Good morning, I’m Kevin Sweeney. I’ll be filling in for Dan for a couple days, but not before he helped preview the U.S. Open.
In today’s SI:AM:
⛳ The U.S. Open returns, though LIV Golf looms
🏒 A thrilling Game 1 win for the Avs
⛹️♂️ An expert look at the NBA’s top prospects
Previewing the U.S. Open with Bob Harig
Dan Gartland: One of the things I find interesting about this year’s Open is how the 18-hole layout has been cobbled together from the 27 holes on The Country Club’s property. Did the organizers have a specific goal in mind when creating this par-70 layout?
Morning Read’s Bob Harig: The Country Club began using a composite course for big events at the venue starting with the 1957 U.S. Amateur. The idea is to bring together the best qualities of all the holes on the property without making it look as if it’s out of place. Another version of a composite course is being used for the first time this year during the U.S. Open with three holes from the adjoining nine-hole Primrose course being employed.
Those holes will be played as the ninth hole (ninth on the Primrose) during the championship, the 13th hole (which is a combination of holes 1 and 2 on the Primrose) and the 14th hole (which is No. 8 on the Primrose).
DG: So much of the discussion before a U.S. Open usually centers around course conditions and the steps the USGA takes to keep players from posting low numbers. I’ve read that the rough at The Country Club is as thick as it usually is at U.S. Opens. How will the course conditions impact play? Should we expect the winner to be pretty close to even par?
BH: Course set-up typically becomes a big story line at the U.S. Open, especially if the USGA is deemed to have gone over the line in trying to make the test so stern that it artificially alters scoring. The Country Club does not appear to be a bombers course. There are enough holes where simply ripping a driver will not be a prudent play. Rory McIlroy suggested strategy will come into play and he acknowledged he was trying to figure out the best way to go forward. The rough is formidable in spots, many of the greens allow for running the ball up if you can get it there. Expect scoring to be difficult, but we’re looking at the 6 under par range for the winner.
DG: Rory, who finished second at the Masters in April and just won the Canadian Open with a final-round 62 last weekend, is having a great year so far and is the betting favorite to win in Brookline. What’s the biggest hurdle standing between him and a second U.S. Open?
BH: Typically, Rory gets off to a poor start in majors. That wasn’t the case last month at the PGA, where he shot a first-round 65 and everyone figured that was what he needed to contend. Then he made just one birdie in the second round and was chasing again. And chasing is what he needs to avoid. Staying patient, staying in position is the key. Rory has shown a tendency to let rounds get away from him. It’s important to stay in touch.
DG: If Rory is the favorite, with Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm also near the top of most sportsbooks’ odds lists, who are a couple of lower-profile guys you have your eye on this weekend?
BH: Patrick Reed is hardly low profile, but the fact that he is +9000 is somewhat surprising. Reed has not played well of late but he is certainly a threat. Corey Connors has a low-profile and lower odds. The Canadian golfer has not fared well in U.S. Opens but he did make it to the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur at The Country Club in 2013. He’s considered a top “ball-striker’’ which means he hits it more solid than most and that is never a bad thing at the U.S. Open.
DG: One fun aspect of the U.S. Open is how it features so many amateurs, some of whom have interesting stories. Are there any amateurs who you think we should be paying attention to this year?
BH: Michael Thorbjornsen is a local kid who has put up a nice amateur résumé at age 20. In his only previous U.S. Open, he made the cut at Pebble Beach in 2019 having earned his spot in the field as the U.S. Junior champion. He is the reigning Western Open winner, a star junior at Stanford, and earned his way into the championship by enduring 36-hole final qualifying in Purchase, N.Y., on June 6. He lives in Wellesley, Mass., not far from The Country Club.
DG: OK, I can’t ignore the elephant in the room much longer. LIV Golf has dominated headlines in the sport for a few weeks now. Is there any way the biggest story in golf on Monday will be the result of the U.S. Open or are we still going to be talking about the breakaway tour’s impact on the future of the sport?
BH: What if Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia and Louis Oosthuizen are in contention? Or, amazingly, Phil Mickelson? LIV undoubtedly remains a huge story if they are part of the final-day drama. Oosthuizen finished second to Jon Rahm last year. Johnson won the U.S. Open in 2016 and is less than two years removed from his fall 2020 Masters victory. It’s possible that the upstart league is put aside if there’s a compelling McIlroy, Justin Thomas or Collin Morikawa showdown. But LIV won’t be in the background for long.
The Avalanche Take Game 1
Andre Burakovsky’s goal less than 90 seconds into overtime lifted the Avalanche to victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
As my colleague Dan Gartland pointed out yesterday morning, the outstanding play in goal from Andrei Vasilevskiy has been a huge reason for the Lightning’s run through the Eastern Conference playoffs. But the Avs struck early against Tampa Bay’s star in goal, tallying three goals in the first period to take an early lead. And while the Lightning battled back to force OT, Burakovsky’s one-timer sent a raucous crowd in Denver into a frenzy.
Sure, the Lightning showed the type of resolve you’d expect from a team that has won two straight cups, rallying from two goals down on the road against the NHL’s most dominant team. But Colorado proving it can crack the code against Vasilevskiy feels like the biggest takeaway from Game 1. The Rangers scored just five goals in the final four games of the series against Vasilevskiy and the Lightning: The Avs scored four in one game.
We’ll see what Game 2 has in store for us on Saturday night.
The best of Sports Illustrated
In today’s Daily Cover, Steve Rushin takes you through the golden age of baseball through the eyes of the sons of big leaguers, sharing the stories of the magic that made today’s adults fall in love with the game through time spent with their dads around the ballpark.
Credit: Courtesy of the Killebrew Family (Killebrew); Jim Kerlin/AP (Hodges); Courtesy of the Martin Family (Martin); Bettmann/Getty Images (Killebrew)
On a Tuesday night in 1977, 14-year-old Billy Joe Martin went to visit his father at his office. Billy Joe watched Game 6 of the World Series from his seat near the home dugout at Yankee Stadium. That summer, the Bronx had burned with urban fires. New York City endured bankruptcy and blackouts. Billy Joe and his mom, Gretchen, stayed at the family’s offseason home in Texas most of the so-called Summer of Sam. But now, as Reggie Jackson hit one, then two, then three home runs on consecutive pitches, the teenager couldn’t imagine being anywhere but the Bronx. A security guard told him, as the evening wore on and a joyful menace suffused the air, that he needed to get to the clubhouse for his own safety. “But I didn’t want to miss the show,” he recalls. Fans tore up sod and snatched other holy relics—caps and jerseys—directly off the fleeing Yankees. Cops swung batons as Billy Joe scampered to the clubhouse. “It was awesome,” he says. “I had my first champagne that night, with Willie Randolph’s little brother.”
With the NBA draft just one week away, Jeremy Woo has a new big board out with his final rankings for the top 100 prospects in this year’s class. … The Braves are on a roll, so Will Laws dove into what has changed for the defending World Series winners as they’ve turned around their season. … Albert Breer answered questions on whether Baker Mayfield could be the answer for the Panthers at quarterback.
Around the sports world
The Astros made history by throwing two immaculate innings in the same game against the Rangers. If you like swings and misses, you’ll enjoy the highlights. … For the second straight day, a pitcher brought a no-hitter into the ninth inning but couldn’t finish the job, this time Dodgers left-handed Tyler Anderson. The Mavericks got Luka Dončić some help by adding double-double machine Christian Wood in a trade with the Rockets. … Plus, Floyd Mayweather Jr. might be earning his “Money” nickname soon, as he’s reportedly working on purchasing an NBA team.
SIQ
On this day in 2008 at Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods won his third U.S. Open by defeating which player on the first sudden-death playoff hole after an 18-hole Monday playoff?
Check tomorrow’s newsletter for the answer.
Yesterday’s SIQ: When the Bruins defeated the Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final on this day in 2011, which Boston player became a member of hockey’s “Triple Gold Club” (Stanley Cup winner, Olympic gold medalist and world champion)?
Answer: Patrice Bergeron. He won gold with Canada at the 2010 Olympics (also in Vancouver) and later in ’14 in Sochi. He won the ’04 IIHF World Championship as an 18-year-old following his rookie season in the NHL.
No matter how Game 7 of the 2011 Final turned out, someone was joining the Triple Gold Club. Bergeron’s Canada teammate Roberto Luongo played opposite him for the Canucks.
The Triple Gold Club added its latest member just a couple of weeks ago, when Finland won the world championships. The Finns also won Olympic gold earlier this year in Beijing, meaning 38-year-old Valtteri Filppula, who won a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2008, has now won all three titles. — Dan Gartland
From the Vault: June 16, 1969
In early January, 1969, three days before Super Bowl III, SI photographer Walter Iooss captured one of the most recognizable pictures in football history, of Jets quarterback Joe Namath lounging by the pool in Miami, speaking with reporters—guaranteeing his team would beat the heavily favored Colts. Six months later, a very different Namath was on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
During the 1969 offseason, Namath’s ownership stake in a Manhattan bar came under scrutiny. The joint—Bachelors III at Lexington Ave. and 62nd St., practically next door to the NFL’s newly opened headquarters at 55th and Park—had garnered a reputation as a hangout for people with ties to organized crime and NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle demanded that Namath sell his stake in the bar or face a possible suspension from the league.
On June 6, 1969, Namath held a press conference at Bachelors III in which he announced that he would be retiring from the NFL at age 26 rather than sell his share in the club. Here’s how William Johnson recounted the events of that day in SI:
“At his press conference Namath explained that he preferred holding on to his share of Bachelors III to playing quarterback. It was a matter of principle. He said he had not known that gamblers frequented the place and used his phones. He said he did not think it fair for Pete Rozelle to threaten him with suspension unless he sold his interest. ‘What place don't have people come in who bet?’ he said. ‘My father bets. Can’t I talk to him?’
“Later that day Rozelle called his own press conference and said that Namath had been told three months ago that gamblers were hanging out in Bachelors III. Rozelle said that he was of the opinion that when people of ‘undesirable background’ continued to associate with any player, the situation takes on ‘the appearance of evil, whether or not it actually exists and thereby affects the player’s reputation, the reputation of his fellow players and the integrity of his sport.’ Rozelle also said that he had not one iota of evidence that Namath himself had done anything illegal.”
The alleged involvement of bookies and gamblers went beyond the NFL’s historical skittishness about betting. The Manhattan district attorney’s office had reportedly tapped the phones at Bachelors III and was ready to raid the place until “the furor surrounding Namath’s retirement” forced them to call it off, Johnson wrote.
Namath’s retirement seemed awfully real at the time, too. Johnson wrote that Namath seemed sincere in his press conference, but that “[g]iven Namath’s highly emotional makeup, it seems likely that sooner or later he will decide to un-retire.”
Indeed, Namath began having conversations with Rozelle about his return just three weeks after the press conference. The Jets opened training camp on July 11, at which point Namath’s discussions with Rozelle became more frequent. On July 25, the two came to an agreement. Namath would sell his share of Bachelors III and promise to be more discerning about who he associates with.
“We reached total accord on the matter of his associations as well as on the sale of his interest in Bachelors III,” Rozelle said at a press conference. “You can assume from this statement that in the future he will be sure he knows the background of anyone with whom he becomes friendly, and he will duck anyone he knows to be undesirable. We have a clear understanding on this; he will know about people before he gets close to them.” — Dan Gartland
Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.
