Leona Maguire has difficult start at US Open
Leona Maguire has a bit of a hill to climb to get into contention as the US Open in Erin Hills, Wisconsin.
She shot a 76 in the first round to go four over par, eight shots off the leading group. She now remains tied for 105th and is in a battle to avoid the cut.
The 30-year-old came into the event ranked 80th in the world. Her tournament started at 7:14pm Irish time on Thursday as she teed off on the tenth hole.
She was even par through the first four holes of the day before finding the bunker on the fourteenth to record a double-bogey.
Further bogeys at the seventeenth and second left her four over, but she was able to arrest the slide with a birdie one hole later.
After missing the cut in her last two events on tour, the pressure is on for the Cavan native to perform.
A bogey on the eighth left her back at four over, where she remained overnight.
The current leaders are Yealimi Noh, Angel Yin, A Lim Kim, Jinhee Im and Julia Lopez Ramirez, who are all sitting on two under.
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Three killer holes at Oakmont including one that cost Tiger Woods a US Open as Rory McIlroy and Co face savage test
WELCOME to the torture chamber hosting the world's top stars for the next four days, as the US Open comes to Oakmont for a record tenth time. Some holes are as notorious as the players are famous, with hot favourite Advertisement 11 English ace Justin Rose gets down to business in practice Credit: Alamy 11 Scottie Scheffler is the favourite after three wins in four tournaments Credit: Alamy 11 Bryson DeChambeau asked for patience as he signed autographs Credit: Reuters 11 It's three and far from easy for players at Oakmont this week Back in 2007 legend However, reigning champion And world no.2 But here's a look at three of the toughest holes any golfer could face - plus the verdict of players on the ominous Oakmont course. Advertisement Hole 3 (par 4 - 462 yards) THIS difficult par-four provides the first sight of the massive Church Pews bunker down the left-hand side of the fairway. And if you steer too far wide of it, there is a row of deep bunkers down the right waiting to gobble up balls. Rated as one of the toughest holes on the course — just ask Tiger Woods. He made his only double-bogey here in 2007 and ended up finishing one shot behind eventual winner 11 DeChambeau hailed his US Open glory at Pinehurst last year Credit: AP Advertisement 11 Tiger Woods famously found trouble at Oakmont in 2007 Credit: Getty BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK Most read in Golf Hole 4 (par 5 - 611 yards) ONE of only two par-fives and considered a must-birdie hole as it is shorter than the 12th — which can play anything from 632 to 684 yards. Church Pews bunker is in play down the left. Going for the green in two means taking on a long, blind shot. DeChambeau and Rose's response to how club golfers would cope at Oakmont US Open course Hole 8 (par 3 - 289 yards) THIS is where The Beast — as Oakmont is known — really shows its teeth. Advertisement It usually plays into the wind, so most will have to reach for the driver. Johnny Miller made his only bogey when he shot a course-record 63 on his way to the 1973 US Open here. He said it felt like a par! Scheffler's "hardest ever" verdict on the course is more than matched by the assessment of fellow superstar players. Double UPSGA champ Justin Thomas says 'you can look stupid pretty fast' at the US Open venue, and reckons it will 'psyche a lot of guys out before they hit a shot'. Advertisement But another double Major winner, 11 DeChambeau watches his practice putt on the 14th green Credit: Getty 11 Scheffler putts on the same hole on the tournament eve Credit: Shutterstock Editorial But is all the talk about this 7,531 yards par 70 being the toughest course on the planet justified? In the words of Advertisement Johnson finished four under par nine years ago, on a course playing much easier than usual, because so much rain fell it was nicknamed 'Soakmont'. But only three other players in the 156 man field finished below par - all on one under - and 14 of the 18 holes played above par. Eight of them featured in the top fifty hardest holes among the 990 used on the PGA Tour that year. That did not compare to what happened at the previous US Open at Oakmont, in 2007. That year all EIGHTEEN holes played over par. Advertisement Meanwhile, Woods' Pew peril led to caddie Steve Williams suggesting he should throw a few balls in there so Woods could practice escaping from the trap. Woods shook his head and replied: "No way. I don't practice negativity. I'm just going to avoid it. I'll hit away from it every day." The hole that strikes most terror in competitors' hearts is the 289 yards par three eighth, which is likely to be pushed back beyond 300 yards at least once this week. He did, but still only managed to break par once on his way to runners-up spot. But the hole that strikes most terror into the hearts of the competitors is the fearsome 289 yards par three eighth, which is likely to be pushed back beyond the 300 yards mark at least once this week. Advertisement World No 4 He explained: 'I completely forgot that that was the long par three, and I honestly asked Joe, my caddie, and everyone in the group, do you go for this par four or do you lay up? 'Now that I know it's a par three, I recommend going for it! I'll probably hit driver or three wood and hopefully hit the green. If not, make up-and-down. 'Honestly. it's a hole I'll take four pars right now, and walk away.' Advertisement Schauffele reckons some players will have bruised egos about using a driver on a par three, but said they had to 'suck it up' to give themselves the best chance of making par. And he reckons TV viewers will love the carnage they are likely to witness over the next few days. He explained: 'I don't think people turn the TV on this week to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200 yard shot onto the green, you know what I mean? 'I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting eight over, and watch him suffer. That's part of the enjoyment of the U.S. Open for viewers. Advertisement 'My attitude is that you have to stay as calm as possible because we're all going to struggle at times. Maybe that's why I've done so well in this tournament. 11 Sam Burns is a figure of focus as he practices Credit: Shutterstock Editorial 'I think I look pretty level-headed when I play, but internally I might be absolutely just thrashing myself. That happens to me more than you might think. 'I think truly having a good attitude is accepting what just happened, and allowing yourself to be pretty much at zero to hit the next shot.' Advertisement Thomas believes most of the field will not be able to handle the setbacks as well as the top players. He said: 'Being perfectly honest, and very selfish, I hope it psyches a lot of players out. This course requires tons of patience and discipline, and not everyone can get a handle on that. 'Above all else, Oakmont tests the mental aspect of your game. But with tight fairways, deep rough, difficult bunkers and lightning fast greens it also tests you to the limit technically too. 'If you just get lazy - like on any drive, any wedge shot, any chip, any putt - you can look stupid pretty fast. Advertisement Read more on the Irish Sun 'But I understand this place is hard. I don't need to read articles, or I don't need to hear horror stories. I've played it. I know it's difficult." So sit back and enjoy the ride. It is going to be a bumpy one. 11 Collin Morikawa took a snap of Gary Woodland's club Credit: Reuters 11 Will Chandler spent time on the driving range Credit: Alamy Advertisement
The 42
an hour ago
- The 42
US Open: Scheffler the man to beat, Lowry better primed than distracted McIlroy
YOU'LL BE HEARING a lot this week about 'the greatest test in golf', as the organisers of the US Open take their historic championship back to Oakmont in Pittsburgh, whose founding principle was to be the most challenging golf course in America. And so the 2025 US Open may cross the threshold from test to outright trial. The rough is long and knottier than the tree lights you took down from your attic last Christmas; the greens are slippery and more sloped than even those at Augusta National; and the eighth hole is the longest par-three in major championship history. Speaking on Golf Channel on Tuesday, the long-serving former head pro Bob Ford was asked to describe the typical member at Oakmont. 'Sadistic', he replied. The whole set-up is designed, ultimately, to have pro golfers break out in the kind of cold sweats they otherwise reserve for the prospect of a tougher tax regime in Florida. Jon Rahm said on Tuesday he expects the winning score to be over-par if the rain stays away. Rory McIlroy played a practice round last Monday week and birdied the final two holes to card an 81. While the course has been deluged by rain in the weeks leading up to the tournament, the forecast for the opening days of action is more agreeable, although the weekend face the risk of disruption from thunderstorms. Without this rain, says McIlroy, the course would have been 'impossible.' There are only two Irish golfers in the field, as all of Seamus Power, Graeme McDowell, Tom McKibbin and Padraig Harrington failed to make it through qualifying. Organisers have handily paired them together, and so McIlroy and Shane Lowry will play alongside each other and Justin Rose, teeing off early on Thursday and among the late wave on Friday. McIlroy playing alongside Rose evokes easily-accessed memories of the Masters, and trust McIlroy to take the aftermath as interesting as it could possibly have been. He spoke from Augusta in April of feeling freed from the burden of his long major drought; McIlroy was, in his own words, now playing with house money. Er, not so. He barely made the cut at a bizarrely surly PGA Championship, at which he swerved media interviews amid annoyance at the leaking of the fact he had to change his non-conforming driver, and then missed the cut by a mile at last week's Canadian Open with what was, in strokes gained terms, the second-worst round of his career. McIlroy missed the cut the last time this tournament was held at Oakmont, which started a three-year run of missed cuts at the US Open. His reaction to this run is one of the more underrated aspects of his career, and he has been freakishly consistent at the tournament since. He has been in the top-10 in each of the last six years, finishing as runner-up in each of the last two editions. Advertisement Maintaining that consistency this week rests on him finding form off the tee. His driving accuracy across each of his last three events has been abysmal, and a failure to find fairways at Oakmont will mean an early end to his challenge. Having tried a new driver in Canada, McIlroy has switched up his equipment once again this week. 'I feel a little better with the driver over the weekend at home and even today playing a practice round, so hopefully I can hit a few more fairways than I have been hitting and give myself some opportunities', said McIlroy at his Tuesday afternoon press conference. A bigger question is the inner drive. McIlroy admitted ahead of the Canadian Open he had been finding it hard to have the same motivation to grind on the range now that he's achieved all he had set out to do. Speaking to the press this week, McIlroy didn't give the impression of a man who has re-fixed a maniacal focus on golf. 'I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can't relax this week', before then talking of how one of his goals this year was to take up more hobbies and see more of the world, and so he's joined caddie Harry Diamond and manager Niall O'Connor for their on-the-road tennis matches. His playing partner, by contrast, arrives in much more consistent form, albeit appearing increasingly tortured by his inability to get over the line on Sunday. Lowry had a galling close shave at the Truist Championship the week before the PGA Championship, at which he missed the cut on one of his least favourite courses on Earth. He made a stunning Sunday start in Canada last week – five-under through his first four holes – only to cool off too early to catch the later starters. Lowry is less daunted than most by Oakmont, where in 2016 he took a four-shot lead into the final day only to shoot a round of six-over 76 to finish in a tie for second, three shots off winner Dustin Johnson. Lowry is a much better player now, though, and this is a course which will reward his accuracy off the tee – where he ranks among the top-30 on the PGA Tour – along with the quality of his iron play and his hands around the green, where greenside rough will reward only the very best. His contention will rest, though, on how he performs on the greens: he has shown an ability to catch fire with his putter, but these sprawling, sloping greens are redolent of those at Augusta National, on which Lowry has occasionally struggled. That said, Lowry arrives in a better position to contend than McIlroy. Their biggest issue for all may not be the brute of the course, but Scottie Scheffler. Having made a slow(ish) start to the season after hand surgery in the off-season, Scheffler is once again the dominant man in the sport: he has won on three of his last four starts and arrives exuding that air of apparent invincibility. Given Scheffler's awesome form, the brutality of the Oakmont test may ultimately be a favour to everybody else in the field. Scheffler has never won this championship, though victory this week will see him rocking up to Portrush next month seeking to complete the career Grand Slam. Scottie Scheffler: 2025 PGA Championship winner. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Who can stop him? Jon Rahm finally returned to relevance at a major championship with his Sunday charge at Quail Hollow, where his finishing score did not reflect the pressure he exerted on Scheffler. He has the muscle to deal with the Oakmont rough, along with the form to compete. Bryson DeChambeau has meanwhile 3D-printed a new set of irons in the hope he can successfully defend his title this week: at the Masters and Quail Hollow, he contended despite his ball-striking, rather than because of it. Oakmont, though, is going to be too tough to hide any aspect of your game. DeChambeau is now undoubtedly the most popular player in the game, thanks mainly to his YouTube videos, which he says has given him a new lease of life on the course. 'I view my legacy as not just winning golf tournaments', DeChambeau told the press on Tuesday. 'I view it as how much good can I do for the game outside of playing professionally. That's a metric that I hold myself up to. 'The start is YouTube, but there is so much more that's coming down the line, and that's also what gets me up every day, as well.' Elsewhere within that press conference he began some megaphone negotiations with LIV over a contract renewal – 'They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide' – explained if he hadn't been a golfer he would be working on how AI will be integrated into biomechanics and hailed his own business sense with the deathless line that his Crushers LIV team have been 'EBIDTA positive for the past two years.' (LIV golf is hardly leaning into the traditional partisanship of other team sports. EBIDTA positive. . . you'll never sing that.') DeChambeau will be the most popular man on the golf course, though Scheffler is, as ever, the man to beat. The greater the test, the more likely the best player is to emerge from the field. And the best player by a street is Scottie Scheffler. Tips Gavin Cooney A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Jon Rahm (9/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Aaron Rai (75/1) Fintan O'Toole A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Xander Schuaffele (18/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Rasmus Hojgaard (150/1)
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Keane and Browne McMonagle double up at Limerick
Reigning champion jockey Colin Keane and future champion Dylan Browne McMonagle were the men in ascendency on Wednesday night's card in Limerick, both men recording a double. Keane, who recently took the role as first jockey for Juddmonte's European horses, completed his brace first, doing so with the Ray Cody-trained Enziya in the Conference & Banqueting Facilities At Limerick Handicap, and Michael O'Callaghan's evergreen Facethepuckout in the Jim Ryan Racecourse Services Memorial Handicap. Of the latter, Keane commented: 'He had a very good run the last day over six, around Listowel, which wouldn't be ideal for him, but you'd love the way he came home,' said Keanen. 'Today, he jumped well (from stalls) and everyone took back, so we were quite content after that. 'It was a three-and-a-half-furlong sprint, and when they started coming to him, they only helped me. 'He's a right lead horse at home, by all accounts. He does a lot of work for Michael, and he still loves the game at that age, so it's brilliant. He very much wants it, and he's a lovely horse to have around the place.' The drop back to a mile worked the oracle for Valorous Power, who ran out a comfortable winner of the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden to give Browne McMonagle the first leg of his near 23-1 double. Riding for his boss, Joseph O'Brien, he set out to make all the running and always looked to be within his comfort zone. Newcomer Hellorhighwater, from the Gavin Cromwell stable, posted a superb effort to take second place and surely won't have to wait too long for his first turn. 'He did a bit too much early at the Curragh, but coming back to a mile was good for him,' said McMonagle, of the comfortable winner. 'I was always just going through the motions with him, and he did it well.' A very different ride was required to complete the brace aboard the Kieran Cotter-trained Martinelli, in the Summer Racing at Limerick Handicap. Held up early, he made steady progress to challenge a furlong out, and responded well to pressure to stretch more than two clear of his nearest rival, Heliogabalus. 'This fella is a fairly solid horse,' said the winning rider. 'He travels really well in his races, but probably doesn't kill himself when he gets there. 'He was second here a few weeks ago, to Church Mountain on heavy ground, but he didn't finish off the last furlong on the deep conditions. 'I didn't want to be any further forward than I was, to give him every chance of hitting the line today, so it worked out well. He relaxed fine, travelled into it really good, and won well.' A strong pace in the first division of the Follow Limerick On Instagram worked a treat for the Andy Slattery-trained Zaraahmando, who was dropping back to seven furlongs having run well over a mile last time. In sixth place for much of the trip, he made his move in the straight and, while he was inclined to edge right under pressure, his jockey, Andy Slattery, guided him to the front inside the final furlong and on to a clearcut success. The second division was won in similarly emphatic fashion by the Sean Davis-trained and ridden In The Minus, who came from midfield to sprint clear from over a furlong out to quickly put the race beyond doubt. The Wallstone Grant Thornton Optional Claiming Race opened up proceedings, and Solomon, who was best in at the weights, made the most of the opportunity. Dylan O'Connor brought Denis Hogan's four-year-old with a well-judged run to win quite readily. There were successful claims for the first five home. The finale produced one of the best finishes of the night, and it was the Jessica Maye-ridden and Willie McCreery-trained Party Dress who landed the spoils. In a share of the lead from a long way out, the grey mare, who was sporting a tongue-tie for the first time, looked like a sitting duck, but she responded generously to Maye's calls to fend off the late effort of Makaiah by a short head.
