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      A Delightful Glimpse Into Golf’s Secret World of Bitter Feuds

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      A moment ripe with loathing, shared between two large golfers, interrupts the game’s smooth surface.For those of us who follow golf, pleasure rarely comes as pure as it did a few weeks ago, when some golf-world insider leaked an unaired confrontation between the sport’s most notable warring hulks. Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka are the P.G.A.’s No. 5 and No. 8 ranked players, respectively. Both are very beefy and very good — two figures on the leading edge of golf’s turn toward overwhelming power as the tactic of choice — and they have been openly feuding since 2019, when Koepka publicly complained about DeChambeau’s overly deliberate pace of play. Since then the rivals have badgered each other on Twitter to great comic effect, but an in-person confrontation, much longed for by fans, has proved elusive.Then the moment arrived. Koepka was being interviewed following his Friday round at the P.G.A. Championship at Kiawah Island, providing standard-issue responses to standard-issue questions about course conditions and putting surfaces. Suddenly DeChambeau’s massive figure materialized in frame, ambling behind him. DeChambeau appeared to say something while walking by — we still don’t know what — but his mere presence was enough to render the environment charged with animosity and turn the normally unflappable Koepka’s facial expressions into a symphony of malice. Within seconds, he was so discomposed that he could no longer continue the interview. “I lost my train of thought,” he fumed, and a flurry of expletives ensued. A sketch-comedy program would be hard pressed to conjure a funnier reaction shot than Koepka’s journey from annoyance to exasperation to exhaustion; his eyelids seemed forcibly pulled shut by the sheer magnitude of his disgust.It’s difficult to describe exactly why this burst of antagonism between large men was so enchanting to golf media. Part of the explanation has to do with the game’s by-design status as the most passive-​aggressive of televised sports. The magisterial slowness of the contest creates a false intimacy among competitors, who are often paired together, moving down the course in a dance as awkward as anything Larry David could concoct. To cover the sport is to know of a nontrivial number of players who wouldn’t cross the street to pour water on a fellow pro who erupted in flames. But owing to golf’s byzantine, Edith-Wharton-style bylaws of decorum, it verges on impossible to get any of them to come out and say this. So they maybe do other things to bug one another, like taking a ludicrous amount of time to line up a two-foot putt, or telling a playing partner “nice shot” after what is objectively a terrible shot, or chewing their granola bars extra loud. Once you’ve seen enough of this hidden needling, open hostility can feel like the ultimate forbidden fruit.The sport’s dread of confrontation is built on a century-old anthropologist’s dream of class-driven mores.Given that golf news not involving Tiger Woods remains essentially a niche concern, it came as a surprise to see the extent to which Koepka’s interview penetrated mainstream culture. National media reported on the incident with delight, and the clip was viewed millions of times online. Memes cropped up like ragweed. The whole affair even eclipsed the actual victor that week: Phil Mickelson, who at 50 became the oldest player ever to win a major championship. That achievement was, we thought, just about the biggest non-Tiger story the sport could generate. But Koepka’s expression, it seemed, tapped into something universal; his sheer annoyance transcended the game.A week later, over in the world of tennis, the biggest news of the 2021 French Open also emerged from outside the competition itself. Just before the tournament, the second-seeded Japanese superstar, Naomi Osaka, announced that she was unwilling to attend the event’s mandatory news conferences, citing feelings of depression and anxiety related to those obligations. And when officials pushed back, threatening punitive measures beyond the fines Osaka expected, she called their bluff, withdrawing from the tournament after her first-round victory. Not only did the Open lose an off-court stare-down with one of the sport’s premier attractions, but — in an echo of Mickelson’s win — hardly anyone was paying much attention to what was happening on the court itself. Tournament officials would clearly have preferred for all this to be ironed out behind closed doors, but as Osaka continued to prosecute her case on social media, the story spun further and further from their control.That’s what happened with the Brooks-Bryson face-off as well. After Koepka’s fusillade of swearing, the Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis, who was conducting the interview, joked that “we’re going to enjoy that in the TV compound later” — suggesting the segment would never make it to air, but would be shared among the media workers who make golf appear so well mannered. To which Koepka replied, “I honestly wouldn’t even care.”For those used to following rough-and-tumble team sports like football or hockey, it may be difficult to appreciate just how norm-breaking behavior like this can be. Even as the video dominated headlines, the sport’s old guard hastened to downplay it. No less an august figure than Jack Nicklaus dismissed the rivalry as “media driven,” which is true mostly in the sense that Koepka and DeChambeau have indeed repeatedly used the media to express how much they genuinely dislike each other. The sport’s dread of confrontation is built on a century-old anthropologist’s dream of class-driven mores, but if the popular reaction to Koepka’s face in that interview makes one thing clear, it’s that these golfers aren’t the ones acting weird. Golf itself is.Tennis, too. The French Open officials’ attempts to make Osaka comply with media rules are in some ways understandable: They have commitments to reporters and sponsors, and excusing one player from her obligations while requiring others to fulfill them could, arguably, create a competitive imbalance. (In the kind of development you could hardly make up, the tournament’s 11th-seeded player, Petra Kvitova, soon injured her ankle during a news conference and had to withdraw.) What feels strange is their evident belief that they could prevail at a time when their leverage has never been less in evidence. Osaka made some $50 million last year and first announced her refusal to do press to around 2.4 million followers on Instagram. She’s no great lover of clay courts, and it’s likely her expectations for success at the tournament were modest to begin with. And yet tennis apparatchiks seem to have assumed she would fall in line for the same reason golf ones presumed Koepka’s interview would be quietly passed around a private room: because that’s the done thing.All this suggests the two sports are having difficulty understanding both their audiences and their athletes. They proceed from the premise that their tissue-thin veneer of high-minded sportsmanship and sometimes incomprehensible notions of etiquette are celebrated attributes, not turnoffs. But evidence suggests the opposite. Fans don’t want pageantry; they want intimacy. Increasingly, the stories that grab the public are those that break up the placid, corporatized surface of the game — a tennis star who chooses self-care over a major, or two large golfers who seem ready to fistfight. We recognize the image-​crafting guardrails that surround every sport, and we perk up when we see them falling. Is this what happens when sports stop being polite and start getting real? More

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      Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau Are Still at It. But Is Their Spat for Real?

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      The golfers continued their playful war of words at this week’s U.S. Open, insisting it is good for the sport. One wily pro suggested that it might mostly be good for Koepka and DeChambeau themselves.SAN DIEGO — The latest episode of the Brooks Koepka-Bryson DeChambeau feud did not stray from its amusing course on Tuesday, continuing to be golf’s most entertaining sideshow in years.Koepka, with his usual grumpiness, said of his relationship with DeChambeau: “We don’t like each other.” He added, “I don’t know if I’d call it a conflict,” then suggested that some of the reporters standing next to him probably did not like each other either.About an hour later, a cheerful, almost giddy, DeChambeau was all smiles talking about the topic of Koepka at Torrey Pines Golf Course, where the 2021 U.S. Open will begin Thursday. It was a stark contrast to two weeks ago when DeChambeau seemed perturbed with Koepka and somberly said the PGA Tour should consider whether Koepka’s snarky videos and tweets trolling DeChambeau were, “how a tour player should behave.”On Tuesday, DeChambeau instead called the public back-and-forth “fun” and “great for the game of golf.”“There’s a point where it’s great banter,” he said, with a joyful grin. “I personally love it.”So, nothing has changed. The quarrel between two, brawny, 20-something professional golfers paid to wear natty golf attire and perfectly buffed shoes continued without a script — a pillow fight that stands out in a world dominated by the use of courtly pleasantries.There was, however, one bona fide disappointment revealed Tuesday: This year’s U.S. Open, where DeChambeau is the defending champion, will not give golf fans what they wanted most, which was Koepka and DeChambeau going head-to-head in the same playing group in the first and second rounds on Thursday and Friday.The duo will instead tee off many hours apart with other playing companions, which means they might not even see each other at Torrey Pines unless they happen to card similar scores early and are paired in the final rounds on the weekend. Golf fans should pray for that outcome. Shortly after the tee times for the opening rounds were announced on Tuesday morning, a report surfaced that DeChambeau, or his representatives, had contacted the United States Golf Association, which conducts the event, and requested that Koepka not be part of DeChambeau’s group.Within an hour, representatives for DeChambeau and the U.S.G.A. denied that DeChambeau had made such an appeal, something DeChambeau later confirmed.Bryson DeChambeau hit from the green bunker on No. 18 during a U.S. Open practice round on Tuesday.Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press“I would be OK with that,” he said of playing with Koepka, “but there was never really anything that went through me.”Koepka said no one approached him about playing with DeChambeau, nor did he care who his partners were. With a straight face, he then dropped this heavy thought: “I’m not concerned about what other people think. If I was concerned about what everybody else thought, I’d have been in a world of pain.”Whoa.On a lighter note, there was much discussion about whether the spat between Koepka and DeChambeau is good for golf. DeChambeau and Koepka, curiously with the same thought, insisted that it was, and Koepka offered evidence.“It’s bringing new eyeballs,” Koepka said. “It’s pretty much been on every news channel. Pretty much everything you look at online, it’s got this in the headline or it’s up there as a big news story. To me, that’s growing the game.“You’re putting it in front of eyeballs, you’re putting it in front of people who probably don’t normally look at golf, don’t play it, and it might get them involved.”Not long afterward, Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion who has one of the most sunny personalities in golf, agreed wholeheartedly, although he also dropped a bomb of a sort-of accusation.“I think they’ve got a rivalry now, and I think it’s good,” Simpson said. “There used to be more golf rivalries that became well-known.”Simpson then lobbed this notion: What if the whole so-called Koepka-DeChambeau grudge was a ruse, a conspiracy between the two to raise their social media profiles to improve their chances of getting some of the moolah in the PGA Tour’s new $40 million Player Impact Program?The initiative will pay end-of-season bonus money to 10 players based on an amalgam of metrics, with a top measure being a golfer’s Google search popularity.“I don’t know if they texted each other on the side and possibly went in agreement,” Simpson said, with a grin. “You know, let’s play this thing up for the Player Impact Program. That was kind of one of my thoughts.”Wow. No wonder DeChambeau was smiling Tuesday. We already know Koepka has the practiced poker face. More

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      Jon Rahm Returns to the PGA Tour, Ready for the U.S. Open

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      The golfer, who was forced to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament with a six-stroke lead after a positive coronavirus test, said Tuesday, “It happened, that’s life.”SAN DIEGO — Jon Rahm was thunderstruck by the positive coronavirus test result that forced his June 5 withdrawal from the Memorial Tournament, a competition Rahm led by an almost insurmountable six strokes with only one round remaining. But afterward, he recognized the emotions that his exit, which included a nationally televised broadcast of Rahm receiving the news and leaving the 18th green in tears, elicited.“I was aware of what was going on,” Rahm said in his first public remarks about the situation on Tuesday as he prepared for the 2021 U.S. Open, which begins Thursday at the Torrey Pines Golf Course. “And to all the people criticizing the PGA Tour, they shouldn’t. We are in a pandemic, and even though this virus has very different forms of attacking people, you never know what reaction you’re going to get. So the PGA Tour did what they had to do.”He added: “I’ve heard a lot of different theories — that I should have played alone. But I shouldn’t have, that’s nonsense. The rules are there, and it’s clear. I was fully aware when I was in tracing protocol that that was a possibility. I knew that could happen. I was hoping it wouldn’t, but I support what the PGA Tour did.”Speaking at a news conference, Rahm, 26, revealed that he had been vaccinated before he tested positive.“The truth is I was vaccinated, I just wasn’t out of that 14-day period,” Rahm said, referring to the two-week period it typically takes for the body to build a strong immune response to the virus after receiving the final dose of the vaccine. “I had started the process, and unfortunately, that’s how the timing ended up being.”Rahm continued, “Looking back on it, I guess I wish I would have done it earlier, but thinking on scheduling purposes and having the P.G.A. and defending the Memorial, to be honest, it wasn’t in my mind. If I had done it in a few days earlier, probably we wouldn’t be having these conversations right now.”The amiable Rahm, alternately smiling and serious, did not ask for sympathy, but he had a message for his professional golf colleagues, who a tour official said earlier this month had been vaccinated at a rate “north of 50 percent.”“We live in a free country, so do as you please,” Rahm said. “I can tell you from experience that if something happens, you’re going to have to live with the consequences golf wise.”Had Rahm been able to complete the final round of the Memorial, which he had won in 2020, he almost certainly would have been handed the winner’s check worth roughly $1.7 million. In Rahm’s absence, Patrick Cantlay claimed it instead.“I know if you’re younger, you run less of a risk of having big problems from Covid,” Rahm said. “But truthfully we don’t know the long-term effects of this virus, so I would encourage people to actually get it done.”Since some of the public outcry about what happened to Rahm centered around the way he was informed of his positive test — he was stopped as he came off the green with TV cameras close by and thousands of spectators watching — he was asked on Tuesday if he was upset by the way tour officials gave him the news.“It could have been handled better,” he conceded with a wide grin. “I’m not going to lie, that’s the second time I get put on the spot on national TV on the same golf course on the same hole.”At the 2020 Memorial, Rahm celebrated his victory on the 18th green of the Ohio course. Then, as he was conducting a television interview, he was informed that he had been penalized two strokes for causing his ball to move slightly near the 16th green. Rahm still won by three strokes.One of the mysteries of Rahm’s sorrowful scene alongside the 18th hole this year was when he said, “Not again,” after he received the news. It turns out that it was a reference to last year’s ending.“For all those people wondering when I said, ‘Not again,’ that’s exactly what I mean — not again,” Rahm said on Tuesday. “Last year I put my heart out talking about one of my family members passing, and I get told, ‘Well, go sign your scorecard with a penalty stroke — with no warning.’“Then this year I put arguably the best performance of my life, and I get told again on live TV, ‘Hey, you’re not playing tomorrow.’ So it could have been handled a little bit better, yeah, but it still doesn’t change the fact of what really happened. Because it was the second time I got put on the spot on the same course. I was a little bit more hurt, but yeah, again, it’s tough.”At the same time, Rahm admitted there were probably other considerations being weighed by PGA Tour leaders as they decided how and when to tell him of the positive coronavirus test.“They don’t want me to go by and start shaking all the patrons’ hands and high-fiving and all that, so I understand that as well,” Rahm said.One of the more popular men’s golfers — a player who shows his emotions and competes with zesty flair — Rahm was already looking ahead to this week’s competition. He said repeatedly that he had moved on from the withdrawal.“It happened, that’s life,” Rahm said. “Luckily, everybody in my family and myself are OK. Luckily, I didn’t really have any symptoms, and within what happened, this is the best-case scenario.” More

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      U.S. Women’s Open: Yuka Saso Wins, Extending a Majors Drought by Americans

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      Yuka Saso of the Philippines won her first major, beating Nasa Hataoka of Japan in the first sudden-death playoff hole after they remained tied after two-hole aggregate playoff.SAN FRANCISCO — Yuka Saso of the Philippines bent her leg like a flamingo, using her body language to will in the birdie putt. It was the first playoff hole after Saso and Nasa Hataoka of Japan finished 72 holes of the 76th United States Women’s Open on Sunday tied at four-under 280, one stroke better than the third-round leader, the American Lexi Thompson.But Saso had been responding to Hataoka’s putt, and when it fell short, she looked more disappointed than her opponent. After prevailing on the first hole of sudden death — the third playoff hole — when her own birdie putt dropped, Saso, 19, explained her reaction.“I just don’t want to be selfish,” Saso said. “Everyone here is a great player. If it’s their time, it’s their time, if it’s my time, it’s my time. I just want to cheer everybody.”As she stood staring at the trophy, Saso, a first-time major winner, looked as if she couldn’t quite believe that her time had arrived. Both players had parred on the two aggregate playoffs holes before Saso’s birdie putt tied her with Inbee Park as the youngest champion in the tournament’s history.“I was just looking at all the great players in here,” Saso said. “I can’t believe my name is going to be here.”It definitely didn’t appear to be Saso’s day when she posted consecutive double bogeys on Nos. 2 and 3 to drop five strokes behind Thompson at the Olympic Club’s Lake Course.“I was actually a little upset,” Saso said. “But my caddie talked to me and said, ‘Just keep on going; there’s many more holes to go.’ That’s what I did.”Thompson was trying to win her second major title, and her first since 2014, and snap a 10-major winless streak by American women.Thompson had a one-stroke lead to start the round and held a five-stroke lead over Saso with nine to play, but faltered as Saso surged. She had a bogey-bogey finish to close with a 75. That was nine strokes higher than her third-round score.Speaking while the playoff was getting underway, Thompson said, “I just wanted to come out today and play my game like I have the last few days.”Thompson added, “Just got a few bad breaks, but that’s golf.”Thompson, 26, knew the final round was going to be a nervy game of musical holes. For her to be the last one standing when the holes ran out, she was going to have to break with venerable Olympic Club tradition. Webb Simpson rallied from four strokes off the lead to win the men’s Open at the Olympic Club in 2012. Lee Janzen came from five back to win here in 1998. Arnold Palmer frittered away a seven-stroke advantage on the final nine in 1966, then lost a playoff to Billy Casper, who birdied four of his final holes. Scott Simpson, no relation to Webb, closed with a 68 to pass Tom Watson in 1987.Nasa Hataoka of Japan reacts after missing a putt on No. 18.Jeff Chiu/Associated PressHataoka, playing in the group directly ahead of Thompson, went on a Casper-esque charge with birdies at Nos. 13, 14 and 15. Saso gained three strokes on Thompson on the 16th and 17th, both par 5s, drawing even with her at four under after she birdied both.Playing in the final group alongside Thompson and Saso was Megha Ganne, 17, a high school junior from Holmdel, N.J.The last time a U.S. Open was held at Olympic Club, a 17-year-old amateur also began the final round lurking four strokes off the lead, as did Ganne. The previous teenage interloper was Beau Hossler, who struggled to a 76 and finished tied for 29th.Ganne hit her drive on the par-5 first hole into deep rough, leading to her first double bogey of the tournament. It was a harbinger of the grind that was ahead for Ganne, who closed with a 77 to finish tied for 14th, one stroke ahead of the next-best amateur, Maja Stark of Sweden (74).“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” Ganne said.Lexi Thompson of the United States reacts to her first putt on No. 17. Sean M. Haffey/Getty ImagesThompson was battling history’s headwinds, too. A U.S.-born woman hadn’t won a major since Angela Stanford at the 2018 Evian Championship, and in the five men’s Opens held at the Olympic Club, none of the 54-hole leaders held on to win.And then there was Thompson’s personal travails in the majors. Since winning the 2014 ANA Inspiration, she had endured several near misses, posting eight top-five finishes, including a playoff defeat at the 2017 ANA Inspiration after a television viewer’s observation led to a four-stroke penalty being tacked to her score on the final day.Through it all, she preserved traces of the playful, unaffected 12-year-old that qualified for the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open. They were there in her good-luck ladybug earrings, which she wore on Sunday, and her willingness to engage with younger players like Ganne.Pro is a little word that can pack a bite far deeper than its breadth, and Thompson, who shed her amateur status in 2010, at age 15, was not immune to the loneliness, the self-doubts, the tedium of spending months away from home and the rootlessness of living out of a suitcase that come with playing for pay. Bright-eyed amateurs see only the blessings: the supportive fans, the immaculate courses, the fine clubhouse dining.And so if she was to get back to her playful, unaffected teenage self, Thompson needed to redirect her focus so that she viewed golf as play and not as work. She enlisted the help of a psychologist based in Florida, John Denney, with whom she had worked early in her career, and their conversations, which they have several times a week, have helped her flip the switch. From feeling anxiety or anguish to gratitude. From feeling burdened by pressure to blessed by opportunities.Thompson walked the walk. She forced a smile as she exited the 18th green after her approach, from 109 yards, found a bunker, and after she blasted out to 12 feet and left the par putt short.Thompson’s eyes welled with tears and her voice quavered. She smiled wanly and said, “Yeah, I played not so good today with a few of the bogeys coming in on the back nine.She added, “I’ll take today and I’ll learn from it and have a lot more weeks ahead, a lot more years.” More

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      Patrick Cantlay Wins the Memorial Tournament in a One-Hole Playoff

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      Cantlay, who won the event in 2019, bested Collin Morikawa, but the weekend will be remembered for Jon Rahm’s withdrawal after he tested positive for coronavirus.DUBLIN, Ohio — The leaderboards positioned at critical junctures of a professional golf tournament are more than scoreboards. They are omnipresent yardsticks measuring the rhythm of the contest with hole-by-hole counts for the top golfers, collectively meant to tell the whole story of the event.But on Sunday, in the final round of the Memorial Tournament, there was a jarring omission from every leaderboard, a name conspicuously missing.Patrick Cantlay won the 2021 Memorial, outdueling Collin Morikawa in a seesaw battle that included one extra playoff hole, but the heart-rending story of the event will always be the Saturday evening withdrawal of Jon Rahm, who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Rahm, the defending Memorial champion, was informed of his test result at the end of the third round as he left the 18th green with a commanding six-stroke lead. The tournament continued, and Cantlay’s victory will not carry an asterisk in the PGA Tour record book, nor should it.But from the first holes played on Sunday by Cantlay and Morikawa, who became the third-round co-leaders after Rahm’s withdrawal, Rahm’s absence was recognized.When Cantlay and Morikawa, who played together, each bogeyed the first hole, there was a disquieting murmur in the crowd around the green that may have been a shared thought: If Rahm were still in the field, his lead might now have been seven strokes with 17 holes remaining.Play continued, and Cantlay and Morikawa eventually put on a good show. They made the turn still tied for the lead and extended their head-to-head match for more than two hours. The tournament did not lack drama. Its lasting image, however, will most likely be Rahm doubled over in tears.Cantlay acknowledged as much Sunday evening.“Everybody, me included, knows it would be a totally different day today if that had not happened,” Cantlay said of Rahm’s withdrawal. He continued: “Just so very unfortunate.”Asked how he would greet Rahm when he saw him next, perhaps at the United States Open that begins June 17, Cantlay said: “There’s not much to say. I don’t wish that kind of scenario on anybody. I would much rather have faced him down today and shot an extremely low round and beat him that way. But unfortunately there’s nothing I can do. I did everything I could with the cards I was dealt.”Morikawa said Rahm had the tournament “in his possession,” and added that tour players had feared and wondered about just such a situation playing out.“But that’s the thing with what-ifs,” Morikawa said, “we can only think about it and think what we’re going to do and try and do until it actually happens.”Morikawa shook his head.“But for him to have it like that, where he had a six-shot lead,” he said.Cantlay reacting to his birdie putt on No. 17. Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesA spirited crowd at Muirfield Village Golf Club in the Columbus suburbs warmed to the taut competition in the closing holes, even when soaked by rain late in the afternoon.Morikawa held the lead for most of the back nine, edging ahead on par-5 No. 11 by sinking a seven-foot birdie putt that put him back at 12 under par for the tournament, which is where he and Cantlay began the day. Cantlay threatened to catch Morikawa on the 12th hole when his 42-foot putt for birdie skirted the left edge of the hole. But on the next green, Cantlay coolly stroked a 17-foot uphill putt for a birdie that tied Morikawa.Scottie Scheffler joined Morikawa and Cantlay at the top of the leaderboard at 12 under par when he nearly holed his second shot from 131 yards at the par-4 14th hole and was left a tap-in birdie putt. Scheffler hung in for several holes before faltering with a bogey on the 18th.Morikawa regained the lead at the par-5 15th hole when he delicately pitched from a bad lie in deep rough near the green then sank an eight-foot birdie putt. That lead held up until the 17th hole when Cantlay rolled in a twisting 23-foot birdie putt to tie Morikawa, who had to make an 11-foot par putt to stay even with Cantlay.At the 18th hole, both players sliced their drives right of the fairway. From the rough, Cantlay nonetheless knocked his second shot pin high on the elevated, two-tiered final green. His try for birdie just skirted the right edge of the hole. Morikawa hit his second shot into a greenside bunker, and his recovery from the sand left him a nervy 3-foot attempt for par that he converted to send the competition to a playoff. Both golfers had shot a one-under-par 71 for 13 under par.Replaying the 18th hole, Morikawa’s approach shot from the fairway missed the green short and left, while Cantlay did the same from the right rough. Morikawa’s pitch from deep rough settled six feet from the hole. Blasting from a greenside bunker, Cantlay skittered a shot that ran 12 feet past the hole, but his right-to-left par putt tracked into the center of the hole.Morikawa’s par putt to extend the competition rolled past the left edge of the hole.Morikawa and Cantlay had nervous starts to the final round. In addition to bogeying the first hole, Morikawa bungled the par-3 fourth hole when he missed a 5-foot par putt. Morikawa birdied the fifth hole but carded his third bogey in six holes when he flubbed a chip near the sixth green and badly misjudged a 10-foot putt. He made a putt of similar length just to save bogey.From there, Morikawa found some consistency to his swing and his short game. Cantlay had a similarly uneven beginning nine, and both golfers made the turn one over par for their round.Cantlay, left, lined up his putt on No. 2 as Collin Morikawa repaired a ball divot.Tannen Maury/EPA, via ShutterstockFor Cantlay, 29, it was his fourth PGA Tour victory and the second time he has won the Memorial since 2019. Cantlay’s last victory was the Zozo Championship in October 2020. Ranked 15th in the world before the Memorial Tournament, Cantlay this year has had two top-five finishes and five in the top 20. More

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      Jon Rahm Withdraws From Memorial Tournament After Positive Covid Test

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      The golfer broke down in tears when he was told that he had tested positive. He had just finished the third round with a six-shot lead.DUBLIN, OHIO — Jon Rahm, a popular player on the PGA Tour and the world’s third-ranked male golfer, had just charged to a six-stroke lead on Saturday in the third round of the Memorial Tournament, an event he won a year ago. Walking from the 18th hole, where a crowd surrounding the green showered him with warm applause, Rahm, 26, shook hands with his playing partners and smiled.Seconds later, he was doubled over and in tears, his left hand clasping his face. A doctor for the tour had met Rahm at the edge of the green and informed him that he had tested positive for Covid-19, a result reported to the tour as Rahm was shooting a sparkling eight-under-par 64 on the difficult course at the Muirfield Village Golf Club. Rahm would be forced to withdraw from the tournament and miss the final round on Sunday.Rahm hid his face in his hands for a few moments, then stood upright before staggering as he began to ascend a steep hill, wiping his eyes as he made his way to the adjacent clubhouse.“Not again,” he said, although it was unclear what his response meant. It was also unknown whether Rahm has been fully vaccinated, although for the past year he had frequently talked at length about his worries for the health of his family back in his native Spain and about the devastation the virus had brought to communities near his hometown. Rahm currently lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his wife, Kelley, whom he met while they were students at Arizona State, and their 2-month-old son, Kepa Cahill.Rahm, right, fist-bumped his playing partner Patrick Cantlay at the conclusion of their round on Saturday.Tannen Maury/EPA, via ShutterstockLate on Saturday night, Rahm posted a statement on Twitter, saying that he was “very disappointed in having to withdraw from the Memorial Tournament. This is one of those things that happens in life, one of those moments where how we respond to a setback defines us as people. I’m very thankful that my family and I are all OK. I will take all of the necessary precautions to be safe and healthy, and I look forward to returning to the golf course as soon as possible.”Jack Nicklaus, the host of the Memorial tournament and the designer of the golf course, wrote on his Twitter feed shortly after the third round: “Our hearts go out to Jon and his family as well as all the patrons who witnessed a spectacular round by Jon — only to be negated by this horrible pandemic our world continues to endure.”Nicklaus, who is 81 and contracted Covid-19 along with his wife, Barbara, in 2020, added: “I wish Jon a speedy recovery and hope he gets back to competition soon.”According to the PGA Tour, Rahm was notified on Monday that he would be subject to contact tracing because he had come in close contact with an unidentified person who had tested positive for Covid-19. Tour protocols permitted Rahm to remain in the tournament if he agreed to be tested every day and avoided using indoor facilities at the event.Rahm’s test results were negative for four days, but his most recent test, performed on Saturday morning, came back positive at 4:20 p.m. A second test on the original sample provided by Rahm, who is asymptomatic, yielded a positive result at 6:05 p.m., just before he finished his third round.“It’s a very unfortunate situation, obviously,” Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of tournament administration, said. “The protocol that we have had in place for the last 50 events is being followed to the letter, and unfortunately we are in a situation where we are this evening.”Levinson was asked if there was an option that would allow Rahm to play Sunday’s final round by himself if he stayed at least six feet from others in what is a large outdoor area. Levinson said the tour’s medical advisers did not recommend participation in a competition the day after a confirmed positive test.Patrick Cantlay, who played with Rahm on Saturday and who became the new tournament leader along with Collin Morikawa, seemed stunned by the news at a Saturday evening news conference.“I’m sure it’s not as much of a jolt for me as it is for him,” Cantlay said. “It’s the worse situation that something like this could happen in, and unfortunately I guess we knew that this was a potential lurking out there even when we came back to golf. It’s just extremely unfortunate.”Cantlay said that he had Covid earlier this year and that he had not been vaccinated. The tour shut down for three months after the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in March 2020.Rahm, who has won five PGA Tour events, is required to isolate for 10 days unless he tests negative in two further Covid-19 screenings 24 hours apart. Levinson did not disclose whether Rahm had received the Covid-19 vaccine; after recent revisions, tour guidelines no longer require weekly testing for players who are fully vaccinated. Vaccinated players would also not be subject to the contact tracing that Rahm underwent this week. Levinson said that the tour had tracked vaccinations among players and that more than 50 percent of its more than 200 players had been fully vaccinated.Levinson was also asked why Rahm was notified in such a public setting by the tour’s medical chief, Dr. Tom Hospel, rather than in a private room, away from television cameras and a crowd of thousands. Levinson replied that it was “difficult to find an ideal opportunity to notify him.” He added: “But our medical adviser notified him before he went into scoring, and that was how it was conducted.”Scottie Scheffler, who is now tied for third place, three strokes behind Cantlay and Morikawa, was one of first players to see Rahm as he entered the scoring tent just after the end of his round. Scheffler knew that Rahm, who had a hole in one on No. 16 in the second round, was leading, and he was confused by the distress on Rahm’s face.“I kind of smiled at him thinking: ‘Why? What happened?’” Scheffler said. “He just goes, ‘Good luck tomorrow.’”Scheffler wished Rahm good luck in the final round as well. Rahm told him he had just failed a Covid-19 test.“My heart just sank, it’s terrible that that happened,” said Scheffler, who has also had Covid. “My heart is still — it just sinks for him and I feel awful.”Rahm had tied the 54-hole record and built a six-shot lead Saturday, leaving him on the cusp of becoming only the second golfer to repeat as the Memorial champion. Tiger Woods won the event three years in a row, from 1999 to 2001.Darron Cummings/Associated Press More

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      At U.S. Women's Open, a 17-Year-Old Amateur Enters the Spotlight

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      Megha Ganne seemed at ease during her second round at the Olympic Club, and she finished the day with a share of third place.SAN FRANCISCO — The first time Megha Ganne competed on one of the world’s most renowned golf courses, her audience included the two-time major winner Martin Kaymer, a former men’s world No. 1. It was at the 2015 finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt contest at Augusta National, and Kaymer was on the range when an 11-year-old Ganne hit her first drive.Six years later, with much higher stakes, Ganne is a 17-year-old amateur and is playing with aplomb on a similar stage. In her second United States Women’s Open — which is being held for the first time at the Olympic Club, the site of five major men’s championships — she was at the top of the leaderboard after the early rounds on Friday. By nightfall, she had been passed by two players — Yuka Saso of the Philippines, who shot a four-under-par 67 for a 36-hole score of six under, and Lee Jeong-eun, who also shot a 67 and was five under for the tournament.Ganne, a high school junior from Holmdel, N.J., followed her opening-round four-under-par 67 on the Olympic Club’s Lake Course with an even-par 71 to temporarily share first place with Megan Khang (70) while the afternoon wave of players was still on the course.Ganne celebrating her birdie putt on the seventh hole.Jeff Chiu/Associated PressGanne birdied her penultimate hole, No. 7, and drained a long par putt at No. 8 to maintain her momentum on a course made more difficult by a heavy marine layer that turned the tee boxes — some of which were moved back for Friday’s round — into iceboxes.“It played a little bit longer, but other than that pretty similar,” an unfazed Ganne said.Ganne, a quick strider who swings her arms side to side as if in a hurry to get where she’s going, had a fast turnaround between rounds.She returned to the course Friday less than 12 hours after she signed her opening-round scorecard and spoke about her performance as if her audience was a passel of Holmdel High friends and not a media cluster. She credited her comfort level here to her exposure to the spotlight as a four-time finalist in the Drive, Chip and Putt contest and as a participant in this year’s Augusta National Women’s Amateur.She is an Augusta National success story, the first graduate of the Drive, Chip and Putt finals to hold at least a share of the lead in a women’s major.“It’s really similar, you know, really prestigious and a lot of cameras and a lot of attention on you,” said Ganne, who added, “It was great preparation for the pressure.”The U.S. Women’s Open has throughout its 76-year history been a kind of coming-out party for young players, like the 10-year-old Beverly Klass in 1967, the 11-year-old Lucy Li in 2014 and the 12-year-old Lexi Thompson in 2007. After gaining acclaim for their youth, none survived the cut.The tournament is, in theory, the most accessible of majors. Nearly half the players in this year’s field — 76 of the 156 entrants, including Ganne — earned their berths through 36-hole qualifiers held throughout the country. Ganne secured her spot on the second playoff hole of her qualifier. It speaks to the vagaries of golf that a teenager who was on the verge of elimination in qualifying can rise to the top of the leaderboard through two rounds.“It just all seems really fun and a better story to tell than I got in without a playoff,” Ganne said. The last amateur to lead after a round in the U.S. Women’s Open was Jane Park, a 19-year-old who held a share of first place after the opening round in 2006 at Newport Country Club.Ganne’s galleries have included members of the women’s golf coaching staff at Stanford, which she has verbally committed to attend starting in the fall of 2022, and her family. Ganne’s father, Hari, is an information-technology professional. Her mother, Sudha, is an endocrinologist, and her younger sister, Sirina, 13, is an eighth grader who also plays golf.Her mother said her phone had vibrated in her jacket pocket for the entire second nine of her daughter’s first round and well into Thursday night as texts arrived from friends and neighbors back in New Jersey. She awoke Friday to more messages from family members in India. On Thursday, Sudha Ganne expressed a desire for Megha to remain “a regular kid and enjoy other things” besides golf.A day later, Ganne’s mother waded through a gallery that had grown tenfold overnight, stared at the leaderboard with her daughter’s name atop it and worried that someone had sped up the belt conveying Megha through adolescence. She can hear the armchair career counselors now: If Megha can contend for a $1 million winner’s check while still in high school, why go to college?“She’s absolutely going to college. There’s no doubt about that,” Ganne’s mother said.But like the calculus homework awaiting Ganne’s attention, success is introducing complicated variables. “I am a little overwhelmed with the attention, but I’m hoping she will cope with it and maybe we will try to help her with it,” Ganne’s mother said.Ganne seems fine with the attention, but then, she always has gravitated to the spotlight. She has appeared in school plays, once as the Queen of Hearts after auditioning for the lead role of Alice in Wonderland. She threw herself into her portrayal as Alice’s main protagonist.“She was the Queen of Hearts and she lived it,” Ganne’s mother said with a laugh.But Ganne draws a line at social media. That kind of attention, she has decided, is unnecessary. Negativity that has been heaped on some of her friends on Twitter has soured Ganne on the platform.After her Thursday round, Ganne was interviewed by 15-year-old twins, Amelia and Adinah Dellegencia, who are student journalists. They lauded Ganne’s “girl power” and described her as “pretty cool.” They asked for her Twitter handle, and their jaws dropped in unison when she said, “I’m social media-free, actually.”Amelia recovered from the shock and said, “She’s so cool. She should be on social media.” More

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      That Brooks Koepka Feud Won’t Leave Bryson DeChambeau Alone

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      At the Memorial Tournament, where Koepka is not even playing, fan chants of “Brooks!” and Brooks-y!” followed DeChambeau as well as Jordan Spieth, who was playing in the same group.DUBLIN, OHIO — Bryson DeChambeau and Jordan Spieth played together in the first two rounds of the Memorial Tournament on Thursday and Friday, an arrangement that would starkly demonstrate how two top golfers, both 27, have developed such disparate followings in the sport.For DeChambeau, it reinforced his status as a lightning rod for controversy. A recent social media feud with his golfing colleague Brooks Koepka erupted anew even though Koepka was not participating in the tournament or dropping a single snarky word on Twitter. Fans on Friday repeatedly taunted DeChambeau by calling him “Brooks,” or by shouting “Let’s go, Brooks-y,” which mimicked a video that Koepka posted on Twitter last week. It showed DeChambeau snapping at fans who yelled something similar after one of DeChambeau’s shots in the recent P.G.A. Championship.Security officials at the Memorial tournament occasionally interceded on Friday, approaching fans who appeared to jeer DeChambeau, although DeChambeau denied that the effort was made at his request.“The officers take care of that,” DeChambeau said, adding that the security involvement was more about spectators yelling during his backswing.Moreover, DeChambeau, who is one over par at the midpoint of the event and several strokes off the lead, smiled and insisted that being called “Brooks” was a compliment.“They weren’t taunts at all, they were flattering,” he said and added: “When it comes down to it, when somebody’s that bothered by someone else, it is flattering.”Spieth, whose second-round 67 left him one under for the tournament, said he was not distracted by the periodic tumult. But from the start of the Memorial, which was interrupted by thunderstorms on Thursday, Spieth walked a different path from the companions in his group. It included Patrick Cantlay, who shared the lead at eight under par with Jon Rahm when the second was suspended because of darkness.On the opening hole the group played early Thursday afternoon, Spieth was treated with deference as he stood on the first tee. Hundreds of fans circling the area remained hushed until his name was announced, after which a thunderous cheer ensued.DeChambeau’s approach to the tee moments later elicited something more akin to a carnival atmosphere, with an electrifying buzz and murmur as spectators stood on tip toes to catch a glimpse of the player whose prodigious drives and boasts of transforming golf have reinvigorated the game in the last year.Jordan Spieth, left, Patrick Cantlay and DeChambeau on No. 11 during the second round of the Memorial Tournament.Tannen Maury/EPA, via ShutterstockMen hoisted children onto their shoulders so they could see the strapping DeChambeau while others pointed cellphones to capture the moment when they stood so close to golf’s most intriguing, and occasionally mocked, personality.Spieth, the slim, unimposing one-time boy wonder who claimed three major championship victories before he was 23, unleashed a syrupy swing that sent a proficient if understated drive down the middle of the fairway. The crowd, however, was not disappointed.“Atta boy, Jordan,” a man in his 40s yelled. There were smiles and knowing nods all around.Spieth, it seemed, was one of them.When it was his turn, DeChambeau, the reigning United States Open champion, flexed and twitched over the ball and then unleashed a mighty swat that lifted his golf ball high into the sky until it bounded 50 yards past Spieth’s.The crowd hooted and howled its approval.DeChambeau, undoubtedly, is one of a kind.But after that first swing, a young man in the throng just 20 feet from the tee shouted, “Let’s go Brooks-y!” One voice became two or three, also yelping and giggling: “Let’s go Brooks-y!”DeChambeau stared straight ahead but appeared perturbed, something he denied after his round.“Everybody thinks it’s a big deal; it’s not to me,” DeChambeau said evenly. Of Koepka, who has won four major championships, he said: “I’ve got nothing against him, I’ve got no issues at all. If he wants to play that game, that’s great. I think no matter what, he’s a great player and won a lot of tournaments, and it’s like somebody calling me Jack or Payne or Hogan. People think it bothers me, it really doesn’t.”As play was concluding at the Memorial, a grinning Koepka playfully threw another barb in DeChambeau’s direction. After thanking fans for shouting his name Friday, he posted a video on Instagram and Twitter offering a case of beer to the first 50 people whose time at the tournament, as he said, “might have been cut short.”The clamor around DeChambeau may have had no effect on his golf, but after shooting a one-under 71 in the first round, which included 15 holes played Friday morning, DeChambeau stumbled badly at the start of the second round Friday afternoon. With three putts from 28 feet, he double bogeyed the first hole, then took four shots to reach the par-4 third green, which led to a bogey. DeChambeau responded with an eagle and four birdies but also had three more bogeys for an inconsistent round of 72.“A long day, long two days almost,” DeChambeau said. “Unfortunately, I got it going the wrong way out there for a while.”Spieth’s experience was the inverse. After six bogeys in the final 13 holes of his first round, he spent most of a 40-minute layoff before the start of the second round eating lunch. (DeChambeau, by contrast, spent nearly the entire time hitting balls, mostly with a driver, on the practice range.)Spieth began his second round with four steadying pars, then made five birdies without a bogey the rest of his afternoon.“The biggest difference was I stopped hitting my tee shots in the rough,” Spieth said. “Pretty simple.”In the end, not surprisingly, Spieth looked across the day and felt buoyed, even by the crowd reaction. He mentioned some “outliers,” but said: “We had massive support, people trekked 33 holes with us today, and that’s pretty awesome considering the wet conditions.”Recalling his many wayward shots during the first round, Spieth laughed and said: “I mean, I know how I feel walking through the rough today.” More