Weekend Wrap - Table For 35 Edition

So, funny sequence of events over the weekend.  I played nine holes on Friday and, while warming up on the range, the head of my 6-iron flew off and went significantly downrange into a section of the range that hadn't been mowed since the Carter Administration.  Our head pro was on the range and jumped in to help, and I thought it a miracle when we actually found the head.  Saturday, after my round, I went out to find Theresa on the back nine, only to espy her headed to the range due to frustration with her swing.  When we got there, we saw a member and a couple of youngsters searching as we had been doing the prior day, as the son's 7-iron head had flown off in similar fashion.  They still hadn't found that clubhead when we departed....  Metal fatigue seems to have been the theme of the weekend.

Breaking Through - A nice story and popular win:

Third time’s the charm for Sahith Theegala.

The now-25-year-old put his name on the map of professional golf last season with a spectacular rookie campaign, making it all the way to the Tour Championship.

But, despite holding the 54-hole lead in two different events during his rookie season, he had yet to win on the PGA Tour and that continued through his sophomore season in 2023.

At least until Sunday.

With the Southern California native playing close to home this week at the Fortinet Championship in Napa, Theegala posted a final-round 68 to convert his third career 54-hole lead into his first career PGA Tour victory at 21 under.

This was an odd bit at a golf tournament:

As he approached the 17th green holding a four-shot lead, chants of “Thee-gal-a” rang out from the crowd.

“That was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,” the former star at Pepperdine said. “I had so many family and friends cheering me on, and just the support I have is mind-blowing. I go to bed at night these last few days and I’m like, I can’t believe how many people are cheering for me and rooting for me.”

Thirty-five souls, at least according to the broadcast....

Was there any reason to be interested?  Not really, though this is about the extent of it:

Justin Thomas posted rounds of 69-67-65 before regressing Sunday with a 72 to finish fifth. This was his best Tour result since finishing fourth in February’s WM Phoenix Open.

Two-time defending champion Max Homa recorded a T7 in advance of his first Ryder Cup.

 The Tour Confidential panel had some thoughts on one of those guys:

5. Justin Thomas, after a year where he missed the PGA Tour’s playoffs, finished fifth at this week’s Fortinet Championship, displaying a few changes along the way. Notably, he said he’s taking more ownership of his game from an instruction standpoint — his coach is his dad, Mike — and he added a longer driver. What did you learn from Thomas this week? How big was the finish for him and the U.S. Ryder Cup team?

Melton: Confidence is everything in golf, and all it takes is one week to get your mojo back. If in fact this is a turning point for JT, the Americans’ chances in Rome just got a hell of a lot better.

Rogers: I learned that those 80s in the spring probably didn’t mean much! The strong finish should help build confidence and momentum heading into Rome and hopefully silence the JT doubters a bit.

Dethier: This finish didn’t do anything for the Ryder Cup team in the sense that it’s still 0-0 heading to next week. But it should shut up some of the doubters arguing that Thomas is in poor form; instead of being the guy who missed the FedEx Cup Playoffs, he’s now the guy coming off a T12 at the Wyndham and a fifth at the Fortinet. I’m sure U.S. captain Zach Johnson is happy to have some better ammo for his decision.

It makes a blogger laugh.... if you're sufficiently indifferent to his play, why would you breathe a sigh of relief when he has a credible finish?  Though I'll readily agree, if only because I said it last week, that it beats the hell out of an MC...though that Sunday sleep-walk is curious, no?

But the bigger issue is that Homa and JT are the only two Americans that have played since East Lake, which is a full month+ of inactivity.  If they start sluggishly on Friday in Rome, you heard it here first.  Especially since.....

Reps All Around - The Euro Tour schedule is a bit of a hot mess these days, but their forced move of their flagship event to September seems to have been, well, timely, as Geoff explains:

Europe is well-positioned to win back the Ryder Cup after all 12 members of the 2023 team made the BMW PGA Championship cut, with seven recording top 10’s. The matches are now less than two weeks away and Luke Donald’s squad appears to have done everything right since coming together following the September 4th Captain’s pick announcement.

As New Zealand’s Ryan Fox captured the DP World Tour’s flagship championship for his first Rolex event title, England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Aaron Rai tied for second with Ryder Cuppers Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland and Tommy Fleetwood taking the next three spots on the board.

Fair enough, but we'll not trouble ourselves with Kiwis in a Ryder Cu year.  But Geoff provides a longish update on how those Euros played at Wentworth:

Tyrrell Hatton (T2 - 68 69 68 66). How good is the temperamental one’s game right now? Finished in a divot on the 17th hole and just cracked a smile, then hit the ball about 10 feet from the cup.

Jon Rahm (4th - 71 67 66 68). Another solid finish at a place he’s finished second at two times before.

Viktor Hovland (5th - 69 70 67 67). Also finished T5 at Wentworth last year and continues to thrive since winning the Tour Championship.

Tommy Fleetwood (6th - 69 66 67 72). Another rough final round but his resurgent game continues to be in very good shape.

Rory McIlroy (T7 - 72 71 67 65) - Posted a final round 65 just two days after barely making the cut (more below). McIlroy says his back and swing issues are improving and everything’s “in pretty good shape.”

Ludvig Aberg (T10 - 68 66 66 76) posted a final round 76 just two days after the youth-desperate golf world was ready to retroactively award him some majors. Despite the final round blow up, the young lad should be fine.

Sepp Straka (T10 - 70 66 69 71). Reaffirms his Captain’s pick with another solid week on a big stage.

Shane Lowry (T18 - 69 71 67 71). Played well until a triple bogey at the 17th Sunday. Coupled with his T3 in the Irish Open, he’s the least of Captain Donald’s concerns.

Matt Fitzpatrick (T18). Recently got engaged and the game seems fine. The notoriously fickle horse-for-courses needs to display an affinity for Marco Simone or he’ll be sitting a lot.

Luke Donald (T36) tied with captain’s pick Justin Rose. While never great to tie with the captain, Rose seems to be in the vicinity of serviceable play and has a 13-8-2 Ryder Cup record that should help the Captain pencil his name into the lineup.

Robert MacIntyre (T45). Draw a line through this one since he was dealing with hecklers (see below) just trying to win a match bet any way possible. The Scotsman’s track record at Marco Simone remains his greatest strength heading to Rome.

Nicolai Hojgaard (T64). Not a great week but missed the BMW cut last year and has a 3rd and T5 in previous two DP starts to suggest he’s also not hopelessly lost. Hojgaard may not like the oft-remodeled Wentworth, which hardly makes him an outlier.

In contrast, Patrick Cantlay has been meeting with lawyers and merchant bankers, so we've got that going for us....

One last discordant note summed up here by Shack:

In yet another reminder that the professional tours are festering with all sorts of lightly addressed issues while the execs deal with “the events of June 6th,” the normally bucolic English countryside saw an effort to interfere with the competition. On top of a Friday finish in darkness and a former Ryder Cup captain clashing with drunks, and the early week seemed more Wasted than Wentworth.

More details here.  We're seeing more and more of this, small scale for the time being, but with no sense that there's any plan to address it.

The Cup That Shall Not be Named - If a tree falls in the forest..... Yeah, it's a fine event, but if you wanted to kill it forever, what would you do differently than this year's schedule?

1. The Solheim Cup starts this week at Finca Cortesin in Andalucia, Spain, and there is no

shortage of storylines. Which one will you be watching most closely?

Zephyr Melton: I’ll be interested to see how Lexi Thompson’s week plays out. She’s been out of form all season (to put it lightly), but coming up clutch in Spain could completely flip the narrative for her in 2023.

Claire Rogers: Rose Zhang! I can’t wait to see what the Solheim Cup (and LPGA!) rookie brings to the matches and how her game stacks up in a team setting.

Dylan Dethier: Let’s stay big picture: Can the Americans win?! Team Europe comes in with two victories in a row and four of the past six, including some shockers. Team USA once again enters with the edge in on-paper talent, world ranking etc. Will it actually matter? More specifically I’m intrigued to dive into the subgroup represented by Team Sweden; there are four Swedes on the European side, including player-slash-assistant-captain Anna Nordqvist and future World No. 1 Linn Grant. The Swedes are stars! How will they perform under the bright lights?

There's always one Lexi dead-ender in a crowd, but that's not a narrative that will flip so easily.... But, if you thought JT a bad pick, Lexi might provide some need perspective.

It's team match play and there's enough bad blood to keep things on edge, you just have to ignore that the biggest concentration of talent isn't included.  And the ladies won't be adding a Prez Cup, because that would just be a beatdown.

2. Who is your MVP from the American side? The European side?

Melton: American MVP: Rose Zhang. European MVP: Leona Maguire.

Rogers: I have to agree with Zephyr on the U.S. side. Rose Zhang for the Americans, Linn Grant for the Europeans.

Dethier: Gimme Meghan Khang for the US; she’s been playing incredible golf and should mesh well with any playing partner — including Nelly Korda? But if you’re an investor, you should still find her at some better odds. For Team Europe, I’d go Charley Hull. Her summer suggests she’ll embrace the moment.

Not a single vote for Lexi, eh?

Not only do they have no chance of attracting viewers the week before the Ryder Cup, but the European venue insures unfavorable air times.... 

That Other Cup - Just a few bits for your delectation, beginning with this outside the box suggestion:

Woodard: Forget the points lists. Let the captains pick their entire Ryder Cup teams

Really?  Color me cynical, but would this actually change anything?

“The feedback from last time’s Ryder Cup, it was a very positive influence to have the captain be allowed to have six captain’s picks for a variety of reasons and some that I didn’t even think
about,” said PGA of America president John Lindert during this year’s PGA Merchandise Show. “When there were only two, the two who got picked somewhat didn’t feel inclusive because they were the two, right?

“With six, it’s a 50-50 field so it becomes a more inclusive team and it allows the captain to actually build a team.”

Oh, I get it now, elite athletic events are all about inclusivity.....  I'm just holding my breath until they realize how many POC's and women will be there....

The argument against?

That said, the merits of a point system are obvious, too. The biggest con to the idea is the fear the event will become even more of a popularity contest. The best players should earn the privilege to represent their country. That’s where a captain comes in. How do you ensure the most-worthy players are picked? By naming the proper captains who will select the best teams. Not just by naming a popular name for name’s sake.

If it’s truly their team, a captain and his staff should pick who they want. Naturally a selection or three will be made based on course fit, for a match pairing or even due to past experiences. Picture a live selection show where a captain unveils his team and then gets to explain his reasoning. Professional golf is rapidly changing to improve its entertainment value. Match pairings are broadcasted, so why not the team selection, too?

Let me see if I follow the argument.  The organizations that sell the event to the highest bidders, will tell the captains not to pick their buddies?  For the good of the game....

But what's the real pint?  At least for the U.S., those top six qualifiers were going to Rome in any event, so the only change is that you'd lose the marketing value of the points list.  

Europe is far more complicated, because they use their Euro Points list to keeps some of the lads at home.  Just ask Adrian Meronk.... In certain years that can be a gift to the Yanks, not that said Yanks have done much with it.

Did you catch Rory's comments on the American team's advantage?  It was quite the self-own, but let's excerpt this bit first:

Winning abroad is a tough task for both the Americans and the Europeans. It’s been nine years since Team Europe triumphed at Medinah, and McIlroy is hoping to utilize the home turf in Rome to Europe’s advantage.

“I think you have a home course advantage for a reason,” McIlroy said. “I’ve felt this for a while now, but I think one of the biggest accomplishments in the game right now is a team winning an away Ryder Cup. It hasn’t happened since 2012, and I just think you’re gonna see this pattern of, the teams are gonna do everything they can to set themselves up for success. So if you look at what the Europeans do well compared to what the Americans do well, and these things are so analytics-driven.”

Don't need no deep analytics to know the Americans haven't won in Europe in 30 years.... But math is hard, so let's not break it to them that Medinah was 11 years ago, not nine.

Alan Shipnuck famously predicted an era of U.S. dominance in 2018, but it's a funny kind of dominance when you haven't won a road game since the Clinton administration.... Obviously this is one the should win, but one gets that queasy feeling that our guys aren't exactly road warriors.

Do you have a box of Kleenex handy?  Because your eyes will tear up when you read this:

Sergio Garcia reportedly made a last-ditch effort to play in this month’s Ryder Cup, but his

attempt was rejected.

According to an article from the Telegraph’s James Corrigan published Sunday, Garcia, 43, offered to make good on paying his fine for defecting to LIV Golf plus all other outstanding DP World Tour fines he owed, a total reportedly in the vicinity of £700,000, in hopes of becoming eligible to play for the European team that will compete in two weeks at Marco Simone outside of Rome. The story said that DP World Tour officials, however, turned down the plea from Garcia because he resigned his tour membership, which disqualified him from being eligible for the European team, and that he could not regain his membership in time for this year’s matches.

Gee, are you suggesting that actions have consequences?  Because, if he wanted to stay a member in good standing with the European Tour, maybe he shouldn't have been such a dick on the way out?  I know, an idea so crazy it might just work:

The Telegraph story did not mention the nature of the other outstanding fines that Garcia faced. The 16-time DP World Tour winner, however, was fined an undisclosed amount by the tour after failing to provide a reason for withdrawing from the BMW PGA Championship in 2022. The tournament was reduced to 54 holes in the wake of the death of Queen Elizabeth, with Friday play canceled. Garcia WD’d after an opening-round 76 and was then seen Saturday on the sidelines of Texas-Alabama college football game 5,000 miles away.

He's a petulant, self-centered a******e, and we're all better off without him.   Would this be a good time to remind folks of when, in a fit of rage, he damaged greens at the Saudi Euro Tour event?

I'm reminded of that Sergio-Rory conversation, in which Sergio opined that it was great that LIV was finally giving professional golfers what they deserve.  Rory responded that as golfers they don't deserve anything, it all needs to be earned.  In this case, Sergio is, in fact, getting what he deserves, and your humble blogger is grooving on the schadenfreude.

This bit was equally delusional, just from a less objectionable human:

4. Dustin Johnson, in an interview this week with the Palm Beach Post, said that he “would love to be a part” of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, and that while his play wasn’t great in 2023, he thinks it was enough to have earned a spot in Rome. Furthermore, Johnson went on to claim that if he hadn’t joined LIV Golf and instead had plied his trade on the PGA Tour, he would be heading to Marco Simone with the rest of the American Ryder Cuppers, just as he did in 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2021. Should Johnson have been more strongly considered? What else could he have done?

Melton: I’m not sure why DJ thinks he played well enough to be on the team this year. He’s got just two major top 10s in his past eight starts and has been largely irrelevant in golf’s biggest events since his 2020 Masters triumph. Sure, he’s won a couple LIV events of late, but does that really mean much? If he wants to be considered more seriously, he simply needs to play better when lined up against the game’s other top stars.

Rogers: Before I even get into this, I just need to say that I absolutely love DJ’s confidence here. “Yeah I didn’t play that well, but it was still good enough” is an awesome take. Do I think he’d be heading there if he didn’t go to LIV? Probably. But again, these guys knew what they were getting into when they went over there to play. It makes a ton of sense for Koepka to be on the team after his win at Oak Hill, but without a major win, it’s hard to make an argument for the guys on LIV because they had been told they wouldn’t be eligible.

Dethier: It’s sort of an impossible hypothetical because if Dustin Johnson had played on the PGA Tour, we would have had a completely different sample to work with. That either would have been good for DJ (top finishes against better competition!), bad for DJ (mediocre golf in deep fields!), or neutral for DJ (a little bit of everything — think Cameron Young’s resume). His 5-0-0 record at Whistling Straits would give him an edge. So would the fact that he’s one of this generation’s greatest golfers. As a result, there’s a better chance he would have made it … but that’s a different world than this one.

What folks forget is that, after that November 2020 Masters, DJ's game went into remission, a longer period of poor play seems to be acknowledged.  Yes,. he played well at Whistling Straits, but I don't even think he would have been the next LIVster chosen.... he simply hasn't done enough to make this statement.

Of course, the bigger issue is that he chose competitive irrelevance, and now seems surprised that there are actual consequences.  That this affecting these guys to the extent that they're whining is about the only good news I've seen since June 6th.  

That's it for today kids.  A light schedule this week for sure, although without any specificity attached.  I'll blog when, as and if I feel like it, unti we flood the zone next week.