U.S. Open qualifying: A closer look

CROMWELL, Conn. – Rory McIlroy may have doomed his chances to win the Travelers Championship after a decidedly uneven, even-par 70. He is six behind 36-hole leader Xander Schauffele, who shot his second straight 63 (14 under). Although Schauffele will take a five-shot lead over five players into the weekend – including Patrick Cantlay (67), his partner in their win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans – McIlroy’s misadventures at TPC River Highlands were equally eye-opening. The surprising lapse: a quadruple bogey at the 12th hole and double bogey at the drivable 15th. “It sort of came out of the blue,” said McIlroy, whose card also included seven birdies and one bogey. “I haven’t made a big number like that or couple big numbers like that in a long time.” Playing his fourth tournament in four weeks, McIlroy was always going to be fighting fatigue. He also has a cold and has said he hasn’t been comfortable with his fairway woods. Still, after an opening-round 62 he was still at it Friday, 5 under through 11 holes and in the lead at 13 under. Then it all went wrong. McIlroy hooked his tee shot out of bounds left on No. 12. After a penalty and hitting three from the tee, he blew his next effort into the right fescue, advanced his fourth shot into the greenside bunker, barely got his ball out of the sand, and took three to get down from there for an 8. It was McIlroy’s sixth career quad, and first since the 2021 PLAYERS Championship. “You know, when you hit a tee shot like on 12, the first one, the second one is pretty difficult,” he said, “and you’re sort guarding against the left one and I missed it right.” He used a fairway wood again at the 271-yard 15th hole, and that, too, led to problems. His tee shot would up on the fescue-covered hillside right of the green, and while he seemed to have averted disaster when his second shot stopped just short of the green, he bladed his third over the green and into the water. He took a drop, chipped up, and made an 11-footer to save double. It was a bizarre sequence for one of the best players in the world, but McIlroy chose to focus on the positives: seven birdies, his hot start to the round, and the 36 holes left in the tournament. “For whatever reason I haven’t been comfortable with my fairway woods the last couple weeks,” he said. “You know, I just hit three loose ones there, two on 12, and then the one on 15. That was really it. I played well the rest of the way. Obviously got off to that great start. “I thought I came back well,” he added. “I made a good putt for 6 on 15 and then birdied 16. Yeah, I should be closer to the lead. Feel like I let a lot of guys into the golf tournament because of it. But, you know, it’s still only two rounds. There are two rounds left and a lot of golf left.”

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HOUSTON - Jason Day is accustomed to the question. "How's your health?" he was asked after his second round of the Vivint Houston Open. "I feel like I've had that question a lot in my career," Day said Friday. "Yeah, I feel pretty good." He had to like his position on the leaderboard as well. After shooting a second-round 68, Day was just two strokes behind leader Sam Burns after the morning wave. The last time Day was in contention on the PGA TOUR, he withdrew just one hole into the final round of THE CJ CUP @ SHADOW CREEK. He was playing in the second-to-last group but had to walk off because of injury. Day, whose winless drought has lasted more than two years, has been working on swing changes to alleviate the back pain that has hampered him throughout his career. Day split with long-time swing coach Col Swatton in late July. There were some promising signs late in the summer, as Day posted four consecutive top-10s, including a T4 at the PGA Championship, to re-enter the top 50 in the world ranking. He hasn't finished better than T38 in his last six starts, however. "The form's been very inconsistent because I'm trying to change my swing a little bit just to try and help the back out," Day said Friday. "I guess I'm stuck in between patterns right now. What I want to feel, my body just won't handle it and sometimes it just compensates elsewhere. That's why it happened to my neck at CJ." Day's last win came at the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. It was his second win in seven starts, but he hasn't hoisted a trophy in 53 events since. This is the first time he went back-to-back seasons without a win since he had three straight winless seasons from 2011-13. Day was 2 over par on his opening nine holes this week, but had eight birdies and just one bogey over his next 27 holes. The 30 he shot on his back nine Thursday was his lowest nine-hole score in more than a year. He has hit 14 greens in each of the first two rounds and is 6 for 8 in scrambling. The steep banks of short grass around Memorial Park's greens have challenged players, but Day, who led the TOUR in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green last season, is known as a master scrambler. "It’s one of these golf courses, you leave yourself on the wrong side ... and you’re just struggling the whole day," Day said. "It’s one of those courses where you’ve just got to be patient and try to get your birdies when you can."

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Charlie Rymer wasn’t sure he could swing a golf club with that port imbedded in his chest near his collarbone. Not to mention, the chemotherapy it delivered into his body made his hands shake so badly he joked that he might take a divot with his putter. But last Wednesday, he was hitting balls and getting ready for a member-guest – barely four months after doctors had resected a foot of his colon and 14 days after ringing the bell at M.D. Anderson in Houston to signal his last infusion of those life-saving drugs. “There’s no chance I can break 85, but I’m going to be out there with my buddies, having a good time and enjoying every minute of it,” Rymer said. The last two years haven’t been much fun for the former PGA TOUR pro turned broadcaster, though, after doctors discovered a polyp during a routine colonoscopy. At first, doctors decided to monitor it. But after six months, and then three more months, his physician was still concerned. So Rymer went to a specialist who twice performed an advanced polypectomy in hopes of avoiding the resection. Neither was successful. So, Rymer had the right hemicolectomy on March 10 and 12 inches of his colon were removed. All the previous biopsies had revealed no cancer but when the pathology was done on the full section the news was not good. Rymer had stage 3 colon cancer. And the cancer had spread to the 54-year-old’s lymph nodes. “And I’m like, what? I had no idea that that was coming,” he recalls. “I was just expecting, the surgery was successful. You’re good to go. You don’t have to worry about this.” Within six weeks, Rymer had started chemotherapy at M.D. Anderson. He’d have the infusion, which generally lasted three hours, and then begin a two-week regimen of chemo by pill, four of them, twice a day. And that didn’t count the drugs he was prescribed for the side effects – nausea, anxiety, insomnia – that made Rymer feel like a “walking pharmacist.” Mercifully, he was able to take a week off before beginning the process again. After four cycles of the dual chemotherapy, Rymer is cancer-free and now in surveillance mode where he’ll undergo body scans every six months and advanced blood work every three. He says the highest chance of recurrence is in the first year. “And because I’ve had the surgery — surgery alone gave me about a 50% chance of recurrence in year one and the chemo reduces that to about a 25% chance of recurrence in year one,” Rymer says. “Year two, that’s halved. Year three, it’s halved. “So, if you get through the first three years, you’re good to go without getting any further treatment. … If it does come back, they say it’ll come back somewhere other than my colon, but … we can get after that early. So, I hope I don’t have to go down that road, but that’s sort of what the situation is.” Rymer had kept his diagnosis relatively private, the news mostly confined to family and friends. When he felt well enough, he continued his work as an ambassador for Myrtle Beach golf and as executive vice president of McLemore Club, a resort in northern Georgia. He was also able to film parts of the second season of “The Charlie Rymer Golf Show” on ESPN2 during his off weeks from the chemo. He did discuss his cancer struggle on one episode, but it hasn’t aired yet. When he finished his last chemotherapy treatment on June 6, though, Rymer decided to tweet a video of him ringing the bell. The reaction was swift, and a little overwhelming. The tweet got more than 7,000 likes and 433 comments, many from people asking about his treatment – and most importantly telling Rymer they were scheduling their colonoscopy immediately. “It means the world. It really does,” Rymer says, his voice halting. “… I don’t normally read a lot of remarks on Twitter, but just the folks out there that had either, most of them I hadn’t ever met, but had either watched me play or do TV over the years, just the supportive comments that came in were just incredible. “One of the reasons I was hesitant to put it out was like, nobody cares that somebody’s going through this, but then you find out they do care.” Rymer says fellow broadcasters Mark Rolfing and Paul Azinger, both of whom are cancer survivors, have frequently called to check up on him. Judy Rankin has reached out, as well, along with many others in the golf business. He’s heard from friends in the entertainment industry like Colt Ford and Vince Gill. He’s even reconnected with his best friend from high school. Rymer, who describes himself as a “church-going person,” says the prayers and support are incredibly impactful. “I just would encourage folks when they have friends that are going through this or another severe health challenge, if you’re on the fence of whether I ought to drop a text or call, go ahead and drop it because it’s going to mean a lot more than what you think,” Rymer says, pausing before finishing his thought. “I hate to break down crying on you, but these this last six months I’ve cried more than I ever thought I was capable of crying. So, it makes you sort of look at things a little, a lot differently.” Until last week, Rymer had only played golf twice this year – both times before the surgery – which was the longest break he’d taken from the game since he was 4 years old. And the operation set him back when he developed ileus, where his digestive system didn’t reset for nine days, and he lost 22 pounds. Once he recovered, Rymer started thinking about playing again. He ordered a new set of clubs and once he finished chemo, he started hitting balls again. He thinks it will take about a month to get all the medications out of his system to steady his hands. He’s also dealing with neuropathy. “I haven’t felt my toes in three months. And then the other thing is weight gain with this stuff. So not only have I not felt my toes in three months, hell, I haven’t seen my toes in three months,” says Rymer, proving his trademark sense of humor is still in tact. He also jokes about holding a carton of ice cream with oven mitts because the nerve endings in his hands couldn’t handle anything that wasn’t room temperature or warmer. And the disappointment of finding out that the side effects of both medications was weight gain. “I’m like, really?” Rymer says with a wry laugh. “Plus they put you on steroids too, so, I feel like I stepped on air hose.” Rymer says he couldn’t have survived the last two years without the support of Carol, his wife of 31 years, who also happens to be a registered nurse, and in his words an “absolute superstar.” He says the cancer ordeal has made the couple and their two sons grow closer. “Listen, I’m 54, and my life’s been a blessing,” Rymer says. “I’ve been fortunate to see and do things and have experiences that some folks take 20 lives to do. And then because of my faith, I don’t live my life with fear. But I’m hoping the big man has some more plans for me here.” One of the things Rymer wants to do is encourage everyone to take their health seriously and get a colonoscopy along with other cancer screenings. He can’t help but think about a friend who wouldn’t – “He almost bragged about it,” Rymer says – who has passed away. “When I was out in Houston and I got a chance to ring the bell, I thought you know what I’m going to put that on (Twitter) and just let people know what I’ve been going through,” Rymer says. “And the more I think about it — and I’m hoping this is the case — it seems like mine is rather than being life and death is just terribly, horribly inconvenient. “And I almost feel obligated to sort of share the experience and say, yeah, I’ve had a tough go with this, but if I hadn’t had a colonoscopy, two or three years down the road from now my stomach would be hurting or I’d have some other symptom and I’d go to the doctor and it would be, you’ve got six months, get your affairs in order.” Thankfully, Rymer didn’t wait. And neither should the rest of us.

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