16-year-old boy fatally shot outside Scarborough plaza identified
Police have identified a teenage boy who was fatally shot in Scarborough’s L’Amoreaux neighbourhood on Saturday afternoon.
Rickie Fowler can always say he was the first to shoot 62 in the U.S. Open.
But only by about 15 minutes.
Xander Schauffele soon matched him on the North course at Los Angeles Country Club with an 8-under 62 of his own, making Thursday a most extraordinary day for scoring in the major known as the toughest test in golf.
The tough part was keeping track of their birdies.
"It's not really what you expect playing a U.S. Open," Schauffele said. "But monkey see, monkey do. Was just chasing Rickie up the leaderboard. Glad he was just in front me."
Fowler was the first, a round so remarkable it included two bogeys when he missed the green on the 254-yard 11th and missed the fairway on the 17th on his front nine. But starting with a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th, he ran off four straight birdies. The streak ended on the par-3 fourth when he came 2 inches away from holing a long bunker shot.
He set the record with a two-putt from just under 60 feet on the par-5 ninth. That's also when he noticed the leaderboard.
"I knew where I was at," Fowler said. "I would say from the middle of the round up until the ninth green, our last hole, I didn't really know or see any scores. And then I saw that Xander was at 7 (under) at that point, and I'm not sure if he even knew where I was or anything.
"But it was kind of cool if he did to see he kind of latched on and we were taking off a bit."
Schauffele was two groups behind and never too far away. He lost one birdie chance on the short par-4 sixth by trying to drive the green, but then picked up a rare birdie on the 258-yard seventh hole with what he called a "tomahawk 4-iron" to 5 feet.
"That's pretty much all I have in my body," Schauffele said.
He got up-and-down from just short of the green on the par-5 eighth, and then had a birdie chance from just inside 30 feet that would have topped Fowler and send him into the major championship record book alone. He left it short and settled for a 62.
They now share the major championship record with Branden Grace, who had a 62 in the third round at Royal Birkdale in the 2017 British Open.
Their record day came on the 50-year anniversary of Johnny Miller posting the first 63 in U.S. Open history. Since then, five players have shot 63 in a U.S. Open, most recently Tommy Fleetwood in 2018 at Shinnecock Hills.
Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf each shot 63 in the opening round at Baltusrol in the 1980 U.S. Open, which Nicklaus went on to win.
The conditions were prime for scoring -- overcast, mild with barely any wind. Condensation in the morning felt like a like mist, and it kept the greens receptive.
Even so, the next best score from the morning wave was a 3-under 67 by a group that included Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau.
The low scoring was sure to raise questions about LACC, a century-old club hosting a major championship for the first time. Schauffele wasn't interested in that.
"My job is just to play. I try not to speculate too much," he said. "I'm going to take what the course can give me, and today it gave me a low one."
He also wasn't expecting this to continue. The USGA's idea of a good test is something around par, and there wasn't much that could be done against increasing depth of talent in golf and pristine weather conditions.
"It's just Thursday. It's literally just the first day of a tournament. It's a good start," Schauffele said. "You just wait until this place firms up. It's going to be nasty."
It already proved to be just that for some players. Justin Rose, the Pebble Beach winner this year who is returning to good form, opened with a 76. Justin Thomas, Jason Day and Tommy Fleetwood could only manage 73.
PGA champion Brooks Koepka was among the late starters and was 3 over through his first five holes.
Masters champion Jon Rahm, playing alongside Schauffele, opened with a 69. That's typically a solid start in the U.S. Open. This one left him seven shots behind.
Schauffele tends to play his best in the U.S. Open -- five top 10s in his six appearances, and he has been among the elite on the PGA Tour the last several years even without winning a major.
Fowler is different. He once finished in the top 5 at all four majors in 2014. But a recent slump made a challenge just to get in them. He was the first alternate last year at Brookline and had to go home without hitting a shot.
But he went back to instructor Butch Harmon in September and has played well enough to get back into the top 50 in the world after being in danger of falling out of the top 200 a year ago.
And there he was at a major, putting his name in the record book for all the right reasons.
"It's definitely been long and tough -- a lot longer being in that situation than you'd ever want to," Fowler said. "But it makes it so worth it having gone through that and being back where we are now."
But even he offered a degree of caution for the rest of the week.
"There's still plenty of golf to be played. It's going to be tough tomorrow afternoon," he said. "But at least got out of the gate and we're off to a good start."
Police have identified a teenage boy who was fatally shot in Scarborough’s L’Amoreaux neighbourhood on Saturday afternoon.
Joe Alwyn is speaking publicly for the first time about the end of his years-long relationship with Taylor Swift.
210,000 pounds of food was delivered to the Ottawa Food Bank on Saturday, the largest donation in its 40-year history.
Part of Highway 400 was closed on Sunday after an Ontario Northland bus caught on fire.
Your father's diet before you were born could have played a role in your health, a new study has found.
Prince William on Sunday shared a photograph showing him as a child with his father, King Charles III, to mark Father’s Day in the United Kingdom this year.
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he is 'even more alarmed than before' after reading the un-redacted report alleging there are MPs and senators who are participating to some degree in foreign interference efforts.
As Canadians continue to struggle with the extremely high cost of buying a home in some of the country’s major urban centres, a new global report is underscoring just how expensive some of those markets are.
On a day that a local state of emergency was declared in Calgary, city residents answered a request from the mayor and emergency officials to use less water.
The thunderstorm that hit Ottawa Thursday evening was accompanied by heavy rain and lightning that struck a house in Orléans.
Canadian and U.S. ironworkers shook hands across the border as the Gordie Howe bridge deck officially becomes an international crossing.
Age may be just a number to George Steciuk, but it’s just one of many that add up to one inspirational athlete.
It has taken more than 100 years, but Almonte’s forgotten soldier, George B. Monterville has had his name etched back into history.
For Father's Day, CP24.com and CTVNewsToronto.ca reached out to local politicians, community advocates, and other prominent figures in the city to ask them to share what important lesson they have learned from their dads.
Fancy Pokket owner Mike Timani has decided to create a 220-foot long flat bread to celebrate its 35th anniversary.
If certain goals that are in the Paris Climate Accord aren't met, the existence of polar bears in the Hudson Bay may come to an end.
In an attempt to invite one of the most popular recording artists in the world to the land of living skies – the City of Swift Current has offered to rename itself in honour of Taylor Swift.
More than a dozen dogs arrived by Cargojet early Thursday morning to the People for Animal Wellbeing Shelter to find a permanent place to call home in New Brunswick.