Sports
The best view of this U.S. Open? It starts at the beginning
PINEHURST, N.C. — It was still early when Justin Thomas woke up the ghost.
A little after 8 a.m., he walked along the pine straw lining the right side of the third hole at Pinehurst No. 2. The two-time major champion considered his options. Having bogeyed the second hole he was already feeling the heat on a day growing warmer by the minute. Now an errant tee shot on the third left an awkward angle into the green.
With that, Thomas drew back his club and hit a shot that can only be described as … relatable. Something between a dead pull and a violent hook. Perhaps a knot of wire grass near the lie was to blame. Perhaps it was simply a terrible shot. Either way, it was so bad, and so left, that it crossed the entire fairway and entered the native area left of the third green.
It was a spot few visited during Thursday’s opening round of the U.S. Open. The third hole measures under 400 yards. Perhaps the course’s friendliest par 4. A wedge into the green will do — at least for these guys. But Thomas ended up near a temporary fence wrapped in a thick green canvas, the dividing line between the course and the houses lining it. Appropriately, not far from where Thomas’ ball ended up, the fence includes a single opening.
Two swinging doors are held together by a padlock, but allow for access from either side.
There, on the other side of that fence, is Donald Ross’ house.
The Scotsman first moved to Pinehurst in 1900. He was hired to serve as a golf pro and teaching instructor for the area’s two nine-hole horses — courses he ultimately decided to combine into one 18-hole track. Then set out to build a second course in 1907. He shaped the land as he’d learned back home, where golf’s first architects wandered the planes looking for where the sheep created mounds to block the northern wind. That’s where they built their bunkers.
The course Ross crafted in Pinehurst became his muse. So much so he wanted to look after her. So he and his second wife, Florence, built their home behind the third green in 1925. They disagreed on the style during construction. Thus, today, 76 years after Ross’ 1948 passing, if you walk along Midland Road, you’ll see what looks like a Scottish Cottage, while if you walk along back near the third green, you see what looks like a Southern colonial. Every good marriage has a middle ground.
Donald Ross built a home along Pinehurst No. 2, the most famous course in his legendary history as a golf architect. (Brendan Quinn / The Athletic)
The romantics here say Ross used to sit out back and smoke cigars, watching players come through the third and fifth holes. He’d note how they approached the two turtleback greens, then plot against them. Some claim Ross would wander out to the course at night, checking the contours of that third green and looking after things.
“Ross continued to improve No. 2 long after he finished it,” says Dan Maples, whose father, Frank, came to be a sort of adopted son by Ross, and handled construction and course maintenance for umpteen Ross courses, including No. 2. “It became an extension of himself.”
All these years later, the U.S. Open is being played at Pinehurst for the fourth time. So to understand what both Ross and God intended, where else would you watch it other than Ross’ back lawn?
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Just ask Sam Bennett. The 24-year-old posed with high hands watching his approach into the third. A good one. Settling upon what looked like a flat piece of the green, the shot left Bennett with a 15-20 foot birdie try. But then a wiggle. The ball seemed to consider its options. Then a lean to the left. The crowd moaned. Picking up speed, the ball rolled off the green, through the fringe and somehow settled onto the cut of rough atop the bunker, inches from dropping into the sand for a straightforward bunker shot. Out in the fairway, Bennett doubled over. He then arrived on the green to find an uneasy stance, a tricky chip, and a bogey.
The third could be a postcard for all of Ross’ greens at Pinehurst. It tempts. It teases. It accepts. It rejects. It is crowned, but can hold approach shots and allow scoring. It is short and accessible, but so difficult to get up and down.
Thursday’s pin placement was on the left side of a right-to-left slope. Looking up at it from the fairway, the top of the green cuts a horizon line that turns the backside of the green into a great unknown. Players are well aware of what’s back there, but can be nevertheless unnerved. That’s precisely what Ross was going for.
In the back, the green careens downhill toward a sandy footpath and, if you cross that, all the way to the fifth green. Some are now more aware of this than others.
Dustin Johnson rolled his eyes upon finding his ball sitting in the middle of that dusty path. Then he made bogey on his way to a 4-over 74.
Jason Day tried a traditional bunker shot from the path, but found a compressed patch of sand and thinned a shot back over the green. His up-and-down from 82 feet probably was one of the better bogey saves you’ll see this week.
Poor Cameron Davis found his ball behind the third green and asked a USGA rules official if he might receive relief from the path, as if it were a cart path. Confused by the question, the official responded, only, “No.” Accepting the answer, Davis pulled out a sand wedge, blasted a shot and watched his ball roll to the crest of the green and come to a standstill. Then he watched it roll 50 feet back to him. Davis saved bogey, but finished with a 77.
Scottie Scheffler plays a shot out of the greenside bunker on No. 3. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
The third hole wasn’t all spin-outs and evil eyes. Nineteen players birdied it. Every player inside the top eight at days’ end left with par, except two. Bryson DeChambeau and Akshay Bhatia made birdie.
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The two Pinehursts have not always seen eye to eye
That is, in many ways, the point. Ross aimed to create courses that could test the best, fairly. Good shots are rewarded. Bad shots are not. Chance is always in play. Add it up and you get a war of attrition. Who can keep aiming at the middle of greens? Who can take their medicine when necessary? Who can keep giving themselves opportunities?
Following an opening 3-under 67, DeChambeau exhaled and said: “From a mental exhaustion perspective, this was probably the most difficult that I’ve had in a long, long, long time. I can’t remember the last time I mentally exerted myself that hard to focus on hitting fatter parts of the green instead of going for flags.”
As for Thomas, his bogey on the third was an early reveal of what was to come. He sure as hell got a scare and finished his morning with a 7-over 77, returning to the driving range afterward to figure out what went wrong.
Ross, you see, is no ghost. He is very alive.
(Top photo of Justin Thomas: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
Sports
Draymond Green refuses to let Charles Barkley bury the Warriors, delivers cutting Rockets jab on air
Wednesday night on “Inside the NBA” was less of a pregame show and more of a roast session as Draymond Green joined the desk.
The Golden State forward started going at it with Charles Barkley as the Mound Round of Rebound poked fun at the sinking ship that is the Warriors dynasty.
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Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors reacts during a game against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, Calif., on April 10, 2026. (Rocky Widner/NBAE)
The tension started when Sir Charles decided to eulogize the Dubs while looking Green dead in the eye.
“It’s over for the Warriors. No disrespect. It ends for every old team,” Barkley said.
“You had your run; you get old; you let Klay go. You and Steph are on the backside of your careers; it just passed you by.”
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Barkley kept his foot on the gas.
While he gave the Warriors credit for “one of the greatest runs ever,” he made it clear that Father Time remains undefeated in the paint.
“Sports … listen, sports are for young people,” Barkley added. “You hope to have a great long career, but sports … nobody wins when they’re 37, 38.”
NBA TV analysts Charles Barkley and Chris Webber speak to Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green after Game 3 of the NBA Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 7, 2017. (John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated)
In predictable fashion, Draymond was unable to stomach the banter.
He waited for the opening and went for the jugular, referencing Barkley’s infamous sunset years in Texas.
“Yeah, I mean, I think the goal is just to not look like you in the Houston Rockets uniform,” Green fired back.
The jab was a direct hit on Barkley’s ring-chasing era in Houston, where the Hall of Famer was famously a shell of his MVP self.
Green then shifted into a rare moment of veteran self-awareness and admitted the Warriors are in a transitional phase, but insisted the pedigree matters more than the box score.
“I think understanding what is success at this point is key for us,” Green explained. “Knowing and understanding that it may not be realistic to win a championship, but can we continue to build to that so that once we leave this organization, it’s still in a great space?”
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Despite Draymond’s talk about maintaining a winning pedigree, this year was a harsh wake-up call for the Golden State faithful.
Draymond Green and head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors react during the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Ga., on March 21, 2026. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
The Warriors’ season went out with a whimper as they finished 10th in the West and were bounced immediately in the play-in tournament.
Barkley might think the light is fading, but Draymond is clearly going to keep swinging on his way out.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
There will be no Triple Crown winner in horse racing this year. There won’t even be an attempt.
Trainer Cherie DeVaux on Wednesday announced Golden Tempo, the horse that made her the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby, would skip the Preakness Stakes next week at its temporary home, Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.
Just hours after Golden Tempo returned to the racetrack at Keeneland for the first time since his victory Saturday at Churchill Downs, DeVaux posted a statement on X.
“After much thoughtful discussion as a team, we have decided that Golden Tempo will bypass the Preakness Stakes,” the statement read.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the excitement and support surrounding the possibility of a Triple Crown run. The enthusiasm from racing fans, our owners, and our entire team has meant more to us than we can properly express. Golden gave us the race of a lifetime in the Kentucky Derby, and we believe the best decision for him moving forward is to give him a little more time following such a tremendous effort. His health, happiness, and long-term future will always remain our top priority.”
The Preakness, set for May 16, is the second leg of the Triple Crown, followed June 6 by the Belmont Stakes, which for the third straight year will be contested in Saratoga, N.Y. Since 1978, the only horses to sweep all three races are American Pharoah in 2015 and Justify in 2018.
Golden Tempo is the second straight horse and third in the last five years not to run in the Preakness. Sovereignty, who did not participate last year, won the Belmont and later the Travers and was voted Horse of the Year.
Unlike in the past, trainers almost never run horses with just two or even three weeks’ rest. That has prompted talk that the Preakness — which has been run 14 days after the Derby since 1950 — and Belmont could be moved back to allow horses more time between races. Sports Business Journal reported last month that the Preakness was “set to make a historic shift to one week later,” though many trainers have said that won’t make a difference.
DeVaux was asked the day after the Derby if having the Preakness four weeks after the Derby would make her decision easier.
“I mean, it would make anyone’s decision easier, but that’s not the Triple Crown,” she said. “So, the Triple Crown is hard to win for a reason. And I appreciate the history of it.
“You know, the horses are definitely different. They’re not built the same. They’re not trained the same as back then, but current times have shown that it can be done with the right horse.”
There is no shortage of horses aiming for the Preakness, which is limited to 14 starters. One of those — and the likely favorite if he runs — is Crude Velocity, who won the Pat Day Mile on Saturday at Churchill Downs in just his third career start. But trainer Bob Baffert, who has won the Preakness a record eight times, has yet to decide whether he wants to run the horse in two weeks.
“I’m still on fence,” Baffert said Wednesday via text. “Tempted but I’m not leaning yet.”
The Daily Racing Form reported Ocelli, the maiden who finished third in the Derby, is now expected to run in the Preakness. Trainer Whit Beckman told the Form he had Ocelli jog Wednesday and “he looked better than great.”
Added Beckman: “You wouldn’t know this horse ran Saturday. He’s made of something different. Every indication he’s given me is to point to this race. … We’re having fun, the horse is having fun. If everybody’s having fun, why stop the fun?”
According to a news release from the Preakness, other horses under consideration who didn’t run in the Derby are Chip Honcho, Corona de Oro, Crupper, Express Kid, Great White, Iron Honor, Napoleon Solo, Pretty Boy Miah, Silent Tactic, Taj Mahal, Talkin, Talk to Me Jimmy and The Hell We Did.
The Racing Form reported jockey Jose Ortiz, who rode Golden Tempo to his Derby win, will ride Chip Honcho in the Preakness.
Sports
Joey Chestnut reflects on return to hot dog eating contest after contract dispute, temporary ban
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The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest two years ago was unusual in that it was missing the greatest competitive eater of all time.
Joey Chestnut, a 16-time winner of the event, was not eligible to participate in 2024 after he signed a deal with Nathan’s rival Impossible Foods. Chestnut was still on the outs months before the 2025 competition when he announced that he and the organizers had found common ground on sponsorships.
That brought Chestnut, now a 17-time winner after taking the belt again last year, back to Coney Island.
Joey Chestnut wins the men’s competition at Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City on July 4, 2025. He returned to compete for a 17th win after missing the 2024 event due to a sponsorship dispute with Major League Eating. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
“It was great. The audience is awesome, it’s electric. It’s good to be back after mending some fences,” Chestnut recently told Fox News Digital. “I do what I love. I got the best job in the world. I get to eat, travel, beat the heck out of people, and meet happy people. So it was great to be back.”
Chestnut’s return to the grand stage was, well, grand. Credit is due to Patrick Bertoletti, who downed 58 dogs and buns in Chestnut’s absence to take home the title two years ago. But Chestnut hasn’t posted a number that “low” since 2010. And while the Coney Island Nathan’s still had a decent crowd, it doesn’t compare to when Chestnut is on stage.
For the greatest of all time, though, it was never about a comeback — just winning and celebrating Independence Day.
“It’s never about me. It’s not even about the hot dogs. It’s the Fourth of July. It’s an eating contest, but really, it’s a Fourth of July celebration, it’s a celebration in New York. And that contest, it’s hard to describe exactly,” Chestnut said.
Joey Chestnut prepares to compete in the men’s competition at Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City on July 4, 2025. He returns to compete for a 17th win after missing the 2024 event due to a sponsorship dispute with Major League Eating. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
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“It’s an event, it’s more than just an eating contest. It’s part of the Fourth of July celebration for New York City, and I’m just a very little part of it. And when it comes to that celebration, I’m very happy that I was able to come back and be part of people’s Fourth of July.”
Chestnut won his first title in 2007, taking down the dynastic eater that was Takeru Kobayashi. Since then, he’s won 17 of the last 18 events he has competed in. Matt Stonie pulled off an upset in 2015.
In his return to Coney Island, Chestnut downed 70 hot dogs, an improvement from the 62 he ate in 2023. So clearly, there are no signs of slowing down. But Chestnut knows time is ticking, and he wants to make the most of it.
“When I was younger, I could gain weight and then lose it really quick. Now, it’s a lot more work, but I still love it. And I know my body,” Chestnut said. “But as long as I’m competitive, as long as it’s fine, and I’m healthy. I’m going to be involved. I was just talking to a guy who, he’s 58 years old and he’s been doing this since I got started. And so he’s still able to do it. I’m like, ‘All right, I can do this.’ I got a couple more years, and we’ll see.”
Joey Chestnut wins the men’s competition at Nathan’s Annual Hot Dog Eating Contest in New York City on July 4, 2025. He returned to compete for a 17th win after missing the 2024 event due to a sponsorship dispute with Major League Eating. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
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“It really is, like, I really feel like it’s one of the best gigs that there is. I get to travel, eat, and, dude, it’s the funniest thing,” Chestnut said. “After I do this eating, I’m all sweaty, greasy, messy, and then people want to take pictures with me. It’s the funnest thing in the world.”
“As long as I can, I’m gonna be doing it.”
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