Sights, sounds and best moments from the final round of the 2022 U.S. Open

ATLANTA — Scottie Scheffler might have had a roller coaster of an opening round Thursday at the TOUR Championship if only he had been paying attention to the scoreboards. Scheffler started with a two-shot lead as the No. 1 seed in the FedExCup. He led by as many as six shots on the front nine. Then his lead was down to two. And when he finished with three straight birdies for a 5-under 65, he was five strokes ahead of Xander Schauffele. “I didn’t know any of that,” he said. “I was just trying to go out and shoot a good number.” Rory McIlroy’s day at East Lake was far more wild. And he knew it. A two-time FedExCup champion, McIlroy started six shots behind. He teed off in a downpour and hooked his tee shot over the fence and out-of-bounds. He reloaded and found a bunker. He missed a 6-foot putt and took triple bogey, and just like that was nine shots behind. And then he went rough-to-rough to make bogey on the next hole. McIlroy had only one par on the front nine and remarkably salvaged a 67. “Not the best way to start,” McIlroy said. “The golf course is really gettable, so I knew there was a lot of holes out there that you could birdie. I knew my game was good. It was just one of those things. Not the ideal way to start, but proud of how I bounced back from that.” Equally impressive was Open Championship winner Cameron Smith, playing for the first time since the opening FedExCup Playoff event because of a hip injury that gets aggravated in soft conditions. East Lake wasn’t quite a real lake, but overnight rain and the downpour made for a good walk spoiled. And so began the final leg in the chase for the FedExCup and the $18 million prize. Scheffler has had the best year with his Masters victory among three wins against strong fields. He would love nothing more than to finish it off, and he played that way. His 3-iron from 230 yards up the hill to 15 feet led to eagle on the sixth hole. He dropped only one shot, going from bunker over the green at the par-3 ninth and having to make an understated 10-foot putt to escape with bogey. And then he had a big finish, capped off by going from the left rough over the water to 30 feet for a two-putt birdie to reach 15-under par (which accounts for his 10-under start). U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick finished with an eagle for a bogey-free 64 and was six shots behind — he matched the best round of the soggy day and gained only one shot on Scheffler — while Joaquin Niemann (64) and defending FedExCup champion Patrick Cantlay (70) were another shot behind. Schauffele is dangerous as ever, and his record at East Lake is astounding for someone who has never left Atlanta in possession of a trophy. This was his 21st round in the TOUR Championship, and his 19th round under par. The other two were even-par 70s. He had the low 72-hole score in 2020 but started too far behind to catch Dustin Johnson. “It’s a weird event,” Schauffele said. “We do this once a year, and it’s one of the bigger events for us to do it. Because of those things, you just have to try your best to stay in the present and not get ahead of it. Tuck your head and play your best golf.” Weirder still was an injury that Scheffler mentioned from the weekend at The Open, where he went into Sunday in the mix and shot 74. He had never disclosed it and wasn’t entirely comfortable getting into the details except to say he was in pain. “I had what’s called a pilonidal infection. It’s an infection at the top of your butt crack,” he said, trying not to crack a smile. “You can look it up. It was really hard for me to bend down. It was really hard for me to make a swing on Sunday. Walking was actually extremely difficult. “Just one of those things that happened.” All part of what already has been a remarkable year, and now is 54 holes away from becoming even more memorable.

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The late development beat the early call, 9 and 8, this year. But that wasn’t the whole story in 2022, because while the late development had a nice year, the long climb back – think Rich Strike winning the Kentucky Derby – had a better one. We begin in the fall, because, well, recency bias. Adam Svensson was T108 after a first-round 73 at The RSM Classic, the final official PGA TOUR event of 2022, but closed with 64-62-64 to win by two. It was the highest first round by a winner all year, and the highest since Jon Rahm (75) at the 2020 BMW Championship. Should we have been surprised? Perhaps not. At the Farmers Insurance Open in January, Luke List started the final round five back, shot 66, waited two hours to see if it was enough, then beat Will Zalatoris with a tap-in birdie on the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th. It was his first win in his 207th PGA TOUR start. “You wonder if it’s going to be your turn,” List said. Tom Hoge got his first win at the following week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, in his 203rd start. Said Hoge, “It’s been so long since I won anything that I forgot how to celebrate.” Justin Thomas started Sunday seven shots back but won the PGA Championship at Southern Hills, beating Zalatoris – him again! – in a playoff after Mito Pereira doubled 18. It was the biggest comeback in a major since Paul Lawrie overcame a 10-shot deficit at the 1999 Open Championship. “It’s funny,” Thomas said, “I was asked earlier in the week what lead is safe, and I said, ‘No lead.’” Sam Burns won the Charles Schwab Challenge, also from seven back, a week later, beating good friend Scottie Scheffler in a playoff. Xander Schauffele shot an opening-round 72 at the Genesis Scottish Open in July. He made up 11 shots over the next 54 holes, winning despite teeing it up in the tougher side of the draw for the first two rounds. “If you’re trying to win when you’re on the bad side,” he said, “you just have to be better.” And then things got weird. Tom Kim quadruple-bogeyed the first hole Thursday and won the Wyndham Championship by five shots Sunday, ending the regular season while beginning the era of Thomas the Tank Engine. His 25 birdies and one eagle for the week, and his final-round 61, announced the arrival of a new PGA TOUR superstar. “Yeah, it’s crazy,” he said. “I mean, I’ve never won a golf tournament starting with a quad.” No one else in PGA TOUR history had, either, since records have been kept. If Kim’s bounce-back was outlandish, Rory McIlroy upped the ante. After missing the Valero Texas Open cut, McIlroy fell to No. 27 in the FedExCup. He reset to finish second at the Masters the following week, and a long-delayed, successful title defense at the RBC Canadian Open, which hadn’t been played since 2019, further reinvigorated him. A final-round 62 allowed him to hold off Thomas and Tony Finau in a star-studded Sunday showdown. All of which set up the zaniest comeback of the year. With the Starting Strokes format at the TOUR Championship, McIlroy began six behind Scheffler. McIlroy pumped his opening drive out of bounds, started with a triple-bogey and bogey and promptly dropped 10 back of the reigning Masters champion. From there, all McIlroy did was make 23 birdies, two eagles, and history, edging Scheffler by one for an unprecedented third FedExCup title. McIlroy’s Sunday 66 allowed him to make up a six-shot deficit over the final 18 holes. “I’m going to remember this week mostly for that,” McIlroy said. “Your mind can go one of two ways when you start like that, and automatically I thought about Tom Kim at Greensboro and the fact that he won after starting with a quad. I could have easily thought the other way and thought, I’ve got no chance now; what am I doing here?” (Speaking of strong finishes, McIlroy ended the year as golf’s undisputed No. 1. He regained the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking with his victory in THE CJ CUP in South Carolina and then added the DP World Tour’s season-long points title to his FedExCup.) If Kim inspired McIlroy, then perhaps McIlroy inspired Fred Couples. In the fall, proving that the never-say-die trend was viable on PGA TOUR Champions, too, Couples, 63, double-bogeyed his very first hole of the SAS Championship. Two days later, he birdied 12 of his last 14 holes, including the last seven, to card a final-round 60 and win for the first time in five years. He also beat his age by three. “The guy’s just a freak,” said his fill-in caddie, Griffin Flesch. It was Zalatoris, though, who built the coolest monument to patience, resilience, and hard work. He had lost playoffs at the Farmers and PGA. He had faced a 15-footer at the last to force a playoff at the U.S. Open but missed. He parted with his longtime caddie, also a good friend, and hired Joel Stock, Ben Crane’s old sidekick. Zalatoris’ year was so full of heartache it was starting to sound like a country and western song. Everything came together for him, though, at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August. After burying exactly the type of do-or-die putt he’d previously missed – twice, as fate would have it, once in regulation and once in the playoff, both at the 18th hole – Zalatoris outlasted Sepp Straka with a bogey on the third extra hole in Memphis. The tears flowed. “It’s kind of hard to say ‘about time’ when it’s your second year on TOUR,” Zalatoris said, “but about time.” And that was just it, not just for him but also the others who outworked and outlasted their own missteps – the awful starts, tough finishes, long waits, or some combination of the three. “Time is on my side,” the Rolling Stones sang. Zalatoris and company lived that lyric in 2022.

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AVONDALE, La. – Adam Scott and Jason Day entered this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans with high hopes of showing why they should be partners in December at the Presidents Cup in their home country of Australia. Unfortunately, they failed to make the cut. An even-par 72 in the second round of Foursomes play left them at 7 under, one shot outside the cut line when Round 2 finally ended Saturday morning. Two late bogeys – Scott missed a 6-1/2 par putt at the 16th and a 3-footer at the 17th – proved costly. “Just unfortunate that we bogeyed 16 and 17 today,� Day said. “It was hard. There’s no excuses. We did have the tougher side of the draw, but there’s no excuses. “We just needed to come out and play well, and unfortunately I think we just didn’t have the momentum going.� RELATED: Leaderboard | Tee times | How team format works Scott, too, was disappointed, noting that he and Day failed to build on their 7-under 65 in the first round of Four-balls. “The Foursomes format can be tough,� Scott said. “… We missed greens from the fairway and then our short games were under pressure. It’s tough to get a rhythm going, and we were grinding hard and didn’t quite get it going.� Five of the 14 partnerships in which both players represented International Team countries made the cut in a week in which Captain Ernie Els pinpointed as a key building block for his team’s chances against the Americans. Els and fellow South African Trevor Immelman, one of his assistants, did not make the cut. Below is a quick look at how the other 13 teams fared after 36 holes, with each player’s International Team points ranking in parentheses. The top eight in points after the TOUR Championship will automatically qualify for the Presidents Cup, with Els making four Captain’s Picks at a date closer to the December event. MADE CUT JUSTIN HARDING (7)/BRANDEN GRACE (15) – The South Africans followed up their 65 in Four-balls with a 4-under 68 in Foursomes, leaving them at 11 under, three shots off the lead. That’s the highest position of any International duo entering the third round. COREY CONNERS (12)/MACKENZIE HUGHES (79) – The Canadians had a roller-coaster second round with eight birdies and four bogeys, with their 68 moving them to 9 under. SHUBHANKAR SHARMA (T-80)/ANIRBAN LAHIRI (172) – The duo from India made two birdies in their last five holes to sneak inside the cutline at 8 under, including Sharma’s 13-footer at the fifth hole. SUNGJAE IM (13)/WHEE KIM (245) – Kim converted birdie opportunities that Im set up with his irons, and the South Korean duo survived a double-bogey at the 17th to shoot 72 and 8 under through two rounds. JULIAN ETULAIN (128)/ANDRES ROMERO (288) – Although neither is close to competing for a 2019 Presidents Cup spot, they showed some mettle with birdies on two of their last three holes to make the cut with a 3-under 69. MISSED CUT JASON DAY (6)/ADAM SCOTT (11) – Those two late bogeys were painful in their even-par 72. LOUIS OOSTHUIZEN (2)/CHARL SCHWARTZEL (72) – The South African veterans started their Foursomes round with lost balls on consecutive tee shots en route to a quintuple bogey 9. Their 6-over 78 tied for the worst score of the second round. ABRAHAM ANCER (9)/JHONATTAN VEGAS (23) – Ancer (Mexico) just missed on a 21-foot eagle putt at the 18th that would’ve made the cut. Shot 2-under 70 in the second round.. SI WOO KIM (10)/SANGMOON BAE (73) – The South Koreans struggled in the middle of their round, dropping five shots in a six-hole stretch. DANNY LEE (25)/SUNG KANG (35) – Ended the second round with two birdies but their 72 wasn’t enough. DYLAN FRITTELLI (43)/JOAQUIN NIEMANN (117) – An early double-bogey and a seven-hole stretch with five bogeys sealed their fate. CARLOS ORTIZ (71)/SEBASTIAN MUNOZ (146) – Shot a pair of 71s but played better in Foursomes than Four-balls. JOHN SENDEN (T-255)/ROD PAMPLING (T-440) – The veterans from Australia aren’t in consideration for Presidents Cup spots, but they finished strong with four second-nine birdies in shooting 70.

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