Shinnecock Hills is the only golf club to host the U.S. Open over three centuries. In the five previous championships, only three players have finished under par.That's what awaits Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and the rest of the field for the 126th edition of golf's second-oldest championship. And if they are not on edge about the toughest test in golf, the USGA might be.The last two U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills are remembered for more than just the winners. The greens were so firm and fast in 2004 officials had to spray water on the seventh green between groups because golf balls wouldn't stay on the putting surface. The greens and pin positions were so severe in 2018 that none of the last 45 players to tee off in the third round broke par.What awaits this year? The USGA is promising to let Shinnecock Hills be itself, with the hope that the wind and the course is enough to identify the best player.Here's what you need to know going into the U.S. Open:When does the US Open start?The 126th edition of the U.S. Open is June 18-21. Dating to 1976, the U.S. Open plays the final round on Father's Day. The lone exception, except for a Monday playoff, was in 2020 when the U.S. Open was held in September because of the COVID-19 pandemic.How can I watch the US Open?There will be wall-to-wall coverage when the U.S. Open starts Thursday, a total of of 47 hours.It begins at 6:30 a.m. Thursday on USA Network and goes to 5 p.m., when Peacock takes over until 8 p.m. The second round Friday starts on Peacock from 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with NBC Sports picking it up until 7 p.m. and then another hour on Peacock.USA Network is the channel Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, and then NBC until 8 p.m. Coverage of the final round will start at 9 a.m. on USA Network until noon, and then NBC takes it to the conclusion.Who's playing in the US Open?The 156-man field has everyone from 17-year-olds Miles Russell and Giuseppe Puebla Nos. 1 and 2 in the American junior ranking to 54-year-old Padraig Harrington, who qualified as the U.S. Senior Open champion.The USGA is saving seven spots for late qualifiers. When the field is set, it is likely to have about 68 players who had to go through 36-hole qualifying and 88 players who were exempt through various categories. It remains the major that requires the most players to qualify.Who are the favorites?Scheffler is the favorite at every major as the No. 1 player in the world for three straight years, and the winner of three of the last 10 majors. BetMGM Sports book has him at +550, followed by Masters champion Rory McIlroy at +1000.They are followed by Jon Rahm (+1200), Cameron Young (+1800) and Bryson DeChambeau (+2000).What's at stake in this US Open?All eyes will be on Scheffler, who can become the seventh player to complete the career Grand Slam if he wins the U.S. Open. This will be his first chance at that. In the modern era of the slam that dates to 1960, Tiger Woods is the only player to get the last leg on his first try.Scheffler got into this position by winning the PGA Championship and British Open last year.A victory by Xander Schauffele would give golf three active players with three legs of the Grand Slam. Schauffele already has won the PGA Championship and the British Open. Jordan Spieth has every major but the PGA Championship. The other would be Scheffler.For everyone else, a U.S. Open champion gets the Jack Nicklaus gold medal, a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Open, a five-year exemption to the other three majors and a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour. The prize money hasn't been announced, but last year the winner received $4.3 million.What is the format?Just like the other three majors, the format is 72 holes of stroke play. If there is a tie between two or more players at the end of regulation, there will be a two-hole aggregate playoff, and if it's still tied, a sudden-death playoff after that.The two-hole system has never been used. In fact, there hasn't been a playoff at the U.S. Open since Tiger Woods defeated Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines in 2008. It's the longest any major has currently gone without a playoff.Is there a 36-hole cut?Yes. The top 60 players and ties advance to the weekend. The U.S. Open used to include anyone within 10 shots of the lead, but that was scrapped in 2012.What is the history of Shinnecock Hills?A long one. Shinnecock Hills dates to 1891 when members of the Shinnecock tribe were paid to help shape the golf course. The current design was by William Flynn in 1931 when the club obtained more property. But it's claim is the oldest golf club in America that never moved off its original site.Shinnecock Hills hosted the second U.S. Open in 1896, and then waited 90 years for another one. It is the only golf club to host the U.S. Open in the 19th, 20th and 21st century.Do any other New York golf courses host the US Open?New York has the richest history of U.S. Opens. Shinnecock Hills will host it for the sixth time, tied for most in the Empire State with Winged Foot. The other New York courses that have held the U.S. Open are Oak Hill (three times), Bethpage Black (twice), Fresh Meadow, Inwood, Country Club of Buffalo and Garden City Club. That's a total of 21 times the U.S. Open has been in New York.What's the forecast?A few showers are in the forecast for parts of Thursday and Sunday, and temperatures should be on the pleasant side. Key to the forecast is the wind, which is expected to be about 15 mph for most of the week. That's all Shinnecock Hills needs to challenge the best players.___AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

The NFL has closed its review of wide receiver Stefon Diggs after determining there was insufficient evidence of a personal conduct policy violation, a league official told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

The Hell's Kitchen star, 59, is an avid Scotland fan and donned a home strip as he gave a few words of encouragement to Steve Clarke's side. Scotland will face Haiti in their opener on Saturday night.

The opening lyrics couldn't be plainer: I am from Bosnia; take me to America. But by rewriting its classic USA, the Bosnian band Dubioza Kolektiv has transformed a song about disillusionment with the American Dream into a viral anthem powering Bosnia-Herzegovina's own World Cup dreams.On the eve of Friday's match between Bosnia and Canada, members of the genre-bending rock group met The Associated Press in the Sarajevo neighborhood where they filmed the new music video for the accordion-heavy earworm, now titled I Am From Bosnia, Take Me to America. In less than three weeks, the video celebrating soccer's working-class roots has notched nearly 2 million views on YouTube on top of the 26 million views the original USA, released in 2011, has amassed over the years. Its an interesting story how this song got its second and third and fourth incarnation in these 15 years, muses Vedran Mujagi, bassist for the band that has woven political and social causes into its identity. It evolved from this satirical take on immigration and (the) American Dream and it was translated into (an) American football dream for the entire nation.Bosnia-Herzegovina is making only its second appearance at a World Cup, a goal that once seemed improbable as more traditional soccer powers stood in the way of qualification. At the end of April, though, Bosnia's late goal against Wales propelled the team to a victorious penalty shootout, a feat it would replicate days later against Italy. The band members were surprised when fans unfurled a banner emblazoned with their lyrics, singing them as a rallying cry.First, it was working as a joke, but what I like the most is the supporters kind of loaded completely new meaning to the old song, and this is the best thing for the band or for the song: when people take over and load new meaning and then it becomes theirs, keyboardist Brano Jakubovi says. Its not ours anymore. An own goal lament turns joyous The original USA is as up-tempo and catchy it's hard not to wander around muttering, I can no longer wait, take me to United States / Take me to Golden Gate, I will assimilate but its protagonist's eagerness to flee slides quickly to disenchantment with life outside the Balkans. The band decided to deliver an updated version of what Jakubovi describes as a typical immigrant song, writing new lyrics befitting a soccer anthem. While USA is in English, this version is mostly in Bosnian so people will understand, he says and mostly about the sport. The language switch has done nothing to lessen its global appeal, as a quick perusal of the YouTube comments suggests, though there are some jokes Jakubovi acknowledges would be inscrutable outside Bosnia. (See: burek without cheese.)Jakubovis favorite new line is a chance to excise something that has haunted the country since the 2014 World Cup: And that goal against Nigeria, that was never offside. So this is like a big national trauma in Bosnia, so I used the song and lyrics to kind of release this trauma, he says.He's being wry there, but trauma has been a mainstay since Bosnia's independence amid the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1992. Interethnic war almost immediately broke out, leading to genocide. More than 30 years after the Srebrenica massacre, deep division between Bosnian Serbs and Bosniak Muslims persist. Football in this moment is much more than just a game, it's a hope and its very basically (a) political thing because it brought all the people from Bosnia together, which is usually not the case, Jakubovi says.I am from Bosnia, take me to ... Canada?Bosnia's first match is in Canada, but the team will indeed be taken to America. Their base camp is in Sandy, Utah, and the other group stage matches against Switzerland and Qatar are in the States. And, as Mujagi points out, many of the players were born in the U.S. or elsewhere in the diaspora. They are children of those people who went outside in search of a better life or as refugees or whatever their story was. And they kind of see and hear these lyrics and this song entirely differently from us, he says.Mujagi thinks the original message of USA endures as Bosnians still emigrate. Once they leave, he finds, they encounter this hostility of the locals, right-wingers, and they just dont want them there.So its this schizophrenic situation in which you want to go there, but you somehow know that you wont have it good on the other side as well, he concludes. So in that sense, this song still works perfectly well as it worked before.In St. Louis, home to a thriving Bosnian community, Admir Hodzic is one of the founders of the supporter group BH Loyals. The 40-year-old business owner was born in Bosnia and has moved back and forth between his homeland and the U.S., not unlike the protagonist of USA. I think every Bosnian that lives here and understands how the system works and everything else, I think they will find the truth in that song, and that song is honestly nothing but the truth, he says. There are more opportunities in the U.S. than elsewhere, he says, but it's a matter of biting your teeth and pulling through the worst times possible. He and his fellow supporters are big fans of Dubioza Kolektiv and sing their anthem at matches and watch parties. More often than not, though, it's the original USA.Its engraved in their brain and their hearts, he says, and no matter what, they just go back to the old lyrics, you know?___Sen reported from New York.___AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup

So much history is involved when the U.S. Open returns to Shinnecock Hills, the only golf club to host this major championship in three centuries.Scottie Scheffler will try to take his place in history when the No. 1 player goes after the final leg of the career Grand Slam. Should he win, he would be the seventh player to win all four majors and join Tiger Woods as the only players since 1960 the modern era of the slam to get it done on his first try.That ordinarily would be the sole focus of the 126th U.S. Open, to be played June 18-21, except for the recent history at Shinnecock Hills.It has not been smooth sailing off the Great Peconic Bay on Long Island.It's hard when you run one tournament a year and you run it on a different golf course every year to get it just right, Scheffler said. And you're trying to make it hard. I think in the U.S. Open, they push the boundaries. If they're going to continue to push the boundaries, eventually they'll screw up and then they'll dial it back.The 2004 U.S. Open already was brutally tough when the USGA failed to account for the strength of the warm wind. The par-3 seventh, with its Redan green, became so impossible to hold that officials had to douse it with water between groups on the final day. No one broke par, and the average score was 78.73.Among the blistering comments came this from Jerry Kelly: I think theyre ruining the game. Theyre ruining the tournament. This isnt golf.When the U.S. Open returned to this New York gem in 2018, the greens were so glassy from sun and wind the last 45 players on the tee sheet Saturday failed to break par. Phil Mickelson staged a bizarre protest by swatting a moving ball on the 13th green. Brooks Koepka saved the week by becoming the first repeat champion in 29 years.So a return to the fabled course evokes one thought: What will go wrong this time?Hopefully, they get the balance right of all the different challenges, and its not contrived, Adam Scott said. These great tracks, theyve gotten into trouble when theyve been manipulated.Wider fairways planned for this yearJohn Bodenhamer, the USGA's chief competitions officer, was asked to take a hard look after 2018 to see what went wrong and why. The short answer was greens not properly hydrated.The real answer comes over four days at Shinnecock Hills, the sixth time for it to host the U.S. Open, never under this much scrutiny. The early scouting report from Scheffler and Rory McIlroy was wider fairways than they are used to seeing at a U.S. Open. That wasn't a mirage.Bodenhamer said the USGA wanted to present a course the way William Flynn designed it in 1931 when he was brought into reshape a course that first opened in 1891, the oldest golf club in America still in the same location.That means an average fairway width of 48 yards, compared with 42 yards in 2018 and 32 yards wide last year at Oakmont. He anticipates slower green speeds to account for so many putting surfaces perched on a hill and exposed to the wind.The way we're thinking about this year is to let Shinnecock be Shinnecock, Bodenhamer said.That should be enough. In the five U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills, three players have finished the tournament under par Raymond Floyd in 1986, Retief Goosen and runner-up Mickelson in 2004.McIlroy said the green speeds were just over 11 on the Stimpmeter slightly under the target speed the USGA has in mind and the Masters champion doesn't thing they need to be much fasters.If they can keep them at that green speed, they can get them firm, and they can use the hole locations that they want to use without having some of the struggles that they have had the last couple of U.S. Opens, McIlroy said. If it's set up the right way, I think it's one of the best championship tests in the country. It's an amazing golf course.Scheffler goes for the career Grand SlamMcIlroy became the most recent player with the career Grand Slam by winning the Masters in 2025. At the time, Scheffler had two green jackets but only one leg of the career slam. And then he steamrolled the competition at the PGA Championship and British Open.Fixed that, Scheffler said with a laugh at the start of the year.Now he's on the cusp of the most elite club in golf. McIlroy had to wait 11 years to get the final leg. Jack Nicklaus (1966 British Open) and Gary Player (1965 U.S. Open) each waited three years for their final pieces. Scheffler is the betting favorite, even though he hasn't won in five months.He was runner-up in 2022 at The Country Club, his best chance. He was in the mix at Los Angeles in 2023 and on the fringe of contention at Torrey Pines.I like the challenge of playing a really hard golf course against a really good field, he said.Adam Scott playing his 100th straight majorScott is among three players potentially four depending on alternates who is playing a third time at Shinnecock Hills, though he has yet to make the cut there. He still has cause of celebration. Scott is playing in his 100th consecutive major, dating to the 2001 British Open, the second-longest streak behind Nicklaus and his incomparable run of 146 in a row.It's crazy," said Jordan Spieth, next in line at 52 in a row. It's not only playing at a high level, it's take care of yourself the right way. Almost every single person you think of that could have reached 100 missed it because of injury.The toughest testPlayers were due to start arriving around the weekend to prepare a major with a reputation as being the toughest test in golf. For Shinnecock, the test starts with wind on a course that more closely resembles a Scottish links than any other in America.Flynn created a series of triangles holes that run in that shape so players are forced to cope with different wind direction no matter which way it's blowing. And for the players, the test can be what goes on between the ears. Nicklaus once said he could rule out most players having a chance when he hears them complain. And there's been a lot of complaining the last two times at Shinnecock Hills.Your acceptance meter, you've got to add some at the top end, Xander Schauffele said. If it's 100, you need to make it 150 because 100 is not enough. It might be the second or third hole of the day and you might have already had four bad breaks. It's really penalized. It's the most tired I am of the four majors.___AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Andrew Giuliani has defended the decision to bar Somali referee Omar Artan from entering the United States, branding him a "bad actor" with concerning connections.The executive director of the White House's Task Force for the World Cup revealed that the official had been communicating with suspicious individuals regarding potential activities on American soil."There are some things that we can't talk about," Giuliani told talkSPORT. "What I can tell you, from looking at it, is that he's the only referee, he's the only non-Irani official, that has been banned from coming into the country for this tournament."He added: "He was talking to some bad people, very recently, about actions here in the United States."Artan had been poised to make history as the first Somali official to take charge of a World Cup match, having been selected among seven African referees representing the Confederation of African Football.His journey came to an abrupt halt at Miami International Airport last weekend, where he was subjected to an 11-hour immigration interview despite holding valid travel documentation.Following further hours of detention, authorities placed him on a return flight to Istanbul.FIFA subsequently confirmed his removal from the tournament's officiating roster, stating it holds no authority over host nation immigration matters and that American authorities had indicated Artan's status would remain unchanged.When journalists questioned whether his remarks implied Artan possessed terrorist connections despite holding a valid American visa, Giuliani deferred to official channels."Again, I go back to what CBP has said about this," he responded. "What I'll say is, from my seat, it was absolutely the right decision and I stand by it."The White House official outlined President Trump's broader position on tournament visitors, explaining that whilst the administration wished to embrace those genuinely seeking to enjoy the competition, it would not permit the sporting event to serve as cover for those with malicious intent.UEFA has since responded by appointing Artan to officiate the Super Cup final, where Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain will meet Europa League victors Aston Villa in Salzburg on 12 August.UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin praised the official's credentials, stating: "Omar Artan is an excellent young but already experienced referee, who has proven himself at the highest competition level of the Confederation of African Football."Ceferin added: "Football is made to connect people, and UEFA wants to show its respect to Omar and his outstanding officiating skills, which had earned him such a prestigious nomination."Upon his return to Somalia, Artan received a hero's welcome from supporters.Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter

The case is believed to be the first time that convictions for criminal damage have been classified as terrorism.

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