The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
McIlroy makes more noise, this time with clubs
BROOKLINE, Mass. — Rory McIlroy made another bold statement at the U.S. Open. This time it was with his golf.
McIlroy has become a leading voice on the PGA Tour over the last few years, particularly with his rebuke of the Saudi-funded series that is disrupting golf. The opening round Thursday at The Country Club was a reminder he’s pretty good at his day job, too.
And a few fiery moments showed how badly he wants to end eight years without a major.
McIlroy made two straight birdies late in his round to become the first player to reach 4 under among early starters, only to miss the ninth green and make his only bogey for a 3-under 67 and a share of the early lead with qualifiers Joel Dahmen, David Lingmerth and Callum Tarren.
Adam Hadwin shot a 4-under 66 in the afternoon to grab the first-round lead.
At the moment, McIlroy isn’t concerned with his strong stance against LIV Golf.
“It’s been eight years since I won a major,” he said. “And I just want to get my hands on one again.”
Even with a good start, and coming off a victory last week in the Canadian Open, it doesn’t figure to be easy. The Country Club might be as accommodating as it gets all week, with moderate wind and cloud cover keeping the sun from making greens crispy and firm.
And the best anyone could do was a 67.
Collin Morikawa, trying to win a major for the third straight year, thought he might be able to take it deep — at least by U.S.
Open standards — when he birdied the ninth hole to reach 3 under. But he didn’t make another birdie and closed with a bogey when he had to lay up short of the gaping bunker on the 18th, duffed a pitch into the sand and scrambled for a 69.
“I think it will only get tougher,” he said.
Jon Rahm was also at 69 after hitting wild drives on his last two holes and converting one for par, another for birdie.
It already was proving tough enough for Phil Mickelson, playing on
guard I enjoy coaching,” Hurley said. “Diligent worker. Can score and can create. He’s got a really, really good feel and college basketball is going to see the very best version of him. He’s got resources at his disposal in terms of what he can do, physically, in the weight room and becoming a better athlete, becoming a stronger athlete. College basketball is seeing the best version of him this year.”
Last year’s version was dominant. Newton, a 6foot-5 point guard, averaged 17.7 points, five assists, 4.8 rebounds and 34.8 minutes for East Carolina (15-15) in being named an All-American Athletic Conference first-team player.
At UConn, Newton is expected to be the primary point guard for a team that will be fluid in how it operates, often going with a one-inside-four-outside approach to offense that will feature, Hurley hopes, multiple playmakers with the ball on the perimeter.
Two other transfer guards — Nahiem Alleyne of Virginia Tech and Hassan Diarra of Texas A&M — are expected in the perimeter rotation. Sophomore shooting guard Jordan Hawkins is expected to flourish — “Obviously, we’re betting heavy on that,” Hurley said — and junior guard/forward Andre Jackson is UConn’s do-everything player who will need to refine his play.
Newton will steer much of what the team does.
“He’s what we expected,” Hurley said. “He’s a great kid on top of that, too. The portal is like speed dating, in a way. You don’t always
know, exactly, if the kid can be exactly the way you’d like the person to be. So I think we’re just thrilled that he’s also the good person, the coachable person, that you want.
“Smart. You’ve got to bring in smart guys, as transfers. They’ve got to be able to learn a new system and also have the most intelligence to fit into a team and handle themselves the right way — be able to humble themselves at times and listen, and also to have a feel for taking what you want.”
Newton shot 43.5 percent from the field, 33.3 percent on 3-pointers and 87.9 percent on free throws last season. He averaged 8.7 points as a sophomore in 2020-21 and 11 points as a freshman in 2019-20, when he lit up UConn for a season-high 25 in the second to last game of the season, an 84-63 Huskies’ victory.
“When Kimani presented him as a portal candidate, I did not immediately remember him, per se,” Hurley said of Newton’s recruiting process beginning with associate head coach Kimani Young. “I did remember somebody killed us in that game. Then they give you the bio and the clips and — yes, that’s the guy we had a whole lot of trouble with.”
East Carolina coach Joe Dooley was fired shortly after the season and Newton decided to transfer.
“First day, I entered the portal maybe at 11:30,” Newtown said. “I was on the phone until 10:30 at night. It was kind of crazy. But I narrowed it down pretty quick and knew I wanted to come here. So I made it my first visit, liked what I saw and knew it was a good fit.
“Some calls, I knew they were just looking in the
portal and saw numbers. I knew they didn’t really care, didn’t really look. Some coaches called me and didn’t even know where I was from. [Hurley] knew where I was from. He knew a lot about me.”
Newton is a cousin to Packers running back Aaron Jones and his brother, former Ravens linebacker Alvin Jones, who now plays for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of Canadian Football League. Newton’s older brother, Jawaun, spent two seasons at Evansville before announcing last month he would transfer to Southern Illinois.
College basketball is in the era of fresh starts. Newton said the pace of the style with which UConn plays, and the general pace of practice, is a bit of an adjustment. It’s harder. He wanted to be challenged, though.
“At ECU, I was good,” he said. “I feel like here, I could be a lot better with actual player development and a lot of coaches that care, and a lot of work in the gym.”
Jackson was the first UConn player to reach out to Newton as the transfer process played out.
“As soon as he saw my visit was set … he wanted to get in the gym the same night that I got in town,” said Newton, a business management major at ECU who is reconsidering his academic path at UConn. “I love that about him and the rest of the team. Work ethic is crazy. They are going to push me, too. … The team we’re building, I feel we’re going to be one of the best teams in the nation.”