Golf’s major championships have always stood out from the crowd, but perhaps now more than ever.
Just as a relatively stable status quo seemed to have been established in the men’s professional game, Tuesday’s announcement of a peace deal between golf’s warring factions ironically plunged it back into turmoil.
Rory McIlroy admitted he felt like a “sacrificial lamb” and still “hated” LIV Golf, stressing that those players who he felt had done irreparable harm to the PGA Tour and started litigation against it would not be welcomed back with open arms.
On the other side of the coin, some of the players who pocketed eye-watering sums of money to join the breakaway understandably gloated on social media as it looked like they would be able to have their cake and eat it after all.
Exactly how the shock merger of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour’s commercial operations with those of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which bankrolls LIV, shakes out remains to be seen.
But for now, the Masters, US PGA Championship, US Open and The Open potentially offer welcome refuge from the world of secretive deals and morally questionable sources of money which threaten to permanently taint the world’s biggest Tours.
Which brings us to the 123rd US Open at Los Angeles Country Club, a largely unknown venue in professional golf which staged the Los Angeles Open five times, most recently in 1940.
The North Course did also host the Walker Cup in 2017 as a United States team featuring current world number one Scottie Scheffler, two-time major champion Collin Morikawa and PGA Tour winners Will Zalatoris and Cameron Champ thrashed Great Britain and Ireland 19-7.
Six years on, Scheffler will contest the first US Open in Los Angeles since 1948 on a remarkable run of form as he bids to claim a second major title following his Masters triumph in 2022.
As well as winning the prestigious Players Championship and defending his title in the WM Phoenix Open, Scheffler has finished runner-up in the US PGA Championship and been no worse than 12th in 13 events in 2023, despite being hampered by a decidedly misfiring putter.
Third place in the Memorial Tournament was achieved on the back of gaining 20.74 strokes from tee to green, the second-best performance since the PGA Tour began tracking such data 20 years ago.
And his ball striking needed to be outstanding because Scheffler lost 8.58 strokes to the field on the greens, ranking him dead last of those to make the cut at Muirfield Village.
“I feel like I’m making progress,” Scheffler insisted after his closing 67. “I can start feeling the ball coming off the blade again, which is good. Even today, I just go through my round and I’m like ‘how did some of these putts not go in?'”
If Scheffler finds the answer to that question he will be a hard man to beat, but he faces stiff competition from the likes of US PGA winner Brooks Koepka and Masters champion Jon Rahm, perhaps along with the likes of course record holder Max Homa and defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
A fit-again Koepka bounced back from the disappointment of failing to convert a 54-hole lead at Augusta National to win his fifth major title at Oak Hill, looking every inch the player who won the US Open in 2017 and 2018.
Afterwards, Koepka was more concerned about his own achievement than the implications of becoming the first LIV player to win a major, and just 16 days later that debate was seemingly rendered moot by news of the shock merger.
As for what happens next, all bets are off.
Europe retain Solheim Cup as Carlota Ciganda stars in dramatic draw with US
Home favourite Carlota Ciganda played a starring role as Europe retained the Solheim Cup after a thrilling 14-14 draw with the United States, the first in the biennial contest’s history.
Trailing 4-0 after the opening foursomes, Suzann Pettersen’s side rallied magnificently at Finca Cortesin and it fittingly fell to Spanish star Ciganda to ensure the trophy would remain in Europe with her fourth win from four matches.
With Ciganda pegged back to all square on the 15th against Nelly Korda, the United States were briefly on course for an outright win due to the status of the remaining matches.
However, Ciganda then hit a stunning approach to the 16th to set up a winning birdie and, after Maja Stark had beaten US Open champion Allisen Corpuz to make it 13-13, repeated the feat on the 17th to ensure Europe would at least retain the trophy.
Emily Pedersen still had an outside chance to halve her match with Lexi Thompson and secure outright victory, but Thompson calmly holed from 10 feet for par on the 17th to close out a 2&1 win.
“I’m so happy just to do this for Suzann, for Spain, I’m just so proud,” Ciganda told Sky Sports.
“When I saw Suzann on 16 she told me a couple of things and I was like, ‘I’m just going to do this for her’, because I love her and she deserves this. I love my team, I love Europe, I love Spain, I love Solheim Cups.
“It’s been a great week and I’m just so happy to be here right now.”
Sepp Straka says place on Europe’s Ryder Cup team continues ‘incredible ride’
His accent is as American as his caddie, but Sepp Straka believes he has gone the extra mile – thousands of them in fact – to prove his dedication to Europe’s Ryder Cup team.
Straka was asked to compete in the Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi in January, a team event between Continental Europe and Great Britain and Ireland which it was felt necessary to revive in the wake of 2021’s record Ryder Cup defeat.
The only problem was that the Austrian was contesting the Sentry Tournament of Champions the week beforehand in Hawaii, which meant undertaking an epic journey across 14 time zones.
“Francesco (Molinari, captain of Continental Europe) was the first person to talk to me about the trip,” Straka told the PA news agency.
“My first reaction was that I don’t know if I’ll make it because I don’t think that I can get there.
“Then I looked into the flights a little deeper and realised that I could make it for the Tuesday and it didn’t start until the Friday.
“Once I realised I could get there in time to prepare then I wanted to make the trip because it was huge in terms of getting to Rome and also getting comfortable playing team golf. I think that is something we don’t get to do a lot.
“I’ve always wanted to be a part of it. I kind of put myself in a place last year for consideration for the team and I knew that would show my commitment.
“From there on, I could focus on just trying to play my best golf and put my name out there.”
Straka won two points from his four matches in the Hero Cup, including a foursomes victory over Ryder Cup team-mates Shane Lowry and Tyrrell Hatton, but then missed the cut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and Dubai Desert Classic.
However, he claimed his second PGA Tour title in the John Deere Classic in July and two weeks later finished joint second in the Open at Royal Liverpool, his second top 10 in a major in 2023.
Such performances meant Europe captain Luke Donald felt he “couldn’t leave” Straka off his team and duly gave him a wild card, making Straka the second Austrian after Bernd Wiesberger to play in the contest.
“It’s been an incredible ride,” said Straka, whose family moved from Vienna to Georgia when he was 14 – he went on to play on the University of Georgia with twin brother Sam.
“Kind of all started by winning the Honda (Classic) last season and thankfully I was able to ride that and gain confidence and just keep improving my golf game.
“I feel like it’s in a place where I give myself a lot more chances now than did I early in my career and yeah, it’s been an incredible ride the last few years.”
As for having a southern accent and an American caddie in Duane “Dewey” Bock, Straka joked: “I was thinking about maybe getting a translator. Maybe my brother can translate for me for the week just so we don’t have to hear it.
“Dewey is a great caddie. He’s been awesome to have on the bag and it’s helped me so much over the last few months.
“He is definitely red, white and blue. A bunch of the European caddies have been giving him crap about having a US yardage book cover but he’s already changed that. We’re working on him.
“He’s a professional. He’ll do his best job that he can and it will be great.”
Suzann Pettersen ‘out of words’ after Europe square Solheim Cup ahead of singles
Captain Suzann Pettersen was almost lost for words after Europe maintained a brilliant fightback to head into the final day of the 18th Solheim Cup needing six points to retain the trophy.
After losing the opening foursomes 4-0 on Friday, Pettersen’s side rallied to win eight of the 12 points available to level the scores at 8-8 and keep alive their hopes of an unprecedented third straight win in the biennial contest.
“I’m out of words, but we have to remember we’re not there (yet),” Pettersen told Sky Sports.
“There’s still 12 points up for grabs tomorrow but we made quite a comeback, now we’re tied and now we just put it into fifth gear and we keep going.”
Both sides won two of the Saturday morning foursomes before the home side took the fourballs session 3-1 for the second day running, home favourite Carlota Ciganda delighting the large crowds with her third win from three matches.
Ciganda partnered Swedish rookie Linn Grant to a 2&1 victory over Danielle Kang and two-time major winner Lilia Vu, the European pair covering the front nine in eight under par with Grant being an incredible six under on her own ball.
Leona Maguire and Charley Hull had earlier combined to beat Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing 4&3, while Madelene Sagstrom and Emily Pedersen defeated Rose Zhang and Andrea Lee 2&1.
The only win for the United States came courtesy of Cheyenne Knight and Angel Yin, who defeated Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall – who had sat out the first three sessions – on the 18th.
Maguire, who will be one of three European players to contest all five sessions, said: “One more day to give it our best shot and I think that’s the great thing about this team, there’s so much fight. We’ve never given up.
“I said to Suzann I needed someone with energy for this afternoon and Charley has lots of it. We had a lot of fun, lots of chats, lots of good times with the caddies, and so it was just a really enjoyable walk out there.”
Hull, who has played just twice as she nurses a neck injury, added: “I sprained my neck earlier in the week, sort of a facet sprain, and still hurts a little bit, but it’s gotten a lot better.
“But playing with Leona today was great fun. She’s always in the game and she played unbelievable.”
Grant and fellow Swede Maja Stark had earlier secured a vital win in the foursomes to keep their side just two points adrift of the United States after the third session.
Ciganda had led from the front as she partnered Pedersen to victory over Vu and Jennifer Kupcho, but defeats for Maguire and Anna Nordqvist and Georgia Hall and Celine Boutier gave the visitors a 7-4 lead until Grant and Stark closed out their match with Kang and Lee in brilliant fashion.
Stark holed from 25 feet for birdie on the 17th to move one up and, with their opponents in close on the par-five 18th, Grant holed from 10 feet for birdie to seal the win.
Grant told Sky Sports: “It’s amazing. The last two holes gives us so much momentum. We’re on such a high right now, it feels great.”
The close friends had lost the opening foursomes on Friday and were split up for the afternoon fourballs, but repaid the faith of Europe captain Pettersen on Saturday.
“It’s so much fun, especially getting that confidence from Suzann putting us together,” Stark said. “Two rookies has got to be a little hard for her to put out in the first group yesterday.
“I think there were a lot of nerves involved on the first few holes yesterday and getting to play with her (Grant) again is just amazing and I knew that we could do it. It was just about letting loose and just doing it.”
Nordqvist and Maguire had been two up after eight holes against Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang, but bogeyed the ninth, 10th and 11th to fall behind.
A birdie on the 15th got the European pair back on level terms, only for them to bogey the 17th as Nordqvist appeared to choose the wrong club and fired her tee shot into a bunker at the back of the green.
Hall and Boutier, who had surrendered their unbeaten record on day one, never recovered from losing the first two holes to Nelly Korda and Allisen Corpuz and were unsurprisingly left out of the afternoon fourballs.
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