RYAN FOX MATCHES MAJOR CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD WITH A 62 IN THE BRITISH OPEN

Ryan Fox has joined the list of players with a major championship scoring record

Ryan Fox of New Zealand acknowledges the crowd on the 188th green after completing his third round during the third day of the British Open Golf championships at Royal Birkdale golf club, in Southport, England, Saturday, July 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

SOUTHPORT, England — Ryan Fox added his name Saturday to the growing list of players who share the major championship scoring record when he became the third player this week with a record-tying 62 in the British Open at Royal Birkdale .

Fox started early with barely a trace of wind, and he took advantage. He made five birdies on the front nine, and birdied two of his last three holes for 62 on the par-70 Birkdale links. Lucas Herbert and Sam Burns each had 62 some 20 minutes apart on Friday.

There now have been eight rounds of 62 in major championship history, half of them at Royal Birkdale. Branden Grace was the first to set the record with a 62 at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

Fox was in a pot bunker off the fairway on the 18th and still managed to find the green, leaving a birdie putt of nearly 50 feet for a 61. He left it short by about 5 feet and holed the par putt.

“When I got to 6 under through 14 I thought, ‘Oh, I’ve got a chance.’ I would have liked to give myself a birdie chance at the last, but happy to make par,” Fox said.

He played alongside Xander Schauffele, the only player with 62 twice in a major. Schauffele and Rickie Fowler each shot 62 in the 2023 U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club — like Herbert and Burns, they were playing two groups apart — and Schauffele and Shane Lowry each shot 62 in the 2024 PGA Championship at Valhalla.

Haeran Ryu set the record in women's majors last week with a 60 in the final round of the Evian Championship, which has yielded all the top scores in LPGA majors since it was designated one 13 years ago.

Schauffele is the only player with 62 in a major to win. Fox, who made the cut with one shot to spared, finished atop the leaderboard with Herbert, who was still more than an hour away from teeing off in the third round.

The links have rarely been this brown and fast, but it’s the wind — or lack of it — that has allowed for such low scoring this week.

Fox, one of the strongest players in golf with his rugby heritage, leaned on his driver for much of the round and set up good scoring chances.

“The game plan was to be aggressive,” Fox said. “I was aggressive on a lot of good wedge shots. Pretty happy with 62 at the end.”

All but one of his nine birdies — Fox made his lone bogey on the 13th with a drive into a pot bunker — came from about 10 feet or closer. His drive on the 321-yard fifth hole was about 30 feet from the hole, and his most important shot was a wedge from the rough on the par-5 17th that rolled out to about 4 feet.

Herbert also had a bogey on his card during his 62 on Friday.

There have been weeks of soft conditions or little wind — two elements that lead to low scores — at previous majors. Seven major courses — three of them links courses — have yielded two rounds of 63 or lower in the same championship.

Royal Birkdale is the first to give up three of them — with half of the field Saturday and the final round still to come.

- Doug Ferguson | AP

WHY RORY MCILROY'S DRIVER MAY HAVE VIOLATED PGA CHAMPIONSHIP RULE AS HISTORY REPEATS

The Masters champion was forced into a last-minute change before his struggles at Quail Hollow.

Rory McIlroy has been using a different driver this week. (Image: Getty)

Rory McIlroy might have narrowly made the cut at the PGA Championship, but he had to do it without his favoured driver. The Northern Irishman teed off as the pre-tournament favourite at Quail Hollow, but was left fighting to simply make the weekend after a roller coaster second round.

McIlroy began the day three-over-par and, at one point, appeared to be charging as he reached one under after 10 holes. His progress stalled, though, and he eventually carded a 69 after six birdies and four bogeys. That left him one-over-par, meaning he survived by just one shot, but is still nine back from leader Jhonattan Vegas.

However, it has emerged that the 36-year-old had to deal with a last-minute club switch before his first round on Thursday. CBS Sports reported that his regular driver was deemed ‘nonconforming’ after tests by the USGA.

The sanction was due to the worn-down carbon face of McIlroy’s Qi10 club. This can occur if a driver has been used frequently, and the more the face flexes on impact, the more head speed that can be generated.

McIlroy has been using his current driver since the start of last year. Officials have now judged it to be producing a ‘Coefficient of Time’ (CT) that is too high. The higher the CT, the faster the ball will come off the face, which potentially increases distance off the tee. 

McIlroy is deemed one of the fastest and most powerful players on the tour, meaning the life cycle of his drivers is likely to be shorter than most. Indeed, it’s not the first time the Grand Slam champion has fallen foul of the regulations.

He was also forced into a late change at the Players Championship in TPC Sawgrass two years ago. Rival Xander Schauffele suffered the same fate at the 2019 Open.

Regardless, the world No.2 has been in no mood to discuss the controversy or his performance at Quail Hollow. After both rounds, he’s headed straight off the course after declining to speak to the media.

- FRASER WATSON

FLEETWOOD SHARES OLYMPIC LEAD AS GOLD GOLD RACE TAKES SHAPE

Tommy Fleetwood of Great Britain hits onto the 18th green during the second round of the 2024 Olympic Games at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, France. Erik S Lesser/EPA

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France -- British golfer Tommy Fleetwood is on familiar turf and chasing another gold trophy at Le Golf National, this one an Olympic medal instead of that 17-inch Ryder Cup trophy.

The medal chase in men's golf began to take shape Friday with Fleetwood sharing the 36-hole lead with defending Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and Hideki Matsuyama, giving another sellout crowd plenty of star power at the top.

Schauffele was slowed by ants in the rough and posted a 5-under 66, tying the 36-hole Olympic record he set at the Tokyo Games. He was joined by a pair of sloppy finishes. Fleetwood took bogey from a fairway bunker for a 64, while Matsuyama went from rough to water for a double bogey on the 18th and a 68.

They were at 11-under 131, two ahead of Jon Rahm (66).

Schauffele appears to be on autopilot at times, not missing a step from winning the British Open for his second major of the year.

Fleetwood, however, has the experience on this track. He won the French Open at Le Golf National in 2017 and then starred in Europe's Ryder Cup victory a year later, going 4-1 in his matches.

"You're always better off coming to a course where you have good feelings and good things have happened. So I'll definitely draw on those," he said. "But again, I have to stand up there tomorrow and hit the golf shots. Nothing that's happened in the past is going to do it for me.

"It's better having good feelings than having a course that's battered you to pieces."

Schauffele had three straight birdies around the turn and was making it look easy until one bad drive on the 13th and one weird lie. The ball was buried so deep a marshal stuck his finger in the tall grass to show him where it was. Schauffele noticed something else -- ants.

He was trying to position his club when he saw something behind his golf ball.

"It was a pile of ants, an ant pile, whatever you want to call it," he said.

There is free relief from a dangerous animal -- fire ants are cited in the rules -- but these weren't the dangerous variety. One official said Schauffele could scrape it away with his club, only Schauffele wasn't sure about that. A second official said he could use his tee to scrape away the pile. All that for a shot that he could only hack out some 50 yards, leading to a bogey.

That was the extent of his drama for the day.

"Five under is a good score on this property," he said. "Overall, sitting in a good spot coming into the weekend."

Scottie Scheffler, the world's No. 1 player, is at least in range and plenty happy about that. He took a double bogey on the seventh hole from grass so thick he could advance the shot only about 10 feet, and the next one only about 80 yards. He was 2 over for the day and losing ground quickly.

"Panic is definitely not the right word," Scheffler said. "But when you look up at the leaderboard, I think at the time I was maybe nine shots back or something like that. Around a golf course like this, where the scores are going to continue to get lower, it could be tough to catch up. I needed to do something to get back in the tournament."

He shot 31 on the back nine for 69 and was five shots behind. The greens have been so perplexing to Scheffler that after misreading a 6-foot birdie chance on the ninth hole, he had caddie Ted Scott read them the rest of the way and he trusted it.

"The way I was feeling, I wasn't really going to disagree with what he was saying," he said.

Thomas Detry of Belgium had the low round at 63 that got him within three shots of the lead, along with 22-year-old Tom Kim of South Korea (68) and C.T. Pan of Taiwan (65), the bronze medalist from the Tokyo Games.

Rahm played alongside Schauffele and at one point found himself five shots back. But the big Spaniard ran off three straight birdies in the middle of the back nine, including a tee shot to 3 feet on the par-3 16th, and saved par on the final hole.

It's his first time contending on a big stage this year. Rahm tied for seventh in the British Open for his best result in a major, though he was never really in the mix. Now he is, and he got a good look at what he faces in Schauffele riding a wave of momentum.

"What Xander has done this year weighs much more than the medal from three years ago," Rahm said. He added with a laugh, "And I didn't tell him because I don't want to remind him of all the good things he has achieved."

Rory McIlroy was six shots behind, a big push late halted by a double bogey from deep rough on the 17th hole.

"A few too many mistakes, similar story to yesterday," he said.

- Associated Press 

OLYMPIC GOLF: STAR-STUDDED PAIRINGS FEATURE SCHEFFLER, MCILROY, RAHM, SCHAUFFELE

How about these Olympic men's golf pairings for the first two rounds?

The star-studded group of Scottie Scheffler (USA), Rory McIlroy (Ireland) and Ludvig Aberg (SWE) will tee off together at 4:11 a.m. Eastern time (10:11 a.m. locally) on Thursday and 12:06 p.m. locally on Friday.

In other featured groups: Xander Schauffele (USA) will play alongside Viktor Hovland (Norway) and Jon Rahm (Spain) at 11:55 a.m. locally Thursday.

Collin Morikawa (USA) is in the Thursday 12:06 p.m. pairing with local French favorite Matthieu Pavon (France) and Matt Fitzpatrick (Great Britain) in a group that should enjoy a raucous following at Le Golf National.

And Wyndham Clark (USA) will play at 9:44 a.m. locally Thursday alongside Hideki Matsuyama (Japan) and Tommy Fleetwood (Great Britain).

 – Gentry Estes

XANDER SCHAUFFELE WINS THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER FINAL-ROUND 65

AP Photo 

 TROON, Scotland -- Xander Schauffele's critics used to say he didn't have the nerves or backbone to win one of golf's major championships.

Now, the 30-year-old PGA Tour star from San Diego can't stop winning them.

Two months after Schauffele captured his first major championship victory at the PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, he added a second one Sunday at the 152nd Open Championship at Royal Troon Golf Club.

"There's calmness and super stressful moments when you're trying to win a major championship," Schauffele said. "I felt them in the past -- the ones I didn't win -- and I let them get to me. Today, I felt like I did a pretty good job of weathering the storm when I needed to."

On a day when seven golfers started the final round within one shot of leader Billy Horschel, Schauffele was the man holding the Claret Jug at the iconic links course on Scotland's west coast. He posted a 6-under 65 on Sunday, just like he did in the final round of the PGA Championship, and his 72-hole total of 9-under 275 put him two strokes ahead of Horschel and England's Justin Rose.

South Africa's Thriston Lawrence was another stroke back.

"It was hard," Schauffele said. "It was very difficult. I think winning the first one helped me a lot today on the back nine. I had some feeling of calmness come through. It was very helpful on what has been one of the hardest back nines I've ever played in a tournament.

"I mean, it's a dream come true to win two majors in one year. It took me forever just to win one, and to have two now is something else."

Schauffele described Sunday's bogey-free round as the "best round I've played."

According to ESPN Stats & Information, Schauffele is the first golfer in the Masters era (since 1934) to have multiple final rounds of 65 or better in majors in the same year.

It's the seventh consecutive major won by an American golfer, the longest such streak since they captured 13 straight from 1974 to 1977.

It's the first year since 1982 that U.S. golfers claimed all four majors -- Scottie Scheffler won the Masters, and Bryson DeChambeau captured the U.S. Open.

Schauffele is the first golfer since Brooks Koepka in 2018 (U.S. Open and PGA Championship) to claim two majors in one season. It's only the seventh time a player has won the PGA Championship and The Open in the same year; Rory McIlroy was the last to do it, in 2014.

Schauffele's victory Sunday required patience. He opened his final round with five straight pars, and he fell behind Horschel, Lawrence and Rose. Schauffele kick-started his round with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 6 and 7 and made the turn at 2-under 34.

Although the difficult par-4 11th, known as The Railway, ended plenty of golfers' hopes this week, Schauffele avoided trouble off the tee and hit his approach from 171 yards to 2½ feet for another birdie to get to 6 under. He moved into a tie for first when Lawrence made a bogey on the 12th.

Schauffele then seized control with another pair of birdies, making a 16-foot uphill putt on the par-4 13th and a 12½-footer on the par-3 14th. He moved to 8 under and had a two-stroke lead with four holes to play.

Schauffele added another birdie on the par-5 16th to stretch his lead to three shots.

He will head to next month's Olympics tournament outside Paris to defend his gold medal.

"He's obviously now learning that the winning is easy," Rose said of Schauffele. "He has a lot of horsepower, do you know what I mean? In the sense of he's good with a wedge, he's great with a putter, he hits the ball a long way, obviously his iron play is strong. So he's got a lot of weapons out there.

"I think probably one of his most unappreciated ones is his mentality. He's such a calm guy out there. I don't know what he's feeling, but he certainly makes it look very easy. He plays with a freedom, which kind of tells you as a competitor that he's probably not feeling a ton of the bad stuff. He's got a lot of runway ahead and a lot of exciting stuff ahead, I'm sure."

Even after waiting so long to win a major, Schauffele admits he can't help but think about the career Grand Slam after moving a step closer. He only needs to win the Masters and U.S. Open now to do it.

"I mean, before I had any majors, it's something I've always wanted," Schauffele said. "I'm one step closer and still have a long way to go. But if you don't see yourself doing it, you're never going to do it."

Several other golfers, including Scheffler, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, faltered down the stretch. Scheffler was looking for his seventh victory and second major championship title this season. He moved into the mix with back-to-back birdies on Nos. 7 and 8.

Scheffler's chances of winning a Claret Jug ended on the par-4 ninth, though. His approach shot was 15 yards short of the green. He putted to 6½ feet and somehow three-putted from there, missing from 2 feet, 8 inches on the second attempt. Scheffler carded a double-bogey 6, dropping him to 2 under, four shots behind the leaders as he made the turn.

Scheffler also had a double bogey on the 18th. He posted a 1-over 72 and tied for seventh at 1-under 283.

Spain's Jon Rahm made one of the biggest moves after starting the day six shots behind Horschel. The two-time major champion made four birdies in his first seven holes to get to 2 under.

On the par-4 11th hole, Rahm pushed his tee shot toward the railway on the right. He hit a provisional tee shot but ended up finding his ball in a gorse bush. After a one-stroke penalty for an unplayable lie, Rahm made a bogey 5, dropping him to 1 under. He posted a 3-under 68 and finished at 1-under 283.

England's Daniel Brown, who grew up on a pig and cow farm and nearly gave up golf four years ago, carded four bogeys in his first six holes to fall back to even, five strokes behind the early leaders.

It was the end of one of the more remarkable stories in recent Open history. Brown made the field by draining a 20-foot putt in final qualifying. After missing the cut in six of his previous eight starts on the DP World Tour, he started the day only one shot behind Horschel. Brown was attempting to become only the fourth golfer since 1900 to win a major championship in his debut.

Brown was 3-over 74 in the final 18 holes, finishing at even-par 284, which tied him for 10th.

"Poor front nine, that's basically it," Brown said. "I struggled on the front nine, really. I don't think I scored as well as the guys around me on the front nine. The right-to-left wind, I couldn't really get to grips with that, but then felt a lot more comfortable when the wind was off the left on the back nine. A little bit to work on with a strong right-to-left breeze."

Two-time major champion Justin Thomas, who started the final round four strokes behind Horschel, took himself out of the hunt when he hit a wild tee shot and had to re-tee on the opening hole, resulting in a triple-bogey 7. Thomas tied for 31st at 6 over after posting a 6-over 77 in the final round.

Scotland's Calum Scott, an All-Big 12 selection last season at Texas Tech, won the Silver Medal as the low amateur. He carded a 5-over 76 on Sunday to finish at 8-over 292.

- Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior Writer

SILENCING DOUBTERS, XANDER SCHAUFFELE TAKES CONTROL OF HIS NARRATIVE WITH WIRE-TO-WIRE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WIN

Getty

 LOUISVILLE -- Narratives change because people never stay the same. That was evident Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club as Xander Schauffele won the 106th playing of the PGA Championship while Bryson DeChambeau, who finished second by a shot, simultaneously won over an entire city with his antics and his play.

It was about this time last week that Schauffele was licking wounds Rory McIlroy inflicted upon him when the latter went out and ran away with the Wells Fargo Championship. But it is Schauffele who had the last laugh -- at least for now -- as he passed McIlroy in the Official World Golf rankings, moving to No. 2 overall after his victory at Valhalla.

It was not a win many predicted. 

Even when Schauffele led after 18, 36 and 54 holes, old stories persisted of him being allergic to major championship leads and cowering from the lights when they at their most luminous. How could they not? 

Schauffele had sat in first or second entering the final round of a major or The Players Championship three times in his career; he lost all three opportunities. Even worse, he had entered such third rounds inside the top three on the leaderboard three times; he lost all three of those opportunities, too.

"I don't think I'd ever look at it as lacking," Schauffele said of past bruisings. "I looked at it as someone that is trying really hard and needs more experience. All those close calls for me, even last week, that sort of feeling, it gets to you at some point.

"It just makes this even sweeter. I know it's a major, but just winning in general, this is as sweet as it gets for me."

Peers and those around Schauffele's circle have insisted that he had what it takes to win the biggest events; still, evidence to the contrary began to pile up. Such criticism is a privilege, of course. It's not like Tom Hoge, Alex Noren nor Thomas Detry get criticized when they come up short. Just the players who are perceived to be otherwise great; the ones we believe are good enough to be champions.

That is how narratives work.

Others have gone through similar struggles early in their careers. Phil Mickelson comes to mind. Though Lefty has won six major championships, he entered his 34-year-old season on the PGA Tour with a cacophony of hot takes that he simply could not win the biggest events. In retrospect, it makes the murmurs around Schauffele, who is only 30, seem more like whispers.

The question with Schauffele at these big events often became, "How will he lose this one?" After a stunning 31 on the front nine Sunday, it seemed like we got our answer when he made bogey at the second-easiest hole on the course, the 590-yard par-5 10th, after a series of poor decisions and possibly even poorer shots.

But narratives change because people do.

Schauffele birdied the next two holes to regain control of the tournament. Five pars later, and he stood on the 72nd hole knowing that, two pairings ahead of him, DeChambeau had delivered the moment of the tournament to that point. Tying Schauffele at 20 under with a birdie at his 72nd hole, DeChambeau responded with what looked like it was going to be a cartwheel that turned into a hammering fist pump.

Changing a narrative is a hell of a way to describe DeChambeau's week, too. The irony of him leaving the PGA Tour to take Saudi Arabian millions only to become the most beloved he has ever been by golf fans is as amusing as it is confusing. 

Yet here we are. 

It is impossible to overstate how pro-Bryson the Louisville crowds were this week. On Sunday, they poured into every crevice of the property and hollered encouragement after each of his shots. Resounding shouts of, "Try to shoot 50 today, Bryson!" and "world's greatest YouTuber!" replaced what used to be jeers when he teed off.

(I did not hear, as Bryson purported at the Masters earlier this year, anyone yelling that they are grateful for what he does online. But the shouts were not far off.)

DeChambeau delivered the Valhalla crowd a show because he is, at his heart, a showman. His narrative has changed because he has changed. He understands now that he has two gifts: He is amazing at golf, and he is a world-class entertainer.

DeChambeau now has an outlet for both -- the former at major championships and the latter on his YouTube channel where he often tries to do crazy things like hit 215 miles-per-hour ball speed or break 50 from forward tees.

"It's actually funny; YouTube has helped me understand that a little bit more," DeChambeau explained about his altered mentality of embracing big moments and delivering joy to fans. "When the moment comes, knowing what to do, what to say, how to act is really important. You know, when I was younger, I didn't understand what it was. Yeah, I would have great celebrations and whatnot, but I didn't know what it meant and what I was doing it necessarily for. Now, I'm doing it a lot more for the fans and for the people around and trying to be a bit of an entertainer that plays good golf every once in a while."

That is how careers go. They ebb and flow. You learn how to play majors and how to celebrate them, too.

Schauffele's tee shot on No. 18 did not get a great result. With his feet in a bunker up the left, he had a hanging lie from which the ball could have flown a number of different directions. Instead, he hit a big, hooking rope that ended up in a perfect spot to get up and down for birdie, the all-time major scoring record and the PGA Championship.

He stepped into a stunning silence given the size of the crowd on Sunday and drove a low, spinning chip right up next to the hole. It was a dagger into the championship itself.

That is how narratives die.

"Definitely a chip on the shoulder there," Schauffele said of the narrative surrounding his play. "It just is what it is at the end of the day. You guys are asking the questions, probing, and I have to sit here and answer it. It's a lot easier to answer it with this thing sitting next to me now, obviously. It's just fuel, fuel to my fire. It always has been growing up, and it certainly was leading up to this."

One day we may look back at Schauffele's career and laugh at anyone ever believing he was unable to close out a big-time tournament. He might win three or four or five of these. That's how good he is.

But there will only ever be one victory that ended the narrative. Schauffele doing it with a 65 when the player ahead of him -- potentially breaking a narrative of his own -- shot 64 makes it even more satisfying and legitimate.

"It's just noise," Schauffele concluded. "That's what I think. I thought I was [good enough to win a major]. Not that people saying it made me think that. I just felt like I've done enough work, I'm good enough to do it. I just needed to shut my mind up and actually do it."

All major winners are champions. That's how majors work. Not all of them flip narratives like Schauffele did Sunday at Valhalla. In 18 holes of golf, he went from "best who can't win the big one" to "actually, maybe he's going to win a lot of them."

That's how drastically this major result shifted the trajectory of Schauffele's career. 

His narrative changed because he did something he's never done before. He closed out the best in the world when it mattered the most. 

It's hard to imagine erasing a narrative any more definitively than that.

- Kyle Porter

SIZZLING SCHAUFFELE GRABS FIRST ROUND LEAD AT PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

USA TODAY Sports 

 A rampaging Xander Schauffele powered to the top of the PGA Championship leaderboard on Thursday, firing a record-equaling opening round nine-under 62 at Valhalla Golf Club, as the Olympic champion looked to atone for a shock loss at the .

Out with the early starters Schauffele set the target that no one in the 156-player field could match. Tony Finau and Sahith Theegala came the closest, returning six-under 65s to sit three back.

Not even the two hottest golfers on the planet, world number one Scottie Scheffler and number two Rory McIlroy, could muster a challenge on a day of ideal scoring conditions at the defenseless Valhalla Golf Club.

McIlroy, coming off back-to-back PGA Tour wins, turned in a scrappy five-under 66 to settle in four off the pace. New dad Scheffler, with four victories in his last five starts including a second Masters Green Jacket, lurks one further adrift after returning a 67.

Schauffele, who held a final round two-stroke lead at Quail Hollow on Sunday before losing by five shots to McIlroy, was a man on a mission in Louisville, matching the men's major championship low score for a second time.

Despite an Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and a proven ability to go low, the 30-year-old American has yet to win a major and is without a win since the 2022 Scottish Open.

While there is a lot of golf to be played, the world number three signaled he plans to end both droughts with a brilliant error-free opening round that matched his first round effort at last year's U.S. Open.

Only two other men have returned 62s at a major, Rickie Fowler, also in the first round at the 2023 U.S. Open, and Branden Grace, in the third round at the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

"I'll take a 62 in any major any day," said Schauffele. "Not winning makes you want to win more, as weird as that is.

"The top feels far away, and I feel like I have a lot of work to do."

Coming off titles at the Zurich Open and Wells Fargo, McIlroy carried that momentum onto the first tee. He rolled in a six-footer for a birdie on his opening hole, the par five 10th, then picked up a second at the 13th to briefly join a crowd at the top of the leaderboard.

But the Northern Irishman, who announced on Monday that he had filed for divorce, stalled after the early burst. He took a bogey at the 17th before hitting his stride again after the turn by carding four birdies, including three straight from the fifth.

"Not a pretty 66," summed up McIlroy, who won the last of his four majors in 2014 on the same Valhalla layout. "I sort of felt like it was pretty scrappy for the most part.

"I thought I got a lot out of my game today.

"Not really happy with how I played but at least happy with the score."

After taking three weeks off to be with his wife, who was about to give birth, there were worries Scheffler would need time to shake off some competitive rust before returning to his dominating ways.

He wasted no time dispelling those concerns, holing out from 167-yards on the par four first for an eagle and adding a birdie at the fourth to get to three-under.

But the 27-year-old American could not sustain that level, mixing three birdies with a pair of bogeys over the next 14 holes.

Defending champion and LIV Golf standard-bearer Brooks Koepka, bidding to become the tournament's first repeat winner since he retained the title in 2019, looked a threat to add a fourth Wanamaker trophy to his collection after returning a 67 highlighted by an eagle, birdie and par finish to join Scheffler in a group at four-under.

Tiger Woods, who collected one of his 15 major titles at Valhalla in 2000 with a playoff win over Bob May, opened with a one-over 72 but lamented a sloppy bogey, bogey finish to his day.

This is Woods' first event since the Masters. Last month the injury-ravaged golfer had earned a tournament-record 24th consecutive made cut at Augusta National, although finishing last among those who played the weekend.

"It's just that I just don't play a whole lot of competitive rounds," said Woods. "I haven't played since the Masters.

"So it's a little bit different than being at home and playing a flat Florida course."

HIDEKI MATSUYAMA AT RIVIERA WITH 62. HE BECOMES ASIA'S MOST PROLIFIC PGA TOUR WINNER

AP Photo

 LOS ANGELES (AP) — The conversation began seven years ago when Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama won his fourth PGA Tour title to pass Shigeki Maruyama, his mentor. Maruyama told him the ultimate mark was nine tour wins, a record for most by an Asian-born player.

Matsuyama had little reason to believe that would come Sunday at Riviera.

Six shots behind to start the final round of the Genesis Invitational, Matsuyama delivered a record performance — 9-under 62, the lowest closing round by a winner at Riviera — to achieve the record that really mattered.

He now has nine PGA Tour wins, one better than K.J. Choi of South Korea.

“Reaching nine wins was one of my big goals, passing K.J. Choi,” Matsuyama said after his three-shot victory. “After my eighth win, I’ve been struggling with my back injury. There were a lot of times where I felt I was never going to win again. I struggled reaching to top 10, but I’m really happy that I was able to win today.”

This was an exquisite performance, second only to his 61 in the final round at Firestone in 2017 on a day no one else shot lower than 65.

Matsuyama was part of a five-way tie for the lead on the back nine until he hit a beautiful fade with a 6-iron from 187 yards into a breeze on the tough 15th hole that carried the bunker and rolled out to 8 inches for a tap-in birdie.

“Perfect shot,” he said.

JOHNSON LEADS LIV CHARGE AT U.S. OPEN | TWO BACK OF LEADER

LIV Golf players have made their presence felt at the majors this year and on Thursday it was Dustin Johnson who led the charge with a solid start to the U.S. Open.

The former world number one, who picked up the first of his two major titles at the 2016 U.S. Open, fired a six-under-par 64 at Los Angeles Country Club to tie his career-low round in a major.

That put him two shots back of co-leaders Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele, whose matching 62s marked the lowest round in U.S. Open history and equalled the lowest major round of all time.

XANDER SCHAUFFELE'S WINNING HIGHLIGHTS