Rupe Taylor turns his life around
Rupe Taylor walks to the tee on the 16th hole during a practice round for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. — AP
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The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Scheffler seeks back-to-back major wins at formidable Oakmont
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler tries to become the first back-to-back major winner in a decade by taking this week's 125th US Open, which tees off Thursday at intimidating Oakmont. Not since Jordan Spieth captured the 2015 Masters and US Open has anyone swept consecutive major crowns, but two-time Masters champion Scheffler is on a hot streak. The 28-year-old American has won three of his past four starts, including a third major title at May's PGA Championship and defending his Memorial title two weeks ago. This week, however, offers a severe test with thick high rough, tricky bunkers and sloped greens known for lightning-fast speed. 'This is probably the hardest golf course that we'll play, maybe ever, and that's pretty much all it is,' Scheffler said. 'It's just a different type of test.' Scheffler arrives after a rest week as the oddsmakers' favorite over world number two Rory McIlroy and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau. 'I don't pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,' Scheffler said. '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.' Fourth-ranked Collin Morikawa, a two-time major winner, expects brutal rough off most every missed fairway. 'Overall you have to hit the ball really well. You know you're going to get penalized even on good shots,' Morikawa said. 'Step number one is to hit it in the fairways. I don't think people understand how thick the rough is. It's not wispy like the club is going to go through. This is just thick. Clubs will turn over. 'You're going to see guys trying to hit pitching wedge out and it's going to go 45 degrees left because that's how thick the rough is.' The 7,372-yard, par-70 layout offers a vast array of bunkers and a course where many trees were removed to produce an expansive feel. 'Extreme challenge,' two-time major winner Jon Rahm said. 'Even when you just stand on the putting green, seeing the whole property, you know you're somewhere special. It's quite iconic.' McIlroy, who won the Masters in April to complete a career Grand Slam, has top-10 US Open finishes each of the past six years. He declared Oakmont 'a big brute of a golf course.' 'You're going to have to have your wits about you this week all the way throughout the bag, off the tee, into the greens, around the greens. It's going to be a great test.' Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, a winner last month at LIV Golf Korea, seeks his third US Open after wins in 2020 and 2024. The 31-year-old American is trying to become only the eighth back-to-back US Open winner, the first since compatriot Brooks Koepka in 2017 and 2018. 'Everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now, and you have to hit the fairways, you have to hit greens, and you have to two-putt, worst-case scenario,' DeChambeau said. 'When you've got those putts inside 10 feet, you've got to make them. It's a great test of golf.' - 'All-around challenge' - Phil Mickelson, a six-time major winner who turns 55 on Monday, seeks an elusive title to complete a career Grand Slam after six runner-up US Open finishes, most recently in 2013. 'It's pretty much an all-around challenge,' said 2013 US Open winner Justin Rose. 'You have to put the ball in play off the tee. That's not the biggest challenge. Fairways are somewhat generous, 30-odd yards wide. 'That's because it's all about the greens. The real skilled hitters can get it into those greens, not get on the wrong side of those contours.'
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
Scheffler seeks back-to-back major wins at Oakmont
Top-ranked Scottie Scheffler tries to become the first back-to-back major winner in a decade by taking this week's 125th US Open, which tees off Thursday at intimidating Oakmont. Not since Jordan Spieth captured the 2015 Masters and US Open has anyone swept consecutive major crowns, but two-time Masters champion Scheffler is on a hot streak. The 28-year-old American has won three of his past four starts, including a third major title at May's PGA Championship and defending his Memorial title two weeks ago. This week, however, offers a severe test with thick high rough, tricky bunkers and sloped greens known for lightning-fast speed. 'This is probably the hardest golf course that we'll play, maybe ever, and that's pretty much all it is,' Scheffler said. 'It's just a different type of test.' Scheffler arrives after a rest week as the oddsmakers' favorite over world number two Rory McIlroy and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau. 'I don't pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,' Scheffler said. '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.' Fourth-ranked Collin Morikawa, a two-time major winner, expects brutal rough off most every missed fairway. 'Overall you have to hit the ball really well. You know you're going to get penalized even on good shots,' Morikawa said. 'Step number one is to hit it in the fairways. I don't think people understand how thick the rough is. It's not wispy like the club is going to go through. This is just thick. Clubs will turn over. 'You're going to see guys trying to hit pitching wedge out and it's going to go 45 degrees left because that's how thick the rough is.' The 7,372-yard, par-70 layout offers a vast array of bunkers and a course where many trees were removed to produce an expansive feel. 'Extreme challenge,' two-time major winner Jon Rahm said. 'Even when you just stand on the putting green, seeing the whole property, you know you're somewhere special. It's quite iconic.' McIlroy, who won the Masters in April to complete a career Grand Slam, has top-10 US Open finishes each of the past six years. He declared Oakmont 'a big brute of a golf course.' 'You're going to have to have your wits about you this week all the way throughout the bag, off the tee, into the greens, around the greens. It's going to be a great test.' Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau, a winner last month at LIV Golf Korea, seeks his third US Open after wins in 2020 and 2024. The 31-year-old American is trying to become only the eighth back-to-back US Open winner, the first since compatriot Brooks Koepka in 2017 and 2018. 'Everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now, and you have to hit the fairways, you have to hit greens, and you have to two-putt, worst-case scenario,' DeChambeau said. 'When you've got those putts inside 10 feet, you've got to make them. It's a great test of golf.' - 'All-around challenge' - Phil Mickelson, a six-time major winner who turns 55 on Monday, seeks an elusive title to complete a career Grand Slam after six runner-up US Open finishes, most recently in 2013. 'It's pretty much an all-around challenge,' said 2013 US Open winner Justin Rose. 'You have to put the ball in play off the tee. That's not the biggest challenge. Fairways are somewhat generous, 30-odd yards wide. 'That's because it's all about the greens. The real skilled hitters can get it into those greens, not get on the wrong side of those contours.'
The Sun
10 hours ago
- The Sun
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.'
