Homa, Finau ready for Sunday challenge at The American Express

Johnson. Rahm. Thomas. McIlroy. Predicting who will raise the trophy at the 120th U.S. Open at Winged Foot is easy. Winged Foot will win. It always does. "It was really hard," Justin Thomas, coming off a three-win PGA TOUR season, said after an early scouting trip before THE NORTHERN TRUST last month. He then went on to rave about how much he loved it. That's not an atypical response to this Tillinghast gem that dates to 1923, which has been lengthened 213 yards and will play as a 7,477-yard par 70. Hard but still great. Padraig Harrington, who needed three pars to win the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot but made three bogeys, calls it, "A great, classic golf course." See? No hard feelings. "You have to hit all the golf shots," Harrington says. "It does ask a lot of questions." Not everyone has the answers, but the U.S. Open grades on a curve. Hale Irwin won the so-called Massacre at Winged Foot in 1974 at 7 over par. An aberration? Nope. Geoff Ogilvy won the 2006 U.S. Open at 5 over (71-70-72-72) after late gaffes by Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Jim Furyk and, most famously, or infamously, Phil Mickelson. [Desk: please link to Sean's story about the players who had the trophy in their grasp only to drop it.] "The word in the locker room was, ‘How hard is this thing going to play?'" Irwin says of the '74 U.S. Open. "It was not an optimistic locker room, let's put it that way. Forget birdies. My plan was to accept par at face value and be very happy with it. Also, don't make double-bogeys, because there were just no real obvious opportunities to get those back with birdies." Jim Colbert was so wrung out by '74, when he tied for fifth, that he later told ESPN he considered Winged Foot, "Probably the hardest golf course of all time." Narrow fairways. Thick rough. Long par 3s. And steeply pitched greens that slope and move like Augusta National's and are so nuanced that the Golf Channel's Arron Oberholser (T16 in '06) predicts they will be very hard to learn in a matter of days, or even over the course of the week. Then there's the finishing stretch of 16, 17 and 18 - three exceedingly difficult par 4s. "Of the three U.S. Opens that I played before I hurt myself," Oberholser says, "there was no finish like it, nothing that difficult. If you get it done at Winged Foot, you are earning it." The thing about Winged Foot, say Oberholser and others who know it, is that it can be very hard to stop making bogeys once you start. (Harrington can attest to that.) "It was your typical old-school U.S. Open," Furyk says of '06, when he missed a 5-foot par putt on 18 that would have forced a playoff. "Tight fairways, heavy rough, have to get the ball in play. It puts stress on you over and over and over again. It's going to withstand the test of time." Thomas calls Winged Foot really hard but also fair and "not tricked up" and "right in front of you." Webb Simpson, who lost in the first round of match play at the 2004 U.S. Amateur at Winged Foot, sang a similar refrain when asked about the course. "I love it," Simpson said. "I feel like it’s just a brutally hard golf course, but they do it the right way. We come to a lot of these courses and they’ve got bunkers, you carry it at 295 or 300. Winged Foot, it’s like Harding Park, it’s right in front of you. It’s long, it’s hard, there’s really not a whole lot of birdie holes, so I think that’s a perfect venue for a U.S. Open golf course." Of the five U.S. Opens at Winged Foot, '74 was probably the hardest (especially with old equipment), but '06 was hardest to watch. Other than the 1999 Open Championship (Jean Van de Velde) it might be the most "lost" major ever, a sort of golfing five-car pileup from which only one man walked away. Not for nothing was it dubbed the Massacre at Winged Foot II. Few remember the misadventures of Harrington, Furyk and Montgomerie. They just remember Mickelson making double-bogey on the last hole of the tournament after hitting his tee shot off a hospitality tent, then trying a crazy second shot that turned out more die than do. "I am still in shock that I did that," he said. "I just can't believe that I did that. I'm such an idiot." Now 50, he has been U.S. Open runner-up a dispiriting six times. Winged Foot is just 30 minutes north of New York City, about which Frank Sinatra crooned, "If I can make it there, I'll make it anywhere." A Winged Foot U.S. Open is the golfing equivalent of that - take crazy weather out of the equation and there's just no tougher test. "I hit a lot of fairways and consequently hit a lot of greens," says Irwin, who would win two more U.S. Opens among his 20 TOUR wins. "So those kinds of courses were less problematic for me than they were for other people, and my career showed that. "But that kind of a win can propel you on," he added when prompted by the Sinatra line about New York. "Once you've come through a Winged Foot situation, other than coming up against terrible weather, you're not going to encounter much that's more difficult than that."

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Tiger Woods makes his first World Golf Championships start in four years, getting one last tour of a Firestone Country Club venue where he’s won eight times but is hosting its final edition before the event moves south to Memphis. Newly crowned The Open Championship winner Francesco Molinari tees it up for the first time since taking possession of the Claret Jug at Carnoustie. Dustin Johnson’s FedExCup lead also figures to be on the line as the points race tightens near the top. FIELD NOTES: Hideki Matsuyama, whose closing 61 last year matched the Firestone record, also joins Molinari and Johnson atop a roster currently at 72 qualifiers via tournament wins and world rankings. The lineup features 29 of the top 30 in the FedExCup standings. … Berths remain open for Sunday’s RBC Canadian Open winner, plus anyone who cracks the top 50 in Monday’s world rankings. … Spring winners Aaron Wise (AT&T Byron Nelson) and Andrew Landry (Valero Texas Open) are among seven men making their World Golf Championships debut. … Ted Potter Jr., triumphant at Pebble Beach back in February, is playing his first WGC since the 2012 WGC Bridgestone Invitational. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 points. STORYLINES: Woods, who barely cracked the top-50 rankings threshold with a share of sixth at Carnoustie, tees it up on the WGC stage for the first time since the 2014 Bridgestone Invitational. His eight wins at Firestone are a PGA TOUR record he shares with himself (Torrey Pines, Bay Hill) and Sam Snead (Greensboro). … Molinari, now No.7 on the FedExCup chart after prevailing at Carnoustie, will pursue a fourth victory worldwide in a 2 ½-month span. He also won the Quicken Loans National and European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship, adding a runner-up finish on each circuit. … With three weeks left in the FedExCup regular season, Akron could produce a new leader. Johnson came to the RBC Canadian Open with just a 47-point lead over No.2 Justin Thomas, with Justin Rose and Bubba Watson also within 200 points. … A winner two years ago in Akron, Johnson also has his eyes on a fifth career WGC crown. … It’s the final WGC chapter to be played at Firestone CC, as the event relocates to Memphis next summer and the Constellation SENIOR PLAYERS Championship settles in Akron. COURSE: Firestone Country Club (South), 7,400 yards, par 70. A PGA TOUR mainstay for five decades and the last of the original WGC venues, Firestone takes one more bow this week before parting ways. Built as a generous perk from Harvey Firestone to employees of his tire company, the club opened in 1929 and eventually stamped its own name as a major stage long before the WGC series was conceived. Robert Trent Jones readied the South for the 1960 PGA Championship captured by Jay Hebert, and the PGA of America brought its showcase event back in 1966 and ’75. The World Series of Golf played its entire run at Firestone, starting in 1962 as a three-man exhibition and becoming an official event in 1976. It moved under the WGC banner in 1999. 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Tiger Woods (2000). 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, José María Olazábal (1st round, 1990), Tiger Woods (2nd round, 2000 and 2nd round, 2013), Sergio Garcia (2nd round, 2014), Hideki Matsuyama (4th round, 2017). LAST YEAR: Matsuyama captured his second WGC title of the season in dominant fashion, tying the Firestone course record with a 61 in cruising to a five-stroke romp. The Japanese pro erased a two-shot deficit when he chipped in for eagle at the par-5 second hole and never looked back, adding seven birdies before his afternoon was complete. Three came on Firestone’s final three holes, completing the run with a 6-foot birdie at No.18. That left Matsuyama at 16-under-par 264, the event’s lowest total since Adam Scott went one lower in 2011. Zach Johnson (68) led the chase pack, with Charley Hoffman (66) another two shots back in third. Matsuyama’s title joined his win 10 months earlier at the WGC HSBC Champions, when he moved alongside Vijay Singh (2008 WGC Bridgestone) as Asia’s only WGC titleholders. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 1:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, noon-1:45 p.m. (GC); 2-6 p.m. (CBS). PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (featured groups), 2-6:30 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured groups). RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-6:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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ERIN, Wis. – FedExCup leader and defending U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson was asked if his prodigious length and status as World No. 1 would intimidate his rivals this week at Erin Hills. “I hope so. Shouldn’t it?â€� he said with a smile. It probably should. But privately some of his rivals are feeling better about their chances against the man who has won six times in the last 12 months on the PGA TOUR including his breakthrough at Oakmont, three World Golf Championship events and a FedExCup Playoff event. Why? Because Johnson arrived late to Erin Hills this week due to the birth of his second son, a healthy baby boy and brother to Tatum named River Jones Johnson. Perhaps his mind might be elsewhere? “It helps that Paulina and my son, they’re at home now,â€� Johnson said. “She’s a lot more comfortable and everybody is healthy. Obviously I don’t have to worry about them. Obviously that’s a big relief, not having to worry about them. “But now I’ve got to play golf. This is why I’m here. I’m here to play golf. I’m here to compete. So that’s what my job is this week.â€� Johnson went one further saying being a dad was a help to his game and has made him a better player. “It’s been great. It just gives you a whole new perspective on things, where before kind of golf was the most important and now my family is the most important,â€� he said. “At the end of the day whether I’m having a good day or bad day, when I either see my family or talk to them, whatever, if I was upset or even if I was happy with the way I played, none of that matters. Just I’m always happy and excited to be with them.â€� Maybe the confidence of others comes because Johnson just missed the cut at the Memorial Tournament, his last start. He shot 78-74. “It actually worked out pretty well that I missed the cut the Memorial, even though I didn’t want to,â€� Johnson said. “I came up here and got to practice for two days. So it definitely helped with my preparation coming in because I knew I wasn’t going to get here until Tuesday afternoon. “Even though I came in late I didn’t feel like I was behind the eight ball at all because I got to prepare ten days ago or so.â€� Perhaps some feel a new venue with lots of blind spots off the tees may pose a problem. Some still suggest his pairing with brother and caddie Austin could be a detriment in these situations. “My brother was here with me, but I did have one of the local guys,â€� Johnson said of his decision to get help from a local caddie on his earlier reconnaissance mission. “Obviously, it was kind of good for the first time around to have one just to – on a few holes, you need to know where to hit it. And if you haven’t played here before it definitely helps if someone knows the course. It was definitely helpful in trying to figure out some lines off the tees.â€� And now what about the factors playing into Johnson’s favor. Like the storms and rain that has softened up the lengthy Erin Hills allowing him to bomb away. It will certainly help him as he looks to be the first to defend the U.S. Open since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989. “I think it sets up very well for me,â€� he said modestly while revealing the longest iron he needs to hit into greens has a 5 on it. “I hit a lot of drivers. If they play it all the way back, I’ll hit a lot of drivers. And it depends on the wind, too. There’s only a couple of holes where I might not hit a driver. But for the most part I can hit a driver on just about every hole. “I’m excited to come back and defend this week. The game feels like it’s in really good shape. I’ve been working really hard at it the last couple of days. I feel like I’m prepared, I feel like I’m ready.â€� To those not intimidated… perhaps you should rethink. 

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