BROOKLINE, Mass. — As is tradition, several top officials with the United States Golf Association addressed the media on the Wednesday before the start of the U.S. Open. Stuart Francis, the president of the USGA, Mike Whan, the organization’s CEO and John Bodenhamer, the senior managing director of championships, proudly talked about bringing the country’s national championship back to The Country Club for the first time since 1988.
“This Open almost didn’t happen, and there’s a number of stories behind that,” Bodenhamer said. “Prior to 2013 and the U.S. Amateur here, we didn’t think we could conduct a U.S. Open here. The footprint was small. It was in a residential community. There were just too many hurdles to overcome, but conducting the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club in 2013 changed our perspective. When we came here for the Amateur in 2013, we thought coming back to Brookline was possible.”
Several topics were addressed, along with USGA initiatives and programs, as well as the subject that has dominated the headlines this week, the LIV Golf Series. Here are the five takeaways.
Only the low 60 players and ties earn weekend tee times at America’s national championship.
SAN DIEGO — Qualifying for the U.S. Open is a great achievement. Once you are there, making the cut and playing in the final two rounds is another hurdle that needs to be cleared. Only the low 60 players and ties earn Saturday and Sunday tee times at America’s national championship, which means after the second round, it’s ‘Wait ’til next year’ for more than half the 156-man field.
This year, the cutline was 4 over (146).
Among the trunk slammers, there are always a few surprising names, golfers who have achieved great things but for some reason, could not deliver. Below is a list of the notable players at the 121st U.S. Open at Torrey Pines who will not be moving on.
Playing in the U.S. for just the second time, Richard Bland shot a Friday 67 to take the clubhouse lead at the 121st U.S. Open.
SAN DIEGO – As Englishman Richard Bland walked from one media stop to the next after shooting a second-round 67 at the 121st U.S. Open, he smiled and said, “Rory has to do this week in, week out, huh?”
That would be Rory McIlroy, the former World No. 1 and four-time major winner who is one of the faces of golf and usually in demand for the post-round car wash of media obligations. But this week he’s looking up at Bland, a 48-year-old journeyman pro playing in the U.S. for just the second time and his fourth major championship. All of this was new to Bland, who made 478 starts on the European Tour before becoming the oldest first-time winner on the circuit last month at the Betfred British Masters.
That victory combined with a third-place finish in Denmark helped book a spot in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and Bland is taking advantage, following up a 1-under 70 on Thursday by carding seven birdies in a round of 67 on the South Course and becoming the surprise clubhouse leader by one stroke over South African Louis Oosthuizen. If it holds up, he will be the oldest 36-hole leader in U.S. Open history.
Confirmed by the @USGA historian staff – at age 48, Richard Bland would be the oldest 36-hole leader in U.S. Open history.
But Bland didn’t sound surprised to be in the trophy hunt. “When I saw this place on Monday, it kind of set up to my eye,” he said. “It’s all there just straight in front of me, and that’s the kind of golf course I like. I thought, I can play around here.”
In his Twitter bio, Bland states that he is a European Tour professional golfer during the week, the joke being that he’s taken a few too many weekends off over the year. It was just two years ago, at age 46, that Bland missed so many 36-hole cuts that he was demoted to the Challenge Tour, the minor league circuit of the European Tour. But he never gave up and ignored the signs that he might be washed up. He still believed that he could regain his form and eventually win, and he did just that.
“What am I going to do, go and get an office job? I’m not that intelligent, I’m afraid,” he said. “The old saying is you get knocked down seven times, you get up eight. I’ve always had that kind of attitude that you just keep going. You never know in this game, you just keep going.”
His joy after beating Italy’s Guido Migliozzi with a par on the first playoff hole was something to behold and it became one of the feel-good stories of the year. Only Malcolm MacKenzie had played more European Tour events (509) before winning his maiden title. The response on social media, with the likes of Fred Couples and Lee Westwood sending congratulations, overwhelmed Bland.
Richard Bland waves after his putt on the ninth green during the second round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
“I’m just a guy who’s won a golf tournament really, when you boil it down,” he said. “But as it all sunk in, I think it was just more satisfaction than anything that I kind of got what I’ve always wanted. I want more. Every golfer wants more. Hopefully I can do it again.”
Perhaps his caddie, Australian Kyle Roadley, summarized his bosses perseverance best.
“A lot of tenacity, a lot of hard work, there’s a lot of guys that come and go in this game and to stick at it for as long as he has, hats off to him,” he said.
A spot in the U.S. Open – just his fourth major in his career, one per decade beginning with the 1998 British Open – was among the spoils of victory but he still floated in under the radar. He doesn’t even have a sponsor for his ball cap, sporting the logo of his home club, The Wisley Club in Woking, England, which gave him 10 hats to wear this week.
“So, if anyone is offering,” he said with a smile.
Don’t be surprised if he shows up with a sponsor by his Saturday tee time. His rhinoceros headcover also is telling, part of a charitable commitment in which he donates money for every birdie he makes to an organization called Birdies4Rhinos.
“Two things I can’t stand is three-putting and animal cruelty,” he said.
The putter behaved on Friday. Starting his round on hole No. 10, Bland carded birdies on five of his first eleven holes and climbed to 6 under for the championship before giving a stroke back at No. 8. It made for an easy day on the bag for the man nicknamed Roach.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Roadley said. “I’m just out there peeling bananas and telling him where the wind is, pretty much.”
The caddie for Richard Bland holds the sixth green pin flag during the second round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
Roadley is 53 and was on the bag last year when Finland’s Sami Valimaki, 22, won the European Tour’s Oman Open. But he got canned because Valimaki wanted a caddie more his age that he could relate to. Roadley began working for Bland in December during the tour’s South African swing and said they were just a pair of graybeards giving it their best.
“Rolling back the years, baby, that’s what it is all about,” Roadley said.
In a year where Stewart Cink won at 48 and Phil Mickelson became the first 50-year-old to claim a major, Bland said he was going to “give those gym-goers a run for their money.”
His confidence is high and he’s finding fairways, something that he’s been doing with regularity since a driver change last month. Bland spent some time last week with his golf coach, longtime Sky Sport TV reporter Tim Barter, who he calls the best coach in the game.
“In golfing terms, we just kind of speak the same language,” Bland said. “He’s part of the furniture. Just took me 20 years to listen to him.”
Listen up, golf fans, it took Bland 478 events to win the first time. Who says it can’t take just four to win a major?
Bryson DeChambeau is not one to simply leave the course after a challenging round. Here’s what happened Thursday night.
SAN DIEGO – There are very few lists of outstanding accomplishments in golf that do not include either Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson or Tiger Woods. The list of golfers who have won back-to-back U.S. Opens is one of them.
Willie Anderson was the first of seven golfers to do it, winning three in a row from 1903 to 1905 before Bobby Jones won in 1929 and 1930. Ben Hogan won two in a row in 1950 and 1951. The last man to win two in a row is Brooks Koepka, who won at Erin Hills in 2017 and Shinnecock Hills the following year.
Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open last year at Winged Foot and wants to be the eighth name on that list. After shooting a 2-under 69 Friday at Torrey Pines, he is even par for the tournament and five shots behind England’s Richard Bland. Heading into the weekend, he’s still got a shot.
“I couldn’t see very well, and it obviously being very dark, they shut the lights off, which is fine,” he said. “I’ve hit golf balls in the dark plenty of times.”
While he did not find the swing feel he was seeking, DeChambeau said that it came to him in the middle of the night.
“I found something this morning,” he said. “I was sleeping, and it came to me in the middle of the night. I woke up and I was like, ‘Hmm, I’m going to try this,’ and I went out, and my intuition is pretty good, so I went out and tried it and it worked, just keeping the right wrist bent for a lot longer through impact.”
That thought needed a few holes to kick in because Friday morning, DeChambeau’s round began with bogeys on the 10th (his first of the day) and the 12th holes. That raised his overall score to 4 over.
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However, a 16-footer for birdie on the par-5 13th began a solid run.
On 16, his tee shot on the 223-yard par 3 landed about 30 feet short of the hole but bounced and trundled to within 3 feet before stopping and setting up a kick-in birdie. On 18, a 571-yard par 5, DeChambeau hit a 339-yard tee shot before leaving his approach shot 25 feet below the hole. After making the eagle putt, he was suddenly 2 under for the day and back to even par for the tournament.
A birdie at the first hole got the building crowd going, but he wasted a scoring chance on the second hole, hit a poor tee shot on the par-3 third that led to a bogey and then missed makeable birdie putts on the fourth, fifth and sixth holes.
“I feel like I got my C, C-plus game with my irons, and my driving is like B, putting is A,” DeChambeau said Friday. “I’m putting really well, but I feel like if I can clean up my iron play and get a little more comfortable with the irons and the drivers, I’ll have a good chance for this weekend.”
SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods’ highlight reel is absurd. The chip-in from behind the 16th green at the 2005 Masters, the holed-out flop shot from behind the green at the 2012 Memorial and, of course, the “better than most” putt from the back of the 17th green at the 2001 Players Championship.
On Tuesday morning, the city of San Diego and the USGA commemorated another of Tiger’s most-iconic shots, the putt he made on Sunday on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open to force a Monday playoff with Rocco Mediate.
Mayor Todd Gloria and city council president Jennifer Campbell signed a proclamation and presented it Wednesday morning, steps away from where Tiger hit the famous putt, to announce the official start of United States Open Championship Week. Ironically, a third person’s name is on the official document, city council member Joe LaCava.
The proclamation stating that this is United States Open Championship Week in San Diego. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
A plaque to commemorate Tiger’s famous putt and his eventual victory in 2008 has been placed to the right and short the 18th green. It reads:
“Expect Anything Different? Playing on a fractured leg, Tiger Woods sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate. Woods defeated Mediate in 19 holes the following day to win this third U.S. Open title.”
SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods’ highlight reel is absurd. The chip-in from behind the 16th green at the 2005 Masters, the holed-out flop shot from behind the green at the 2012 Memorial and, of course, the “better than most” putt from the back of the 17th green at the 2001 Players Championship.
On Tuesday morning, the city of San Diego and the USGA commemorated another of Tiger’s most-iconic shots, the putt he made on Sunday on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open to force a Monday playoff with Rocco Mediate.
Mayor Todd Gloria and city council president Jennifer Campbell signed a proclamation and presented it Wednesday morning, steps away from where Tiger hit the famous putt, to announce the official start of United States Open Championship Week. Ironically, a third person’s name is on the official document, city council member Joe LaCava.
The proclamation stating that this is United States Open Championship Week in San Diego. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
A plaque to commemorate Tiger’s famous putt and his eventual victory in 2008 has been placed to the right and short the 18th green. It reads:
“Expect Anything Different? Playing on a fractured leg, Tiger Woods sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate. Woods defeated Mediate in 19 holes the following day to win this third U.S. Open title.”
“It’s a unique opportunity because I’ve never won a U.S. Open,” Phil Mickelson said Monday, a fact even the most casual fan knows.
LA JOLLA, Calif. — It was 31 years ago Monday—June 14, 1990—that golf’s Ahab set off in pursuit of his whale, a fruitless hunt that has been the sport’s most compelling, quixotic and at times anguished tale.
Phil Mickelson turned 20 years old during that ’90 U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club and earned low amateur honors. Hale Irwin became the oldest-ever champion at age 45. Three decades later, the kid is collecting the old man accolades, but is still searching for the prize that matters to him most.
Mickelson became the oldest winner in major championship history when he won the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island last month. A second straight major victory—especially this major, in his hometown—would be the stuff of fairytales. Except Moby Dick wasn’t a fairytale.
“It’s a unique opportunity because I’ve never won a U.S. Open,” Mickelson said Monday, a fact even the most casual fan knows. The PGA Championship was his sixth major title but Mickelson’s career has been defined by the only major he hasn’t won. He’s finished second in the U.S. Open a record six times, and since his birthday always falls during tournament week, every disappointment comes with a reminder that he has less time remaining to fulfill his dream of the career Grand Slam.
He will launch his 30th bid for the title on Thursday and has been determined to tune out the distractions.
“I’ve kind of shut off all the noise. I’ve shut off my phone. I’ve shut off a lot of the other stuff to where I can kind of focus in on this week and really give it my best chance to try to play my best,” he said. “Now, you always need some luck, you always need things to kind of come together and click, but I know that I’m playing well, and I just wanted to give myself every opportunity to be in play at my best.”
Phil Mickelson chips onto the 11th green during a practice round of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. Photo by Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
Mickelson knows something about playing his best over the clifftop South course at Torrey Pines. He has won the regular PGA Tour stop here, the Farmers Insurance Open, three times. However, the last of those wins was 20 years ago and he hasn’t cracked the top 10 in a decade. His last decent finish in the U.S. Open was his last near-miss, eight years ago at Merion.
That’s the problem with getting to be Mickelson’s age: the numbers tend to tell you how good you used to be. What happened at Kiawah Island proved how good he still can be, in the right circumstances.
The Hall of Famer upended the oddsmakers by holding off Brooks Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen by two strokes, unexpectedly ending a two-year winless drought, and fully eight years after his last major win at the Open Championship in 2013.
“When it all comes together at a perfect time like that was exciting to put it together,” he said. “I feel like – or I’m hopeful that some of the things that I had learned heading in will carry over and give me some more opportunities this summer, because I feel like I’m playing some good golf.”
If he is to finally win the U.S. Open, Mickelson will need something more than good golf. Torrey Pines is a test unlike the one he mastered at Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course. That windswept layout in South Carolina rewarded the skills a man accumulates with age, like patience, experience and strategic savvy. Torrey Pines, however, is a typically demanding U.S. Open layout that exposes what a man loses with age: distance, strength, confidence on the greens.
Despite living nearby, Mickelson doesn’t spend much time at Torrey Pines outside of tournaments—Tour players tend not to enjoy lengthy rounds on municipal golf courses—but he’s been coming by recently in an effort to relearn the golf course and settle on a strategy for this week.
“There’s a proper way to play here to each pin, and I just have tried to do too much in the past,” he admitted. “I felt like if I could learn the greens and know what a lot of the 30- and 40-foot putts do, then I don’t have to try to get it into these tiny little shelves, and I can make easy pars and make a few of the longer putts. That was kind of my thought process.”
Mickelson played a practice round Monday with Akshay Bhatia, who was born a few months before the veteran recorded his second runner-up finish in the U.S. Open in 2002, but it’s unclear whose brain was being picked. “He has as many questions for me as I have for him,” Mickelson said. “I’m curious how he does things too because he’s got a lot of clubhead speed, a lot of strength, a lot of shot making. He might ask me a few things on chipping. I might ask him a few things on clubs.”
In the only other U.S. Open contested at Torrey Pines in 2008, Mickelson backdoored a top 20 finish on the strength of a solid final round. The weapons he had back then in his prime have been recalibrated to the limitations of a man who turns 51 on Wednesday and who now needs to plot his way around a major venue rather than simply overpower it.
“You kind of learn in plateaus, and every now and then you might be working hard, working hard, doing the right things and not getting the progress, and then you kind of get a spike,” he said philosophically. “That spike came at the PGA to where it all kind of comes together and you put it all together it was at the right time. Hopefully, I’ll continue to play at a new plateau, at a little bit higher level, because some things started to click.”
That sense of boyish optimism is the only thing that remains unchanged since Mickelson began his U.S. Open quest 31 years ago. No matter how many gut punches and near misses he has had along the way, Ahab isn’t ready to give up on the hunt just yet.
