The Friday Cut: LACC, Xander, Rickie, Sergio and Taylor

Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele smile as they greet each other after they both carded 62s in the first round of the 123rd U.S. Open Championship at The Los Angeles Country Club on June 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Keyur Khamar/PGA TOUR via Getty Images).

Welcome to ‘The Friday Cut’, your weekly round-up of the top stories across the professional tours. 

As we leave one huge week of golf behind, we arrive at another with the third major of the season - The US Open at LA Country Club. After a week of winning on home soil, birdie-fests, and a rugby tackle on the 18th green, these are the headlines that have made the cut.

LACC offers little resistance to low scoring opening day - and I’m not happy about it!

Before the start of this year’s US Open it appeared players were in for a tough test at LA Country Club, with various practice round videos circulating Twitter suggesting this would be a real slobberknocker. In a nostalgic nod to Justin Thomas’ putt at Erin Hills in 2017, Rory McIlroy could be seen putting the ball practically off the green, before allowing it to stick the reverse lights on and shimmy it’s way down to the hole. A devilishly difficult test awaited the players - and I could not wait (insert evil laugh here).

But, that early premonition couldn’t have been further from the truth. In the morning wave, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele set new US Open scoring records by posting a pair of 62s, before the PM wave followed up and helped themselves to yet more birdies. 

While I’m pleased to see Rory McIlroy start his US Open with a solid opening round, I must say that yesterday left me feeling underwhelmed and slightly agitated. The US Open is supposed to be hard. LA Country Club’s meek efforts at setting up a true test have brought the possibility of a very low scoring competition, and that just isn’t what major championship golf is about in my opinion.

Players have their say on ‘PGA-LIV Merger’ at US Open

Last week was… interesting. I started the week feeling somewhere between shocked and confused, after the announcement of a new partnership between long-standing rivals the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. I now feel more intrigued about what the future holds for golf, and how long it will be before we see the best players in the world back on the same course week-in-week-out. 

But you didn’t come to this section to hear about how I feel, especially as the much more qualified World Number Two has given his thoughts in the build up to this week’s US Open. Jon Rahm said “I think the general feeling is that a lot of people feel a bit of betrayal from management”. He added, “There's a lot of not-answered questions. It's tough when it's the week before a major. Trying not to think about it as much as possible.”

The outlook of another Spaniard, LIV Golf’s Sergio Garcia, was less bleak when commenting on the news. Garcia said, “I think, at the end of the day, it’s where we should have been from the beginning”. When pressed on re-joining the PGA Tour or DP World Tour, the European Ryder Cup legend said “if there is no LIV Golf of course I’ll have to go somewhere. We’ll see.” 

The reigning Open Champion Cameron Smith also weighed in on proceedings, admitting he thought it was ‘a joke’. We are with you Cam, I am still not fully convinced this isn’t some big prank. 

Taylor takes the title in Canada

After a few years of disruption for the Canadian Open, I was so pleased to see it offer up a real gem of a tournament. This had everything. A dramatic play-off involving two very likeable characters, a Canadian winner, a monster eagle putt and even an incident with an overzealous security guard.

Before we go any further, if you have somehow missed the moment where a security guard slammed PGA Tour player Adam Hadwin to the ground, on the 18th green, after he ran on to celebrate with compatriot Nick Taylor - stop what you are doing immediately and get yourself to YouTube.

As someone who was obviously routing for Tommy Fleetwood, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to see him come up just short again on the PGA Tour. I was however very pleased to see Nick Taylor win his national open, becoming the first Canadian to do so in 69 years, and I suppose the 70ft eagle putt on the fourth play-off hole just adds to the poetry of the occasion. 

But honestly, check out the Adam Hadwin thing. You won’t regret it.

DP World Tour and LPGA Winners

With everything going on in the world of golf last week, it would have been easy to overlook two great events on the DP World and LPGA Tour. You can be forgiven for taking your eye off the ball (pardon the pun), so I have broken down the main talking points from each event to get you right back up to speed.

After seeing Linn Grant storm to victory in this event last season, The Scandinavian Mixed did not disappoint once more with Englishman Dale Whitnell storming the field for his first DP World Tour victory. The World Number 308 raced to the lead in the second round, shooting a 61 to gain a six shot lead heading into the weekend. Despite valiant efforts from Sean Crocker and Anne Van Dam, Whitnell could not be reeled in and he finally secured his victory after 106 appearances.

The ShopRite Classic also lived up to the billing, following a momentous week for the LPGA where debutant Rose Zhang won her first professional title. This week’s event was taken by South African Ashleigh Buhai, who carded a final round 65 to win her fourth victory in the last ten months. 

Coming up this weekend…

A slightly different schedule this week with the US Open taking the spotlight in the men’s game. The LPGA Tour heads to Blythefield Country Club for the Meijer LPGA Classic, where some of the best in the game, including Minjee Lee and Brooke Henderson, are looking to set the pace early. If you want my prediction for the US Open, it’s time for Rory McIlroy to restore balance to the recent chaos and get back in the major winning circle!

Baz is a content creator and writer, who specialises in all things golf. He is best known for his weekly coverage of all major professional tours while also sharing his musings on golf travel. He writes ‘The Friday Cut’, every Friday.

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