Three beers is apparently the perfect amount for this golfer.
Nick Bienz, a Golf Galaxy employee, survived a playoff qualifier to play in this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic after downing a few cold ones.
Bienz, 27, shot 7-under 65 thanks to a 12-foot birdie on the 18th hole at The Orchards Golf Club in Michigan, tying four other golfers looking to make it into the PGA Tour event.
A perhaps slightly wobbly Bienz survived the eight-hole playoff, qualifying for his first-ever PGA Tour-sanctioned event with a little buzz on.
“I have to call my boss and call off work tomorrow for sure,” Bienz said after the round, per Golfweek. “I’m supposed to be there at 7:30 in the morning (Tuesday) and I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Bienz will be one of 156 golfers at Detroit Golf Club on Thursday and playing for a purse of $9.2 million.
He’ll tee off at 2:22 p.m. ET in the last grouping of the day alongside Rafael Campos and Anders Albertson.
“This is by far the craziest day of my life,” Bienz wrote on X. “Thank you so much to everyone. Let’s have a freaking week!”
Bienz appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday ahead of his big weekend in Detroit.
“Everybody needs a little swing oil,” Bienz said. “It’s just about finding the right balance. For me, it just happened to be three.”
[NewYorkPost.com]
Neal Shipley is in rare company.
The 23-year-old former Ohio State golfer won low amateur honors in the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. One of three amateurs to make the cut, Shipley was paired with fellow amateur Luke Clanton in the final round, and Shipley topped Clanton by two shots Sunday to finish at 6 over for the week.
Shipley is just the ninth player in history to win low amateur honors at the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. He’s the first to do so since Viktor Hovland in 2019.
But he’s not the only former Ohio State golfer to accomplish the feat. The other guy is pretty well known. His name is Jack Nicklaus.
“It’s been wild,” Shipley said. “It’s been something that maybe three, four years ago I didn’t think was possible, and to accomplish all this has just been phenomenal. Just the stuff of dreams really as an amateur to do everything I’ve done. I think I’ve checked all the boxes now.”
Shipley shot 2-over 72 in the final round while famously using Arby’s curly fries clubhead covers. He got into the field thanks to his runner-up finish in the 2023 U.S. Amateur at Cherry Hills outside of Denver.
He shot 70-73-71-72 in his first U.S. Open start, and he has indicated he’ll likely make his pro debut in Canada this week at a PGA Tour Americas event. The Beachlands Victoria Open has a purse of $225,000.
Here’s a look at the nine golfers who have finished as low amateur at the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year.
Billy Joe Patton
Patton was the first to do so in 1954.
Harvie Ward
Ward became the second to do it in 1955, a year later.
Ken Venturi
Venturi was the third to accomplish the feat in 1956, three straight years of it happening.
Jack Nicklaus
Nicklaus’ greatness was predicted early, as he was the fourth to accomplish the feat in 1960.
Sam Randolph
Randolph accomplished the feat in 1986.
Phil Mickelson
Mickelson is no surprise. He won a Tour event the same year, 1991, in which he swept low amateur honors.
Matt Kuchar
Another player who has had a successful career, Kuchar became the seventh to do it in 1998.
Viktor Hovland
Twenty-one years later, Hovland became the eighth. And it again predicted success to come for the 2023 FedEx Cup champion.
Neal Shipley
Shipley joined the exclusive club in 2024.
[Source: columbusdispatch.com]
We’re less than 24 hours away from the start of the 2024 U.S. Open. At the risk of falling victim to recency bias, I am struggling to recall a recent major championship with such a divergence of opinions on how the golf course will test players. Picking a winning score is a fool’s errand without seeing pin locations and the firmness level before tomorrow, but there’s a wide range of opinions on that subject alone.
Below are some notes from walking the grounds Tuesday and overarching thoughts about how the golf course will play:
– You’re going to hear a lot of “It’s better to be 15 feet off the fairway than a foot off the fairway.” I’ve heard it from multiple caddies and players. It’s a reference to the wire-grass, which is often thicker just a step off the fairway than it is when you’re farther offline. For as much as you’ll hear this talking point, I think it’s a little bit overblown, or at least the inferences being drawn from it are.
Some people are talking as if you can just spray it all over and get away with it, and I don’t think that’s going to hold true. Sure, the wiregrass is thick a step off the fairway on many parts of the golf course, as seen here on No. 1, but it isn’t like that on every single hole.
But moreover, a wide miss will often mean tree trouble. Controlling the golf ball into Pinehurst No. 2’s greens is difficult enough from the fairway; I wouldn’t want to contend with trees, even if the lie is clean. While I don’t expect this U.S. Open to be a hardcore accuracy test, it should be far from a bomb-and-gouge fest.
– People are of two minds with respect to the importance of short game at Pinehurst No. 2. Some will argue that because putting around the greens is a viable option this week, as we saw Martin Kaymer do in 2014, short game isn’t that important. Others will cite the difficulty of hitting greens and the treachery of the green surrounds as reasons for why short game will actually be of the utmost importance.
I think there’s truth in both. Putting from around the greens is a strong option for players, but hitting good putts from off the green is a skill. If your short game isn’t up to snuff, you better be damn good at controlling your speeds with a putter. Otherwise, you’re going to have some serious problems.
– However many times you hear a comment like “It’s all about hitting greens” or “The guy who hits the most greens this week is probably going to win” is however many times you hear it too many. There might not be a less insightful comment in golf. Personally, I think the player who takes the fewest swings and fewest putts is going to win the tournament, but we’ll see.
– One of the best elements of Pinehurst No. 2 is the diversity of off-the-tee looks and decisions. Fairways are generous but often pinch in at driver length, and many of the fairways move on subtle diagonals. Angles into the greens matter, and they matter more at Pinehurst No. 2 than at the vast majority of professional golf venues, but you should not hunt them when choosing off-the-tee targets. On this golf course, hitting irons with ample green to work with certainly beats the alternative. But by changing your off-the-tee target and thus increasing the chance of missing the fairway, you’ll quickly erase any advantage you’d gain by having a better angle.
On the second hole, for example, I’d much rather have a shot from the left side of the fairway than from the right side, especially to a back-right pin. But if you try to take it down the left and end up in a fairway bunker down the left side, you’re in trouble. There will likely be a lot of talk about angles on the broadcast. They do matter, but hunting them is not wise.
– The par 3s at Pinehurst No. 2 are absolutely brutal. All of them have miniscule target areas on which players can both land the ball on the green and keep it there, especially the longer and firmer the course plays. I’m already sick of the term “carnage” and its overuse, but if you want to see big numbers and frustrated golfers, camp out on any of the par 3s, especially the 15th hole. Some “good” shots aren’t going to be rewarded, that is for sure.
[source: thefriedegg.com]
The list of future venues for the U.S. Women’s Open is stacked, but there is currently a glaring omission.
All week at the U.S. Women’s Open, signs lining the 1st fairway displayed the winners and previous venues of championships in the past decade-plus. As you walked around the chipping green and in through the main fan entrance off the 10th fairway, those pathways were lined with displays of the U.S. Women’s Open’s future venues.
It’s clear there’s been a massive shift.
Over the past 20 years, the U.S. Women’s Open has visited just four courses (Pebble Beach, Pinehurst No. 2, Oakmont and Olympic) that are stables of the present-day rota for the men’s U.S. Open. The winds have already started to change with Pebble hosting the best women in the world for the first time last year. Through the next 12 years, the venues lack not for prestige.
But missing from the schedule is last week’s host, Lancaster Country Club.
After a thrilling finish and setting attendance records at the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open, the first USGA championship held at the 1920 William Flynn design set in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, the track delivered again last week, producing the hardest U.S. Open test in a decade and a worthy champion in now-two-time U.S. Women’s Open winner Yuka Saso.
Last week’s event was the most attended U.S. Women’s Open since 2015, beating tournament officials’ expectations and scoring a 4.83 out of 5 for fan satisfaction, the highest since the USGA began tracking data, according to a USGA spokesperson.
The spokesperson also said the tournament tied for its best hospitality sales of any U.S. Women’s Open and was the best year ever for U.S. Women’s Open merchandise sales.
“When people talk about Lancaster, they say, man, that’s a hidden gem,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan at the trophy presentation. “Well, you ain’t hidden anymore. You are a gem.”
It is clear, not only can Lancaster’s course test the best players in the game, but that the community provides the thrilling atmosphere needed to sustain elite championship golf.
So while Lancaster’s next potential opportunity to host the most prestigious event in the women’s game can’t come until at least 2037, the club can and should be part of the championship rotation for years to come afterward. Earlier in the week, Whan said discussions for future events were ongoing and it was a “safe bet” there will be future USGA events at Lancaster.
After the success of the 2015 Women’s Open, the club wasn’t awarded this year’s event until 2018. However, the USGA has been building out its U.S. Open schedules for both men and women well in advance, with the latest currently scheduled for 2048.
But the club has grander plans than just more U.S. Women’s Opens, and I don’t mean hosting men’s U.S. Opens or men’s U.S. Amateurs.
“We have made a very deliberate decision to hold ourselves out as a home for the women’s game at the championship level,” Lancaster Country Club board member and Greens Chair Rory Connaughton told GOLF in an interview Tuesday. “Whether that’s amateurs or professionals, juniors or seniors or mid-amateurs, we see ourselves as a unique place in the game in that regard.”
At just a skosh under 6,950 yards from the tips, Lancaster isn’t long enough to host today’s longest hitters in the men’s U.S. Opens, or U.S. Amateurs, or even U.S. Juniors. It plays longer than the card, owing to its par 70 and many uphill approach shots, but even the Women’s Open had many par-4 tee boxes tipped out last week.
Connaughton, who has been a member of the club for nearly three decades, said there was an opportunity years ago for LCC to build heritage like its fellow Pennsylvania clubs Oakmont and Merion, which have hosted the most and sixth-most men’s U.S. Opens, respectively, but it was passed on.
Now that the pool of courses that can host those men’s events has shrunk, it likely will never have that chance again.
“We’re not ever going to compete with the men’s championships hosted by Oakmont or hosted by Merion in Pennsylvania or, or by any of the other great clubs that are on the shortlist,” he said. And that’s OK with him and the club.
Lancaster’s location also presents a unique opportunity. While the city itself was just shy of 60,000 residents as of 2018, the metropolitan area is more than a half million people. The adjacent metro of Harrisburg-Carlisle has nearly 600,000 residents. Within an hour-and-a-half’s drive, you have the majority of the 7.366 million in the Philadelphia metro area. Double that drive, New York City, Baltimore and Washington D.C. are all within a reasonable day trip.
Then there’s Lancaster itself, which has no major professional sports team, or even minor league baseball. But the area has become devoted to women’s sports, Connaughton says. High school field hockey and girl’s lacrosse games draw thousands of fans and Lancaster County has been home to top national high school teams in field hockey.
When the Women’s Open comes to Lancaster, it’s the “only game in town,” which Connaughton thinks is a big reason for the attendance records and why the community supports the event so well.
He lauded the list of clubs tied to the U.S. Women’s Open for the next 12 years, past men’s U.S. Open venues hosting the women’s equivalent for the first time such as Merion, Riviera, Oakland Hills, Los Angeles Country Club, Chicago Golf Club, Shinnecock and the Country Club later in 2045.
“They don’t need to prove anything to anybody,” Connaughton said. “And by opening themselves up to the women’s game, they’re elevating the women’s game in one respect. And I think they’re elevating themselves in another.”
