By Christopher Powers
BROOKLINE, Mass. — Billy Foster’s heart sank.

On the 72nd tee, where Matt Fitzpatrick (the boss man) arrived with a one-shot lead over Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler, who was already in the clubhouse at five under, Foster and Fitzpatrick decided on 3-wood. It was a debate the two had been having throughout the week at The Country Club, Fitzpatrick leaning toward driver each day. Anytime the Englishman has a chance to let the big dog eat, the big dog is gonna eat.

But this was the final hole of the United States Open. With a one-shot lead. Allowing Fitzpatrick to bring trouble into play in that situation would be borderline caddie malpractice. So 3-wood it was.

“We had a difference of opinion there all week,” Foster said afterward. “Today we said if you drive it straight down the middle [with a driver] it’s going to run out into the rough—just hit the 3-wood. It’s one of those where if you hit the fairway, you know it’s going to be a 9-iron.”

Fitzpatrick, however, did not hit the fairway. As his ball sailed directly toward one of the bunkers down the left side of the hole, Foster, already in a helpless position just by the nature of the job, was just about ready to vomit on Brookline’s hallowed ground.

“It’s in the air turning toward the trap and I’m just like …,” said Foster, who then made the face-palm motion.

Surely, ghosts of majors past crept into Foster’s brain, and he’s got more than a few that have kept him up nights. This is a man who was on the bag for Thomas Bjorn at the 2003 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, where Bjorn took a two-shot lead to the 16th hole when catastrophe struck, with Bjorn leaving two shots in a greenside bunker. He made double bogey and lost by one to Ben Curtis.

RELATED: Matt Fitzpatrick became a major champion by turning his shortcomings into strengths

Foster was on the bag of Lee Westwood for 10 years, a relationship that featured nine top-three finishes in majors, including three runners-up. The 2010 loss to Phil Mickelson at the Masters was among the most painful, but none surpassed the anguish of Westwood’s three-putt on the 72nd green at the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry, knocking him out of a playoff for the claret jug with Tom Watson and Stewart Cink.

“I’ve probably had six or seven really close calls, a couple heartbreaking losses,” Foster said. “It was tough to stomach sometimes.”

An 18th hole Fitzpatrick collapse would have ranked right up there on the sick-to-the-stomach list, another unfortunate what-if in a caddieing career full of them. When the duo arrived to find the ball in the bunker with Zalatoris safely 30 yards ahead in the middle of the fairway, Foster had his doubts.

“”It was sort of like, behind a steep lip, so he couldn’t go at the flag,” Foster said, “but he could just go to the left edge of the green. And he sort of plum-bobbed the ball at a tree at the back of the green that was probably like three or four yards inside the left edge of the green. Hit a good solid cut-off that. What a golf shot. The weakness in his game this season has been his fairway bunker play, which has been about as good as mine, and I’m rubbish. But if you’re going to hit a good one, it might as well be the last hole of a U.S. Open.”

Fitzpatrick’s shot, which has already become the stuff of U.S. Open legend, led to a two-putt par. That wound up being enough to clip Zalatoris, whose birdie effort slipped by the left edge of the cup and somehow didn’t fall. Knowing he still had to tap in for par, Foster and Fitzpatrick couldn’t quite start celebrating, but the tears were already flowing down the longtime looper’s weathered face.

“Just pure, utter relief,” Foster said. “I have the monkey off my back, but it feels more like a gorilla.”

Making this one that much sweeter was that it came in the major after Foster’s (and Fitzpatrick’s) latest close call a month ago in the PGA Championship. Fitzpatrick entered the final round at Southern Hills three shots off the lead, with a even-par final round good enough to have won it, and one over getting him in a playoff. It was not to be that day, and “not to be that day” is something Foster has gotten a little too used to on Sundays at majors over the years.

“I ain’t got many more years left in the game,” Foster said when asked if he thought the major may never come. “The disappointing thing about the PGA was that it was there to win. We didn’t have to do anything special at all. He just didn’t quite perform on Sunday, didn’t have his ‘A’ game and he missed too many fairways. Yeah, it’s disappointing, but through the experience of losing, you knew it was coming. He obviously won the amateur here, I just thought there was every chance he could compete again, and sure enough he did.”

Even after a lifetime of near-misses, Foster did allow himself to wonder if today was finally the day.

“Two or three times it flashes in front of your eyes and you have a little tear filling up and you say ‘stop that, stop that. Don’t even go there, just get on with it,” Foster said. “But I’d be lying if it didn’t cross my mind two or three times out there today. You just want it so badly you can’t help but think about it. But we both did very well, we worked well out there today. There was no mistakes, not one. Everything was perfect.”

By now, Foster’s well-earned celebration has already begun. He had a flight out of Boston Sunday night that he happily missed, and his next one, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, might leave without him, too. Who knows where the night will take him.

“I’ll start with a beer in the caddie shack,” Foster said while standing in the 18th fairway. “Followed by another 20.”

After 30 long, major-less years, Foster has earned all 21 of those beers. Hell, if he wanted to polish off a whole 30 rack himself, nobody would blame him.

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The post U.S. Open 2022: Caddie Billy Foster gets ‘gorilla’ off his back after years of major championship anguish appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
The USGA announced Tuesday that it will allow those who are competing in this week’s LIV Golf Invitational to play in next week’s U.S. Open.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has long promised that any tour member who competes in an event on the rival league would face suspension from the PGA Tour and possibly a lifetime ban, and the tour denied conflicting-event releases to all tour members who requested to compete in LIV Golf’s inaugural event in London. Likewise, the PGA of America has stood in solidarity with the tour, with PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh stating multiple times that those who lose their PGA Tour or DP World Tour memberships would be unable to compete at the PGA Championship or Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, the USGA had been relatively quiet on the matter, issuing a statement last week to Golf Digest that it reserved the right “to review any competitor’s situation on a case-by-case basis” regarding possible action against LIV Golf associates. However, on Tuesday, the governing body said LIV Golf players can show up to the USGA’s flagship event at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

MORE: Tiger Woods decides not to play in the U.S. Open at Brookline

“We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world and the players who have earned the right to compete in this year’s championship, both via exemption and qualifying, will have the opportunity to do so,” read a statement. “Our field criteria were set prior to entries opening earlier this year and it’s not appropriate, nor fair to competitors, to change criteria once established.

“Regarding players who may choose to play in London this week, we simply asked ourselves this question—should a player who had earned his way into the 2022 U.S. Open, via our published field criteria, be pulled out of the field as a result of his decision to play in another event? And we ultimately decided that they should not.

“Our decision regarding our field for the 2022 U.S. Open should not be construed as the USGA supporting an alternative organizing entity, nor supportive of any individual player actions or comments. Rather, it is simply a response to whether or not the USGA views playing in an alternative event, without the consent of their home tour, an offense that should disqualify them for the U.S. Open.”

A number of LIV Golf players are eligible for next week’s event, including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Martin Kaymer, Louis Oosthuizen, Branden Grace and Talor Gooch. In a statement announcing his return to golf with the LIV Golf series Monday, Mickelson said he still intends to play the majors, while Johnson said on Tuesday that he also plans to compete in the sport’s four biggest events.

The U.S. Open begins June 16. Jon Rahm is the defending champ.

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The post U.S. Open 2022: USGA will allow LIV golfers to play at Brookline appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dan Rapaport
Tiger Woods will not play in next week’s U.S. Open, opting to withdraw from the tournament and instead give his surgically rebuilt right leg added time to rest ahead of the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews.

Woods put out a statement Tuesday on social media announcing his decision to skip the championship at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.:

I previously informed the USGA that I will not be competing in the @usopengolf as my body needs more time to get stronger for major championship golf. I do hope and plan to be ready to play in Ireland at @JPProAm and at @TheOpen next month. I’m excited to get back out there soon!

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) June 7, 2022

Woods, who sustained traumatic injuries in a car accident in February 2021, returned to competition with a 47th-place finish at the Masters in April, where he opened with 71-73 but faded considerably over the weekend. Woods said prior to his next start, at last month’s PGA Championship that his leg had gotten stronger since Augusta and that he was optimistic about his chances—“It’s only going to keep getting stronger,” Woods told reporters before the PGA Championship—but the week followed a similar pattern to the Masters: He made the cut at with a gutsy second-round 69 only to withdraw after a third-round 79.

Dealt a tough blow with cool temperatures, which have plagued him ever since his spinal fusion surgery in 2017, Woods was visibly limping on Saturday at Southern Hills and trying to avoid putting weight on his right leg. The early exit, officially due to “pain and discomfort,” was Woods’ first withdrawal from a major championship as a professional.

Woods is a three-time U.S. Open champion (2000, 2002 and 2008) but has struggled in U.S. Opens of recent vintage, which tend to reward length and accuracy rather than creativity and guile. He has missed the cut in three of his last four U.S. Open starts and does not have a top-10 since 2010.

Since his return at the Masters, Woods has maintained that he will play in the Open Championship at St. Andrews, where he has won two of his three Claret Jugs. Woods is also committed to playing in the two-day J.P. McManus Pro-Am at the Adare Manor in Ireland the week prior to the Open Championship. He has said throughout this latest comeback that his days of playing a full-time schedule are over, and it is not clear whether he will play any more events in addition to the Open Championship.

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The post Tiger Woods decides against playing the U.S. Open at Brookline appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Phil Mickelson released a wide-ranging statement on social media Monday outlining his return to golf, with his first start coming at this week’s LIV Golf Invitational. Within the statement, the 51-year-old also seemed to telegraph his intentions to play in a second event: next week’s U.S. Open.

Mickelson noted that he was ready for “a fresh start” after taking a nearly three-month hiatus from golf that including skipping this year’s Masters and PGA Championship. Though the statement was mostly about the opportunity to compete on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series—including an apology for his February comments that ultimately led to his sabbatical from the game—Mickelson also said he still “intends to play the majors.” This is notable as next week the golf world visits The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., for the USGA’s flagship event.

RELATED: Phil Mickelson to make return to golf at LIV Golf Invitational

In April, Mickelson’s agent, Steve Loy, announced he had filed an application for Mickelson to compete at The Country Club, but that it did not mean Mickelson was certain he would play. As of this writing, Mickelson, a six-time major winner, is listed in next week’s U.S. Open field, earning an exemption through his win at the 2021 PGA Championship. However, the PGA Tour has promised disciplinary actions toward members who jumped to LIV Golf, and there has been speculation that the governing bodies of the four major championships may follow suit in some capacity, potentially impacting the 13 players competing in London who have also qualified for the field at Brookline.

Last week, the USGA released the following statement to Golf Digest regarding the eligibility of players in the field for the U.S. Open who are affiliated with LIV Golf. “We pride ourselves in being the most open championship in the world, with roughly half our field securing their position via local/regional qualifiers,” a USGA spokesperson said, “however we reserve the right, as we always have, to review any competitor’s situation on a case-by-case basis.”

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Mickelson has remained out of the public eye since late February when the Fire Pit Collective published an interview in which Mickelson claimed he was using the Saudi-backed golf circuit as leverage against the PGA Tour and claimed he had paid lawyers to draw up the league’s operating charter. The story caused backlash, with Mickelson issuing an apology for his “reckless” comments and stating he would be taking time away from the sport. Mickelson skipped the Masters—a tournament he’s won three times—for the first time since 1994, and three weeks ago dropped out of the PGA Championship, a tournament where he was the defending champ. Mickelson’s last appearance was at the Saudi International in February, and has not played in the United States since the Farmers Insurance Open in his hometown of San Diego in January.

Mickelson has made 30 career starts at the U.S. Open, the one major he still needs to win to complete the career Grand Slam. He has finished runner-up a record six times at the national championship, and has had a number of dust-ups with the USGA over that span, including hitting a moving ball at the 2018 event at Shinnecock.

The 2022 U.S. Open begins June 16. Jon Rahm is the defending champ.

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The post Phil Mickelson says he plans on playing majors, signalling possible start at the U.S. Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The cumulative points leader from the 2022 Korn Ferry Tour season—which begins Jan. 16 with the Bahamas Great Exuma Classic at Sandals Emerald Bay—will earn an invite to the USGA’s flagship event, beginning at the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles C.C.

“The USGA is pleased to offer an exemption to a tour that has been well-represented in the U.S. Open and has developed an accomplished group of professionals for more than three decades,” said John Bodenhamer, chief championships officer for the USGA. “Past U.S. Open champions Lucas Glover and Bryson DeChambeau are among the many who have started their careers on the Korn Ferry Tour.”

Added Alex Baldwin, president of the Korn Ferry Tour: “We are appreciative of the USGA acknowledging the exceptional performances by recent Korn Ferry Tour alumni in major championships and PGA Tour events, and we are excited to see our members compete for this amazing opportunity annually.”

It’s not just KFT alums that have enjoyed success at the U.S. Open. Jason Gore was a member of the then-Nationwide Tour when he played his way into the final pairing at the 2005 U.S. Open at Pinehurst, while Will Zalatoris finished T-6 at the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Following a composite super season imposed by the pandemic, the Korn Ferry Tour returns to a regular schedule in 2022 featuring 26 tournaments—23 regular events and three postseason stops—ending with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in the first week of September. The points leader exemption will combine points from the KFT regular season and playoffs.

This year’s U.S. Open will be played at the Country Club in Brookline, Mass., beginning June 16. Jon Rahm is the defending champ.

The post U.S. Open adds an exemption for Korn Ferry Tour points winner appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This week, the PGA Tour’s West Coast Swing starts again with the Sentry Tournament of Champions in Maui. The wraparound season had already begun, but for many, the images of palm trees blowing in the Hawaiian breeze at Kapalua give us reason enough to feel warmly optimistic about what the coming golf year will bring. With that in mind, we offer a few of those dates you might want to circle on your calendars—and not just the ones you think—as you look ahead to another intriguing year in our sport.

Jan. 30: APGA Tour plays on the big stage

Just like most pro mini tours, the Advocates Pro Golf Association—a circuit founded to provide more professional playing opportunities for minorities—has mostly toiled in anonymity. It got some exposure in 2021 when the Farmers Insurance Open offered a special exemption to APGA standout Kamaiu Johnson, and now the APGA is getting a chance to take a far bigger stage. After the Farmers Insurance Open finishes on Saturday, the APGA will be on Golf Channel on Sunday when it plays the Torrey Pines’ South Course in the final round of its 36-hole event, called APGA TOUR at the Farmers Insurance Open (the PGA Tour event wrapping up the previous day). Is there a star in the making for us to discover? We’ll see.

Feb. 3-6: Saudi International

In any other year, the Saudi event—which was formerly a part of the DP World Tour (which was formerly the European Tour)—was merely a curiosity to American fans, mostly to see which PGA Tour players were drawn to the Middle East for sizeable appearance fees. This year, it seems far more compelling now that the talk of rival tours has heated up, and the PGA Tour has given permission to its players to jump on their private jets (and pad their bank accounts) in what is now an Asian Tour event. Among them is Phil Mickelson, who will miss Pebble Beach, where he’s won five times.

March 10-13: Players Championship

It’s crazy to consider that the week of the Players will mark two years since the pandemic turned our lives upside down. Depending on how the first couple of months go with the Omicron variant, the tournament is expected to greet full galleries after being wiped out after one round in 2020 and limited to 20 percent capacity in 2021. Justin Thomas is the defending champion after narrowly making the cut and then rallying on Sunday to overtake Bryson DeChambeau and Lee Westwood.

March 27: Last chance (almost) for the Masters

The last opportunity to reach Augusta National—aside from winning the Valero Texas Open in the week prior—is to get into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the Corales Puntacana Championship. Good luck, bubble dwellers.

March 31-April 3: The Chevron Championship

Tears no doubt will flow for some when the LPGA plays the event for one last time at Mission Hills and the California desert, home to the tournament since it was founded by Dinah Shore in 1972. With Chevron as its new sponsor, the tour’s first major of the year since 1983 is set to move to the Houston area beginning in 2023. Patty Tavatanakit defends after an impressive breakout win in ’21.

April 7-10: Masters

The color and atmosphere of the men’s first major of the year is expected to return to full bloom after two years of missing Augusta’s most cherished gift: the roars. Hideki Matsuyama will be back as defending champion after his history-making turn last April.

May 19-22: PGA Championship

Is it possible Tulsa’s weather will actually be tolerable in mid-May? Southern Hills Country Club has hosted some oppressively sweaty summer majors, but this one might get a break with a spring date that opened when the PGA of America yanked the event from Trump Bedminster after the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021. Phil Mickelson is the defending champ from Kiawah, while the last man to win a major in Tulsa (Tiger Woods in the 2007 PGA) very likely will be watching from his couch.

June 2-5: U.S. Women’s Open

Pine Needles in Southern Pines, N.C., this year’s host, only got into the USGA Women’s Open rotation in 1996. But it has delivered impressive champions since: Annika Sorenstam in ’96, Karrie Webb in ’01 and Cristie Kerr in ’07. Yuka Saso of the Philippines defends after winning last year’s Open in a playoff at The Olympic Club.

Jonathan Ernst
Cristie Kerr receives the U.S. Women’s Open trophy after her two-stroke victory at Pine Needles in 2007.

June 7: Golf’s Longest Day

Ten sites … more than 800 players … 36 holes. And to the most talented and courageous on “Golf’s Longest Day,” there awaits a spot in the U.S. Open. There are 11 final qualifiers (the one outside of the U.S. being in Japan), and June 7 marks the 10 contested around the country in America. Last year, former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel made it through the gantlet, as did Wilson Furr, a University of Alabama star who didn’t even have a spot in his qualifier until some late withdrawals. Therein lies the beauty of the Longest Day.

June 16-19: U.S. Open

With the national championship returning to The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., for the first time since 1988, you’ll do yourself a favor if you brush up by reading one of the best golf books of all-time—Mark Frost’s The Greatest Game Ever Played—that recounts amateur Francis Ouimet’s Brookline triumph in 1913. Of course, memories of the Americans’ Sunday comeback at Brookline in the 1999 Ryder Cup linger, too. Jon Rahm is the defending champion from Torrey Pines, while Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick has a shot to pull off a USGA double after seizing the 2013 U.S. Amateur at Brookline.

Boston Globe
Arnold Palmer tees off in the 1963 U.S. Open at The Country Club.

July 14-17: Open Championship

A visit to St. Andrews makes every Open there special, but this one is particularly notable. It’s the 150th playing of the championship that was first contested in 1860. This will be the 30th Open played at the Home of Golf, with Zach Johnson being the last to win on the Old Course in 2015. Collin Morikawa will defend the title he captured last year at Royal St. George’s

July 18-20: Inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open Championship

With a progressive stroke of inspiration, the USGA will hold the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open Championship on the No. 6 Course at Pinehurst. The 54-hole event is open to men and women who have a physical, sensory or intellectual impairment. We’re looking forward to seeing and hearing the heroic stories for this one.

Aug. 11: FedEx Cup Playoffs begin

At a time in summer when we used to gear up for the PGA Championship, the PGA Tour begins its postseason with the FedEx St. Jude Championship. The top 125 from the FedEx Cup points list will qualify before being trimmed to 70 players for the following week’s BMW Championship. The BMW is scheduled for Wilmington Country Club, marking the first time the tour has staged an event in Delaware.

Aug. 25-28: Tour Championship

The top 30 from the BMW reach East Lake in Atlanta, where the FedEx Cup will be awarded for the 16th time. The financial stakes have never been sweeter, with the winner getting a record $18 million. Four of the last five champs have been first-timers. Anyone else like Jon Rahm or Xander Schauffele?

Sept. 22-25: Presidents Cup

Pushed back a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the matches between the U.S. and Internationals will be played at Quail Hollow in Charlotte. Trevor Immelman helms the Internationals opposite of Davis Love III, who must be feeling confident for two reasons: The Americans dominated Europe in the 2021 Ryder Cup and the U.S. has lost only once in the previous 13 contests—that lone time coming in Australia.

Dec. 31: Rules of Golf study day

On Jan. 1, 2023, the USGA and R&A will make their next update to the Rules of Golf, the first since the governing bodies modernized the rules back in 2019. You shouldn’t expect a complete overhaul like we saw four years ago, but if history tells us anything, there will likely be a handful of adjustments everyday players will need to note (changes have yet to be announced but will likely come by the end of the summer). Before the ball drops on New Year’s Eve, you might take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the 2023 Rules.

The post 16 dates golf fans need to circle in 2022 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Angel Cabrera was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison on charges he assaulted his former partner.

A court in the province of Cordoba, Argentina convicted Cabrera of assaulting, threatening and harassing Cecilia Torres Mana, who was Cabrera’s partner between 2016 and 2018. In the trial Cabrera denied any wrongdoing. He will serve the sentence immediately.

Cabrera, 51, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro in January on charges of assault, theft, illegal intimidation and repeated disrespect to authorities. He had been on Interpol’s “red code” list, which is used to seek the location and arrest of a person wanted by a legal jurisdiction or an international tribunal with a view to his or her extradition.

Cabrera had been on the run from an Argentine case involving assault claims filed by Torres Mana. Her case was joined by Cabrera’s former wife, Silva Rivadero, and another former partner Micaela Escudero.

Cabrera is widely considered the best golfer Argentina has produced, winning the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2009 Masters. He also finished runner-up at Augusta National in 2013, losing to Adam Scott in a playoff. He is credited with 52 official global wins and four Presidents Cup appearances.

He made nine starts on the PGA Tour Champions in 2020, his last outing in September at the Pure Insurance Championship. He made those visits to the United States without asking for permission from Argentine authorities, as requested due to the investigation. His trips to the U.S. forced prosecutors in Cordoba to issue an international arrest warrant.

The post Angel Cabrera sentenced to 2 years in prison for assault appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Bryson DeChambeau was eight holes away from successfully defending his U.S. Open title. Two hours later DeChambeau was in need of a cold one—and perhaps a hug—after coming out on the business end of Torrey Pines, playing the final eight holes in eight over. The stumble dropped DeChambeau from first to a T-26 finish and left the beefy man with one beefy “What if?”

Ten days later, DeChambeau sounded like he had come to terms with his tangle with Torrey. A tangle DeChambeau chalks up to bad juju.

“Just luck,” DeChambeau said Wednesday at Detroit Golf Club, ahead of this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, when asked what his takeaway from that Sunday in San Diego. Asked if that was the only takeaway, DeChambeau responded in the affirmative with a head nod.

While there would seem to be more at play than simple misfortune—back-to-back bogeys on the 11th and 12th holes seemed to be the byproduct of poor tee shots—DeChambeau is not necessarily wrong. At the par-5 13th his foot slipped on a tee box, sending his shot soaring to the right.

“Everybody was apparently slipping on 13 and I didn’t know that,” DeChambeau said. “I slipped two days in a row, then got in a bad lie, which you’re expecting, it’s the U.S. Open, but it’s a part of life. I could have hit it five more feet to the right across the cart path and gone for the green. So it’s just one of those things that a little bit of luck there.”

DeChambeau could muster his second only 140 yards ahead. A streaker intervened, with said streaker taking a few swings before being tackled into tomorrow by security. Perhaps that streaker swung bad vibes in DeChambeau’s direction, because Bryson’s third was barely in the air before it fiercely dived into a bunker. His fourth flew next to a case of beer (you read that correctly). The chip was good, but the putt wasn’t, leaving him with a double-bogey seven.

DeChambeau’s tournament officially ended on the 17th when he sent his drive into a canyon, leading to a quadruple-bogey 8.

“I just feel like my driver’s kind of a bit of luck,” DeChambeau continued. “Sometimes I pull it, sometimes I push it and on 17 I pulled it into a bad lie or in the hazard and then hit a great wedge shot and it spun off the front edge into a really bad lie and just hit it off the hosel and went over the green. That’s what it is. It’s just things compounding on each other that you just can’t necessarily control fully. You hit a great shot, nothing happened for you. That’s luck.”

To be fair, DeChambeau said it works both ways, nodding to his breakthrough at Winged Foot as a matter of providence.

“Yeah, huge factor. I mean, On 14 [at Winged Foot] I hit it left … into a dead spot where the pin was left as well, and I was kind of on an upslope and I was trying to hit it 20 feet past but I chunked it,” DeChambeau said. “It came out dead just on the front edge and trickled to 10 feet and I made the 10-footer to have a flip flop again with Matthew [Wolff] to give myself a four-shot advantage.

“You’re going to need those to win. Every golf tournament has that. People don’t realize how much luck plays a big factor. You can control a lot, but at the end of the day, still luck is a huge component of it.”

DeChambeau, who is the defending champion at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, tees off at 1:10 p.m. on Thursday.

The post Bryson DeChambeau has a simple answer for his back nine blow-up at the U.S. Open appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Daniel Rapaport
CROMWELL, Conn. — If you’re under, say, 40 years old, you know what FOMO is. If you frequently interact with someone under 40 years old, you know what FOMO is. Still, in the spirit of anti-agism, we’ll define the acronym: Fear of Missing Out.

It’s the feeling you get on a Saturday night, when you’re stuck on the sofa wondering what shenanigans your friends are up to. Or, in Rickie Fowler’s case, when you’re stuck inside your South Florida mansion watching your boys play in the United States Open.

It’s a new phenomenon for Rickie, because the 32-year-old played in 42 consecutive majors from the 2010 British Open through the 2020 Masters. But he’s now missed two in a row, as a barren stretch of play—he remains winless since February 2019 and dropped as low as world No. 128 in June—saw him fail to qualify for this year’s Masters and U.S. Open.

Predictably, he’s not a fan of the whole not-playing-majors thing.

“It’s not fun watching other guys play majors, that’s for sure,” Fowler said Wednesday, ahead of the Travelrs Championship. “It’s added motivation. I wouldn’t say I ever like necessarily took them for granted. It’s such a fine line out here. I think all of you understand that. Everyone out here on Tour understands that, the difference of being on teams or being at majors and sitting at home watching is small. Same thing with playing the weekend and missing cuts, making cuts. It’s a putt or a shot here or there that can change kind of the outcome of the week.”

The good news for Fowler is he won’t have to suffer through FOMO anymore. At least not this year, as he’s qualified for this year’s British Open at Royal St. George’s by way of his T-6 at the last Open, the 2019 edition at Royal Portrush.

He’s also beginning to see signs of a sustained turnaround. Playing on a special exemption form the PGA of America, Fowler finished T-8 at last month’s PGA Championship at Kiawah, then followed it up with a T-11 at the Memorial Tournament. As such, he’s risen to No. 88 in the world-—nothing to write home about for a former mainstay in the top 15, but progress nonetheless.

“I’m obviously here and planning to be in a position to have a chance over the weekend and on Sunday,” Fowler said. “With the finishes I’m coming off of, I definitely expect myself to be up there and kind of continue to ride the wave that we kind of started.”

There’s also the best news of all: his wife, Allison, is pregnant with the couple’s first child. Fowler shared the news on social media on Monday but said they found out the week of the Honda Classic, back in March.

“Everyone tells me it’s life changing. There will be a little change in the dynamic of whether it’s home and practice, on the road. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure over the next few months I’ll continue to think about it, but won’t really know until the little one shows up and we know exactly what we’re going to do from there.”

On the road. If it’s up to Fowler, he’ll be gone each of those four special weeks next year. It’s no fun watching other guys play majors.

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By Daniel Rapaport
Even the most ambitious youngster would have a hard time dreaming up Jon Rahm’s reality on Sunday at Torrey Pines. The 26-year-old birdied 17 and 18 to win his first major championship and become the first Spaniard to win the U.S. Open. He took over as World No. 1 in the process … at the same spot he proposed to his wife … on his first Father’s Day as a dad … two weeks after he made national news for a brutally timed positive COVID test.

Rahm emerged the last man standing from a punch-drunk final day in San Diego, his final-round 67 good for a one-shot victory over the perennially second Louis Oosthuizen. For one last look back at a dramatic and chaotic week, here are 18 parting thoughts on the year’s third major.

1: We start, as always, with the winner. As mentioned above, Rahm’s victory resembles a Hollywood script for a number of reasons. But we’re going to focus on something far less romantic: the distinctly unemotional decision he made in the most crucial moment.

Rahm was tied for the lead as he sent his second shot into the green on the par-5 18th hole. His ball kicked pretty hard right before resting on a downslope of the bunker, with the green sloping away from him and toward a water hazard. The temptation there is to try to nip a spinner right at the flag and leave yourself a kick-in birdie. As one of the better bunker players on Earth, Rahm is absolutely capable of that shot. But it’s also a hugely risky undertaking, for the consequences of a not-perfect shot could be dire.

It’s so difficult to think of the negative in that moment. Rahm had just gutted a winding birdie putt on 17 and screamed at the top of his lungs when it dropped. His veins were overflowing with adrenaline. He’d waited his whole life for this moment, an up-and-down birdie to likely win the U.S. Open … and he had the discipline to pull himself out of dreamland and acknowledge that he might not hit that bunker shot perfect—and if he doesn’t, he brings disaster into play.

Sean M. Haffey
Rahm’s decision not to take on the flag (and the water looming behind it) with his bunker shot on the final hole at Torrey Pines was the right call, even if he didn’t hole the subsequent birdie putt.

So he made the mature, if unsexy, decision, played safely right of the flag, eliminated the water from the equation and gave himself an 18-footer for birdie. He’s not likely to hole that putt—the PGA Tour make percentage from that distance is roughly 17 percent—but he made sure he had a birdie look, which is what made it the smart choice from a probability standpoint. He wasn’t taking a knee or accepting par; he made the decision that gave him the best chance to make the lowest score considering all possible outcomes from the bunker shot. Of course, it looked genius when the putt fell in dead-centre, but it was the right call either way. Little moments like those often serve as the differentiator in a 72-hole event, and Rahm handled a high-leverage situation perfectly.

2: That’s now six runner-up finishes at majors for Louis Oosthuizen, and along with his playoff loss to Bubba Watson at the 2012 Masters, this one might sting most. The shot he hit on the 17th tee—a pull into the hazard when there were acres and acres of turf right of the fairway—will not soon fade from his memory.

In turn, his reputation for near-misses only grows, which is equal parts amazing and unfortunate. One does not simply rack up seven top-two finishes in majors; that’s the same number Brooks Koepka has, and more than Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy. Oosthuizen is an incredible player who shows up time and again in the sport’s biggest events, but we’re running out of justifications for his down-the-stretch tumbles. That he still hasn’t won a PGA Tour event since the 2010 Open Championship remains one of the crazier realities in golf.

3: For a while there, this leader board featured the most superstar contenders we’ve seen on a major Sunday since the 2019 Masters. At roughly 1 p.m. local time, there were 11 guys within three shots of the lead—including Oosthuizen, Rahm, McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. At 2 p.m., there were 10 guys within a shot. So many massive names being in the mix, coupled with the return of fans, made this year’s final round umpteen times more enjoyable to watch than last year at Winged Foot, when Sunday afternoon was dominated by has-Bryson-solved-golf chatter. This was markedly less existential, in a great way.

4: And then, about an hour later, it descended into pure and utter mayhem. Major Sunday pressure never fails to torment even the best players in the world. As soon as the 18th hole enters the line of sight, guys start moving in reverse. You had Morikawa blading a wedge shot over a green on 13. Bryson shooting a back-nine 44. Mackenzie Hughes lodging balls into trees. Koepka bogeying a par 5 to finish. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the tenor of a Sunday round completely flip when it gets to winning time, but this tempo change rang particularly loud.

5: On Saturday night, I received the following text from a player at Torrey: “Bryson is going to win this. And it’s gonna be like this for years if they don’t change the setup a bit.” A tad fatalistic, perhaps, but it does speak to a growing trend at the U.S. Open.

Last year, Winged Foot played straight into the bombers’ hands. Those fairways were nearly impossible to hit, and when everyone is constantly in the rough, being closer is simply a massive advantage. Torrey’s fairways weren’t quite so hard to find—the kikuyu gives them that soft first bounce, and they’re not as canted—and while some non-bombers were able to hang this week, it felt like no coincidence that Rahm, Bryson, Brooks, Wolff, Rory and Co. bashed their way into contention. The identity of this championship, as Paul Azinger pointed out ad nauseum, has shifted from accuracy-first to power-first. It’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, but it’s a true thing, and it’ll be fascinating to see the setups at The Country Club next year and Los Angeles Country Club in 2023. Rough doesn’t feature quite so prominently at either of those courses, but in the post-Chambers Bay, post-Erin Hills years, the USGA has stuck with a narrow-fairway-brutal-rough-formula. We’ll see if it continues.

6: Despite his back-nine implosion, DeChambeau has mastered the art—er, science?—of bomb-and-gouge. If that name offends you, we’ll go with bomb-and-reassess. Becoming a beefed-up Bryson wasn’t just about adding speed and distance, but also vowing to fully commit to a new strategy. It’s not just that he’s hitting it farther, it’s that he hits driver wherever it’s even semi-feasible. The data supports this strategy. You wallop driver off the tee. If you find the fairway, you attack. If you don’t, you shift your focus to making par. And DeChambeau is able to do this better than basically anyone for two main reasons. One, his sheer strength allows him to muscle balls out of rough that other guys cannot. Two, his single-length irons mean his wedge and short irons are longer than most, allowing him to get some extra speed and steepness into the ball, which are crucial to rescuing balls from calf-high cabbage.

Ezra Shaw
At Torrey Pines, DeChambeau copied the bomb-and-gouge game plan he used to win at Winged Foot in 2020, but too many unforced error on the back nine Sunday ended his hopes of a repeat victory.

And while it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing method to make your way around a golf course, nor is it the type of game Bobby Jones or Ben Hogan played, it’s paying huge dividends at tough courses with penal rough. Places like Winged Foot and Torrey Pines, yes, but also Bay Hill, where DeChambeau won earlier this year. How it’ll work at Royal St. George’s, where the wind is always a factor, is anyone’s guess. We have yet to see Beefy Bryson bring his experiment to a links course, and the juxtaposition between the ancient courses and his distinctly modern game present a fascinating dynamic.

7: Rahm speaks better English than 99 percent of Americans. Maybe 99.9 percent. A non-golfer friend reached out to ask if Rahm’s first language is English, for he couldn’t possibly have that kind of mastery of his second language. Only he does. Rahm knew very little English when he arrived at Arizona State in the fall of 2012, and he’s now a master of irony and sarcasm and pacing and dramatic pauses. On Tuesday, he eloquently explained why he supported the PGA Tour’s handling of the Memorial situation. On Sunday, after Oosthuizen failed to eagle the 18th, he waxed poetic about why Torrey Pines holds such a special place in his heart. It could’ve been an ad for Rosetta Stone.

8: Guido Migliozzi’s name could not be more fun to say. Nor could it be more Italian, which led to some delightful GIFs and memes and “Inglourious Basterds” references. (Enzo Gorlami! Dominic Decoco!) Migliozzi, however, was anything but a sideshow in his major-championship debut. The 24-year-old fist-pumped his way to a top-four finish, which gets him into next year’s U.S. Open and the Masters. He came into this week off back-to-back runner-up finishes in Europe and kept the momentum cooking on this side of the pond. A hugely impressive week for a promising young player who will join Francesco Molinari in representing his country at the Olympics.

Sean M. Haffey
Competing in his first U.S. Open, Migliozzi grinded out a top-four finish at Torrey Pines that earned him a return ticket in 2022 as well as a spot in next year’s Masters.

9: A half-baked idea: Golf tournaments should have a little screen next to the tee that shows radar data from tee shots. Imagine if, after a Bryson bomb, the fans could see “192 mph ball speed” and, a few seconds later “332-yard carry.” Something tells me some well-served patrons would get a kick out of that. It’d be similar to the pitch speed and exit velocity MLB teams show in their stadiums. The only potential snag in this genius plan is it would tell players how far their ball is flying on a certain day, which feels like something of an unnatural advantage. Ehhhhh. Not that big of a deal. Let’s make it happen.

10: Richard Bland—complete with grey stubble, a four-year-old driver and his home course’s logo on his hat—put a smile on all our faces for two-plus days. The 48-year-old, winless in his first 477 European Tour starts before finally grabbing a victory last month, held a share of the lead at the halfway point, providing our latest example of just how beautifully unpredictable this game is. To see him up there was a genuine shock … until you saw him swing the club. As good a move as anyone’s. It was yet another reminder of just how many great, great golfers there are lurking beneath the surface in professional golf.

What he said on Friday afternoon stuck with us: “The old saying is you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. I’ve always had that kind of attitude that you just keep going. You never know in this game. You just keep going.”

How relatable is that? You truly, truly never know. We’ll play our best round ever and then stink the next time out. Hit terrible shots all day, then pure two in a row for a kick-in birdie. Most professionals feel similarly. There is an element of chaos in golf that borders on randomness. It’s part of what makes this torturous game so great.

Harry How
A spot atop the leader board through 36 holes for journeyman Richard Bland was one of the U.S. Open’s more entertaining subplots.

11: Torrey Pines took quite a beating this week. The wonkier corners of Golf Twitter were dominated by debate over Torrey’s worthiness as a U.S. Open course. We see both sides. On one hand, Torrey did not benefit from falling directly after Kiawah’s Ocean Course, one of the more visually distinct and intriguing designs in the United States. It’s uncanny how many holes at Torrey are just long and straight, with bunkers on both sides of the fairway landing area and both sides of the green. Apart from Nos. 3 and 18, there aren’t really any holes you immediately recognize because they’re all so similar. On the other hand: not every golf course can be breathtakingly beautiful and unique, and one measure of a tournament venue is the leader board it produces. This one was loaded.

Two things can be true at once: Torrey is not a bucket-list golf course, and it served its purpose as a U.S. Open host venue. The lack of complaining spoke volumes as far as player satisfaction with the golf course. Here’s what Phil Mickelson, who has not held back from ripping the USGA in years past, had to say about the setup: “I’m very surprised that, in the 30 years I’ve played the U.S. Open, this is the best I’ve seen. I thought they did a remarkable job, and I’m really proud and happy that it’s here at Torrey.” That’s not for nothing.

12: One more Torrey note. Hard not to love what the USGA did with the par-3 third on Friday, when it was converted from a 195-yard mid-iron to a 134-yard wedge. There is no feeling in golf quite like seeing your ball flying toward the flag but not being sure exactly where it’s going to plop down. Short, in the bunker? A solid 40 feet past the flag? Or, ideally, right next to the stick? Short, downhill par 3s are a factory for please-be-good-type shots because it’s quite tricky to figure out just how much mustard to take off, and it was terrific watching guys hoping (praying?) their ball carried the correct weight. Plus, having the Pacific swirling in the background only added to the intrigue.

Positive Torrey take: *love* what they did with 3 today.

Hard to beat a short, downhill par 3 where everything is right in front of you. Most fun feeling in golf is waiting for the ball to drop, not entirely sure where it’ll land. This maximizes that. With that backdrop too ?? pic.twitter.com/J0yQw2fE38

— Daniel Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) June 19, 2021

13: How great was it to see Matt Wolff play so well this week? And, more importantly, enjoying himself in the process? It does feel we’re at a bit of an inflection point regarding athletes and mental health—Naomi Osaka has played a major role in shaping the conversation—and Wolff’s ability to return like this, after all that time off, will surely inspire more players struggling internally to consider stepping away for a bit. Which, of course, is great. Golf tortures all of us who play it for fun; imagine the mental toll it takes on guys who play it for dollars.

Wolff wasn’t the only one this week to candidly discuss the mental anguish this game wreaks. Here was Bubba Watson, after shooting four-under 67 on Friday: “I’m going to be dead honest with you. Don’t tell nobody, this is a secret. I am nervous over every shot, OK? … I don’t know what’s going on. I’m so nervous.” And, a day later, 19-year-old Akshay Bhatia: “I just have a hard time enjoying myself and understanding the opportunity I created for myself and just the atmosphere. I should enjoy it a lot more than I do. I just didn’t have fun today, which really sucks because a lot of golf is score-oriented, and when you’re not playing well, it feels like it sucks, but I can’t do anything about it.”

That’s hard to read, coming from a teenager who’s living out his dream. But the first step toward improvement is acknowledging the problem, and more and more guys are open to doing exactly that. It’s wonderful to see.

Sean M. Haffey
Matthew Wolff’s openness to the mental-health struggles he’s been going through of late made him easy to root for this week at Torrey Pines.

14: An interesting, inside-golf problem that could use addressing. A number of Korn Ferry players were in the field this week and did not receive any Korn Ferry Tour points for their performance. This may sound like the obvious outcome—the U.S. Open is not a Korn Ferry Tour event—but should guys really be punished for playing their way into a major?

Consider Taylor Montgomery, who got into the field through the Southern California qualifying site. He came into this week ranked No. 24 on the KFT points list, with the top 25 getting PGA Tour cards at the end of the regular season in August. Montgomery made the cut in the U.S. Open. And he dropped to No. 28 on the KFT list because he didn’t play in the tournament that was going on simultaneously in Wichita, Kan. The same is true for Dylan Wu, who came into the week at No. 28 on the KFT, finished T-31 at Torrey, and will be further from his PGA Tour card come Monday morning. This feels like a no brainer; create some points scale to award players who get into majors and play well in them.

15: Announcers can’t stop, won’t stop saying “this, from a minute ago.” It’s a reasonable thing to say if journalistic integrity is your No. 1 goal. But this is entertainment, and every time a broadcaster says that we know something is about to happen. If it’s a guy way out of contention putting from 60 feet, you know it’s going down. If it’s a shot from the fairway, you know it’s going to flirt with the flag. A huge part of what makes watching sports on TV so fun is not knowing what’s going to happen. So, stop telling us this was from a moment a go. Lie to us. We’re giving you permission to do so. For entertainment’s sake.

16: Super aggressive, yell-at-the-top-of-your-lungs fist pumps have their place. But so do understated, muted fist-clenches. They feel a bit more intimate. More inwardly focused. Less let’s goooo and more come on, we can do this. Rory McIlroy delivered a perfect one after holing a birdie putt on 4 on Sunday.

The loud, yell-in-your-face fist pumps are cool and all…but always felt the subdued one hits a little harder.

Rory’s not messing around today. pic.twitter.com/IpVHh7OIQF

— Daniel Rapaport (@Daniel_Rapaport) June 20, 2021

17: Different week, same story for Collin Morikawa. The 24-year-old has emerged as the premier iron player in the world, and the gap between him and everyone else is widening. Morikawa leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained/approach and strokes gained/tee-to-green this season, and so he’s able to contend week-in, week-out despite losing strokes putting most weeks. At Torrey, he led the field in SG/tee-to-green and finished T-5 despite losing a half-shot to the field putting.

About that putting … it seems the best putters get up there, have a look, maybe a practice stroke or two, and go. Morikawa often looks frozen as he stands over the ball, and while we can’t pretend to know exactly the reason, most instructors will tell you nothing good happens in those extra still moments. If he ever figures out the flatstick, he will become No. 1 in the world shortly thereafter. But it’s a not-small if.

Sean M. Haffey
If Morikawa could figure out his putting woes, he’d rise to World No. 1 not long afterward.

18: After a one-year COVID hiatus, the U.S. Open once again had qualifiers in the field, and the tournament was much better off for it. USGA officials love to point out that playing your way into our national championship is “part of the U.S. Open’s DNA” but the slightly canned talking point is so true. Last year’s all-exempt field lacked the charming stories of off-the-radar guys who earned their week in the sun. Take Kyle Westmoreland, the first graduate of the Air Force Academy to make a cut in the U.S. Open. Or Bhatia, the 19-year-old former junior prodigy who made the cut on the number. Or Wu and Montgomery and Greyson Sigg, who showed that Korn Ferry Tour players can hang with the big boys. The best finish at Torrey by a qualifier? That would be Branden Grace with a tie for seventh. Not exactly an underdog story, as the South African has played on three Presidents Cup teams, remains the only man to shoot 62 in a major and once sat inside the top 10 of the World Ranking. But his game has been in a tough spot for a few years, and so he had to qualify for this tournament—because golf is the ultimate meritocracy, and the U.S. Open is the most meritocratic tournament of them all.

The post Jon Rahm’s gutsy 72nd-hole decision and 17 other parting thoughts from Torrey Pines appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.