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Associated Press
4 days ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
A caddie at heart, Bones Mackay makes sure to get the 18th flag to Spaun's bagman
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Jim 'Bones' Mackay often has said he would always be a caddie, even now that he has left his longtime role to be a course reporter for NBC Sports. That much was evident in the final, chaotic hour of the U.S. Open. Mackay was with the final group of Sam Burns and Adam Scott. By the time they reached the final hole Sunday, the championship had been decided. J.J. Spaun made a 65-foot birdie putt to finish at 279. The last two players on the course were five shots or more behind. That's when Mackay identified a potential problem and solved it. When it was over, he removed the flag on the 18th hole, which traditionally is the 'trophy' for the winner's caddie. That was Mark Carens, who had to leave the 18th with another group coming through. 'We were 200 yards away when J.J. made his putt,' Mackay said Tuesday. 'That scene ... I realized J.J. won the tournament and I was super happy for both of those guys. But it just occurred to me, Mark might not have access to the flag.' Carens joined Spaun in the scoring area. Sam Burns and Adam Scott closed out their rough back nine with bogeys. Mackay waited for them to finish and grabbed the pin. 'There were so many people inside the ropes, I just wanted to make sure Mark got it, or to have the option,' Mackay said. 'As I got to scoring, he was coming out with J.J. I handed it to him, said, 'Congrats,' and left him alone.' Only a caddie would think to do that. Mackay is a caddie. Portmarnock in the mix The Royal & Ancient Golf Club talks about a feasibility study for the British Open to return to Turnberry. Far more serious is whether to take golf's oldest championship outside the United Kingdom for the first time. The topic was Portmarnock in Ireland. The response from Mark Darbon, the R&A's new CEO, was that 'we're serious.' 'We're having a proper look at it,' Darbon said in a recent interview 'It's clearly a great course.' Darbon said he went to Portmarnock, located on a peninsula about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Dublin, for the first time last month. 'Wonderful links golf course,' he said. 'And clearly a links course that provides a challenge to the best golfers in the world is right in the heart of our thinking about where we take our prized Open Championship.' Darbon pointed out the history with Portmarnock and the R&A, specifically the Walker Cup in 1991 and the British Amateur in 1949 and 2019, along with the Women's British Amateur last year and in 1931. 'We think if we're happy taking our Amateur Championships there, why not consider it for the Open, too?' he said. Work remains, particularly the logistics of a massive crowd — The Open is all about 'big' these days — on and off the peninsula. The PGA Championship a decade ago flirted with the idea of going around the world. For the British Open to leave the U.K. for the first time would not open more borders. 'I think the simple answer is 'no,' it wouldn't open up our thinking more broadly,' Darbon said. 'If you go back in history, the home territory of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews is the British Isles, basically. We think if we've got this great history with the Republic of Ireland and its great golf course, then why not look at it?' KPMG Women's PGA The KPMG Women's PGA is now on equal terms with the U.S. Women's Open when it comes to prize money. KPMG announced Tuesday its total purse is now $12 million, up from $10.4 million a year ago. KPMG took over as title sponsor in 2015 when the PGA of America became partners with the LPGA in the major championship that dates to 1955. More than money, the company has provided players with data to improve their games called 'KPMG Performance Insights,' which operates on a smaller scale of the ShotLink data on the PGA Tour. For the Women's PGA, which starts Thursday at the Fields Ranch East at PGA of America headquarters near Dallas, KPMG is adding AI-enhanced features like hole-by-hole analysis delivered to players after each round. Another feature is AI-generated scoring targets, particularly the cut, giving players an idea if they're safe or need to make a move. 'The high purse, top courses, comprehensive broadcast coverage, and technology are all ways we are setting the standard,' said Paul Knopp, the U.S. chairman and CEO of KPMG. Ryder Cup locks Another measure of how well Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy have played this year — McIlroy until the Masters, Scheffler ever since then — is that both already have locked up a spot on their Ryder Cup teams with at least two months left in the qualifying period. Scheffler locked up his spot among the leading six players two weeks ago. Team Europe disclosed Tuesday that McIlroy already has clinched a spot. The Ryder Cup is at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York, at the end of September. More interesting is who gets the other spots, or even is in position for a captain's pick. U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun moved all the way up to No. 3, followed by Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. All have Ryder Cup experience. Of the next six in the U.S. standings, only Harris English and Brian Harman have played in a Ryder Cup. McIlroy is followed by Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Robert MacIntyre, Sepp Straka and Rasmus Hojgaard. MacIntyre moved up seven spots to No. 4 with as the U.S. Open runner-up. Keegan Bradley, the U.S. captain who has said he would play if he qualifies, is at No. 17 with three $20 million tournaments to play and the British Open. Divots The PGA Tour says 143 players have competed in a signature event since 2024. The Travelers Championship is the final one of 2025. ... The Korn Ferry Tour is adding a tournament in Amarillo, Texas, to its 2026 schedule. The OccuNet Classic will be played played June 11-14 at Tascosa Golf Club. ... The two players picking up medals on the 18th green at Oakmont for the U.S. Open were from San Diego State — J.J. Spaun, the U.S. Open champion, and Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands, the low amateur. ... Corey Conners, who had to withdraw from the final round of the U.S. Open with a wrist injury, withdrew from the $20 million Travelers Championship. He was replaced in the field by Jhonattan Vegas. ... The field for the KPMG Women's PGA features all 100 players from the Race to CME Globe on the LPGA Tour. Stat of the week Philip Barbaree Jr. finished in last place at the U.S. Open and earned the largest paycheck of his career at $41,785. Final word 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do.' — Rory McIlroy. ___ AP golf:
Washington Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- Washington Post
J.J. Spaun takes a long road of hard work to become US Open champion
OAKMONT, Pa. — J.J. Spaun faced his first big moment on a big stage in golf and he wasn't ready for it. He didn't even have a club in his hand. Spaun was a 26-year-old PGA Tour rookie at Torrey Pines in 2017. He was not eligible for the pro-am and wanted to see the North course when he came across an enormous crowd that could mean only one thing: Tiger Woods.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Lynch: Rory McIlroy had three goals in 2025. He's achieved the first, now on to the second
OAKMONT, Pa. — Twenty-odd years ago, I sat with Ian Woosnam on a golf cart at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Woosie is the practically-minded son of a Welsh farmer and not given to deep reflection, but on one question he was. He told me he could pinpoint exactly — to the day — when his career decline began. It was April 14, 1991, the day he won the Masters. Advertisement Woosnam had two goals in his golfing life, other than making a living (his autobiography, Woosie, ends every chapter with a summary of his earnings per season). One dream was to win a major championship. The other was to be the best in the world. On April 8, six days before winning at Augusta National, he reached No. 1 in the official world golf ranking. Two dreams checked off in one week. 'Other people go looking for another mountain to climb,' he told me that day at Kiawah Island. 'I just slid down the other side.' There were 11 more wins on the European Tour, but only one real shot at another major, a decade later in the Open at Royal Lytham, when two drivers in the bag doomed him to a penalty and a tie for 3rd. But the fire that took a diminutive blue-collar guy from hitting balls during winter in his dad's barn to the pinnacle of a white collar sport was extinguished. I thought back to that conversation these past two weeks, listening to Rory McIlroy. Thirty-four years after Woosnam, McIlroy achieved his lifetime dream and completed the career grand slam. The emotion that drained from him on the 18th green and on the walk to the clubhouse — so poignant as to keep the CBS announce team respectfully silent — spoke volumes about what it meant. Advertisement Shortly afterward, an elated McIlroy opened his press conference with a question that poked fun at the previous decade of inquiries about whether he would win a green jacket: 'What are we all going to talk about next year?' The answer, it turns out, was this: What else ya got? And when ya got it? Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland walks off the seventh tee during the third round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on June 14, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. McIlroy never took time to fully process that seismic accomplishment. Ten days later, he was at the Zurich Classic playing with Shane Lowry, having made a trip to London and Northern Ireland in between. Then it was on to the Truist Championship and straight into another major at the PGA Championship. By comparison, when Tiger Woods won the Masters in '97, and also in '19, he did not make a competitive appearance for five weeks. Advertisement McIlroy has been asked what comes next several times since the Masters,. Even earlier this week at Oakmont, he was asked what his plan is for the coming years. 'I don't have one. I have no idea,' he said. 'I'm sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point. Yeah, I have no idea.' It was disarmingly honest, but alarming for those who fetishize the mentality epitomized by Tiger Woods, a single-mindedness that moves shark-like between feasts without enjoyment or even digestion. It's a sentiment that celebrates racking up accomplishments, but not of taking actual pleasure in those victories. Earlier this year, McIlroy said one of his goals for '25 was to have more fun. It's why he went to a soccer game in Bilbao with friends, why he wants to play in India and Australia later this year. Yet somewhere along the way, he denied himself the time to have fun celebrating the greatest achievement of his career. Now, a minor hangover of sorts has kicked in. "You dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don't think about what comes next,' he said a few days ago. 'I think I've always been a player that struggles to play after a big event, after I win whatever tournament. I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because you've just accomplished something and you want to enjoy it and you want to sort of relish the fact that you've achieved a goal. Chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit.' The schedule doesn't allow much time for relaxation or reflection, even if he had been minded to pursue it. Two majors have passed with not much of an impact, a tie for 47th at Quail Hollow and lingering around the top 25 at Oakmont as the final round wound down. Advertisement In a casual conversation a few months back, he summarized his objectives for the year: win the Masters, win the Open at Royal Portrush, win an away Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black. As he prepared to leave Pittsburgh, McIlroy acknowledged fresh motivation is on the horizon for the second item on that list. 'If I can't get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me,' he said. 'I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven't been there the last few weeks. But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.' Just 63 days have passed since that victorious evening at Augusta National. Only 32 remain until balls are in the air at the 153rd Open. Maybe that hasn't been enough time to celebrate realizing a dream 30 years in the making, but it's probably enough to narrow the focus to knocking off the second item on his target list for '25. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Lynch: Rory McIlroy won the Masters, his first goal. What's next?
New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Why J.J. Spaun winning the U.S. Open was actually awesome
OAKMONT, Pa. — One by one, they made their way over the bridge, down the stairs and into the scoring area. Their shoes and ankles were covered in mud. Their polo shirts soggily suctioned to their bodies. Their eyes glazed over from the things they'd seen. My goodness, these men wanted to win the U.S. Open with every bit of their being, to finally win a major championship and make this ugly, rainy day worth the battles behind them. Advertisement And then they watched those dreams fade away, as J.J. Spaun made his a reality. Tyrrell Hatton was mid-interview as the putt rolled in, seeing a television screen out of the corner of his eye. The often aggravated, ornery Englishman slowed his words as he saw it, and his scowl turned to a smile of calm joy. 'He's holed it,' Hatton said. 'Unbelievable. What a putt to win. That's incredible.' Viktor Hovland was there on the green, still fighting with hope as it went in. His dreams were shattered right in front of him, yet Hovland immediately put his putter down and clapped with pure appreciation. He even slapped the man's hand like a first-base coach celebrating a home run. Robert MacIntyre was leaning back in a scoring area chair, hoping to the golfing gods for a J.J. Spaun disaster. He was the clubhouse leader with a chance to steal the U.S. Open until Spaun took the lead. If Spaun could just bogey 18, they'd go to a playoff. MacIntyre watched too as it fell, and the 28-year-old Scot lifted his arms and exaggeratedly clapped his hands high in the air. Pure respect. Well Done. 'Wow,' he mouthed to himself. Because everybody who witnessed what J.J. Spaun did on that 18th green Sunday at Oakmont understood they had just seen what this whole damn thing is about. They saw the reasons to still believe. The payoff for all the pain. The fact that maybe, just maybe, anybody can win a U.S. Open. And that mattered so much more than feeling sorry for themselves. What happened was Spaun — a journeyman, a grinder, a stocky, 5-foot-8, 34-year-old golfer who nearly lost his PGA Tour card a year ago — came out of a rain delay four shots behind the lead after a disastrous start. And Spaun just played. Played so well that he went to that 18th green at the toughest course in America with cold, foggy rain beating down, needing just a two-putt for a major championship. Instead, Spaun went ahead and made the 64-foot, 5-inch putt to win the whole thing by two shots. WHAT A PUTT!!!! J.J. SPAUN WINS THE U.S. OPEN!!!! — U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2025 There are times at sporting events when you become fundamentally aware that it's OK to feel. That we're all just people working jobs and traveling around, hoping to get a little bit further, and a little bit further, and hoping it all works out in the end. You don't get what you want often enough, and the cynicism can build in. Even watching golf. Oh, Scottie Scheffler wins again? Bryson DeChambeau? Cool. More superstars are getting what they want. But now and then, you witness Spaun launching his putter into the air in complete disbelief that he — he — really did the thing at the one place designed to bend golfers to its will. And you remember to feel. Advertisement Because J.J. Spaun is not your typical U.S. Open champion. He's a Lakers fan who was asked about his Kobe Bryant moment and compared himself to Derek Fisher. He recited a Tiger Woods story about playing in U.S. Opens, but not because Woods talked to Spaun himself. No, he just got the story secondhand from Max Homa. He is a mixed-race guy from California who started playing golf without any formal lessons, learning by hitting balls into a net his dad set up in the garage. He was a walk-on at San Diego State and earned his way onto the team before becoming an All-American. He grinded on mini tours for four years, and even when he made it to the PGA Tour, he simply fought to survive for half a decade. He broke through with a 2022 win at the Valero Texas Open, but within two years was missing 10 cuts in five months. 'Last year in June, I was looking like I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment where, if this is how I go out, I might as well go down swinging,' Spaun said. There was a shift that summer. For so long, it was about climbing, climbing, climbing. Aspirations. Goals. Bitterness. Slights. Yet at 33, he understood he was OK. He had a wife, Melody, and two kids under age five. He'd spent eight years on the PGA Tour. He had made it in life. So golf did not need to be everything. The motto became: Let the golf be golf. For so long, he had heard others talk in those sorts of self-improvement slogans and didn't grasp them. Sure, stay focused. Stay calm. Got it. He had a family, but that still meant stress to provide for them. He still allowed golf to be his identity. He'd leave close calls in Hawaii and Memphis distraught, feeling a 'crawl-into-a-hole-and-die kind of a feeling because it was just so embarrassing. I was just afraid to feel embarrassed again.' But last June, when he had to come to terms with the possibility this whole ride could end, it shifted. 'If this is how I'm going to go out,' he said, 'then this is it.' And the golf got better. Three top 10s and five top 30s in six starts to end the season. Good performances in the fall. He kept his tour card, kept the success going into 2025, and got himself into signature events like the Players Championship. And there in Ponte Vedra, the possibilities were able to shift. No, it wasn't life or death anymore, but he could dream a little bigger. Advertisement That day, so much like this Sunday, he went into the final round with a lead and struggled. Three bogeys before an afternoon rain delay forced him to reset. Everyone assumed the tournament was Rory McIlroy's until Spaun came out of the delay and birdied 14 and 16 to force McIlroy into a playoff. He didn't win, but he understood he could. So on Father's Day, entering it one stroke behind leader Sam Burns, he opened with an ugly bogey. Then, he caught one of the worst breaks imaginable on No. 2 with a perfect approach that bounced off the flagstick, went across the green, and rolled down the steep front for an eventual bogey. He bogeyed five of his first six holes for a front-nine 40. NBC stopped showing his shots. He was done for. Until another weather delay. As he went back to the driving range to prepare for the restart, his (very new) coach, Josh Gregory, told him, 'Stop trying so hard.' Just chill, the team told him. Because in any world, J.J. Spaun should not be disappointed he's four back at a major championship. When he went to the ninth tee to restart, he smoked one in the fairway and knew. He had a chance. While everybody around him collapsed into oblivion, Spaun made a 40-foot birdie on 12, a 22-foot birdie on 14, and when he went to the famous drivable par-4 17th hole, he was tied for the lead. There on 17, he hit a shot so good it's only unfortunate history will remember the winning putt on 18 more. He landed the uphill green, hitting a 309-yard drive to 18 feet from the tight pin. He two-putted for birdie, went to the 18th tee with the lead and needing a par to win. And he launched a perfect drive into the fairway. He stepped off the tee with his chest pumping in and out like a cartoon, the adrenaline surely flowing in excess. From the fairway, a bogey was less likely. He could put his approach safely on the left of the green, as he did. He could, as most would assume, two-putt for par and go off into the foggy sunset. But by Sunday night, J.J. Spaun had learned to dream a whole dream. Advertisement 'I didn't want to play defensive,' he said. 'I didn't know if I had a two-shot lead. I didn't want to do anything dumb trying to protect a three-putt or something.' Hovland's putt before his showed him the exact line. Spaun had his guide. He had his line. And Spaun launched that 64-foot, 5-inch putt up the hill and let it go. And the entire golfing world — from the gallery, to the workers, to the golfers hoping he missed — watched something special happen in front of them. They watched as the putt fell, and they remembered what this was all for.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
U.S. Open third round highlights: Sam Burns holds lead into championship round
OAKMONT — Despite the on-and-off rain for part of the day during the third round of the 125th U.S. Open Championship on Saturday, June 14, 2025, play was conducted as scheduled setting up an exciting finish in tomorrow's championship round with a tight margin at the top of the leaderboard. Here is a look at some of the action that unfolded in Saturday's round. Burns holds lead into final round For most of the third round, both J.J. Spaun and Sam Burns jockeyed for first and second on the leaderboard with Burns edging out Spaun on the final hole sinking his par putt while Spaun settled for bogey. Advertisement 'I didn't drive the ball as well as I would have liked to,' Burns said. 'But when I got myself in a bad spot, I felt like I did a good job getting back in the fairway. Having a wedge or short iron in my hand giving myself a chance for par, I could convert some of those to keep the momentum going.' He holds a one-stroke lead in front of Adam Scott and Spaun (3-under par) and Viktor Hovland, who stayed put at 1-under after shooting even. Burns was even on the front nine, canceling out a bogey on the second hole with a birdie on the fifth. He did the same on the back by regaining a stroke on the 17th hole, hitting his chip just 7 inches from the cup for a tap in. Barbaree makes first major cut After second-round action was suspended Friday, June 13, with dangerous weather in the area, Philip Barbaree was one of 13 players who had to wait and finish out his round the following morning when conditions improved. Advertisement Barbaree's wife Chloe, who is also his caddie, kept him level-headed despite being on the cut line at 7-over when play was suspended. 'I saw the cut on Instagram last night and I told her where I was at on the eighth green and how it would make things harder,' Philip Barbaree said. 'I asked her to help me deal with it and we talked through things. She tried to change my perspective telling me we are here, I have played great and whatever happens, it will still be a great week.' With a hole to play, Barbaree was in search of par on the ninth hole to advance to the weekend rounds. He did so, sinking a 12-foot putt for par to make cut at a major for the first time in his career. 'To be able to pull off a shot like that when it matters and with her on the bag, it's a special moment,' Barbaree said. Advertisement The Shreveport, Louisiana, native later finished the third round shooting a 75 and was 12-over with 18 holes to play. Amateur Justin Hastings lines up his putt on the 14th green at Oakmont Country Club during 3rd Round play in the 125th US Open Championship on June 14th 2025. Hastings the lone amateur left When Justin Hastings entered Saturday's round, he did so as the only amateur to survive the cut coming in 6-over par, beating out Benjamin James (8-over) and 14 other amateurs for the low-am title. The Cayman Islands native put together a solid third round, shooting even par on the front nine while picking up back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes. Following the front nine, Hastings shot 3-over on the back with a pair of bogeys and a double while also carding a birdie on the par-3 13th hole. Advertisement The 21-year-old currently sits 9-over. Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen birdies four in a row After finishing 4-over par in the second round, Neergaard-Petersen bounced back, stringing together four straight birdies to shoot 2-under on the front nine. He becomes the second player this weekend to birdie four consecutive holes joining Chris Kirk, who birded four straight in the opening round, per Elias Sports. This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: U.S. Open roundup: Sam Burns holds slim lead heading into final round
