahan sent players a memo after the PGA Tour policy board and the commercial PGA Tour Enterprises board held a joint meeting during the Travelers Championship in Connecticut.

He did not share specifics, only saying the goal was to develop “a shared vision for the future of professional golf” that gives players the best global opportunities.

The meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, and PGA Tour Enterprises board members including Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy, was May 11.

Monahan also announced a few tweaks for the PGA Tour schedule in 2025, while saying the revamped model that caters to the top performers from the previous year are still creating roughly the same level of turnover.

One big change involves Woods. The board approved an additional sponsor exemption in the $20 million signature events specifically for Woods “as a player who has reached an exceptional lifetime achievement” of 80-plus wins in his career.

Woods has played only four times this year — three majors and taking one of the four sponsor exemptions for his Genesis Invitational at Riviera, where he had to withdraw with the flu.

The player-hosted signature events — Riviera, Bay Hill and Memorial — are the only small fields with a cut. Monahan said the tour board and Player Advisory Council will study whether all the signature should have a cut. The board took no action.

The board did approve a minimum 72 players for the signature events, creating an alternate list based on the current FedEx Cup standings for the players not already eligible. Players complained this year when fields dipped below 70. In the Arnold Palmer Invitational this year, the 69-man field meant one player — Nick Dunlap — had to start the tournament as a single.

The Travelers Championship this week only has 71 players after McIlroy withdrew.

The top 50 in the FedEx Cup are exempt for all the $20 million events. More players competed in other events, particularly early in the season, which limited starts for players who had conditional status, such as those finishing Nos. 126-150.

The board said it would not reshuffle the ranking of conditional players next year until they have had a chance to play three or four times.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 18, 2024 / 3:53 pm | Story: 493039

SAMMAMISH, Wash. (AP) — When the U.S. Open came to the Pacific Northwest for the first time nearly a decade ago, golf enthusiasts in the upper left corner of the country hoped it’d be the start of significant events making a regular visit.

So far, that has not come to fruition and there’s not much on the horizon to suggest it’ll change.

“I think it depends on how you define major championships and from a typical golf fan viewership I think we could do more here in the Pacific Northwest, especially in Washington state,” said Troy Andrew, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association.

The Seattle area will get a taste of major golf this week when the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is played at Sahalee Country Club for the second time. The course hosted the tournament in 2016 and served as the conclusion to a run of big golf events that visited the Puget Sound region during a six-year window that began in 2010.

For one week, an area that doesn’t have a regular stop on the PGA or LPGA tours and hasn’t hosted a major golf event in eight years will get a brief snippet. But it’s unlikely to satisfy golf enthusiasts who continue to ponder why one of the largest markets in the country is without a regular event on the top tours.

There’s no PGA Tour stop anywhere in the Pacific Northwest and the closest LPGA Tour event is in Portland, Oregon – this year the final event before the Olympics.

“We have 41 sections and ideally we’d bring a major to each one of those sections over a reasonable timeframe,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said. “That’s where we live, we live in growing the game. A lot of people talk about it. It’s really what we do. Bringing it to local places makes a big difference.”

The opening of Chambers Bay and the 2015 U.S. Open being played about an hour south of Seattle was viewed as the portal to more championship golf finally being directed into this corner of the country. The course was built with major championships in mind and crowds flocked to the course on the shore of Puget Sound to see the championship decided in the PNW for the first time.

But the first impression left behind drew immediate complaints from players and fans. Whether it was the bumpy greens and burnt-out fairways left by unseasonably warm weather and poor watering decisions, or issues with fans' ability to move around the venue, the feeling after Chambers Bay was unsatisfactory.

And the hopes for getting a second chance seem to be fleeting. The course changed its greens and hosted both the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women’s Amateur in the hope of those being steppingstones to something bigger – perhaps a U.S. Women’s Open.

But the Women’s Open is already scheduled thru 2036 and the earliest another chance at hosting a U.S. Open doesn’t appear available until 2043.

“I’m disappointed we haven’t seen another major come from that. After the 2015 U.S. Open, I was one of those people excited they were going to announce the next one 10 years later, something like that,” Andrew said.

This week will fill a bit of the void for golf fans in the region and will be the second time Sahalee has hosted the event after a memorable finish in 2016 won by Brooke Henderson. Sahalee previously hosted the 1998 PGA Championship, 2002 NEC Invitational and 2010 U.S. Senior Open, but the decision on hosting more at the private, tree-lined country club ultimately comes down to the club’s members.

“It’s just a really beautiful golf course as well. You kind of get lost in the nature out here,” said Nelly Korda, the No. 1 ranked player in the world.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 18, 2024 / 1:08 pm | Story: 492993

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Rory McIlroy had every reason to feel bitterly disappointed.

He was poised to end all those years without winning another major when he couldn't make a birdie over the last 17 holes, couldn't hit a fairway to even give himself a good chance, and he finished one shot behind in the U.S. Open.

That was last year in Los Angeles, and it prompted McIlroy to look ahead and famously say, “I would go through 100 Sundays like this to get my hands on another major championship.”

Just not Sunday at Pinehurst No. 2.

The indelible images from the 124th U.S. Open share top billing. Yes, there was that 55-yard bunker shot from Bryson DeChambeau that he played expertly to 4 feet for the winning par putt. And there was McIlroy missing par putts from 30 inches on the 16th hole and 3 feet, 9 inches on the 18th hole.

Which will be remembered more?

Majors are won and majors are lost, and this was a little of both.

DeChambeau celebrated into the night at Pinehurst No. 2, wanting fans to touch the silver trophy. McIlroy left Pinehurst so quickly that gravel spit out from under the tires on his car. The time between McIlroy dejectedly leaving the scoring area to his plane taking off for home was 52 minutes.

“A tough day, probably the toughest I've had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer,” McIlroy said, the words coming from a social media post a day later instead of taking questions from print or broadcast media, more typical of a professional golfer over the years.

This was tough to watch, among the great collapses in golf, though not the worst in a U.S. Open or any other major.

“I am such an idiot,” Phil Mickelson said after the 2006 U.S. Open.

Already a runner-up three times in the U.S. Open, Mickelson had a one-shot lead going to the 18th hole at Winged Foot. He missed another fairway, took on a heroic shot he didn't need with a 3-iron and made double bogey to lose by one.

“I would rather have blown it yesterday than this way,” Sam Snead said in 1947 after the U.S. Open, the major he never won.

Snead had a two-shot lead with three holes left in an 18-hole playoff at St. Louis Country Club. He was tied with Lew Worsham on the 90th hole and needed a 15-foot birdie putt for the win. Snead left it 30 inches short and went to rap it in when Worsham called for a ruling to confirm who was away. It was Snead's turn, as he thought, and he promptly missed the putt and lost.

Jan Van de Velde losing a three-shot lead with a triple bogey on the final hole at Carnoustie in 1999. Ed Sneed losing a three-shot lead with three holes to play and then losing in a playoff at the 1979 Masters. Scott Hoch missing a 30-inch putt that would have won the 1989 Masters in a playoff.

McIlroy joined a long list. That doesn't make it any easier to take.

He did all the right things — mainly find the fairway in the final round of a U.S. Open — and looked the part by keeping his emotions to a minimum on the five birdies that put him in such a commanding position. Why he missed his shortest putt of the year on the 16th is a mystery.

Where he goes from here is what should have everyone curious.

McIlroy pulled out of the Travelers Championship as part of a three-week break “to process everything and build myself back up.”

One more major remains this year, the British Open at Royal Troon.

McIlroy has failed to win majors before. He lost a four-shot lead in the final round of the 2011 Masters with an 80 (that was more a slow bleed, though no less difficult to watch). He shared the lead at St. Andrews in 2022 before two-putting his way to a third-place finish.

If McIlroy has underachieved, it's only because he has had so few chances since his last major at Valhalla in the 2014 PGA Championship.

He hasn't played well enough to win. Pinehurst was one that he lost.

To suggest his legacy will be his failure in the majors is to spend too much time on two short putts and to overlook a pair of eight-shot victories at Congressional and Kiawah Island, a clutch moment at Valhalla and going wire-to-wire at Royal Liverpool.

Add to that 36 victories around the world — 26 on the PGA Tour — and he ranks as the most accomplished of his generation.

This was a bad Sunday, made worse by having gone 10 years since his last major title. Mickelson's blunder at Winged Foot cost him three straight majors. Snead's miss at St. Louis was a year after he won at St. Andrews, and he won five more majors after that.

McIlroy is 35, but the scar tissue is starting to accumulate.

“I feel closer to winning my next major championship than I ever have,” McIlroy said.

The next major he wins will be the biggest. Because it might be what it takes to forget about the last one he lost.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 18, 2024 / 9:42 am | Story: 492944

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — The temptation would be to refer to a change in the scorecard procedure as the “Jordan Rule," only because Jordan Spieth was the most recent example. Players now have an additional 15 minutes to correct their scorecard before it is deemed to have been returned.

Players were informed at the U.S. Open of the change. The USGA adopted the amended definition of when a card is “returned” at the U.S. Women's Open two weeks earlier. It now goes into effect on most major tours this week.

The PGA Tour said the goal was “minimizing penalties or disqualifications related to scorecard errors.”

Spieth was at Pinehurst No. 2 on the Sunday before the U.S. Open. He said Scott Langley, the USGA's director of player relations, approached him and said: “This isn't because of you. But this is what we're doing here.”

The scorecard previously was considered “returned” when the player left the scoring area.

Spieth was battling stomach issues at Riviera when he made double bogey on the last hole for a 73, rushed up the hill to scoring, signed his card and hustled off to the bathroom. He inadvertently wrote down a 3 instead of a 4 on the par-3 fourth hole, and therefore signed for an incorrect score and was disqualified.

Under the new rule, he would have had 15 minutes to fix the mistake or for an official to find him and alert him to the error.

“For an honest mistake that I guess could be the difference in the tournament, I think it's great,” Spieth said. “I don't think it's a skill of the game, especially at the professional level. If somebody plugged in a wrong score, they can go back and re-plug it in.”

As for the 15 minutes, there is a time stamp when a card is accepted, and the 15 minutes is not down to the second. It doesn’t happen very often, especially on the PGA Tour where scores are checked against a computer.

And there are exceptions. If a player stays in scoring for 15 minutes (Phil Mickelson was known to linger there), the scorecard would be considered returned when that player leaves the area. Also, the 15-minute rule could be affected by a playoff, or by tee times having to be posted immediately after a cut.

U.S. Open alternate Manke spends week getting Canada status

R.J. Manke moved up to the first alternate at the U.S. Open after Jon Rahm had to withdraw with a foot infection. In most cases, players have to wait around until the final tee time on Thursday before packing their bags and leaving.

Manke had been through that before.

He was the first alternate from the main allotment list at Torrey Pines in 2021, waited three days and no one withdrew. Oddly enough, his best chance that week was Rahm, who had to pass a COVID-19 test to be cleared to play. Rahm passed the test and won the U.S. Open.

This time, Manke wasn’t even at Pinehurst. He was 3,100 miles away in British Columbia playing a Q-school tournament for PGA Tour Americas with hopes of getting full status for the second half of the season in Canada.

“I had a number of flights to head out there at the last minute,” Manke said. “I was following the alternate closely.”

No one withdrew. Manke stuck with his plan to play in Canada.

He said if he had known he was the first alternate, it would made for an “interesting decision.” But a misunderstanding led to him actually being the first alternate.

“Once the entire reallotment came out, I was No. 7,” he said.

Manke knew the USGA was holding six spots for anyone who would have become exempt at the last minute through the world ranking. Two ranking spots went to Robert MacIntyre and Adam Scott, and four spots were distributed to alternates.

Scott, if he had not made it through the ranking, would have been ahead of Manke on that alternate list.

But when the updated list was sent to Manke on Monday, one alternate who already had been added to the U.S. Open field was still listed. That would explain why Manke thought he was the second alternate when Rahm withdrew.

It ended well for Manke, who had been playing mini-tours. He made it through the Q-school tournament and now has a place to play for the rest of the PGA Tour Americas season.

Olympic qualifying

This week's Women's PGA Championship is the final chance for women to earn a spot in the Olympics this summer in Paris. The Americans and South Koreans are not assured of having the representation they had the previous two times.

In the most glaring example of how much South Korea has fallen off in women's golf, only two players are likely to make it to Paris.

Countries can get a maximum of four players if they are among the top 15 in the women's world ranking. Jin Young Ko (No. 7) and Hyo Joo Kim (No. 12) have locked up spots. But the next South Koreans are Jiyai Shin (24) and Amy Yang (25). They would need a top finish at the Women's PGA to move into the top 15.

The Americans had four players for the Tokyo Games held in 2021. They have three among the top 15 — Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu are Nos. 1 and 2, and Rose Zhang is at No. 9.

Megan Khang is at No. 16, a fraction behind Lydia Ko of New Zealand at No. 15. The Americans also have more possibilities with Alison Lee (18) and Ally Ewing (19).

Memorial moving back

Jack Nicklaus agreed to work with the PGA Tour on its new schedule, which meant moving the Memorial Tournament off Memorial Day — that's what it was named for — and a week before the U.S. Open.

Now it's going back.

Nicklaus announced Monday that next year's tournament would start on Memorial Day (May 26) and end on June 1, two weeks before the U.S. Open at Oakmont. That leaves U.S. Open qualifying after the Memorial, not before.

“We were willing to work with them and move the 2024 date to a week before the U.S. Open,” Nicklaus said. He said after several conversations, they determined it was best for the Memorial to move back.

Hideki to Boston

In a move that might finally dampen speculation about Hideki Matsuyama going to LIV Golf, the Japanese star is joining the tech-infused TGL indoor league that debuts in January.

The former Masters champion has joined Boston Common Golf, the four-man team that includes Rory McIlroy, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott. He replaces Tyrrell Hatton, whom the PGA Tour suspended for joining LIV earlier this year.

Fenway Sports Group owns the Boston team, also known as the Ballfrogs.

“Together, I hope we can push the boundaries of golf and create an unforgettable new experience for fans around the world,” Matsuyama said in a statement.

Divots

Angel Cabrera won the Paul Lawrie Match Play on the European Legends Tour last week, his first victory since being released from prison in Argentina last summer for gender violence. ... A week after the PGA of America hired caddie-turned-NBC reporter John Wood as a Ryder Cup manager for the U.S. team, Europe added former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley as “strategic adviser” for the 2025 matches at Bethpage Black. ... Bryson DeChambeau and Xander Schauffele are the only players with top 10s at all three majors this year. ... Adam Schenk was the only player to miss the cut in all three signature events that had a 36-hole cut.

Stat of the week

The last six majors have been won by six different Americans. That's the longest streak of American winners since Jack Nicklaus at the 1975 PGA Championship through Hubert Green at the 1977 U.S. Open.

Final word

“They say every five years somebody’s life changes and it couldn’t be more true. I’m a completely different person than I was back at Winged Foot. There’s remnants. I’ve still got a lot of the same cells, but I’m definitely different in the brain for sure.” — Bryson DeChambeau going into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 17, 2024 / 4:03 pm | Story: 492856

Rory McIlroy took to social media Monday afternoon to say his stunning collapse at the U.S. Open was probably the toughest day of his career, and that he would take off the next three weeks to “build myself back up.”

That means he will skip the Travelers Championship, the final $20 million signature event on the PGA Tour schedule with a limited field and no cut.

“The one word that I would describe my career as is resilient,” McIlroy said in his post. “I've shown my resilience over and over again in the last 17 years and I will again.”

McIlroy twice had a one-shot lead at Pinehurst No. 2 until he closed with three bogeys in his last four holes, missing a 30-inch par putt on the 16th hole and a par putt from just inside 4 feet on the 18th hole.

Bryson DeChambeau won it with a sensational par on the 18th, hitting a 55-yard bunker shot to 4 feet for par to beat McIlroy by one shot. McIlroy became the first player since Jim Furyk in 2006-07 to lose the U.S. Open by one shot in consecutive years.

He was so distraught after watching DeChambeau's par from the scoring room that he cleaned out his locker, headed straight to his car and spun his tires on the gravel in a rush to leave.

He did not stay behind to congratulate DeChambeau, typical for players who finish in the group ahead. DeChambeau came over to congratulate Xander Schauffele a month ago when Schauffele beat him with a birdie on the final hole in the PGA Championship.

“Firstly, I'd like to congratulate Bryson. He is a worthy champion and exactly what professional golf needs right now” McIlroy said in his post. “I think we can all agree on that.”

McIlroy said while he will look back with regret on the two short misses, he said the positives of the week will outweigh the negative.

“As I said at the start of the tournament, I feel closer to winning my next major championship than I ever have,” he said.

McIlroy now has gone 10 years and 29 majors since he won the 2014 British Open at Hoylake for his fourth major at age 25. He has won three times this year, once on the European tour.

The 35-year-old from Northern Ireland has had a rough time outside the ropes, too. He filed for divorce from his wife, Erica, before the PGA Championship, and then filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss the divorce case right before the U.S. Open.

McIlroy is the defending champion at the Scottish Open on July 10-13, which leads to the British Open the following week at Royal Troon in Scotland, and then a week off before the Olympics outside Paris.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 17, 2024 / 3:13 pm | Story: 492838

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Corey Conners found the fairway and the green on the final hole of the U.S. Open, a closing par at Pinehurst No. 2 that landed him in the Olympics for Canada for the second time.

The Official World Golf Ranking published after the U.S. Open was used to determine the 60 players for the men's competition Aug. 1-4 at Le Golf National.

Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, will be making his Olympic debut alongside defending gold medalist Xander Schauffele, former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark and two-time major champion Collin Morikawa.

Each country is allowed two players, with a maximum of four if all are within the top 15.

Conners will join Nick Taylor for Canada, but it came down to the final hole.

Adam Hadwin finished third at the Memorial the week before the U.S. Open to move ahead of Conners for the second spot in the Olympic ranking, but then missed the cut at Pinehurst No. 2. Conners needed to finish alone in 11th to pass Hadwin.

Conners said he did not want to know what he needed.

“I guess it all worked out not knowing,” Conners said on a conference call Monday afternoon. "I felt like it would have been added pressure and another distraction. I had no idea all Sunday what position I was in. I just thought a par would get me a good finish."

He said his caddie told him after he tapped for par that his three-way tie for ninth was going to be enough and Conners said he was relieved.

Jon Rahm makes his debut for Spain. He was the U.S. Open champion when the Olympics were played in Japan in 2021, but had to withdraw with a positive COVID-19 test. He will be among 29 players, assuming they all are certified, making their first Olympic appearance.

Bryson DeChambeau also had to withdraw from the Tokyo Games because of a positive test. Now he is with LIV Golf, which doesn't get world ranking points. DeChambeau tied for sixth in the Masters, was runner-up at the PGA Championship and won his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst on Sunday. That moved him to No. 10 in the world, good enough only to be the second alternate for the Paris Games.

The 60-man field has six players from LIV Golf — Rahm and David Puig of Spain, Carlos Ortiz and Abraham Ancer of Mexico, Adrian Meronk of Poland and Joaquin Niemann of Chile.

C.T. Pan of Taiwan, who won a seven-man playoff for the bronze medal in Tokyo, is among four players to qualify for every Olympics since golf returned to the program in 2016.

Joost Luiten and Darius Van Driel of the Netherlands are listed on the final list. The National Olympic Committee for the Netherlands did not send Dutch players to Tokyo last time, requiring golfers to be among the top 100 in the world or the top 36 in the Olympic ranking because it wanted athletes with a realistic chance of winning.

Rory Sabbatini of Slovakia wound up winning the silver medal at No. 204 in the world, while Pan was No. 208 when he beat the likes of Rory McIlroy and Morikawa for the bronze.

Luiten, a six-time winner on the European tour at the time, was No. 177 in the world. Dutch Olympic officials had slightly relaxed some standards and met with the Netherlands Golf Federation last week.

Luiten competed in Rio de Janeiro and tied for 27th.

Each country's National Olympic Committee has until June 27 to confirm its players. The Paris Games currently has players from 32 countries or territories.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 17, 2024 / 1:41 pm | Story: 492814

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Bryson DeChambeau acted as though he didn't want this U.S. Open to end.

He watched his name being engraved on the silver trophy for the second time. He filled it with grains of sand from the bunker where he produced the most memorable shot on the 72nd hole of a U.S. Open since Tiger Woods made his putt at Torrey Pines to force a playoff.

And then he tried to share it with thousands of fans whom he entertained over four days at Pinehurst No. 2, wanting them to touch it and try to experience the joy he felt. Deep into the North Carolina night, he was still signing autographs.

The entertainment never stopped. He made a cameo when Johnson Wagner of Golf Channel was trying to replicate the shot, with DeChambeau doing the commentary and then letting Wagner hoist the trophy after hitting it close.

And now he takes his talents to Tennessee for the LIV Golf event that can be seen this weekend on The CW Network.

The last big stage of the year for him is next month at Royal Troon for the British Open. A week after that, four Americans will be going to Le Golf National outside Paris for the Olympics. DeChambeau will not be one of them.

Even in the shine of a magnificent victory, DeChambeau winning the U.S. Open for the second time was a reminder of the great divide in golf and how little the best players compete against each other.

“If I'm to be quite frank, I hope we can figure things out quickly,” DeChambeau said. “I hope this can bridge the gap between a divided game.”

Brooks Koepka was the first LIV Golf player to win a major at the PGA Championship last year, and along with his runner-up finish at the Masters, it was enough for him to be a logical choice as a captain's pick for the Ryder Cup.

The PGA Tour, which has suspended anyone defecting to LIV, does not operate the Ryder Cup. It does own the Presidents Cup, and DeChambeau won't be at Royal Montreal, either.

“All I want to do is entertain and do my best for the game of golf, execute and provide some awesome entertainment for the fans. From at least what I can tell, that’s what the fans want, and they deserve that,” DeChambeau said without a hint of animosity in his voice.

“You can say what's happened in the past, ‘You were part of the reason,’” he said.

That gets overlooked at times, and Scottie Scheffler mentioned as much in March when he said the splintering in golf came from the player who took the Saudi money to join LIV.

DeChambeau was among the first, and his name was on the antitrust lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour that was dismissed last year when the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia — which pays for LIV — agreed to try to strike a commercial deal.

Those negotiations are ongoing, though there is no indication LIV is going away. One of the biggest hurdles is how to reunite players who took the Saudi money with those who didn't. And that assumes LIV players even want to come back.

There is less friction two years after LIV launched. But there are reminders, such as now, that who's here today will be gone for a month, and then for the rest of the year.

“Let bygones be bygones and go figure it out,” DeChambeau said. “Let's figure out this amazing game that creates so much positivity back to where it belongs.”

DeChambeau has been a beast in the majors — a tie for sixth at the Masters, runner-up by one shot to Xander Schauffele in the PGA Championship, an emotional win over the putter-challenged Rory McIlroy in the U.S. Open. DeChambeau and Schauffele are the only players with top 10s in all three majors.

The four Americans from the top 15 in the world who qualified for the Olympics are Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa.

The Olympics uses the Official World Golf Ranking to determine the 60-man field, and the OWGR does not recognize LIV Golf because of its closed shop (the same 54 players all year competing over 54 holes) and its simultaneous team play.

The OWGR has not figured out how to measure such a league with two dozen open tours around the world, and LIV hasn't offered a solution on its end.

This was DeChambeau's choice when he joined LIV in 2022. He has played only one tournament outside the majors and LIV events since then — the Saudi International — while compiling five top 10s in the nine majors he has played.

And so it's on to Nashville, to London, to the British Open and to Spain, all available on The CW, none with the energy that majors or even signature events like the Memorial and Bay Hill provide.

Beyond whatever LIV events he plays, DeChambeau has been connecting with overwhelming success through his YouTube channel.

“It keeps me in that mind frame of I’m an entertainer,” he said. “Leveraging and allowing me to utilize that platform has opened up a whole new aspect to professional golf where I think it’s been a little underutilized. There can be some positive growth in the game of golf with those interactions. It makes for some cool moments.”

The entire U.S. Open felt like a YouTube moment for him. And now he has a few stops before bringing the show to Scotland at Royal Troon when golf feels whole again.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 17, 2024 / 3:01 am | Story: 492723

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — It was late on Saturday night at the U.S. Open when Bryson DeChambeau, having hit a few last balls on the practice range in preparation for one of the biggest rounds of his life, could have headed home and gotten some much-needed rest.

Instead, he marshaled a bunch of kids who had stuck around past sunset to one end of the range, and made sure everyone who wanted a picture or autograph — in some cases, a second picture when the first didn't turn out — got exactly that.

The once-petulant young player with a sizeable ego and bigger swing had become a man of the people.

It carried over to the final round on Sunday, too, when thousands of fans lining the fairways under the Carolina pines seemed to be carrying him around Pinehurst No. 2. And when Rory McIlroy, himself one of the biggest fan favorites in the game, missed two short par putts to squander his chance at a long-awaited fifth major, DeChambeau gave the crowd encircling the 18th green one more reason to roar with a save every bit as memorable as Payne Stewart's on the same hole 25 years ago.

From the fairway bunker, with a sand wedge in his hands and 55 yards to the hole, DeChambeau took a big swipe and knocked it close. And unlike McIlroy, he made the short putt, before letting out a roar of his own at his second U.S. Open victory.

“I haven’t really let it sunk in yet,” he said in the immediate aftermath, standing on the 18th green and addressing the fans, after posting 6-under 274 to edge McIlroy by a single stroke in a duel for the ages.

“Tonight," he said, "I want all of you guys somehow, I want you guys to touch this trophy, because I want you to experience what this feels like for me. You were a part of this journey this week, and I want you to be a part of it for the after-party.”

It turned out to be some party.

DeChambeau paraded the silver trophy through the masses, allowing them to put their own fingerprints on it. Just as many reached out to touch him, rubbing his head and slapping his back in a genuine show of hard-won affection.

It wasn't so long ago that DeChambeau was loathed by many in the golf world.

Four years ago, after he had bulked up to add distance to his game, DeChambeau showed up for the Masters and brazenly proclaimed that his power had rendered the par-72 Augusta National a par 67, because he could reach the four par-5s in two and the short, par-4 third hole was reachable off the tee. (It took until this year for him to break his “par,” by the way.)

There was also the feud with Brooks Koepka, which smacked of chauvinism run amok. And three years ago at the British Open, DeChambeau ripped his own equipment manufacturer after a particularly poor day off the tee.

Two years ago, DeChambeau helped to dig the current rift in golf when he was among the first to sign with the Saudi-backed breakaway LIV Golf league. Many fans still have a hard time reconciling the fact that the game's best play against each other only at the majors, and they point to DeChambeau and others joining LIV as the biggest reason why.

All of which makes his transformation all the more incredible.

“I mean, my mission is to continue to expand the game, grow the game,” DeChambeau said. “YouTube has really helped me accomplish some of that. Consequently, I think people have seen who I am on YouTube, which has been fantastic, ’cause then I get to play off of it. It just feeds itself out here. They just say things that make me interact and engage.”

Even in the pressure cooker of the U.S. Open. At one point during the week, DeChambeau stopped to sign the flag of a kid who was wearing the type of hat he once wore himself. At another point during the final round on Sunday, DeChambeau pulled out a marker and signed the hat for a fan in a wheelchair as he walked from the green to the next tee.

More than once, he walked down the rope line giving high-fives to anybody who wanted one.

“It’s direct conversations to people that truly engage with what I’m doing. It’s such an awesome, awesome platform for me to show who I truly am,” DeChambeau said late Sunday. “Those fans out there really helped push me out there today.”

It's not just fans who have had an about-face, either. He has started to win over some once-skeptical peers.

Matthieu Pavon certainly had nothing but good things to say. He played with DeChambeau on Sunday. The two had never met before the Masters, which Pavon had qualified for after winning at Torrey Pines, but DeChambeau made a point of finding him at Augusta National and congratulating him on the biggest win of his career.

“This is the type of thing you never forget,” Pavon said, “because for me, in the golf industry, I'm nobody, and when you have a major champion and a guy like him, very well-known from everybody worldwide, when he just comes to you and has some very simple words like this, it's really meaningful.”

DeChambeau left plenty of meaningful moments during his winning U.S. Open trip around Pinehurst No. 2.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 16, 2024 / 8:38 pm | Story: 492714

Heading into the U.S. Open, Corey Conners knew he had to have some kind of good showing to qualify for Canada's Olympic golf team.

But Conners didn't really know the details, and he didn't really want to know, either.

Conners, from Listowel, Ont., and Nick Taylor of Abbotsford, B.C., officially qualified for the Olympics on Monday when the men's world golf rankings were updated to reflect the U.S. Open's results. Taylor's spot was almost guaranteed heading to the deadline but Conners needed to tie for 11th or better at the third major of the men's season to represent Canada at the upcoming Summer Games.

He tied for ninth on Sunday to book his ticket to Paris.

"I was very unaware of what I needed to do," said Conners in a video conference. "I knew I was going to need to play well, that's about it. I had no idea what place I needed to finish.

"My strategy was just to get the ball in the holes in the least amount of strokes as possible and take care of business at the U.S. Open."

It helped Conners that the player he was trying to catch for the final Canadian spot — Adam Hadwin of Abbotsford — missed the cut at Pinehurst No. 2. When the world rankings were updated Monday, Taylor was 35th, Conners was 37th, and Hadwin was 38th.

Conners's caddie, Danny Sahl of Sherwood, Alta., knew what mark his golfer needed to return to the Olympics and filled him in as soon as his final putt dropped on Sunday.

"He said that the numbers were saying I needed to finish 11th and that I was ninth at that point, was looking pretty good," said Conners. "I was relieved I had done it but I wasn't really certain.

"I was fighting to contend in the U.S. Open first and foremost last week, and that's definitely a relief to know that the result was good enough."

Taylor, Conners, Hadwin, and the other Canadians making regular appearances on the PGA Tour usually practice together on the Tuesday before tournaments. Although they were all vying for Olympic berths, they rarely spoke about it this year.

"I think it was more relief, honestly, than anything to have a spot this morning," said Taylor, who was an Olympic torchbearer ahead of the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010. "Credit to Corey and Adam and (Taylor Pendrith) and (Mackenzie Hughes).

"Everybody was playing great golf and I feel like our depth is so good that it was going to be really difficult to get one of those two spots."

Pendrith, from Richmond Hill, Ont., needed to finish third or better at the U.S. Open to bump Hadwin, but tied for 16th at 3 over. Pendrith moved nine spots up the world rankings on Monday into 56th.

Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., is currently in a position to return to the Olympics on the women's side. She was 14th in the world rankings after a tie for 34th at the Meijer LPGA Classic on Sunday.

The women's Olympic field will be finalized next Monday after the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, the third major of the women's golf season.

Both Conners and Henderson represented Canada at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Henderson also played at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Hughes, from Dundas, Ont., and Hamilton's Alena Sharp were Canada's other players in Tokyo.

"We're used to playing big golf tournaments week in and week out on the PGA Tour and major championships but this event has a little more specialty to it," said Conners on representing Canada. "It's an awesome feeling putting on the Canadian jersey, I guess we'd call it a golf shirt, carrying around the Canadian bag."

Calgary's Emily Phoenix, Golf Canada's high-performance director and team lead for the Olympics, said that the 2024 Summer Games would be different than Tokyo in 2021, and not just because of the restrictions placed on the athletes by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This year we're going into the Games on the men's side even stronger," said Phoenix. "Both Nick and Corey are ranked inside the top 40 in the world right now on the OWGR (Official World Golf Ranking). I think that's huge.

"Both have also won tournaments in just over the past year, so I think from a team standpoint, we're looking really strong."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2024.

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The Canadian Press - Jun 16, 2024 / 7:02 pm | Story: 492707

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The Canadian Press - Jun 16, 2024 / 5:42 pm | Story: 492705

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — Patrick Cantlay has spent the majority of the past five years ranked in the top 10 in the world but has had few realistic chances to win a major championship.

He had one this week at Pinehurst No. 2, but walked away disappointed again. This time, he has his putting to blame.

Cantlay, who stormed to the lead at the U.S. Open with an opening-round 65, had a several opportunities to grab a share of the lead during a wild final round on Sunday that saw dramatic momentum swings. But he ultimately couldn't take advantage and shot 70 on Sunday, finishing at 4-under 276 and tying for third, two shots behind winner Bryson DeChambeau and one back of playing partner Rory McIlroy.

“All in all I thought I played pretty solid. Could have holed a few more putts,” Cantlay said. “If I would have putted like I did (on Saturday), I would have been right there.”

Cantlay finished tied for first in greens in regulation (13 of 18) in the final round, but was 61st out of 74 players in putting under the “strokes gained” metric.

The 16th hole proved to be the undoing for Cantlay, currently ranked No. 9.

With the chance to move within a shot of the lead behind DeChambeau and McIlroy, Cantlay's second shot caught the left side of the green and fell off.

He chipped to 7 feet, but his putt broke wide and right for a bogey that dropped him back to 4-under.

Earlier, on the par-3 ninth hole Cantlay had another good tee shot to set up another birdie chance from 8 feet, but the putt skipped past the left side of the cup and kept going.

Cantlay stood up, then looked at the air in disbelief.

He birdied the 10th hole as his long putt slowed toward the hole and seemingly was on verge of stopping before it dropped. But another missed putt on the par-4 12th led to another bogey.

In the end, there weren't enough big moments for Cantlay, who shot even par over the final 36 holes.

The tie for third equaled Cantlay's best career finish in a major, and was by far his best performance this year. He tied for 22nd at the Masters in April and tied for 53rd at the PGA Championship last month.

Cantlay said it's time to keep pushing ahead as he looks forward to the British Open, where his best finish was a tie for eighth in 2022.

“I'm looking forward to having more opportunities,” Cantlay said. “This is exactly why I play. It was good to be in contention. Obviously I would have liked to get the job done. Just a bit short this time.”

And he's eager to return to Pinehurst when it hosts the U.S. Open again in 2029.

“The fans were great this week,” Cantlay said. “I thought the venue was great. The golf course was in perfect U.S. Open shape. I’m sure looking forward to the next time it’s here.”

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The Canadian Press - Jun 16, 2024 / 5:38 pm | Story: 492703

PINEHURST, N.C. (AP) — In the final pairing, three shots off the lead and within reach of his first major title, Matthieu Pavon found himself in a completely new position on the final day of the U.S. Open.

He wound up with the best possible vantage point as Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy dueled for the victory.

Yet the Frenchman, who will play in his home Olympics in Paris next month, still managed to shoot a tidy 1-over 71 on Sunday to tie for fifth — his best finish in a major. He finished at 3 under on tricky Pinehurst No. 2, quite a showing for a player who arrived in the North Carolina sandhills with dinged-up confidence.

“I enjoyed every moment on the golf course," Pavon said.

Everyone else did, too, the way DeChambeau and McIlroy were going at it. The big-hitting DeChambeau made a spectacular up-and-down at 18, shortly after McIlroy missed two short putts over his last three holes, and finished at 6 under to win his second U.S. Open title. McIlroy finished one shot back to extend his decade-long drought in the majors.

“Even though you see Rory starting like a bomb and Bryson doing Bryson things, let’s say, I always try to stick to my game plan, stick to the things I know that I have to do,” Pavon said. "And down the stretch, my game got better and better.

“I had some great birdie chances, birdie positions, and I made one or two great putts. Overall, it was a super nice week.”

At minimum, it was a welcome change in trajectory since a memorable few months.

Pavon claimed his first European tour victory at the Spanish Open in October, and then closed with four straight birdies at the DP World Championship in Dubai to earn his PGA Tour card. And in January, he became the the first French player since World War II to win a PGA Tour event when he closed with a birdie to win at Torrey Pines.

But he had missed the cut at last month’s PGA Championship and last week’s Memorial. He was feeling worn down. So, he focused on trying to raise his energy level. He also worked with putting coach Jon Karlsen on a few tweaks to his approach on the greens before arriving here.

The approach worked. On Thursday he became the first player to have multiple eagles (two) in a U.S. Open round at Pinehurst No. 2 and shot a 67. He followed with a 70 and 69, putting him alongside DeChambeau for the final-pair spotlight.

“It’s an amazing journey,” Pavon said. “It really shows that in golf, it can go really fast one way and really fast also the other way. But it’s just the work I’ve put in with my team. We work out with everybody. I have a nice group of people around me, very positive people, very hardworking people.”

It might have helped Sunday, too, when momentum hit a divot.

He opened with a bogey when his 8-foot par putt caught the left lip and refused to go down. He got the stroke back by knocking in a 10-footer on the third for birdie, but followed with three bogeys over the next nine holes to fall off the pace.

Pavon birdied the par-4 13th hole, then followed a terrific tee shot to 5 feet at the 15th and made the birdie putt to reach 3 under. That's where he finished.

Meanwhile, he was playing in front of crowds building with buzz as DeChambeau and McIlroy traded the lead and rode the drama all the way to the 18th green, with DeChambeau hitting his winning par putt and then motioning to the crowd to pause the cheering so that Pavon could finish with his own par.

“We know that in a season you’re going to have up and downs,” Pavon said. “I had pretty big downs the last three weeks. I missed cuts. It was not easy, but I always tried to keep the things as simple as I can.”

And now?

“One week, one good sensation, and all of a sudden you feel like you can win almost any tournament,” he said.

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