The 30 players headed to the Tour Championship and finale of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y – When the world’s best players tee it up here for the 2018 U.S. Open June 14-18, they’ll confront a golf course that is substantially different than the one they last faced in 2004. The course has been stretched, sculpted, and restored to more of its original character as designed by architect William S. Flynn, whose plan for the course from the 1931 rerouting into the present configuration now hangs prominently in the clubhouse. Jeff Hall, managing director, rules and open championships for the U.S. Golf Association, said that a decision to narrow the fairways marginally came upon reflection about the experience of the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills, where uncommonly mild winds made the wide fairways readily accessible to players, diminishing the importance of skilled driving as a crucial element of championship golf. An early look at the course hosted by the U.S. Golf Association on a spectacular fall day revealed considerable modifications to the course.

Tommy Horton, the Englishman who played in two Ryder Cups and won four times on European Tour, died Thursday. Horton became ill at the Annual General Meeting at the Royal Jersey Golf Club on Thursday night and died soon after at a hospital. ”It is with great sadness that I inform you that