Choosing a budget Android phone typically means wading through a ton of product pages and doing spec comparisons. Of course, a simpler way through the noise is to use The Verge’s handy guide to the best cheap phones. But we’re going to make it even easier for you today with a great discounted option. The 128GB version of Samsung’s Galaxy A36 5G is currently on sale for $349.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart. This $50 discount is enough to bring the smartphone, which launched in early 2025, down to its lowest price ever. Importantly, this phone comes unlocked, so you can activate it on your carrier of choice.
The A36 5G is the follow-up to the A35 5G. It’s largely the same, but with some minor tweaks. For instance, its OLED screen is slightly larger at 6.7 inches (versus 6.6 inches), although it has the same FHD plus resolution (1080 x 2340) and smooth 120Hz refresh rate. The A36 5G has the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, which should deliver improved performance compared to the last-gen model. The smartphone maintains the A35 5G’s IP67 durability rating, which means it’s resistant to dust and water, and should be able to withstand being submerged in up to a meter of water for 30 minutes. One divisive change is that the A36 5G dropped the microSD slot of its predecessor for a second SIM card slot, so you won’t be able to expand its storage. Samsung offers the smartphone with either 128GB or 256GB of internal storage, but only the entry-level model is currently on sale.
One of the biggest perks of this affordable phone is its software; Samsung has committed to delivering new operating system and security updates for six years, which should hopefully go a long way in helping the A36 5G feel like a modern phone long after you buy it.
The A36 5G features a three-lens rear camera system, which consists of a 50-megapixel main sensor that can record 4K video at up to 30 frames per second. The phone’s 12-megapixel front-facing camera can also record 4K video at the same frame rate. In terms of biometrics, the A36 5G supports face unlock and has an under-display fingerprint reader. The A36 5G doesn’t support wireless charging, but its maximum wired charging speed is an impressive 45W.
Samsung has packed a lot of features into this smartphone, some of which you won’t find in Apple’s budget smartphone, the iPhone 16E.
AUSTIN, Texas — United States and Orlando City SC fullback Alex Freeman said he had a “secret love for soccer” growing up after not following the same sporting footsteps as his father, former NFL player Antonio Freeman.
“Growing up, I always got asked if [American] football was the path, but when I was younger, I always had a secret love for soccer, and I feel like it was more than any other sport,” said the 20-year-old to media ahead of a Gold Cup match vs. Saudi Arabia. “I had to pick, and I think soccer was the clear choice by far.”
Thanks to an ongoing breakout MLS season that has included two appearances in the league’s “Team of the Matchday” honors, the son of the Super Bowl champion has forged his own path with a USMNT debut this year and a spot in the 2025 Gold Cup.
Freeman started in a 5-0 thrashing of Trinidad and Tobago in the tournament-opener for the U.S. on Sunday, and looks set to start once again against Saudi Arabia on June 19 at Q2 Stadium.
“What’s happening this year, I feel like it’s an honor. I feel like it’s a blessing,” said Freeman. “Obviously the World Cup in 2026 is always something that I’m going to work to.”
Freeman also played basketball as a kid. Alex’s mom rejects the notion she directed him away from American football.
“The real story is Alex didn’t want to play football and he didn’t want to tell his dad that,” Alex Freeman’s mom Rochelle Hinkle said. “They all use me as an excuse. He just wanted to make his own lane and his own path. He didn’t have, I guess, the words to say it then.”
Regardless of how the choice was made, the former All-Pro wide receiver and Super Bowl champion said he got chills when he saw his son Alex walk onto the field on June 7 to make his U.S. debut against Turkey.
“He has on a USA jersey,” Antonio Freeman said after the game. “He’s representing his country. That’s probably the top level of recognition you could possibly get.”
As for Freeman’s U.S. teammate Luca de la Torre, who is also vying for a World Cup spot, the midfielder was grateful for his time with MLS side San Diego FC, which has helped keep him in the USMNT picture.
“I’m really happy to be there and it’s given me the chance to get rhythm and to be called up to the national team and to keep playing games, which is really all that any player can ask for,” said De la Torre.
Currently on loan in MLS from LaLiga’s Celta Vigo, the midfielder also said it’s too early to discuss whether he believes he should stay in San Diego or not ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“I think at the moment that decision is too far away. I’m focused on every day and the next opportunity to train or to play a game,” said the midfielder. “San Diego has been great for me. I love playing there. I played a lot. I have rhythm now and fitness, so it’s been a great situation so far.”
After the Saudi Arabia game, head coach Mauricio Pochettino and his men will then face Haiti on June 22 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
After the duo revealed their daughter—whom they welcomed in March—is named Saga Blade Fox Baker, a resurfaced clip of MGK (real name Colson Baker)discussing his ideal middle names with Megan has resurfaced; and it proves he picked at least part of his baby girl’s name.
“Can I guess what your middle name would be?” Megan asked MGK in a 2021 GQCouples Quiz after he revealed he didn’t have one. “Blade.”
And MGK lit up, quickly adding, “That’s what I want.”
Naturally, Megan—who shares kids Noah, 12, Bodhi, 11, and Journey, 8, with ex Brian Austin Green—had plenty more ideas for her then-partner’s middle name, including “Sword” and “Katana” but MGK assured, “No, Blade is good.”
Indeed, MGK—who is also dad to daughter Casie Colson with ex Emma Cannon—clearly held onto the idea to pass onto their baby.
The Reverend Clive Foster will take up the role on a three year term
The government has announced the first Windrush commissioner – seven years after the scandal was first exposed and following the serious impact on thousands of Caribbean migrants in the UK.
The Reverend Clive Foster, a senior pastor who works at the Pilgrim Church in Nottingham, will take up the newly created role on a three-year term.
He is the founder of the Nottingham Windrush Support Forum and serves as vice-chair of the Windrush National Organisation, where he volunteers.
A top priority will be looking at how to improve the Windrush Compensation Scheme which has been described by campaigners as “torturous”.
It has been heavily criticised for taking too long to process claims, low offers and unfair rejections reversed on appeal.
There are ongoing calls for the scheme to be run independently but the Home Office says it is “determined to ensure that victims of the Home Office Windrush scandal are heard, that justice is sped up, and that the compensation scheme is run effectively”.
Mr Foster said: “My aim is to deliver change that the Windrush generations can see and feel in their everyday lives, particularly in how the Windrush status and compensation schemes operate.”
He added: “I will carry out this role independently, without fear or favour, while creating a constructive relationship with government where challenge is welcomed and scrutiny leads to specific, transparent improvements.”
PA Media
The Windrush scandal was first revealed in April 2018 after it emerged that the Home Office failed to keep records of people with indefinite leave to remain and had not issued the paperwork they needed to confirm their legal status.
Thousands of Caribbean migrants who came to the UK from the late 1940s legally had the right to remain in the UK.
But they were wrongly classed as illegal citizens because of a hostile immigration policy which meant they were denied access to homes, jobs and NHS care.
Some were detained and deported.
In January 2023, the then-Conservative government decided to scrap three recommendations made in an independent review, including a new migrants’ commissioner.
When Labour came into power in 2024 it reversed that decision.
Earlier this week a new report by the charity Justice, the University of Sussex and a London law firm suggested two-thirds of Windrush claimants had not received any compensation, while others are getting significantly less than they may be entitled to due to the lack of funded legal assistance.
Windrush is one of very few major state compensation schemes that does not provide legal assistance and the Home Office has so far rejected calls for it to be introduced.
The new commissioner will be responsible for speaking up for migrants and those affected by systems such as the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
So far the government has paid out nearly £110m towards more than 3,000 claims, according to latest Home Office data.
But 15,000 people were thought to be eligible when it was set up in April 2019.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “Earlier this year, we launched a £1.5 million advocacy support fund to provide dedicated help from trusted community organisations when victims are applying for compensation.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “The story of the Windrush generations is woven into the fabric of our nation and this government is absolutely determined to right the wrongs they suffered at the hands of the Home Office.
“This is why I am delighted to welcome Reverend Clive Foster as our new Windrush Commissioner. His deep understanding through his own connections and dedicated community work makes him the perfect champion for those affected by this historic injustice.”
The announcement comes in the lead up to Windrush Day on 22 June, which celebrates the contribution Caribbean migrants and their families have made to the UK.
On a day shortly before the 2024 election, I was picking up my children from school. As my older child was finishing basketball practice, my younger child made his usual plea to buy his favorite Icee.
“Mama, can I have an Icee? Please!” he whined, tugging at my bag. Reluctantly, I handed him a few bills. “Thanks for the Icee!” he said with his big toothy smile as he dashed to the sidewalk.
Watching him run away, I felt anxious. He’s still my baby, even though he’s in third grade.
From where I stood, he looked confident and strong. But those dollar bills were flapping around in his hand, reminding me to tell him to keep his money in his pocket. It wasn’t just about the bills; it hit me hard that as the mother of Black boys, my worries for their future will never really vanish — especially with everything happening in our country today.
Before I became a parent, I thought I’d raise my children with the same firmness that my West Indian teachers used at the small Episcopalian elementary school I attended in Brooklyn, N.Y. They were quick to discipline and had high expectations for us. I figured being strict would help prepare Black children for a world that rarely sees them as innocent — but that was before I became a mother, feeling the heavy responsibility of raising Black boys.
The effects of racism aren’t just for the history books. Black Americans carry the weight of discrimination and injustice from those before us, determined not to pass that trauma on to our children. No matter how hard I try, being their parent often feels like a tough balancing act. I feel caught between protecting them from the harsh realities of life in this country and giving them the opportunities to make mistakes and learn.
As a mother, physician and health equity advocate, I have seen how our health care system affects Black children, who often face longer wait times in emergency rooms, higher chances of being diagnosed incorrectly and a greater risk of not surviving through their first year of life. These health outcomes are connected to wider issues, including education.
For example, a report from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation found that Black boys face systemic bias in schools. Misunderstandings about their behavior in preschool can lead to harsh punishments, robbing them of their chance to learn and play. By middle school, harmful stereotypes can lead to them being excluded from gifted programs, hurting their confidence and interest in school. The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on affirmative action in college admissions will likely limit opportunities for Black students in fields such as medicine and law.
A recent study showed that cuts to diversity, equity and inclusion programs under the Trump administration have led to serious funding drops for important initiatives aimed at closing the gap in racial health outcomes. The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities took the biggest hit, losing almost 30 percent of its funding. Weakening these health programs ultimately puts our lives at risk.
As I sat there watching my younger son enjoy his Icee, I felt the weight of my responsibility — not just for my kids, but for all kids who will live in the world we create. That world can feel hostile, especially given the recent anti-DEI backlash.
I am reminded daily that there is much work left to do.
Our actions today matter for Black children’s futures. Challenges in education and health care must be addressed. If we want to make a real difference for our children, we must be intentional about where to focus our advocacy.
We must support race-conscious policies, prioritizing those that tackle the systemic inequities affecting education and health care. Americans can contact their local representatives and tell them that these programs are crucial for improving outcomes for Black children. We should encourage lawmakers to develop programs that provide Black students with fair access to advanced classes and academic support, while also pushing school boards to adopt equitable discipline policies.
We must fight to fund health care systems that focus on the needs of underrepresented communities, directly addressing racial health inequities. We must be innovative about securing continued funding for the work of agencies like the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to keep critical health programs for Black children.
We can illuminate the issues that Black children face by raising our voices. This is about the future of our children, who deserve a shot at success. It’s time for us to focus on creating environments where all children, especially Black children, can thrive. We all share this responsibility — and need to act before it’s too late.
Uché Blackstock, M.D., is the founder and chief advisor of Advancing Health Equity, a strategic health equity consulting firm. She is the author of “Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine” and an ambassador for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation National Racial Equity Initiative Taskforce.
Philippines-based financial services firm Salmon Group has raised $88m to expand its business in the Asian country.
The funding includes a $60m drawdown from a three-year Nordic bond framework agreement valued at $150m, alongside $28m in new equity sourced from US institutional investors and existing shareholders.
The equity round was spearheaded by Spice Expeditions, a venture capital firm established by Nick Huber.
Investors include the International Finance Corporation, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ/Lunate, Northstar, Back in Black Capital, and various Filipino stakeholders.
Salmon co-founder Pavel Fedorov said: “Salmon is on a mission to revolutionise banking in Southeast Asia. For too long the legacy banks in the region provided sub-standard product, service and customer experience, and the Philippines is the case in point of this.
“At Salmon, we believe in the quality of our technology and proprietary AI solutions to bring customers better products, of which the most empowering is access to credit.
In 2024, Salmon obtained regulatory approval from the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to acquire a controlling interest in the Rural Bank of Sta. Rosa (Laguna).
Founded in July 2022 by industry professionals Fedorov, George Chesakov, and Raffy Montemayor, Salmon Group holds SEC licences for its lending companies in the Philippines.
The firm aims to establish a technology-driven, credit-focused banking model in Southeast Asia, with the Philippines as its initial market.
Founded in July 2022, Salmon leverages AI technology and a proprietary credit engine to provide various consumer credit products, including Salmon Credit, Salmon Installment, and Salmon Cash Loans.
Last year, Salmon’s BSP-regulated bank on the back of the strength of its consumer loan portfolio introduced a Salmon time savings deposit, offering 8.88% deposit rate in the Philippines.
“Fintech firm Salmon completes $88m fundraise” was originally created and published by Retail Banker International, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
I love going to Summer Game Fest. It’s a rare opportunity to connect with my colleagues and friends in person, as well as listen to developers talk about why they make their games. In some ways, this year’s SGF gave me everything I love about the event. But while I was comfortably ensconced in a happy bubble, the escalating conflict between demonstrators protesting against immigration raids and the Los Angeles Police Department cast a dark and soul-shaking pall that could not be ignored.
Everything started on June 6th, when it was reported that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had conducted a raid in LA’s fashion district, the same area where most of SGF was being held. I wasn’t around to experience that because I was at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California, watching Geoff Keighley announce a Game of Thrones RTS and a Wu-Tang game. But when Ian Proulx, Splitgate 2 creator and CEO of 1047 Games, came out with his now-infamous “Make FPS Great Again” hat, it punctured the illusion of distance in time, space, and tone.
Photo: Summer Game Fest
In the months since President Donald Trump took office, ICE has ramped up its activities, sending agents to snatch parents from their children and children from their schools, enabled under the auspices that removing immigrants will be what makes America great again. Proulx’s hat became the story of the day, if not the whole event. It was the main topic of conversation at the lobby bar of the JW Marriott hotel, where each night of SGF is capped off with a mixer. How could someone choose to reference such a statement, even in jest or irony, as the very people that slogan has been used to target are being snatched up mere blocks away?
Saturday was business as usual. Proulx’s hat was forgotten as I settled in to work, flitting between wall-to-wall appointments checking out Escape Academy 2, the new Lego Party game, and Deadpool VR with no time to chat or even eat. I didn’t check my phone for hours, and every TV was playing a video game. I had no idea what was happening both in Los Angeles and in the White House. But when there was finally a lull, I popped online, where I was greeted with a deluge of messages from people who were watching the news, telling me that something (a nebulous, undefined, but nevertheless urgent something) was happening and that I needed to get back to the safety of my hotel.
Thankfully, my worst fears about martial law declarations and curfews didn’t come to pass while I was there, but they did after I was back home. People had taken to the streets of LA in protest of ICE action and began moving through parts of the city, demonstrating and occasionally clashing with the police (and autonomous vehicles). But at that moment, when I was hearing that insurrection acts were going to be invoked and that the National Guard was being mobilized to sweep the city, I became legitimately scared — particularly for attendees who weren’t citizens and those with immigrant families.
How could someone choose to reference such a statement, even in jest or irony?
One such colleague, Janet Garcia, wrote an incredible account of what it was like working SGF and being the child of a Mexican immigrant. Her words right now are more important than mine. SGF also coincided with the BET Awards, and honoree Doechii also had a powerful message for the moment.
Doechii accepts the Best Female Hip Hop Artist award at the 2025 BET Awards.Photo: Getty Images for BET
There had already been several stories of international travelers being detained in the US for weeks, and I was scared that if something was happening, my journalist friends from Canada, the UK, and elsewhere could get caught in the mix. Word began spreading that something (again, what that was, nobody could say, and that uncertainty compounded the fear) was happening, and my friends and I all began to start asking aloud: do we need to leave? Some said yes, and I was ready to do just that, but something stopped me.
I will never be able to adequately express how weird my job is in situations like this. It’s really hard to write about the colorful pixels on a TV when it feels like the world is seconds away from catching fire. And yet I do it every day. Right when I was about to make the decision to leave early, a Capcom PR rep tapped me on the shoulder. I was late to my Resident Evil Requiem appointment. And I went, because in that scary moment I still thought, “I have a job to do.”
It felt strange that my thought in a moment of intense anxiety was, ‘I have a job to do,’ and that job was playing video games.Photo: Capcom
I did my best with Requiem, plodding along the abandoned hospital, being suitably impressed by how the sound of Grace’s footsteps changed when she walked on the wooden floor vs. the floor covered in bits of broken drywall. But my phone kept buzzing with notifications throughout it all. Midway through the demo, my stress was so high from the ambient spookiness of the game and all the happenings outside the SGF bubble that I couldn’t take it anymore. I made my profuse apologies to my PR contact (who was exceedingly gracious and understanding) and left.
The mood that night at the hotel was less exuberant. It wasn’t just everything going on in LA: the mood of the event itself was the lowest I’d ever seen it in the handful of years that SGF has served as E3’s smaller, vibe-ier replacement. There were games there, good ones, but nothing big enough to anchor the show. As the industry faces its third straight year of rampant layoffs, cancellations, delays, and studio closures we’re finally starting to see the pipeline of blockbuster games dry up. This was a stark contrast to last year when Sega had Metaphor: ReFantanzio and Shadow Generations, Bandai Namco showed off Shadow of the Erdtree, PlayStation was there with Astro Bot, and Xbox had just announced Gears of War: E-Day.
I’m home now. And despite this year’s strangeness, I look forward to going back to Summer Game Fest. Because if video games have taught me anything over the years, it’s that in the face of overwhelming odds, the best thing one can do is stick together with your friends.
OAKMONT, Pa. — The U.S. Open, the third major championship of the season, produced the most unlikely champion in J.J. Spaun, who won in thrilling fashion with back-to-back birdies on the final two holes at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday.
Spaun was the only golfer to finish under par at 1-under 279, and he was the lone survivor on a day when the rain and wind made Oakmont even more treacherous.
The final major championship of the season, the Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland on July 17-20, is a month away.
Who will be the favorites in The Open? Will Spaun’s unlikely victory propel him to more wins? What about the Ryder Cup?
What do you expect from J.J. Spaun the rest of the season?
Mark Schlabach: Last season, Spaun missed the cut in 10 of his first 15 starts on the PGA Tour and was ranked 169th in the world. He was worried he might lose his tour card.
“Last year in June I was looking like I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment where, ‘If this is how I go out, I might as well go down swinging,” Spaun said.
Spaun turned things around late in the summer, and he’s been playing some of the best golf of his career this year. He tied for second at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches in February and lost to Rory McIlroy in a Monday playoff at the Players Championship. He’d been close to adding a second career victory on tour, and he finally got it done at one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.
“I think it’s just perseverance,” Spaun said. “I’ve always kind of battled through whatever it may be to kind of get to where I needed to be and get to what I wanted. I’ve done this before. I’ve had slumps kind of at every level. I’ve always kind of, I went back and said, ‘You’ve done this before. You’ve been down before. You got out of it.’ There’s kind of like a little pattern, so hopefully I don’t do that pattern again.”
Spaun’s competitors weren’t all that surprised that he won the U.S. Open, which is saying something. Although Spaun might not be that familiar of a name to people who don’t follow golf closely, he is considered one of the best ball-strikers in the world. His putter got hot over four days at Oakmont, which is one of the biggest reasons he won.
Paolo Uggetti: While at first glance it may seem like Spaun was a fluke U.S. Open winner, it’s a testament to his evolution as a player that he was able to outlast every person in the field this week.
As his new coach Josh Gregory detailed following the final round, Spaun could have been content just being a middling PGA Tour player — he had $17 million in career earnings prior to this week, after all — but instead he wanted, Gregory said, to be elite.
“It’d be very easy to settle and say what I’m doing works,” Gregory said. “To his credit, he said ‘I need to be better.'”
For Spaun, who has always been an elite ball-striker, that meant working on his putting and his chipping, which Gregory said he has helped with. This week was proof of the work he’s put in, and it will set him up well for the rest of the year. Now, whenever there is a course that prioritizes iron play, Spaun looks like he’ll also be able to rely on converting once he finds the green.
While contending at the final major of the year may be far-fetched given Spaun has never played in the Open, I fully expect Spaun to be in the mix at several PGA Tour events, including the upcoming Tour Championship.
Thoughts on the Ryder Cup after the year’s first three majors?
Schlabach: U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley was greeted by cheers of “USA! USA!” when he reached the 18th green at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday, and it’s a battle cry he’s going to hear often over the next few months.
Besides Spaun winning, Russell Henley and Ben Griffin were probably the biggest moves at Oakmont. They tied for 10th at 5 over, and they’re now seventh and eighth in Ryder Cup points, respectively.
The top six players in the points standings after the BMW Championship on Aug. 17 will automatically make the team; Bradley will also make six captain’s choices.
Uggetti: I’m certain captain Luke Donald enjoyed seeing Viktor Hovland once again get close to securing his first major title as well as Tyrrell Hatton and even Jon Rahm, who nearly backdoored himself into contention, performing well. They all finished inside the top 10 and will all certainly be at Bethpage even if Rahm and Hovland are currently outside the top-6 in the European rankings at the moment.
Someone who is inside the top-6 is Robert MacIntyre, whose Sunday run to second place helped him score his best-ever finish in a major and bump his name all the way up to fourth in Ryder Cup standings.
MacIntyre was considered the last man two years ago in Rome, but he more than held his own going 2-0-1. On Tour this season, MacIntyre has four top-10 finishes, and that kind of result at a course like Oakmont will certainly strengthen his case and put him in a great position to return to the team in September.
Too-early thoughts on The Open Championship?
Schlabach: Scheffler battled his swing and his putter for 72 holes at Oakmont, but he managed to tie for seventh at 4 over for another top-10 finish at a major. Even at less than his best, Scheffler is still better than most, and I think the list of golfers who can contend at Royal Portrush starts with the three-time major winner.
“My main takeaway is I battled as hard as I did this week,” Scheffler said. “I was really proud mentally of how I was over the course of four days. I did a lot of things out there that could really kind of break a week, and I never really got that one good break that kind of propels you. I’d hit it this far off, and seemingly every time I did, I was punished pretty severely for it.”
Shane Lowry took home the Claret Jug the last time The Open was played in Northern Ireland in 2019, and I think he’ll be among the favorites again. Lowry struggled mightily in his second straight major and missed the cut after posting 79-78.
Rory McIlroy will be looking for redemption after missing the cut at Royal Portrush five years ago. He still battled his driver a bit at Oakmont but went home with some momentum after posting a 3-under 67 on Sunday. I think he’ll get his mind and swing in the right place before arriving in Northern Ireland.
“Look, if I can’t get motivated to get up for an Open Championship at home, then I don’t know what can motivate me,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, as I said, I just need to get myself in the right frame of mind. I probably haven’t been there the last few weeks.
“But as I said, getting home and having a couple weeks off before that, hopefully feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, will get me in the right place again.”
Uggetti: How about the defending champion making another run at it? With everyone’s eyes on top of the leaderboard Sunday, Xander Schauffele quietly put together an under-par round to finish inside the top 12 at Oakmont.
Slowly but surely, Schauffele’s game has been rounding back into major championship form after he missed some time early in the season with a rib injury. In his last seven starts, Schauffele has five top-15 finishes.
“I’ve never been hurt before. So I think it was all kind of new,” Schauffele said this week. “I felt like I was playing at a pretty high level. Then I got hurt. My expectations of what I knew I could do to where I was were very different, and accepting that was tough. I think that was sort of the biggest wake-up call for me coming back.”
It’s fair to say Schauffele is nearly all the way back and just in time for the second major championship he won last season. The 31-year-old secured the Claret Jug last year at Troon with a marvelous Sunday performance that proved he could excel, not just on PGA Tour setups, but also on links courses with links conditions. Portrush will bring those two things to the stage in a month, and Schauffele will have the benefit of knowing he has won in that kind of environment before.
Besides Spaun, who were the biggest winners at Oakmont?
Schlabach:Viktor Hovland‘s swing has been a mess — or at least he believed so — for much of the season, but he managed to get in the mix and finished third at 2 over and in third place. Hovland’s inner battle for perfection might preclude him from joining Scheffler, Schauffele and others as the truly best golfers in the world, but there’s little debate that he’s one of the most talented. Everything is there for him to win a couple of majors, at least.
“I keep progressing in the right direction, and to have a chance to win a major championship without my best stuff and not feeling very comfortable, it’s super cool,” Hovland said. “So I’m going to take a lot of positives with me this week.”
Although Adam Scott would have liked a better finish than Sunday’s 9-over 79, he was right there in the mix until conditions got bad on the second nine. I had believed Scott’s chances of contending in majors were over since he is 44 years old. But this was the first time he’s done it in quite a while, and he still might have something left in the tank to do it again.
Uggetti: I’ll go back to MacIntyre here. The man from Oban looked comfortable in the chaotic conditions Sunday and played the back nine at Oakmont in a bogey-free 2-under to grab the clubhouse lead that nearly got him in a playoff with Spaun.
“I’m just a guy who believes,” MacIntyre said. “Today was a day that I said to myself, ‘Why not? Why not it be me today?'”
All week, the Scotsman putted lights out, ranking fourth in strokes gained: putting and, despite a round of 74 on Friday, kept himself in the tournament that he predicted would have an even par winner.
MacIntyre was almost right.
Once he was finished with his round and he could only watch as Spaun drained the 64-foot birdie to secure a 1-under finishing score and the victory, cameras caught MacIntyre in the scoring room giving Spaun a hearty clap and an earnest “Wow.” It was a human moment that garnered a lot of praise and capped off a week MacIntyre will not soon forget.
“It feels great,” MacIntyre said of being in contention. “It’s what I’ve dreamed of as a kid, sitting back home watching all the majors. Yeah, it feels unbelievable.”
During a recent conversation with brother Jason Kelce about movies, Travis revealed that he and Taylor have plans to check out an iconic Julia Roberts film.
“We mentioned Pretty Woman,” the Kansas City Chiefs player said during the June 18 episode of his New Heightspodcast, “That’s been on me and Tay’s movie list for a while, I’d be down to watch that.”
The sweet detail about Travis and Taylor’s homelife comes shortly after marriage rumors about the pair had fans needing to calm down. While attending a family member’s nuptials June 6, a behind-the-scenes video shared by the wedding planner revealed the couple’s seat assignment read, “Taylor and Travis Kelce.”
But while some fans were enchanted by the thought that the way the names were written indicated the couple had quietly tied the knot, E! News learned on June 9 that Travis and Taylor are not married.
