Karolina Muchova and Jakub Mensik won the U.S. Open mixed doubles title Wednesday night, beating Belinda Bencic and Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 1-6 (10-6). The Czech duo pulled out match tiebreakers in both the semifinals and the final, helped by Mensik’s powerful serve combined with some good hands near the net. He put away the final with an ace to earn $1 million for him and Muchova to share. They were a point from losing in the semifinals, erasing two match points and running off the final four to edge Mirra Andreeva and Andrey Rublev 5-4 (6), 3-5 (11-9).

Rory McIlroy was feeling like his game was far away. That was four days ago. He looked much better in the BMW Championship with a 64 to be part of a five-way tie for the lead at Bellerive. The top of the leaderboard was filled with U.S. Open champions on a course that has been toughened by “Open Doctor” Rees Jones. That includes Wyndham Clark, J.J. Spaun and Gary Woodland sharing the lead, with Matt Fitzpatrick one back. Scottie Scheffler was under the weather and far away from the game that produced an eight-shot win last week. He shot 72.

Gary Woodland considers this his best year on the PGA Tour. And this coming from someone who won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach in 2019. He is on the cusp of making it to the Tour Championship for the first time in six years. What sets him apart is the baseball-sized hole drilled into his head three years ago to remove part of a lesion that triggered unfounded fears of dying. Woodland has still gets spooked by sudden movement around him. And he's trying to compete in tournament golf. He won the Houston Open and says every day brings new challenges.