McIlroy Tunes Up
For Open Defense
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE | If
nothing else, Rory McIlroy
played the weekend at the
FedEx St. Jude Classic. After
having missed the cut in his
three previous starts, McIlroy
used the Memphis event to get
his game back in shape for this
week’s U.S. Open, at which he
is the defending champion.
After he missed the cut at the
Memorial Tournament, he flew
to San Francisco to The Olympic
Club and got in three good days
of playing and practicing with
his coach, Michael Bannon, who
flew over from Bangor Golf Club
in Northern Ireland.
“Even though it wasn’t the
way I wanted to spend the
weekend, I still felt I got a lot
out of it,” McIlroy said.
“If this week I play well
and go into the U. S. Open
feeling really good about my
game and I play well there, it’s
something that I might do in
the future,” said McIlroy. “The
main thing this week is to just
get some more competitive
golf in because the last three
tournaments I’ve played I’ve
only played for two days and
just haven’t really felt like I’ve
gotten into the tournaments. So
hopefully this is the week where
I can turn that around, and as I
said, get some momentum go-
ing into the U.S. Open.”
Needing a birdie on the 72nd
hole to get in a playoff with
winner Dustin Johnson, McIlroy
made double-bogey to finish T7.
Zach Johnson is one of the
group of players that believes
in playing their way into a
major championship. Johnson
won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial three weeks
ago and was entered in the
FedEx St. Jude Classic.
“I get the question a lot, why
are you playing Memphis, and
usually the premise behind that
question is, one, it’s in front of
the U.S. Open, and two, it just
seems like a lot of guys skip this
event,” Johnson said. “I don’t
know why they skip it. I say
this sincerely. I don’t know how
you’d rank them, but I think this
is one of the most underrated
tournaments on the PGA Tour.
Marquee Mania At Olympic
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE | The USGA
once again has created a couple of
marquee pairings for the first two
rounds of the U.S. Open that begins
Thursday at The Olympic Club in
San Francisco.
The pairing with the most fan
appeal is the 10: 39 a.m. (EDT)
group that goes off the ninth tee.
Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and
Bubba Watson will draw a large
portion of the crowd in the morning
wave. It’s not a strange pairing to
either Mickelson or Watson. Mick-
elson has been paired with Woods
more than once in their careers
and Watson, the reigning Masters
champion, has at times been a fre-
quent 6 a.m. practice round partner
for Woods.
Bubba Watson
Phil Mickelson
The Road to the
Ryder Cup
Presented by:
September 25-30 | Medinah Country Club
Medinah, Ill., USA
Team Europe
Team Qualification Process
Rank Name Points
1 Rory McIlroy 2,584,843.51
2 Paul Lawrie 1,965,601.61
3 Justin Rose 1,921,969.23
4 Peter Hanson 1,743,298.93
5 Martin Kaymer 1,683,932.41
6 Lee Westwood 1,486,821.04
7 LukeDonald 1,459,696.08
8 Gonzalo Fdez-Castaño 1,417,075.36
9 Sergio Garcia 1,388,347.68
10 Nicolas Colsaerts 1,382,544.03
11 AlvaroQuiros 1,325,292.13
12 Graeme McDowell 1,325,200.84
Team USA
1 Bubba Watson 4,798.395
2 Jason Dufner 4,735.572
3 Phil Mickelson 4,069.922
4 Matt Kuchar 3,731.540
5 Hunter Mahan 3,449.082
6 Tiger Woods 3,326.717
7 Zach Johnson 3,235.626
8 Keegan Bradley 3,212.277
9 Rickie Fowler 3,096.958
10 Dustin Johnson 2,618.942
11 Steve Stricker 2,306.683
12 Bill Haas 2,187.274
