US Open: Players happy to get swinging amid tumultuous time for pro game

The white noise has infiltrated everything and everywhere in the men’s professional game. How could it not? The seismic shift in the very foundations since the Saudi PIF money first manifested has been such that friends have fallen out, conniving and whispering has been a part of locker room talk rather than traditional banter, and players – certainly those on the PGA Tour – have been left in the dark.

That fallout has been evident in the run-up to the 123rd US Open at historic Los Angeles Country Club, where Rory McIlroy decided that it would be wiser to keep his counsel rather than acting as a mouthpiece for the PGA Tour. Look where that got him!

As Shane Lowry put it to RTÉ radio’s Greg Allen, “the only thing you can do is worry about yourself and try to play good golf and everything else will take care of itself.”

Such words of wisdom would unquestionably provide some armour to those 156 players involved in this latest edition of the US Open on terrain playing host to a Major for the first time despite the course’s revered history. It’s a layout with the potential to play mind games with players and where strategy will likely to be a key component for those seeking to succeed Matt Fitzpatrick as champion.

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Indeed, the Majors have become perhaps even more important in the grand scheme of things in getting the very best fields where all the different tours merge without any requirement for commercial partnerships.

“Look at everything that’s gone on over the last year,” said Lowry, adding: “I think all the talk about what’s going to happen when LIV players rock up to a Major and playing against PGA Tour players? We’ve seen all along it is just another golf tournament and another Major and we are just all here to try and do our best.”

In this case, it is the USGA who govern the US Open and their only desire is that the examination should reward the best player. Just as the Masters rewarded Jon Rahm. Just as the US PGA rewarded Brooks Koepka.

For this third of four Majors of the season for the men, Rahm and Koepka will again be among the favourites. So too Scottie Sheffler, the world number one. So too, hopefully, any one of the quintet of Irish players in the field.

And there are many subplots. After all, it has seemed like a constantly spinning wheel that Phil Mickelson should reach the US Open each year with the aim of finally getting the one piece of the Grand Slam jigsaw that has been missing. Age, increasingly, is not on his side. With Mickelson though, nothing can ever be ruled out, as he showed in his US PGA win of 2021 when he had already moved the wrong side of 50 years of age.

The course is one that will ask questions, will frustrate and reward in equal measures. “It is very different, not what you expect,” said Séamus Power, adding: “It is tough to gauge exactly how it is going to play. I think it is up to the USGA depending on what they do with greens and pins because that’s going to be the biggest defence.

“It is interesting, a lot of unusual shots, a lot of blind shots, unusual green complexes with multiple grasses and all that sort of stuff. It is a very different course than I have ever played before. There’s a lot of different shots, a lot of different options.”

The degree of difficulty will, as Power surmised, depend on exactly how the USGA set it up and how they allow Mother Nature take its course in the coming days.

Yet, for Max Homa, a son of LA, there was more mischief than romance in his thinking. “I hope it’s carnage. I hope it’s a typical US Open. This golf course lends itself to that. It’s generous enough off the tee, and it’s kind of a second shot golf course in a way ... the greens are severe and if they keep getting firmer and faster I think it will be a really good test. I think it will be very fair. This venue is awesome for a US Open.”

The ructions in the golfing world of the past couple of years and the shock waves of the past week can be put to one side once the golf clubs get to do the real talking. Scheffler, who has been toying with using a bigger headed putter, heads in as the favourite.

And, of all the Majors, the US Open is the one that leans towards world ranking as a good barometer: six of the last 10 winners were inside the top-10 of the official world golf rankings in the week leading up to their victories. All were inside the top-30. The USGA examination is one that rewards the very best.

Lowdown

Where: Los Angeles, California, USA

Purse: €16,250,000 (€3 million to the winner)

The course: Los Angeles Country Club – 7,421 yards, par 70 – is a wonderful throwback to old-style course design. The North Course first opened in 1921 (originally designed by Herbert Fowler) while George C Thomas Jnr undertook the remodelling for the 1928 version that substantially is in play for this first Major to be staged at the venue. Gil Hanse – along with his design partner Jim Wagner and golf historian and writer Geoff Shackelford – came on board in 2006 for a renovation project while retaining Thomas’s design philosophy.

There is a wonderful contrast in holes – emphasised by the drivable par-four sixth (330 yards) and the par-three seventh (284 yards) – while players can expect long, slow rounds due to the nature of a course that has five par threes and three par fives. The course is set up to be wider than most US Open venues with fairways up to 60 yards wide, although the cambering nature of them will prove difficult for players to avoid running into heavy rough. The sixth hole is a drivable par four of 330 yards that plays 54 feet downhill from the elevated tee to the green which is the smallest and narrowest on the course. It has the potential for huge swings, from eagles to nasty numbers.

The field: As you’d expect, a stellar field as players eye up the opportunity to get their hands on the US Open trophy which was returned by Matt Fitzpatrick earlier in the week. Scottie Scheffler, the world number one, and Collin Morikawa are among the rare few with previous competition history at LACC having led the US team to Walker Cup victory in 2017, while Max Homa shot a 61 in winning the PAC12 university championship on the course in 2013.

Quote-Unquote: “I think the harder holes my be harder and the easier holes may be a little bit easier than a standard US Open” – Patrick Cantlay, who attended the nearby UCLA when in college and who played the North Course on numerous occasions in that time, on the diversity of holes.

Irish in the field: Five of them. Shane Lowry is first off in a very friendly grouping that includes Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas (off the first tee at 3.40pm Irish time); Séamus Power is in a group that also includes Irish amateur international Matthew McClean, the current US Mid-Am champion, and Kiwi Ryan Fox (off the first at 4.35pm); Pádraig Harrington is in a group of all-Major champions with Phil Mickelson and Keegan Bradley (off the 10th at 8.59pm), while Rory McIlroy is in a group with Brooks Koepka and Hideki Matsuyama (off the first at 9.54pm).

Betting: Scottie Scheffler is the market favourite at 11-2 with Jon Rahm at 9-1 and Majors specialist Brooks Koepka rated 10-1 with Rory McIlroy at 14-1 and all really should be in the mix come Sunday’s finale. In terms of value bets, the each-way market is more tempting with places up to the top-10 widely available and Shane Lowry’s 40-1 odds look decent while Denny McCarthy’s improved form allied with his putting stats make his 100-1 each-way a value bet.

On TV: Live on Sky Sports from 3pm.