2023 U.S. Open

[Don Wassall]

It starts tomorrow and is being held for the first time at the Los Angeles Country Club. It's an interesting course, has five par-threes, which is the first time that's occurred in an Open since 1947, and they range from 73 yards to 300 yards believe it or not (they may or may not be that short or long depending on how they're set up each round). There's also some short par fours and very long par fours. The fairways are wide, but stray shots can be very punitive as there's some desert like scrub around some holes.

Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka are the undisputed Big Three these days, with Rory McIlroy the fourth if he can ever harness his talent again. There's a pretty good chance one of those three will emerge as the champion.

I watched "Live From the U.S. Open" tonight on the Golf Channel, and as always radical leftist Rich Lerner was doing his thing. He's been a full-time glorifier of Tiger Woods since the 1990s and will always slip his name into any conversation no matter how tangential the topic is, so predictable, such a loser. If a remake of "Coneheads" is ever made he could star in it and not need any make-up. His periodic little snippets about LA being the venue for the tournament always are dominated by black basketball players, Jackie Robinson, and other blacks with a sprinkling of Whites. And his contempt for Phil Mickelson was on full display, as he referred to him as "rakish," "controversial," "leaving a trail of destruction in his wake," etc. As with so many of our would-be overlords, Lerner has zero empathy for Whites and barely trys to pretend otherwise. Phil turns 53 on Friday yet Rabbi Lerner, as predictable as sunrise and sunset, is still talking about Phil completing the "career grand slam" at that age. Woods is 47 and can barely walk yet Lerner is still beating that dead horse about Phil. Lerner should have been fired years ago but will most likely still be the Golf Channel's propaganda minister for a long time to come.

Woods is nowhere to be seen and is finished, so I look forward with great anticipation to what to me is the second greatest golf tournament in the world after The Masters.

 

[NikoDuke]

Interesting. I thought I was alone in noticing how negatively Lerner speaks regarding Mickelson. I had no knowledge of his politics but, it doesn't surprise me that he is another one of the "socialism for thee but not for me" talking heads.

Unrelated, it is very good to see the healthy mix of LIV and PGA players high on the leaderboard. Personally, my preference would be for one of Mickelson, C. Smith, Hovland, Connors, Rory or Bryson win it.

 

[Don Wassall]

The first round scores were very low for an Open as the competitors took advantage of the wide fairways and mostly missed the punitive rough. Today's second round resulted in higher scores as the course began to bake in the sun and became tougher but not yet real tough.

Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele both shot Open record 62s in the first round, though given that it's a par 70 course it's not quite as impressive as it seems as 63 for a long time was the best ever score for a round in the majors, which are typically par 72s. Both shot closer to even par today. After two rounds it's:

Fowler -10
Wyndham Clark -9
Rory McIlroy -8
Schauffele -8
Hal English -7
Dustin Johnson -6

Fowler and Schauffele are considered the two best players never to have won a major, but neither has received a fraction of the harassment and badgering Phil Mickelson was put through by the media jackals at every major before he memorably won The Masters in 2004. Even though he's won four majors, McIlroy is similarly treated now at every major. But both Fowler and Schauffele are Eurasian, which is enough to shield them from the same type of "scrutiny" Whites are put through. In fact, Fowler is beloved by the media because of his "exotic" look. Should he win, Rich Lerner will undoubtedly be doing cartwheels of joy on air in his role of propaganda minister.

I'll be pulling for Rory to end his long drought in the majors.

 

[icsept]

I’d like to see DJ or Rory win this tournament. It’s been very entertaining, so
far. Fowler and Schauffele can fade away.

 

[Don Wassall]

Should be a compelling final round tomorrow. It's been 24 years since the winner was more than four shots behind going into Sunday, so the winner should be one of these men:

Rickie Fowler -10
Wyndham Clark -10
Rory McIlroy -9
Scottie Scheffler -7

McIlroy and Scheffler are third and first respectively in the world rankings. Great things were expected from Fowler but his career has been a big disappointment to this point. Clark won his first tournament last month and is the unknown on the leaderboard.

Harris English is at -6 and Dustin Johnson and Xander Schauffele are at -5, longshots but not out of it. For "some reason" NBC showed virtually all of Schauffele's shots in his overall poor round today while mostly ignoring world number one Scheffler. And as I predicted, Rabbi Lerner was spouting nonsense after the round about "the whole world" rooting for Fowler to win tomorrow.

This is another great opportunity for Rory to get that nine year drought in the majors over with and behind him, which will likely propel him to win several more as he's remained one of the very best golfers even after he stopped winning majors.

 

[NikoDuke]

I have no animus towards Fowler himself, as I really don't know much about him on a personal level however, I would much prefer Rory, Wyndham, Scottie or a longshot like Cam Smith to win.

Rory dumbfounds me though as he just can't seem to capitalize on being in the center of the fairway over and over again. He came away with way too many pars in yesterday's round.

 

[Don Wassall]

Wyndham Clark is the unexpected yet deserving winner of the Open, holding off Rory McIlroy by one stroke. It was really tight all round, but Clark played tough and gritty while one by one the other contenders fell back by enough strokes that the second nine was essentially Clark vs. McIlroy.

McIlroy played very well and would have won if Clark had succumbed to the intense pressure but he made some great up and downs and par saves, and like Rory drove the daylights out of the ball. If Rory had sunk a few of the many medium to long putts he had he would have prevailed. Considering it was the first time Clark had come remotely close to contending in a major it was very impressive. Now hopefully he has some staying power and won't be a fluke winner. Given how well he played under intense pressure I think he'll at the least now be a prominent player on the tour as his first tour victory came just a few weeks ago and gave him the confidence he showed at the Open.

Clark is athletic looking, has a wide receiver's build. He went to the same high school as Christian McCaffrey and they are good friends so maybe a star was born today.

​

 

[SneakyQuick]

Wyndham Clark is the unexpected yet deserving winner of the Open, holding off Rory McIlroy by one stroke. It was really tight all round, but Clark played tough and gritty while one by one the other contenders fell back by enough strokes that the second nine was essentially Clark vs. McIlroy.

McIlroy played very well and would have won if Clark had succumbed to the intense pressure but he made some great up and downs and par saves, and like Rory drove the daylights out of the ball. If Rory had sunk a few of the many medium to long putts he had he would have prevailed. Considering it was the first time Clark had come remotely close to contending in a major it was very impressive. Now hopefully he has some staying power and won't be a fluke winner. Given how well he played under intense pressure I think he'll at the least now be a prominent player on the tour as his first tour victory came just a few weeks ago and gave him the confidence he showed at the Open.

Clark is athletic looking, has a wide receiver's build. He went to the same high school as Christian McCaffrey and they are good friends so maybe a star was born today.

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No doubt. That was an impressive back nine to watch. I kept expecting Clark to fade but he hung in there like a champ.

As for the rest of it I’d guess he is plenty athletic to play wideout or even other positions but golf is just so much easier to play for years.

Probably is yet another example of whites excelling in one sport which requires crazy coordination (golf) over choosing a less certain path (football).

 

[NikoDuke]

This US Open brought mixed emotions from me. I respect Clarks mental fortitude down the stretch and congratulate him on his win but, watching Rory was beyond frustrating.

As I stated earlier he doesn't seem to be able capitalize on his amazingly long and consistent driving/ball striking. His wedge and putting are sub standard and leave me thinking What IF?. I fear he won't maximize his potential unless that changes.

 

[Don Wassall]

I thought Rory's putting was excellent as far as making the crucial four to eight footers he needed, same with Clark. McIlroy just couldn't make anything longer than that, but the greens were very fast and sloped, not to mention very difficult to get close to the pin with iron shots. Hell, the final three holes averaged over 500 yards in length and all three were par fours. It was a very tough course that didn't appear that way only because the opening round scores were so low. Fowler and Schauffele both were eight under on Thursday, over par the rest of the way yet both remained at or near the top of the leaderboard.

There were almost no long putts made in the final round. Scheffler made one but missed a lot of the critical shortish ones that McIlroy and Clark were sinking. The only reason Rory didn't win is because Clark made some tremendous up and down saves out of what looked like sure bogeys rather than wilting like just about everyone expected would happen on the back nine.

 

[NikoDuke]

If Scheffler was putting better he would've won even more tourneys this year. His challenges with the flat stick are holding him back.

Rory didn't putt poorly just didn't make any noteworthy ones. History has shown that to win a major you need to make some putts outside of 10 feet. That and his substandard wedge play.

 

[booth]

The fans watching on tv were crying saying Clark's ball improved his lie on a pitch shot. I watch the replay at least 50 times I couldn't see the ball move. Also, fans were saying Roy took an illegal drop from a sandtrap. I don't the rules well enough to know. I think it is because fans want their favorite player to win and see what they want to see.
Next year U.S. Open will be played at Pinehurst no.2 in Moore County, N.C. I hope everyone can get down for one round. Tickets are incredibly hard to get if you wait too long.