Rupe Taylor turns life around after a DWI. Now the golf pro is playing in the PGA Championship
Rupe Taylor, a 35-year-old golf professional and recovering alcoholic, reflects on his journey to the PGA Championship. After overcoming addiction and personal loss, he qualified for the tournament, where he shares a locker room with top players. Embracing the experience, he aims to enjoy the moment, feeling he's already won by simply being there.
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Hindustan Times
9 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Scottie Scheffler doesn't buy into notion of being favorite at U.S. Open
Scottie Scheffler is a recent major winner, and he's finished top four at both majors thus far this season. But despite being installed as the betting favorite to take home the championship at the U.S. Open this weekend in Oakmont, he made his feelings clear on Tuesday about what being a favorite ultimately might mean on the course. "I don't pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that," Sheffler said during his U.S. Open press conference. "Starting Thursday morning we're at even par, and it's up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do." How does the PGA Championship winner tune out the noise? He acknowledged it isn't easy, especially in this modern era of increased sports betting, and that it even occasionally demands a drastic action or two. "I think everybody hears from fans whether they have a financial benefit or anything in their outcome," Scheffler said. "That's why I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn't win. It wasn't a good feeling." What is a good feeling is winning golf tournaments, and Sheffler has done that three times already this season. In addition to his win in Charlotte last month, he also boasts wins at the Memorial Tournament earlier this month and at the Byron Nelson in early May - meaning he has won three of the past four events he has taken part in. Still, that hot streak isn't exactly an anomaly, as the 28-year-old has nine Top-10 finishes since February. "Houston I finished second, and that was right before the Masters . That was when I really felt like I was starting to do some good things," Scheffler said. "I felt like if I could sharpen up my swing a little bit more, I felt like I was going to get into the right the place where I wanted to be." When he tees off at the golf course at Oakmont Country Club, he'll do so not only with the confidence of a golfer playing exceedingly well, but also in feeling prepared and rested. "Having the week off was really important for me to get home, get some rest, recover, and I showed up here on Sunday and was able to play maybe 11 holes and really get used to the conditions," he said, noting that approach came in sharp contrast to last year's U.S. Open, where he came in the week after a win at the Memorial Tournament and felt less prepared than he could have been. "It feels much more like my normal major prep versus last year where you're coming in from basically a major championship test, coming into another one is pretty challenging. ... I've learned over the course of my career to focus a little bit more on the rest side of things." A big part of that feeling of confidence probably also stems from the Pittsburgh-area's course difficulty, where the bunkers are prominent and deep. It's not an easy course for golfers to absorb bad tee shots. Scheffler is the clear betting favorite, at 270, and with good reason, given his hot streak of late and his history with this tournament, where he has three top ten finishes, including a tie for second in 2022 and a third-place finish in 2023. And while he doesn't subscribe to the thought process of his being favored to win, he does have a winning strategy in mind. "I don't really know if this is a golf course you can necessarily just overpower with kind of a bomb and gouge type strategy, especially with the way the rough is. You have to play the angles," Scheffler said. "If you hit it in the right rough, you're probably not going to get it to the green; if you hit it in the left rough, you're probably not going to get it to the green. So might as well try and split the difference there and hit it in the middle." Field Level Media
Hindustan Times
13 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Scheffler sees golf majors like tennis Slams as US Open looms
Scottie Scheffler sees golf's major tournaments like Grand Slam tennis championships, with finesse events like the Masters and strength tests like this week's US Open at Oakmont. World number one Scheffler, the 2022 and 2024 Masters winner, comes off a victory at last month's PGA Championship and sees new challenges at Oakmont the same way the red clay at Roland Garros offers a different tennis test than a hardcourt US Open. "I kind of equate some of the major tests to the majors in tennis," Scheffler said Tuesday. "You're playing on a different surface. You've got grass, clay and then the hardcourt and it's a different style of game." Augusta National offers undulating greens but almost no rough to encourage shotmaking, while Oakmont brings a US Open with deep rough, tricky bunkers and fast sloped greens. "The US Open compared to the Masters is a completely different type of test," Scheffler said. "At the Masters you have a lot more shotmaking when you get around the greens because it's a lot of fairway, there's pine straw, there's not really the rough factor. "Then when you get here, it's a lot of hacking out of the rough. You still have to be extremely precise but when you talk about strength and power, that becomes more of a factor at these tournaments because when you hit it in the rough you've got to muscle it out of there." There's no picking one as better or worse than another, just as with the tennis majors. It's a matter of style. "It's just a different type of test than you see at the Masters. Both of them are fantastic tests. I don't know if one of them is better than the other, but they're just different," Scheffler said. "Here, the winning score I don't think is going to be what the winning score was at the Masters." Rory McIlroy won the Masters on 11-under 277 after a playoff with Justin Rose. Expectations are for this week's US Open winner to be lucky to break par for 72 holes. "When you miss the green at the Masters, the ball runs away and it goes into these areas, and you can play a bump, you can play a flop. There's different options," Scheffler said. "Here when you hit the ball over the green, you just get in some heavy rough, and it's like, let me see how I can pop the ball out of this rough and somehow give myself a look." That strength factor is something Scheffler hopes to take advantage of this week as he did by using his shotmaking skills at the Masters. "I'd say there's definitely a strength factor coming out of the rough," Scheffler said of Oakmont. "There's so many bunkers, I don't really know if this is a golf course you can necessarily just overpower with kind of a bomb and gouge type strategy, especially with the way the rough is. "You have to play the angles. Some of the greens are elevated, other ones are pitched extremely away from you." js/rcw
Hindustan Times
15 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Dustin Johnson says he 'can grind for another six years' before stepping away
OAKMONT, Pa. — So much about Dustin Johnson returning to Oakmont is about reliving past glory. He won his first major championship at the U.S. Open under extreme and bizarre conditions that allowed him to exorcise so many demons in the majors and become the best player in the world. That was nine years ago. The question now is how much golf he has left. 'I think I've got another six years in me,' Johnson said, contemplating the question only briefly before coming up with a most arbitrary number. 'I can grind for another six years. And then I'm going fishing.' Recent results would suggest he already has one line in the water. Johnson already has a Hall of Fame career with his 24 titles on the PGA Tour, two majors, the only player to sweep the World Golf Championships, one of only five players to have been No. 1 in the world for more than 100 weeks. He turns 41 in two weeks. Why grind? 'Because I want to get back,' he said. 'Because I know I've still got it.' Johnson was the biggest name to sign with Saudi-funded LIV Golf in 2022 when the golf world was turned upside down. He was on the fringe of contention that summer at St. Andrews and the next year in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club. He won in each of the first three years on the rival circuit of short fields and short weeks . The last 16 months have made him feel like an afterthought. He has not finished among the top three on LIV in his last 20 events. He has missed the cut in five of his last seven majors. He tied for 10th last week on LIV, which he considered progress. 'I feel like my game's been really close," he said. 'I haven't really got a lot out of it. So it was definitely nice to have a nice finish last week. I played good every day. I didn't ... you know, still kind of giving away some shots. I need to clean that up a little bit." There is rarely any urgency to anything Johnson does, and that six-year window comes with a caveat. He has two more years left on his 10-year exemption from winning at Oakmont in 2016. Next month will be his last free pass to the British Open from his 2020 Masters victory. He needed a special invitation to the PGA Championship this year. Johnson has played only one non-major since joining LIV. That was the Saudi International at the end of last year. He missed the cut. Yes, Oakmont seems like a long time ago. Few players have endured more misfortune in the majors and have been able to shake it off. There was the 82 in the final round at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open. He was knocked out of a playoff at Whistling Straits that year in the PGA Championship for setting his 4-iron into sand where spectators had been sitting. That was deemed to be a bunker. He had a 12-foot eagle putt to win the 2015 U.S. Open at Chambers Bay, only for it to slide some 4 feet by on a green that had hardly any grass. He missed the birdie putt and finished one behind Jordan Spieth. His mental toughness is underrated. Imagine playing the last seven holes of a U.S. Open not knowing the score because the USGA was trying to decide whether to penalize him for a ball that moved on the fifth green of the final round at Oakmont. Johnson played on, not giving it another thought, winning by three after he was assessed one penalty shot in scoring. 'That Sunday was a little weird,' he said. Chaos would have been another word to describe it. That's not in Johnson's vocabulary even though it seems like it should be. Ask almost any PGA Tour loyalist which LIV player they miss seeing, and Johnson's name is at the top of the list. 'There have been two guys since 2010 that I thought in full flight, I loved watching them play. And it was Rory and DJ,' Adam Scott said. Scott recalled a morning round at Riviera in the cool Pacific air. They were playing the 13th, which bends to the left around the eucalyptus trees. Scott hit a perfect draw. Johnson unloaded his high cut over the trees, a carry of nearly 310 yards in the heavy air. 'I just thought, 'That is insane.' Just the freedom he played with and the freedom of the swing and athleticism,' Scott said. 'And then he gets up and hit a three-finger 7-iron, super soft, a buttery shot after pounding one. Super impressive.' Those were the days. Those are the memories, all while Johnson is trying to believe he can create new ones. He is running out of time. And that's OK. When not on LIV — and not fishing — he is home with his two boys, Tatum and River. The latter was born on the Monday before Johnson's U.S. Open title defense at Erin Hills. He says he would have withdrawn if he wasn't the defending champion. He missed the cut. Back then, a missed cut at a major was rare. Now he is searching for a good week of driving, like he had at Oakmont in 2016. He is playing with Spieth, his longtime partner at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Those were fun days. 'It's always good to play majors. It's the only time to see the other guys,' Johnson said. 'We've got a good group in LIV, but I don't get to see everybody. Hopefully, things will kind of come back together somehow.' Within six years? Johnson was asked if he could see himself on the PGA Tour Champions if it ever got sorted out. 'I've always said if I'm playing the Champions tour, something really, really went wrong," he said, breaking into a big smile before adding, 'But with me, there's always that chance.' golf: /hub/golf
