Carlos Ortiz wins on Asian Tour and gets into the British Open for his first major since 2023
MACAU, China — Carlos Ortiz of Mexico made two early birdies and pulled away Sunday for a 6-under 64 and a three-shot victory over Patrick Reed in the International Series Macau, his second Asian Tour title since joining LIV Golf.
Ortiz, Reed and Jason Kokrak — all with LIV Golf — were the top three players and earned spots in the British Open this summer. It will be the first major for Ortiz in two years.
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
U.S. Open preview - Golf's toughest test awaits at Oakmont
Yahoo Sports senior writer Jay Busbee previews this week's major outside Pittsburgh - which will host the event for a tenth time on a track known as one of America's most difficult golf courses. View more Video Transcript Hide your scorecards, my friends, because the US Open is back and the toughest tournament in golf this year is being played at one of the toughest courses in the country. Advertisement That would be Oakmont, the old classic. It's been around since 1904. It's hosted now 10 US Opens, more than any other course in the United States, and it's going to be an incredible challenge for today's golfers for a number of reasons, starting with the rough, as much as 5 inches deep in some places, the famous. Church Pew and piano keys, bunkers, cinematic and also devastating to your score if you happen to end up in them. And then the greens, which are so slick, that Sam Snead once said he put a dime down to mark his ball and it slid off the edge of the green. Now who can handle this kind of course? Advertisement Well, Scotty Scheffer, of course, he's already got 3 majors. He might well win 2 more before the year is out. He's not quite at Scotty versus the field level, but he's very, very close, right behind. Hi. You've got Rory McIlroy, understandably a bit out of form since his emotional win at Augusta back in April. He missed the cut last week at the RBC Canadian. That's a bit of a concern for him and for anybody else who's looking to watch him win his second major. A little further down, you've got John Rohm playing very well on Liv. That's kind of damning with faint praise because while he's been able to hold leads, he hasn't been able to keep leads over the course of the last Few months, most notably last last month at Quail Hollow in the PGA Championship when he let it get away from him late. Advertisement Then of course there's Bryson DeShambo, Rohm's mate over at Liv Golf, playing very well in most phases of the game, always in competition in majors lately, but his iron play is a bit suspect, and you're going to need to be accurate off the tee if you're going to win at Oakmont. He should be in the mix, but will he be holding up the trophy at the end of it? To be determined. Now, in terms of a sleeper, a guy you might want to look at is someone who's had some strong iron play, that would be Terrell Hatton. He's never won a major, but he has made the cut in 13 of the last 14 majors that he's played, and he's extremely accurate with his irons. Advertisement Plus, the side benefit of that is that he would be the first golfer whose celebration speech at the end would be an FCC violation. We will be live all week from Oakmont. Join us at Yahoo Sports. I am Jay Busby. We will see you from the US Open.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Patience and discipline needed for US Open at difficult Oakmont
World number one Scottie Scheffler of the United States walks to the 18th green at Oakmont during a practice round ahead of the 125th US Open (ANDY LYONS) Oakmont's fiendish layout provided a rain-softened preview Monday of what the world's top golfers will face when the 125th US Open starts Thursday. Thick rough was damp and dense for the first official practice round while greens and fairways were far more receptive than they are expected to be when the major billed as the toughest test in golf gets under way. Advertisement "It requires patience and discipline," fifth-ranked Justin Thomas said. "If you just get lazy, like on any drive, any wedge shot, any chip, any putt, you can kind of look stupid pretty fast, especially at a place like this. "It's a great week to be in a great place mentally and very patient and picking our spots out there." Third-ranked Xander Schauffele, last year's British Open and PGA Championship winner, says golf fans enjoy seeing mighty players humbled. "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," Schauffele said. "I think they turn on the US Open to see a guy shooting eight-over and suffer. That's part of the enjoyment." Advertisement Oakmont offers risk-reward challenges seeking to tempt players into mistakes. "It's challenging myself to try and hit every fairway, every green, to try and be disciplined like through and through," Schauffele said. "There's going to be a point where you lay up into a bad spot, and it goes to laying up again from that layup spot. If you have a decent lie, you might try to take some risk, and that's part of the fun." Schauffele sees it as a perfect set-up for world number one Scottie Scheffler, who has won three times since the start of May, including his third major crown at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Advertisement "Take Scottie Scheffler," Schauffele said. "He's in the middle of every fairway. It takes a serious amount of discipline to play away from pins and hit really good shots to safe targets and that's what it takes to play well at US Opens." World number two Rory McIlroy, who won the Masters in April to complete a career Grand Slam, might be one who can risk using driver often. "You drive it like he does, I would pull that driver out as often as I can," Thomas said. "He hits it further and straighter than maybe anybody that has played the game." Thomas, a former world number one, says he would like to challenge for the top again, if Scheffler would only stumble. Advertisement "Guys are playing unbelievable, like Xander did last year, like Rory is this year, but it's just that Scottie is also doing that. You can't really catch that if he keeps doing what he's doing," Thomas said. "He doesn't seem to be showing any signs of slowing down." - 'Licking your chops' - Oakmont isn't done with forcing difficult choices upon players once they punch out of the rough. "The way Oakmont plays is you can sort of hack something, if you're courageous enough, and if you get the correct line and a couple of bounces, you could turn what would be a nightmare into a decent situation," Schauffele said. Advertisement "It just puts an emphasis on hitting the fairway and hitting greens. If you're a premier ball striker, you'll be licking your chops. If you're in the rough, it's very lie dependent." Thomas said practice can only tell a player so much. "It's very helpful, but if I'm not hitting it where I want and controlling the ball like I want, it doesn't really matter if I've hit shots around the green or not," said Thomas. "I'm going to struggle if I'm not hitting it well." js/rcw
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
Dustin Johnson's Oakmont return could help rescue his now-invisible career
OAKMONT, Pa. — Dustin Johnson's U.S. Open victory in 2016, the last time it was played at Oakmont before its return this week, feels like a lot more than nine years ago. It seems like Johnson, 40 now and a member of LIV Golf, has been playing his golf in Witness Protection. His last victory on the PGA Tour was at the 2020 Masters, his second career major championship and a part of his 24 career wins on the PGA Tour. Though he's won three times on LIV since joining it in 2022, Johnson, whose world ranking has plummeted to 884th, hasn't won on the Saudi circuit this year, though he enters this week coming off a tie for 10th at last week's tournament in Virginia. This week, he'll be trying to recreate the mojo he had in 2016, when he won in 4-under par. 'Obviously, a lot of good memories from that year here,'' Johnson said Monday after playing the front nine in a practice round. 'Obviously, it was a long time ago. I like coming back here. I love the golf course. 'I was back here one other time when I got my honorary membership here, for that ceremony, which was really nice. [I'm] a proud member of Oakmont. I'm probably their favorite member because I never come.' 3 Dustin Johnson hits a shot during his practice round ahead of the U.S. Open on June 9. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect Johnson's form in recent majors has been suspect. Since he finished tied for sixth in the 2022 British Open, he has only one top 10 finish in the past 10 majors, with five missed cuts. He missed the cut at the Masters in April, finishing his second round with a bogey on 17 and a double on 18 to miss the cut by one shot. 3 Dustin Johnson celebrates after winning the U.S. Open in 2016. Getty Images Then came the PGA Championship last month in Charlotte, N.C., where he missed the cut by a mile at 12-over. 'I know my score didn't reflect it at the PGA, but I actually played way better than the score,'' he said. 'I just struggled a little bit on the greens. Well, maybe that's an understatement. I struggled really bad on the greens. 'Golf is a strange sport,'' Johnson went on. 'I don't feel like I've slipped any. My scores haven't reflected [that], but it is a really fine line. Over the last couple months, I'm starting to see a lot of patterns and the game feels like it's coming back into good form. 'I feel like my game's been really close. I haven't really gotten a lot out of it. It was definitely nice to have a nice finish last week [in Virginia]. I played really solid every day, hit it nice, gave myself a lot of opportunities, [but I] still kind of gave some shots away each round that you can't afford to do at a golf course like this. 'It was nice to finally see the game progress a little bit.'' 3 Dustin Johnson addresses reporters during a press conference June 9 ahead of the U.S. Open. Getty Images Asked what he recalls from his 2016 victory, Johnson said, 'I drove it really straight [and] I hit a lot of fairways.'' He also hit a lot of greens, ranking No. 1 in the field that week in greens in regulation. He ranked 18th in driving. 'That was the only reason I shot that well,'' he said. 'Somehow, I figured out a way to get it under par. It was mostly the driving. Obviously, even driving it in the fairway here, it's still really difficult, but I hit a lot of good drives and a lot of good iron shots.' He believes that performance, even if it took place nine years ago, might help him this week. 'I have confidence on this golf course because I know I played well,'' he said. 'Obviously, this week puts a lot of pressure on the driver. I feel like I'm driving the ball really good right now. Even from there, though, it doesn't get much easier. You definitely have to hit it in the fairway if you want a chance to win around here.''
