Golf-Five storylines to follow at this week's U.S. Open
OAKMONT, Pennsylvania, - Five storylines to follow as the world's best players descend upon Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, this week for the June 12-15 U.S. Open.
RED-HOT SCHEFFLER
Scottie Scheffler has three wins in his last four starts on the PGA Tour, each by at least four strokes, and arrives at Oakmont as clear favourite to win the U.S. Open and pick up his fourth career major title and third leg of a career Grand Slam.
World number one Scheffler, whose start to the season was delayed due to hand surgery following a freak kitchen accident last December, enters the year's third major in full stride and in complete control of a game that appears well suited for an event that is known as the toughest test in golf.
Since the calendar turned to May, Scheffler has matched the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record with a 31-under total at TPC Craig Ranch, won the PGA Championship by five strokes, finished fourth at Colonial and then won his U.S. Open tune-up event at Muirfield Village by four strokes.
DECHAMBEAU DOUBLE?
Bryson DeChambeau, who made a clutch par save on the final hole to win last year's U.S. Open after Rory McIlroy's collapse down the stretch, now aims to become the event's first repeat winner since Brooks Koepka in 2018.
DeChambeau, a fan favourite and twice U.S. Open champion who is dominant off the tee and a regular force at golf's biggest events, will play his first major since finishing runner-up at last month's PGA Championship for a second consecutive year.
Since joining LIV Golf in June 2022, the big-hitting DeChambeau has recorded seven top-10 finishes in 12 majors, including last year's U.S. Open triumph at Pinehurst.
RORY REDO
Rory McIlroy, who completed the career Grand Slam at this year's Masters, will look to recapture his major magic after a disappointing finish at last month's PGA Championship when he returns to an event where he has endured his fair share of heartbreak in recent years.
The U.S. Open has been one of the better majors for McIlroy of late as the Northern Irishman is riding a string of six consecutive top-10 finishes, but that stretch includes heartbreaking runner-up showings in each of the last two years.
McIlroy, who missed the cut in his U.S. Open tune-up event in Canada, will also need to be much more accurate off the tee this week than at the PGA Championship where he used a back-up driver after his regular one was ruled non-conforming earlier in the week, though there were no concerns of player intent.
MICKELSON GRAND SLAM BID
This is the final year of six-times major champion Phil Mickelson's five-year exemption into the U.S. Open for winning the 2021 PGA Championship and he will once again look to turn back the clock in what could be his last chance at winning the one trophy standing between him and the career Grand Slam.
The 54-year-old, who has been U.S. Open runner-up a record six times, missed the cut in the last three years. It will be his fourth U.S. Open at Oakmont, having finished tied 47th there in 1994 before missing the cut in 2007 and 2016.
Mickelson produced one of golf's most improbable wins when, aged 50, he won the 2021 PGA Championship to become the oldest major champion.
DAUNTING OAKMONT
Oakmont Country Club, regarded by many as the country's toughest course, is a quintessential U.S. Open venue.
It is garnering plenty of attention ahead of the year's third major given its punishing rough, narrow fairways, lightning-fast greens and slew of bunkers that could all combine to keep the winning score above par.
Hosting the U.S. Open for a record 10th time, the par-70 Oakmont course will be set up at 7,372 yards this week.
The venue played as a par-70 over the last two U.S. Opens and during that time only four players scored under par for the week.
The field scoring average has been at least two strokes over par in every U.S. Open round at Oakmont, dating back to 1927.
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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
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Whenever a match turns into a living creature that grabs you by the throat and keeps you frozen in your spot, its venue too turns in on itself, compact and compressed with no mind space for anything else. And so it was on Sunday, after Sinner took control of the match, with the crowd pushing Alcaraz to respond. Spaniards in the stands chanted his name, the support for Sinner present but heard less. Carlito's faithful were calling for something closer. Something that teetered on the edges which for more than two sets – totalling two hours, 14 minutes – had been under Sinner's reliable boom of a first serve and his control of the court. Until then Alcaraz, a creature of many gifts – control of timing, speed of foot and creative shot-making – appeared a nanosecond off his incisive sharpness of response. Until he was not. There is no knowing where that came from, that switch. Maybe it was when Sinner was bearing down towards the finish line. Maybe those three match points. The expression often heard and uttered of athletes 'raising their game'. We felt it happen and saw with our eyes how it is done. For Sinner until he had three match points, Alcaraz from that point on for refusing to let go. He climbed into Sinner's serve and covered the court like a fiend, created angles running around his backhand, slicing the court into narrower and narrower slivers from where there were points to be won. Every time the crowd thought Sinner had sealed a point, Alcaraz extracted enough reach to put racket to ball at its most distant end. From the first time he had found his groove in the third set, Alcaraz drew fuel and lift from the crowd. Every break of serve, every game held after fighting off a Sinner resurgence was responded to like he'd won the damn thing. Alcaraz shook his fist at the stands as he passed by to serve or back to his chair, egging them on to egg him on. 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Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
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