Golf, U.s. Open | featured news

As the playoffs for the FedEx Cup get under way Thursday at The Barclays, the buzz is bigger than usual. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy playing in the same group for starters, and at Bethpage Black, a notoriously tough track on Long Island made even more famous by the two U.S. Opens it has hosted in the last decade.

Webb Simpson won the United States Open for his first major title by holding off Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson in a foggy final round at The Olympic Club.

The first swing of Thursday for Phil Mickelson sent marshals’ arms pointing waywardly, swallows fleeing from tree limbs and Mickelson to the back of the tee box looking forlorn. It wasn’t even 7:35 a.m. Before Tiger Woods, his playing partner, even struck a shot in the 112th U.S. Open, Mickelson began pantomiming his own swing, trying to find something on the course that might better be discovered on the range.

Andy Zhang - the 14-year-old poised to become the youngest golfer to play the US Open since World War II - will be one of the big talking points at the tournament which begins on Thursday. The Chinese-born Florida-based player may be half the age of many of his rivals on the professional circuit - but he is already 6ft tall, with a swing speed of 115mph and is used to playing and winning mini-tour events.

At an age when most kids are primarily concerned with their paper route or baseball card collection, 14-year-old Andy Zhang will make history this week as the youngest U.S. Open competitor ever.

Rory McIlroy enjoyed a triumphant march Sunday to his first major title as a two-under-par 69 gave him a eight-shot victory in the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Maryland.

Play has started in the final round of the U.S. Open, and it will take something monumental to prevent Rory McIlroy from winning the trophy....

Webb Simpson made five birdies over his first 10 holes of the third round of the U.S. Open and he was still 10 shots behind Rory McIlroy.

When Tiger Woods announced Tuesday that he would not compete in next week’s U.S. Open, a whole lot of casual interest in the year’s second major went out the window. Or, considering the heat in the area, in the window. That deflated interest was first expressed all over the Internet – Twitter, blogs and all of that jazz were bombarded with comments from Internet Tough Guys saying that the Open didn’t mean much to them without Woods.

Graeme McDowell wins the 110th US Open by one shot from France's Gregory Havret with Ernie Els third and Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson fourth at Pebble Beach.