PGA Tour – Rory McIlroy won the U.S. Open hands-down with a remarkable four days of golf. He led the field throughout the tournament ending with a wide lead of 8 strokes over second place Jason Day. Rory played the beautify Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland with a 65 (6-under), 66 (5-under), 68 (3-under) and a final round 69 (2-under) to record a final 16-under. It was clear by Sunday morning the only way he could lose the Open would be to repeat the melt-down he had at the 2011 Masters. With each passing hole, Rory showed that he was in control. He was 2-under at the turn and still way ahead of Y.E. Yang who was in second place having started the day at 6-under.  Rory had a clear path to victory as he sailed down the back-nine with only two bogeys on the 13^th and 17^th holes. Second place went to Jason Day at 8-under after shooting 3-under on the day. The fast mover on Sunday was Kevin Chappell who shot 5-under to tie for third-place with Robert Garrigus, Lee Westwood, and Y.E. Yang at 6-under. Rory McIlroy’s victory jumps him into the World #4 position.

Notes and Commentary:  It was a great weekend of golf and a great shot-in-the-arm for the golf Industry. Rory, however, is now in for the fight of his life.

Note #1: The entire weight of the golf world has been placed on Rory’s shoulders. In a desperate desire to have a “Tiger-Like” leader, the industry is going to pile on Rory. He is now in a fight for his life and he may not even know it. Both fame and golf are fickle. From now on, every bad shot, missed putt, missed cut or even third-place or lower finish will carry ten-times the magnitude of anything he has done before. For the next ten years, every birdie streak and top ten finish will be his come-back. We have seen this before from John Daly, David Duval, Sergio Garcia, and even Phil Mickelson.   They all handled it in different ways and I hope Rory can win the fight.

Note #2: Does anybody remember Luke Donald? He shot a 5-over and tied for 45^th place. He is also the World #1 player. Did anybody read an article about the great meltdown of “the Donald” this week?  Martin Kaymer, World #3, tied for 39^th place with a 3-over. Steve Stricker, World #4 shot 1-under and tied for 19^th. Phil Mickelson fell out of the World Top Five with a 7-over and a tie for 54^th place.  Only Westwood, World #2, made a comeback. He started the tournament at 4-over on Thursday and managed to fight his way back with a 65 (6-under) on Saturday.  He finally got to 6-under which was enough to tie for third. In an effort to get the spotlight on Rory, the rest of the leaders on the world stage were forgotten. I am sure the World Top Five were happy to not be targets this week.

Note #3: The Tiger… Is there any real “Tiger-Blood” out there? Does Tiger still have the taste for fresh meat that he had when he was 22 years old? Has all this excitement about Rory’s first major victory awoken a sleeping Tiger and will he start his comeback? Will we see a head-to-head shootout between Rory and Tiger in the future? For those of you that love the “game of golf”, you may believe that there is too much of this hoopla and we need to get back to the basics of the game. For those of us that love the “sport of golf” and love the competition we are crying out – “Tiger! – ding-ding – the Ref just rang the bell and it is time to come out of your corner!”

Week 26 – This week the PGA heads to the Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. The LPGA is back at the Wegmans LPGA Championship at the Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, New York. The Champions Tour is also in New York at the Dick's Sporting Goods Open on the En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, NY. The European tour host the BMW International Open on the Golfclub Munchen Eichenried in Munich, Germany. We will not see Rory for three weeks when he comes back for the British Open and a chance to carry the weight of the world.

See you on the tee box!