2023 US Open Reporter Hans Day 1 Sobo's Pinseekers ran away with a dominating performance on Thursday. Led by of all people, Ricky Fowler with a 62! The team was so good that Jon Rahm had the 4th best score! Ikey's Heroes also have a 62 on the books thanks to Xander Schauffele, finding themselves in second place, 5 shots back. After that, OK scores were posted by Mags' Mulligans (how bout Dylan Wu at 68), Hans' Holes and Andy's Hookers. Then there was the bottom of the list. Fox's Red Foxes, Prep's Flies, Gabes' Foreskins and Al's Balls were more than 20 shots behind the Pinseekers. Overall, Los Angeles Country Club did not hold up well against the best in the game, IMO. Nevertheless, very interesting and great that West Coast golf means prime time viewing for all of us. 2 holes in one! Rory finally playing to his ability. Rose shooting +6 and decent scores by the LIV players were all noteworthy. Al and I have Brooks Koepka in our yearlong pool. Brooksy shot +1.. and was +3 at one point. Phil looked good, as did Dustin Johnson, who may just take home the hardware at the end. Fun watching. Enjoy the action. I'll be back at the end of Friday's round. Hans Al: You know the drill. I have serious distaste for Justin Thomas. But I had little to no choice but to select him in the first round. I was so wrong to have selected him. I would have reveled in the miserable year that he is having had he not been on my team. Here is how bad things have gotten with him. He is playing late on day 2, and I believe that he has been on camera for one swing. He shot +3 yesterday. It appears that the cut number will be +2. So he doesn't need to challenge the course record, shoot a 69 and play the weekend. So what does he do? The moron bogies the first 4 holes. His birdie on 5 does not help him turn the corner as he follows that with another bogey on his 6th hole. My regret is that they are not showing him and his lemon sucking sourpuss face. I would love to see the misery. Day 2 We have a new leader in the clubhouse! Ikey's Heroes are three shots ahead of Sobo's Pinseekers heading into the Saturday. As good as the Heroes were, they could only claim a share of the top spot on Friday as Andy's Hookers, both shooting 344. Not the 335 shot by the Pinseekers on Thursday, but good enough. Going into the weekend, the favorite continues to be Sobo. He has all 6 going. Ikey has 5. Gabes, Mags, Hans and Andy all have 4. Fox and Al have 2 each, with Prep having a single player. Not good... The top of the tournament leaderboard is loaded with name players... but I must say I'm surprised to see Ricky Fowler's name at the top. Good for him. I expect Rory and Xander to be there. I'll be pulling for Xander to win his first major. A Californian, he seems to always be in the hunt at majors. This should be his time. The other side of the good news is the bad news. I haven't yet read Al's rant on JT, but expect it to be another classic. Thomas really has been a disappointment this year. I hope to see more of the play today at LACC. Yesterday was my turn to host the family golf tournament at EVCC as well as in the evening with the players and families in attendance. And since Al has nothing to root for at the US Open, he did encourage me to contend in my event. So far, so good. I shot 82-12= 70 to tie at the top with one of my nephews who shot 76-6= 70. We tee off in round 2 in 2 1/2 hours. That's it for now. Al: My performance in these majors pools is absolutely horrendous. It would make more sense for me to write a check for $140 at the beginning of the year and then not go through the aggravation of following my abysmal team in these events! And perhaps by now Hans has caught up on last evening's emails and read the note that I sent on "lemon sucking JT" at 6:37 PM. Of course, he was not done with this round at the time, so the finishing touches of that tidy 81 were not yet in place. So this premier talent was +14 in the event. He missed the cut by 12 freaking strokes! This is not some regional qualifier, this was one of a large handful of the best golfers on the planet just a few months ago. It is the curse of the DIMPLED BALLS. Day 3 I enjoyed having this US Open on all evening last night. The show from LA did not disappoint. Ricky Fowler's three putt on 18 along with a Wyndham Clark birdie on 18 places both at the top with 18 holes to play. -10. Don't look now, but Rory McIlroy is back. -9 and guaranteed to be a factor on Sunday. And let's not forget Scottie Scheffler holing out for a eagle on 17, then making a 22 foot birdie placing him firmly in the mix. Go Scottie! Sobo's Pinseekers returned to the top on Saturday, with a mere one shot advantage over Gabes' Foreskins. After 3 days, the Pinseekers have a commanding 8 shot lead over Ikey's Heroes. Andy's Hookers sit in the final money spot. Their lead over the Foreskins, Mags' Mulligans and my Ace Holes looks comfortable enough.... but you never know! As for my family golf tournament... I shot 81-10=71 and am tied for the top with my cousin's son, a doctor serving for the Navy and currently stationed in Spain. We play Wedgewood in Joliet starting at 9 AM. Should be interesting. Happy Father's Day guys! Enjoy the day and the final round of the US Open. Day 4 Wyndham Clark was spectacular. I was rooting for him down the stretch, and he came through! And Andy gets a double skin!! Good for Andy. I thought it was interesting that the top three finishers all shot 70 on Sunday. Ricky slumped to 75, but he now has the record for the most birdies in any US Open. I'll bet he could care less about that record given the fact that he did not close the deal. Sobo's Pinseekers won the overall by 14 strokes. Not close. Ikey's Heroes finished second, 3 shots ahead of Gabes' Foreskins. The Foreskins, thanks in large part to the stellar play today by Tommy Fleetwood's 63, won the daily pot, followed by Sobo's Seekers. The breakdown of the $315 pot is detailed in the attachment. As hard as I may try, I cannot find a silver lining for the 5 teams who could not even cash a 2nd daily payout.... maybe at the British Open in a month! Keep the faith Al, MW Lee shot 65 today! As for my family tournament, I did not play well. 88-9=79 and an overall 3rd place. Nevertheless, it is always great to see my cousins and families. And I really welcome not having to drive to/from Iowa. That's it for now. I'll be back for the British Open in a month. Congrats Sobo. Hans Overall Result: Sobo $154 Ikey $72 Andy $16 Gabes $72 PS From Albert Stare down! Maybe not so much between Wyndham Clark and Rory McElroy, as they were in separate groups. But long after Hans' Scheffler and Gary's Little Ricky dropped by the wayside, it created the stare down between Slammin' Jimmy McGee and Shooter McDermott. It really should have been a walkover for Slammin' Jimmy. He had the #1 pick in the entire draft playing in the next-to-last group starting with a 2 shot lead over the esteemed and aforementioned Scheffler. But Scottie could not put on a charge; if this were a horse race, the designation would have been "did not factor". Ricky Fowler was playing side-by-side with Wyndham Clark in the final group. But having never won a major, and not having one PGA event in a very long time, you had to wonder about Ricky's resolve. Especially after the disastrous way that the 54th hole played out on Saturday. His bogey paired with Clark's birdie wasted away Ricky's 2 shot cushion. He and Clark were both -10. It looked like the tournament was over at the par 5, #14. Rory bogeyed, Clark birdied and opened a 3 stroke lead. Rory played even over the last tough stretch. And when Clark stubbed his toe on both #15 and #16, we had some excitement. But it is not supposed to be easy to win a US open, and Clark had to par 2 very difficult holes to seal the deal. Rory's only birdie was on the first hole, he could not get back to -10 after the bogey on #14. So Clark's clutch pars on the last 2 sealed the deal. Rory, 8 years and counting since his last major. -- Al