American women went 3-0 on Andy Murray Arena at the HSBC Championships on Wednesday.
A trio of the United States’ top players — Madison Keys, Emma Navarro and Amanda Anisimova — picked up victories on the center court at the prestigious Queen’s Club, clinching quarterfinal spots. Here’s how the day went down:
Navarro saves match point to outlast Haddad Maia: No. 3 seed Navarro pulled off a remarkable escape — with the unlikely help of an ailing spectator — to defeat Beatriz Haddad Maia 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 in the second round.
Haddad Maia dominated proceedings early on, serving strongly and volleying with panache, before Navarro began to find her range in the second set. Serving down 5-4, the American saved a match point with a bold drop shot-pass combination, but in the ensuing tiebreak Haddad Maia still took a 4-2 lead — before play was paused due to medical treatment for the audience member.
On resumption, Haddad Maia’s form evaporated. Two consecutive double faults and three unforced errors later, she found herself in a deciding set. The Brazilian retreated into passive play, and Navarro wasted no time in imposing her own game. Trailing 4-3, Haddad Maia coughed up another costly double fault to lose serve, and Navarro successfully served out victory after 2 hours and 47 minutes.
The result was a measure of revenge for last year’s Wimbledon quarterfinalist, who had served for the match against Haddad Maia in Strasbourg three weeks ago before falling 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 in 3 hours and 2 minutes.
“I’ve probably spent the most time on court with Bia of anyone on tour,” Navarro said in her on-court interview. “We play each other all the time, and it always goes three sets and comes down to the wire.”
The pair’s head-to-head is now level at three wins apiece. All five of their previous encounters had been on clay.
Anisimova sets all-American quarterfinal: Navarro will take on her countrywoman Anisimova in Friday’s quarterfinals. Following Navarro’s marathon on Andy Murray Arena, No. 8 seed Anisimova had a very different match, dismissing Britain’s Sonay Kartal 6-1, 6-3 in just 64 minutes.
Anisimova eases past Kartal into Queen’s Club quarterfinals
This second-round clash was between two players who posted brand new career-high rankings on Monday. World No. 50 Kartal came in on a high after beating Top 20 player Daria Kasatkina in this week’s opening round.
But World No. 15 Anisimova was on fire all day, denying the British No. 3 a second consecutive Top 20 win. Anisimova never faced break point in the first set, where she slammed 13 winners to just four unforced errors.
Kartal was able to break serve two times in the second set, but the Briton only held serve two times in the entire match. Anisimova dictated from start to finish, particularly from her backhand side, where she had 15 winners in total.
Anisimova can enter the quarterfinals with even more confidence — she is 3-0 against Navarro, including a win in Navarro’s hometown of Charleston this year.
Keys cruises past qualifier: The day on Andy Murray Arena ended with No. 2 seed Keys’ 6-3, 6-2 win over qualifier Anastasia Zakharova. Keys was down an early break at 3-1, but she reeled off 11 of the next 13 games to prevail.
The 23-year-old Zakharova picked up her first Top 25 win by toppling last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic in the first round. Zakharova is projected to make her Top 100 debut following her Queen’s Club success.
But today marked Zakharova’s first-ever meeting vs. a Top 10 player, and she saw her run come to an end. Once reigning Australian Open champion Keys got her teeth into the match, the American was on cruise control.
“It’s always a little challenging to play someone for the first time, especially on the grass when they’ve had matches,” Keys said on court, after her win. “The first couple of games, I just felt like I was trying to find my footing, and then once I did, I played really well.”
Keys has won three grass-court titles in her career (2014 Eastbourne, 2016 Brimingham and 2023 Eastbourne). Among active players, only Petra Kvitova (6) has won more WTA grass-court titles than Keys.
Former San Francisco 49ers receiver Deebo Samuel is facing a bit of heat for a recent minicamp video. The receiver is going through minicamp with the Washington Commanders after an offseason trade finally answered the endless drama around the veteran’s future. However, 49ers fans are still paying attention to what is happening for the former franchise star. This includes a practice rep where it seems Deebo is jogging and simply going through the motions of the play. Anxious to win the divorce, many fans began to point to this as evidence that the team made the right decision.
Perhaps a better takeaway would have been the fact that it seems Samuel looks a bit larger than his typical playing weight. However, it seems the heat the receiver was getting for running the route is completely unfair. George Kittle jumped into the fray to point out that this is the design of the play. It is all about learning the motions and slowly going through the movements. Kittle jumping in to defend his long time teammate doesn’t come as a surprise to San Francisco fans.
George Kittle Jumps in to Defend Former 49ers Teammate
It’s called group install when players jog thru plays. Knock it off
It is just a small piece of why the veteran is a beloved piece of the organization. Kittle defending Samuel even after the veteran’s exit speaks to the chemistry and loyalty between the long time teammates. A big piece of Kittle’s defense is to quiet a fan base that is searching for any reason to believe that it won the trade of the star.
Moving on from Samuel was incredibly difficult for a team that has so often relied on the star in the biggest moments. Watching the receiver in another uniform is going to be difficult, especially when it happens to be with a contending team in the same conference.
Still, 49ers fans shouldn’t wish the receiver anything but the best after everything he did in San Francisco. Kittle’s defense serves as a reminder of this and helps quiet any further shots at a player who is going into a pivotal season after leaving the 49ers in frustration.
As footage of Samuel at Washington Commanders minicamp this week went viral, mostly for the wrong reasons, Kittle quickly came to the receiver’s defense.
The 21-second clip shows Samuel running routes with his new team, which garnered plenty of criticism for the perceived lack of effort from the 29-year-old.
But Kittle, an eight-year vet, attributes Samuel’s effort to the simple fact that it’s only minicamp, and a time when coaches and teams are in the process of teaching and practicing a specific set of plays, formations or concepts.
The social media football experts, however, weren’t as understanding.
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Leave it to Kittle, though, who was teammates with Samuel for six NFL seasons, to have his forever brother’s back.
Even repping a different jersey, the red and gold loyalty runs deep for Kittle.
The Citizens Queens 10K has deep roots in the Queens community and a history going back to the late 1970s. Though the event’s distance and location have changed over the years, the Citizens Queens 10K remains true to its community roots and reflects the spirit of Queens, the “World’s Borough.”
A Running Club in Queens
Leo Nicholas of the College Point Athletic Club oversaw the Queens Half Marathon for years.
College Point, a neighborhood on Queens’ northern shoreline, was for many years the home of the College Point Athletic Club, founded in the early 1960s. Many club members ran on both the track and the roads, and some competed in championship events such as the Colgate Women’s Games. One member, Queens resident Tom Nohilly, was the 1989 NCAA champion in the 3000-meter steeplechase and placed fourth in that event at the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Trials.
At some point the College Point Athletic Club became the College Point Road Runners. A key member, Leo Nicholas, began to organize local road races in the 1970s. In 1978, Nicholas put on the first Queens Half Marathon on the roads in College Point. Some 400 runners crossed the finish line in MacNeil Park that year.
From Half Marathon to 10K
The Queens Half Marathon took place in College Point before moving to Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The Queens Half Marathon slowly grew in popularity, and around 1990, with the support of local heating oil company Skaggs-Walsh, a 5K was added to race day. In 1994 Nicholas asked New York Road Runners to help support the events.
The Skaggs-Walsh 5K accompanied the Queens Half Marathon in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The half marathon and 5K races continued to take place every year in College Point, usually in the early spring. Due to the growth in participation, in 2010 the Queens Half Marathon moved to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the largest public park in Queens.
A Race in an Iconic Park
The popularity of running through Flushing Meadows spurred the growth of the Queens Half Marathon, but with that growth came challenges. Staging a major 13.1-mile race entirely within a park—even one the size of Flushing Meadows—was becoming difficult.
The solution was a 10K—flat, fast, and fun—held in mid-June. The Queens 10K became part of the NYRR Five-Borough Series in 2013. The race was more popular than ever, with over 11,000 finishers in 2019.
Citizens came on as the race’s title sponsor in 2024, and the race had over 12,000 finishers, the most ever. Like New York Road Runners, Citizens believes in giving back to communities. Learn more<link to impact blog post?> about NYRR’s and Citizens’ work in Queens and throughout NYC.
The Citizens Queens 10K includes the free Flushing Meadows Kids Run for youth ages 2–18, offering running and other fun activities throughout the morning.
This year’s Citizens Queens 10K and Flushing Meadows Kids Run on Saturday, June 14, will once again be a fun event for all ages in the great borough of Queens.
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Citizens Queens 10K Continues Impact in the “World’s Borough”
The race is the third event in the 2025 NYRR Five-Borough Series, and this is the second year Citizens, the Official Bank of NYRR, is the title sponsor.
The Citizens Queens 10K takes place in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, the borough’s largest park, with a course giving runners views of the Unisphere, Citi Field, and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
In addition to the adult 10K, 1,000 kids ages 2 to 18 will participate in free dashes and races as part of the Flushing Meadows Kids Run, one of more than 20 free Rising New York Road Runners youth events the nonprofit hosts during the year.
Good luck to all the runners taking on the race on June 14! If you’re not signed up to run, come out to cheer and enjoy the amazing borough of Queens.
NYRR’s Impact in Queens
NYRR Open Run participants at Baisley Pond Park in Queens.
Queens, “The World’s Borough,” is one of the most linguistically and ethnically diverse places on the planet. According to a recent U.S. Census, 47% of the population of Queens was born outside the United States and Queens residents speak up to 130 languages.
NYRR has a big impact throughout the borough:
Nearly 8,000 NYRR members reside in Queens.
More than 35,000 kids from Queens participate in our free Rising New York Road Runners youth program across 126 sites.
Every week NYRR Open Runs in five Queens parks (Astoria Park, Baisley Pond Park, Cunningham Park. Flushing Meadows Corona Park, and Crocheron Park) serve about 1,000 runners.
More than 100 older adults at two sites in Queens participate in NYRR Striders, a free walking and fitness program.
Over 190 Queens residents participate in NYRR races through NYRR Race Free, a program that provides race fee assistance and training to those who financially qualify to make running more accessible.
Approximately 120 Queens runners join NYRR Group Training workouts in Astoria Park twice a week for coaching, camaraderie, and the inspiration that comes from running with others.
Of the more than 250 clubs that engage with NYRR, about 25 are based in Queens. Visit our clubs page and filter for Queens in the Locations tab to find an amazing selection of clubs.
Discover More of Queens
Take a tour of the borough on foot by checking out our the NYRR Running Routes below:
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the UK’s £3.4bn deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of a UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.
At prime minister’s questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called it a “terrible” deal and asked “why on earth” British taxpayers should be paying for tax cuts in Mauritius.
Last week, Mauritian prime minister Navin Ramgoolam said the money from the Chagos deal would be used for debt repayments, as part of a Budget package that will see 80% of workers exempted from income tax.
The prime minister said the UK risked jeopardising the “vital intelligence and strategic capability” on Diego Garcia without a deal.
“Legal uncertainty would compromise it in very short order,” he told MPs, adding “no responsible prime minister would let that happen”.
He said: “We have secured the base for the long term and that has been welcomed by our allies – by the US, by Nato, by Australia, New Zealand, India.
“It’s been opposed by our adversaries – Russia, China and Iran. And in the second column we add Reform, following Putin, and the Tories following Reform.”
But Badenoch insisted the deal had “nothing to do with national security”, adding that she had seen the security briefings when she was in government and it was “bad deal before and it’s still a bad deal”.
Negotiations to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius began under the previous Conservative government.
Under the terms of the deal agreed by Labour, the UK will lease use of the Diago Garcia base for a period of 99 years.
The UK will pay £165m in each of the first three years. From years four to 13, it will pay £120m a year. After that, payments will be indexed to inflation.
Sir Keir says this will average out at a cost of £101m a year, although this figure is disputed by the Conservatives, who say it will be much higher.
In his Budget, Navin Ramgoolam announced plans to reduce Mauritius’s public sector debt to 60% of GDP in the long term.
“These projections are inclusive of the revenue from Chagos, which will be used for debt repayment for the first three years,” he said in a speech to the country’s Parliament.
He also announced that 80% of workers will not pay income tax but higher earners will pay more.
It comes as a panel of experts urged the UK to renegotiate the Chagos deal as it “fails to guarantee” the rights of the Chagossian people.
The panel, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said it was “gravely concerned about the lack of meaningful participation of Chagossians in the processes that have led to the agreement”.
Philippe Sands KC, who represented Mauritius in its long-running legal battle with the UK over the Chagos islands, insisted this was not the case.
“I want to really knock on the head this idea that all of the Chagossians were not involved in the various processes. That is simply not true,” he told a House of Lords committee.
“It is true, however, that the Chagossian community is divided and I respect that division.”
The “quid pro quo” for the military base remaining on Diego Garcia was that Chagossians would be allowed to settle on the outer islands of the archipelago, he told peers.
He said he understood the “bitterness and the hurt” of the Chagossian community in the UK, who were “forcibly deported from Diego Garcia and who wish to return and will not be able to return”.
But he said “most in Mauritius and Seychelles have made very clear…that they wish this deal to go ahead” – and they had been “deeply involved in consulting with successive prime ministers of Mauritius”.
He told peers the deal “will enhance Britain’s position in the world” as a country that respects “the rule of law”.
It follows a 2019 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice saying the islands should be handed over to Mauritius.
Mr Sands, who revealed that he had become a Mauritian citizen in 2020, so he could take part in a hearing in person during the Covid pandemic, said he had not been working “pro bono” for the country’s government but could not say how much he had been paid.
He also paid tribute to Liz Truss, who he said had kicked off negotiations during her brief tenure in Number 10.
This is disputed by Truss, who has blamed Boris Johnson for starting the process when he was PM.
The band’s seventh album, “Breach,” will be released in September.
The band performed in Philadelphia last year on its “Clancy World Tour,” that played to more than 1 million fans including its biggest show ever in Mexico City in a sold-out performance for 65,000 fans, according to a news release.
OAKMONT, Pa. — Dustin Johnson always gives off such an indifferent vibe. Nothing much seems to bother him. He takes things in stride, never too high or low. His comments are kept to a minimum, not so much by design as his nature.
That is a phenomenal disposition for a world-class golfer who has won two major championships and hit a golf ball with such power and precision as to make you gasp.
It also has a way of hurting him at times such as these.
For example, when he’s missed cuts at both the 2025 Masters and PGA Championship, the latter shooting 76-78 to miss by a mile and beat just 12 players, most of whom were club pros.
Or when you look at his LIV Golf League record this year and see that he has just three top-10 finishes in the 54-player league, the best a tie for fifth, and four results worse than 30th including a dead-last 54th in Hong Kong.
And, ultimately, when you consider the financial riches associated with LIV Golf and the well-worn narrative that it might create a comfort level that leads to a lack of success.
Johnson, of course, would never admit that if it were true. His demeanor betrays him in such instances, of course, and can’t convince you that he’s been working at his game or putting in the time or struggling with putting or any of the other reasons that could be associated with a downturn.
“Golf is a strange sport,” Johnson said Monday at Oakmont Country Club. “I don’t feel like I’ve slipped any. My scores haven’t reflected, but it is a really fine line.
“I remember a few years ago, I missed two cuts in a row. I think I shot 80-80, and then I won the next week. For me it’s always really close to being good, but just getting back there and keeping it consistent which over the last couple months I’m starting to see a lot of patterns and the game feels like it’s coming back into good form.”
Johnson said a good final round at the LIV Golf Virginia event Sunday to help him tie for 10th is good for his confidence, as is coming back to the place where he won his first major championship.
It came a year after three-putting the final green at Chambers Bay to go from a chance to winning and then tying and then ultimately losing to Jordan Spieth. Later that summer, Johnson had the 36-hole lead at the British Open at St. Andrews, only to shoot over-par rounds on the weekend and fall way back.
There were other major disappointments, going all the way back to 2010 when he was the 54-hole leader of the U.S. Open and shot 82 and later that summer when he unwittingly ground his club in a hazard on the last hole at Whistling Straits to cost himself a place in a playoff.
His victory here in 2016 saw him finish at 4 under par, one of only four players to break par for the week. He led the field in driving accuracy, approach and scrambling. “I drove it amazing that week,” he said.
When he won the Masters in 2020—during the COVID-19-delayed fall Masters—he set a tournament scoring record and appeared unbeatable.
But in his last 12 major championship appearances, Johnson has just a single top-30 finish. That was two years ago at the U.S. Open, where he tied for 10th at Los Angeles Country Club.
All of it has led to the chatter that Johnson is content. He was the first big signing for LIV Golf 2022 and he’s never said anything bad about the PGA Tour or made his decision about anything other than lifestyle. Perhaps it is more comfortable now.
But golf pros are nothing if not competitive and Johnson was LIV Golf’s points leader in its first year. He’s won three times total. And he can still drive it forever, an important factor at Oakmont.
“I feel like my game’s been really close,” Johnson said. “I haven’t really got a lot out of it. So it was definitely nice to have a nice finish last week. I played good every day. Still kind of giving away some shots. I need to clean that up a little bit. But played really solid every day, hit it nice, gave myself a lot of opportunities. Just still kind of gave some shots away each round that you can’t afford to do at a golf course like this.
“It was nice to finally see the game progress a little bit. I know my score didn’t reflect it at the PGA, but I actually played way better than the score. I just struggled a little bit on the greens. Well, maybe that’s an understatement. I struggled really bad on the greens.”
Johnson smiled and chuckled. He rolled with it, which is his way.
Elon Musk said Wednesday that he regrets some of his recent social media posts about President Donald Trump.
“I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far,” Musk said in a post on X.
Musk’s relationship with Trump deteriorated in a spectacular, public fashion last week as the two men traded jibes on their respective social media platforms.
Until recently, Musk was Trump’s close ally in government and co-head of his administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, where the tech billionaire spearheaded mass layoffs of federal workers.
But their relationship soured when Musk slammed Trump’s massive tax cutand domestic policy bill, labeling it a “disgusting abomination” for its anticipated negative impact on US government finances.
The Tesla CEO stepped up his criticism by sharing years-old comments from Trump and other Republican lawmakers that raised concerns about US government spending and the budget deficit.
Shares of Tesla (TSLA) rose following Musk’s walk-back on X, rising 2% in premarket trading.
Among Musk’s posts on X last week was a claim that Trump would have lost last year’s presidential election without him and – in the most incendiary missive – that Trump is “in” the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Epstein was a convicted pedophile who died in jail in 2019 before he could face trial on sex trafficking charges. Musk did not provide any evidence to back up his claim that Trump’s name is included in unreleased records relating to Epstein.
The inclusion of a person’s name in files related to the case does not by itself indicate they have been accused of any wrongdoing.
For his part, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform last week that he could terminate the government contracts and subsidies awarded to Musk’s companies.
The president also told CNN’s Dana Bash Friday that he was “not even thinking about Elon” and wouldn’t be speaking to Musk “for a while.”
Trump, in a pre-recorded episode of New York Post’s podcast “Pod Force One” released Wednesday, said that he “was disappointed” in Musk. The president said he held “no hard feelings” against the Tesla CEO, adding that he “was really surprised” the billionaire had criticized his tax cut bill.
“I don’t know what his problem is, really, I don’t know. I haven’t thought too much about him in the last little while,” Trump told podcast host Miranda Devine.
In recent days, Musk softened his tone toward Trump, deleting some of his most inflammatory X posts, including the one relating to Epstein and another agreeing with the suggestion that Trump should be impeached.
Even last Friday, in the heat of the feud, Musk showed support for an X post by billionaire investor Bill Ackman that urged Musk and Trump to “make peace.” Musk said Ackman was “not wrong.”
Musk also appears to support the Trump administration’s tough stance on the protests in Los Angeles, sparked by federal immigration raids: he posted American flags in response to a post from Vice President JD Vance Monday that said the “president will not tolerate rioting and violence.”
Musk has long supported closed borders, deportations and stopping illegal immigration, in alignment with the Trump administration.
In his X post Wednesday, Musk did not specify which of his previous comments about Trump he regretted posting.
The reconciliatory post comes days after comments by his father, Errol Musk, who said his son had “made a mistake” in picking a fight with the president.
“Trump will prevail. He is the president,” Errol told Izvestia, a Russian newspaper, in a video interview Saturday.
Errol, who has a strained relationship with his son, also said he believes the two will eventually reconcile. “It’s just a small thing. It will be over tomorrow,” he said.
OAKMONT, Pa. — If you take the southwest entrance to Oakmont Country Club, the course sneaks up on you. The tree-lined Hulton Road that leads you onto the property is dotted with quaint homes. Even when the iconic green clubhouse comes into view, the building acts as a barrier between the idyllic neighborhood and one of golf’s most terrifying tests.
Enter the clubhouse and the venue’s history is there at every turn. It has hosted 10 U.S. Opens now — the most of any course in the country. Exit on the other side of the building, and the brawny track hits you like a gust of wind.
“When you stand on the first tee, 10th tee, 18, 9, you get a layout of the whole property,” Jon Rahm said. “You get to see the entirety of it, as beautiful as it is.”
The vast expanse of green grass before you, all 191 acres, appears endless. From the back of the clubhouse, you can see 17 of the 18 flags on the course. It almost feels like a taunt: What’s there to worry about? It’s all right in front of you.
One of the sport’s greatest cathedrals — a course that has become synonymous with the U.S. Open — is indeed beautiful. It’s also a steel-toed boot ready to deliver its famous kick. This week, 156 players have arrived from all over the world willing to be scrutinized by the only course ever designed by Henry Fownes. Each one of them is also hoping that they could be the one with the ability to conquer it.
“I truly believe that Oakmont is the most stressful place to play a U.S. Open,” Jeff Hall, who has been part of four USGA setup teams at Oakmont, told ESPN. “The U.S. Open is supposed to be difficult for the right reasons, it’s supposed to be challenging. It’s about the mental test, the emotional test, the physical test. It’s all of those things. But at Oakmont, it’s all ratcheted up.”
Scottie Scheffler might be atop the odds list and on top of the sport at the moment, but even he, and the likes of Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, is not taking center stage at this tournament. This week, Oakmont is the main character. Everyone who is teeing it up will have four rounds to prove that they are worthy of sharing the spotlight.
“This is probably the hardest golf course that we’ll play,” Scheffler said. “Maybe ever.”
THE IDEA OF the true U.S. Open has evolved over the years. Once, deep rough and large trees were expected every year. Nowadays, the USGA is willing to choose host sites like Los Angeles Country Club where wider corridors and contours are the course’s defining features. Gone are the days of trying to force over-par winning scores. Now, it’s all about staying true to what the greatest golf courses in the country, and their architects, intended. Variety — of courses, of shots and of styles — has come to be king.
“They’re recognizing the original architecture and they’re embracing it,” golf course architect Gil Hanse, who led the restoration efforts at Oakmont in 2023, said. “They’re not trying to fit a model.”
Enter Oakmont, where the original architecture and the numerous changes that followed over the course of decades since its founding in 1903 have all revolved around one thing: making the golf course more and more difficult. Case in point: in its prior nine championships, the winning score has never been lower than 5-under par. Only 2% of the 1,385 players that have played a major championship at Oakmont have finished the tournament under par.
“One of the things that has been consistent with Oakmont from day one when [architect] Henry Fownes founded it, and one of the things that was very clear in the messaging from the membership, they liked this place tough,” Hanse said. “It’s the only time I’ve ever come out of a meeting with members where we presented the master plan and it was very, very clear to me that the message was: it better not be easier when you’re done.”
Hall says that the club culture at Oakmont gives it the ability to host a U.S. Open at a moment’s notice while also simplifying, to an extent, his team’s role. The biggest change is growing the rough up to the five-plus inches it will sit at this week; the biggest challenge is weighing factors of weather, green speeds, hole locations and tee boxes in order to find the fine line between difficult and impossible.
“You can’t let it go too far,” Hall said. “When you ride Secretariat, you have to hold the reins.”
Between Hanse’s work and the USGA’s setup, difficulty isn’t the sole focus. Oakmont also contains plenty of complexity too. Players often talk about how Augusta National is a place where they learn where to miss as they play the course more. Oakmont, on the other hand, with its luscious rough, deceptive tee shots and vexing green complexes that run at speeds of up to 15 on the Stimpmeter doesn’t exactly give you a place to miss as much as it tells you where the safe zones are and makes the journey to those havens as difficult as possible.
Distance and strength are required to deal with its yardage and the density of that aforementioned rough. You also need the finesse to carve shots with the right trajectory and spin to hold the right slivers of its treacherous greens. And whether your ball lands off the fairway or on the green on any given shot, you need the brains to figure out just exactly how to best play your next shot.
“You go to a place like this, [the USGA] don’t need to set it up any differently or trick it up or do anything for it to challenge both the physical and mental part of our game,” Justin Thomas said. “Oakmont is challenging in both of those aspects. If you just get lazy, like on any drive, any wedge shot, any chip, any putt, you can kind of look stupid pretty fast.”
Patience in the face of awkward lies in the rough or bad breaks is paramount. Discipline in the face of tantalizing pin locations even from the middle of the fairway is a must. A mistake must be both corrected and forgotten as quickly as possible. Compounding them will spell end your round or even your tournament.
“You know you’re going to get penalized even on good shots, and that’s just part of this golf course,” Collin Morikawa said. “I don’t think people understand how thick the rough is. This is just thick. Clubs will turn over.”
Yes, Oakmont is punishing — its bunkers are not just well-placed but penal. Yes, Oakmont can feel, as McIlroy said of his 81 during a recent practice round with tough pin positions, “impossible” but then how do you explain what players like Dustin Johnson, Ángel Cabrera, Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus have done?
This is a course that doesn’t just favor greatness; it demands it.
“I think everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now,” defending champion DeChambeau said. “It’s not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here. You can’t just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green. I think this golf course you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough is so long.”
For some, the greens, whether because of speed or slope, might be considered too much. Michael Kim posted his thoughts on the course Tuesday and referred to Oakmont’s eclectic greens as “Mickey Mouse” while also saying that in order to be able to test the best players in the world these days, “you need a lot of what Oakmont has.”
“I understand this place is hard,” Thomas, who finished 8-over and in a tie for 32nd in 2016, said. “I don’t need to read articles, or I don’t need to hear horror stories. I’ve played it. I know it’s difficult.”
CONTEXT MATTERS PLENTY when it comes to the question of whether this course is too difficult or even unfair under U.S. Open conditions. As regular PGA Tour stops and even some major championships continue to trend toward lower winning scores, with better equipment and setups that favor a homogenous style of golf that champions distance above all, Oakmont’s return to the sport’s consciousness feels like a breath of fresh air. Even players who know what’s in store the next four days are aware of that.
“We’re all playing the same course, and it’s going to be hard. You may think something’s unfair, but it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day,” Xander Schauffele said. “Whoever can sort of deal with it the best is going to play well. That’s the attitude I’ve had, look at it as a fun challenge versus feeling like you’re living in a nightmare.”
All week, players have been featured in videos where they show just how hard it is to get balls out of the rough, or just how difficult it is to hold greens or make putts if you’re above the hole. All of it has inevitably built a narrative that even the best players in the world may look foolish over the course of 72 holes this week.
“All we’re trying to do is build the theater,” Hall said. “We’re trying to make sure that it’s a complete effort. When you put your hands on that trophy Sunday night, you’ve played complete golf from tee to green for 72 holes.”
If there is some frustration among players with the course simmering already, perhaps the first two rounds will bring it to the surface as the course gets drier, firmer and harder. Most, however, seem prepared to embrace it. Some even see any dissent from their peers as a potential advantage.
“Being perfectly honest and very selfish, I hope it psyches a lot of players out,” Thomas said. “It’s a part of the preparation, like trying to go hit wedges or trying to get the speed of the greens or anything. It’s getting a game plan for how you’re going to approach the course mentally and strategically.”
Oakmont can get away with more carnage than most courses because of its reputation. (Hanse said that working on Oakmont, where difficulty is part of the course’s original design, was freeing). It’s why when practice rounds featured groups of groundskeepers using leaf-blowers to prop up the thick rough so it fluffs up and becomes more difficult, it can be framed as both the golf course and the USGA leaning into the personality of the venue, not just making it hard for the sake of it.
“It’s a very fine line between what’s challenging, what’s good architecture, what’s too much. And I think here you’ve got a situation where it’s never too much,” Hanse said. “I mean, it’s almost like their mantra was, ‘Okay, let’s just keep pushing it to a certain limit.'”
Wherever the limit lies remains to be seen, as does how close the USGA wants to get to it. Weather will also be a factor as rain is forecasted for the weekend — Hanse said that if the rain subsides, he believes the winning score will be over par. And while some players may still find themselves frustrated, even scoffing at the challenge at hand, some are self-aware enough to know that havoc also breeds entertainment, even if it’s at their own expense.
“I don’t think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green, you know what I mean?” Schauffele said. “I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shoot 8-over and suffer. That’s part of the enjoyment of the U.S. Open for viewers.”
Nine years since its last moment in the sun, all eyes are back on Oakmont.
