Koepka ‘had a blast’ playing golf with Trump

LA JOLLA, Calif. – The Farmers Insurance Open used to be an annual display of Tiger Woods’ dominance. Then early exits and questions about his health became the dominant theme. Thursday’s opening round at the Farmers Insurance Open served as confirmation. His 2-under 70 on Torrey Pines’ brutish South Course showed that Woods can pick up where he left off in his last official PGA TOUR event, the TOUR Championship. It’s been four months since he induced pandemonium at East Lake. He struggled in his handful of rounds since then, but on Thursday he erased questions that arose after poor performances at the Ryder Cup and Hero World Challenge. Given the opportunity to build back his strength in the offseason, Woods looks ready to resume his pursuit of Sam Snead’s victories record. Woods was understandably rusty, but there were plenty of promising signs. He accomplished something Thursday that he had not done in six years. This was the first time since 2013 that Woods shot under par in his opening round on the South Course. He won that week. The leaderboard will show that Woods sits outside the top 50, but that is deceptive because of the two courses in use this week. The South Course was more than two strokes harder than the shorter North on Thursday. “A couple under par on the South course is not something to sneeze at, but now I have to shoot a low one tomorrow,â€� Woods said. While Jon Rahm leads after shooting 62, no one shot lower than 66 on the South. Woods hit half of his fairways while hitting driver off most tees. Last season, the South Course had the hardest fairways to hit (48 percent). He hit 12 of 18 greens on Thursday, as well, but made just four putts longer than 3 feet Thursday. “I felt pretty comfortable with everything today,â€� Woods said. “I felt like I drove it halfway decent today and irons were good but not great. Playing at competitive speed again, I didn’t quite hit all my irons pin high like I normally do. That’s something hopefully I’ll have a better handle on tomorrow. It was nice to have some juice flow in the system again, it’s been a while.â€� All four came on the South Course’s par-5s, where he had to work hard to make birdie. All of his birdie putts on those holes were longer than 10 feet, including a 29-footer on the 13th hole. He had to lay up three times. His only other birdie came after he knocked his tee shot stiff on one of the South Course’s hardest holes. Woods hit a low, piercing iron to 3 feet on the 215-yard 11th hole. The average proximity on that hole was 36 feet. Only eight other players birdied the hole Thursday. Woods started his round by splitting the first fairway with a driver. He hit his approach shot to 25 feet and two-putted for par. He bogeyed the next hole, though, after missing both the fairway and the green. It was the first of three consecutive misses from 10-15 feet. The latter two were for birdie. He missed another makeable birdie putt, from 20 feet on the fifth hole. He got back to even par at the par-5 sixth hole, where he holed a 10-foot putt from the fringe to complete an up-and-down from the greenside bunker. He made birdie the hard way on the par-5 ninth to make the turn in 35. Woods was left with a 166-yard approach shot after driving into the rough. He reached 2 under par after his birdie at No. 11, but he missed a 6-foot par putt on the next hole. Woods hit the fairway on 13, but he laid up from 293 yards. His 100-yard approach went long and didn’t spin back after landing in the fringe. He made the long, downhill putt, though. He grinded out pars on 14 and 15 after missing the fairway. He made another bogey on 16 after pushing his tee shot into a bunker. He had to lay up on 18 after missing another fairway, but he wedged to 12 feet and curled in the putt to close with another birdie. He gained a half-stroke on the greens Thursday.

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MAMARONECK, N.Y. — Matthew Wolff might be too young to realize he’s supposed to hit fairways to have a chance to win the U.S. Open. Or maybe he’s so good it doesn’t matter. Wolff hit only two fairways Saturday and still matched the lowest score ever at Winged Foot in a major, a 5-under 65 that gave the 21-year-old Californian a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau going into the final round. Whether it was the first cut or the nasty rough, Wolff kept giving those hips one last swivel before blasting away and giving himself birdie chances. He made enough of them to seize control, and then let so many others crumble. Patrick Reed, tied for the lead at the turn, couldn’t find the fairway and paid dearly with a 43 on the back nine. Reed had a three-shot lead after two holes. He walked off the 18th green with a 77 and was eight shots behind. Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship last month in his first try at age 23. Wolff is playing his first U.S. Open at age 21. Is he next? “I’m probably going to be a little antsy. It’s the U.S. Open, and I have a lead,” Wolff said. “I’m going to try to keep my nerves as calm as they can be. I put myself in a really good spot. I did everything that I could do up until this point, and tomorrow I’m going to go out there, I promise you I’m going to try my best.” He was at 5-under 205. Not since Francis Ouimet in 1913 — also the last time the U.S. Open was played in September — has a player won the U.S. Open in his debut. DeChambeau could easily have gone the same route as Reed, missing left and right, gouging his way out of the grass. But after opening with two bogeys, he kept scrambling away — 15 straight holes with nothing worse than par. He rallied with two late birdies until missing a short par putt on the 18th for a 70. He will be in the final group for the first time in a major, another quiet affair with no spectators on the course. The U.S. Open began with 21 players under par. There were six going into the weekend. Now it’s down to three, with Louis Oosthuizen efficiently putting together a 68 to finish at 1-under 209. Hideki Matsuyama (70), Xander Schauffele (70) and Harris English (72) were at even-par 210. Another shot back was Rory McIlroy, who posted his 68 some three hours before the leaders finished. “It doesn’t take much around here … and all of a sudden you’re right in the thick of things,” McIlroy said. “No matter where I am at the end of the day, I feel like I’ve got a pretty good shot.” It all depends on Wolff, an NCAA champion at Oklahoma State who won on the PGA TOUR in his third event as a pro last summer in the 3M Open in Minnesota. From the first cut of rough on the opening hole, he hit it to right level of the contoured green for a 15-foot birdie. From the right rough on No. 4, he wound up with another 15-foot birdie putt. And then he really poured it on. He drove next to the green on the short par-4 sixth, getting up-and-down from a bunker for birdie. He holed a 12-foot birdie on the par-3 seventh. And when he finally hit his first fairway on No. 8, he missed a 6-foot birdie attempt. His lone bogey came on the 16th when he was in such a bad lie in the rough he couldn’t reach the green. And he finished with a most fortuitous hop. His iron off the tee hopped into the thick rough and back out to the first cut. He ripped 7-iron to 10 feet for one last birdie. “If I don’t hit fairways tomorrow, I know I can play well,” Wolff said with a smile. “Even when I was in the rough, I had a bunch of good numbers and a bunch of good lies.” And he played a lot of good golf, so good that even at his age, he looked to be a daunting figure to catch. “I don’t think there’s any `chasing’ out here,” Schauffele said, adding that if Wolff had another good round Sunday it would be “impossible to catch him.” DeChambeau gave himself hope, among five players within five of the lead on a course where anything goes. Think back to the last U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2006, when Geoff Ogilvy hit a superb pitch to 6 feet for par that he thought was only good for second place until Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie closed with double bogeys. “I feel like I’m ready to win out here and win a major,” Wolff said. “It is a major. It’s really important and yes, it is really early in my career. But I feel like I have the game to win. Collin won at 23. I’m 21. And I’m not saying that it’s going to happen. But I put myself in a really good spot, and obviously I’m feeling really good with my game.”

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