Rory drives his longest tee shot of '25 at Oakmont
Watch as Rory McIlroy blasts a 392-yard strike in the opening round of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, his longest measured drive of the season.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox Sports
27 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Late miscues cost Phil Mickelson a shot at the weekend in his 34th - and maybe last
Associated Press OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — By the time Phil Mickelson reached the 18th green at Oakmont on Friday evening, the once-packed grandstand was maybe a quarter-full. Same for the luxury suites. There was no grand gesture as the 54-year-old Mickelson loped up the hill. No wave to the crowd the way Arnold Palmer did in the same spot on the same course 31 years ago. No lengthy standing ovation from the gallery in return either. The man whose decades-long pursuit of the U.S. Open made him a fan favorite in his prime — not unlike Palmer in some ways — instead quietly marked his ball 16 feet from the hole, then walked over to the far edge of the green and stared at the leaderboard that glowed in the rainy twilight. A birdie would have let Mickelson stick around for the weekend at his 34th — and perhaps last — trip to the national championship. Wearing a white hat featuring the logo of his LIV Golf team, the HyFlyers GC, Mickelson stood over the line trying to get the right read. When the putt slid a foot left of the hole to keep Mickelson one outside the cut at plus-8, a small groan arose from those who stuck around. There was a shout or two of 'We love you Phil!' Along the railing, a man leaned toward a friend and said, "His exemption is done. No more U.S. Open for you Phil.' Maybe, maybe not. The five-year exemption into the tournament that Mickelson received when he captured the 2021 PGA Championship is expiring. Whether he'll be back to make a run at the one major that has eluded him is anyone's guess. Mickelson sure isn't saying. He politely declined to talk to reporters after emerging from the scoring area, disappearing into the clubhouse and an uncertain future at a tournament where he's been a runner-up six times. There are a number of ways for Mickelson to make it to Shinnecock next June. The USGA could offer him an exemption, as it did at Torrey Pines in 2020, though that doesn't appear to be USGA chief championship officer John Bodenhamer's first choice. 'I think the way that we would also think of Phil is we hope he earns his way in, and I think he'd tell you the same thing,' Bodenhamer said Wednesday. "That's what he did last time. We gave him one and then he went out and won the PGA Championship. So wouldn't put it past him.' Mickelson became the oldest major champion ever when he triumphed at Kiawah in 2021 at age 50. A lot has happened since then. Both on the course and off it. The man known universally as 'Lefty' played a major role in LIV Golf's rise, a move that has taken a bit of the shine off of his popularity back home. And while Mickelson's game can still show flashes — he really did knock a sideways flop shot into the hole during a LIV event last week in Virginia — and he looks fitter now than he did two decades ago, the reality is the swashbuckling approach that once endeared him to so many doesn't work that much anymore at the U.S. Open. Mickelson appeared to be in solid position to play the weekend when he stood on the 15th tee. He even on the day and 4 over for the tournament, well inside the cutline. A tee shot into the ankle deep rough at the 489-yard par 4 led to double bogey. He still seemed to be OK when he got to 17, a short uphill par 4. His tee shot sailed into the rough above a greenside bunker. There would be no magic this time. His attempted flop splashed into the sand instead. He blasted out to 25 feet and three-putted for another double bogey. That put him in a position he's been familiar with for a long time: heading to 18 at the U.S. Open needing to make a birdie of consequence. It didn't happen. And as he disappeared into the clubhouse, along with it came the realization that at this point, it likely never will. ___ AP golf: recommended in this topic
42 minutes ago
Scheffler: 'Definitely not out of the tournament' after another US Open round over par
OAKMONT, Pa. -- Scottie Scheffler made yet another visit to Oakmont's famous Church Pews. He also bogeyed a hole after nearly driving the green. That wasn't enough to knock the top-ranked player out of contention — in the eyes of the betting markets and Scheffler himself. 'Overall definitely not out of the tournament. Today was I think with the way I was hitting it, was easily a day I could have been going home and battled pretty hard to stay in there,' said Scheffler, whose day included an animated post-round session at the practice range with coach Randy Smith. 'I'm 4 over. We'll see what the lead is after today, but around this golf course I don't think by any means I'm out of the tournament.' Scheffler battled his way to a 1-over 71 at the U.S. Open on Friday, a slight improvement on his first-round 73 but still not the type of performance that's made him the game's dominant player the past three years. He has 36 more holes to try to unleash the form that produced wins in three of his last four tournaments. But after play was suspended because of rain near the end of the second round Friday, only three players had shorter odds on the BetMGM Sportsbook money line, where Scheffler was at 8-1. He was tied for 23rd on the real leaderboard, seven strokes off the lead. Scheffler began his second round with a birdie on No. 10. After a bogey on 15, his tee shot on the par-4 17th ended up just short of the green. But he needed four more strokes to complete that hole. 'I think it's just giving it your best on each shot. There was some times today where you feel like you could give up, just based on how difficult the golf course is, how my swing was feeling,' Scheffler said. 'I'd get in position there on 17 and make a mess of the hole, and feel like I was making birdie, walk off with bogey. Then I hit it in a bunker on the next hole, and it's like I'm going to be struggling for par.' He alternated bogeys and birdies on holes Nos. 1-4. After ending up in the Church Pew bunker on both the third and fourth holes Thursday, his tee shot went in there again on No. 3 a day later. Still, it could have been much worse. Scheffler got up and down for par from the rough on No. 5 and from a bunker on No. 6. 'Mentally this was as tough as I've battled for the whole day,' he said. 'There was a lot of stuff going on out there that was not going in my favor necessarily.' At last year's U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Scheffler played all four rounds over par for the first time at a major championship. He's halfway to a repeat of that. Or he could storm back into contention. His patience was on display on No. 9, his final hole of the day. After his tee shot went into the rough, he used a wedge to hit out instead making an aggressive attempt at the green. He ultimately missed a 17-foot putt and took a bogey. If he's going to make a significant climb up the leaderboard, that will have to wait. 'Going out early tomorrow, maybe get some easier conditions than the guys late in the afternoon. At the U.S. Open I don't think you're ever out of the tournament,' he said. 'I may be in 25th or 30th place or something like that after today, and like I said, by no means is that out of the tournament.'
42 minutes ago
DeChambeau misses cut at US Open, then looks for answers in the rain
OAKMONT, Pa. -- Bryson DeChambeau was the only player beating balls in the rain on the driving range as sundown approached Friday at Oakmont. Those were the last shots he'll hit at this year's U.S. Open. DeChambeau became the first defending champion to miss the cut at the national championship since Gary Woodland in 2020 — his round wrecked by errant drives, knucklers out of the rough and putts that would not drop. DeChambeau shot 7-over 77 to finish the two days at 10 over — three shots off the cutline. Where his signature shot last year at Pinehurst was that 55-yard blast from the bunker that set up the win on the 18th hole Sunday, the moment that told the story this year was the wild lash he took into the rough — also on No. 18 — then the TV cameras picking him up saying 'What was that?' as he regained his balance and headed toward the green. He saved par there and looked in line to make the cut with nine holes to go. It was a stretch of double bogey (bad drive), bogey (missed 6 footer), bogey (missed 7 footer) on 5, 6 and 7 that did in DeChambeau. And so, the fan favorite who also tamed Winged Foot for a title in 2020, and who has starred in four of the last five majors — winning last year's U.S. Open, paying with Rory McIlroy at the Masters and finishing second to Scottie Scheffler at this year's PGA and Xander Schauffele the year before — won't have a role on the weekend at Oakmont. Schauffele made the cut to extend his streak to 66 tournaments, the most since Tiger Woods made 142 straight, ending in 2005. Schauffele hasn't missed a cut at the majors since the Masters in 2022 — that's 14 straight. Matt Fitzpatrick, the 2022 champion, made one of only five birdies on the uphill, par-4 ninth hole to make the cut on the number. Some other former champions didn't fare as well. Among them are Dustin Johnson (10 over), the winner at Oakmont in 2016, Woodland (10 over), Lucas Glover (8 over) and Wyndham Clark, whose 25-footer for par just missed and left him one off the cut line. Also missing was Denmark's Thorbjorn Olesen, who teed off into a ditch on 18, had to take a penalty shot and finished with a double bogey to move to 8 over. And Phil Mickelson's days at the U.S. Open could be coming to an end. Playing in the last Open from his five-year exemption from his PGA win in 2021, Mickelson teed off into the greenside rough on 17 and needed five shots to get down. His double bogey left him at 8 over.
