United States Open (Golf)

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

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      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

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      Why You Can’t Watch LIV Golf on American Television

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      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

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

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      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

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

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      “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

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

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      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

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      Five Players to Watch at the U.S. Open

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      They include Dustin Johnson, who was just suspended from the PGA Tour for taking part in the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour.The Masters, the first major of the year, was won by the 25-year-old Scottie Scheffler, who is on the rise.The P.G.A. Championship, the second, was won by the 29-year-old Justin Thomas, who has been one of the game’s best in the last five years.Now comes the third major, this week’s United States Open at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass.Will youth be served once more, or will someone in his 30s or 40s produce some magic? Here are five players to keep an eye on at Brookline:Tom Pennington/Getty ImagesScottie SchefflerForget about the missed cut in last month’s P.G.A. Championship. Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, rebounded with a second-place finish the next week at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas. If not for Sam Burns, who fired a final-round 65 and made a 38-foot birdie putt in the playoff, Scheffler would have five victories this season.Some of the credit should go to his caddie, Ted Scott. The two first connected last year. Before working with Scott, Scheffler was in contention a few times but failed to break through. For 15 years, Scott was the caddie for the two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.Jim Cowsert/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJustin ThomasWinning a second major, as Thomas did at the P.G.A. this year, puts a golfer on a new plateau. Winning a third would elevate him even further. Only 47 players have collected three or more major championships.Thomas, who finished third at last week’s RBC Canadian Open, is more than capable of adding to that total at Brookline. As skilled as he is with the wedge — a prime example was his approach to the green on the first playoff hole at the P.G.A. that left him with a 6-foot birdie putt — he’s likely to make his share of saves to keep himself in contention.Phil Mickelson never captured an Open, finishing second a record six times. It would be something if his former caddie, Jim Mackay, who now works for Thomas, were to win one without him.Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesWill ZalatorisAs well as he’s performed in big events, with five top 10s in his last seven majors, it’s hard to believe Zalatoris has yet to win on the PGA Tour. He is bound to break through.He took a significant step with his showing in the P.G.A., losing in a playoff to Thomas. The key might be his ability to make short putts, which has plagued him in the past.Zalatoris, 25, who tied for fifth two weeks ago at the Memorial Tournament, has registered only one professional victory, the 2020 TPC Colorado Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour.Michael Reaves/Getty ImagesRory McIlroyMcIlroy, 33, who shot a 62 on Sunday in Canada to post his 21st tour victory, is still trying to win his first major since the 2014 P.G.A. Championship. What were the odds that a drought in majors would last this long?He had his chances this year, finishing second at the Masters and eighth at the P.G.A. McIlroy needs to start strong, as he did at the P.G.A. with a five-under 65, and stay within range, even if he isn’t at his best. He trailed by nine strokes heading into the final round of the P.G.A, which is too big a deficit even for a player of his caliber.To contend, McIlroy will need to putt well from inside 10 feet.Matt York/Associated PressDustin JohnsonGiven his suspension by the PGA Tour last week for joining the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, there is no doubt that Johnson will be attracting a lot of attention at Brookline.The Open is a United States Golf Association event, so the suspension won’t keep him from the tournament, but he’s still not likely to make a run at the title. Since winning the Masters in 2020, Johnson, 37, who has fallen to No. 16 in the world rankings, has posted a top 10 in only one of his six major appearances. As a matter of fact, he hasn’t won any PGA Tour events during that span.In 10 starts this season, his best finish was a fourth at the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play tournament in March. He missed the cut at the P.G.A. with successive rounds of 73. More

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      How Mike Whan Is Changing U.S. Golf

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      The new chief executive, who turned the L.P.G.A. into a thriving tour when he was its boss, is sprinting to advance the game.The United States Open is returning this week to the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association. It will be the club’s fourth U.S. Open. Its first, in 1913, when a 20-year-old amateur won, still lives in sports lore.The club has also hosted several United States Amateur and United States Women’s Amateur tournaments and a Ryder Cup. Founded in the 19th century, it has deep traditions.But this time around, the United States Golf Association, which chooses the clubs and organizes the U.S. Open and 13 other national championships each year, has at its helm a new chief executive who has cultivated a reputation for being the opposite of a traditionalist. The executive, Mike Whan, is a changemaker, in the parlance of the corporate marketing world he came up in.For 11 years before joining the U.S.G.A. last year, Whan was the commissioner of the L.P.G.A., taking it from a struggling U.S.-based entity to a thriving global tour with more events and more prize money.“He rebuilt the tour, and then reimagined its future, by bringing new events, new sponsors and a new value proposition around diversity and inclusion to the L.P.G.A.,” said Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, the L.P.G.A. Tour’s player president, when Whan stepped down. “He has that rare ability to get people of all ages and backgrounds excited and on board with his vision.”While the U.S.G.A. attracts criticism like any governing body, it has created a wildly lucrative event in the U.S. Open, the revenue from which funds most of the organization’s other championships and initiatives around turf grass and water conservation.Compared with the PGA Tour, the U.S.G.A. looks even better. The PGA Tour, whose playing privileges were long the goal of professional golfers, is fending off an attack on its status by the new Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Invitational Series, which has lured away many players.Add in one more factor: Interest in golf from recreational players is still riding a post-pandemic high. If it’s not broke, as the saying goes, what does Whan have to fix?“Change is in the process,” Whan said in an interview at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania. “A 35-year-old Mike Whan would have changed everything. The 57-year-old Mike Whan says, ‘Where am I needed?’ I’m not needed on championship setup. That was Mike Davis’s specialty.”Davis was Whan’s predecessor, a 31-year veteran of the U.S.G.A. who served as its executive director and then chief executive. He pushed for changes to course setups and tried new things like different heights of rough and giving public courses, including Erin Hills in Wisconsin and Chambers Bay in Washington, a chance at hosting a U.S. Open.Davis was given credit for trying different approaches around the championships, some more successful than others, but also for investing in some of the less public research projects that the U.S.G.A. funds. But Davis was also criticized, for how he set up courses (too hard) and for how the association regulated equipment (not tightly enough).The U.S.G.A. plans to build a player pavilion at the Pebble Beach course, the first time it is making permanent improvements to a host site. Douglas Stringer/Icon Sportswire, via Getty Images“Their No. 1 job should be controlling the equipment,” said Alex Miceli, a longtime golf commentator, referring to the debate over the distance a pro can hit a ball. “The U.S.G.A. did a horrible job with that. It’s like the Federal Reserve saying, ‘Inflation is going to be transitory, inflation is going to be transitory, inflation is going to be transitory.’ Well, it isn’t.”Whan said in the interview that he had no interest in wading into the course setup debate. That’s the domain of John Bodenhamer, the association’s chief championships officer.“When I walked into a setup meeting, I said to John, ‘I’m not necessary here, and I might be a detriment,’” Whan said. “The only guidance I’ve given is once you have a plan or a strategy, don’t change it. Don’t let scores or the media change it. Athletes don’t want that. I know that from being the L.P.G.A. commissioner.”Yet when Whan came on board after last year’s U.S. Open, several senior U.S.G.A. executives left, with the chief commercial officer departing on Whan’s first day in charge and the chief brand officer leaving about a month later.Whan then did something that no association executive has done: He brought in a title sponsor for one of the organization’s marquee championships. The United States Women’s Open, which dates from 1946, is now the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by ProMedica. The partnership with the health care company nearly doubled the purse to $10 million. When the Australian golfer Minjee Lee won the championship this month, she took home a record $1.8 million first-place check.Whan said in the interview that his focus was on improving the important things the association did that no one saw.“On planes, I’d get the question, ‘What does the U.S.G.A. do?’” he said, pulling out a card with “U.S.G.A.” written down the side. “I came up with Unify, Showcase, Govern and Advance.”And for him the last one is a priority. “‘Advance’ was the big one that was missing,” he said. “We don’t want to preserve; we preserved croquet and that’s not good.”Big areas of investment are strategies to reduce water usage and to develop junior golfers that way other countries do.While Whan said he had no desire to tinker with the U.S. Open, he’s also not about to neglect the tournament that brings in around 75 percent of the organization’s revenue.“The key is not to take it for granted,” he said, drawing a comparison to professional bowling, which dominated weekend television time when he was a child, but has fallen off drastically. “If we take it for granted, there’s no reason we couldn’t end up like bowling.”He repeated an oft-told story about Jason Gore, a former PGA Tour player who is the senior director of player relations at the U.S.G.A. Where the players win their U.S. Opens matters, Gore told him.While the men’s side is sewed up with stern tests for the next decade, including Oakmont, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach and Merion, Whan has made a push to have equally prestigious sites for the U.S. Women’s Open, with Riviera, Merion, Pinehurst and Pebble Beach on the roster.Securing these sites has come with U.S.G.A. investments. At Pinehurst, the association is building a second headquarters. At Pebble Beach, it is building a permanent player pavilion, which the course can use for other events. Taking a long-term view, the organization has done capital improvements to a host site; in the past it has put up and taken down structures.These initiatives are meant to make it easier for the U.S. Open, an immense logistical undertaking that ties up courses for months, to come back year after year. But it’s also to have sites host other events and work toward his goal of advancing other initiatives.“I don’t need U.S. Open partners,” Whan said. “I need partners in growing the game. We want to make sure these cathedrals of golf accept the responsibility to host not just the biggest and the most financially lucrative events.” More

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      At This U.S. Open Venue, the 17th Hole Is Known for Drama

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      The Country Club in Massachusetts is a founding U.S.G.A. venue, and that hole has always provided drama, including an amateur’s U.S. Open win in 1913.One of the most important venues in American golf began as a place to watch amateur horse racing. Founded in 1882, the Country Club in Brookline, Mass, the site of this week’s United States Open, is one of the oldest clubs in America and one of five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association. Yet none of that might have happened if not for the niece of one its members.Florence Boit was visiting Pau, France, in 1894 when “she came across an old course built by Scottish soldiers in the 1850s,” said Fred Waterman, the club historian. When she returned to the United States, she introduced the game to her uncle Laurence Curtis, a member of the club who would become the second president of the U.S.G.A.Soon after Curtis introduced the game, several members, despite never having seen a proper golf course, laid out six rudimentary holes on the club’s grounds. While none of those holes remain today, the rugged and rocky terrain the course sits on set its character.Built on rock outcroppings and winding through ridges formed by glaciers, the Country Club is a creation wholly of its time, with a layout and surface that is challenging to golfers of all skill levels, including the best in the world.Since 2007, Gil Hanse has been the consulting architect at the club, and he said that, unlike similar courses of that era that were “fit into the landscape, the holes of the Country Club seem to have been draped on top of the land that was there.”Part of the course’s charm are its small greens, unlike most in major championship golf. Hanse has worked with the club to expand its putting surfaces where he was able, but players this week will be aiming at smaller targets than usual.The Country Club has a long history of hosting U.S.G.A. championships, beginning with the 1902 United States Women’s Amateur. Including this year’s Open, it has hosted 16 U.S.G.A. championships, one in every decade except for the 2000s.Francis B. Ouimet, center, with Harry Vardon, left, and Ted Ray at the U.S. Open in 1913. Ouimet, an amateur, defeated Vardon and Ray in a playoff.Associated PressA famous championship played at the club was the 1913 U.S. Open, when Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old amateur who grew up across the street, beat Ted Ray and Harry Vardon in a playoff victory. Ouimet’s win catapulted golf’s popularity in the United States. Waterman said that, in the 10 years after Ouimet’s victory, the United States went from having 340,000 golfers to 2.1 million.It wasn’t Ouimet’s amateur status alone that made him golf’s folk hero at the time. He caddied at the club and took up the game using balls he found around the course and his brother’s clubs. He would often hit balls in a pasture at his own makeshift course. Ouimet’s unlikely victory and humble origins were chronicled by the writer Mark Frost in his book “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”In the 1913 playoff, the three golfers came to the 17th hole with its green sitting only 275 yards away from Ouimet’s childhood home and Vardon down one. Ray was already out of contention. Vardon tried to cut the corner of the dogleg left hole, but came up short, his ball landing in a bunker that now bears his name.This allowed Ouimet to take a more conservative route right of the bunker. Unable to reach the green, Vardon splashed out and then shot a bogey, while Ouimet went on to birdie the hole and take a three-stroke lead. He breezed home from there.Ouimet, who died in 1967, had a distinguished amateur career, winning the 1914 United States Amateur. In 1951, he became the first non-Briton elected captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. He never turned pro.Fifty years later, when the U.S.G.A. returned to the club to honor Ouimet’s win, the 17th hole again proved pivotal. Arnold Palmer missed an 18-inch putt that put him two strokes behind the leader, Jacky Cupit.“Cupit didn’t know he had a two-stroke lead on Palmer, and he told me if he had, he would have hit an iron off the tee and played to the middle of the fairway,” Waterman said.Instead, thinking he needed to reach for more, Cupit hit a three-wood, landing in the long grass next to the Vardon bunker, but not in it. He made double bogey on the hole to tie with Palmer and Julius Boros. Cupit still had a chance when he arrived at the 18th green and the 72nd hole of the championship, but he missed a 15-footer “by one inch,” Waterman said. He and Palmer lost to Boros in the playoff.Justin Leonard was mobbed by the American team during the Ryder Cup in 1999 after sinking a birdie putt from over 40 feet on the 17th hole at the Country Club.Craig Jones /Allsport, via Getty ImagesThe three U.S. Opens played at the club have gone to a playoff, and the 17th has always provided the drama. “It’s a match-play hole in a stroke-play event,” Waterman said, causing the golfer to consider his opponent especially down the stretch rather than just allowing the golfer to play his own game.In the 1988 Open, Curtis Strange three-putted the green, forcing himself to fall back into a tie, but he won the playoff the next day for the first of his two consecutive U.S. Open wins. The 17th also provided the 1999 Ryder Cup with a frenzied celebration after Justin Leonard made a putt from over 40 feet to win the hole against José Maria Olazábal, causing the American team and its fans to flood the green.The Country Club has provided a lot of drama. Frost, the author, said he believed that something else was at work at the club.“The course is an enduring American classic perfectly designed for dramatic finishes,” he said, “but my more mystical side thinks Francis might have something to do with it.” More