U.S. Open
Well golf fans it’s been a very interesting week in the golf community. As many of you know, the LIV Golf Tour began last week in London. The LIV plans to be a direct competitor of the PGA Tour, but the PGA Tour didn’t take this lying down. Jay Monahan quickly released a statement after the opening tee shot of the first LIV event. In the statement he suspended all players that decided to compete in any LIV events. Each player's PGA Tour status has been revoked, and this spans across all PGA Tour sanctioned events. The most surprising was the fact that these players are not allowed to play under sponsor exemptions as well. Jay Monahan covered all his bases when suspending these players. The only problem that remains is with the majors. The majors control the fate of the LIV. The USGA has already released their statement last week stating that all players who have qualified for this year’s U.S. Open will be permitted to play. Now it was interesting because their wording leads many to believe that in the coming years this might change. Although it doesn’t really matter with the U.S. Open or British Open because since they are open events players would be permitted to qualify they would just have to play their way in the old fashion way. In regards to the remaining two majors, The PGA Championship I'm sure will not primit LIV players to compete which comes to no surprise, but the major that everyone is concerned about is the Masters. I don’t believe Augusta would change their lifetime winner’s exemption, but who really knows what their plans are. On top of that players don't gain world ranking points while playing in LIV events coupled with the fact that they can’t qualify via a PGA Tour win. As it stands it seems like LIV players will only be allowed to play in two out of the four majors. However this is all speculation, in time we will see how the major governing bodies of golf deal with the LIV Golf Tour and its infamous leader Greg Norman.
It comes with little to no surprise that Norman would schedule his flagship event the week before the U.S. Open. He will take every chance he gets to stick it to the PGA Tour. Norman believed that his event would diminish the PGA Tour and sway other players to join the LIV Tour, but it actually did the opposite. Last week at the RBC Canadian Open it was a battle of the young greats in the game of golf. Rory, JT, and Finau battled it out in incredible fashion. Ultimately Rory claimed his 21st PGA Tour victory and back to back RBC Canadian Open. From a commissioner’s standpoint Jay Monahan couldn’t have been happier with how last week’s event turned out. The fans were incredible, the course was impeccable, and the players were thrilled to be out there competing for something more than a giant paycheck. That right there is why the PGA Tour will prevail in the end, the players on the PGA Tour are playing for glory, to leave a legacy behind, and ultimately chase greatness. Money isn’t everything and one day when the LIV Tour disbands all these players will ask to be let back on The PGA Tour and at this stage of the game who knows how Monahan will react. Nevertheless this week’s U.S. Open will prove to be one of the best we’ve seen in awhile.
This week the USGA is putting on its 122nd U.S. Open at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Country Club was founded in 1882 and stands as one of the oldest clubs in America. Not only is it one of the oldest, but its legacy will stand the test of time. The Country Club is one of five charter courses that were used to essentially form the USGA. The Country Club has been home to numerous USGA events over the course of history, however the most notable USGA event held there was the 1913 U.S. Open. Francis Ouimet, became the youngest and first amateur to win a U.S. Open. Many of you might recognize this story, this U.S. Open was made into a movie, “The Greatest Game Ever Played.” This is just one of the many historical moments manifested at The Country Club. History will be made once again this week as the world’s best set to compete come Thursday morning. This week fans can expect the game’s top notch players including, Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Cantlay, Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, and Tony Finau. With all that being said, this week my winning pick goes to Rory. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Rory play like this. He focused, he’s hungry, he’s putting absolutely lights out, and he’s fresh off a stellar victory. He’s currently ranked #3 in the world and leads in Scoring Average, Strokes Gained, and Strokes Gained Tee to Green. He also remains top 3 on tour in Strokes Gained Off The Tee and Driving Distance. Rory is leading in all of the key stats across golf. Rory is hitting fairways, limiting his mistakes and rolling the ball better than anybody else in the world. Rory is due for another major and he is primed and ready to go this week. (Mike)
It is hard to ignore LIV Golf these days and it becomes more clear with each day how embarrassing these guys are that left for the Saudi League. None of them are mature enough to be honest with anyone about why they joined the league and they continue to dance around the hard hitting questions. I think for a handful of them, they’ve made their peace because sums of money like that are hard to ignore. However, guys like Phil and Bryson care way too much about what the public thinks so it will be interesting to see how they continue to handle this. Another thing I find interesting is how a lot of them have stated their desire to play on the PGA Tour again. To me it makes very little sense. You cannot have it both ways and somehow they are trying to be the victim in this. The only real victim for golf in any of this will always be the fans. We get fractured tours and a worse product while the rich guys get richer. Jon Rahm, in his second language I remind you, stated perfectly in his press conference this week why he is sticking with the Tour. Guys like Rahm, JT and Rory will continue to rise in popularity as they take on the Saudi Golf league. At the end of the day this is bunch of disgraceful people trying to clean their image in the name of sports. Unfortunately, there are enough people out there for whatever reason that continue to support this league/similar moves from the Saudi’s.
All the other noise aside. Mike has stated how great of a US Open week we have ahead of us. My pick for this week is JT. I do not disagree with anything Mike said about Rory, but winning back to back weeks is just so hard to do. The duel between JT and Rory last week at the Canadian Open was everything that is good on the PGA Tour. JT is such a fierce competitor that I imagine coming up just a little bit short will give him that extra motivation this week. As long as he can stay and play I think JT has as get a chance has anybody to win this week and get his second major of the year. If JT would have beat Rory last week, I would have picked Rory to win this week. I hope us, as golf fans get another exciting finish that tops last week.
Not necessarily a dark horse, but somebody that not many people are talking about to win this week is Matthew Fitzpatrick. He’s been playing some unbelievable golf lately outside of a missed cut two weeks ago. His game should translate well for this week. Guys that find themselves in play and that can hit their irons into small greens will thrive this week. There will be lots of players teenaged up this weekend, but realistically I think there’s only 10 or 15 guys that have a legitimate chance to win this week and Fitzpatrick is right near the top of the list even though he does not have the hype some of the other guys have. Maybe this is the tournament that really puts him on the map. (Tyler)