Ryan Fox – very much in contention in Canada – image Masters Tournament 

Ryan Fox finds himself in a share of 7^th place through 36 holes of the Canadian Open in Toronto, adding a second consecutive round of 66 to be at 8 under par and four off the lead of Cameron Champ.

If Fox is to play next week’s US Open at Oakmont, he will likely need to finish inside the top three this week to improve from his current 75^th in the world ranking to inside the top 60, the final criteria available for him to make the field.

Fox decided to withdraw from the final qualifying at his venue in Canada on Monday, citing the need for a break, but he has made such a good start this week that the door is still open to play his 6^th US Open Championship.

Fox recorded eight birdies in his round of 66 and begins the weekend in great shape to challenge for the lead as he chases a second PGA Tour title in the past month.

“It was two really nice days out there for golf to be honest,” said Fox, referring to the conditions. “The golf course handled the rain really well, and obviously we got the nice side of the draw, missing out on the rain yesterday morning. Very happy with the two days so far.

“It’s obviously a golf course you can make a lot of birdies on. It’s going to require two more good scores on the weekend, so I’ve played it pretty aggressively so far for the first two days. Sort of no change there.

“I think the rain definitely impacted the scoring a lot. I thought, when we played Tuesday and Wednesday in the Pro-Am, it was starting to get firmer fast, and you had to think about it a little bit more. If you were in the rough, it was hard to get the ball close. It was hard to hit a few of the fairways with how firm the fairways are. Obviously with the rain softening it up, it became a little bit of target golf.

Hopefully it does firm up over the weekend and play a little bit tougher. I think I definitely prefer that than a birdie fest, but I’ve made a few the first couple of rounds at least.”

Harrison Endicott was just inside the cutline as this was being written, with still five holes to play while Aaron Baddeley and Karl Vilips will miss the weekend.

The shock of the week to date has been the horror couple of rounds of Rory McIlroy a week ahead of the US Open. McIlroy will finish near to last in the field of 153 after rounds of 71 and 78.

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Hannah Green in action this week – image USGA

Hannah Green emerged as the best of the Australasians at this week’s Women’s US Open at Erin Hills near Milwaukee, adding a final round of 72 on a day where only three of the 60 players to make the weekend managed to break 70.

Green finished in a share of 12^th place at 1 under par and six shots behind the winner, Maja Stark of Sweden who won by two over Nelly Korda and Tio Takeda.

Two late bogeys cost Green a top ten finish, but it was her best finish in eight starts in the event, bettering her previous best of 13^th in 2023.

Minjee Lee was well enough placed heading into the final day but a round of 77 saw her slip back to a share of 22^nd while Lydia Ko finished 26^th.

The winner, Stark, joined the LPGA Tour in 2022 after winning a jointly sanctioned event in Northern Ireland, and although she has yet to win since until today, there have been several runner-up finishes. She won by two over World Number One Nelly Korda and Japan’s Rio Takeda, and, in doing so, becomes the third Swede to win the event after Liselotte Neumann and Annika Sorenstam who won on three occasions.

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Karl Vilips – despite winning on the PGA Tour this season still needs to qualify for the US Open 

Currently, five Australasians are qualified to play the upcoming US Open at the Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania beginning on June 12th. Those players are Min Woo Lee, Jason Day, Adam Scott, Cam Davis and Cam Smith but in tomorrow’s Final Qualifying being held over 36 holes at ten different venues across the USA, another twelve will attempt to gain one of the final positions remaining in the field.

They are among the nearly 10,000 original entrants for the event, a number that will eventually be dwindled down to 156.

Australians Lucas Herbert, Karl Vilips, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones, Wade Ormsby, Harrison Crowe, Rika Batibasaga and Josh Edgar and Gareth Steyn will be joined by New Zealanders Ben Campbell, Nick Voke, Jimmy Zheng, and Josh Bai as they chase one of the much-sought-after places in the field.

Several of these golfers survived local qualifying to get into Final Qualifying

New Zealand’s Ryan Fox was also scheduled to tee it up at Final Qualifying, but a search of the tee times suggests he will not do so and it appears after a busy schedule, including this coming week’s Canadian Open, he is taking a break.

Fox is currently in 78^th position in the world ranking, and the only means he now has of making the field is to probably win the Canadian Open.

Qualifying fields

Minjee Lee during today’s second round – image courtesy of USGA

There are just a dozen or so golfers left to complete round two of the Women’s US Open at the Erin Hills Golf Club near Milwaukee, but their performance when they return to complete their opening 36 holes will have little bearing on either the lead or those making the cut.

A weather delay caused play to eventually be called for darkness at 8.25 pm with Japan’s Mao Saigo ahead by three over a group of six players following her second round of 66 as she looks to become the third Japanese winner of the event in the last five years.

Of the seven Australasians in the event, Minjee Lee and Hannah Green lead the way, the pair tied for 19^th and seven shots from Saigo’s lead, but only three shots out of second place.

Lee bogeyed the last to provide a disappointing finish to an otherwise encouraging round of 69 while Green was round in 70 to improve to 2 under from her overnight level par, but looked ahead to the weekend with some positive thoughts.

“I think it was just a really quick turnaround, so I got back at like 8:00 and then came back out here — I was up at like 4:30 this morning. I think a little bit of rest this afternoon and just try and save the legs a little bit, do some recovery. I think that will be the main test. It’s such a mental challenge.

“I think just being physically and mentally a little sounder coming into the weekend would be nice. I think just play aggressively when I can and play smart when I have to. I think that’s going to be the key.”

Lydia Ko produced a final nine of 33 to be at even par and in a share of 37^th place and not entirely without hope of completing a grand slam of current major titles, having won the Evian Championship, the KPMG PGA Championship, and the AIG Women’s Open in previous years.

Of the other Australasians, Stephanie Kyriacou, Gabi Ruffels, Grace Kim, and Jenny Elliot all missed out on a chance to play the final 36 holes.

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Yani Tseng during one of her visits to RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast  – image Bruce Young

The return of former world number one, Yani Tseng, to the US Women’s Open this week at Erin Hills Golf Course, to play the event for the first time since 2016, was a heartwarming occasion for all.

The now 36-year-old Taiwanese golfer, who won 15 LPGA Tour titles including five major championships, in a five-year period between turning professional in 2007 and 2012, lost her way through injuries (hip surgeries), technical and resultant physcological issues.

Coming off an amateur career which included victories in two Junior World Championships, the US Women’s Amateur Public Links and North and South Amateur titles, Tseng was named the LPGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year in 2008.

In March of 2009, she became the youngest golfer to reach US$2 million in earnings on the LPGA Tour, and, a year later, she won her first major title when taking the Kraft Nabisco title and followed that a few months later with a win at the Women’s British Open.

She would go on to win another three majors and, in early 2011 after winning the ANZ Ladies Masters at RACV Royal Pines, she became the world number one, a mantle she held for 109 consecutive weeks. She also won the Women’s Australian Open in 2010, included in a total of 12 worldwide victories, alongside her LPGA Tour success.

The Florida-based golfer attended qualifying for the Women’s US Open, and in a superb achievement given the trials and tribulations she has experienced since her demise in 2013, she gained one of the two places available at her venue in Phoenix and joined the field for this week’s championship near Milwaukee.

Tseng suffered numerous injury, surgical, technical and psychological issues which led to her demise from being one of the greats in the game to near obscurity, but her return to competitive golf this week in such a significant event, allows us all a reminder of the great and dominant player she was.

This week, she spoke to the media ahead of the event.

“The passion never went away,” Tseng said Sunday at Erin Hills before a practice round with close friend Lydia Ko. “The past few years I’ve been disappointed with my performance, but I love golf, I love competition, I love the people. I want to prove to myself that I can still be a player at this level. I want to see how far I can go.”

“It’s crazy. Just incredible. Feel grateful, very grateful to be back. It’s so different. I feel like I’m like a little kid. To experience all the great hospitality and the friends, it’s just a lot of things that are no longer familiar. Nine years can change a lot, and I just feel very grateful to play the course like this and to see all the new purses, too, it’s crazy.

“I just enjoy every step that I’m coming back. I’m just very happy that I didn’t give up. That way I’ll never know these beautiful things could happen to me again.”

When asked why she didn’t quit given the battles she faced, Tseng responded;

“I don’t know, I asked myself a lot of times, too, because I think it’s very easy to quit. But I think every time I practice, every little step, little progress, gave me hope. I think that hope is kind of what carries me to be where I am now. I fell down so many times. I stood back up and I kept moving forward.

“I know I’m not like in my 20s, but I know Juli Inkster won her first U.S. Open when she was 39, so I’m not far away. I wanted to give myself this opportunity, an opportunity to win a spot back here. To allow the professionals or amateurs this opportunity to play the USGA tournament, that’s always been my dream since I was 13, and to come back here is so different than playing my first U.S. Open and the last U.S. Open and now.

“I just like the feeling and everything, I feel like this is the happiest ever.”

Having watched Tseng at close quarter during the time she played the ANZ Ladies Masters at RACV Royal Pines both as an amateur and a professional (Tournament Director Bob Tuohy gave her invitations based on her brilliance as an amateur) I can honestly say I have never seen a female golfer strike her irons so sweetly as Tseng displayed when at the peak of her powers.

The sound off the club was unlike any other woman of that era (with the possible exception of Karrie Webb) and her demise was so disappointing, for not only her, but for many of us who enjoyed her powerful and at times cavalier way of playing.

It is so good to see her back and keen to compete, and wherever her journey takes her in the future, her record in the female game should never be overlooked.

Yani Tseng was truly one of the game’s greatest, even if just for a few years.