Quail Hollow Diary: Rahm flies two flags, bad weather good for business
Rahm flies two flags but LIV's lights mostly fail to shine
Jon Rahm headed into Sunday six shots back of Scottie Scheffler but determined to fly the flag. Which flag though? Both Spanish and Saudi Arabian hopes rested on the big man's shoulders.
How the breakaway tour's lack of competitiveness affects its stars is a common Major week debate. Here in Charlotte it arose again.
'It is hard to express how hungry I may be for a major,' Rahm said after his Saturday 67 moved him somewhere he hasn't been for some time. 'Me going to LIV and playing worse in majors had nothing to do with where I was playing golf.' Of the 16 LIV men in the field just eight made the cut, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson, particularly, bombing out in mortifying fashion.
The final day began with just two of the remaining eight — Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau inside the top 35. Among early Sunday moves, LIV men like Tom McKibbin, Tyrrell Hatton and Sergio Garcia were going backwards.
This year's race for the Wanamaker marks 12 Majors since LIV launched. Just two of the previous 11 were won by those who took the Saudi soup. A report last week put the Kingdom's investment to date at $5bn. The returns continue to feel diminishing.
Weather delays speed up things at the tills
Saturday's steamy rain delay robbed Rory McIlroy of the chance to get out early and make up ground before weekend winds picked up.
In all, the PGA pushed back the third round by almost four hours with the intervening time filled with more willing robberies.
The 50,000-square foot tournament megastore which hugs the first fairway was a chaotic hive of capitalism during the weather delay as punters filled time by filling PGA coffers. $110 T-shirts were flying off racks. Standing in the middle of it all it was hard not to marvel at its clinical wallet-emptying efficiency.
Getting the six-packs in shape for 2026
Speaking of swift business, this year's edition was not nearly over before attentions turned to the 2026 PGA Championship.
A delegation from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, home of Aronimink Golf Club which hosts next year invaded the Media Centre here Saturday to shower the world's press with gifts, branded golf balls, keychains and pretzels aplenty.
The tourism chiefs knew how to seal the deal, wheeling in crates of Delco Lager, their local tipple. Some thirsty media men were spotted scarpering out the door with multiple six-packs under their arm.
Arsenal talk has us ready for home
For the sake of sanity, and maybe security, we've done our best to avoid political talk here.
The orange fella in An Teach Bán won North Carolina handily. Country clubs are unlikely to be bastions of resistance either.
At Examiner HQ the other night we got chatting to another PGA Championship blow-in over a patio beverage. A former US Navy officer who now works for the Department of Justice, it seemed inevitable that we'd turn to matters Trumpian but his tone was that of someone who doesn't own a MAGA hat. A civilized, cerebral sort, we thought.
About 20 minutes in, a throwaway comment about police weaponry was the spark for him to reveal he's an arsenal fan, of sorts: 'oh man, I love guns. I have over 300 firearms at home.' Fire up that Aer Lingus bird pronto. Time to get out.
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Irish Independent
27 minutes ago
- Irish Independent
Rory McIlroy has options but driver remains central to US Open bid at Oakmont
'I drove it really straight,' Johnson said of his three-shot win over Shane Lowry and Jim Furyk nine years ago. 'I hit a lot of fairways. That was the only reason I shot that well.' Johnson won on four-under-par, which he joked should really have been five-under had he not incurred a one-shot penalty when his ball almost moved imperceptibly as he addressed it on the fifth green in the final round. 'I don't know, it seems like it's tougher this time around, but that's just maybe with the little bit of added length,' Johnson said. 'It's going to make it a little more difficult. 'But yeah, 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.' Johnson ranked 'only' 18th for fairways hit in 2016, but while he was first for greens in regulation, the perception at a rain-softened Oakmont is that getting the ball in play from the tee will be as crucial here as it is in any other US Open. Even if the course dries out and big hitters have the option to hit more irons or fairway woods, players like Justin Thomas see no reason why a big hitter like McIlroy would not want to take advantage of his greatest weapon. 'You look at someone like Rory McIlroy, you drive it like he does, I would pull that driver out as often as I can,' Thomas said of the Masters champion, who admitted that finding a replacement for the driver ruled nonconforming at the PGA was 'a concern' after he struggled from the tee and missed the cut by 12 strokes in last week's Canadian Open. 'He hits it further and straighter than maybe anybody that's played the game. It's hard to argue why he wouldn't hit driver as often as he could. It truly is dependent on the player and their strategy.' Oakmont was rain-softened in 2016, too, but for Johnson, it remains a beast. 'Probably this one,' he said when asked the toughest course he's ever played. 'This one's hard no matter what - soft, firm, windy, no wind… You definitely have to hit it in the fairway if you want a chance to win around here." ADVERTISEMENT While Shane Lowry played the front nine in practice yesterday, it was a painful three-and-a-half-hour process. 'Not to come off the wrong way, these are some of the worst practice rounds of the year at a US Open,' Thomas said. 'You tee off in the middle of the day today or tomorrow, and it's going to be probably a three-, three-and-a-half-hour nine holes.' Given the penalty for missing the fairway or the green, it's mentally exhausting as well. 'I just think it requires patience and discipline,' Thomas explained. "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 possible to shoot a great score missing fairways, but while Thomas did that in 2016, he wouldn't recommend it as a strategy, 'One of the best rounds of golf I've probably ever played in my career in 2016 here on Friday, I think I hit four fairways, but I remember I hit seven greens and I shot 69,' he said with a grin. 'I chipped in three times. I was beyond exhausted when I got done. 'I actually played with Brooks (Koepka) the first two days. I remember he was so pissed off. He just couldn't get over it.' Hack-out rough is not everyone's idea of great golf, but Xander Schauffele believes it's why fans tune in to the US Open. '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, you know what I mean?' 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 of playing in the US Open for viewers… If you're a true fan of golf, it's more about what happens after the hack-out.' The lengthening of the course means there are fewer opportunities to hit irons compared to 2016, when long-hitting Schauffele recalls seeing players 'hitting maybe three or maybe four irons' off tees. 'I feel like they've lengthened those holes to where they're not,' he said yesterday. 'I felt like you're only hitting maybe one iron off the tee this week or maybe two. 'Anything close to par is what they want here. The members absolutely love their property, and the members absolutely want it to be over par. I know what they're rooting for.'
RTÉ News
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Dean Huijsen describes Real Madrid as 'the club of my life'
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy paired together at US Open
Rory McIlroy's bid to rediscover his form at this week's US Open may have been given a significant boost as organisers paired him with close friend Shane Lowry in a dream grouping for Irish fans over the first two days at Oakmont. The duo were among the first players on the course on Wednesday morning as they played the back nine together and got a look at the notorious rough. Shortly before the end of their practice, the USGA confirmed that they will be spending a lot more time together this week. McIlroy, Lowry and Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose will be in an early-late grouping which will go out at 7.40am local time (12.40pm Irish time) for Thursday's opening round and 1.25pm (6.25pm Irish time) on Friday afternoon. Read More Rory Land: New book explores McIlroy's golfing brilliance and personal struggles While McIlroy's struggles to kick on from his glory at Augusta have been a talking point coming into the year's third major, so too has Lowry's chances at a course where he held the Sunday lead when it last hosted the US Open in 2016. The duo were, of course, teammate for Ireland at the Paris Olympics last summer and were victorious as a team on the PGA Tour last year in New Orleans. The presence of Rose adds but another subplot given the English veteran was the one who came out the wrong side of that unforgettable playoff at the Masters in April when McIlroy completed the career grand slam. Among other eye-catching groups the trio of PGA champion Scottie Scheffler alongside Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa will attract plenty of galleries while fan favourite Jordan Spieth will play alongside LIV Golf duo Jon Rahm and Dustin Johnson.
