The Day After - Tao Of Rory Edition

I'm just finding the post-Master version of Rory to be inexplicable and maddening.  And given that I wasn't exactly high on the guy for being LIV's Useful Idiot™, I find myself unmoved my his existential navel gazing.... All I can see is the self-absorption and hypocrisies.

The dilemma is, where to begin.  When Rory prevailed at Augusta the reaction was immediate, with the monkey off his back he would be freed up and the sky would be the only limit.  Since Masters Sunday, has Rory looked unburdened to you, Dear Reader?  Has he arrived at events unburdened by his albatross?  Or has he looked churlish and truculent?  

Here's just one data point:

Rory McIlroy smashes U.S. Open tee marker, throws club, skips media after making cut

Rory McIlroy made two late birdies on Friday evening to make the cut at the 2025 U.S. Open. But if you think that made him happy, well, not necessarily. McIlroy’s frustration also boiled over in Round 2 at Oakmont, climaxing with the Masters champion smashing a tee marker with his club.

Before that McIlroy was caught tomahawk-throwing his club, and post-round, McIlroy again refused USGA requests to meet with the media.

Fortunately, your humble blogger is  a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I'll just take comfort in the fact that he destroyed that tee marker with what is presumably a conforming club.  Win-win, baby!

To be fair, this was no little love tap:

Nine years later, the USGA gets its revenge. 🤣pic.twitter.com/z86wo1dflD https://t.co/NyeqOMM7Pb

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) June 13, 2025

Would have loved to see the shrapnel hit a fan, instead of himself.  But Rory, even off his game, managed to maintain his fundamentals, at least those espoused by Tommy Bolt:

"Always throw your golf club ahead of you so you don't have to waste energy going back for them."

And I think you'll agree that in the following videos that each of Rory's positions is just textbook:

Rory is in a battle with Oakmont this week, and it is not going his way. 😳pic.twitter.com/A97qRd8lQt

— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) June 13, 2025

Got a joke for you.  Rory McIlroy walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Why the long face?"  OK, less a joke than a serious question, why at the acme of his golfing life is he acting like a spoiled brat?

Eamon Lynch has an interesting take on his countryman, though I find some of the filler more interesting than his conclusions, beginning with this from Masters Sunday:

Shortly afterward, an elated McIlroy opened his press conference with a question that poked fun at the previous decade of inquiries about whether he would win a green jacket: “What are we all going to talk about next year?” :

Who is this "We" you speak of?  Obviously you don't intend to talk to anyone about anything....

McIlroy never took time to fully process that seismic accomplishment. Ten days later, he was at the Zurich Classic playing with Shane Lowry, having made a trip to London and Northern Ireland

in between. Then it was on to the Truist Championship and straight into another major at the PGA Championship. By comparison, when Tiger Woods won the Masters in ’97, and also in ’19, he did not make a competitive appearance for five weeks.

McIlroy has been asked what comes next several times since the Masters. Even earlier this week at Oakmont, he was asked what his plan is for the coming years. “I don't have one. I have no idea,” he said. “I’m sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.”

It was disarmingly honest, but alarming for those who fetishize the mentality epitomized by Tiger Woods, a single-mindedness that moves shark-like between feasts without enjoyment or even digestion. It's a sentiment that celebrates racking up accomplishments, but not of taking actual pleasure in those victories. Earlier this year, McIlroy said one of his goals for ’25 was to have more fun. It’s why he went to a soccer game in Bilbao with friends, why he wants to play in India and Australia later this year. Yet somewhere along the way, he denied himself the time to have fun celebrating the greatest achievement of his career.

The bolding is mine, but the irony, she burns.  Who would have bet that he would win the Masters and yet look so miserable thereafter? 

The gist of Eamon's column is in this header:

Lynch: Rory McIlroy had three goals in 2025. He’s achieved the first, now on to the second

In a casual conversation a few months back, he summarized his objectives for the year: win the Masters, win the Open at Royal Portrush, win an away Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. As he prepared to leave Pittsburgh, McIlroy acknowledged fresh motivation is on the horizon for the second item on that list.

Do we know what kind of tee markers will be at Portrush?  because he might want to dial back the poutiness for the home crowd.

Mike Bamberger takes his own shot at what in heck is going on:

Why Rory McIlroy’s sudden frostiness is so jarring

Beginning at Quail Hollow:

Then, on the eve of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow, he was told that his driver, the driver with which he won the Masters, did not pass the USGA’s conformance test. The face, degrading over time, had become too thin. On the Friday of the PGA Championship, there was a report about this failed driver on SiriusXM PGA Tour radio. And since then, from the outside looking in, Rory McIlroy — beloved Rory McIlroy, with his six majors and his career Grand Slam and his wife and young daughter and devoted parents and discreet caddie and his South Florida pals — appears to be on an epic run of. . .cranky.

And it’s kind of a freak-out moment for possibly millions of people because . . .

If this guy is cranky, with all he’s achieved and all that he has, what chance do the rest of us have?

If you follow men’s professional golf closely, you know about the smashed tee marker at Oakmont. You know about the half-dozen times he has blown by various reporters who have covered him with a detectable delight for years, while giving his private life a wide berth. You know about his uninspired play since the Masters.

Something is going on here. Could it just be the non-conforming driver and how the news of it eked out? That just seems so unlikely. That would seem like an overreaction.

The more so since they insist that they can't know that the equipment has slipped into the red zone, though Mike does seem to be willfully ignoring the implications of the failed test, to wit, that the career slam was tainted.

So Rory did deign to speak to the media after his Saturday round, but should he have?

McIlroy talked to reporters after his Saturday 74. It was like a divorced couple having a court-mandated conference in chambers. The first question was posed by Stephen Watson, a veteran sports reporter and anchor for BBC Northern Ireland, a notably staid news organization.

“Can you give us an assessment of your U.S. Open so far?” Watson asked.

McIlroy’s two-word answer, and the long, excruciating pause that followed it, told you loads about his state of mind.

“Pretty average,” he said, as if the BBC Northern Ireland audience, and millions of other people beyond its reach, don’t have the right to know more.

I don’t want to turn this into one another self-absorbed media v. famous athlete contretemps. There’s way too much of that, everywhere. My view is that Collin Morikawa is lucky that people are actually interested in what he does as a professional golfer. But if he doesn’t want to share insights into his experiences on any given day, that’s up to him. For Rory or any of the others, the same. I have great respect for Tiger Woods, that he stood up there round after round, when golf was easy for him and when it was not, and took questions. And the times he didn’t, no big whoop.

But this feels different. For over 15 years now, we, reporters and fans, have made this investment in caring about Rory McIlroy, the person and the golfer, in good times and bad. And we’re finding out now the feeling is not always mutual. That, at the very least, is disappointing. From the person who just two months ago won the Masters and became the sixth golfer to win the career Grand Slam. Weird, weird, weird.

So there’s that, and there’s also something much more significant, and it’s one of the trickiest things in the human experience: Can you be in regular, meaningful contact with your own sense of gratitude? That’s a question for Rory McIlroy, for you, for your correspondent, for anybody and everybody. It’s a universal.

The last question a reporter asked McIlroy on Saturday afternoon was this: “What do you look for tomorrow?”

“Hopefully a round in under four and a half hours and get out of here,” McIlroy said.

I realize that’s a quick and annoyed answer to a question of no particular depth. But it is insulting to the hundreds of USGA officials and volunteers who work so hard to put on this tournament, and the Oakmont members and the club’s hundreds of employees. To the people who prepare the food he and others ate here, who cleaned the toilets he and others used here, who provided the security and the first-tee welcoming and everything else. It is the answer of an entitled person not in touch with the fundamental value of gratitude. (Asked Saturday whether he felt like he has the right to decline post-round interview requests, McIlroy said, “I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do.”) I’m not judging. Believe me, I’ve been there myself, acting uppity and important. I try to be aware. Here, with Rory, I’m observing, is all. We see what we see. I’m guessing it’s a passing mood.

Guessing or hoping, Mike?

But I'm going to disagree strongly with Mike on the Morikawa issue, but boy is that an odd way to frame it.  I think we all have a sense that there will be moments, such as when Morikawa kicked away a golf tournament, that we want to give them a pass because we know they're taking it hard.

But look at how Collin and Rory treat us.  Collin can't just acknowledge that he had a tough moment.  No, he needs to say to us "Don't you know who I am?"  I don't owe you anything.....

As for Rory, he has said in plain English that he will only speak to the media when it suits his mood, and I also find it interesting the Mike elides the most confrontational thing Rory said:

Reporter: “You’re so transparent for us and very available. Yesterday was six major rounds in a row you’ve stepped away. Has that been part and parcel to the frustration on the golf course? What do you attribute it to?”

McIlroy: “No, not really. It’s more a frustration with you guys.”

Reporter: “In what way?”

McIlroy: “I’m just, yeah, I don’t know. I have, I’ve been totally available for the last few years, and I’m not saying — maybe not you guys, but maybe more just the whole thing.”

Reporter: “Did it stem from the whole driver thing?”

McIlroy: “Yeah, part of — I mean, that was a part of it. Yeah, that was a part of it. But it’s not as if — like at Augusta I skipped you guys on Thursday, so yeah, again, it’s not if as if — it’s not out of the ordinary. I’ve done it before; I’m just doing it a little more often.”

Reporter: “Is it part of the, you kind of carried the Tour, in your words, for three, four years now. Do you feel like you’ve earned the right?”

McIlroy: “I feel like I’ve earned the right to do whatever I want to do, yeah.”

Reporter: “You have, in relation to that, almost addressed the fact that the Tour does not require that kind of thing. It’s almost like you’re daring them to do so in some way. Is that, you know, in terms of a requirement of the players?”

McIlroy: “No, I’m not daring them to do anything. I hope they don’t change it because it would, you know — this is, it’s a nice luxury to have. But I’m just pointing out the fact that we have the ability to do it.”

Rory, I'm old enough to remember when you pretended to care about the game.  Now we understand that you're caring about Rory......  Funny thing, though, is that I still care about the game, but no longer care about a certain Ulsterman.

James Colgan takes his won shot at it:

Rory McIlroy’s U.S. Open theatrics ended on a strange note

While Rory McIlroy’s performance at this week’s U.S. Open was many things — strange, tumultuous, disappointing, mystifying — there is little debating that it was also very good theater.

The rising acts came on Thursday and Friday, when McIlroy ejected from contention by tossing

clubs, shattering tee markers and shirking the press. Those moments built toward Saturday afternoon, the climax, when McIlroy surprised reporters with a bizarrely combative press conference in which he largely blamed them for his absence. They culminated on Sunday — the falling action — when McIlroy shot a breezy 3-under, spoke again on much cheerier terms, and exited into the night with a smile on his face.

If McIlroy’s U.S. Open were a movie, it would not score high points for plot clarity. Nobody in the golf world knows what’s peeving the Masters champion these days. Fewer still know what changed between Saturday and Sunday, other than perhaps his score and his travel schedule, to justify the shift in tone. We can surmise he isn’t thrilled with the coverage around his failed driver test at the PGA Championship, and is still wrangling with a green jacket/grand slam hangover, but neither of these actions fit the crime of detonating media relations after 18 years of thoughtful introspection. The larger machinations are hard to understand.

Still, if McIlroy’s U.S. Open were a movie, you’d keep watching. Perhaps not with the rapt attention you tuned in to Augusta National in April, but with the morbid intrigue you might find while consuming a Greek tragedy.

In many ways, McIlroy’s post-Masters life has been distinctly Promethean. Much like the story of the Titan who discovered fire, McIlroy’s history-changing gain appears to have come at a price. Thankfully, the press — and the golf press in particular — are friendlier punishment than a bird trained to eat his liver, but it is not hard to see the parallel. For McIlroy, the daily questions are a reminder of the difference between fulfillment and happiness. After Augusta he will forever have the former, but at Oakmont he seemed to be missing the latter.

Don't think he's acting very fulfilled, but maybe James sees something different.  But this bit sounds strange to my ears:

“Look, I climbed my Everest in April,” McIlroy said on Sunday. “I think after you do something like that, you’ve got to make your way back down, and you’ve got to look for another mountain to climb.”

McIlroy suggested that Royal Portrush, the hometown site of this year’s Open Championship, could be the new mountain he seeks — and perhaps he is right. But from the side of the clubhouse at Oakmont on Sunday afternoon, the drama of U.S. Open week seemed to be about much more than a golf course.

In many ways, this week was always about more than McIlroy’s failure to talk to the press. There has been plenty made of his absence already, but few words were more poignant than those of McIlroy’s good friend, the Golf Channel analyst Paul McGinley, during Saturday evening’s Live From.

“I didn’t enjoy [his comments]. I don’t like to see it,” McGinley said. “When he does that, because people look up to him, a conference like that with his body language and short language doesn’t serve him right. I’m disappointed for Rory that it’s come to that. Something is eating at him. He hasn’t let us know what it is, but there’s something not right.”

Rather, McIlroy’s U.S. Open was really about the final part of McGinley’s analysis, about what serves Rory. After a decade of torment and many, many painful press conferences, it does not serve McIlroy to live out his days battling a media cold war like the protagonist in a Greek tragedy. It serves McIlroy to live comfortably with the fulfillment he worked so hard to achieve — to not just star in his story but enjoy it, too.

A letdown was inevitable, no?   I thought those folks suggesting that the major floodgates would immediately open for him were naïve in the extreme, but the bigger is issue is why is he so miserable?

Before we wind down, I left this from the Tour Confidential panel on the side yesterday:

It was an odd week for Rory McIlroy, who declined to speak with the media after his first two rounds — “It’s more a frustration with you guys,” he said Saturday — and who finished in a tie for 19th place and failed to contend for the fifth straight start since his Masters win. He also reiterated that it has been difficult at times to stay motivated following the career Grand Slam. How would you unpack McIlroy’s week, and why do you think he’s still struggling so much with finding that motivation?

Sens: McIlroy came across as mentally unready before the week began, and he proved that he wasn’t in a great head space when his opening round on Thursday started coming unraveled. In one sense, it seemed odd. In another, it seemed very typical of McIlroy: when he’s on, boy is he on. But when he’s not quite right, he’s not going to contend in the way that, say, Scottie Scheffler does when he doesn’t have his A game. As for motivation, McIlroy has said it himself. It is tough to keep grinding at that level when you’ve achieved everything you’ve always dreamed of. I can relate. As a child, my greatest ambition was to someday take part in an online forum offering armchair analyses of lavishly paid professional athletes. And now here I am, so satisfied I can barely bring myself to finish typi . . .

Melton: It seems Rory has some post-achievement depression. After over a decade of trying to accomplish one of his life goals, the comedown seems to have him in a funk. It’s a bit odd how he’s handled the media during this slump, and I can’t help but wonder if there’s something more to the story than he’s letting on. I’m sure we’ll all find out one day.

Schrock: I think because as human beings we aren’t wired to have just one purpose, one goal that leads to everlasting actualization. David Duval famously won The Open and wondered if that was “it” on the flight back. Kevin Durant hoisted a trophy with the Warriors and was more lost than ever. It’s up to Rory to find, as he put it, another “Everest” to climb. He will. It might take time. He’s human, just like the rest of us. Has it been “disappointing” that his post-Masters run has been so flat and filled with an unnecessary feud with a golf media that has given him almost two decades of glowing coverage? Absolutely. But eventually, Rory McIlroy will finish digesting achieving one lifelong dream and move on to the next pursuit.

Hirsh: Schrock, I think you hit the nail on the head here. The last few weeks, McIlroy’s struggles have me thinking back on a chapter from one of Bob Rotella’s — who is also McIlroy’s mental coach — books. In the first chapter of Golf is Not a Game of Perfect, Rotella talks about how wonderful it was to work with Pat Bradley — Keegan’s aunt — because she always was focused on qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame, which is one of the most difficult halls of fame to qualify for. Once Pat won for the 30th time in 1991 to qualify for the Hall of Fame, she asked Rotella what she should do to find her next dream. She didn’t win again until 1995, which was the last of her career. It’s ironic that McIlroy works with the same coach now. Do I think it will take him four years to win again? No. But, it seems like he is having trouble identifying what his dream will be moving forward now that he has checked off the Masters, which he was trying to nab for 11 years. It will take time.

Was it an odd week, or is this the new Rory?

We all get that he'll have to refocus his competitive juices, and none of us really care how he plays in the short-term.  The bigger question is, has he always been this big of an asshat, or is something else going on?   

Dylan Dethier has one last take from his Monday Finish column:

3. Rory vs. the Media.

I know part (all?) of the job is to react to stuff that happens, but although I am fascinated by this latest chapter of Rory McIlroy vs. the media I do not condone the collective handwringing we’ve done as an industry around it. Is something up with Rory? Sure. But my instinct is that any over-the-top reactions we make in real time about his relationship with the media or whatever may age like a glass of milk. Let’s come back to this at some point when we know just a little bit more. In the meantime, here’s my favorite quote about athletes talking to media, from Andre Agassi’s biography, which I think about constantly:

“I can’t imagine all these people trying to be like Andre Agassi, since I don’t want to be Andre Agassi. Now and then I start to explain this in an interview, but it never comes out right. I try to be funny, and it falls flat or offends someone. I try to be profound, and I hear myself making no sense. So I stop, fall back on pat answers and platitudes, tell journalists what they seem to want to hear. It’s the best I can do. If I can’t understand my motivations and demons, how can I hope to explain them to journalists on deadline?

“To make matters worse, journalists write down exactly what I say, while I’m saying it, word for word, as if this represented the literal truth. I want to tell them, Hold it, don’t write that down, I’m only thinking out loud here. You’re asking about the subject I understand least — me. Let me edit myself, contradict myself. But there isn’t time. They need black-and-white answers, good and evil, simple plot lines in seven hundred words, and then they’re on to the next thing.“

(And that was pre-social media!)

I included it because it's interesting, though not necessarily illuminating.  I get why Rory finds the media off-putting, but it's quite obviously part of the job.  Yes, the Tour (and five families) have given them wiggle room on a day-by-day basis, but Rory has basically threatened that he will only address the media when he feels the love.   Over to you, tournament sponsors?  Does that sound like a sustainable model?  Isn't as the reporter above suggested, likely that Rory will force the Tour's hands? 

I for one am reexamining my take on Rory.  He has said in plain English that going forward he will do exactly as he pleases, so I will be watching what that entails and how the governing bodies respond.  But the implication is that Rory will be allowed to fly his freak flag, and how do we think that affects the PGA Tour fan experience?  

Which leads to an inevitable conclusion about our Rory.  That it was, in fact, never about growing the game or strengthening the Tour, it was about doing what Rory damn well pleases.  Noted.

See you guys down the road.  Have a great week.

Weekend Wrap - Chaos Theory Edition

Was that a wild enough Sunday to suit your tastes?  In many ways it was wilder than the finish at Augusta, which involved a deep dive into the dark mind of only the one guy....

As has been our recent practice, we'll let Geoff lede with his Oakmont by the numbers:

Round Four By The Numbers

• -1: Winning score of J.J. Spaun (66-72-69-72)

• 5th: U.S. Open champion to finish birdie-birdie on the final two holes of the championship (Ben Hogan, 1953 at Oakmont, Jack Nicklaus, 1980 at Baltusrol, Tom Watson, 1982 at Pebble Beach, Jon Rahm, 2021 at Torrey Pines, J.J. Spaun 2025 at Oakmont)

• 67: Low final round score by Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy

• 7: Rounds under par Sunday

• 78: Fourth-round score of third-round leader Sam Burns

• 4:01 p.m.: Play suspended during Round 4 due to dangerous weather in the area.

• 5:37 p.m.: Restart time.

• 6:55 p.m.: Five-way tie for the lead (Burns, Scott, Spaun, Hatton, Ortiz

• 136: Feet of putts made by Spaun over the last six holes

• 64’5”: Longest putt of the week made (Spaun, 18th hole, fourth round)

• 40-32: Spaun’s nines making him the first U.S. Open winner since Ouimet to shoot a 40 or more over nine to win

• 7: Majors won since 2019 by Southern California natives (Woods, Morikawa (2), Mickelson, Schauffele (2), Spaun (1))

I'm thinking that's it's all background music except for that 136' of putts made....

Here's Geoff's take on the outcome:

Oakmont reliably spawns varying degrees of cruel chaos.

For most of a dreary Sunday at Henry Fownes’ inland links, the tenth U.S. Open played at the storied club appeared on track for first ballot entry into the Boondoggle-Adjacent Majors Club.

As the leaderboard bunched and the skies opened up, the 125th had all the makings of a grim major that would stand with other silly-rough, luck-friendly, relentless weeks that snatched victory from some legendary jaws.

We know the type of major: the least unlucky golfer hangs around, plods out a lot of pars, swerves around a few pile-ups, and lifts the trophy while blushing as bluecoats look on, wondering what the hell just happened while vowing that they don’t protect par or that efforts at score manipulation usually backfire.

But as multiple far more accomplished players tripped over a golden opportunity, J.J. Spaun did the unthinkable in brutal conditions and after an opening nine full of horrendous luck: he put the kibosh on any plans to declare the 125th a military grade clunker.

Spaun donated a pair of jaw-dropping closing hole shots for future USGA Museum consideration and is destined to join the greatest in championship lore. The 34-year-old San Dimas, California native birdied his final two holes to overcome very non-SoCal weather to win by two over Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre.

That "Far more accomplished" is a bit of a stretch, as the leaderboard ended up dominated by guys with rather short CVs.  The only prior major winner in the mix was a certain Aussie of a certain vintage, but even there one needs to be careful to avoid triggering words like....well, Lytham.

I'm not the only one using the chaos angle:

Delays, rulings, ‘bad luck’, heartbreak: 20 ways this U.S. Open went insane

Only twenty?  That's a rookie number... As evidenced by his first example:

1. J.J. Spaun‘s horrendous break

 Break?  As in the singular?  

This is the bit that will have folks talking, methinks:

9. A rules kerfuffle

Fifty-four hole leader Sam Burns had made several bogeys and a double but was still just one shot back as he played No. 15, the hardest hole on the course. His drive found the right edge of the fairway. But it was soggy around his ball — unsurprising, given the fairway’s right-to-left slope. Burns thought he should get relief from “temporary water” (AKA casual water). A rules official felt otherwise.

“When I walked into it, clearly you could see water coming up. Took practice swings and it’s just water splashing every single time. Called a rules official over, they disagreed. I looked at it again. I thought maybe I should get a second opinion. That rules official also disagreed,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the rules official. That’s kind of that.”

For your own judgment:

Mea culpa, as Twitter doesn't seem to want me to embed that video of water bubbling up, which you should be able to view here.  On the one hand, I did think there was sufficient water to permit relief, though I've no idea where the drop would have been.  On the other hand, though, it's not like others didn't absorb bad breaks as well.

Geoff also gives us a fine game-story type accounting of Spaun's finish:

Spaun took the U.S. Open lead with a birdie at the par-4 14th but arrived at the short, drivable 17th tied with MacIntyre who had birdied the hole moments before. Asked on Golf Channel’s Live From by Rich Lerner if it was the best tee shot of his life, Spaun confirmed that the 309 yarder, a “nice little cut” that started 15 yards left of a pin deliciously cut to lure aggressive drives, was the best he’s ever hit. Spaun’s Srixon finished just under 18 feet and he gave it an aggressive run, forcing a 3’6” putt for the one-stroke-lead-taking birdie:

With MacIntyre making par at the 18th for the first time all week and sitting in the clubhouse at even par after the USGA decided any playoff would be Monday morning, he watched as Spaun needed a final-hole par to win the U.S. Open. Spaun had missed the fairway so far right on Saturday that he signed a glove for a fan. And he bogeyed the 502-yarder hole in rounds two and three.

Spaun stepped up, hit another left-to-right gem 314 yards down the middle and faced a 190-yard

approach. Spaun pulled it to 64’5” from a cut in the right center of the sprawling green. Playing partner Viktor Hovland arrived at the hole needing a birdie and a Spaun three-putt, but pulled his approach to 66’1”, just outside Spaun’s ball. The “teach” as the cool kids call it, would make a huge difference in the outcome.

“I didn't look at the scoreboard,” Spaun revealed after the round. “I knew based off of what the crowd was saying that I felt like, if I two-putted, I would probably win, but I didn't want to look because I wanted to still -- I didn't want to play defensive. I didn't know if I had a two-shot lead. I didn't want to do anything dumb trying to protect a three-putt or something.”

No problem!

“Viktor helped me a lot,” Spaun continued. “It was a foot left of my line. It's pretty ironic, my first PGA Tour win, almost the same thing happened at the Valero, but Scott Stallings was in a bunker on the last hole, we were in the same group -- the back left bunker -- and I hit my third shot on the back fringe, and I had to literally mark my ball for him to hit the bunker shot. He, same thing, splashed it out, right on my line, and just like fed it down to the hole. It was probably like a 40-footer.

“When I was walking up to 18, I was thinking about that moment. I was like, ‘Oh, my God, like this is meant to be here,’ because this is the same thing that happened to me for my first win.”

Incredibly dramatic, but am I the only one to note that the putt was carrying a bit of speed when it hit the pin?   That 3'6" leave on the prior hole seemed fraught with peril, the come-backer on the final green might have been longer.  

As much as we've all come to hate these guys the last few years, the reactions to Spaun's putt were really quite great.  First Hatton, whose temper was completely off-putting to Employee No. 2, but this shows the sudden change in his expression as he saw Spaun's bomb drop:

Tyrell, more like that, please.

And the Scot that finished just short:

It was only seconds later that Spaun’s 72nd-hole 60-footer somehow found the bottom of the hole — driving a dagger through MacIntyre’s U.S. Open dreams. And only a few seconds more until NBC flashed MacIntyre’s face to a few million people as he grappled with the fact that he’d fallen shy.

Maybe because MacIntyre knew he was one shot short all along. Maybe because he’d tried not to let his U.S. Open dreams get too far. Maybe because he was as surprised as the rest of us. But when the putt fell and the camera camera caught him, Robert MacIntyre did something interesting: He cheered.

The applause lasted maybe five seconds, joined by a hearty laugh and a one-word response — “Wow.” — but it’d happened too suddenly to be anything other than sincere. Spaun had broken MacIntyre’s heart, but in an odd way, he’d also softened the blow.

“He won the golf tournament,” MacIntyre told GOLF.com nearly a half-hour later. “Fair play. I mean, he’s dreamed of it. I’ve dreamed of it. Everyone’s dreamed of that moment. For him to pour in the winning putt, I mean, nothing I can do. Fair play.”

Those two instinctive reactions grew the game more than ten years of Signature Events, if only these over-entitled brats could understand.

Shall we check in with the Tour Confidential gang?

J.J. Spaun won the 2025 U.S. Open, closing with a final-round 72 to edge Robert MacIntyre by two. With five players tied at one over late in the day, are you surprised to see Spaun emerge from this group? What was the difference?

Josh Sens: I never would have picked Spaun to win prior to the tournament. But by the time late Sunday rolled around, he’d played three-and-a-half rounds with the calm demeanor and dead-

eyed driving that are crucial in a U.S. Open. He’d also fought back from a couple of seriously bad breaks. A ridiculously unlucky carom off the flag on 2. An unfortunate bounce off a rake at 4. Compare that to the way Sam Burns let a wet lie on the fairway get under his skin, and you could say the big difference was outlook. Spaun made some poor swings and piled up bogies. But in the end, he didn’t beat himself.

Zephyr Melton: I was certainly surprised in real time, but when you think back to the brutal luck Spaun had to start the day, it’s not as surprising. No one in the field got as much bad luck pre-rain delay, and the stoppage was a good reset. Once he came back out, the bad breaks befell other contenders, and Spaun was able to stay steady.

Josh Schrock: I’m very surprised, especially given how Spaun’s final round started. After the bogey at the first and bad break on the second, I thought he was headed for an early exit. But he didn’t let that rattle him. He stayed in his process and hung around until the rain delay, which allowed him to breathe and reset. Once play resumed, his accurate driving gave him opportunities to rise, and the tee shot on 17 was his major moment.

Jack Hirsh: I agree with Sens, it was the way he shrugged off the bad breaks to start that kept him in it, but it was his putting that won him the tournament. Sure, the tee shots on 17 and 18 were critical, but they would have been irrelevant had he not drained those two long putts on 12 and 14. He gained more than 10 strokes on the field putting despite averaging more than 30 putts around! Wild statistic! Was I surprised he beat out guys like Burns, Scott, Hatton and Hovland? Absolutely! I thought he was done after starting with five 5s, but I guess 55 is a lucky number for Spaun. Awesome major championship finish.

Sure, Josh, none of us would have picked him pre-tourney, but his first three days had me high on his chances for Sunday.  The stoppage of play was a big break for him, though it wasn't like he didn't endure luck going in the other direction those first few holes.

It was a chaotic Sunday at Oakmont, with a lengthy rain delay followed by wet conditions and several players battling for the trophy. Who are you surprised didn’t come through?

Sens: From the start, I thought Viktor Hovland was going to pull it off. He’d been in the hunt in majors so many times, and his all-around game seemed solid the first three days. Funny game. Anyone who tells you they can predict it is lying or fooling themself.

Melton: Adam Scott. It seemed like destiny that his career would get a punctuation mark with a U.S. Open win at Oakmont. Alas, he just didn’t have anything today. A final-round 79 was not what I (or anyone else) expected.

Schrock: It’s Hovland for me. He was the best player at the top of the leaderboard, and I thought he’d be able to pull off the shots under pressure that I assumed would doom Spaun and Sam Burns. Instead, he hit just seven fairways and lost over a stroke on the greens to finish T3. The search continues for Viktor.

Hirsh: It was Scott for me, too. Maybe it’s bias because he is golf’s ultimate gear nerd and I cover gear. Maybe it’s because I was 15 when he won the Masters, and his career was right behind Tiger and Phil for me growing up. Maybe it’s because it’s always fun to root for the 40-year-old in the field of 20-somethings. Scott has been good at closing the deal for much of his career (aside from the obvious exception at the 2012 Open), and this seemed like it would have been a dream-like cap to a hall-of-fame career. I guess I’m happy he proved he still has what it takes. Like 188 mph ball speed at 44? SHEESH.

Denial, it ain't just a river in Egypt.  We were presented with a leaderboard of players that have always struggled down the stretch, then we're surprised when they don't come through under brutal conditions? The wonder is that, given the leaders, that anyone won.

Several players were frustrated by the soggy conditions, which made an already difficult Oakmont even tougher. Do you think the tournament should have been delayed to Monday? Or was the Sunday finish the right decision by the USGA?

Sens: It was the right decision. If play were stopped every time modern Tour pros were unhappy with playing conditions, no event would ever get completed.

Melton: In the words of Scottie Scheffler, it is an “outdoor sport.” Let the boys play.

Schrock: Absolutely the right decision. Let’s see who is the best at getting the ball in the hole when everything isn’t optimized. Tip of the cap to the USGA.

Hirsh: That was fantastic theater. Right decision. Next question.

Let's see if I follow the question.  The organization that told us for a century that the only fair way to settle a tie is an 18-hole playoff (originally thirty-six, by the way) wanted to finish on Sunday?  Wow, who could have seen that coming?  Of course it was the right decision.

Here we veer into more thoughtful territory (though I'll admit that I've skipped their Rory question):

In its 10th time hosting the U.S. Open, Oakmont Country Club allowed just one player to break par and only two players shot 66 or better the entire week. What did you think of the venue for this week? And did it prove to be too hard, not hard enough or just right?

Sens: It’s a great venue. Not the most telegenic of the U.S. Open anchor sites. But it’s my favorite of them. Have you ever seen so many short putts missed by so many great players. The course is a beautiful bear, and the greens are beyond belief in their subtlety and severity – in ways that TV can’t quite capture.

Melton: Perfect difficulty. If every U.S. Open could finish with just the winner finishing under par, I’d absolutely love it. A war of attrition is fun to watch once every year, and Oakmont is the perfect venue for that.

Schrock: This is what the U.S. Open is supposed to be about. A complete mental examination that is about grit and grind, not getting on the Trackman and golfing in a dome. It might not be my favorite U.S. Open venue, but Oakmont always rocks. Had it not been for the rain, the carnage would have been off the charts.

Hirsh: I think the dichotomy of how J.J. Spaun and Sam Burns handled bad breaks was a perfect example of what a U.S. Open should be. Yes, was there some luck involved in whether you could advance the ball out of the ridiculous rough? Sure, but J.J. Spaun put together the best final nine holes at a U.S. Open since Tiger Woods in 2000. You can’t tell me he wasn’t a fitting champion. And it was great theater till the end. All at a course that was short of 7400 yards. We honestly should just have the U.S. Open there every year. Having played it, I know it’s also a blast despite being the most difficult course in the world.

Certainly the comments I heard were embracing the difficulty, even when it veered into silliness.  It feels to this observer like a Back to the Future moment, and the name that keeps popping into my mind is that of Tom Meeks, not a good thing at all.  Mike Bamberger, who I've in the past referred to as the conscience of our game, takes a crack at the meaning of it all, though I'm nit sure he gets anywhere useful:

In this brutally tough U.S. Open lies lesson for the game at large

Strangely, he begins with the B-word:

On the top-100 list of Great Pretentious Terms in Ye Olde Game, bifurcation has got to be in the top five, if not higher. Some notable golf people — Tiger Woods, for instance — have stated their objection to “bifurcation” in golf. In this ridiculous use of the word, it means one set of rules for elite pros, and another for the rest of us. “Let me tell you something,” Fred Perpall, the president of the USGA, said on Friday, as he stood in the shadows of the sprawling Oakmont Country Club clubhouse. “This game is bifurcated.”

If this 10th U.S. Open here, at this gorgeous golfing torture chamber, has proved anything, it is this: THEY DO NOT PLAY THE GAME WE PLAY!

(Please excuse the shouting, but this is getting personal.)

And since they do not play the game we play, and since the playing conditions they require to make 280 a meaningful four-round U.S. Open score have become so absurd, there really is only one solution: a golf ball for them, a few times a year. That’s what Fred Perpall wanted.

“That was our original intent,” Perpall said. “A ball for the elite male professional. But the PGA of America and the PGA Tour shot it down.”

The new ball, the 10-percent-shorter ball, was a compromise.

I would say, a poor one.

Here's the case he makes:

The PGA Tour has become a TV show. If the Tour wants to continue to play with the hot ball in ordinary events, it really doesn’t matter. The other tours, including LIV, the same. Ryder Cup, the same.

But the men’s majors are often played, and best played, at the most storied courses in the world. Their antiquity and history is a huge part of the appeal of these events. Augusta National. Pebble Beach. The Old Course. Royal Portrush, site of next month’s British Open. Oakmont, for sure. A 7,000-yard course, with more finesse demands, would make golf only more popular. I don’t hear any oohing and ahhing over monster drives anymore, at least not like there used to be when Tiger was in his 20s. That’s because everybody is super-human long. It’s not special. Major-championship golf is lesser for it.

It is easy to see officials at Augusta National (home of the Masters), the USGA (custodians of the U.S. Open) and the R&A (the British Open) getting behind such a ball. Maybe the PGA Tour would as well, for the Players Championship. If PGA of America officials, in deference to the organization’s membership, don’t want to get behind such a ball, I can understand that. But it would hurt their marquee event.

“I see this as incremental,” Perpall said on Friday. “We roll out this new ball, we gauge its effect, we go from there.”

I’m not holding much hope for the 2033 U.S. Open at Oakmont. I am more hopeful that the 2042 Open here, and the 2049 Oakmont Open, can be played on a shorter, faster-playing course that does not require so much water and seed and fertilizer and green speed to make 280 a meaningful Sunday-night score.

I'm old enough to remember when Mike and others expected Augusta National to roll out their own ball,  a big ask for one club in Georgia to take on.  

There's only two ways to control elite players, firm and fast conditions and punishing rough (there is a third, controlling the equipment they use, but we can rule that out).  Since the USGA insists on holding Opens in the Northeast in June, we can rule out the former....

But the problem is clear, that deep, punishing rough affects the championships.  If I mention Andy North, will you understand why?  How about my namesake?  There used to be an animal known as a U.S. Open player, and we may not like the resulting leaderboards.  T. C. Chen, anyone?

Let's finish with the TC stuff:

Who won the U.S. Open week without winning U.S. Open week?

Sens: Hmm. I think I’d have an easier time coming up with the guys who had it within their grasp and couldn’t quite put it away.

Melton: Robert MacIntyre! He braved the conditions better than anyone and it damn near earned him a U.S. Open title. He’s one of the more earnest players in pro golf and I can’t help but root for his success. Honorable mention to Carlos Ortiz for earning a career-best major finish at T4.

Schrock: Despite the poor final round, I’m going to say Adam Scott. Like Justin Rose at Augusta, I love seeing uber-talented pros who are past their prime but still love the grind. Scott talked about how winning a second major would fulfill his own self. At 44, with all the money in the world, to still be relentlessly pursuing who you dreamed you’d be is admirable. I hope he gets another major.

Hirsh: I would say Scott or MacIntyre, but since those are taken, I’ll go with Scottie Scheffler. He had a couple of brutal short misses, but ended up having a back-door top-10 with his C game. Feel like he had his B game at the PGA Championship, so really wonder what his A game is looking like right now. Scary for the field!

Other than Oakmont and its greens staff?   MacIntyre is as good as I could do on that one.  I don't think Adam Scott or Sam Burns much enjoyed their flights home.

Finally, what did you learn this week?

Sens: It wasn’t a new lesson but an old one reinforced. At the elite level, in the most pressure cooker of situations, the game is 90 percent mental and 10 percent mental. They all have all the shots. But what matters most is how they cope with the results.

Melton: Oakmont is the hardest golf course on earth. Despite a deluge of rain in the leadup, and a couple proper soakings during the week to soften the course, just one player finished under par. Imagine how high the scores will be if there’s ever a week where it gets baked out and there’s a little wind. Ten over might win the thing!

Schrock: A lot of the game’s elite players are finding their form with one major remaining. Jon Rahm gained strokes everywhere except the greens this week. Same with Collin Morikawa, who led the field in SG: Approach (2.21) but lost it all putting. Brooks Koepka showed signs of life and Jordan Spieth played well outside of a brutal nine-hole stretch on Friday. Rory McIlroy led the field in SG: Driving, which is a good sign given his recent woes. Xander Schauffele was positive in all four strokes gained categories. Scottie Scheffler arguably should have won the tournament if not for a handful of missed putts and an uncharacteristic driving week. Many of the elite are trending (with McIlroy being the big question mark). It all sets up for fireworks at Royal Portrush in a month.

Hirsh: Sens, I like to say that it’s 95 percent mental and the other five percent is in your head. Oakmont is amazing, but I think we already knew that. I think I learned that if you really want to challenge the best players in the world, you have to actually penalize them for missing the fairway. Even with soft greens, Oakmont proved that you can play a reasonable length golf course and still hold up against the best players in the game as long as they are truly penalized for missing fairways and missing fairways in the wrong spots.

I think there are some good answers there, but I think each good answers should also come with an asterisk.  because, while we did enjoy watching them struggle, I have gnawing  feeling that we won't much love too much of a good thing.  I thought many of the best moments were when the lies in the rough were good enough for them to advance the ball, and often they got themselves in trouble as a result.

I have deliberately avoided any discussion of a certain Ulsterman, including holding back one TC panel question.  If the schedule stays clear, perhaps a deep dive there tomorrow?  Hate to promise given my recent attendance issues, but too much there for today.

Have a great week.

Tuesday Tidbits - Oakmont On My Mind Edition

Sorry about that abrupt ending to yesterday's post, but real life has been intruding lately.  But shall we pay it off today?

Geoff has devoted his efforts to these four majors, so no surprise that he's on fire this week.  We'll lede with his characteristic Oakmont By The Numbers:

Oakmont Country Club By The Numbers

1904: Year that Oakmont opened for play




1: Original architect, Henry Fownes




1: Course ever designed by Henry Fownes






12: Architects/superintendents who have since made modifications (William Fownes Jr./Emil Loeffler, Arthur Jack Snyder, Robert Trent Jones, Arnold Palmer/Ed Seay, Ferdinand Garbin, Arthur Hills, Tom Marzolf, Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw, Gil Hanse)




+13, +11, -5, -1, -5, -4, -5, +5, -4 : Winning scores (to par) in Oakmont’s nine previous U.S. Opens




72-72-72-71-71-71-71-70-70: Course par in nine previous U.S. Opens




7 of 9: U.S. Open winners at Oakmont also won their first major that week




70: Par in 2025




7,372: U.S. Open official yardage (7,219 in 2016)




78.4/150: Course rating and Slope




168: Bunkers




0: Water features




63: Course record (Johnny Miller, 1973)




2: Church Pew bunkers




1: Original Church Pew bunker (third hole…the 15th hole version was created by RTJ Sr. for the 1953 U.S. Open)






109: Length in yards of the third hole’s Church Pew bunker




13: Pews (up from 11 in 2016)




1: Bunker nicknamed “Big Mouth” (blind 17th green front bunker)






13: Professional majors hosted (9 U.S. Opens, 3 PGAs)




2033, 2042, 2049: Years of future U.S. Opens




684: Par 5 12th hole yardage in round one of 2016’s U.S. Open




300: Par 3 eighth hole yardage in round four of 2007’s U.S. Open




9’8”: 1977 Stimpmeter speed reading at Oakmont




3: Greens sloping away from the landing area (1, 10, 12)




3: Oakmont Country Clubs in the USA (Glendale, CA and Corinth, Texas)

So, Johnny Miller shot 63 at Oakmont?  Does anyone remember him mentioning it?  The other uncharitable reaction is to note that one of Trent Jones' most famous architectural features is a direct copy of something created by a guy that designed exactly one golf course.... Sounds about right, no?

Geoff helpfully provides this on changes since w elast visited:




What’s Changed Since 2016?




After hosting the 2021 U.S. Amateur the club enlisted Gil Hanse to create a master plan. It resulted in a 2023 renovation.




Instead of a pure restoration based on a high point architecturally, Hanse focused on each hole’s peak from 1903-1947 when at least one of the Fownes’ was above ground and in control of the course.




The project included:




24,000 sq. ft. of green expansions (without rebuilding), including 2,300 sq. ft on the third green




330,000 sq.ft. of bunker renovations, including expansion of the infamous Church Pew bunker at No. 3




Two acres of fairway expansion




250 yards of additional tees




Select modifications to discourage players from playing down neighboring fairways




Reduction of bunker face swelling around greens that reduced visibility and hole location possibilities




Realignment of fairway contours to better snake through bunker complexes instead of sticking to a formulaic width 




Repositioning of select bunkers which had been added incongruously or were placed with little strategic purpose




He also includes before and after photos of two specific changes, first to the tee shot on No. 7:

The re-worked 7th tee shot is a textbook example of installing more options. The added temptation to take on a bolder tee line while offering a safer play should not sacrifice difficulty:

And a far more interesting look, with far more trouble for the player to be aware of.

And this significant expansion of one green:

Most notably, the 13th has gone from having just two available locations somewhere on the left side, to a whopping six:

Not like they keep these greens firm and fast, is it?

Sorry for the tease, but it's not likely we'll get F&F this week, though the long-term forecast for the 2049 Open looks promising:

Before the players even arrive at Oakmont, the area will have already seen a lot of moisture. Flash flood warnings were out for parts of western Pennsylvania on Sunday, including several counties in the Pittsburgh metro. It remains to be seen how that impacts the difficulty of the golf course — if at all — but anyone attending the U.S. Open should definitely wear shoes that can handle some mud.

Friday is where it could start to get a little shaky. There's a small chance of rain showers during the day and it increases as the day goes on, increasing to 40 percent later in the evening. Highs are projected to be in the low 80s with light winds.

Saturday looks like the worst day of the week. Forecasters are calling for a 60 percent chance of rain, with showers in the morning followed by thunderstorms in the afternoon. Still, the temps will be comfortable (mid-70s) and the wind won't play too much of a factor at 5-10 mph out of the south.

Sunday also has rain in the forecast after thunderstorms throughout the night Saturday. Fans and players might not see the sun during the final round, either. Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and light winds from the southeast.

June is about as bad as it gets in the Northeast, so naturally that's when they hold Opens.

But perhaps the most fun from Geoff was his two-part deep dive on Oakmont's favorite F-word:

While Oakmont’s former practice of “furrowing” bunkers has been retired for over sixty years, I thought it’d be fun to revisit the arguments, complaints, debates, and changes of heart at the center of Oakmont’s first four U.S. Opens. Some of the banter even fueled 1920s brouhahas between advocates of the strategic and penal schools of architecture. We will probably hear similar but less articulate refrains next week. Either way, it’s always enjoyable to be reminded of the first-world problems faced by professionals whenever majors turn up at Oakmont.

Nasty stuff, but he has some fun with Mr. Jones on this subject:

1927: Jones Was For Furrowing Until He Wasn’t

Two years after hosting the U.S. Amateur, a field headlined by defending champion Bobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, and Walter Hagen faced a renovated course for the club’s initial U.S. Open. One key setup element of Oakmont would remain in place as long as Henry Fownes was around: furrowing the bunker sand.

The practice of plowing the sand with deep-tined rakes became Oakmont’s thing early on. As strategic as the course was even in its early iterations, the Fownes’ philosophy dictated that a “shot poorly played should be a shot irrevocably lost.”

Jones declared Oakmont “the best course on which either championship has been played within my limited experience in national competition.” (Humility note: he was already a two-time U.S. Open champion at this point and had been playing all over the land for a decade).

Jones curiously went out of his way to defend the club’s sand furrowing and even offered a little instructional advice on how to deal with them.

“They have been uniformly cursed by the players and glorified by the press, and I think the press is right,” he wrote on championship eve. “It has always appeared to me that going into a bunker should incur a penalty of at least one stroke unless the recovery be particularly brilliant.”

You'll know that a change of heart is on the way:

Jones then recorded a career-worst T11 U.S. Open finish in 1927, the only time in eleven U.S. Open appearances that Jones finished outside the top ten.

Four months and at least 140 neat bourbons later, Jones pulled out his Underwood and vented as only a Harvard-schooled English lit student could.

“I was afraid, after Oakmont, that any criticism I might make of the sand hazards there would be interpreted as an ill-natured grumbling against the course, because I had made such a miserable showing in the tournament,” he wrote.

Right, Bobby. Now get to your point!

The rationale for furrows, as Jones understood it, was to reward “superlative excellence in the play through the green.” Here comes the change in mindset on the blast method for furrowing.

“There was no amount of skill in bunker play which would avail.”

After more writing about how we’re all human, make mistakes, need room to recover, blah, blah, blah, Jones delivered his verdict.

If we're not going to control how far these guys hit it, perhaps this is a Back To The Future moment that the USGA should be considering.... It's not like bunkers are much of a hazard for these guys anymore.

These are partially paywalled posts, so we're able to read only that portion before the "fold", but here's Part II for those intrigued by the subject.  

Geoff's Monday post includes an update on the field:

• Ryan Fox moved up 43 spots to No. 32 in the world after winning yesterday’s RBC Canadian Open in a playoff over Sam Burns. It will be the 38-year-old’s seventh U.S. Open.
• Cameron Young and Bud Cauley, who are Nos. 56 and 58 in the OWGR, respectively, became exempt. Each player advanced through the Columbus, Ohio, final qualifier on June 2 but their OWGR exemption takes precedence and opens up two more spots in the field. Young will compete in his sixth U.S. Open while Cauley is playing in his third.
• The five alternates from final qualifying added to the field: Takumi Kanaya, Doug Ghim, Chase Johnson, Eric Cole and Riki Kawamoto. Kanaya will compete in his third U.S. Open.
• Matthew Jordan, an alternate from the England qualifier, replaces Sahith Theegala who withdrew due to injury.

And a three-pack of quotes:

Dustin Johnson on Oakmont where he was the 2016 U.S. Open champion. “Coming back, I was back here one other time when I got my honorary membership here, for that ceremony, which was really nice. Proud member of Oakmont. I'm probably their favorite member because I never come.

Justin Thomas on the state of Oakmont after recent rains. “It's very, very soft. The fairways are -- they've obviously gotten a lot of rain here the last couple weeks, I think. It's still extremely challenging.

Xander Schauffele on light rough vs. hackout rough. “I don't think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green, you know what I mean? I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer. That's part of the enjoyment of playing in the U.S. Open for viewers...If you're a true fan of golf, it's more about what happens after the hack-out.”

Pretty sure I don't agree with the X-man on that last bit, though he's too young to even know the name Tom Meeks.  Trust me, it wasn't as much fun as Xander makes it out to be.

Lastly, we'll grab the Open-related questions from this week's Tour Confidential panel:

The 125th U.S. Open begins Thursday at Oakmont Country Club outside of Pittsburgh, Pa., with Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy — winners of the first two majors of the year — as the betting favorites. We’ll get to them, but first, what’s your favorite Oakmont storyline that doesn’t involve the aforementioned duo?

Josh Sens. Love him or not, Bryson DeChambeau has become the most reliably compelling player in the majors. He said he’d be going back to his tinkerer’s workshop in advance of the U.S.

Open. It will be interesting to see what tricks he pulls out at Oakmont, not to mention his brute power on such a brawny course.

Dylan Dethier: I’m with Sens — Bryson’s week will be fascinating. He’s been playing the majors so well, he’s been driving the ball so well, he won last year’s U.S. Open and the brawny Winged Foot test, too, plus he has new irons in play…he’ll command plenty of attention. But I find myself drawn to the U.S. Ryder Cup team and its potential members. There are suddenly only two majors left, which means if some players in the 7-15 range have a big-time week, Bethpage could suddenly include a player we wouldn’t have guessed at the beginning of the year. Ben Griffin? J.J. Spaun? Tom Hoge? Or, of course, Keegan Bradley?

Zephyr Melton: Love the Bryson takes – it’s always fun to see what kind of tricks he has up his sleeves for majors. My favorite storyline to follow will be how the course plays. We all know Oakmont is a brute, and early reports suggest the scoring could be high. I can’t wait to see how the best in the world tackle it.

Hard to argue about Bryson's intrigue, as he's one guy I can't wait to see tackle the place.  Not sure that juicy rough will be to his taste....

Scheffler enters the week having won three of his last four starts but has yet to win a U.S. Open. Does a challenging, maddening U.S. Open test like Oakmont versus a birdie-fest setup elsewhere actually improve his chances to win, or does it push him closer to the field?

Sens: The cream tends to rise on tough courses. The only part of the game that sometimes bedevils Scheffler is his putting, and Oakmont’s greens are next-level challenging. But I suspect this week will only underscore the gulf between Scheffler and almost everybody else.

Dethier: Overall it should improve his chances, given he’s doing everything well at the moment. But it’ll be interesting to watch Scheffler — and the rest of the field! — navigate the mental test of what might be the world’s hardest golf course. Scheffler’s mental game is generally terrific, but he runs hot. I’m excited to watch him handle such a brutish setup.

Melton: Scottie is no one-trick pony. He’s won in birdie-fests (Byron Nelson) and slogs (Memorial), so I wouldn’t say that any certain setup will impact his chances. That said, I’ll be stunned if he isn’t in the mix come Sunday.

It's really very simple.  if the golf course has eighteen holes then it's perfectly suited to Scottie's game.

I would remove any open containers of liquid before reading further:

After opening his season with a top-20 finish in all eight starts — including three wins — Rory McIlroy tied for 47th at the PGA and enters this week coming off a 71-78 missed cut at the RBC Canadian Open. A troubling trend? Or a couple of outliers? How does Rory’s game translate to Oakmont?

Sens: When Rory’s on, his game translates to any course. But recent signs have been troubling. The erratic drives he’s been hitting of late will not work at Oakmont. Compound that with some comments McIlroy has made about his post-Augusta motivation levels, and I would not pick him high in an office pool.

Dethier: McIlroy’s trip to Canada was strange from start to finish. I was most struck by one thing he said in his pre-tournament press conference: “You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.” It’s pretty clear he’s experiencing some sort of post-Masters letdown. When will he snap out of it? Professional golf is the ultimate grind and the U.S. Open is triply so; I’m sure he’s still eager to contend and to win but if he’s even a little bit elsewhere, that’s enough to throw off everything. We’ll get a good sense of McIlroy’s game this week – his swing, his mind, his grind.

Melton: The comedown after the high of completing the career Grand Slam seems to have caught up with him — and can you blame him? A burden over a decade in the making was finally lifted. I can see how coming down from that rush would make for a rocky re-acclimitization. With Rory’s talent, he’s a threat to win just about every week, but the way his game has been trending, I’d put my money on someone else next week.

Yeah, will FanDuel allow me to short Rors?  Doesn't seem like I'm the only one with that thought:

U.S. Open 2025: Rory McIlroy is 'unbettable' at Oakmont

Fair enough, but of greater import is that he's unwatchable.... as well as miserable.

Should be a great week.  Enjoy the play and pray that the rains hold off.