Last month, Scottie Scheffler made mention of a trend in golf design that rubs him wrong — removing trees from courses.

This week, the world’s best player and favorite to win the U.S. Open will play a course that did just that, but didn’t become one bit easier the way some layouts do when the trees go away. Under the dark of night three decades ago, the people in charge of Oakmont Country Club started cutting down trees. They didn’t stop until some 15,000 had been removed.

The project reimagined one of America’s foremost golf cathedrals and started a trend of tree cutting that continues to this day.

While playing a round on YouTube with influencer Grant Horvat, Scheffler argued that modern pro golf — at least at most stops on the PGA Tour — has devolved into a monotonous cycle of “bomb and gouge”: Hit drive as far as possible, then gouge the ball out of the rough from a shorter distance if the tee shot is off line.

“They take out all the trees and they make the greens bigger and they typically make the fairways a little bigger, as well,” Scheffler said. “And so, the only barrier to guys just trying to hit it as far as they want to or need to, it’s trees.”

With or without trees, Oakmont has stood the test of time

Scheffler and the rest in the 156-man field that tees off Thursday should be so lucky.

While the latest Oakmont renovation, in 2023, did make greens bigger, fairways are never wide at the U.S. Open and they won’t be this week.

U.S. Open: When it starts, how to watch, what’s at stake, betting odds for golf’s next major

Tree-lined or not, Oakmont has a reputation as possibly the toughest of all the U.S. Open (or any American) courses, which helps explain why it is embarking on its record 10th time hosting it. In the two Opens held there since the tree-removal project was completed, the deep bunkers, serpentine drainage ditches and lightning-fast greens have produced winning scores of 5-over par (Angel Cabrera in 2007) and 4 under (Dustin Johnson in 2016).

In an ironic twist that eventually led to where we (and Oakmont) are today, the layout was completely lined with trees in 1973 when Johnny Miller shot 63 on Sunday to win the U.S. Open. That record stood for 50 years, and the USGA followed up with a course setup so tough in 1974 that it became known as “The Massacre at Winged Foot” -- won by Hale Irwin with a score of 7-over par.

“Everybody was telling me it was my fault,” Miller said in a look back at the ’74 Open with Golf Digest. “It was like a backhanded compliment. The USGA denied it, but years later, it started leaking out that it was in response to what I did at Oakmont. Oakmont was supposed to be the hardest course in America.”

It might still be.

In a precursor to what could come this week, Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott played practice rounds last Monday in which McIlroy said he made a 7 on the par-4 second and Scott said he hit every fairway on the front nine and still shot 3 over.

Nicklaus: Trees should only come down ‘for a reason’

While Oakmont leaned into tree removal, there are others who aren’t as enthused.

Jack Nicklaus, who added trees to the 13th hole at Muirfield Village after seeing players fly a fairway bunker on the left for a clear look at the green, said he’s OK with tree removal “if they take them down for a reason.”

“Why take a beautiful, gorgeous tree down?” he said. “Like Oakmont, for example. What’s the name of it? Oak. Mont. What’s that mean? Oaks on a mountain, sort of. And then they take them all down. I don’t like it.”

A lot of Oakmont’s members weren’t fans, either, which is why this project began under dark of night. The golf course in the 1990s was barely recognizable when set against pictures taken shortly after it opened in 1903.

Architect Henry Fownes had set out to build a links-style course. Dampening the noise and view of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, which bisects the layout, was one reason thousands of trees were planted in the 1960s and ’70s.

“We were finding that those little trees had all grown up and they were now hanging over some bunkers,” R. Banks-Smith, the chairman of Oakmont’s grounds committee when the project began, said in a 2007 interview. “And once you put a tree on either side of a bunker, you lose your bunker. So, you have to make a decision. Do you want bunkers or do you want trees?”

Oakmont went with bunkers – its renowned Church Pew Bunker between the third and fourth fairways might be the most famous in the world – and thus began a tree project that divides people as much today as it did when it started.

“I’m not always the biggest fan of mass tree removal,” Scott said. “I feel a lot of courses that aren’t links courses get framed nicely with trees, not like you’re opening it up to go play way over there.”

Too many trees, though, can pose risks.

Overgrown tree roots and too much shade provide competition for the tender grasses beneath. They hog up oxygen and sunlight and make the turf hard to maintain. They overhang fairways and bunkers and turn some shots envisioned by course architects into something completely different.

They also can be downright dangerous. In 2023 during the second round of the Masters, strong winds toppled three towering pine trees on the 17th hole, luckily missing fans who were there watching the action.

“There are lots of benefits that trees provide, but only in the right place,” said John Fech, the certified arborist at University of Nebraska who consults with the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

When Oakmont decided they didn’t want them at all, many great courses followed. Winged Foot, Medinah, Baltusrol and Merion are among those that have undergone removal programs.

Five years ago, Bryson DeChambeau overpowered Winged Foot, which had removed about 300 trees, simply by hitting the ball as far as he could, then taking his chances from the rough.

It’s the sort of golf Scheffler seems to be growing tired of: “When you host a championship tournament, if there’s no trees, you just hit it wherever you want, because if I miss a fairway by 10 yards, I’m in the thick rough (but) if I miss by 20, I’m in the crowd,” Scheffler told Horvat.

How well that critique applies to Oakmont will be seen this week.

___

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contributed.

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OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open long has been regarded the toughest test in golf, and this year it returns to what is arguably the toughest course in America.

Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh is the talk of the 125th U.S. Open, a course built in 1903 that is more about being feared than being fair. The rough is as thick as ever. The greens are as fast as any. There’s also the famous Church Pew bunkers between the third and fourth holes.

Scottie Scheffler shot 69 in his U.S. Open debut as a Texas teenager. He missed the cut the next day in 2016. Now he’s the favorite as he comes to Oakmont having won three of his last four tournaments, including the PGA Championship.

Here is a look at what you need to know leading up to the U.S. Open:

When is the US Open?

Golf’s second-oldest championship — it dates to 1895 — starts Thursday at 6:45 a.m. Players in groups of three will start on the first and 10th tees, morning and afternoon. The biggest names typically start on No. 10 in the morning or on No. 1 in the afternoon to get peak TV coverage.

The top 60 and ties make the 36-hole cut Friday and advance to the weekend.

U.S. Open ’25: Decades ago under dark of night, Oakmont began removing trees and started a golf trend

How can I watch the US Open?

NBC and its platforms get their first major of the year, and there is wall-to-wall coverage of the U.S. Open.

Thursday starts on USA Network from 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Peacock takes over until 8 p.m. Friday starts on Peacock at 6:30 a.m. until 1 p.m., and then NBC goes until 8 p.m.

Saturday has USA Network from 10 a.m. to noon, and NBC goes from noon until 8 p.m. The final round Sunday starts at 9 a.m. until noon on USA Network, and NBC takes over until the end.

Who are the betting favorites?

The odds keep getting better for Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world. BetMGM Sportsbook has him at +275. Next in line is defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau (+750).

Rory McIlroy was the second favorite on the BetMGM Sportsbook money line last week at +700. He missed the cut at the Canadian Open last week and goes into the U.S. Open at +1200, along with Jon Rahm. They are followed by Xander Schauffele at +2200.

Phil Mickelson needs the U.S. Open to complete the career Grand Slam and this likely is his last appearance. The 54-year-old Mickelson is at +25000.

Who are the players to watch?

Scottie Scheffler is being compared to Tiger Woods based on modern statistics. He is being compared to Jack Nicklaus for the way he plays the game from tee-to-green with minimal mistakes. He has won three of his last four starts going into Oakmont. A victory at the U.S. Open would send Scheffler to the British Open with a shot at the career Grand Slam.

Rory McIlroy is No. 2 and the Masters champion, along with becoming the latest player to complete the Grand Slam. There was thought the Masters title would give him freedom because he had gone 11 years without any major. But he missed the cut in Canada last week and said he found it hard to get motivated when he was practicing.

Xander Schauffele is coming off a year in which he won two majors. He was out with two months because of a rib injury. But he plays this major well. Schauffele has played the U.S. Open eight times and only once has finished outside the top 10.

Not to be overlooked is Bryson DeChambeau as the defending champion. He loves brute tests like Oakmont. And he was in the mix in the final round at the Masters and the PGA Championship. DeChambeau won his two U.S. Opens at Winged Foot (2020) and Pinehurst No. 2 (2024).

What’s at stake?

The U.S. Open trophy doesn’t have a name. The winner also gets the gold medal named after four-time champion Jack Nicklaus. The prize money hasn’t been announced yet, but it was $21.5 million last year, with $4.3 million going to the winner.

The champion also gets a 10-year exemption to the U.S. Open, along with a five-year exemption to the Masters, PGA Championship and British Open.

What happens in case of a playoff?

The U.S. Open has gone the longest of the four majors without a playoff. That was in 2008, when Tiger Woods famously made a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force an 18-hole Monday playoff against Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines. That took 19 holes for Woods to win.

Since then, the U.S. Open has gone to a two-hole aggregate playoff on the Sunday after the conclusion of regulation. That has not been used yet.

What’s the weather forecast?

There’s been a lot of rain in the last week that has softened the course. The weekday rounds should be reasonably dry. But there’s a good chance of thunderstorms on Saturday and lingering rain on Sunday.

What happened last year?

Bryson DeChambeau got up-and-down from 55 yards away in a bunker, making a 4-foot putt for a 1-over 71 and a one-shot victory over Rory McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2. McIlroy had the lead late in the round but bogeyed three of his last four holes. That included missing a 30-inch par putt on the 16th hole and a par putt just inside 4 feet on the last hole. DeChambeau captured his second U.S. Open. McIlroy left without talking to the media.

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Do you have clubs?

It was the summer of 2004, and Hull had just been hired at the private college in Lakewood. But Hull had only two guys on the roster, an incoming freshman and a returner who had never broke 80 in a tournament. Before he could worry about talent, he needed bodies.

“I got some guys I asked in the residence hall who were like, ‘Oh, that’d be fun to play golf!’ Or like, ‘Yeah, I’m pretty good, I can break 100,'” Hull recalled with a laugh. “I would go, ‘That’s not very good, but we’ll work on it.’

“So that first year, I would stand on the first tee box as the guys were teeing off, and my thoughts were like, ‘Lord, just please let them hit it in the air.’ It was rough.”

The Cougars were the worst team in Division II that season. Now, they’re the best. CCU’s Division II crown last spring was the first national title in any sport for the school, and the first national title won by any Colorado collegiate golf team.

And that was just the warm-up.

As the postseason begins Thursday with regionals in Riverside, Calif., CCU is amid arguably the greatest Division II golf season ever. During the regular season, the No. 1-ranked Cougars won all eight Division II tournaments they entered, and also took second in their lone Division I tournament, the Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate in Palm Desert, Calif.

“With what they’ve accomplished within Division II, it’s certainly unprecedented for a Colorado team,” noted golf writer Gary Baines, who has covered golf in the state for 42 years. “They are doing some crazy, dominant things.”

The trend continued at the RMAC Championships from April 20 to 22 in Boulder City, Nev., where the Cougars made another statement with a team-record 54-hole score of 50-under en route to winning by 24 strokes. With that, CCU improved to 111-0 head-to-head against Division II foes this season. Hull’s inner dialogue at the start of tournaments is now the polar opposite of what it was two decades ago.

“This year, my thoughts on that first tee box are, ‘Well, this is going to be fun,‘” Hull said.

After Hull’s humble beginnings at CCU, the program’s turning point came in 2014, when the Cougars won a title in the National Christian College Athletic Association. That was the start of a four-peat at that fall tournament as CCU competed in both the NCCAA and NCAA Division II each year.

“It was those NCCAA title teams that made me realize, ‘Hey, we might actually be able to do this on the D-II stage,'” Hull said. “But we’re on the smaller side of D-II schools, with around 1,500 traditional undergrads. So it still felt like a bit of a longshot, especially considering schools from the southeast have historically dominated the classification.”

Of the last 40 national champions in Division II men’s golf, 37 have been from the southeast. Two were from California. And one came off Alameda Avenue.

This year, the Cougars’ push for a repeat is led by four of the top six golfers in Division II.

No. 1-ranked Adam Duncan is the headliner. He’s won four tournaments this season with a 68.5 scoring average. Last week, the California native was the only Division II men’s golfer selected to represent the United States in the prestigious Arnold Palmer Cup in June.

Alongside Duncan is No. 2 Sungyeop Cho, No. 3 Sangha Park and No. 6 Xavier Bighaus, while Bradley Mulder is ranked at No. 54 and Peyton Jones is also a key contributor. To put the Cougars’ star power in perspective, their fourth-highest ranked player, Bighaus, would likely be the No. 1 player on every other Division II team in the country. Translating that to a higher level, Bighaus would likely be a top-three player for every Division I team in the country.

So the Cougars are confident, but it’s a confidence that was born out of falling flat on their face two years ago at regionals, when they blew an eight-stroke lead on the final day and missed qualifying for the national tournament by one stroke.

“I think you also have to fail in order to have success,” Duncan said. “That’s where letting that lead at super regionals slip away with a couple of holes to go when I was a sophomore came in.

“That was our team really realizing how good we were, but … our young team wasn’t ready for the moment. We weren’t ready for that kind of pressure. And we didn’t have our goals set to win nationals. Those (internal expectations) changed last season.”

A primary reason for CCU’s status as a premier Division II program over the last two seasons is that the school has become a destination for top golfers in the transfer portal, while simultaneously keeping the talent it already has on the roster. Along the program’s rise, Hull also spurned Division I coaching opportunities to stay in Lakewood.

Cho, a sophomore transfer from Odessa College, was the No. 2-ranked player in junior college last year. Park, a graduate transfer from University of Texas Permian Basin, was the No. 1-ranked player in Division II last year. Park won the RMAC title with a single-round course record of 62, while also setting the three-round program record by posting a 17-under.

Beyond the two South Korean stalwarts, Bighaus’ decision to stay at CCU after testing the transfer portal two years ago speaks to the culture Hull cultivated. The Texas native, who won the individual title at the Division I Wyoming Desert Intercollegiate, turned down a handful of Power 4 offers before last season to stay at CCU.

“That was when I really realized how good I had it here at CCU,” said Bighaus, who also took first at the WWU Invitational this season and won the All-Star Southwest Airlines Showcase with a course record last fall. “My bond with teammates was a big part of that decision, and I knew we were going to be really good. But really, it came down to the fact that the culture at CCU is unmatched.

“Hull gives us a lot of flexibility in our practice plans, how we approach the game. He regularly does individual lunches with players to talk about life, the game, our faith. We are not just a number to him. All that adds up, because we are truly a family here, and when we’re out on the course, we’re playing for our team.”

CCU has never produced a professional player on a major tour, but the Cougars’ top-ranked quartet could change that in the coming years. For now, however, they are focused on polishing off their historic season under the 53-year-old Hull, a former NAIA hooper at Taylor University who also coached college basketball and tennis before finding his perfect fit at CCU.

“We’re not feeling any pressure,” Park said, “other than the excitement of what we can do at the end of this season.”

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What should have been a coronation for McIlroy along the back nine at Augusta National turned into a heart-racing, lead-changing jaw-dropping finish at golf’s greatest theater that ended with McIlroy on his knees sobbing with joy and disbelief.

“I started to wonder if it would ever be my time,” McIlroy said in Butler Cabin before Scottie Scheffler helped him into the green jacket.

It ended with more heartache for Justin Rose, who lost to Sergio Garcia in a playoff in 2017 and forced this one with a clutch 20-foot birdie on the 18th hole for a 6-under 66. He wound up joining Ben Hogan as the only players to lose twice in playoffs at Augusta National.

McIlroy lost a two-shot lead in two holes at the start. He lost a four-shot lead on the back nine in a matter of three holes with shocking misses, one of them a wedge into the tributary of Rae’s Creek on the par-5 13th.

And right when it looked as though he would blow another major, McIlroy delivered two majestic shots when nothing less would do, two birdies that sent him to the 18th hole with a one-shot lead. That still wasn’t enough. He missed a 5-foot par putt for a 1-over 73 and the first Masters playoff in eight years.

McIlroy’s wedge bounced onto the slope of the top shelf with enough spin to trickle down to 3 feet. And when Rose missed from 15 feet, McIlroy finally sealed it.

McIlroy went 11 long years without a major, knowing the Masters green jacket was all that kept him from joining Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen as the only winners of golf’s four professional majors.

He raised both arms and let the putter fall behind him, and before long he was on his knees, then his forehead on the 18th green as his chest heaved with emotion.

So ended one of the wildest Sundays at a major that is known for them. U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who beat McIlroy at Pinehurst No. 2 last June, had the lead after two holes when McIlroy opened with a double bogey.

He crashed out with a pair of three-putts and two shots into the water on the back nine, closing with a 75.

Ludvig Aberg, a runner-up in his Masters debut a year ago, suddenly had a share of the lead when McIlroy fell apart on the middle of the back nine. He missed a birdie putt from the fringe to take the lead, then finished bogey-triple bogey.

Rose had every reason to believe he threw away his chances on Saturday with a 75 that put him seven shots behind, and then two bogeys on the front nine. Even as he steadied himself, he was four shots back and running out of time. He did his part in a 10-birdie round and that dynamic birdie putt to cap it off.

McIlroy helped in a big way.

Nothing was more shocking than the 13th. McIlroy played it safe, leaving himself a big target and a lob wedge. He missed his mark by some 20 yards, the ball disappearing into the tributary of Rae’s Creek and leading to double bogey.

Then came a tee shot into the pine straw that led to another bogey, and the lead was gone again. But he was resilient as ever — he’s been like that his entire career. Seemingly in trouble left of the 15th fairway, McIlroy hit 7-iron around the trees and onto the green to 6 feet.

He missed the eagle putt — the birdie still helped him regain a share of the lead. Two holes later, facing a semi-blind shot, he drilled 8-iron and chased after it, urging it to “Go! Go! Go! Go!” And it did, barely clearing the bunker and rolling out to 2 feet for birdie and a one-shot lead.

Turns out that wasn’t enough either. He hit into a bunker from the fairway. He missed the 5-foot putt for the win. There was more work to do. But the 35-year-old from Northern Ireland never wavered in what he came to Augusta National to do.

He leaves with a green jacket.

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The International Olympic Committee made it official Wednesday when it released the official program for the 2028 Games, in which female athletes are expected to have a slight majority for the first time.

Golf only returned to the Olympic program at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games after a 112-year absence, and it has awarded medals to only one competition — 72 holes of stroke play — for men and for women.

The International Golf Federation had been lobbying for a mixed-team competition for the last several years without taking away too much time from golfers’ schedules on various tours.

Still to be determined are how many teams will compete and the qualification process.

“The International Golf Federation is thrilled with the IOC Executive Board’s decision to approve the addition of a mixed-team event to the Olympic Golf program,” the IGF said in a statement. It said more details would be released next week.

The IOC had an online board meeting Wednesday that was co-chaired in Lausanne, Switzerland, for the first time by Kirsty Coventry since she was elected IOC president last month. She takes over in June for Thomas Bach and will be the first female IOC president in its 131-year history.

The men’s competition would start on Wednesday — one day earlier than before — and end on Saturday. The mixed teams would be held on Sunday and Monday, with foursomes (alternate shot) used for one round and fourballs (better ball) the other.

Tuesday would be a practice day for the women, and their competition would start Wednesday through Saturday, one day before the Summer Games come to a close.

The golf competition is scheduled for Riviera Country Club, a revered PGA Tour stop that has hosted major championships. Riviera is to host the U.S. Women’s Open for the first time in 2026, and the U.S. Open returns in 2031.

A mixed team event would require only two more days for the players who qualify for the Olympics. It’s unlikely any of the top players would be competing the following week at a regular PGA Tour or LPGA Tour event.

Scottie Scheffler won the men’s gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games by closing with a 62 at Le Golf National. Lydia Ko won the women’s gold in Paris — she won the silver in Rio and the bronze in Tokyo in 2021 — which also gave her points required for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

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The Denver-based luxury travel club will pull out of its title sponsorship of the tournament after this year’s event, according to Kevin Laura, the Open’s CEO.

The move comes a year earlier than expected for the men’s, women’s and senior competitions at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club.

“Under the new leadership, Inspirato is under some financial constraints and has just a different management style, so they asked us if we would consider that,” Laura said of the early release. “If it’s becoming so hard for title sponsors to afford this, then we really want to look at what our main purpose and vision is. … We were in an arms race with ourselves.”

In 2022, Inspirato signed a five-year contract worth $400,000 annually through 2026 for the branding, co-founder and then-CEO Brent Handler told Colorado AvidGolfer at the time.

Brent and his brother Brett Handler have since had a tumultuous exit from the company. A new CEO, California businessman Payam Zamani, took over last August and has been on a cost-cutting crusade, in part targeting lavish perks once extended to the Handlers.

Zamani told BusinessDen ending the sponsorship is a part of that mission and also stems from a desire to get a better return on the company’s marketing dollars.

“We’d like to primarily pursue opportunities that allow us to better correlate costs with results,” he said in a text.

Laura said Inspirato will pay less than the $400,000 “contracted amount” this year, though he did not disclose a specific figure. The tournament’s men’s and women’s purses will drop from $250,000 to $200,000, while the senior tournament will fall from $100,000 to $80,000.

For the former, only the winner’s pot will be affected, going from $100,000 to $50,000. For the latter, which includes anyone 50 and older, payouts are cut 20% across the board.

The women’s Open will be held May 28-30, the men’s from July 24-27 and the senior’s from Aug. 27-29.

“We’re still the only tournament in the world that pays equal purses for men’s and women’s, and those are still the largest purses in the country as far as state opens are concerned,” Laura said. “The changes we made are just going to make it a lower price point for a replacement sponsor.”

Laura said future tournament branding could be around one company, like Inspirato, or have multiple presenting sponsors.

He noted that the structure will change as well.

Most of the future money will be funneled into a scholarship fund for kids in Green Valley Ranch’s First Tee Program, an initiative that teaches golf to kids. The fund has yet to be set up, though, so Laura doesn’t have an idea how much the sponsorship will cost.

He thinks the tournament will be able to raise more money for scholarships from the general public. With the added cash, he hopes to be less reliant on corporate sponsors to foot the $400,000 bill it takes to run First Tee.

“The focus in the future for our board is gonna be focused on raising money and awarding scholarships for kids, as opposed to raising purses and working against ourselves on the high price,” Laura said. “It’s so much easier for us to raise money from general donors for kids’ scholarships than prize money for golfers.”

Since Zamani took over in August, Inspirato has cut about $40 million in annual operating costs, he told BusinessDen in February. In an earnings call that same month, Zamani reported positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of last year — the first time the business has shown profitability since a 2021 IPO.

“The Colorado Open sought to rethink the way they want to do sponsorships in the future, and we have sponsored the event for four years and felt like it was the right time to move on,” Zamani said in a text.

This story was originally published by BusinessDen.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Min Woo Lee and Akshay Bhatia shared the lead at The Players Championship going into a weekend with strong wind in the forecast and the potential for a wide-open chase. That includes Justin Thomas, the biggest surprise Friday.

Thomas opened with a 78 and was tied for 134th when he set the tournament record with 11 birdies. A bogey from the water on the 18th hole forced him to settle for a 10-under 62 to tie The Players record with Tom Hoge.

“Everything seems to happen in mysterious and weird ways,” Thomas said, unclear if he was speaking to his round or the very game of golf.

Lee made a sloppy bogey on his final hole at the par-5 ninth. Bhatia got creative with a wedge to make birdie on the ninth. Both had a 66 and were tied for the lead at 11-under 133.

Thomas was seven shots behind and not the least bit bothered by the deficit.

“I’m happy I have a tee time tomorrow,” Thomas said. “I was losing to everyone playing golf at one point.”

Thomas witnessed the only other 62 at the TPC Sawgrass because he was playing with Hoge that day in 2023. He forgot about that until he saw an image posted on the video board behind the 17th green of him and Hoge hugging.

From the right rough on the 18th, the plan was to punch it low under the trees to about 20 yards short of the green. But the thick grass grabbed his club and turned it left, and the ball raced through the fairway into the water.

Thomas took a penalty drop, hit a lob wedge to 2 feet for bogey and at least shared the mark.

He has had some wild swings in scores on consecutive days, recalling the 67-80 he had at Royal Birkdale in the 2017 British Open.

“This one is a lot cooler,” he said.

Now comes the hard part. The TPC Sawgrass can be daunting in any conditions, but the 25 mph gusts expected Saturday — and the possibility of wind and rain Sunday — can make the Stadium Course a real thrill ride.

J.J. Spaun had a 68 and was one shot behind.

Rory McIlroy was at the top of the leaderboard during his morning round that featured six birdies in 11 holes, only for his momentum to stall. He had a pair of bogeys over the closing stretch, the last one on the par-5 ninth, for a 68 to finish two shots back.

“I think I hit more fairways in six holes today than I did in 18 yesterday,” McIlroy said. “Got it in play much better and then from there was able to give myself some opportunities and obviously make some birdies early. Couldn’t quite continue that on to the back nine, but it was much better off the tee.”

Collin Morikawa, the runner-up last week at Bay Hill who chipped in twice among his nine birdies in a round of 65, also was shots behind with Alex Smalley, who birdied two of his last three holes for a 67.

“I can’t say I drove it great and hit the ball amazing, but I really just took advantage of when I did hit good shots,” Morikawa said. “I putted really nicely. Also I didn’t try fighting it too much. I knew it wasn’t quite exactly how I was hitting it, and you just make due.”

Two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler had to settle for a 70 and was six shots behind, still very much in the mix considering he rallied from five behind on the final day last year.

The 36-hole cut fluctuated throughout the afternoon with some wild shifts and plenty of emotion. The cut was 1-under 143.

Xander Schauffele made it on the number, extending his cut streak to 59 on the PGA Tour, the longest active streak since Tiger Woods (142) from 1998 to 2005.

That required the PGA and British Open champion hammering a hybrid onto the green at the ninth on his final hole and two-putting for birdie and a 71. That sounded like small consolation for Schauffele, who only returned last week from two months of letting a rib injury heal.

“Not hitting it close enough, to duffing chips, to missing every fairway, to hitting fairways, to missing greens. It’s pretty gross, to be completely honest,” he said. “So if I can eke out this cut, that would be nice. But the game feels pretty bad.”

Danny Walker also gets a weekend tee time after starting the week wondering if he would play at all. He didn’t get into the field until Thursday morning when Jason Day withdrew with an illness. One of 26 newcomers in the field, Walker three-putted the final hole to finish at 1 under and had to wait an hour to see if he would make it.

Among those missing the cut were Ludvig Aberg, who won the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines last month and is No. 5 in the world. He had five double bogeys over two rounds, three of them Friday.

Jordan Spieth had another wild ride, which included hitting one shot left-handed out of the pine straw well left of the fifth fairway. Spieth was on the cut line late in the day when he hit the island green at No. 17 and then drilled a drive down the 18th fairway, leading to birdie and a 71 that put him eight shots back.

Divots: Wyndham Clark withdrew after nine holes with a neck injury. … Six PGA Tour winners this year failed to make the cut, including Hideki Matsuyama.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

“But I don’t think the PGA Tour needs a deal. I think the momentum is pretty strong,” McIlroy said Wednesday ahead of the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and player director Adam Scott twice met last month with President Donald Trump at the White House to see if they can reach an agreement. Tiger Woods and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, joined the second meeting.

Monahan said the priority was reunification and it was a “huge step,” though he did not indicate when they would meet again and did not anticipate an announcement next week at The Players Championship.

At issue is how to integrate players while keeping LIV’s concept of team golf. Al-Rumayyan is bullish on team golf. LIV has 12 teams that have investors and sponsors. Each LIV event awards prize money to individual scores and team scores, and the season ends with a team championship.

McIlroy suggested that has led to the stall in negotiations.

“It takes two to tango,” McIlroy said. “So if one party is willing and ready and the other isn’t, it sort of makes it tough.”

McIlroy has not been at the White House meetings, though he serves on the transaction subcommittee of PGA Tour Enterprises that has been negotiating with the Saudis.

He was the strongest critic of LIV when it began in 2022, only to soften his views when Jon Rahm defected to the rival league at the end of 2023. McIlroy said on a British soccer podcast that he encouraged PGA Tour board members to meet with Al-Rumayyan, which led to the surprise framework agreement in June 2023.

McIlroy pointed to signs of momentum on the PGA Tour, from improved television ratings to the TMRW Golf League at a high-tech indoor arena that is shown on ESPN channels in prime time early in the week.

“I think a deal would still be … the ideal scenario for golf as a whole,” he said. “But from a pure PGA Tour perspective, I don’t think it necessarily needs it.”

He said the landscape “might have looked a little different” when he spoke two weeks ago at Torrey Pines — one week after the first White House meeting and a week before the second meeting — and said players staunchly opposed to bringing back LIV players need to “get over it” and move forward.

Now he sensed talks at a standstill.

“I don’t think it’s ever felt that close,” McIlroy said. “But it doesn’t feel like it’s any closer.”

LIV Golf resumes its schedule with events in Hong Kong and Singapore over the next two weeks. It doesn’t play in the U.S. for the first time until the week before the Masters, when it plays at Trump Doral outside Miami.

LIV, which now has a television deal with Fox, has put together a more international schedule than the first three seasons. There also is the question of which LIV players would even be interested in returning to the PGA Tour.

“I continue to see LIV Golf growing,” U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau said Wednesday in Hong Kong. “It’s going to grow at an exponentiating pace for years to come, and we aren’t going anywhere.”

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Woodland, who won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach to go along with three other PGA Tour titles, had a hole the size of a baseball removed from his head so doctors could remove the lesion in a September 2023 surgery.

He returned last year and continues to make strides toward restoring his game and his life at home with wife Gabby and his three children.

“Receiving this is a testament to the people around me because there’s no way, one, I’d be back playing or no way I’d be sitting here today if it wasn’t for them,” Woodland said at PGA National, where he is playing the Cognizant Classic.

“It means everything for me to receive it, but it really belongs to the people around me.”

The Courage Award is presented to a person who overcomes extraordinary adversity, such as personal tragedy or debilitating injury or illness, to make a significant and meaningful contribution to golf.

Chris Kirk was honored last year for his battle with alcoholism. Previous winners include Jarrod Lyle of Australia, who died after a long battle with leukemia, and two-time heart transplant recipient Erik Compton.

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan presented Woodland with the award at PGA National.

“He’s overcome so many challenges, which is nothing short of miraculous,” Monahan said. “He continues to manage symptoms associated with his initial diagnosis while competing — and competing very well — at the highest level of professional golf. Gary Woodland is a constant inspiration to us all.”

The Courage Award includes a contribution of $25,000 from the tour to a charity of the recipient’s choice. Woodland selected Champion Charities — he and his wife are matching the donation — an organization dedicated to research and patient support in brain tumor, brain disease and brain trauma.

Woodland said he learned of the organization from former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Harris Barton, his partner in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am this year. Both of Barton’s parents died from brain tumors.

Woodland had one top 10 last year when he returned. This is the final year of his exemption from winning the U.S. Open.

“At the end of the day, I’m fighting,” he said. “The last thing I’m going to let this do is let this thing in my head stop my dreams, and that’s why I fight every day. I want to be there for my kids and my family, but I want to chase my dreams, too. I’ve got a lot of dreams out here.

“I’m starting to understand what I need to do every day to function in life, but the things I’m doing to help with my brain are also helping me play golf, and I’m knocking on the door. It’s coming, and I’m going to keep knocking on that door until I bust through.”

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In the end, he joined one of golf’s most elite clubs.

Knapp — the No. 99 player in golf’s current world rankings — joined the PGA Tour’s sub-60 club on Thursday, shooting a bogey-free 59 in the opening round at PGA National. It was the 15th time that someone has broken 60 in a PGA Tour event.

“It’s just one of those days where everything was kind of clicking,” Knapp said.

Knapp finished one shot off the tour scoring record of 58, done by Jim Furyk in the final round of the 2016 Travelers Championship. Knapp became the 14th player to shoot a sub-60 round; it has been done 15 times, with Furyk the one who has carded such a round twice.

Knapp had a putt for eagle at the par-5 18th that would have tied Furyk’s mark of 58 — 18 feet, 8 inches was the measurement given by the PGA Tour. The eagle putt didn’t have the speed and he tapped in for 59.

And yes, he was thinking about 58 — especially after a long birdie putt at the 15th put him at 11 under for the round.

“I stepped up on the 16 tee and just kind of told my caddie, ‘Let’s play 2 under in the last three,’” Knapp said. “‘Let’s do what we’re supposed to do.’”

He had to settle for 59, if a 59 can ever actually be settled for.

“I thought I played well,” said Daniel Berger, who had a bogey-free round of 8-under 63, highlighted by a par on the par-5 10th — after his tee shot was lost in a tree and he played a provisional. “But then someone shot 59.”

Knapp’s 12-birdie round on the par-71 course also broke the previous Cognizant scoring record of 61, first done in 2012 by Brian Harman and matched in 2021 by Matt Jones. There are three rounds of 62 in tournament history — Tiger Woods in the final round in 2012 on his way to a tie for second, Brandon Hagy in the second round in 2021 and eventual winner Chris Kirk in the second round of the 2023 event.

There was barely any wind, which is rare for South Florida, and PGA National was largely defenseless in the morning session. The closest there was to any trouble was the seventh hole, where Billy Horschel — a Florida Gator from his college days — used a club to poke at an actual alligator that was catching some sun near the green and got it to retreat back to its watery home.

Even wildlife didn’t deter scoring in Round 1. Berger, Russell Henley and Sami Valimaki all shot 63s, Rickie Fowler was among those with opening-round 64s, Jordan Spieth — continuing his comeback after wrist surgery — shot 65, while Horschel, Zach Johnson and Camilo Villegas were some of the players who opened with a 66.

But nobody had an easier time than Knapp, who finished no better than a tie for 17th in any of his first seven starts of 2025 — and then played his way into golf history in Round 1 at PGA National, a course that players have said has been less punitive in recent years. He needed to make only 98 feet of putts, a tribute to a day of excellent ball-striking.

“You still have to hit shots. You have to make putts,” Fowler said. “Yeah, 59 anywhere is hard to do. I don’t care if you go play from 6,500 yards. You still have to make putts. You still have to hit it close enough to have those opportunities. With this place, we’ve seen some low scores, guys get after it when the conditions are right. But obviously no one has shot 59 before out here.”

Knapp has one PGA Tour win, that coming at last year’s Mexico Open. He’s played the Cognizant only once before and did well, tying for fourth last year after shooting three rounds of 68 or better and finishing at 13 under.

And this year, so far, he’s even better.

“You’ve got to tip your hat to him,” Horschel said. “He shot a 12-under par 59 at PGA National, which no one ever thought.”

Knapp started Thursday with five straight birdies, that stretch highlighted by a 60-foot chip-in at the par-4 second hole. The birdies kept coming in bunches; three in a row on holes 9 through 11, three more coming on holes 13 through 15 — the last of those a big breaking putt from 31 feet, going across the green before dropping dead center into the cup.

Mike Stephens, Knapp’s caddie, said they were not afraid to talk about the chances that awaited on the final three holes.

“I think if anything, maybe your playing competitors try to give you a little distance or whatnot, but he likes to talk,” Stephens said. “So, we’d kind of go over things on the last couple (holes), to try to fill the time. Just to keep it the same. … Just another day.”

Well, not quite. A 59 is not just another day.

“Whether I shot 89 or 59, I’m going to come back out and do my job tomorrow,” Knapp said.

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