Latest from PGA Tour and LIV Golf: McIlroy's back and DeChambeau is everywhere

The U.S. Open, the third major championship of the season, is only a week away.

Several top golfers from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf League will be trying to fine-tune their games before they arrive at Oakmont Country Club outside Pittsburgh next week.

World No. 2 golfer Rory McIlroy will be back in action at the RBC Canadian Open on the PGA Tour, and defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau will tee it up in the LIV Golf League's tournament in Gainesville, Virginia.

"We're all trying to accomplish feats that haven't been done in a long time, and going back-to-back would be great," DeChambeau said. "Three in a row would be an even better accomplishment, so it is in the back of my head."

What's next on the PGA Tour

RBC Canadian Open
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley (North Course), Caledon, Ontario
Defending champion: Robert MacIntyre
Purse: $9.8 million

Rory is back

After skipping last week's Memorial Tournament, a signature event, McIlory is back in action north of the border. After winning the Canadian Open in 2019 and 2022, McIlroy will attempt to become only the fourth three-time winner (Tommy Armour, Sam Snead and Lee Trevino are the others).

McIlroy likes that the PGA Tour moved the Canadian Open up a month on the schedule.

"I honestly love the date change," McIlroy said. "I love that it's the week leading into the U.S. Open. I told this story a little bit, but before playing in this event, 2016, 2017, 2018, I missed three cuts in a row at the U.S. Open. Since playing the Canadian Open the week before, I've had six top-10s in a row, so there's something to that."

After completing the career Grand Slam with his victory at the Masters, McIlroy admitted "grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be."

"You have this event in your life that you've worked towards and it happens, sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again," McIlroy said. "I think the last two weeks have been good for me just as a reset, just to sort of figure out where I'm at in my own head, what I want to do, where I want to play. Yeah, reset some goals."

Scheffler secures Ryder Cup spot

The Ryder Cup is still more than three months away, but world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler became the first golfer to secure a roster spot on the U.S. team that will battle the Europeans at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York, Sept. 26-28.

The PGA of America announced Wednesday that Scheffler has secured enough Ryder Cup points with 25,918.25, which is twice as many as any other golfer. Xander Schauffele is second with 11,905.84.

"Scottie continues to prove why he is the No. 1 player in the world, showcasing incredible consistency and dominance week to week," U.S. team captain Keegan Bradley said in a statement. "He is the ultimate team player and I have no doubt that he will be ready and motivated come September. I could not be more excited to have him as a member of the U.S. Team."

The top six eligible golfers following the BMW Championship on August 17, 2025 will make the squad. Bradley will also make six captain's picks.

It will be Scheffler's third Ryder Cup appearance. He went 0-2-2 in the U.S. team's 16½-11½ loss at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club outside Rome in 2023, and 2-0-1 as a rookie in a 19-9 victory in 2021 at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

"Representing the United States at the Ryder Cup has been one of the greatest honors of my career, and I look forward to doing so for a third time this September," Scheffler said. "I will do whatever it takes to help our team reclaim the Cup and cannot wait to play in front of the passionate New York spectators at Bethpage Black."

Clanton's time is finally here

Three golfers in the RBC Canadian Open field, Luke Clanton, Gordon Sargent and David Ford, are making their pro debuts.

Expectations are already sky-high for Clanton, a former Florida State star, who was a two-time runner-up on the PGA Tour as an amateur last year, tying for second at the John Deere Classic and RSM Classic. He was the first amateur since Jack Nicklaus in 1961 with three or more top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in a season.

Clanton tied for 15th at the Farmers Insurance Open and for 18th at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches this year.

"It's been incredible," Clanton told reporters in Canada. "Like I said, it's something you dream for always, constantly. To kind of now be here and to call myself a professional is a little bit -- honestly, a little bit weird at first because I've always been an amateur.

"It's amazing. I'm just excited to come out here and compete. It's not about the money. It's not about any of the fame. It's about competing with these guys on tour. It's something I've chased for my whole, entire life, and especially my family."

Clanton was the No. 1 amateur in the world before turning pro this week, and he collected the Ben Hogan Award as the top collegiate golfer by winning four times at FSU this spring.

Clanton will play the first two rounds with McIlroy and Ludvig Åberg.

On Tuesday, Clanton thanked his mother, Rhonda, who recently retired after working more than four decades as a Delta flight attendant, and his father, David, who owned two businesses to help send his son to private school and support his golf.

"What they did not just for me, but my two older sisters as well, to get us through everything, it was incredible," Clanton said. "Again, my mom and dad are two hard-working people, and they'll never, ever take credit for it, which kind of pisses me off sometimes because they did everything they could."

Clanton hits it far off the tee (his 312.4-yard average would rank 14th on tour if he'd played enough rounds to qualify), and he says his "strong mentality" is one of his best attributes.

When Clanton was asked whether the LIV Golf League tried to recruit him, he said, "I want to play the PGA Tour, pretty simple. I want to play against the best, I want to compete in majors, and that's it. Simple."

Sargent was the 2022 NCAA individual champion as a Vanderbilt freshman and low amateur at the 2023 U.S. Open. He secured a PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated pathway in October 2023, but deferred turning pro to return to Vanderbilt.

Ford, who won five times at North Carolina this past season, finished No. 1 in the PGA Tour University Rankings to earn his card. He captured the Jack Nicklaus Award and Fred Haskins Awards this spring.

All three golfers are guaranteed PGA Tour status through the 2026 season.

What's next in the LIV Golf League

LIV Golf Virginia
When: Friday-Sunday
Where: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, Gainesville, Virginia
Defending champion: Harold Varner III
Purse: $25 million

Bryson's busy month

Along with tying for second at the PGA Championship, defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau crushed tee shots at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a mountain range and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and the White House.

It was just another routine month for professional golf's content king, who has more than 2 million followers on his YouTube channel.

"How do I find time to sleep? I actually sleep quite well," DeChambeau said. "It's a lot of planning. We prepare, strategize and execute accordingly with these game plans, and when things work based upon other people's schedules."

DeChambeau was a back passenger for a couple of 180 mph laps at the famed oval in Indiana, and said he's now using salt from Utah in his meals.

Day in the life of a recreational golfer... pic.twitter.com/2g7WFZFN6H

DeChambeau wasn't sure about hitting golf balls on the back lawn of the White House until President Donald Trump urged him to do it.

"I never thought I would ever in my life get an opportunity to do it, but the President himself was like, 'Just go out there and hit some shots,'" DeChambeau said. "I was like, 'Okay, yes, sir.' It was quite the experience. It was 105 yards and I hit a few good shots to a couple feet and almost made a few of them, too."

The reigning U.S. Open champion says his primary goal remains winning golf tournaments.

"Do I want to win every single tournament I show up to? 100 percent," DeChambeau said. "I'm never not going to be the hardest competitor out there in my perspective. But it also allowed me to do other things which are meaningful, as well.

"I think creating my YouTube channel was something that I've always wanted to do, seeing what MrBeast and Dude Perfect had done in the mid-2010s, and I said, 'Why can't I do that, as well? I think there's an opportunity to be as influential as I am now, and this was just the beginning. I think there's a lot more to come."

Turning the corner

Torque GC captain Joaquín Niemann hopes he has finally turned the corner after tying for eighth in the PGA Championship, his first top-10 finish in 24 starts in the big four. His 72-hole total of 4-under 143 left him seven strokes behind Scheffler.

"I didn't feel like I played my best game," Niemann said. "I felt like there was a lot more at the time to play better. I knew I could have a way better result. But I think we can take the positives and go step by step. It's my first top-10 in a major, so that's a positive."

Winning in the LIV Golf League hasn't been a problem for Niemann, who has finished first five times since February 2024, including three times this season. His success in the Saudi Arabian-financed circuit caused Phil Mickelson to call him the best golfer in the world, which raised some eyebrows.

"I think because LIV is new, they don't quite realize the field and the strength of the field, and the guys you're playing against are these best same players repeatedly," Mickelson said. "Joaco is winning and he is playing every single week [against] Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson and these guys. He's playing against that same level of competition every single week, and it's tough to really grasp that and how great that is when it's new."

Getting ready for Oakmont

Mickelson, Niemann and other LIV Golf players believe this week's setup at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, which hosted four Presidents Cups and the 2024 Solheim Cup, is a proper test for next week's U.S. Open.

"We have greens that are rolling 14 to 15 on the stimpmeter, just like we will next week," Mickelson said. "We have contours, undulations just like we will next week. Short game, touch, chipping around the greens, rough, speed, lag drills and speed and touch on the greens, all of that's critical here, same thing as next week. It couldn't be a better spot to get ready."

The last time the U.S. Open was played at Oakmont in 2016, Dustin Johnson's winning score was 4-under 276. Only four golfers had scores under par.

"It's going to be hard," Niemann said. "I know it's going to be a good challenge. Greens are going to be flying, so I feel like it's not going to be a lot of 5-footers, 6-footers for birdie. I feel it's going to be a lot of where you position your golf ball to have an uphill putt maybe, which is going to be easier.

"They want to win it over par, so at the end of the day it's not who makes more birdies, I feel like it's who makes less bogeys and less mistakes."