Golf

Subterms

    More stories

    • 175 Shares119 Views

      in Golf

      At the U.S. Open, Brooks Koepka Is in His Happy Place, and in Contention

      by

      Koepka, who won the Open in 2017 and 2018, has made no secret of focusing on only the four major tournaments. He could be the perfect candidate to join the LIV Golf series. But will he?BROOKLINE, Mass. — As Brooks Koepka strode down the first fairway on a humid Friday morning, one fan shouted his approval of the golfer’s clothing.“It’s a great day to wear white, Brooks. It’s hot out here,” the fan yelled. “Stay cool baby but don’t be afraid to get hot.”Koepka, wearing a white shirt, navy slacks and a pale green cap in the second round of the U.S. Open, heeded the fan’s advice, rebounding from an opening round 73 to post a three-under-par 67.That put him at even par after two rounds and in a familiar position — within striking distance of the lead heading into the weekend at the Country Club. Koepka had made the cut in his last seven U.S. Opens and finished no worse than tied for 18th.Koepka, who won the U.S. Open in 2017 with a score of 16 under par, and won again in 2018, speaks almost paternalistically about the Open. His schedule this season has been tilted toward the majors — those are the only events he has played since late March — and he seems to thrive on the challenges presented by this particular tournament.“I love this event,” he said. “This event has always been good to me.”It’s hard to argue otherwise. Koepka is the most successful U.S. Open player of the last decade.No one else in the 156-man field has won two U.S. Opens. The last four times he has played the tournament — he missed the Open in 2020 because of knee and hip injuries — he has two victories, in 2017 and 2018, a second-place finish in 2019 and a tie for fourth in 2021, finishes that have earned Koepka more than $6 million. In those four events, only four players — Gary Woodland, Jon Rahm, Louis Oosthuizen and Harris English, have finished ahead of Koepka.“That’s pretty cool,” Koepka said, while adding, “I wish it was less.”He is one of only seven players to win consecutive U.S. Opens; the last to do it before Koepka was Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989.But given his lack of tournament play this year, it was difficult to predict how well the 32-year-old, four-time major champion — he had back-to-back PGA Championship victories in 2018 and 2019 — would fare. He missed the cut at the Masters. And he attributed his underwhelming performance at the PGA Championship in May — a tie for 55th — to focusing more on his upcoming wedding.“I was waiting for that party,” he said of the weeklong celebration in early June in Turks and Caicos.Afterward, Koepka retreated to his home in Jupiter, Fla., worked for four days with his caddie, Ricky Elliott, and dismissed any talk of rustiness from his layoff when he arrived at the Country Club.Koepka celebrating with his caddie Ricky Elliott after sinking his final putt to win the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.Tannen Maury/EPA, via Shutterstock“I’ve had a lot of other stuff going on,” he said. “Sometimes, look, golf is great and all and I love it but at the same time, I’ve got other stuff I like to do. The wedding was a big thing. Now it’s over with and I can go and play golf.”He became irritated with reporters at his pretournament news conference on Tuesday, chiding them for asking him and other golfers questions about the LIV Golf International series, the Saudi-financed rebel golf tour that has lured stars like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson with enormous paydays. The tour will play its second event, one of five in the United States, near Portland, Ore., beginning on June 30.Koepka’s star power and penchant for downtime make him an ideal target for the upstart tour, which so far has announced eight, 54-hole events with shotgun starts, no cut and huge purses even for the last-place finishers. (Players who have resigned their PGA Tour membership, or been suspended from the Tour, because they joined the LIV Golf series, can still play the four major tournaments that are not run by the PGA Tour, although that could change.)Koepka, ranked 19th in the world, also could command a hefty signing bonus. Mickelson has been reported to have received as much as $200 million and Johnson as much as $150 million to join LIV Golf, which is funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Koepka’s brother, Chase, plays on the tour.“I’m here. I’m here at the U.S. Open,” Brooks Koepka said when asked about LIV Golf. “You are all throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open. I’m tired of all this stuff.”A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 5A new series. More

    • 138 Shares109 Views

      in Golf

      A Weird, Wild and Entirely Typical Day at the U.S. Open

      by

      It was a topsy-turvy second round on a vexing golf course as famed and anonymous players jockeyed up and down the leaderboard and turkeys paid a visit.BROOKLINE, Mass. — M.J. Daffue of South Africa, ranked 296th in the world, was not invited to the hospitality tent alongside the par-5 14th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open on Friday. But when his tee shot came to rest on the tent’s carpeted balcony next to a tree trunk, fence railing and overhanging, leaf-filled branches, Daffue was welcomed to the party.Eschewing the safety of a free drop on nearby grass, Daffue, who was leading the U.S. Open at the time, decided to use a 4-wood to smack his ball around the tree trunk, over the railing and under the branches to the 14th green 278 yards away.Nick Faldo, an NBC analyst, yelped: “What is he thinking?””I’m coming right over you, sir.” Solo leader @mjdaffue13 hits one off the deck…literally. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/5bo0YIIgpe— U.S. Open (USGA) (@usopengolf) June 17, 2022
      As fans held drinks tinkling with ice nearby, Daffue implausibly curved his shot away from all the danger and watched as his golf ball settled feet off the 14th green to set up a chance at an eagle that would extend his improbable lead.“Made bogey instead, unfortunately,” said Daffue, who never again held the second-round lead. “It was kind of a crazy day out there.”Daffue could have been speaking for the entire field. While the first round of the 122nd U.S. Open on Thursday featured the theater of a first-ever face-off between PGA Tour loyalists and rebel golfers who have defected to the Saudi-financed LIV Golf Invitational series, on Friday that drama had receded at the Country Club outside Boston.It was replaced by something more typical for a U.S. Open: a topsy-turvy day in vexing golf-course conditions that had a cavalcade of famed and anonymous players jockeying up and down the leaderboard.An hour before the sun set, Joel Dahmen, who has missed the cut in four of the nine major tournaments he has entered and is ranked 130th, was tied for the lead at the halfway mark with Collin Morikawa, who at 25 is at the vanguard of the youth movement overtaking professional golf.Morikawa shot a four-under-par 66 on Friday to move to five under par for the tournament. Dahmen, a popular, convivial presence on the tour known for the bucket hat that rarely comes off his head on the golf course, matched Morikawa with a steady round of 68 after shooting 67 in the first round. Dahmen, 34, has never finished higher than tied for 10th at a major championship and has never held the 36-hole lead at the PGA Tour event. He did not qualify for the event until June 6 and almost skipped it to concentrate on the rest of the PGA Tour season.Late Friday, Dahmen was still not awed by his standing after two rounds.“This is really cool, but it’s really all for naught if you go lay an egg on the weekend,” he said. “This is fun, but it would be really fun if I was doing this again Saturday and Sunday.”An eclectic fivesome of golfers were one stroke behind the co-leaders: Jon Rahm, who is ranked second worldwide; Rory McIlroy, who survived a scare on the third hole when he needed three swings to get his ball out of thick greenside fescue but still shot 69; Hayden Buckley, a PGA Tour rookie; Beau Hossler, 27, who played his first U.S. Open as a teenager; and Aaron Wise, who has one career PGA Tour victory.Morikawa noted that there were more than 20 players within five strokes of the lead.“No one has kind of run away with it,” he said. “But I guess that’s to be expected on a challenging golf course at the U.S. Open. But right now, my game feels really good and the last few days is a huge confidence booster for me heading into this weekend. Hopefully, we can kind of make some separation somehow.”A fan, bottom left, after being hit by a ball from Sam Horsfield on the third hole on Friday.Julio Cortez/Associated PressThe unpredictability of day was personified by Buckley, 26, who did not play competitive golf until he was a junior in high school and walked on to the golf team when he attended the University of Missouri.“It’s all happened kind of fast to be sure,” Buckley, who had a victory on the minor league Korn Ferry Tour before earning his PGA Tour card late last year, said. “But I felt pretty relaxed and confident today.”Buckley faltered in the middle of his second round when he had three bogeys in five holes. But Buckley rallied to shoot four under in his final seven holes.There was some normalcy to the second round. Scottie Scheffler, who sits atop the men’s world rankings, shot a three-under-par 67 to vault into contention. Scheffler, who won this year’s Masters Tournament and three other 2022 PGA Tour events, jump-started his round by pitching in for an eagle on the 14th hole. He did not do it from the hospitality tent balcony where Daffue found his golf ball, but his tee shot bounded into the thick rough 40 yards right of the hole.Then, in a scene that fit the day’s uncommon nature, Scheffler had to wait nearly a minute while a turkey sauntered across the 14th green. Smiling, Scheffler, who shot even par 70 on Thursday, reset his focus and knocked the ball in the hole. With a birdie on the 16th hole and two closing pars, Scheffler finished at three-under par for the tournament.Turkeys on the fairway of the 10th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressCollin Morikawa, the seventh-ranked player worldwide, began his round at one-under par but quickly stormed up the leaderboard with birdies on the 12th, 14th and 17th holes. (He started his round on the 10th hole.) Morikawa, winner of the 2020 P.G.A. Championship, first took the second-round lead with a fourth birdie on the first hole before registering his first bogey on the fourth hole. But he closed with a flourish, a birdie on the par-5 eighth hole to finish with four-under-par 66.Morikawa has four top-10 finishes this year, including fifth at the Masters.Jon Rahm, the U.S. Open defending champion, began his round at one under par like Morikawa and teed off on the 10th hole. He eagled the short par-5 14th and deftly putted as the sun emerged on Friday afternoon and subtly dried out the fast, undulating greens. Rahm had three birdies and two bogeys.Matthew Fitzpatrick of England, who won the 2013 U.S. Amateur at the Country Club when he was 18, was among the first-round leaders when he shot 68 on Thursday. He continued his consistent, measured play with a 70 on Friday.Two familiar names also climbed onto the first page of the leaderboard Friday: Sam Burns, 25, who has won twice since March and finished second in another event, shot a 67 to move to two-under for the championship, and Brooks Koepka, the last man to win back-to-back U.S. Opens, shot 67 after an unsteady 73 in the first round. Koepka was recently married, and he conceded the wedding limited the amount of practice time he could devote to his golf game. But he said he has regained his confidence with more work out of competition.Phil Mickelson improved on his erratic 78 from Thursday’s first round to shoot a three-over-par 73 in the second round, but his putting continued to be the worst part of his game and he did not make the cut.Mickelson, usually garrulous, did not talk after his round on Thursday and kept things brief on Friday. Of his comeback after five months away from competition, Mickelson said: “I missed competing, but I also enjoyed some time away.”Other prominent players to miss the cut included Kevin Na and Louis Oosthuizen, who have joined Mickelson on the LIV Golf tour, and Billy Horschel, who won the Memorial Tournament earlier in the month. Also not eligible for the final weekend rounds will be Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood.Daffue, who finished at one under par for the tournament, was more than content to have more golf to play.“I’ve had goose bumps thinking about it,” he said. “I had an up-and-down day today, but to me, it’s nothing but good. I’m still going to play tomorrow in the U.S. Open.” More

    • 138 Shares199 Views

      in Golf

      The Fernando: A Country Club’s Signature Cocktail at the U.S. Open

      by

      The Fernando, named for the bartender at the Country Club, host to this week’s U.S. Open, is a rum cocktail with sour mix and a dark-rum floater.At the entrance to the men’s locker room at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., the site of this week’s U.S. Open, a cozy, dark-wood bar fills a corner, with chairs and tables and well-stuffed couches all around.Golf memorabilia adorns the walls. To the right of the bar hangs one of the most famous garments in golf history: the tan-collared burgundy golf shirt, with its oval and square photos of past Ryder Cup winners, worn by Team U.S.A. when it made an improbable Sunday comeback to win the 1999 Cup in Brookline.But a bar is just a collection of wood and bottles without a great bartender. In this case, that room certainly has one of the most famous bartenders in all of golf: Fernando Figueroa, who has worked that room since Easter week 1990.Fernando, who exists in golf by his first name like Tiger or Rory, is an amiable presence. If you dream of celebrating a great victory — or drowning your sorrows after a bad round — Fernando is the bartender you’d want pouring drinks.But what makes him stand out is not his genial personality, his presence or even his understanding look: it’s the cocktail he created — a rum-based concoction named, fittingly, The Fernando.Drinking and golf go together like peanut butter and jelly. But at many of the most-storied private clubs in America, guests are not throwing back a light beer or a hard seltzer. They’re indulging in a cocktail that they can only get there.At the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, N.Y., which has hosted the Walker Cup and will host the Curtis Cup in 2030, it’s the Southside, a rum-based libation best sipped from the porch overlooking the 18th fairway and the water beyond.Merion Golf Club, in Ardmore, Pa., host of this year’s Curtis Cup and the 2030 U.S. Open, has the Pine Valley, an ice-choked drink of confusing origin: It bears the name of the world’s top-ranked golf club (Pine Valley Golf Club in New Jersey), but some say it was first made at Gulph Mills Golf Club, an exceedingly private nearby club.Farther south, Sea Island in Georgia has the Sea Island Iced Tea, an oceanside version of a Long Island Iced Tea whose pale pink hue belies the strength of the alcohol in the glass. And Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla., has the Honeysuckle, a frozen concoction that goes down easy after a round on the course, a Donald Ross-designed gem.But none of these are Fernandos, with a reputation in golf that precedes it.“So many guests who have never been to the Country Club have heard about the Fernando,” said Lyman Bullard, the club’s president. “They want one as soon as they get off the course — or they don’t even wait that long.”So how did the Fernando come to be? The man himself is not secretive.“I was the locker room attendant at the time,” he said. “Dale Lewis was my manager and also the bartender. He needed to teach me how to make some drinks for when he wanted to take a break.”At the time, the club had a rum float that wasn’t very popular, so Fernando asked if he could create something better.The Fernando, a rum cocktail, is garnished with a piece of orange and a cherry.The Country Club“I started by taking away Bacardi and putting in Mount Gay rum. I added sour mix with egg whites and simple syrup. Then I shake it and put in soda water, which makes the bubbles come up like a cappuccino. I changed the dark rum floater from Goslings to Myers’s.”He remembers the first two members who tasted it: Davis Rowley and George Carroll. “They said, ‘Fernando, this is great,’” he said. “We’re going to make this drink famous.”Reached in Delray Beach, Fla., where he is retired from real estate, Rowley confirmed the story. “We heavily promoted it,” he said. “We would just egg everyone on to get a Fernando. For a while, someone nicknamed me the Mayor of Fernandos.”As for what makes the drink so great, Rowley waxed poetic. “It’s the viscosity of the drink,” he said. “The trick of putting the head on it with the sour mix and the egg whites and drizzling the Myers’s on it — it’s a labor of love on his part. A couple of Fernandos are good, but after three, you may want to call an Uber.”Alas, during U.S. Open week, the locker room is the private and exclusive preserve of the players. No spectators, not even club members, are allowed inside.(Fans attending the tournament are able to order a Lemon Wedge, a cocktail that Dewar’s, a sponsor, created for the U.S. Open. It’s a summery spin on the classic highball, but it’s no Fernando.)So will Fernando be mixing up post-round libations for, say, the defending champion, Jon Rahm? No chance.Like a treasured family keepsake that you move out of harm’s way before the guests arrive, Fernando will be on the first floor of the main club — serving up his signature cocktail for those with club access.Membership has its privileges.Recipe for The FernandoIngredients:Mount Gay rumA sweet and sour mix that contains egg whitesSimple syrupShake the ingredients together and put it in a cup. Then, put soda water in and stir it at the same time to create the foam.Add a Myers’s Dark Rum floater and a piece of orange and a cherry to garnish.As for the precise measurements, Fernando said, “I eyeball it.” More

    • 163 Shares99 Views

      in Golf

      At U.S. Open, Betrayal, Greed, a LIV Golf Star and, Above All, Decorum

      by

      PGA Tour loyalists golfed alongside tour defectors for the first time, and for Phil Mickelson, LIV Golf’s highest-paid star, it was business as usual down to his score.BROOKLINE, Mass. — Historic moments are common at the U.S. Open, which is to be expected for a championship first held in 1895. But Thursday, in the opening round of the 122nd playing of the event, there was a notable first that would have been unthinkable even a month ago.Fifteen golfers who recently spurned the established PGA Tour to align with an upstart, Saudi-backed circuit that has recruited new members with hundreds of millions of dollars in inducements, would compete alongside the players they had just deserted.Oh, yes, and the national championship of golf was at stake.The setting had all the elements of a stirring, emotional clash: an underlying sense of betrayal, accusations of soulless greed, the prospect of transformative change and a popular, beloved figure trapped in the cynosure of the firestorm.But it turns out elite golf has too much decorum for all that.Consider the scene as Phil Mickelson, the six-time major champion and the best-known defector to the LIV Golf Invitational series, prepared to begin his round. Last weekend, Mickelson, who turned 52 on Thursday, was reportedly paid $200 million to be the star attraction of the rebel LIV Golf tour, whose major shareholder is the Private Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.As Mickelson walked past a corridor of fans toward the course, he was enveloped in applause. The reception was not as zealously enthusiastic as it was a year ago, when he won the P.G.A. Championship to become the oldest major champion ever, but it was passionate and animated.Mickelson on the 18th hole. He shot an eight-over-par 78.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressBy the time Mickelson stepped onto the first tee, there were whoops and whistles that had Mickelson tipping his cap. When the applause would diminish slightly, Mickelson turned to his trademark gesture — a smile and a hearty thumbs up — that would reignite the ovation.Dozens of fans yelled encouragement:“Go Phil!”“Let’s go, Lefty.”“We love you, Phil!”The considerable majority of players who have remained loyal to the PGA Tour had privately wondered in recent days if the players now working for LIV Golf might hear booing at the Country Club. That did not occur. Not when Dustin Johnson, the top-ranked player to join the new league last week, teed off in the group before Mickelson. Johnson’s greeting was muted but still affectionate.As for Mickelson on the opening tee, he did not hear anything close to jeering. He was, however, at least teased comically by one fan. Mickelson has been renowned for his gambling habits, something Mickelson called “reckless and embarrassing” in an interview with Sports Illustrated last week.Just before Mickelson struck his first shot Thursday, a fan on a hillside behind him bellowed: “Phil, Celtics three-and-half tonight, who do you like?”Boston was tabbed as a 3.5-point favorite against Golden State in Game 6 of the N.B.A. finals Thursday night at TD Garden just a few miles away.While a roar of laughter erupted from the crowd, Mickelson kept his back turned. Then he smashed a drive onto the fairway and walked toward the hole as fans cheered and called his name.More thumbs-up gestures. More cheers.Earlier, on the practice range, any sense that there would be a bristling division between the LIV Golf-aligned players and those still devoted to the PGA Tour evaporated as well.Webb Simpson, the 2012 U.S. Open champion and a PGA Tour stalwart, approached Mickelson with a wide smile and offered a fist bump. They conversed easily for a few seconds. Hitting balls to the left of Mickelson was Shane Lowry, who would be playing in the same group on Thursday. Lowry has been emphatic — insistent really — that he will not join the rival tour. But Thursday he was also chatting pleasantly with Mickelson and the third member of their group, Louis Oosthuizen of South Africa, who has also joined the LIV Golf series. If the underpinnings of professional golf are indeed on the verge of being upended, as some have feared in recent days, it was not evident through the easy banter of this group, who have each won at least one major championship.Rory McIlroy, who has been vocal in his support of the PGA Tour, tossed his club on the ninth fairway. He shot a three under 67 and was tied for second.Erik S Lesser/EPA, via ShutterstockAs Mickelson’s round unfolded, it was obvious his game, which has been unsteady for many months, had not improved. He bogeyed the first and third holes and barely recovered, shooting an eight-over-par 78, which left him 12 strokes behind the first-round leader, Adam Hadwin of Canada. Mickelson’s fans groaned after his misses, clapped as he left the green and called out his name. One of those fans loudly encouraging Mickelson was William Sullivan of Woburn, Mass.Asked if he was surprised, or disappointed, when Mickelson chose to play last week in the inaugural LIV Golf event near London, Sullivan shook his head and said: “Not really.”A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 6A new series. More

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Golf

      Why You Can’t Watch LIV Golf on American Television

      by

      The human rights record of its funder, Saudi Arabia, may be the least of the new tour’s challenges when it comes to getting on American television.For the Saudi-backed upstart LIV Golf tour, the strategy for luring top golfers like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson away from the prestige and stability of the PGA Tour was simple: Offer cash, and lots of it.The arrival of the new tour and the defection of PGA Tour stars were major disruptions in what has been a stable and even staid sport. But when the first LIV event was finally held outside London last weekend after months of anticipation, it was not shown on television in the United States. And it’s unlikely that any American network will be broadcasting LIV events anytime soon.The reason boils down to this: The networks are happy airing the PGA Tour.“We are positioned as the home of golf in this country,” said Pete Bevacqua, the chairman of the NBC Sports, which shows by far the most golf in the United States. “We are not only satisfied where we are, but unbelievably pleased where we are.”Some golfers couldn’t resist the pull of the new tour, whose events are shorter than the PGA Tour’s (three days instead of four) and offer huge payouts, with individual winners receiving $4 million and the members of winning teams sharing $3 million, far more than most PGA Tour events. Even last-place finishers get $120,000; PGA Tour players who don’t make the cut after two rounds get nothing.Charl Schwartzel of South Africa won $4 million for winning the inaugural LIV Golf tournament. He pocketed another $750,000 because his team won the team competition.Alastair Grant/Associated PressBut the LIV tour got nowhere with those who might have aired its events in the United States. Representatives for LIV Golf spoke with most American broadcasters, but did not have substantive discussions about a media rights agreement with any of them, according to people familiar with those discussions. LIV broached the idea of buying time to show the London tournament on Fox — an inversion of the normal business relationship, where the media company pays the sports organization to show its event — but discussions did not go far.In the end, the London tournament was not on American broadcast TV or popular sports streaming platforms such as Peacock and ESPN+. Instead, golf fans could watch it on the streaming service DAZN, YouTube, Facebook or LIV Golf’s website, without commercials.Limited viewership numbers suggest not many of them did. The final round of the London event attracted an average of 68,761 viewers on YouTube and fewer than 5,000 on Facebook, according to Apex Marketing, a sports and entertainment analytics firm. On the same weekend, 812,000 viewers watched the final round of the PGA Tour’s Canadian Open on Golf Channel, and 2.78 million watched when coverage switched over to CBS.The absence of a media rights agreement would normally threaten the survival of a new sports league. But LIV Golf is not a commercial entity with a profit imperative. It is bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and part of a larger effort by the kingdom to improve its image around the world. Players who have joined the LIV tour have been accused of helping to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses, including the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.LIV did not respond to a request for comment.But NBC and other broadcast networks have a long list of reasons other than reputational damage to steer clear of the new venture.LIV’s main barrier to entry in the United States is that most major media companies are deeply invested in the success of its competitor, the PGA Tour. NBC, CBS and ESPN are collectively in the first year of a nine-year, $6 billion-plus agreement to show the PGA Tour in the United States, while Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns TNT and TBS) is paying the PGA Tour $2 billion to show the tour worldwide.The media companies are not contractually restricted from showing LIV, according to the people familiar with the deals, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private agreements. But they believe that doing so would draw attention away from the tour on which they are spending billions.Fox, which has a history of risk-taking in sports (it is currently investing in spring football), might seem like a good candidate to team up with LIV, but Fox does not televise any golf, and that is by design. The network had the rights to broadcast the U.S. Open through 2026, but paid money to give up those rights to NBC.Even if networks wanted to take a chance on LIV Golf, the logistical challenges would be significant. Golf monopolizes entire weekends throughout the year and is more expensive to produce than arena- and stadium-based sports. (Golf presents a particularly difficult hurdle for Fox, which rarely puts sports on its streaming service, Tubi, meaning it is difficult to show golf when schedules collide.)Phil Mickelson at the LIV Golf tournament near London. The winner of 45 PGA Tour events, he was suspended by the PGA Tour after announcing he would play on the LIV tour.Paul Childs/ReutersLIV Golf also did not have any stars on board until recently, and it is not clear whether it will attract enough top golfers to make its events attractive to fans. Questions about the tour’s backing have been uncomfortable for those who have joined.“I would ask any player who has left or any player who would ever consider leaving, ‘Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?’” Jay Monahan, the commissioner of the PGA Tour, said in a televised interview Sunday.Players who have signed contracts with LIV have been booted from the PGA Tour, though that could soon become the subject of litigation. Players have also been dropped by sponsors, either because of the association with Saudi Arabia or because companies don’t want to support golfers competing on a tour few are watching.A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 6A new series. More

    • 88 Shares149 Views

      in Golf

      The U.S. Open That Almost Didn’t Happen

      by

      One of the U.S.G.A.’s most cherished courses, the Country Club is tucked away in an exclusive neighborhood with little room for the demands of a modern major tournament.BROOKLINE, Mass. — The Country Club, the site of this year’s U.S. Open, had come close to not staging the major tournament at all, until the club realized there was something to the adage of being the smallest house in the nicest neighborhood.The Country Club is on the short list of the United States Golf Association’s most cherished institutions, one of the five clubs that banded together in the 1890s to form the association. It was the site of arguably the most important moment in American golf history — the 1913 U.S. Open won by the amateur Francis Ouimet in a playoff over the celebrated British professionals Ted Ray and Harry Vardon.But the club is tucked away in an exclusive neighborhood in a Boston suburb with little room to accommodate the growing demands of modern major tournaments. The P.G.A. of America awarded the club its 2005 championship, but it decided it would be too much and pulled out.Explaining the decision in 2002, John Cornish, the chairman of the 1999 Ryder Cup matches at the club, said, “We were faced with the need to downsize the scope of services, local corporations and the media. The club presented this to the P.G.A. and concurred with the P.G.A. that the changes would not be in the best interests of the P.G.A. Championship.”The U.S.G.A was not convinced that the Country Club could host a modern U.S. Open. John Bodenhamer, the association’s chief championships officer, said on Wednesday that “this Open almost didn’t happen.” The 1988 Open was held in Brookline, for the third time over a 75-year period, but Bodenhamer was skeptical there would be a fourth at the course.“The footprint was small,” Bodenhamer said. “It was in a residential community. There were just too many hurdles to overcome in what we do and what you see out there now.”Bodenhamer said the U.S.G.A.’s position changed in 2013. That year, the U.S. Open was held at Merion Golf Club, outside Philadelphia. It, too, has a small footprint and is in a residential suburban neighborhood. But the tournament proved to be a success and soon Bodenhamer was in touch with officials at the Country Club to see if there was any interest in hosting a U.S. Open. There was.Grounds crew workers mowing a rough on No. 4 at the Country Club earlier this week.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressIn July 2015, the U.S.G.A made it official: The Country Club would hold its fourth U.S. Open, in 2022, and put on a U.S.G.A. event for a 17th time. Only Merion, with 19, has been the site of more, and the Open is scheduled to return there in 2030.“This is a throwback U.S. Open,” Bodenhamer said. “I think when you go around this place and you just see, they didn’t move much dirt with donkeys. They had a little bit of dynamite, but that was it.”There are rock outcroppings, blind shots, small greens and the punitive U.S. Open rough. There is a short, downhill par-3 that hasn’t been used in a U.S. Open since 1913. There is the famed dogleg left 17th hole, scene of Vardon’s bogey in the playoff in 1913 and Justin Leonard’s long birdie putt in the 1999 Ryder Cup as part of the U.S. team’s comeback.“I promise you something magical will happen on No. 17,” Bodenhamer said. “It just has to.”The Australian player Cameron Smith called the Country Club “my favorite U.S. Open venue I think I’ve been to. I love it, mate.” He is competing in his seventh Open, which has included stops at Pebble Beach in California, Oakmont near Pittsburgh and Shinnecock Hills and Winged Foot in New York.That is the message Bodenhamer said he has been receiving all week.“The players love this place,” Bodenhamer said. “The ghosts of the past matter. You can’t buy history. You can only earn it. And the Country Club has it.” More

    • 125 Shares189 Views

      in Golf

      U.S.G.A. Could Bar LIV Golf Players From Future U.S. Opens

      by

      “I’m struggling with how this is good for the game,” Mike Whan said of the Saudi-backed rival series that has lured aging stars like Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson with big paydays.BROOKLINE, Mass. — Since last week, when multiple top golfers exposed a schism in the men’s professional game by spurning the established PGA Tour to join the upstart, Saudi-backed LIV Golf circuit, the sport has been waiting for its power brokers to weigh in.The biggest prizes in golf, the events that shape legacies, generate top sponsorship dollars and are marked on every player’s calendar, are the major championships: the Masters Tournament, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the P.G.A. Championship. But none of those four events are governed by a professional tour, be it old or new. They are overseen by four distinct entities sometimes described as the four families of golf (insert organized crime joke here).These organizations are now the linchpins in the battle over the future of men’s pro golf. When the PGA Tour retaliated last week by suspending 17 players who had aligned with LIV Golf, the looming question was whether the major championships’ chieftains from Augusta National Golf Club (the Masters), the United States Golf Association (the U.S. Open), the R&A (the British Open) and the PGA of America (the P.G.A. Championship) would choose a side. Since they have long been allied with the recognized tours in the United States and Europe, would they snub the alternative LIV Golf Invitational series and exclude its players from their events?Phil Mickelson plays a shot from a bunker on the 16th hole during a practice round at the Country Club.Jared C. Tilton/Getty ImagesOn Wednesday, there was a partial answer and it could not have comforted renowned players like Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson, who have insisted they can still play the major tournaments while accepting the hundreds of millions of dollars being doled out by LIV Golf, whose major shareholder is the Private Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.While all LIV Golf-affiliated players who had already qualified for this week’s U.S. Open at the Country Club outside Boston have been welcomed, Mike Whan, the U.S.G.A. chief executive, said on Wednesday that his organization would consider ways that could make it more difficult for LIV Golf players to compete in the event in the future.Whan was asked if he could see a situation in which the LIV Golf players would find it “harder and harder” to get into the U.S. Open.“Yes,” he answered.Asked to elaborate, Whan said: “Could I foresee a day? Yeah, I could foresee a day.”Whan cautioned that the U.S.G.A. would not act rashly but would unquestionably “re-evaluate” its qualifying criteria.“The question was, could you envision a day where it would be harder for some folks doing different things to get into a U.S. Open?” he said. “I could.”There were other statements from Whan that did not sound like endorsements of the LIV Golf Invitational series, which held its inaugural tournament last weekend outside London and still lacks the support of the majority of top, and rank-and-file, PGA Tour players. But the breakaway circuit has surprisingly lured some leading players, most of whom had professed their loyalty to the United States-based PGA Tour just weeks, or days, earlier.“I’m saddened by what’s happening in the professional game,” Whan said. He continued: “I’ve heard that this is good for the game. At least from my outside view right now, it looks like it’s good for a few folks playing the game, but I’m struggling with how this is good for the game.”Whan, who was the longtime commissioner of the L.P.G.A. until he took over the U.S.G.A. last summer, also emphasized that it was essential for each of golf’s leaders to work cohesively when assessing what role LIV Golf would play.“We have to see what this becomes — if this is an exhibition or tour?” he said. “I’ve said this many times, I’ve seen a lot of things get started in the game, maybe nothing with this amount of noise or this amount of funding behind it, but I’ve also seen a lot of those things not be with us a couple years later.“One event doesn’t change the way I think about the future of the sport.”The PGA Tour suspensions “got our attention,” said Mike Whan, the U.S.G.A. chief executive, at a news conference.Rob Carr/Getty ImagesAnd significantly, when Whan was asked if suspensions imposed by the PGA Tour would get his attention when the U.S.G.A. was reassessing its criteria for future U.S. Opens, Whan swiftly replied: “They already did. It got our attention for this championship.”Whan’s comments come a month after Seth Waugh, the P.G.A. of America chief executive, stood firmly behind the PGA Tour, calling it a part of what he referred to as golf’s ecosystem.“Our bylaws do say that you have to be a recognized member of a recognized tour in order to be a PGA member somewhere, and therefore eligible to play,” Waugh said, speaking of the P.G.A. Championship.A Quick Guide to the LIV Golf SeriesCard 1 of 6A new series. More

    • 138 Shares179 Views

      in Golf

      At the U.S. Open, Two Friends Look to Channel Francis Ouimet

      by

      In 1913, Ouimet, a Massachusetts native and 20-year-old amateur, won the U.S. Open at the Country Club. Michael Thorbjornsen will try to make a run this year, with his longtime friend as his caddie.BROOKLINE, Mass. — The golf ball was buried in a bunker behind the green, and Drew Cohen thought to himself: “He’s in jail. He’s going to need to pull off the bunker shot of his life.”Cohen, the longtime friend and full-time caddie of the amateur golfer Michael Thorbjornsen, then watched him power to within a foot of the hole. Thorbjornsen made par and then birdied the next hole, and the two were off to the 2022 U.S. Open, having survived an eight-man qualifier for three spots on June 6 in Purchase, N.Y.The pair soon descended on the Country Club outside Boston, hitting the merchandise building in addition to the golf course. There, they bought matching T-shirts with an image of Francis Ouimet, the 1913 U.S. Open champion, and his caddie, Eddie Lowery.“We saw them and said: ‘Hey? Why not us?’” Cohen said Tuesday after he and Thorbjornsen traversed the Country Club’s front nine with Collin Morikawa and Nick Dunlap, the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur Championship winner. “Let’s make our own history.”That history would mean Thorbjornsen, a star at Stanford University, does what Ouimet did: win the U.S. Open at the Country Club as a 20-year-old amateur. Both entered their tournaments as the defending Massachusetts Amateur champion.“I think,” Cohen said, “he has the capacity to make a run this week.”Cohen and Thorbjornsen have been inseparable friends since first meeting in middle school. When Thorbjornsen left Wellesley, Mass., a Boston suburb, after middle school, for IMG Academy in Florida to work on his golf game, Cohen followed. But while Thorbjornsen stayed for three years, Cohen remained for just one.“Drew was a good golfer,” his mother, Lisa Goldberg, said. “He just wasn’t Michael-good.” Cohen also missed hockey too much. And when Thorbjornsen returned to Wellesley to finish high school, Cohen, the varsity boys’ hockey captain, made sure his friend was named team manager.But it is through golf that their bond has grown even stronger. Cohen started caddying for Thorbjornsen last summer and good things happened. Thorbjornsen won the Western Amateur in July 2021. He advanced to the round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur.This summer, Cohen, a rising junior at the University of Wisconsin, had a choice to make: He could take an internship at an investment bank or continue walking courses with Thorbjornsen. With his mother’s blessing, he chose the latter.“I told him he had plenty of time to sit behind a desk,” Goldberg said. “Go for it.”That was fine for Thorbjornsen.“He knows me as well as anyone,” Thorbjornsen said. “As a person and a golfer. He knows when to leave me alone, and he knows when to say something.”Cohen and Thorbjornsen at a youth golf tournament.Courtesy Lisa GoldbergOn Thursday morning, the two will be on the first tee, where Thorbjornsen is scheduled to hit one of the first shots of the 2022 U.S. Open because of his local ties. Another Massachusetts native, Fran Quinn, the oldest player in the tournament at 57, will start at the same time on the 10th tee.Thorbjornsen has played in one U.S. Open, in 2019 at Pebble Beach in California, where he made the cut. Cohen was not on his bag that week.“He needed a professional,” Cohen said. “We were both 17. Can you imagine?”That tournament was Thorbjornsen’s coming-out party in terms of national attention. He had started playing golf at age 2, entering national tournaments at 6 and winning them by 10. A spectacular junior career preceded a scholarship to Stanford.“Michael always had excellent hand-eye coordination,” said his father, Thorbjorn, who also goes by Ted. Through those years, the senior Thorbjornsen would drive his son to a state-of-the-art golf training facility in Rockland, Mass., about 30 miles from Wellesley, daily. They would often return home just before midnight.“He would have to do his homework in the car,” Ted Thorbjornsen said. “The teachers would all get mad. But all this time, I am thinking that this kid is smart and you never get that time back.”Father and son had not seen each other for three years before this week, in part because of the pandemic. Michael Thorbjornsen’s parents are divorced, and Ted lives in Abu Dhabi. The two men have nonetheless communicated frequently over that time, with Michael sending his father golf videos of himself and Ted critiquing them.“Sure, we have the normal friction between father and son,” Ted said, “but never when it comes to golf. It’s a sort of code language we have. He never argues. He trusts me.” He trusts his caddie, too.“Drew is the calm to Michael’s storm,” said Goldberg, who housed the two in her Wellesley home last week before they moved into a hotel for the tournament.Cohen and Thorbjornsen will be in Connecticut next week for the Travelers Championship. The tournament extended an invitation after Thorbjornsen qualified for the U.S. Open. The two will then travel to Scotland for British Open qualifying and Switzerland for the Arnold Palmer Cup, and perhaps Greece for some downtime. Then come the two big amateur tournaments in August — the Western and U.S. Amateurs.Thorbjornsen said he planned to return to Stanford for his junior year. The Cardinal had a disappointing season last year, but, Thorbjornsen warned, “watch out for us next year!”That is not to say he isn’t focusing on what’s directly in front of him.He peppered Morikawa with questions on Tuesday about life on the PGA Tour. Morikawa, himself a pro only since 2019, said the amateur experience at an event like this could be “overwhelming.”Morikawa continued: “It was cool to kind of go back to how I prepped in college, how I prepped as a junior. I think the biggest thing is just learning your routines and coming to these places and figuring out the ropes. You have to learn how to just stay in your own lane.”Thorbjornsen is aware of the financial enticements of the new Saudi-backed LIV Golf series, but said his professional plans were on hold. He did, however, offer a suggestion to the PGA Tour for attracting top collegians like himself.“Maybe they could do something like offer PGA cards to the top-five college players,” Thorbjornsen said. “That would provide an incentive.” More