Nonstop maintenance is part of Tiger Woods’ new reality

BROOKLINE, Mass. – There were 9,265 entries accepted for this year’s U.S. Open at The Country Club. Some players earned spots in the field through various exemption categories based on FedExCup finish, the Official World Golf Ranking, victories at prestigious events, etc. Others earned their spot through the unique meritocracy of qualifying. The enduring beauty of the U.S. Open is that any player with a 1.4 handicap or better can make the field for this major championship. In 2005, Jason Gore earned a spot in Sunday’s final group at Pinehurst No. 2 as a near-anonymous journeyman pro. Ten years ago, Beau Hossler held the solo lead Friday at Olympic Club as a rising high school senior. Who could author a similar story this week? Here’s five potential Cinderellas at The Country Club. ERIK BARNES A 36-hole U.S. Open qualifier didn’t faze the eighth-year Korn Ferry Tour pro. Barnes, 34, knows what it means to work a double shift. During pro golf’s hiatus in the spring of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnes took a job at a Publix supermarket as a Grocery Replenishment Specialist (stocking shelves) to support his family – wife Ashleigh and two young sons, Jaxton and Tucker. Five days a week, the Indiana native woke up at 3 a.m. He worked from 4 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the grocery store, then headed to the golf course to practice. “Could I have filed for unemployment and got what I’m making at Publix? Yeah, probably,” Barnes said at the time. “But I needed to take action and do it right now.” Playing on conditional status at the time, Barnes made a quick impact once the hiatus was lifted, recording back-to-back top-15 finishes to boost his spot in the Priority Ranking and play a full season. He has played the best golf of his career in 2022, making 14 of 15 cuts to begin the Korn Ferry Tour campaign and secure his first TOUR card for next season. This week, he gets a sneak preview of life on golf’s biggest stage. FRAN QUINN Fran Quinn has been grinding as a pro golfer for three decades. He’s won four times on the Korn Ferry Tour but also traversed the globe, including stops in Africa and Asia, in search of places to play. Just 71 of his starts as a pro have been on the PGA TOUR. His 72nd may be the most memorable of them all, however. The 57-year-old’s endurance and perseverance will pay off this week, with a moment that he will never forget in front of friends and family. The Massachusetts native will be the first man to tee off of No. 10 Thursday (fellow Massachusetts native Michael Thorbjornsen, an amateur who made the cut in the 2019 U.S. Open, will do the honors off of No. 1). Quinn, 57, hadn’t attempted U.S. Open Final Qualifying since 2015 but the opportunity to compete this week in his home state was too good to pass up. Making the field may have been a longshot but he had to try. With the encouragement of his son Owen, and The Country Club’s location just 40 minutes from his hometown of Holden, Massachusetts, he sent in his application. The four-time Korn Ferry Tour winner advanced through both Local and Final Qualifying, punctuated with a birdie on the second extra hole of an 8-for-3 playoff at the Purchase, New York, site to secure his first U.S. Open berth since 2014. In his most recent U.S. Open appearance, at Pinehurst No. 2, Quinn generated buzz with an opening-round 68 that placed him T2 at day’s end. With Owen on the bag, he made the cut and enjoyed a memorable Father’s Day walk. It would have marked a sufficient farewell to the major championship arena. Now he has upped the ante, with a moment he only could have dreamed of. KEITH GREENE Golf Channel was on hand for the Jupiter, Florida, site of Final Qualifying, and when the broadcast cut to an interview with Keith Greene, many fans didn’t think much of it. But as Greene became teary-eyed upon explaining what this opportunity meant to him, he instantly gained legions of new fans. Kevin Kisner even tweeted at Greene with interest in setting up a practice round. Greene, 29, played collegiately at Eastern Florida State College and has competed on various mini-tours with limited success. He has made 12 career starts across PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR Latinoamerica, with just one made cut to show. The seventh-year pro has yet to make a PGA TOUR or Korn Ferry Tour start. On his TOUR profile, Greene notes a favorite quote is “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” Perhaps channeling that spirit, the Florida native has earned the right to tee it up against the world’s best this week. “I’ve just believed so much in myself … it’s just been hard, man,” Greene said upon qualifying, his voice breaking. “The family’s there, though. I’m just trying to do what I can out here, and I know I’ve got it. Competition’s so good, but I know I can do it.” Professional golf is incredibly deep. This week, Greene will aim to prove that. ISAIAH SALINDA Salinda’s parents worked long hours for decades to give their son every chance to chase his dreams. His dad Antonio has spent three-plus decades in the postal service in San Francisco, and his mom Debbie is a longtime nurse. Salinda played collegiately at Stanford, helping the Cardinal to the 2020 NCAA title, and he advanced through PGA TOUR Canada Q-School in March 2020 — just before the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus. Without a place to play for a while, his timeline was delayed. He finished T21 at PGA TOUR Canada’s Royal Beach Victoria Open the day before competing at 36-hole Final Qualifying in Bend, Oregon, where he carded 8 under to earn one of three available spots. Salinda competed in the 2019 Walker Cup and was a second-team All-American as a senior. Now he’ll tee it up in his first major championship. CHRIS GOTTERUP After a disappointing exit in the NCAA Championship quarterfinals, Gotterup wouldn’t have been blamed for taking a few days to relax before commencing his professional career. But the New Jersey native – who played a fifth year for Oklahoma after four years at Rutgers – recalibrated mentally and traversed from the NCAA Championships in Phoenix to attempt U.S. Open Final Qualifying in Purchase, New York. The recent Haskins Award winner (recognizing the United States’ top collegiate golfer) didn’t miss a beat, carding 3 under at a pair of demanding courses to earn his first major championship start. Gotterup, 22, finished No. 7 on the 2022 PGA TOUR University Ranking presented by Velocity Global. He’s expected to get a handful of PGA TOUR starts this summer, as well (he missed the cut last week in the RBC Canadian Open). He’s already finished in the top 10 in a PGA TOUR event, the Puerto Rico Open, this year. He has seen what success looks like at various levels. Now he’ll put it to the test at the highest level.

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In the final round of the 2018 BMW Championship at rain-soaked Aronimink Golf Club, Keegan Bradley shoots 64, then beats Justin Rose with a par on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Bradley—who hadn’t won on the PGA TOUR in over six years—notched his fourth win to break into the FedExCup Top 30 and secure a return to the season-ending TOUR Championship. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Bradley’s final round was a miracle. At the start of his TOUR career, Bradley won three times, including the PGA Championship, in 2011 and 2012. He hoisted enormous trophies, played in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, and was teammates with Phil Mickelson. Then it all went away. Over six years and 160 starts, Bradley didn’t win anything. He fiddled with his swing, and his putting stroke, and had a baby boy, Logan, with his wife, Jillian. The only cups he that remained were sippy cups. Now, though, after acing the BMW Championship’s final round, which was scuttled for rain Sunday and played Monday thanks to what Billy Horschel and others called a miracle, Bradley is sixth in the FedExCup. “It was the weirdest couple of days,â€� said Bradley, who was projected 30th in the FedExCup and into the TOUR Championship after the third round. “I knew in the back of my mind if we didn’t play, I was in Atlanta. It was my goal to start the year. It was difficult to get ready to play because I was like, man, if they call it, I’m good, but then I can go out — I’m only three back. So thankfully we got out here and played, and I made it to Atlanta and more now.â€� Just over two weeks ago, Bradley went into the final round of THE NORTHERN TRUST with an outside chance four back, but shot 78 alongside eventual winner Bryson DeChambeau. Bradley was 14 shots better this time, reigniting his career in the rain. 2. Rose won for losing. Despite running his record to 4/15 at converting 54-hole leads/co-leads into victory, Justin Rose took home a nice consolation prize: he ascended to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Ranking. “There will be next week to win tournaments, but to get to world No. 1 is unbelievable,â€� Rose said. “It’s something I can say now in my career I’ve been the best player in the world. I’ve been to the top of the game. That’s definitely some consolation. “I just wish I could have enjoyed the moment maybe,â€� he added after the runner-up finish, which left him second in the FedExCup. “This just slightly dampens it. But tomorrow or the next day, the week after, I’ll look back at this and think it was amazing, an amazing moment in my career.â€� 3. Rain helped Horschel cool it. Billy Horschel (64, T3) is one of many successful TOUR pros who admits he may sometimes burn too hot. He knows what he’s capable of, having won the 2014 BMW, TOUR Championship and FedExCup, and so it’s hard when he sees himself come up short. He had won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with partner Scott Piercy, but hadn’t won an individual event this year. His 19-under total at the BMW was just a shot shy of the playoff. “You know, we’ve done a lot of good work with Todd Anderson, Brett McKay, a sports psychologist, some really good work with me,â€� Horschel said. “My team has done an unbelievable job to stick through some tough times that were bad, not that bad. Not being able to play to my ability I get very frustrated, very easily.â€� The long rain delay, he said, may have helped him cool the fire. “I sort of play well when we have delays and this and that,â€� he said. “Calms me down. I don’t know when we’re going to go play so I can’t get myself worked up.â€� 4. Week off could help Woods. Several players admitted to fatigue after a long BMW week. Then there was Tiger Woods, who already had reason to be tired owing to the fact that with his four back surgeries he hadn’t played this much golf in years. “I’m going to take a long break after the Ryder Cup,â€� said Woods, who won the TOUR Championship at East Lake in 1999 and 2007, and will return for the first time since 2013. “We’re going to evaluate things. But, more importantly, I need to start really lifting and getting after it and getting stronger in certain areas because playing every single week seems like every single day is maintenance at this point, war of attrition. “What you do in the off-season is what allows you to maintain it through the year,â€� he added, “especially on the backside of the year, and I really didn’t train for all this. Because I didn’t know how much I was going to be playing. I was just trying to play. “So, next year I have a better understanding of what I need to do and this off-season will be very different than it was last year.â€� 5. Aronimink was defenseless. The rain-soaked course gave up birdies in bunches. Four players shot 62: Tommy Fleetwood, Rory McIlroy, Kevin Na and Tiger Woods. Fleetwood did it twice, Friday and Saturday, and McIlroy signed for that number despite bogeying two of his last three holes Thursday. Then there was this odd bit of trivia: Amongst the top five guys on the leaderboard through the first three rounds—Rose (-17), McIlroy (-16), Schauffele (-16), Fleetwood (-15) and Fowler (-15)—it represented the career-low 54-hole score for all five. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Bradley led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting (+1.790); he was 186th in that stat going into the BMW, although he’d had a few good putting weeks here and there. He was one of 10 players to take 100 or fewer putts in a tournament this season, doing so at the RBC Canadian Open (solo 4th). His 28 birdies were the most of his career by five (2012 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational). 2. Xander Schauffele, who came into the week 41st in the FedExCup but played his way to Atlanta with a T3 at the BMW, could impact an obscure stat. Two players, Brendan Steele at the Safeway Open and Brooks Koepka at the U.S. Open, have successfully defended their titles this season. Schauffele is heating up and has just 29 players to beat to become the third. 3. Four rookies made the 70-man BMW Championship: Aaron Wise, Austin Cook, Peter Uihlein and Keith Mitchell. Two of them had already won on TOUR this season and were in the driver’s seat for Rookie of the Year: Wise (AT&T Byron Nelson) and Cook (RSM Classic). But only Wise (67, T16, 21st in FedExCup) advanced to the season-ending TOUR Championship. 4. Tommy Fleetwood’s middle rounds of 62-62 made him just the 10th player with a 36-hole total of 124 or better in consecutive rounds. Troy Matteson tops that list, taking just 122 strokes over consecutive rounds at the 2009 Safeway Open. 5. Monday gave us the 12th playoff this season, and the first since Bryson DeChambeau won the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide. It was also the 17th event with a suspension or delay of play, and the third unscheduled Monday finish. (The Dell Technologies Championship always ends on Labor Day.)

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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — PGA TOUR rookie Austin Cook sank a 6-foot birdie putt on his final hole for an 8-under 62 and a one-shot lead going into the weekend at RSM Classic. Cook has gone 36 holes without making a bogey on the Plantation Course or the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club. He played Seaside on Friday and ran off four-straight birdies on his opening nine holes. Cook was at 14-under 128 and had a one-stroke lead over Brian Gay, who shot 64 on Seaside. No one else was closer than five shots going into the final two rounds. Brandt Snedeker is looking strong in his first start in some five months because of a sternum injury. Snedeker shot a 67 on the Plantation course and is six shots back.

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