Darren Clarke last night hit back at Johnny Miller’s criticism of his European Ryder Cup team, pouring scorn on the American’s assertion it was the worst in years.

Strange place, this Oakmont Country Club. Perhaps the only place in our golf world where it is the goal of membership to inflict pain.

He was leading the US Open but Shane Lowry might as well have been chatting over the garden gate to a neighbour as he headed done the par-five 12th at Oakmont with a one-shot lead.

The US Open has traditionally thrown up a diverse bunch of surprise first round leaders with amateur Scottie Scheffler and PGA Tour rookie Andrew Landry the latest to join the bunch at a rain-lashed Oakmont.

It was said many years ago but the hellish pronouncement of the founder and designer Henry Clay Fownes should be posted on a large sign at the entrance to Oakmont Country Club.

Oakmont has hosted the US Open more than any other golf course, and there’s a reason.

It was suggested to Ernie Els that the US Golf Association should make Oakmont Country Club its marquee US Open venue and provide the sort of reverence that the R&A extends to the Old Course in St Andrews.

Whoever lifts the US Open trophy in Pittsburgh this weekend, he will need to be a man of steel in the nerves department to triumph in a city once described as “hell with the lid taken off.”

Contrived in so many ways, “The Big Three” was a phrase that clearly caught on with golf journalists nearly a half-century ago. The fact it encompassed the three most popular golfers at the time — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player — made it an easy embrace for both writers and fans.

It’s an Aladdin’s cave for golf nuts. Heaven for hackers. Valhalla for garage golfers and other madcap inventors believing they’ve come up with the game’s greatest gadget.

Bae Sang-moon won the first tournament of the PGA Tour season and already is thinking about the last one.

I have a new found respect for golfers this week.

It was written in the stars. With their powerful long games, silky smooth swings and superstar swagger, it was simply a question of when, not if, they would win the Masters.

There’s a lot of love out there for Rory McIlroy but while everyone from Russell Henley to Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller were constructive and kind about the Irishman’s final-round collapse at the Honda Classic, McIlroy started the healing process straight away by taking ownership of his mistakes.

Two-time Muirfield winner Nick Faldo has told Rory McIlroy he must not be distracted by non-golfing issues if he wishes to rediscover his form this and become Open champion.

If Americans were going to be deprived of the thrill of a Phil Mickelson US Open triumph, or baffled silly by the ongoing Major championship disappearance of Tiger Woods; if we’re going to watch Merion bludgeon the world’s best players into a bloody, pulpy mess, then we will happily, enthusiastically embrace the only storyline remaining.

Graeme McDowell is a poster boy for the power of positive thinking, a master of psychology, a cerebral Grand Slam candidate.

Anchored putters, dodgy drops and armchair referees. Drugs. Top players behaving like kids in the schoolyard.

You are an 11-year-old who goes to bed on Christmas Eve with a spirit in your belly, only to wake up the next morning to discover Santa Claus has skipped your house.

Jack Nicklaus is backing Rory McIlroy to bounce back in time for the Masters but insisted the world number one must “move on” and forget about his problems with his Nike clubs.

You always had good nerves, but you’re still human. What was your most nervous moment as a pro?

By Sunday night, Rory McIlroy may well be one of the wealthiest people in world golf.

When Johnny Miller closed with a record-breaking 63 to win the 1973 US Open at Oakmont, the fallout was horrific.

For the third time in 10 years, Padraig Harrington will have to beat an Augusta jinx to become Masters champion.

STEVE STRICKER joined an elite club of 23 members when he shot a Major championship record-equalling round of 63 for his first round at the PGA Championship.

IT is one of those assessments that is personal to the core, a belief you attach yourself to because you’re comfortable no one can offer evidence to the contrary or shake you from your point of view.

Graeme McDowell shared the lead with Nick Watney after day three of the Players Championship at Sawgrass today.

SEVERIANO BALLESTEROS passed away and in doing so the world lost of one of the sport’s true legends, a superstar who transcended his sport.

JUST like in a certain well-known hotel that didn’t want to mention the war, in golf they don’t really liketo talk about the choke.

EVER since a fresh-faced teenager, name of Woods, turned professional in 1996 with that famous “Hello World” ad, that world has been occupied with the question ‘what will Tiger do next?’

MAJOR championship pressure can reduce even the strongest men to quivering wrecks.

Jack Fleck has three significant memories of his epic 1955 US Open victory over Ben Hogan.

ANY attempts to put Tiger Woods off at The Open in July will result in people being ejected.

Just when Tiger Woods must have hoped the worst was over in his first week back in golf he has come in for further criticism - and has left himself open for even more.

The last time Ernie Els won at Doral in Miami he went on to win The Open four months later.

Padraig Harrington is right in the thick of things with a round to go at the WGC-CA Championship in Miami.

DUSTIN JOHNSON stood onthe 18th tee as powerful wavescrashed along the sea wall along the left side of the famous 18th hole at Pebble Beach. Then he turned to face what he considers the toughest drive on the golf course.

Seve Ballesteros, who is still recovering from a brain tumour, is among the golfing stars who have been invited to compete in the Champions Challenge on the eve of next July’s Open at St Andrews.

AFTER the excitement of the Race to Dubai and Lee Westwood’s successes on Sunday, the attention switches to the World Cup of Golf which starts Thursday at the Mission Hills Golf Club in China.

PÁDRAIG HARRINGTON’S bank manager and his many commercial sponsors are all smiling broadly again.

FOR many golf fans in the United States, the first image of Pádraig Harrington was delivered in an excruciatingly methodical way.

The US Open is set to return to Oakmont Country Club, Pennsylvania, in 2016 for a record ninth time, the United States Golf Association announced last night.

PAUL AZINGER would have been forgiven for giving Hunter Mahan a wide berth when it came to selecting his four captain’s picks.