Brooks vs. Bryson and other storylines to watch at the US Open

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The U.S. Open tees off tomorrow

The third men's major of the golf season — and the last before the Olympic qualifying deadline — features plenty of good storylines. Such as:

Lefty's last stand?

Phil Mickelson pulled off one of the great surprises in golf history a few weeks ago, winning the PGA Championship to become, at 50, the oldest major champion of all time. He now owns six major titles, but there's one big hole in his resumé: no U.S. Opens. Lefty has come painfully close at golf's most difficult event, finishing second a record six times. That includes his legendary meltdown in 2006 at Winged Foot, where he hit his drive on 17 into a literal garbage can and then double-bogeyed 18 to lose by one shot to the forgettable Geoff Ogilvy. Phil showed at the PGA that he can still summon a great performance, but this might be his last best chance to complete the career Grand Slam. The U.S. Open is being played at Torrey Pines in San Diego — Mickelson's hometown.

The Brooks-Bryson beef

Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau might seem to have a lot in common. They're both large dudes who hit the ball a long way and, combined, they've won three of the last four U.S. Opens (Koepka in 2017 and '18, DeChambeau last year). But they're also '80s-movie opposites. Koepka is your classic jock — tanned, athletic, big muscles, tight shirts. DeChambeau is a nerd who majored in physics and treats golf like a science experiment — he only pumped up his body after hypothesizing that bombing the ball off the tee is golf's cheat code. Koepka, who likes to play fast, despises how long DeChambeau takes to think about his shots, and has called him out publicly for it. Their beef escalated at the PGA Championship with Koepka's viral lash-out, and DeChambeau later tweeted at Koepka that "It's nice to be living rent free in your head!" To golf fans' chagrin, the rivals weren't grouped together for the first two rounds. But if they shoot similar scores, they could be paired together on the weekend, which would be must-see TV. Read more about the Koepka-DeChambeau feud here.

Jon Rahm's return

The world's No. 3-ranked player raced out to a six-shot lead through two rounds at the prestigious Memorial a couple of weeks ago. Then, walking off the 18th green, he was informed he'd tested positive for COVID-19 and was DQ'd from the tournament. Rahm has since tested negative, clearing the big Spaniard to chase his first major title this week. He's the betting favourite — partly because world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and No. 2 Justin Thomas haven't been in the best form lately, and partly because Rahm is objectively the best golfer on the planet right now. Data Golf's respected statistical model ranks him No. 1 by a wide margin.

The Canadian contender

Tee to green, Corey Conners is one of the best players on tour. His putter is hit-and-miss, but when it's on, the 29-year-old from Listowel, Ont., can go toe to toe with anyone in the world in the biggest tournaments. This year, he's already tied for eighth at the Masters, tied for 17th at the PGA Championship and finished seventh at the Players Championship — the so-called "fifth major." The other three Canadians in the field are Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith. The latter tied for 23rd at the U.S. Open last year.

Olympic implications

The official world rankings on Monday — the day after the final round of the U.S. Open — will be used to determine the field for the 60-player men's tournament at the Tokyo Olympics. The top 15 qualify, but there's a limit of four golfers per country that can get in this way. The remaining spots go to the highest-ranked players from countries that don't already have two qualified, up to a maximum of two per country. There are also quotas to ensure there's at least one golfer from the host country (Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama is from Japan, so that wouldn't have been a problem anyway) and each of the five continents.

It looks like Canada's entries in the Olympic men's tournament will be Conners and Hughes, assuming they want to go. They're ranked 36th and 67th in the world, respectively, with Hadwin a distant third at 100th.

The Olympic women's field will be determined based on the world rankings on June 28 — the day after the Women's PGA Championship. World No. 5 Brooke Henderson is a lock for Canada. Alena Sharp, ranked 137th, has a shot too.

What a time to be a Canadian soccer fan

The men's national team features two of the best young players in the world in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, and it just reached the third round of regional qualifying for the World Cup for the first time in more than two decades. Last night's 3-0 win over Haiti (thanks partly to an astonishing blooper by the Haitian goalie) gave Canada a 4-0 aggregate victory in their home-and-away second-round matchup.

Now things get really interesting. The top five countries in the CONCACAF region — Mexico, the United States, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Honduras — parachute in for the eight-team final round, joining Canada and fellow second-round winners El Salvador and Panama. It's a marathon: everyone plays 14 matches (home and away vs. each of the seven other teams) from early September through late March. The top three will qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the fourth-place team gets one more shot via an intercontinental playoff matchup. Read more about Canada's increasing hopes of reaching the World Cup in this piece by CBC Sports contributor John Molinaro.

In the meantime, the Canadian women's national team will go for its third consecutive Olympic medal this summer in Tokyo. The squad just turned in back-to-back scoreless draws vs. the Czech Republic and Brazil in its last two matches before coach Bev Priestman names her Olympic roster. Read John's analysis of the team's outlook for Tokyo here.

And quickly…

Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Roger Federer on grass. It's hard to say how much the eight-time Wimbledon champ really cared about today's second-round match at a tuneup event in Germany. He's closing in on his 40th birthday and, coming off two knee surgeries, clearly taking it easy right now. Last week, Federer walked away from the French Open after three rounds, indicating he wants to protect his health for Wimbledon, which starts June 28. But beating Federer on his favourite surface is still something to be proud of, and Auger-Aliassime (who turns 21 on Aug. 8, the same day Federer hits 40) did it 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Read more about Felix's win and watch highlights here.

Kevin Durant played one of the best basketball games ever. Things looked bleak for Brooklyn heading into Game 5 of its second-round series vs. Milwaukee. The title favourites had lost two in a row, Kyrie Irving was out with an ankle injury, and James Harden was badly hampered by a bad hamstring that cost him all but one minute of the first four games. But the most important piece of the Nets' triumvirate put the team on his back. Playing all 48 minutes last night, Durant scored 49 points on an incredibly efficient 16-for-23 shooting (plus 13-for-16 from the free-throw line) while grabbing 17 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists in a 114-108 Brooklyn win. Read more about KD's masterpiece here.

In less-happy NBA news: Clippers star Kawhi Leonard is out for tonight's Game 5 against Utah (and maybe much longer) after hurting his right knee in the fourth quarter of the last game, which L.A. won to even the series at 2-2. Phoenix point guard Chris Paul is also out indefinitely after entering the NBA's COVID-19 protocols. The Suns are awaiting the winner of the Clippers-Jazz series after sweeping Denver, so Paul might not miss any action. Also, New Orleans coach Stan Van Gundy was fired after just one (playoff-less) season with the team, and Scott Brooks is out as Washington's coach. Read more about the bad NBA news here.

Nikita Kucherov is dominating the NHL playoffs again. A lot of people cried foul when the Tampa Bay star sat out the entire regular season after hip surgery, only to conveniently return for Game 1 of the playoffs. It seemed like a pretty transparent move by the Lightning to free up cap space and add more depth for the compressed season, knowing they didn't need Kucherov to qualify for the playoffs in the soft Central Division. The risk was that he'd be too rusty, but that is clearly not the case. After leading the post-season in points last year, Kucherov has opened up a seven-point edge on the rest of the field with 22 in only 13 games. He had three assists in last night's 4-2 win, which evened Tampa's semifinal series with the Islanders at one game each. Game 2 of the other semifinal goes tonight, with Vegas looking to go up 2-0 on Montreal. Watch it at 9 p.m. ET on CBC TV, CBCSports.ca and the CBC Sports app.

You're up to speed. Talk to you tomorrow.