MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Phil Mickelson got the strong finish he wanted. Steve Stricker is having too much fun to just stick to the senior circuit.

Mickelson and Stricker shot 4-under 66 on Thursday in the St. Jude Classic, leaving them in an 11-player tie for second – a stroke behind Seamus Power of Ireland. Mickelson matched his best opening round in relation to par this season.

”Oh, it was a great start for me,” Mickelson said. ”I ended up finishing off the round. I had a nice little stretch there in the middle where I went birdie, eagle, and I was able to finish it off with some pars after some poor tee shots.

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”It’s a good start. It’s not like you’re trying to win the tournament on Thursday. But it’s nice not to put myself too far behind so I’m playing catch-up. So another good round tomorrow will put me right in it for the weekend.”

Power birdied his final hole for the lead over Mickelson, Stricker, U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and others. He went t..

If you're constantly hooking the golf ball, read this tip from Hank Haney. You can eliminate your hook with a simple grip change.

Vegas oddsmaker Jeff Sherman on how he handicaps Tiger Woods, the recent Supreme Court ruling, and the golfer who draws the most action

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) Such is the stature of century-old Shinnecock Hills that it seems everyone can’t wait for the U.S. Open.

”Shinnecock looks epic,” Russell Knox said after he qualified.

Phil Mickelson has been critical at times for how the USGA prepares a golf course for what it calls the ”ultimate test.” He was runner-up at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, when only three players broke par on the weekend, none on Sunday. Asked if it was unfair, Mickelson said that day, ”I played some of the best golf of my life and still couldn’t shoot par. So you tell me.”

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He has been back to the Long Island gem twice in recent weeks and was raving about it.

”I think it’s the greatest setup I’ve ever seen in a U.S. Open,” he said.

No one is more excited about a return to Shinnecock Hills than the USGA, which has tradition on its side for the 118th U.S. Open championship. As much as it tries to present the ultimate test, lately it has seemed more like a trivia quiz.

Tw..

Jason MillerKevin Durant had a strange Wednesday night in Cleveland. Between putting up 43 points in a pivotal Game 3 victory and getting triggered by a heckler who literally just yelled “UT's butt”, KD also won free Taco Bell for all of America by almost single-handedly willing the Warriors to an NBA Finals road win:
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Per Taco Bell's “Steal A Game, Steal A Taco” promotion (which you may remember the Warriors cashing in last year as well), now every single taco-loving soul in the great US of A is entitled to some gratis ground “beef” in the form a single Doritos Locos Taco. To claim your food poisoning prize, all you have to do head down to your local Taco Bell on Wednesday, June 13th between 2 and 6pm.
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Just be prepared for a scene from The Day After Tomorrow 2, however, because America loves nothing more than free crap, no matter how crappy. Just ..

Tiger Woods will play the opening two rounds of the U.S. Open with Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson, which feels like a grouping of Nos. 1-2-3 in the world ranking.

Except that Woods is No. 80.

The USGA released its tee times Thursday for the U.S. Open next week at Shinnecock Hills, and it offered two stacked groups for the morning and afternoon.

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Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy tee off together in the morning of the first round. Woods, Johnson and Thomas are together in the afternoon.

This is the 10-year anniversary of the USGA first putting together the Nos. 1-2-3 players in the world at Torrey Pines – Woods, Mickelson and Adam Scott.

Woods is playing the U.S. Open for the first time since he missed the cut at Chambers Bay in 2015. He has been out of golf for most of the past two years recovering from back surgeries, and his world ranking fell as low as No. 1,199 until returning to competition last December. In nine PGA Tour events, he ..

SOUTHAMPTION, N.Y. (AP) Facts and figures for the 118th U.S. Open golf championship:

DATES: June 14-17.

Site: Shinnecock Hills Golf Club.

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The course: Shinnecock Hills has the oldest clubhouse in the United States. Twelve holes were open for play in 1891, with an additional six holes built in 1894. It hosted the second U.S. Open in 1896 at 4,423 yards. William Flynn redesigned the course in 1937, and the U.S. Open returned in 1986, 1995, 2004 and 2018. The course has added about 450 yards since the last U.S. Open and some of the greens expanded during a restoration to bring back Flynn’s intended strategy.

Length: 7,445 yards.

Par: 70 (35-35).

Cut: Top 60 players and ties.

Playoff (if necessary): Two-hole aggregate immediately after 72 holes are completed.

Field: 156 players.

Purse: $12 million. Winner’s share: $2.16 million.

Defending champion: Brooks Koepka.

Last year: Brooks Koepka broke away from a tight pack with three straight birdies on the ..

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) A hole-by-hole look at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, site of the 118th U.S. Open to be played June 14-17. Includes how the hole ranked in 2004 and the scoring average:

No. 1, 399 yards, par 4: A soft opening to a stern test, this par 4 from an elevated tee by the clubhouse will typically be a fairway metal off the tee, unless the wind is at the players’ back and tempts them to hit driver near the green.

Rank: 15.

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Scoring average: 4.169.

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No. 2, 252 yards, par 3: A new tee box makes this 26 yards longer to require a long iron or more. The prevailing breeze should help and come off the left. The green is open in the front with a small false front, and a bunker to the right.

Rank: 10.

Scoring average: 3.262.

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No. 3, 500 yards, par 4: The tee has been moved back 22 yards and to the left, and the fairway was tightened on the left side to make the dogleg more pronounced. The fairway still is 33 yards wide at the 300-yard mark. A bu..

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Bernhard Langer is once again tearing up the PGA Tour Champions circuit, ranking second on the money list through 11 events.

If Langer can finally break through at one of the rare courses that has repeatedly vexed him, he might leave Iowa in first place.

Langer enters this weekend’s Principal Charity Classic at Wakonda Club in Des Moines with 37 career victories in the senior series. But the German has notched just two top-10s in five tries in Iowa, including a frustrating fourth-place finish in 2017.

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The three-round senior golf tournament tees off on Friday.

Mike CoppolaWe all have a type, even Lindsey Vonn, a gold-medal winning badass who makes her living flying down near vertical sheets of ice with popsicle sticks strapped to her feet. Her taste in men? Uber-athletic alpha-males with superhuman hand-eye coordination and the god-given ability to smack tiny objects hundreds of miles of hours at targets the size of a pinhead. If that sounds suggestive, it isn't meant to be. If this seems like speculation, it's not. At Wednesday night's CMT Awards in Nashville, the former Tiger Woods love interest confirmed her budding relationship with Preds defenseman (and noted slapshot connoisseur) PK Subban…and pretty much everyone saw it coming.
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Whether or not Vonn and Subban ever share something as monumentally important as the great squirrel incident (which we still remember like it was yesterday) remains to be seen, b..