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      At the U.S. Open, Public Courses Are Losing

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      This year’s event is at Torrey Pines, which is owned by San Diego, but the U.S.G.A. may create a rotation that skips such courses.The United States Open is meant to be memorable, with the best players in the world gutting it out over four days packed with all the drama that makes sports great. But almost every year, the course on which the major is played becomes a character as the Open enfolds.The course may exceed expectations, in terms of toughness; it may seem to lie down for the best players. Or, as happened last year at Winged Foot Golf Club, where Bryson DeChambeau finished at minus-6 and was the only player under par, it might stymie all but the eventual winner.Torrey Pines Golf Course, set on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean in San Diego, may have provided the most memorable finish of any U.S. Open in 2008. Tiger Woods, playing on a badly injured knee that would need surgery soon after the tournament, curled in a birdie putt on the 18th green that sent him to an improbable 18-hole playoff against an even more improbable opponent: Rocco Mediate, a journeyman 13 years his senior.And then the next day, after battling back and forth, Woods birdied the 18th again to continue the playoff, which he won on the next hole.That the site of a memorable Open was also played on a municipal course operated by the city of San Diego is a boon for regular golfers who aspire to play where the pros do. But this year’s tournament may be the last for a truly public course.As the U.S. Open moves to more of a fixed rotation of courses — known as a rota — this week’s tournament could be the end of an era when the United States Golf Association experimented with hosting Opens on truly public courses.Pebble Beach Golf Links in California and Pinehurst in North Carolina are set to host several U.S. Opens in the coming years, but neither could be considered truly public because people pay thousands of dollar a night to stay in their lodges if they want to be able to pay hundreds of dollars to play the course. Of the next six courses that the U.S.G.A. has announced through 2027, none will be truly public.But in the past two decades, public courses have increased the excitement. When Bethpage Black, in Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y., hosted the first U.S. Open played on a public course in 2002, it became known as the “people’s open,” with Woods as the only player to finish under par with raucous New York fans cheering him on.Jordan Spieth won the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay outside of Tacoma, Wash.Matt York/Associated PressChambers Bay, outside Tacoma, Wash., and Erin Hills, north of Milwaukee, were two other public courses that hosted the Open in 2015 and 2017, though both drew criticism. Chambers Bay, where Jordan Spieth won in 2015, was knocked for bumpy greens, while Erin Hills was dinged in 2017 for the low scores it produced. (Brooks Koepka was the winner at 16-under par.)The U.S.G.A. seems to be pulling back from this era of experimentation and creating a rota similar to what the R&A, which governs the sport worldwide except for the United States and Mexico, does with the courses for the British Open. The organization will lean on storied courses like Winged Foot, Oakmont, Pinehurst and Pebble Beach while adding other equally exclusive courses, including the Country Club in Boston or Los Angeles Country Club from time to time.John Bodenhamer, the association’s senior managing director of championships, said the shift was as much about history as practical matters.“In many ways returning to the same venues makes it easier,” Bodenhamer said. “We had the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2010. It was coming back in 2019. Having the United States Amateur there in 2018, we learned a great deal that really fueled what we did at the U.S. Open the next year — from how the golf course performed to handling the accommodations.“Two to three years ago at a U.S.G.A. championship meeting, we were talking about where we should go for the U.S. Open and the United States Women’s Open, and I asked a group question about some various courses,” Bodenhamer said. The three-time major winner “Nick Price piped up and said it’s really important where a player wins his U.S. Open.”There are practical, financial reasons for returning to the same venues regularly, but the switch may come at another cost, to the public venues and the geographic diversity that brought the national championship to new markets.“The wonderful thing about the Open when it was rotating is you got to see so many different places,” said Michael Hurzdan, who designed Erin Hills. “Different horses for different courses. There’s a lot to be said for that. When you go to the rota, something’s going to be lost.”Brook Koepka won the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, north of Milwaukee.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesBut he does not disagree with such practical considerations of the rota.“One of the biggest costs is infrastructure, so when you’re going to the same courses you know where the cameras are going to go, the stands are going to go — they have the parking figured out,” he said.But he is less convinced by the notion that the history of a venue matters, at least for the fans. “People aren’t going to make a comparison between how Hogan played Oakmont [in 1953] and how DeChambeau will play Oakmont” in 2025, he said. “I don’t see any good reason to do it.”The desire among former host sites to be a course that gets dusted off and selected again is strong.Matthew Gorelik, chief executive of Township Capital, who is a member at Oakland Hills, the Michigan course that has hosted six U.S. Opens, remembers hitting a shot in the fairway on the sixth hole only to have his next shot blocked by a tree. After that he supported a restoration of the course. The club hired Gil Hanse, a golf course architect who is often brought in to restore major championship courses, to update the course’s Donald Ross design and bring back a U.S. Open. The last one was in 1996.“Oakland Hills hasn’t been restored in a long time, and there were certain holes that just needed to be done,” he said. “At the same time, we’ve been passed over year after year for the U.S. Open.” The five or so courses that are seen as the core of any rota — Shinnecock Hills, Winged Foot, Oakmont, Pinehurst and Pebble Beach — are all stern tests of golf with ample facilities.“They’re all a great test of golf, and they all want to give back to the game, but familiarity does help us,” said Bodenhamer of the U.S.G.A.“It’s tough to conduct a U.S. Open at a place like Merion [near Philadelphia],” he continued. “We did it in 2013, but we had parking lots in people’s backyards, and hospitality tents in people’s front yards.” More

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      Mike Davis Reflects on Running the U.S.G.A.

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      As chief executive of the United States Golf Association, he kept a close eye on the game he loves. Now he’s set to retire.The head of the United States Golf Association is among the most powerful figures in golf. Mike Davis’s retirement as the organization’s chief executive a week after this year’s United States Open — his 32nd — provides a moment to look back for the game of golf.Davis, who played college golf, has worked for golf’s governing body in America for nearly his entire career. He is proud of the organization’s accomplishments that go beyond golf championships, which include the U.S. Open and six other events.Davis, who became executive director in 2011 and chief executive in 2016, has thrown the organization’s influence behind programs that have expanded the game to children, including First Tee, and increased the participation of women in the sport, with Girls Golf.But Davis, 56, is also proud of what the U.S.G.A. has done for the maintenance of golf courses, like water conservation and grass research, all with an eye on the environmental impact and cost savings. As recognition, the organization’s Turfgrass Environmental Research Program is being renamed the Mike Davis Program for Advancing Golf Course Management.None of this would be possible if the U.S. Open were not a success. It brings in 75 percent of all the organization’s $200 million in annual revenue. And Davis has kept a keen eye on ensuring the financial stability of that major, starting when he was part of the U.S.G.A.’s decision in 1993 to bring all matters surrounding the U.S. Open in house.Davis, who plans to form the golf architecture firm Fazio & Davis Golf Design with the course designer Tom Fazio II, will be replaced by Mike Whan, commissioner of the L.P.G.A. Tour.The following interview has been edited and condensed.Mike Davis is stepping down as chief executive of the United States Golf Association a week after the United States Open.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesWhat did you before joining the U.S.G.A. in 1990?I worked in Atlanta with a firm that did commercial real estate. Out of the blue one day I got a call from Mike Butz, who was then the No. 2 at the U.S.G.A., under David Fay. Mike and I had grown up in the same hometown in [Chambersburg] Pennsylvania, but I didn’t know him well. He said we have an opening at the U.S.G.A. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to do it. I remember driving up and seeing Golf House [U.S.G.A. headquarters]. It was an image ingrained in my mind since the 1970s. I took the job.What was your first job at the association?I got hired with a focus on championships. I was a kid in a candy store. It wasn’t just meeting people like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Seve Ballesteros. It was getting to see the country’s great courses. That was truly as meaningful to me as meeting some of the greats in the game. At the same time, I got involved in the Rules of Golf. When I got good with the governance, when I got good putting on events like the U.S. Open, when I got comfortable inside the ropes, that was a turning point. Still, if it’s the U.S. Open and a rules situation comes up, there’s pressure. In 1993, at Baltusrol, I got called in for a second opinion. The player in question was Ballesteros, one of my heroes. We were denying him relief. I upheld the ruling. You have those memories that involved great players and lots of pressure.You’re known for how you set up championship courses differently. What influenced you?I remember going to the 1980 U.S. Open at Baltusrol with my dad. On that Friday, Keith Fergus hit his ball on the fifth hole just barely into the rough on the right side. I watched Fergus swing, and he moved his ball five feet. His fellow competitor had hit a horrible shot that was so far off line, out by the rope line where the grass was trampled down, that he had a better lie. He then knocked it 15 feet from the hole. I turned to my dad and said, I know golf is random, but that’s unfair. In my tenure we moved the rope lines out more. It wasn’t spectator friendly, but it kept the championship pure. Then we introduced graduated [lengths of] rough. It allowed the players to showcase their shotmaking skills. There had been this template for U.S. Open courses — narrow fairways, high rough and fast greens. We wanted to move teeing grounds around more and showcase the architecture. We wanted to penalize bad shots and reward good ones, but we also wanted to see players think more about the clubs they were using. It introduced a lot of course management.Mike Davis became the U.S.G.A.’s executive director in 2011 and chief executive in 2016.Jeremy M. Lange for The New York TimesThe U.S.G.A. has always attracted criticism. What criticism during your time was justified?No doubt, we made our fair share of mistakes. One of the biggest examples was what happened with Dustin Johnson at the U.S. Open at Oakmont in 2016 [when he was assessed a one-shot penalty for his ball moving — seven holes after the infraction]. Then there’s criticism around governance. When we said we’re not going to allow anchoring of putters [steadying the handle against the stomach], people got angry. It’s the same thing with distance. If we think it’s in the best interest of the game, we’ll act. Governance isn’t easy. You have to think long term, and then you just take the punches.What did you like the most about your time leading the association?I liked setting up championships and governance. We were willing to take on some tough issues, and we weren’t always right.How did course design become your next career?Going back to my junior days, I’ve had this fascination with golf courses. One of the things I got to do with the U.S.G.A. is see most of the world’s great golf courses. This had been in the back of my mind. I don’t know if I’m going to be good at it, but I’m going to be passionate about it.Any chance you’ll enter a senior amateur tournament?I don’t think so. I was probably at my best as a junior golfer. College golf, I wasn’t quite as good. I won a few things nationally, but I didn’t qualify for any U.S.G.A. competitions. I’m still a 5 handicap. But there’s a huge difference between being a 5 handicap and a scratch golfer. I will start playing in club championships again, which I haven’t done in 25 years. More

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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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      Mike Dean caddies for Whitney Hillier at Scandinavian Mixed event in Sweden after Prem ref swaps pitch for golf course

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      SHOWMAN Premier League ref Mike Dean can’t resist showing his bunker mentality – even during the extra-short summer break.But at least he handed out clubs rather than cards as he caddied for Aussie golfer Whitney Hillier on the Ladies European Tour.
      Top-flight ref Mike Dean shows he knows how to handle clubs as he caddied for Australian golf star Whitney HillierCredit: Getty
      Mike Dean is hardly green behind the ears as a long-serving football official but he had greens all around him out in Sweden with Whitney HillierCredit: Getty
      High-profile referee Dean enjoys the limelight but tried to help Hillier avoid mixing the rough with the smoothCredit: Getty
      The man in black loves the greens, playing as a five-handicapper and famously being HIllier’s caddy when she got a hole in one two years ago.
      But he couldn’t whistle up any such luck for the 30-year-old this time as she failed to make the cut  at the Scandinavian Mixed event in Sweden.
      Dean is known for his unorthodox antics on and off the field, admitting he has a “touch of arrogance” to supplement his maverick side and sheer exuberance for the game.
      He was, though, more muted as a sidekick for Hillier during her two rounds at Vallda Golf & Country Club in Valldadalen, near Gothenburg.
      The European Tour posted a video showing Dean checking her scores and casting his eyes over one of the course holes.
      Yet the 53-year-old has just nine more weeks of what could hardly be called his downtime before he has to get back into the swing of things in the Prem.
      And compared to most officials Dean must be a hot tip to tee up some more controversy for himself.
      He notoriously seemed to celebrate a Tottenham goal in 2015 – later explaining he had got “carried away with the day” and was only rejoicing at his decision to play-on.
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      Then three years later he performed a cheeky stepover before Watford netted against Chelsea.
      But in 2020 he was awarded a medal in a pre-match presentation at Arsenal to mark his 500 games as a top-flight ref.
      And that just proves, whatever else you think about Dean, he can certainly stay the course.
      ⚽ Read our Football live blog for the very latest news from around the grounds
      Mark Halsey says VAR needs to improve after ref Mike Dean receives death threats after West Ham game More

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      in Boxing

      Golf beauty Paige Spiranac annoyed by couple’s noisy sex in hotel room during Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul fight

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      PAIGE SPIRANAC’s viewing of Floyd Mayweather’s fight with Logan Paul was interrupted.. by a couple having sex next door.The golf beauty settled down in her hotel room to watch the exhibition bout.
      Paige Spiranac loves to give her views on all things sportCredit: Instagram / @_paige.renee_
      Logan Paul lasted the distance against Floyd MayweatherCredit: AFP
      But she had to turn the volume up, after being distracted by an entirely different type of contest going on next door.
      Spiranac, 28, wrote on Twitter: “At a hotel and the people in the next room are having sex and on the other side there’s a dog barking.
      “Turned up the volume on the Paul vs Mayweather fight to drown out the sound. I hate it here.”
      She was then asked by a fan: “Who is winning?”
      And she cheekily replied: “The lady next to me giving the performance of a lifetime.”
      Another commenter replied: “I’m sure the sex will end quickly.”
      To which Spiranac wrote back: “Sounds like they are on their grand finale.”
      Just when she thought it was over, the randy couple got round two underway.
      Spiranac’s evening was interrupted by the couple next doorCredit: Instagram @_paige.renee
      The American was also interrupted by a barking dogCredit: Instagram @_paige.renee
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      She added: “They just started AGAIN. I’m so mad.”
      Asked who was winning the actual fight, Paige replied: “Their bank accounts.”
      The Paul brothers have been much maligned by certain members of the combat sport world, following their brash entry into the sport.
      But Spiranac respects their entrepreneurial spirit.
      She wrote: “Say what you want about the Paul brothers but they know how to make a s*** ton of money.”
      As it happened, Mayweather failed to beat Logan last night in Miami.
      The YouTuber lasted all eight rounds against the 50-0 icon, with no judges scoring the contest.. despite the fact that knockouts would have been allowed.
      Mayweather, 44, admitted that he was ‘surprised’ by Paul’s skill, observing that he’s ‘better than I thought’.
      But he’s a tough, rough competitor, it was good action, had fun, I was surprised by him tonightMayweather on Logan Paul
      He said: “I had fun, you’ve got to realise I’m not 21 anymore but it’s good to move around with these young guys, test my skills just to have some fun.
      “Great young fighter, strong, tough, he’s better than I thought he was. As far as with the big guys, the heavyweights, it’s going to be kind of hard.
      “But he’s a tough, rough competitor, it was good action, had fun, I was surprised by him tonight.
      “I fought against a heavyweight, but I had fun. Even though he’s not got that much experience, he knew how to use his weight and tie me up tonight.
      “I had fun, pretty sure he had fun and hopefully the fans enjoyed it.”
      Logan Paul raises his arm aloft as he reaches the finish lineCredit: AFPWIN £50,000 with Dream Team EurosDream Team Euros is HERE!

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      Paige Spiranac stuns in very low-cut top and sweatpants before missing agonising putt for eagle More

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      in Golf

      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