Category: Golf

• JJ Spaun’s magical 64-foot birdie putt holds off Robert MacIntyre at Oakmont

• Official leaderboard

Robert MacIntyre starts the day just about within striking distance of the leaders. But at +3 he’s not got much margin for error. So he could do without sending a wild Hovland-esque drive towards the bushes down the right. It stops just short, but he’s still hacking out of the thick stuff, and the errant tee shot leads inevitably to bogey. He’s now +4 and the look on his face suggests he knows any slim hope of a sensational Arnold Palmer style comeback is gone. He’s +4.

Seems clearing out the pipes last night did Rory some good. A weight lifted. He should bollock the press pack more often.

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• Sam Burns leads Adam Scott and JJ Spaun by one after Moving Day

• Official live leaderboard

Back-to-back birdies for Sam Stevens. The 28-year-old from Wichita picks up shots at 3 and 4 to move to +1 overall. All together now: ♫♪ I know I need a small vacation, but it don’t look like rain ♪♫ … except … “Those clouds are not looking friendly,” notes Rich Beem on Sky, snapping us out of our Campbell-Webb reverie. Indeed they do look dark and menacing in the middle distance. A fair chance we could have an enforced weather break sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen, but it doesn’t look promising.

This is Matt Wallace’s first appearance at a US Open for four years. The 35-year-old Londoner is grabbing the opportunity with both hands: decent opening rounds of 72 and 74, and he’s on the move today, with birdies at 4, 11 and now 13, the latter the reward for a glorious tee shot sent over the flag to six feet. He’s +3 overall.

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• Latest updates from day two’s play at Oakmont

• Official live leaderboard | Drop Scott an email

Day one wasn’t exactly carnage – the course was relatively soft and receptive after rain earlier in the week, while there was little wind – but unless storms come at the weekend, something not yet certain, it’s not going to get any easier. And despite it all, there were only ten players in a field of 156 who finished the first round under par.

-4: JJ Spaun
-3: Thriston Lawrence
-2: Kim Si-woo, Brooks Koepka, Im Sung-jae
-1: Ben Griffin, Thomas Detry, Jon Rahm, Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, James Nicholas

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• Reed holes 286-yard shot for rare double eagle

• Furth albatross in US Open history since 1983

• American finishes 3-over after triple on No 18

Patrick Reed made the third double-eagle of his career Thursday. He’s still only seen one of them go in.

Reed raised his hands to the sky, wondering what happened when he unleashed a 3-wood from 286 yards in the fairway of the par-5 fourth hole at the US Open.

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• Masters champion struggling with driver troubles

• ‘I’m still searching for the missing piece off the tee’

Rory McIlroy admitted he is concerned about his form before next week’s US Open after missing the cut at the Canadian Open. The Masters champion shot a dismal second-round 78 on Friday, carding a quadruple bogey, a double and four other bogeys in an eight-over-par round that left him languishing 21 shots behind the halfway leader, Cameron Champ, who finished on 12 under.

It is the first time the world No 2 has missed the cut since the Open at Royal Troon last July. McIlroy’s round continued his troubled buildup to Oakmont having been forced to switch to a different driver after his previous model was deemed non-conforming in a random test on the eve of last month’s US PGA Championship, in which he finished joint-47th.

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• Masters champion’s driver failed test at Quail Hollow

• ‘The process is supposed to be kept confidential’

Rory McIlroy has admitted being “pissed off” and “annoyed” after news of a forced driver change leaked during the US PGA Championship last month. McIlroy had to switch heads early in the week at Quail Hollow after his driver was deemed non-conforming by a United States Golf Association test.

The scenario is perfectly common – when club faces become too springy through overuse – and also happened to the eventual champion Scottie Scheffler. The process, though, is meant to be private.

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• American parted ways with caddie in recent weeks

• Homa misses out on US Open after fading down stretch

Max Homa stood out more than usual on Monday in a US Open qualifier filled with PGA Tour players. He was the only one carrying his own bag.

Homa didn’t have a caddie and didn’t feel like talking about it, regardless of how much attention it was getting on social media.

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• 25-year-old wins by two shots at Erin Hills

• Korda finishes in tie for second with Rio Takeda

Maja Stark has won tournaments around the world, but a professional victory in the United States eluded her. Now she is a US Women’s Open champion.

The Swede shot an even-par 72 to win the second major of the year by two shots on Sunday at Erin Hills. Stark led the championship by one stroke through 54 holes and outlasted the World No 1, Nelly Korda, who got within a shot of the lead before petering out on the back nine.

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• Stark shoots 70 to take solo lead at 7-under overall

• López Ramirez surges with 68 after recent surgery

• Tricky greens trigger triple bogeys across the field

Maja Stark could tell pretty early Saturday that Erin Hills would provide much more of a challenge than it had in the first two days of the US Women’s Open.

Yet she found a way to avoid the mistakes that befell so many other competitors during a brutal third round. Now the 25-year-old from Sweden is in position to earn the $2.4m prize in the biggest event of the women’s golf season.

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• Saigo leads at 8 under after six birdies in strong round

• Korda shoots 67, tied second in best U.S. Open showing

• Kim, Shibuno among six chasing as play halts at sunset

Mao Saigo already won her first major title this year. She’s putting herself in position for another at US Women’s Open.

Saigo shot a 6-under 66 on Friday to take second-round lead at Erin Hills. At 8-under 136, the 23-year-old Japanese player had a three-stroke advantage over a group of six led by top-ranked Nelly Korda.

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• Charlie Woods wins first AJGA title by three shots

• Tiger’s son shoots final-round 66 to claim victory

• 16-year-old finishes 15 under at Streamsong Resort

Charlie Woods, the 16-year-old son of golfing great Tiger Woods, earned his first American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) win on Wednesday with a three-shot victory at the Team TaylorMade Invitational in Bowling Green, Florida.

Woods, playing in his fifth AJGA event, began the final round one shot behind overnight leader Luke Colton and mixed two bogeys with eight birdies for a six-under-par 66 on the Black Course at Streamsong Resort that brought him to 15 under on the week.

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Scottie Scheffler dug deep to pull away from a chasing pack, led by Jon Rahm, that briefly hauled him in

The leader Scottie Scheffler tees it up. If he’s feeling nerves, they’re not betraying him on his face. A huge roar from the gallery for the big man from Texas. He gracefully larrups a gentle fade around the trees down the right and he’s in position A on the fairway. He’s going round with Alex Noren today. No nerves evident from the Swedish veteran, either, as he splits the fairway. A quiet start meanwhile for Bryson DeChambeau: par-par-par. The high-point so far a whip over a huge tree to get himself back into position on 3. He remains at -5.

Matt Fitzpatrick might have rendered himself realistically done and dusted. But that’s not going to stop him battling for every shot and a high finish. He’s responded to that bogey-bogey start by raking in long birdie putts on the next two holes to return to his starting point. Meanwhile Jon Rahm’s quest to “play well” begins with par; his playing partner Kim Si-woo drops a stroke, though. So this is where we are now, with the last match preparing to tee off.

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• Scottie Scheffler opened up a possibly decisive lead with some almost flawless golf down the closing stretch at Quail Hollow
• Official leaderboard

… so having given Scottie Scheffler the grandstand introduction, he double-crosses himself and sends his approach at 1 towards the gallery to the left of the green. He’ll have a hell of a chip from there, from thick rough over sand. A pleasing symmetry to this.

… so having given Rory McIlroy the grandstand introduction, he carves his second at 10 towards the gallery to the right of the green. He’ll have a hell of a chip from there, from thick rough over sand. Meanwhile his playing partner, the defending champion Xander Schauffele, leaves his approach short and right, and immediately hollers “Mud ball!” Ah yes, mud balls …

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• Updates from the second day of play at Quail Hollow
• Live leaderboard | Scheffler ire at mud balls | Mail Scott

The first significant move of the day has been made by Tyrrell Hatton. The entertainingly volatile Englishman has kept a lid on things so far this week, and you’d be in a good mood too had you birdied the last yesterday. His approach at 18 was one of the strokes of the day, and has clearly buoyed him going into round two. Consecutive birdies to start, at 10 and 11, a 15-foot birdie putt followed by another from 20 feet, and Hatton moves into a tie for second. Heading in the other direction: Cam Davis, with bogey at 3, and Aaron Rai with bogey at 1.

-7: Vegas
-5: Hatton (2*), Gerard
-4: Davis (4),Jaeger, Smalley, Fox, Donald
-3: Scott (2*), Rai (1), Campos, Thorbjornsen, Bradley, R Højgaard, MacIntyre, Fitzpatrick, Echavarria, Poston, Hisatsune, Noren

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