Quick look at OHL Classic at Mayakoba

ERIN, Wis. — Justin Thomas landed a 3-wood on the 18th green where some players couldn’t land a wedge, leaving him an 8-foot eagle putt that he calmly made for a 9-under 63 that matched one U.S. Open record and broke another. It also put him squarely in the mix to capture his first major. On an Erin Hills course that again lacked enough wind to be the stern test the U.S. Open wants, Brian Harman weaved his way through traffic at the top of the leaderboard Saturday for a 5-under 67 and a one-shot lead over Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Tommy Fleetwood. Thomas became the fifth player to shoot 63 in the U.S. Open, and the first with a score of 9 under. This is the first time in 25 years that the U.S. Open has played as a par 72. By the end of the day, that wasn’t even the most shocking number. Harman was at 12-under 204 and still only had a one-shot lead, with Rickie Fowler two shots behind. “Yeah, 12 under, I’d have about a 10-shot lead in most Opens,” he said. Just not this one. There were 18 rounds in the 60s, starting with one for the record book. If his hot pink pants were not enough, Thomas finished in style. He had 310 yards to the hole when he hit 3-wood that could have led to big trouble if he went too far long or left. “Oh gosh, Jimmy, be good,” he said to caddie Jimmy Johnson when the ball was in the air, and it was close to perfect. The ball landed on the front of the green just soft enough that it rolled out 8 feet by the hole. Thomas poured that in to become the 29th player with a 63 in a major championship. “The finish was awesome. I’d love to have another one of those,” Thomas said. But not long after he signed for his record score and an 11-under 205, he began to appreciate the significance of a 63 on this day. “That means I’m a part of history,” he said. “It means I have a lot better chance to win the tournament than I did when the day started. “I felt like I’ve been playing pretty well all week, and didn’t have quite the numbers to show for it. Obviously, today I definitely had something to show for it.” And he still has a long way to go. In the previous 116 U.S. Opens, only six players had ever reached 10-under par or lower, never in the same tournament. There were five players in double digits Saturday at Erin Hills. Koepka also reached the green in two on the 667-yard closing hole for a two-putt birdie and a 68. Fleetwood was poised to take the lead until his pitch to the 18th wasn’t strong enough and his next shot went beyond the flag and down the slope some 70 feet away. He got that up-and-down for a bogey and a 68. Fowler, sharing a house with Thomas this week, was being left behind until he ran off three straight birdies and shot 68. He was 10 under. “It’s going to be a really cool day for someone tomorrow,” Fowler said. “I’m looking forward to my shot at it. I’ve been there a handful of times and had some good finishes. But I’m looking forward to getting the job done.” Not to be overlooked was Si Woo Kim, who captured THE PLAYERS Championship last month. He shot 68 and was only three back. Even with the course drying out, there simply was not enough wind to frighten anyone on their game. Thomas, the 24-year-old from Kentucky who is a major away from joining the young elite in golf, only added to a year of low numbers. He made an eagle on his final hole at the Sony Open in January to shoot 59, and he went on to break the PGA TOUR’s 72-hole scoring record. The U.S. Open didn’t seem to faze him, and he delivered a variety of big shots that led to his sensational finish. He rolled in an 18-foot birdie putt on No. 5 from the edge of the green that broke so severely that he stood with his toes facing the hole and rapped the ball toward his left foot. It took a hard turn to the right and rolled in. In the hay left of the 12th fairway, he gouged it out with a 9-iron and watched it roll to 10 feet. And with the tees moved up on the 15th hole to make it reachable, Thomas hit a 3-wood that rolled off the back slope of the green to 6 feet. He two-putted for birdie, and he rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt on the 17th. “It doesn’t matter how long, how whatever the course is,” Thomas said about the longest course in major championship history. “When you give us soft greens, good greens and not much wind, you know there are going to be some good scores. I was just happy that I was the one that was able to take advantage of it today.” But the work is not done. Of the five other players who shot a 63 in the third round at a major, none went on to win. Most of them had to come from far back going into the weekend, and it was difficult to put together two good rounds. Then again, none of the top 16 on the leaderboard has ever won a major. “Someone has a very good chance of ending up with their first major tomorrow,” Fowler said.

Click here to read the full article…

Jamieson grabs early lead at BMW PGA

Click here to read the full article…

SAN DIEGO – Jon Rahm would’ve been forgiven for not wanting to watch the final round of the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday but the Spanish star was indeed an interested television viewer from his COVID-19 isolation. The five-time PGA TOUR winner was odds-on to make it a sixth triumph when he fashioned a six-shot lead through 54 holes at Muirfield Village before a positive COVID test result forced his immediate withdrawal from the tournament. Instead of pout, or get angry, Rahm meditated and practiced mindful reading while keeping an eye on the Sunday showdown between Collin Morikawa and eventual winner Patrick Cantlay. Both shot 1 under on Sunday so theoretically defending champion Rahm would’ve had to play pretty poorly to not close the deal. “These are circumstances that happen in life, and they were still competing for the event, and I’m still a student and avid fan of the game, so, yeah, I was watching. To be honest, I was kind of wondering how close they were going to get to 18 under at the same time,” Rahm said with a cheeky sincerity from Torrey Pines. When first sent to isolation, Rahm faced the prospect of not being able to get to the U.S. Open site until the eve of the event but back-to-back negative test results on Friday and Saturday allowed him to break from containment a little earlier. In the meantime he’d flown on a private medical jet from Ohio to his home base in Arizona but had to keep clear of his newborn son and his parents who had flown from Spain to visit their grandchild. “I was a little bit scared because, even though I was feeling fine, I didn’t want to give the virus to anybody in my house. I didn’t want to possibly give it to our young son,” Rahm said. “The hardest part out of all this was for just over 10 days not being able to even spend any time with my little one. Adding to that… I wasn’t there when my parents met my son, and I hadn’t seen my parents in over a year, almost a year and a half. Those are the hard parts about this virus in life.” Rahm revealed that he had indeed been vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to the Memorial Tournament but was still in the 14-day window before one is considered fully vaccinated. While there were some calls for the Spaniard to be able to play on in Ohio, perhaps as an isolated single, the man himself says that would have been completely unfair. “To all the people criticizing the PGA TOUR, they shouldn’t. We are in a pandemic, and even though this virus has very different forms of attacking people, you never know what reaction you’re going to get,” Rahm said. “So the PGA TOUR did what they had to do. The CDC rules are there for a reason. There are players that missed the World Series last year. There are other athletes that have missed events. I’ve heard a lot of different theories: I should have played alone; that’s nonsense. The rules are there, and it’s clear.” And so his attention turns to Torrey Pines where he won the Farmers Insurance Open in 2017 and has gone T29-T5-2-T7 since on the venue. He was also engaged on the trails just north of the course and counts the area as one of the most special in his life. As the world No. 3, Rahm is the highest ranked player in the game without a major championship but enters the U.S. Open as the man to beat. “I still have the memory of all those great golf shots I played. I’m going to choose to remember that. I’ve been playing really good golf all year,” Rahm said. “Two weeks ago, it’s finally clicking all together like I was waiting for it to happen. Finally everything was firing on all cylinders. Not that I’m expecting to play that perfect again, but I know that I can play at a really high level. “I wish I was a little bit more prepared… but once you tee off Thursday, it doesn’t matter. You go do a job. Was it 13 years ago Tiger won on pretty much a broken knee without really being prepared? Once the gun goes off, it doesn’t matter. So in that sense, I’m still confident.”

Click here to read the full article…