DJ shoots 63, leads WGC-HSBC Champions

The storylines are plentiful as the U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills for the first time in 14 years and the fifth time overall. Phil Mickelson, who will turn 48 on Saturday, will play after a one-year absence to attend his oldest daughter’s high school graduation. He’ll attempt to win the one major that has famously eluded him for the career grand slam. Dustin Johnson is back to being No. 1 in the world after a brief absence, his easy, six-stroke victory at the FedEx St. Jude Classic punctuated by a walk-off eagle at the last hole.  Rory McIlroy, a four-time major winner, is looking to reestablish himself as a major champion, as are Jason Day and Tiger Woods, who will mark the 10-year anniversary of his near-mythic ’08 U.S. Open victory at Torrey Pines. Meanwhile, Patrick Reed, Justin Thomas and a strangely quiet Jordan Spieth will aim for their second major title in less than 12 months. Brooks Koepka, the defending champion, is back from a wrist injury and comes into this week in peak form after a T11 at THE PLAYERS Championship and runner-up finish at the Fort Worth Invitational. He tied for 30th at the FedEx St. Jude. Shinnecock Hills (7,440 yards, par 70) is a different animal than it was in 2004, with the course longer but more forgiving, the fairway widths at 41 yards compared to 26 when Retief Goosen edged Mickelson for the title. Goosen didn’t get out of sectional qualifying this time around, but there will be 19 amateurs in the field, the most since 1981. TELEVISION: Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 1), 4-7:30 p.m. (FOX). Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ET (FOX Sports 1), 4-7:30 p.m. (FOX). Saturday, 11 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (FOX). Sunday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. (FOX). RADIO: Thursday-Sunday, Noon-8 p.m. ET (SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio and FOX Sports on SiriusXM). LIVE STREAMING (usopen.com): Thursday: Featured Group channel 1 (Bubba Watson, Jason Day, Brooks Koepka; Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm, Rafa Cabrera Bello), 7:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Group channel 2 (Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson; Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods), 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Holes channel (Nos. 7, 9, 11), 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Friday: Featured Group channel 1 (TBA), 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Group channel 2 (Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods; Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Phil Mickelson), 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Holes channel (Nos. 7, 9, 11), 8 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Saturday: Featured Group channel 1 (TBA), 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Holes channel (Nos. 7, 9, 11), 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Sunday: Featured Group channel 1 (TBA), 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. Featured Holes channel (Nos. 7, 9, 11), 11 a.m.-6:30 p.m. ET. FEATURED GROUPS: (Note: All times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses.) Rory McIlroy (31), Jordan Spieth (32), Phil Mickelson (6) Two guys who have won the U.S. Open and FedExCup; one guy who hasn’t but is in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Mickelson is coming off a final-round 65 and a T12 finish at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and a T13 at the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. He notched one of his six runner-up finishes in the last Shinnecock U.S. Open, in ’04. Spieth is coming off a missed cut at the Memorial, and is 190th in Strokes Gained: Putting. McIlroy has top-10 finishes in his last two starts, the Memorial and the European Tour’s BMW Championship, and won this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard. Tee times Thursday: 8:02 a.m. off 10 Friday: 1:47 p.m. off 1 Justin Thomas (1), Dustin Johnson (2), Tiger Woods (55) Two guys who just swapped spots in the Official World Golf Ranking, and one who spent a long time at No. 1. Thomas and Johnson were kids the last time the U.S. Open visited Shinnecock, but Woods, 42, tied for 17th. He has played well from tee to green but struggled with the putter at the Memorial (T23) and didn’t finish off rounds at THE PLAYERS (T11). Johnson might be the hottest golfer after his dominant FedEx St. Jude Classic win, while Thomas, the defending FedExCup champ and leader again so far this season, hasn’t been too bad himself. Tee times Thursday: 1:47 p.m. off 1 Friday: 8:02 a.m. off 10 Henrik Stenson (40), Adam Scott (93), Martin Kaymer (211) This threesome has won a combined career Grand Slam, with PGA Championship and U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer doing most of the work. He’s slipped a little of late, as has Scott, who had to survive sectional qualifying to keep his majors streak alive at Shinnecock Hills. His 67 straight major championship starts date back to 2001, an incredible run that is second only to fellow Masters champion Sergio Garcia (75). Stenson played well at the FedEx St. Jude in Memphis but faded with a final-round 71 to finish T26. Tee times Thursday: 1:47 p.m. off 10 Friday: 8:02 a.m. off 1 Zach Johnson (63), Charl Schwartzel (71), Patrick Reed (6) Three green jacket winners. Johnson, 42, is looking to end a run of uninspired play that has seen him finish T40 at the Memorial and miss the cut at the Fort Worth Invitational. He finished T48 at the ’04 U.S. Open at Shinnecock. Schwartzel was an encouraging T2 at THE PLAYERS Championship but is coming off a 78-75 weekend at the FedEx St. Jude. Reed, who won the Masters two months ago, looks to get back to his winning ways after a T29 at the Memorial. Tee times Thursday: 7:51 a.m. off 10 Friday: 1:36 p.m. off 1 Hideki Matsuyama (75), Marc Leishman (20), Rickie Fowler (14) Three of the best players never to win a major. Yet. Matsuyama, who missed time earlier this season with a wrist injury, is coming off a T13 at the Memorial and would be Japan’s first men’s major winner. Leishman was runner-up at the recent AT&T Byron Nelson at new tournament host Trinity Forest. Fowler, who finished solo second at the Masters, says he’s ready to be a major champion and will be playing for the first time since he got engaged last week. Tee times Thursday: 8:13 a.m. off 10 Friday: 1:58 p.m. off 1 Sergio Garcia (106), Jon Rahm (10), Rafa Cabrera Bello (53) The Spanish Armada includes one of the most dangerous players in the field in Rahm, who finished T5 at the recent Fort Worth Invitational and was fourth at the Masters. Cabrera Bello has top-five finishes in two World Golf Championships events so far this season, at WGC-Mexico Championship (T3) and at WGC-HSBC Champions (T5). Garcia has struggled of late but is perhaps still catching up on sleep after he and his wife, Angela, recently had a baby girl. He tied for 20th at the ’04 U.S. Open despite a final-round 80. Tee times Thursday: 1:14 p.m. off 1 Friday: 7:29 a.m. off 10

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By his own admission, Rory McIlroy doesn’t tinker with his equipment much during the year. There were, however, a few major equipment changes that McIlroy made heading into 2019 that had a significant impact on his game. Most notably, going into 2019, McIlroy switched his driver, putter and golf ball. Clearly those changes worked out, since McIlroy had a season to remember by winning THE PLAYERS Championship in March, the RBC Canadian Open in June, and the FedExCup in August. McIlroy finished the season ranked first in Strokes Gained: Driving, first in Strokes Gained: Total, first in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green, and while he’s struggled on the greens in recent years, he finished 24th in Strokes Gained: Putting. In an interview with PGATOUR.COM earlier this year, McIlroy explained the equipment changes he made heading into 2019. Enjoy his insight below! Related: McIlroy’s Winner’s Bag On switching from the TaylorMade TP5x golf ball to the TP5 … McIlroy: I played the TP5x for nearly a year and a half, and then I decided, you know what, I could use a little more spin with my irons. I ultimately went with the TP5, but it’s a very similar ball. It’s stable in the wind. It does everything I need to, but just a little lower launch and a little higher spin, which has definitely helped me improve my wedge play, and it’s helped me control my distances a little bit better. I thought it was going to take a while to go from the TP5x to the TP5 because it’s about seven compression points different, but I got used to it straight away, which was really nice. On his TaylorMade Spider X Copper putter … McIlroy: I love it. I loved it from the start. They first showed it to us at this photo shoot that we did in October in Florida, and I loved it. It’s a little bit more compact than the original Spider. I love the white channel. For me, one of my bad habits in my putting is that I would address the putter a little out at the toe. So to have that white channel right in the middle – that white channel is the exact same width as a golf ball – I can center the golf ball on that. For me, having that contrast between the white channel and the black line… I’ve never aimed the putter as well as I have with that. Without even making any changes mechanically to my stroke, my stroke has gotten better because I aim my putter correctly. I make a stroke that starts the ball on the line that I’m aiming and there are no compensations throughout the stroke at all. So the putter has actually made me stroke it better. I went to The Kingdom (TaylorMade’s performance center in Carlsbad, California) and we tested it all in February, and my stroke between last year and this year is so different, so that’s been huge. On trying multi-material putter shafts … McIlroy: I’ve never really played around with shafts in putters. I think I have a KBS shaft in my putter, but I’m not sure (laughs). I don’t know. I have no idea. I know it’s black, but it feels good, and (that’s all that matters). Why he switched from the TaylorMade M3 driver to the new M5 … McIlroy: The noise. The sound of the M5 to me is so good. That’s been something that … I really don’t like a high-pitched driver. Where you put the weights on the head makes a little bit of a difference, and I noticed it’s just a little bit spinnier, which I like. I’ve probably added 300-400 rpm in my average driver spin this year. That’s led to me hitting 13% more fairways with my driver than last year (through six events in 2019). That’s been big as well with playing the TP5 ball instead of the TP5x and having a driver profile that’s a little spinnier. I might be giving up 2-3 mph ball speed, but I’m hitting it in the fairway more often, which means I’m giving myself more chances to get it close to the pin. So that’s been a big help. On TaylorMade’s new double-decker TOUR truck, and tinkering with equipment … McIlroy: I wouldn’t be the biggest club tinkerer, so there hasn’t really been – all the way throughout my career, when I was with other manufacturers – I never spent much time on the truck. But having a space like this, it’s nice to come talk to the guys and look at a few things, and just to hang out. Maybe watch a European soccer match on the television if it’s not on in the locker room. It’s just a cool place to come and hang out.

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