PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — They had a special day for Gary Woodland recently in his hometown of Topeka, Kan., to celebrate his U.S. Open victory at Pebble Beach last month. Woodland estimated there were about 3,500 people lining the streets to honor him.
With a first career major championship comes some fame. In most places, anyway.
Woodland, who was somewhat of an under-the-radar figure in golf before his win at Pebble, has found this week at Portrush his fame has not stretched across the Atlantic Ocean to Northern Ireland. He experienced an eye-opening, humorous moment on Monday while having breakfast with Matt Kuchar.
“Kuch and I went to breakfast and I took about 20 pictures for him,’’ Woodland said. “Nobody knew who I was. They all knew who he was. He loved every second of that, I can tell you.’’
Count Justin Rose among those who’s not happy with the new configuration of the major championship schedule with the PGA Championship moved from August to May.
“It’s too condensed,’’ Rose said. “One major a month really I think is too … they’re too soon. As professional in terms of trying to peak for something, the process that’s involved in trying to do that can be detailed and it can be longer than a month. So that’s my reasoning for that.
“I also think it’s pretty much driven by FedExCup, wanting to finish on a certain date, everything else having to fit in where it can. For me, major championships should be the things that are protected the most. That’s how all of our careers ultimately are going to be measured.’’
Nine of the past 10 major championship winners have been American. What gives?
“The boys are pretty good, there’s no doubt,’’ said Rose, an Englishman. “I think the aggressive style of golf that they’ve been playing has sort of contributed to that. Obviously, Brooks [Koepka] has had a fair few of those, so he’s obviously on an awesome run. It’s a cycle. And hopefully that’s a nice run and hopefully it’s coming to an end.’’
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy, who hasn’t won a major in five years, said, “These things happen in cycles. I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to it. The United States have got a lot of great golfers. You look at what Brooks has done, you look at Tiger [Woods], coming back [to win the Masters]. It’s just sort of these things go in stages and they go in cycles.’’
Woodland said, “I like that trend. It’s obviously good. The game is in a great spot. You have a lot of young guys, Justin [Thomas], [Jordan] Spieth, all these guys that have won. But you’ve still got a lot of Europeans and people from all over the world.’’