126th U.S. Open thread

[I Should Coco]

I usually watch all four majors, even adjusting my Sunday work schedule to see at least the back nine of the final round. But between traveling this weekend and the leaderboard on Sunday (Clark way ahead and not a golfer I care about) I didn’t even check on my phone.

On to the Open Championship.

 

[DanOregon]

I like the US Open at Pebble, Pinehurst - the NE courses bore me. And they're going back to NYC in two years at Winged Foot?

 

[terrier]

Congrats to the USGA for getting a US Open with no juice whatsoever won by a known asshole who won on Sunday by being exactly good enough to beat apparently another known asshole. Or, to give hondo some slack, an asshole on probation (which honestly, could be a category that could include any number of people including Rory).

That said, to speak to hondo's point above, I've got to think at least a third of the field were card-carrying Trumpers, the next third voted for him and were told by their agents not to talk about it or didn't vote at all, and the remainder are foreign, not white or both. I mean, the PGA Tour has had this reputation since time immemorial. And I can't imagine the median gallery member was much further to the left of that.

I'm notorious for applying the benefit of the doubt, but golf is a sport that requires access to money, land and normally privilege to be any good. People who can access money, land and privilege are almost always right and white in this country. Tour guys, as independent contractors, can add the taxes part to their list of grievances as well.

That said, Aaron Rai winning the PGA with his humility and attention to detail was refreshing. Easy guy to root for. Hope we can avoid a milkshake duck on him.

I've been all in on the World Cup but checked in for a little of Saturday and most of the back nine. I realized what Shinnecock looks like -- Chambers Bay was a good comp (though the part of that one that screwed me up was the grayish color palette), but it looks like an Open Championship but not one of the fun, historic ones. One of the ones in England where you can't see the ocean ... like Royal Birkdale, where the Open is in a month.

Hey, the next liberal pro golfer, college football coach or MMA fighter I hear about will probably be the first.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

It really is annoying that I am so passionate about this game and have been for 30 years yet many of the people who play it at the highest levels or even recreationally are flaming assheads.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Agree, BYH2, feels like this new generation especially has advanced the flaming asshead gene.

Back in my previous newspaper life, I covered a few Champions Tour events for several years, and some of the nicest, most grounded pro athletes who I've ever dealt with across several sports were there. People like Jesper Parnevik, Fred Funk, Ernie Els, Kirk Triplett, Retief Goosen, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Davis Love III, Joe Durant, Billy Andrade and I'm sure several others I'm not recalling right now, were just gems.

During the year Davis Love was captaining the Ryder Cup team, he sat down for a one-hour one-on-one interview after he played a practice round, then with the course thinning out late in the day, asked if I had time to walk with him while he wandered around the property for a little bit and looked around. He asked me more questions about myself, my story and newspapers than I asked him in that interview. Really seemed interested, too.

Of course, there was the flip side. People like Scott Hoch, Corey Pavin, John Daly (shocker), you can shoot them into the sun. Even Fred Couples, which was a little bit of a surprise and disappointment as I had always admired him. He did his media obligations, but barely disguised the fact that he'd rather have been anywhere else.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Couples was notorious for being a flake and hating to talk to people. Someone once asked him why he never answered his phone and he said, "because someone might be at the other end."

Pavin has always looked like BabaBooey to me.

 

[bumpy mcgee]

It really is annoying that I am so passionate about this game and have been for 30 years yet many of the people who play it at the highest levels or even recreationally are flaming assheads.

100 percent of golfers think they're Happy Gilmore, Roy McAvoy, and Danny Noonan.
99 percent of them are Judge Smails, Shooter McGavin, and whatever Don Johnson's name was in Tin Cup.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

David Simms.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/us-open-2026-wyndham-clark-fans-heckles-jeers-shinnecock-hills

 

[UNCGrad]

Agree, BYH2, feels like this new generation especially has advanced the flaming asshead gene.

Back in my previous newspaper life, I covered a few Champions Tour events for several years, and some of the nicest, most grounded pro athletes who I've ever dealt with across several sports were there. People like Jesper Parnevik, Fred Funk, Ernie Els, Kirk Triplett, Retief Goosen, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Davis Love III, Joe Durant, Billy Andrade and I'm sure several others I'm not recalling right now, were just gems.

During the year Davis Love was captaining the Ryder Cup team, he sat down for a one-hour one-on-one interview after he played a practice round, then with the course thinning out late in the day, asked if I had time to walk with him while he wandered around the property for a little bit and looked around. He asked me more questions about myself, my story and newspapers than I asked him in that interview. Really seemed interested, too.

Of course, there was the flip side. People like Scott Hoch, Corey Pavin, John Daly (shocker), you can shoot them into the sun. Even Fred Couples, which was a little bit of a surprise and disappointment as I had always admired him. He did his media obligations, but barely disguised the fact that he'd rather have been anywhere else.

Via my work, Davis has always been good to deal with here. And one of my best moments covering golf was watching Tom Watson interact with people during an event, and doing an interview with me - all in a steady rain. It's one of my favorite stories I've written.

 

[Alma]

Shinnecock is a wonderful course. Maybe the greatest of all the US Open courses.

But it's a hard course to understand dropping into it every eight years.

 

[playthrough]

He's not. The guy had the Oakmont incident. He apologized, paid a fine, paid for the locker, now everyone move the **** on. I've had occasion to talk to him 2-3 times and never had a problem. He lost the 2024 Players when a birdie putt at No. 18 circled the drain and spun out and was all class afterwards.

I just don't get the New York hate for the guy. I thought they would like a dude who's a little bit salty. But no, let's glorify a certified douche like Phil.

I'm sure Clark is fine in scrums and one-on-ones with friendly golf media, but he's just not "it" with fans. Should that bring jeers in the final round of a major in his own country? No. Though at this point he might as well lean all the way into being a black hat and I think he almost wants to -- at the end of his winner's press conf, after answering all the questions about Oakmont and the bad fans and all, he said "any publicity is good publicity."

This was a U.S Open I was largely trying to avoid (/crossthread) and seeing Clark's name atop the leaderboard every night made it pretty easy.

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

Via my work, Davis has always been good to deal with here. And one of my best moments covering golf was watching Tom Watson interact with people during an event, and doing an interview with me - all in a steady rain. It's one of my favorite stories I've written.

The one who really surprised me was Fred Funk. I always took his shoulder-shrugging, aw-shucks demeanor to be an act. Visited with him for an interview on Monday afternoon, and on Friday before his tee time, I was walking by the putting green where he was chatting with his caddie, and he called over to me, remembering my name, just to ask how the week was going. Still could be an act and fake, of course, but if it was, he did a great job of selling it.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

The Senior Tour used to be so fun because the atmosphere was so laid back. I handed Larry Laoretti a bic pen to sign my ticket and he handed the pen back, whipped out a Sharpie, signed, handed it to me and winked.

 

[ChrisLong]

Chi Chi Rodriguez. Total gem. After visiting the interview area, he shook hands with everybody and thanked them all individually.

John Brodie, totally delightful. He even delivered his routine comments in such a way that it didn't seem like, "Oh, not this question again."

"Honest" Denis Watson, born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but I think he was living in Australia at the time. Flew directly to L.A. for the Johnny Mathis tournament. He was asked how he dealt with jetlag. He said, "I left my jetlag in a bar in Westwood last night."

 

[BurnsWhenIPee]

I'll add Tom Lehman (surprisingly to me) and Lee Janzen to the great guys list.

Was probably the millionith time Janzen was asked about Payne Stewart, but he gave a thoughtful, heartfelt, genuine answer and pretended it was the first time he heard the question.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

One of the most stunning was at the long ago JCPenney Classic, in which PGA and LPGA pros teamed up. John Mahaffey’s team was leading. He sat down at the microphone and told his tale of alcoholism

 

[Pickleballgolds]

Wyndham Clark had a moment of stupid; who among us hasn’t? But he’s not even on the first page of pro golf’s biggest asses.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

One of the most stunning was at the long ago JCPenney Classic, in which PGA and LPGA pros teamed up. John Mahaffey’s team was leading. He sat down at the microphone and told his tale of alcoholism

I remember that tournament since a PGA Tour golfer from my hometown was among the winners.

 

[hondo]

I'm sure Clark is fine in scrums and one-on-ones with friendly golf media, but he's just not "it" with fans. Should that bring jeers in the final round of a major in his own country? No. Though at this point he might as well lean all the way into being a black hat and I think he almost wants to -- at the end of his winner's press conf, after answering all the questions about Oakmont and the bad fans and all, he said "any publicity is good publicity."

This was a U.S Open I was largely trying to avoid (/crossthread) and seeing Clark's name atop the leaderboard every night made it pretty easy.

Not every guy can be Jack, Arnie or Fuzzy with the media. There are different personalities among golfers just like there are different personalities among doctors, lawyers, teachers or plumbers. Near as I can tell, the only crime guys like Clark or David Duval have committed is they don’t conduct interviews like a Vegas comedy act or a fireside chat.