Weekend Wrap - Arrivederci Valhalla Edition

Quite the weekend for sports, as Yesterday's golf was intermingled with the Yankee and Knicks games.   For those bloggers with attention-span issues, it all kinda worked.

Xander, Finally - I've never been as high on the X-Man's game as many observers, but he needed to win something, so why not a biggie:

PGA Championship 2024: How Xander Schauffele's hard-luck losses ultimately led to the major title he desperately craved

All along the way, Stefan Schauffele was there to provide constant reality checks with touches of sly motivation. "He bred an underdog mentality into me from a younger age— 'You need to go get it, because nothing is going to be handed to you,' " Xander has said.

That attitude has served Schauffele incredibly well in his pro career, considering that, at 30, he had seven PGA Tour victories before this week and wore U.S. colors three times in international cups. But even as he rose to be a top-five player in the world, Schauffele had to shed being the grinder and learn to lead. Too many times, and particularly in majors, he had been on the cusp of a defining breakthrough, only to see others seize the moment. Two runners-up, a pair of thirds and 12 top-10s among 27 major starts were the proof.

The opportunity came again on Sunday in the steamy hills of Kentucky. A first-round 62 that tied the all-time record for a lowest round in a major championship set up Schauffele to hold at least a share of the lead for three rounds heading into the final-day test. The question for all who questioned Schauffele’s finishing skills was could he wrap one up? The answer came in the most convincing fashion.

Unrattled by a couple of quirky breaks on the final two holes, Schauffele rolled in a six-foot birdie putt on Valhalla’s ever-thrilling par-5 18th to shoot a closing six-under-par 65 and beat Bryson DeChambeau by one shot. DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, threw everything at Schauffele, posting a 64 that included his own birdie at 18.

The most impressive part to your humble bloggers is that he won going wire-to-wire, meaning he endured four days of intense scrutiny.  But, for sure, he absorbed hits on those last two tee shots and got it done nevertheless.

Shack had this slightly curious take:

And not since Phil Mickelson at Baltusrol in 2005 has anyone captured a PGA with birdie at the last like Schauffele did on Sunday. Before Mickelson, it was the late Payne Stewart at Kemper Lakes in 1989, highlighting how rare the feat is. Yet Schauffele accomplished the rare last-hole-birdie while knowing exactly what was necessary.

OK, I'll not pretend to remember Kemper Lakes, but the citations are those PGA Championship venues that finish with shortish Par-5's so, yeah, they make birdies on those holes.  

But what of Xander's above-referenced Svengali?  Surely he was there to enjoy the realization of their family dream, no?

4,400 miles away, Xander Schauffele’s dad celebrated from a shipping container

 If that sounds weird, it's only because it is:

Some 4,400 miles away from Valhalla Golf Club, the man who has helped architect every step of

Xander’s golfing life wasn’t watching. But he was on his way. The back nine meant it was time to head down the hill to find a TV.

“I left my little container to go,” he said via phone call later Sunday evening.

Stefan was in Hawaii. On Kauai, to be specific. He’s there often these days, living in a tiny shipping container on a rural hillside. He’s always made grand plans but this is perhaps his most ambitious; he’s overseeing construction of what is essentially a family compound where he can spend time and his family can visit and find rejuvenation.

“It’s my sanatorium,” he said. “Where I can heal and lose weight and get better. It’s been a lot on my body, getting to this point in life.”

Sounds like they skipped Elba and exiled him directly to St. Helena....

Back to Xander, via our Tour Confidential panel:

Xander Schauffele, long thought of as golf’s best player to never win a major, finally got his. Schauffele made a six-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole of Valhalla Golf Club to win the PGA Championship on Sunday, edging Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke. Schauffele started the day tied with Collin Morikawa and leading a handful of worthy contenders, but he closed with a 65 to finish 21 under. Given he’s had trouble converting leads before (like last week), did you think he would get it done on Sunday?

Jessica Marksbury: I admit I was among Schauffele’s non-believers this week. I just didn’t have faith in his closing ability. But his performance for all four rounds was really impressive —

especially Sunday. To shoot 65 under that kind of pressure, making clutch putt after clutch putt, was awesome to see. He deserves this win, and may be one of those guys where the floodgates open and the wins stack up in quick succession.

Josh Sens: Schauffele’s struggles to close always seemed a bit strange, since he’s so highly regarded among his peers for his mental strength. Has he had some hiccups? Absolutely. But as much as anything, his many near misses before this are a reminder of how tough it is to win. Am I surprised? No. He was going to get one eventually. But I’m also not surprised that he had to scrap hard for it, right down to a final putt that came close to lipping out.

Zephyr Melton: With how often X put himself in contention, it felt like only a matter of time. But we’ve also seen some extremely talented players go through their entire careers without a major win. I’ll be the first to admit that I did not believe he’d convert on Sunday, but I’m glad he proved me wrong. Schauffele is a hell of a player and a deserving champion. (I’m also glad our colleague Dylan Dethier can finally stop picking him to win every major.)

Dylan Dethier: I’m just here for a quick victory lap. Yes, of course I thought he’d win on Sunday. That’s why I told you so in this space all week long!

Jess with the inevitable "floodgates will open" prediction.....  Not like we haven't seen this movie before.  The guy's difficulties closing are largely a function of it being so damned difficult to close, which won't change going forward.

Mostly it seems that Xander is opportunistic.  A really smart call to win the seek Scottie poses for a mug shot, because I'm guessing that's a one-off.

For those who enjoy awkwardness at awards ceremonies (and count your humble blogger amongst those souls), at least one writer picked up on that frisson:

Xander Schauffele’s complicated PGA of America relationship adds new chapter

Fortunately, the guys were getting paid this week, so no hat issues...

As Xander Schauffele spoke to Amanda Balionis of CBS during the PGA Championship trophy

ceremony on an idyllic Sunday evening at Valhalla Golf Club, just behind them stood the gleaming Wanamaker Trophy and two rows of sun-kissed PGA of America and Valhalla officials. It was a joyous scene: Schauffele, explaining why he was so emotional after his winning putt spun around the edge of the hole and dropped; Seth Waugh, the PGA of America CEO, and John Lindert, the PGA of America president, looking on proudly at the 106th winner of one of the association’s flagship events; thousands of fans still packed in the 18th green grandstands, soaking up the last few moments of what had been a historic 21-under-par week for Schauffele.

Good vibes all around, and also something else: a marked contrast from the last time we saw Schauffele signing off at a high-profile PGA of America event, the Ryder Cup last fall. Things did not go well for Schauffele and his American teammates that week in Rome, with the Europeans prevailing handily at Marco Simone, 16.5-11.5. Schauffele lost all three of his team matches before winning his sole point in a Sunday singles match against Nicolai Højgaard.

Yeah, that wasn't a good look, especially combined with indifferent play.  Does anyone think comments like this were helpful to his son?

“It’s a pretty simple kind of argument,” Stefan said of paying players to compete in an event that grosses nine figures for its organizers. “I think it would stand up in anybody’s mind, the court of public opinion and potentially in the courts.” He added: “We need to talk about it without [players] getting shamed into not being patriotic. If there is any portion of this that is unpatriotic, it’s the PGA of America that are unpatriotic.”

 And yet they're puzzled that ratings are down substantially....

No one is suggesting the Ryder Cup tension between the Schaufelles and PGA of America did anything to tarnish the proceedings at Valhalla Sunday. But it’s also hard not to see the irony in Xander, less than eight months after the Italy awkwardness, celebrating his first major win against a backdrop of PGA of America leadership (not to mention collecting $3.3 million for his efforts). Stefan is at staple at his son’s events — with his German accent, large frame and mop of curls, he’s hard to miss — but was notably absent this week. He was, in fact, more than 4,000 miles away, in Hawaii, Xander said. Stefan would have relished sharing the winning moment with his son. For as long as Xander has shown an interest in the game, Stefan has served as his swing coach, life coach and manager. But in recent years he has begun shedding some of those roles; instructor Chris Como now keeps an eye on Xander’s mechanics.

“He feels like he can kind of take his hands off the wheel,” Xander said of his father Sunday evening. “He trusts [Chris] a lot, I trust him a lot. My dad is at that stage in his life, I really want him to be happy, and I know this is going to bring him a ton of joy where he’s at in Hawaii right now.”

That's great, but I'm guessing he wasn't in Hawaii by choice.

Whose performance this week were you most surprised by?

Marksbury: I had almost forgotten how electric it can be when DeChambeau is in the mix. We got a taste of it at the Masters but he wasn’t much of a factor over the weekend. His performative energy brought a lot to this tournament, right up to the very end. I loved it!

Sens: Agree with you on DeChambeau. Whatever you think of him — and he definitely polarizes opinions — he’s a riveting performer. Brooks Koepka’s woeful third round was surprising, and I’ll add the showing by Wyndham Clark. Remember earlier this year when he was being touted as one of Scottie Scheffler’s chief rivals? It’s now two missed cuts in majors for him this year.

Melton: Scottie’s Saturday. Within the context of everything he went through this week, it makes sense. But after his flawless play on Friday, I tricked myself into believing he was immune to just about everything. Once the adrenaline wore off, it was a different story. But T8 in a week you get arrested isn’t half bad, though.

Dethier: I was impressed with just how hard Bryson and Viktor pushed Xander; this tournament turned into an epic three-horse race down the stretch. There was a little nerviness near the end, and Hovland will want a few of those back, but mostly they traded impressive birdies and made Xander earn it. I know it was a soft setup and scores were low, but these guys threw down a high level.

Surprised no to see Rory get a call-out here, as I have hi pegged as the Biggest Loser of the week, simply because he will never get another major venue/conditions set up as well for him as this week.

I agree that Viktor's return from the dead was quite the pleasant surprise.  Bryson as well, though tempered by his strong Masters.  But now he goes back into his Cone of Silence, at least until Pinehurst.

More on Viktor:

Viktor Hovland has struggled since his fall 2023 surge and admitted on Saturday that he was so dispirited with his form he almost didn’t even play the PGA Championship. Yet Hovland was in contention and finished third for his best finish of the season. Are you buying or selling Hovland’s return to form?

Marksbury: Hard not to buy after what he showed this week! Had a few more putts dropped on Sunday, we may be telling a different story. But isn’t that always the case at a major? Now that Schauffele has his, you have to think that Viktor is probably next in line to shoulder the “best-player-to-have-never-won-a-major” title. Hard to imagine a reality where he doesn’t win one.

Sens: I’m buying it. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but Hovland himself said the tweaks he made there with his longtime coach Joe Mayo made sense to him right away. He brought them with him when he left the Strip, and I expect he’ll hold on to them.

Melton: Buying! I don’t know what Joe Mayo did with Vik, but he worked wonders. Hovland looked like the Hovland of old at Valhalla. I expect him to be a factor in both of the two remaining majors.

Dethier: Yup, time to buy. Hovland surprised even himself with just how quickly he was able to return to form. Get used to seeing more of him near the top, where he belongs.

He seems quite the likeable lad, so nice to see him return to form.  Although that late 2023 heater to me seems wildly overinterpreted.  He won twice, though that second one was against only 29 guys, so perhaps we were a little ahead of the facts on the ground.

They do also have a moment for Scottie's weird week:

Much of the week was focused on Scottie Scheffler, who went from a heavy betting favorite to a mega-news story after his arrest prior to his Friday tee time. Where does this moment rank among the craziest golf stories in recent memory?

Marksbury: This feels close to the recent major Tiger dramas — the car crash, the Memorial Day arrest — in terms of shock value, but the fact that Scheffler’s situation went down during a

major championship and on course property makes it all the more surreal. Based on the first-hand accounts we have of what transpired, the apparent injustice of it all makes it even more outrageous.

Sens: Agreed, Jess. From the player side, it’s the highest shock-value story we’ve seen since Tiger’s crash. But I’d say the Tour’s turnaround on doing business with LIV and the Saudis was right up there on the surprise-o-meter.

Melton: These two covered it well in their answers above, but I’ll add the Covid shutdowns in 2020 to the mix. That week at TPC Sawgrass started like any other and by Friday every sports league in America was shut down. Crazy times indeed.

Dethier: Hard to overstate that shock value. It’s one thing for a golfer to get into a traffic incident. It’s another thing for it to happen driving into a major. It’s another thing for it to result in an aggressive detainment. And for all of that to happen to Scottie Scheffler, the hottest player in the world? It still doesn’t feel real.

 Yeah, this was a pretty damn strange sequence, and color me shocked about this development:

Officer involved in incident that led to Scottie Scheffler's arrest 'did not have body cam footage turned on'

I'm not up for a deep dive into Scottiegate, but nothing sounds quite right in this accounting from an ESPN crew that witnessed the incident:

Darlington, though, wasn’t the only eyewitness. His four commuting mates had also been at the scene, watching on from the interior of the SUV. On Saturday, Wischusen, who has not yet publicly shared his version of what led to the arrest, spoke to GOLF.com about what he saw and heard. His account corroborates Darlington’s, but Wischusen also provided some new details.   

As Scheffler pulled up to the left of ESPN’s vehicle, Wischusen said he and his ESPN colleagues could not see who was at the wheel. Moments later, a police officer “kind of jumped in front” of what the ESPN crew would later learn was a Lexus driven by Scheffler. “He was pretty, you know, enthusiastic, let’s say,” Wischusen said of Officer Gillis. Wischusen said Gillis beamed his flashlight up and down Scheffler’s car and yelled at him with words to the effect of: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, who are you? Where are you going? Get back in line. You’re not allowed to come through here.”

Wischusen said he couldn’t hear any of what Scheffler said to Gillis but that Gillis was “scolding” Scheffler for passing the ESPN vehicle on the left. Wischusen said because the officer and his colleagues were in yellow reflective jackets, it was unclear to him and his colleagues whether they were police or tournament security.

After Scheffler and the officer’s interaction, Wischusen said Scheffler began to pull away. As Darlington described it, at this point Gillis “attached himself” to the car. As Gillis, whose body camera was not activated during the incident, described it, he was “dragged” to the ground by Scheffler’s car, which led to “pain, swelling and abrasions to left wrist and knee” and damaging his pants “beyond repair.”

Here’s how Wischusen recalls that moment: “When [Scheffler] drove past him, the cop got very angry pursuing the car. … My impression was he was kind of running alongside chasing the car, and maybe he tripped and fell. I mean, there was kind of an outcropping or median, you know, by the front gate. And keep in mind, it was raining. It was 6 o’clock in the morning. It was dark.”

Asked about Darlington’s characterization of the officer “attaching” himself to the car, Wischusen said, “I could see him stumble, but I did not have a very clear view of exactly how you want to categorize his contact with the car.”

Wischusen said Scheffler was moving at a relatively slow speed — “the speed that you would drive a car if you were pulling up to the front gate of a place,” he said — and before pulling over had driven approximately the 10 or so yards that Darlington had estimated.

When Scheffler stopped the car, Wischusen said Gillis was visibly upset. “He runs up to the driver’s side, and with the butt end of his flashlight starts screaming, you know, ‘Get out of the car, get out of the car’ — banging on the window — ‘shut the engine off, get out of the car. I’m a police officer.’”

The driver “peacefully” exited the car, Wischusen said, at which point the officer “put him up against the car and put him in handcuffs.” Said Wischusen: “That was when we realized — you know, all the way up until then we’re like, oh my God, whoever is in this car, there’s about to be an arrest of some sort. And then it was, ‘Oh my God, it’s Scottie Scheffler.”

That bit about the officer being dragged makes no sense, and it sure sounds like he was, shall we say, a little over-eager in his actions?

Scheffler was in contention after two days but fell off the pace with a two-over 73 on Saturday (his first over-par round of the season). Yet he rebounded to shoot 65 on Sunday to tie for 8th. What did you learn about Scottie Scheffler this week?

Marksbury: Scheffler has a reputation as the nicest man on Tour, and his reaction to what I can only imagine was a very traumatizing experience places him in even higher esteem. I thought he handled himself with dignity and humility, and was genuine, especially when offering his condolences to the family of John Mills, the man who was tragically killed on Friday morning. He is a guy who really walks the talk, and that’s refreshing.

Sens: Tough times don’t often reveal new traits in a person. They expose what has been there all along. Scheffler has always seemed like a guy who has his head on straight and his priorities in order. This week reaffirmed all that.

Melton: That he’s still the baddest dude on Tour (in terms of his golf, not his rap sheet). He came into the week fresh off having a kid, got arrested during the tournament, played with a backup caddie and STILL finished in the top 10. I’d be stunned if he doesn’t win another major this year.

Dethier: He’s good under pressure. Under golf pressure. Under crisis. I’m sure there’s more to the story that we don’t know and may never learn, but from what we’ve seen he handled everything as well as I could have imagined.

I don't think we necessarily learned anything new, but it confirmed our perceptions of the guy.

Some thoughts on the venue, though bear in mind that we're not going back anytime soon (or, perhaps, ever):

Before the tournament started, Justin Thomas said “there’s not a lot of different ways to play the golf course,” which he believed contributed to bunched leaderboards at Valhalla majors. Yet it’s produced PGA winners like Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and now Schauffele, who emerged from a strong group of candidates on Sunday afternoon. Does the strong list of winners prove this is a worthy major venue, or do Thomas’ comments about variety prove it’s not?

Marksbury: With leaderboards like the one we just had, and winners like all of the above-mentioned players, I think Valhalla gets an A+. It was exciting through and through, with birdies, eagles, and chip-ins galore. Fun viewing!

Sens: I understand the hand-wringing from those who say they want to see a stouter test. But I don’t think it’s worth getting overly worked up over the final score. Ultimately, this is entertainment, and on that front, Valhalla has been a very good stage. Anyone looking for more of a torture chamber won’t have to wait long. Pinehurst No. 2 could/should be a very stout exam.

Melton: I’d prefer a little more variety than what Valhalla provided. Sure, it gave us some exciting moments, but it was a sprint rather than a marathon. Bogeys were rare and there wasn’t much opportunity to see any shuffling up top after the first two rounds. It’s nice when birdies are a reward rather than an expectation.

Dethier: Soft courses make for lousy viewing. Golf is most fun when the ball is on the move, when precision matters and when every shot has consequence attached. There was a lack of consequence this week; off-line shots often didn’t lead to anything perilous or exciting. The conditions also meant there wasn’t much ball-rolling. Bummer! But big picture golf tournaments build to Sunday afternoon drama, when the exciting question is also simple: Can you execute when it matters? We still got that question. And an exciting answer.

You don't go to a Nicklaus design for strategic value, and you don't go to Louisville in search of firm and fast conditions, so color me shocked.   Ironically, this event was awarded back when they thought it would be in August, so the anticipation would have been even softer conditions.

The argument isn't, as per Josh Sens, about final score, although that is telling.  It's more, as per Dylan Dethier, about shot values and the test provided, and this one comes up way short because of the soft turf.

Oddly, Geoff has this ringing defense of the venue:

Now that’s the Valhalla we love and know!

With more major championship scoring records falling faster than Ian Baker-Finch Kentucky-bourbon references, this problematic, birdiefest-of-a PGA Championship threatened to morph into the Louisville Slugger White Classic Presented By Bridgecore Financial. But yet again, that whole-Nordic-Gods-thing infusing Valhalla tournaments with notes of Ali, Mine That Bird, Tiger, limestone, Rory, Jack and Elijah Craig took a rain-softened Nicklaus design and reinforced the places spot next to Freedom Hall as Louisville’s greatest contribution to sports history.

On Valhalla’s fourth and final PGA Championship for at least eight years (and probably longer now that the dollars-first PGA of America has sold its stake), the course once again delivered a nail-biter golf fans will savor for decades. Particularly after the unthinkable events of Friday when a retired security guard lost his life en route to work and the World No. 1 was in a hurry to get to the course, disobeyed an officer, and found himself posing for a mug shot.

Typically, majors with so much going against them and loads of red numbers tend to feel, you know, not very major-like. This one saw two record-tying 62’s and a weekend full of red numbers that had Valhalla looking like a cut-and-dried birdiefest until, improbably, the seemingly shallow exam somehow filtered out everyone but the maddest of mad scientists.

That’s right, “all right in front of you” Valhalla shaved off a bunch of pretenders and turned the Wannamaker quest into a captivating battle featuring three of the modern game’s most renowned—sometimes to their detriment—tinkerers, range grinders, coach-firers, and overanalyzers of every conceivable detail.

Another indisputable fact regarding Viktor Hovland, Bryson DeChambeau and 106th PGA champion Xander Schauffele: they put in the work. Maybe too much at times.

Savor for decades?  I'm sorry, Geoff, were you watching the same event as I did?

There's a very interesting discussion to be had about elite professional venues, and what works for guys that carry it 325 yards.  This joint, mostly because of Tiger and Rory's wins, will support those who want to put them in a huge ballpark and ignore architectural merit.  It's just funny that Geoff would make that case, given that he's golf's major proponent of architectural merit.

I'm going to head for the exit on that note, and we'll cover further reflections as the week unfolds.  And, most importantly, how about those Yankees!