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Good morning to everyone but especially to...
RICKIE FOWLER AND XANDER SCHAUFFELE
From 1895-2022, no one had ever shot better than 63 at the U.S. Open. Thursday, it happened twice within minutes.
Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele both shot 62 to set the U.S. Open record, tie the record at any major and co-own the lead through 18 holes at Los Angeles Country Club.
Let's start with Fowler, whose comeback is almost too good to be true. You probably remember him as a young star with top fives in all four majors in 2014 and the 2015 Players Championship title. You may not know that he was 185th in the world as recently as last September and didn't even qualify for the last two U.S. Opens. Thursday was a wonderful, heartwarming return, writes our Kyle Porter.
Schauffele, like Fowler, is still searching for his first major victory. Unlike Fowler, Schauffele has been right in the thick of things recently. The historic 62 adds to a superb U.S. Open resume, notes our Patrick McDonald.
- McDonald: "While Schauffele's score of 62 was surprising, his performance was not. Notching six straight top-20 finishes to begin his U.S. Open career, he was already a member of rare company when his first five resulted in top-10 efforts -- a feat only Bobby Jones can also claim. ... 'It's just Thursday,' said Schauffele. 'It's literally just the first day of a tournament. It's a good start.'"
They aren't the only ones off to a good start. With soft course conditions and calm weather, the average score of 71.38 was lowest ever for a U.S. Open first round.
- T1. Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler (-8)
- T3. Dustin Johnson, Wyndham Clark (-6)
- T5. Rory McIlroy, Brian Harman (-5)
- T7. Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler, Si Woo Kim, Sam Bennett, Mackenzie Hughes, Harris English, Paul Barjon (-3)
Not everyone was able to take advantage. Jon Rahm (-1) and Brooks Koepka (+1) are among the big names with work to do.
Here's our first-round leaderboard breakdown, and here are Kyle's takeaways.
Honorable mentions
- Nikola Jokic had quite the time at the Nuggets' parade. So did Michael Malone.
- There's a favorite in the Bradley Beal sweepstakes.
- The Rays are the first team this season to reach 50 wins and are on pace for 112 wins.
- Kelsey Mitchell nailed the game-winner to lift the Fever over the Sky.
Not so honorable mentions
- Victor Wembanyama's season with Metropolitans 92 is over.
- J.K. Dobbins skipped minicamp over contract frustrations.
- Antonio Brown's National Arena League team, the Albany Empire, got kicked out of the league for missed payments.
- Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks is off the IL but sporting a black eye from... dunking on his 3-year-old son.
- A Denver police officer suffered a "very significant" leg injury during the Nuggets' parade.
USMNT thrash Mexico 3-0, plan to rehire Gregg Berhalter ⚽
Three goals, two red cards for each team, one new coach and zero chance we'll forget this night. I promised you the US men's national team against Mexico in the Concacaf Nationals League semifinal wouldn't be boring.
I never would have guessed it would end up like this. First, the match: a 3-0 win for the USMNT over its biggest rival.
- Pulisic missed a couple of chances early but broke through in the 37th minute, capitalizing on a Mexico turnover and slotting a left-footed shot past Memo Ochoa. He doubled the lead in the 46th minute off a wonderful transition.
- After entering in the 75th minute, Ricardo Pepi made it 3-0 three minutes later. Sergiño Dest left defenders in his wake before delivering a perfect through ball, and Pepi finished calmly.
- It's the USMNT's largest win over Mexico in a competitive match, and the USA is undefeated in six straight matches against Mexico, tying its longest such streak.
Those were the good headlines for the USMNT. The bad headlines were red cards to Weston McKennie (71st minute) and Dest (85th minute).
- McKennie's came in a scrum of players after Mexico's César Montes received a red card for an awful tackle on Folarin Balogun.
- Dest's came after he got shoved in the back by Mexico's Gerardo Arteaga, who also received a red. Dest went at Arteaga and got sent off. Both will be unavailable for Sunday's championship against Canada, which is not great news.
All of this, though, came against the backdrop of a stunning news dump: Right around kickoff, it was reported that Gregg Berhalter will return as the team's head coach. Yes, the Berhalter who coached the team from 2018 through the 2022 World Cup and was generally successful but also left some fans wanting more. Things took a dramatic turn after the latest World Cup, when Berhalter revealed one player was nearly sent home. That player was Gio Reyna. Here's a full explainer on that entire episode.
The USMNT has had two interim coaches (Anthony Hudson and B.J. Callaghan) since Berhalter's contract expired at the end of 2022. Berhalter was always eligible for the job, but this is a surprise.
In some ways, Thursday represented a new era with Balogun's debut, the USA's beatdown and Callaghan's coaching debut. In another way, it represented an old era with Berhalter's return. The combination leaves the USMNT with a strange path going forward.
NFL Top 100 players: Mahomes back on top, QBs take top three spots 🏈
The Chiefs ended their 2021 season by blowing a double-digit second-half lead in the AFC Championship and followed that up by trading away record-breaking wide receiver Tyreek Hill. If there was a moment to doubt Patrick Mahomes -- even just a tiny bit -- it was then. Our Pete Prisco even dropped Mahomes all the way to *gasp* third in his Top 100 players entering 2022.
Mahomes responded with an all-time great season, leading Kansas City to another Super Bowl title and winning another MVP. The result? Mahomes is back to No. 1 in Pete's Top 100 players entering 2023.
Here's the top 10:
Let's put things in perspective if you're (somehow) not convinced about Mahomes (hey, Ja'Marr Chase apparently isn't). Last year, Mahomes produced 0.27 expected points added per dropback, 0.08 ahead of Josh Allen in second place. That was the same margin as the one between Joe Burrow (seventh at 0.10) and Andy Dalton (20th at 0.02).
So, yes, Mahomes is No. 1, and it's not close.
Here are the other quarterbacks in Pete's top 100:
- Justin Herbert (22nd)
- Trevor Lawrence (23rd)
- Aaron Rodgers (29th)
- Jalen Hurts (31st)
- Lamar Jackson (35th)
- Justin Fields (78th)
Pete clearly has big expectations for Fields, as do the Bears, who traded down from the No. 1 overall pick. It's important that Fields lives up to those expectations: If he struggles, the Bears will not only have a high pick, but they also own the Panthers' first-round pick in a quarterback-heavy 2024 draft.
You can see Pete's top 100 here.
More A's drama: Harper criticizes move to Vegas; Manfred addresses reverse boycott ⚾
There have been plenty of voices chiming in on the Athletics' impending move to Las Vegas. Thursday, two of MLB's most important people put in their respective two cents.
Bryce Harper, the two-time NL MVP and Las Vegas native, said he's not a fan of the move: "I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. It's just not right. They have so much history in Oakland. You're taking a team out of a city. I'm pretty sad because of all of the history and all of the greatness they've seen there."
I think most people feel the way Harper feels, and that's what made commissioner Rob Manfred's comments Thursday all the more frustrating.
- Speaking at owners meetings, Manfred said, "There is no Oakland offer." The Oakland mayor's office vehemently disagreed.
- Manfred also mocked the "reverse boycott" from Tuesday, when a season-high 27,759 fans attended and urged owner John Fisher to sell the team. Manfred called it, "almost an average Major League Baseball crowd."
Hey Rob, how about getting one of your owners to spend "almost an average" amount of money on his team? Since Fisher bought out managing partner Lew Wolff in 2016, the Athletics have never ranked higher than 23rd in payroll, and they rank last by a wide margin this season. Accordingly, only the Royals (18-50) have a worse record than the Athletics (19-52) this season.
Anyway, regardless of the outcries, the move to Las Vegas is all but done, with just the owners' approval needed.
What we're watching this weekend 📺
⛳ We're watching the U.S. Open all weekend. Here's how.
⚾ We're also watching the College World Series. Here's how, and here are players to watch.
Saturday
🏀 Storm at Wings, 2 p.m. on CBS
⚾ Angels at Royals, 4:10 p.m. on FS1
⚾ Guardians at Diamondbacks, 10:10 p.m. on FS1
Sunday
🏀 Mercury at Liberty, 2 p.m. on CBS
🏀 Dream at Fever, 4 p.m. on CBS Sports Network
⚾ Yankees at Red Sox, 7 p.m. on ESPN
⚽ USMNT vs. Canada, 9 p.m. on Paramount+