Weekend Wrap - Bobby Mac Edition

Not our lead story, but still quite the proud day for Scotland.... Wonder if he'll still have the bag at Pinehurst, where it will be literally Father's Day.

Yuka Redux - Playing the role of Andy North, the girl from The Philippines Japan:

Yuka Saso four-putted. Then she won the U.S. Women’s Open

Big deal, I've done half of that....

It’s not often major championship winners four-putt during their winning weeks. It’s even rarer that soon-to-be champions do it in the final round.

Yuka Saso nearly did it twice on Sunday — at the U.S. Women’s Open, arguably the most sought-after title in women’s golf.

Yet Sunday night, the USGA awarded its Harton S. Semple Trophy to Saso for the second time in four years.

The U.S. Open winner is often the player who makes the fewest mistakes, but on a course as tough as the William Flynn design at Lancaster Country Club — the hardest U.S. Women’s Open setup in 10 years — gaffes are inevitable. The trick is quickly recovering from them.

I didn't see any of the weekend coverage, but I did catch some Thursday-Friday action, and the course was playing awfully tough, not just for Nelly and not just that 12th hole.

 From the headlines I caught, there were three ladies tied for the 54-hole lead, none name Yuka:

Minjee Lee, Wichanee Meechai and Andrea Lee faded so badly that they were surpassed by 2019 AIG Women’s British Open champion Hinako Shibuno and Ally Ewing. At least third-round co-leader Andrea Lee salvaged a tie for third.

Those three leaders shot 75, 77 and 78, which I didn't see coming (nor did Shack):

Through 63 holes the championship appeared to be Minjee Lee’s to lose. The 2022 champion at Pine Needles opened her day with birdie before showing signs of stress and little of the acumen she’d displayed after a back nine 33 on Saturday. The 28-year-old Australian and two-time major champ struggled before a full unraveling at Lancaster’s graveyard of champions, a.k.a. the par 3 12th. That’s where an Amen Corner-esque moment unfolded as Lee played at the pin, lost her tee shot a bit right playing at a green situated at an angle, and saw her ball roll back into the creek (more below).

Geoff does a deep dive into this hole, including these great screengrabs of the NBC Coverage:

 And this of the Aussie in which her ball is seen trickling back into the drink:

Lots on this pivotal hole at the link, including these stats:

Official Yardage: 181

Scoring Average (Rank): 3.484 (1st)Aces: 0

Birdies: 41

Pars: 253

Bogeys: 94

Double Bogeys: 55

Others: 17

Field Score: +223

Green in regulation: 268/461 (58.31% (8th))

Proximity: 32’0” (8th)

Sand saves: 11/40 (27.5% (5th))

Scrambling: 53/193 (27.46% (1st))]

Average putts: 1.948 (10th)

Three putts: 36 (6th)

The only other bit I'll add is about that country swap, though Geoff explains that she has legitimate claims for each:

But the player who now represents Japan after hailing from the Philippines in her first victory, quietly warmed up to a difficult test. One which, despite being about as far from Lombard Street and Olympic Club as possible, shares a key similarity to where Saso first broke through: old school golf sporting hilly, uneven stances. Throw in her otherworldly swing, a bizarre early week display of putting mastery before giving way to a clutch Sunday of fairways-and-greens, and it all adds up to history: Saso became the first player in USGA history to win the U.S. Women’s Open Presented by Ally on multiple occasions for two different countries.

While her county of choice is a nice tribute to her parents—mom is from the Philippines and dad is from Japan—the semantics only matter in the context of the Olympic Games. In terms of winning the biggest and most lucrative event in women’s golf, Saso’s parental homage means little compared to the remarkable final round 68 posted as a trio of third-round leaders fizzled under U.S. Women’s Open pressure.

Is that a wise move, given the greater talent level in Japan?  Though, as Geoff notes, it doesn't affect anything important in golf....

The Tour Confidential panel is in session:

Yuka Saso burst onto the scene with an unexpected U.S. Women’s Open victory in 2021, but after a couple of winless seasons she picked up her second career LPGA victory at this week’s U.S. Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club. Was this an unexpected winner?

James Colgan: I’m not sure I’d call a player who finished 2nd and T3 at the KPMG and Evian

last year an ‘unexpected’ winner. Some players have a gift for playing well when the conditions get tough. A 68 on Sunday — when only 13 players in the entire field played under par — would seem to be proof.

Zephyr Melton: It’s not as if Saso disappeared the last couple of years — she just didn’t win. As James noted above, she finished inside the top 3 twice in majors last summer. It was only a matter of time before she broke through and won on the biggest stage again. I’d be surprised if this is the last time we see Saso hoist the trophy on major Sunday.

Josh Sens: I’d love to have a so-so year like Saso had in 2023. Winning’s hard. So many things have to go right (like, for instance, Nelly Korda missing the cut). And then you have to be ready when they do. Saso was. Great combination of power and poise. I second Zephyr. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t repeat the feat before long.

Alan Bastable: Surprising: Nelly Korda missing a cut. Not surprising: A player who already has proven she can win a U.S. Women’s Open doing it again. And Yuka did it by dropping the hammer. Four birdies in a five-hole stretch on the back nine as the other contenders were struggling to make pars? That is seriously stout stuff. Also cool: that Yuka has now won U.S. Opens for two countries that never had one (Philippines in ’21 and Japan this year).

When you look "golf" up in the dictionary, this is what you get, Yuka from nowhere and Nelly slamming the old trunk.  That said, quite the devastating week for the ladies, as pretty much all their mononyms (Nelly, Lexi and Rose) had their weekends free to catch up on chores.  Unfortunately, my predication is that the weekend will not register a discernable TV audience.

Those TCers talked a little Lexi, as well:

One player who didn’t make the weekend at Lancaster was 29-year-old Lexi Thompson, who stole the headlines earlier in the week when she announced that after this season she’ll no longer play a full-time LPGA schedule. Surprised? Not surprised?

Colgan: The timing was unexpected, but the news wasn’t. Lexi has long appeared from afar to be one of golf’s most tortured players. No amount of money or fame is enough to overcome plain

disenchantment with the life of a pro golfer. Good on her for making a decision for her happiness.

Melton: I’m not shocked by the news. Lexi has cut back on her playing schedule considerably over the last few years and hasn’t played exceptionally well when she has teed it up. And considering she turned pro at 15(!) she’s been playing pro golf for almost half her life. That’s a long time to be on the grind.I hope she can find happiness in the next stage of her journey.

Sens: Not surprised at all. It’s a big world out there, and Thompson had long seemed ready to break from the small corner of it she’s been living in. It’s no secret that the tunnel vision required to compete at that level requires a ton of personal sacrifice. She’s over it. For now, anyway. Good for her for recognizing that. Even better, she’s young enough that she can always return to it if she has a change of heart.

Bastable: ​​OK, I’ll bite. Color me surprised! Yes, Thompson has had a rollercoaster couple of years, but she found her form again in the back half of 2023 and looked to be reasserting her position among the LPGA’s alphas. She even had a new ball deal for this year! I did not see her pulling the plug. Then again, I get it. She’s only 29 but has been under the spotlight at least since she played in a USWO at 12 and, on a more local level, long before that. Sooner or later the grind gets to you.

The girl has looked miserable out there for an eternity, so color me unsurprised.  Not least because I have a feeling we might see more of her than she's letting on.  Yanno, just when you think you're out...

Even when she wasn’t playing well, Thompson had long been a fan favorite and someone the women’s game was strongly marketed behind. How big of a blow will her full-time absence be to the LPGA Tour?

Colgan: Well, it’s obviously a considerable blow to the LPGA, but it mainly means the burden falls to the rest of the game’s stars. I was impressed with how Nelly Korda handled a disastrous week, and I thought the timing was telling where the attention will shift.

Melton: It will certainly be felt, but luckily the Tour has Nelly’s starpower to market now. If someone like Rose Zhang or Lilia Vu can rise up to challenge her, the LPGA will be just fine.

Sens: James and Zephyr have said it well. I would just add that this hardly feels like an abrupt departure. More like a gradual phasing out, as she’d already been cutting back and not putting herself in contention in many big events when she did. This is not a sudden gut punch.

Bastable: Big loss for sure. Not just because she brings to the women’s game (and, last fall, the PGA Tour) a brand of grip-it-and-rip-it golf that is so much fun watch but also because she understands the importance of her star power (several players last week mentioned Thompson’s dedication to waving the LPGA flag at pro-am parties). I witnessed this myself just a few weeks ago at the Founders Cup pro-am pairings party in northern New Jersey. Lexi wasn’t just there to check a box. She was smiling, shaking hands and present.

I've been plenty hard on the girl over the years, as I find her game less enticing than Alan Bastable.  In fact, the only golf swing I know of that I'd less like to watch belongs to her brother....

That said, she has been a loyal soldier and comments like Bastable's are common, so yes it's a big loss for a tour that can ill afford it.  Nelly's ascendancy will mitigate that, but the eggs are all in just the single basket....

Did you catch the Charley Hull moment?

Charley Hull was asked for an autograph on her way down to the driving range on Tuesday at the U.S. Women’s Open Championship. Nothing unordinary about that, except that the Englishwoman happened to be smoking a cigarette at the time. With her hands full, Hull kept the cigarette in her mouth as she scribbled away. Golf.com’s Zephyr Melton was there to document the moment with his cell phone, and it quickly went viral.

“I find it quite funny, because I actually do go to the gym and I’m a very healthy person,” Hull told the media after a closing 3-under 67 at Lancaster Country Club. “I only smoke. I hardly drink. I don’t need to drink because, actually, I can have a fun time without it.

“Yeah, listen, my dad smokes 40 a day since he was 12 years old and now he’s 75, and my nephew smokes who is like 25. My whole family smokes, so it’s not something that I’ve noticed being odd. I hate smoking. I used to curse at my dad when I was younger for smoking, but I think it’s to do a little bit when I’m stressed.”

Right, wrong or indifferent, it's just a shock to the system because we just don't see cigs any more:

 Kinda gangsta, no? Or is it more regal?

One last TC bit on the ladies:

What event from the past week was more surprising? Nelly Korda recording a 10 and missing the cut, or Charley Hull going viral (and gaining a ton of publicity and social media followers) for, well, a cigarette?

Colgan: Nelly was the best player on the planet, male or female, over the last six months. Her dumping three in the water on the third hole at the national championship isn’t just the most surprising development of the week, it’s the most surprising non-jail-related development in pro golf during this major season.

Melton: Gotta be Nelly. Seeing her make a 10 was downright shocking. The only thing more shocking would’ve been waking up to her mugshot, a la Scottie Scheffler.

Sens: Based on what we know about social media by now, does anything that happens on it ever count as surprising anymore? Nelly’s 10 all the way.

Bastable: Tough to compare the two, but I was fascinated by the reaction to the Hull video. Feel like the virality of the moment could easily have gone two ways for her: Gasp! A pro golfer tugging on a ciggy in front of young fans! Or…Amazing! A pro golfer with vices and weaknesses just like the rest of us! Clearly the public embraced Hull’s everywoman appeal, and the balance tipped toward praising her. Really interesting to watch this sociology experiment play out in real time. If the LPGA had a PIP ranking, Hull might be in poll (pull?) position.

Just another moment to make us feel old....  And realize how young these golf writers re to not see the obvious Arnie linkage.

Dougie To The Rescue - There's no shortage of things to love about this story (not that I saw a lick of it):

Robert MacIntyre wins 2024 RBC Canadian Open with dad Dougie on the bag

Of course he's named Dougie....

Dougie MacIntyre was sitting on his couch at home in Oban, Scotland. It was 8 o’clock on a

Saturday night when “Bob” popped up on his phone for a FaceTime.

His son, the professional golf Robert MacIntyre, was in Dallas and had missed the cut the day before at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Having parted ways with his fourth caddie in the last 18 months, he asked, “How would you like to come to Canada and caddie for me at the RBC Canadian Open?”

Dougie was busy at home, where he is the greenkeeper at Glencruitten Golf Club. But his wife, Carol, gave him a look and said he needed to go be there for his son. Robert admitted he had asked a few others to be on the bag but no one wanted a one-week gig.

“If in doubt, phone dad,” MacIntyre said.

Are we sure it's just the one-week gig?  FWIW, Oban is in the middle of nowhere (the same can be said about most of Scotland):

Oban is a resort town within the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. Despite its small size, it is the largest town between Helensburgh and Fort William.

I've never even heard of Helensburgh, but it's situated on the West Coast and has a year-round population of just over 8,000 souls.  If you're headed for the Isle of Mull, you'll transit through Oban.

But my favorite bit is that his emergency caddie obviously didn't come from the Hogan School of Looping:

MacIntyre of course followed that up by making his first bogey of the week on the 1st hole in the third round, all while the likes of Rory McIlroy and Tom Kim and others chase after them, with

plenty of golf remaining. He’d make two more bogeys on that front nine, too, dropping to as many as four shots off the lead. But something switched halfway through his third round, and he has his caddie to thank for it.

“He was having a wee go at me when I was walking from the 10th tee down to the fairway,” MacIntyre said. “Look, he was a sporting guy, he knows how to win, knows how to lose, he’s been through it all. He could see my head going a little bit and he’s like, ‘What have you been working on for the last eight weeks, 10 weeks’ — whatever I’ve been doing when I realized what was the problem. I kind of flipped into that mode and tried to find the positive in everything.”

A shame he has a day job....

This guy also needed a fill-in caddie:

After Fluff Cowan takes a tumble, C.T. Pan turns to a fan to caddie at 2024 RBC Canadian Open

Pan actually went through four caddies that day, but my point is a familiar one, to wit, that putting a staff bag on Fluff's shoulder is elder abuse.

Now did you notice the dog that didn't bark this week?  They actually held a Canadian Open and not a single player got tackled.  Wassup with that?

But there were a couple of walks down memory lane, this popping up first:

In what was arguably the most viral golf moment of 2023, Adam Hadwin was flattened by a security guard as he tried to rush the 18th green in the aftermath of Nick Taylor's dramatic win at the RBC Canadian Open. Now a year later, the man behind that famous tackle is finally talking. And he characterized the hit as a "soft takedown."

Well, he would, though we might need a second opinion on his softness claim, specifically Hadwin's:

The funniest part of this is that the security guard is operating under a nom de guerre:

But this guy still doesn't want any attention so he went by the name "Mr. X" for the story. According to TSN, the man does security at a bunch of big sporting events and concerts in Canada and, "His superiors laud his work ethic, and he often gets the toughest jobs, such as on the 18th hole at last year’s tournament."

That 18th hole erupted like few events in the country's history as Taylor sunk a 72-hole eagle putt to end the Canadians' 69-year drought in their national open.

“I was on the other side of Nick and his caddie,” Mr. X told TSN, “which meant I had to come around him. There were a lot of people moving and I saw this person heading directly towards Nick. I saw it as if it was in slow motion, this guy coming towards Nick with a bottle and no credentials.”

Hey, the man was just doing his job. With vigor.

“It was a soft takedown,” Mr. X added with a laugh. “His feet never left the ground.”

Will Mr. X be at Royal Montreal?  At least we have a definition of a soft takedown....

I'm pleased to report a happy ending, a warm reunion between the litigants:

Water under the bridge! https://t.co/kh5fXX29MM pic.twitter.com/LFdCNYS0HI

— adam hadwin (@ahadwingolf) May 31, 2024

Better yet, it was apparently a teachable moment:

And Hadwin is staying true to his word. In an interview earlier this year he said, "I've learned my lesson, I'll be wearing my credential from now on." And as you can see he's displaying that credential.

Smart move. Especially if you plan on rushing a crowded green holding a bottle of champagne. And even if you are one of your country's most famous golfers.

Being one of Canada's most famous golfer is what the kids call a humble brag.

I am going to leave you folks here.  Blogging will be on the light side this week, as we'll want a full reserve of energy before heading to Carolina.  Have a great week.