Weekend Wrap - Pre-Departure Edition

It's officially the dog days of August, and the weather has certainly been, well, doggin' it lately.  Though that presumable just acclimates your humble blogger in advance of our typical summer sojourn.  More on that below.

You Can't Make Me Care - I think I'm being intellectually consistent, but, if I could never bring myself to care about the Rocket Mortgage Classic, the fact that this is the Final Rocket Mortgage Classic fails to depress me.

Admittedly a tough week for the city of Detroit, losing Rickie and Tarik on the same day.  But at least the winner might be someone of note:

Michael Thorbjornsen said this would happen.

He did so back in February at the WM Phoenix Open, where he tied for third after leading late.

“You put yourself in those positions more and more,” Thorbjornsen said, “you get more comfortable, you learn every single time whether you do well or — I mean, whether the result is good or bad necessarily, if you’re talking about wins or losses.

“I don’t think I failed out there. I’m just learning. So, yeah, I put myself in that position. I was leading after what, 70 holes, 69 holes, whatever it was. I mean, we’re inching our way closer and closer. It’ll happen at some point.”

About a month later, he then said this at the Players Championship, where he entered the final round in second.

“Yeah, just keep trying your best,” Thorbjornsen said. “If you keep putting yourself in that position, it’s going to happen at some point. So I think that’s really the main goal of all of us players out here is to have a chance or be in contention on the back nine on Sunday, and however the cards may fall, that’s just how it is.”

And it did:

And Thorbjornsen? To make it happen, he made things happen. Birdie on the par-4 1st at Detroit Golf Club, on a 12-foot putt. Birdie on the par-5 4th after hitting his third shot to 4 feet. Then came his closing nine, which was sensational. He birdied the par-4 10th, after hitting his approach to 6 feet. He birdied the par-4 12th after pitching in from right of the green. He birdied the par-5 14th after pitching to 2 feet, and that gave him a lead that he wouldn’t release. A hole later, on the par-3 15th, Thorbjornsen birdied again, after dropping his tee shot to 6 feet. He then locked up the title with a birdie on the par-4 18th, the three coming on a 25-foot putt. All of that, coupled with no bogeys, equaled a five-under 30 over his final nine holes.

In the end, Thorbjornsen shot seven-under 63, and no one was better on Sunday. He won by two, and the title was the first on the PGA Tour for the 24-year-old.

Of course, he told us it was en route.

All of which has seemed inevitable since he burst onto our radar during his days in Palo Alto.

The Tour Confidential gang only indirectly acknowledged the existence of this event with this Q&A:

3. The FedEx Cup Playoffs are just around the corner, and this week’s Wyndham Championship is the last chance for pros to play their way into the top 70. Rocket Classic winner Michael Thorbjornsen made a massive jump Sunday (69th to 38th) and others will look to do the same in North Carolina. Which bubble-boy player is most intriguing to you?

Piastowski: I’m going right to Mr. 70 at the moment — Jackson Koivun. Don’t you get the feeling he’ll make a run in the playoffs? Then get a call to the Presidents Cup team? Then get one to next year’s Ryder Cup team? Just having some fun here.

Schrock: It’s Brooks Koepka. Withdrew from the Rocket with an injury so his playoffs are in doubt. Needs a big week, if he plays, to not see his season end next week. Honorable mention to Tony Finau, who has been fighting it this year and needs something special to keep his playoff streak alive.

Sens: I’d add Keegan Bradley to that list. Currently at 72, just outside the bubble. He may never get over the Ryder Cup, but nabbing a spot in the playoffs wouldn’t hurt his mood.

It's a yawn-inducing question, though at least Jackson Koivun on next year's losing Ryder Cup team is a respectable hot take.

Brooks and Tony?  Not so much.... America's breath related to those two is stubbornly unbated.... And Keegs?  The reader can come to his own conclusions there, I'll just refer all back to my header.

This Ends Our Links Programming Season -  It was good fun and we watched a decent amount of it, but fortunately Geoff goes deep with his coverage:

It’s fitting that Shiho Kuwaki survived the AIG Women’s Open occasionally ugly Sunday war of attrition.

After posting a final round 70 over a baked-out Royal Lytham & St Annes, the 23-year-old

Japanese golfer took a seat in scoring while the engraver prepared to etch her name into history. Two groups later, Esther Henseleit sank a 40-footer to force a playoff, leaving a surprised-looking Kuwaki little time to refocus.

In her first time through the 18th during sudden-death, Kuwaki missed a fairway for one of the few times all week and had to hack out from one of the last stands of rough yet to keel over during the unusually warm summer. But a brilliant pitch to five feet and par-saving putt set Kuwaki to win it her way: old-fashioned fairway-and-green steadiness offset by some brutal (maybe) luck for Henseleit.

Even with idyllic conditions during Sunday’s final round, the field collapsed under the weight of pressure, the demands of a fire-dangerous links, and a five-major season played over 101 days, only to culminate in a 166-bunker-laden test of patience. Kuwaki hit 58 greens-in-regulation and 79% of the brown runways to overcome mediocre putting (T57th/1.76). Even more impressively, she outlasted a diverse and far more accomplished cast that’ll be muttering all the way to Manchester International.

Put aside the event for a moment, and just let your gaze settle on those magnificently burnt out fairways.  If that doesn't get your blood flowing, then you're amongst the lucky folks that haven't caught the links virus.

I always call the LPGA the Tour That Can't Shoot Straight, and this is just another week with a regrettably sub-optimal leaderboard.  Beneath the surface there has been quite a resurgence in Japanese women's golf, to the extent that they've grabbed market share from the South Koreans.  Why is it sub-optimal?  The LPGA needs stars to register with audiences, and one young lad from the Land of the Rising Sun winning six majors would be preferable to six previously-unknown ladies grabbing one each.

It was wonderful in its own way, three relative newcomers with short resumes from three different countries battling down the stretch, but the frustrating part is having Nelly and Jeeno just off that first page.  It was a good week and a worthy event, it just doesn't move the ball quite as they require.

More from Geoff on the winner and Miss Congeniality:

She’s been playing golf since age four and, after attending Kurashiki University, has five overall

wins in Japan and has become known for her brash style via Loudmouth gear, bold eyelashes and other displays of color. (When she won the Japan LPGA Tour Championship Ricoh Cup, Kuwaki wore red lobster-adorned pants.)

The only player to catch her on Sunday provided the day’s best drama after way too many pile-ups over the links. The 5’10” Henseleit arrived at the 392-yard 18th needing birdie, but a poor approach left the 40-footer to force a playoff.

“It was a very confusing putt to be honest, and it was going right to left and everything,” Henseleit said. “The last three feet it was tracking and I was, oh, okay it might actually go in. Yeah, it was a great moment when that putt dropped in.”

Husband and longtime caddie Reece Phillips, whom she married last December in Italy, could be seen in a wide-shot replay celebrating before attempting to bottle his excitement.

“I saw the second half of his celebration and that was still pretty fun to watch. Yeah, very happy with how I gave myself the opportunity to win today and how I handled myself. Just got a bit unlucky on the second playoff hole there.”

Look, she got a horrible break on that second playoff hole:

Regarding the unfortunate break on the second playoff hole: it’s clear Henseleit’s tee shot hit a volunteer marshal in the leg before bounding backward to the gorse, but it’s also unclear if he (unintentionally) stopped the ball from reaching more of Old Tom’s nemesis lining the 18th.

Either way, the bad lie and need to hack back to the fairway left the 2024 Olympic silver-medalist ambivalent about her luck.

“I thought it was further left to be honest,” she said of her tee shot. “Must have gotten some kind of bad bounce. At least I still had a shot I guess, and could kind of get a good angle going into the green and didn’t have to take an unplayable or something.

“But, yeah, probably a bit unlucky there. That’s just links golf.”

 

Her drive was now worse than her opponent's on the first playoff hole, but it all came down to which girls could get it up-and-in to save par.  And I'll just add that Kuwaki pretty clearly pushed her third shot on that first replay of No. 18, just fortunately got a kick off the bunker mounding.  A few inches further right and it's a very different post this morning.

And just a quick shoutout to that third girl in the mix:

American Yealimi Noh opened the day with a three-stroke lead that continued with a birdie at the second hole. But five bogeys over the next 10 holes began her undoing, only to still have a shot at the 18th via a 25-foot birdie putt that came up short. Still, the San Francisco-born 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior champion who bypassed college golf enjoyed a remarkable week after jetting home following a missed cut in the Amundi Evian, where she’d recorded her best finish in a major prior to Sunday (3rd, 2021).

Noh had not broken par in an LPGA event since April before opening with three straight rounds under par at Royal Lytham & St Annes. In a touching post-round interview with NBC’s Cara Banks, Noh revealed that she’s been having second thoughts about her career until this week.

“Obviously it stings coming up one short and having a not great round, but I’m still very happy to have been in this position,” the 25-year-old said. “Coming down 18 in front of the big crowds and playing at The Open, it was really special. Reminded me why I love this game and why I’m here.”

I found her post-round interview quite touching, most of all that she made herself available.  I'd feel better if I knew that Rory was watching and taking notes....

Napa In The Rearview Mirror -  This was the subject of greatest interest to our Tour Confidentialista:

1. The 2028 schedule dominoes are starting to fall, and in the past week we learned the first batch of Championship Series events will be the Travelers Championship, the newly minted Sompo Championship — which takes over the current Napa stop with a 2028 location TBD — the Sentry and the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Any learnings from this?

Nick Piastowski: We expected the Travelers, the Sentry and the Arnold Palmer to be among the top tier. It’s the newly announced Sompo Championship that’s intriguing here, though. Securing a new sponsor following a format shakeup should be considered a big win for the PGA Tour. Where the event will be played in two years will also be of interest. Stay tuned.

Josh Schrock: The Tour’s ability to get a new sponsor to buy in for a Championship Series event with a $20 million purse is noteworthy. We’ve heard the demand from sponsors is higher than initially thought and this might prove that case. The rumored move of the Sompo to Seattle in 2028 would be a big win if it comes to pass.

Josh Sens: We’ve heard that the demand from sponsors is higher than expected, but who’s been telling us that? The Tour. Time will tell if that’s really the case. Meantime, it is an interesting change in status for what used to be the Procore, an event with such a low-wattage field that it had morphed into a kind of wine country version of the Waste Management, with live bands and food and other non-golf attractions aimed at ramping up interest. The rumored move to Seattle makes sense. A major market that doesn’t see a lot of pro golf. I’ve heard Sahalee tossed around as a potential site, but why not Chambers Bay? More interesting course. And public access, too.

God, these guys are funny!  

You've heard me rant for years about the treatment of sponsors and events.  I've always been amused about hos, when a new sponsor comes in, up to fifty years of history gest airbrushed (can you say "Honda").  But at least there they're at the same venue....

But now we segue into existentialism.  What are the constituent components of a PGA Tour event?  It seems to me there's the sponsor and, more importantly, the venue or location, and perhaps the calendar spot.  So, in the present instance, we have an event that will assume anew sponsor, a new venue in a different city and, presumably a more appealing spot on the schedule.  And yet, it seems weirdly important to them that this retains it's connective tissue with an event for which none of us could even name the current sponsor.  Why?

And continuing on the "who cares' line of thought:

2. Does a surprise Championship Series event (the Sompo) mean there could be more unpredictability than we anticipated?

Piastowski: Maybe. Let’s try to figure this out. We’re gonna get 23 to 24 events in the Championship Series, the Tour says — and that includes the Players, the four majors, the Tour Championship, an international team event (Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup) and, once every four years, the Olympics. So that’s seven or eight events. Let’s add two playoff events. That’s nine to 10 events. We know of the four above. That’s 13 to 14. The final 10? Likely candidates are the WM Phoenix Open, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Genesis Invitational, the RBC Heritage, the Cadillac Championship, the Truist Championship and the Memorial. So … the final three could be interesting.

Schrock: I don’t know how unpredictable it could get. With the Heritage, Pebble, Cadillac, Memorial, Genesis, WMPO and Truist presumably filling Championship slots, we don’t have a lot of room for shock. I feel like the winds are blowing toward the 3M getting a spot, which would be a surprise of sorts.

Sens: There’s not a lot of room left for wild surprises. What’s less obvious is which sponsors will step up. In that sense, it seems likely to be a tail-wagging-the-dog type scenario. Which event becomes part of the Championship Series will depend more on the interests of the sponsor than on the merits of the tournament itself.

They always have found sponsors willing to pony up, notwithstanding their treatment after the ink dries.  You'd think each CEO considering that kind of cash outlay would drop a dime and call the nice folks at Honda, but I'm sure it will work out for them.

I fond myself also wondering whether this new great awakening can accommodate anything other then the dreary week-to-week sameness of the Tour.  For instance, Pebble is on everyone's list, but what will the event look like.  They already limited the amateurs the Thursday-Friday for the most recent Great Awakening that is no longer so great.  But Pebble is more of that connective tissue to the Tour's history, specifically the Crosby Clambake and The Match.  Do we care about our history or is it disposable?

Pittenweem on Our Minds -  It's on.  We leave Friday night and will, weather permitting, be on the Balcomie Links on Sunday morning.

As always, the laptop is in the knapsack and I'll be blogging therefrom, though I have no idea what that means.  We're taking the same trip as the last four times, and will be playing the same two tracks.  I'm not even sure at this point that I'll bother to take the proper camera, may just depend upon our phonews.

The current issue of Links Magazine had this feature:

First Courses Designed by Notable Modern Golf Architects

You'll know where I'm headed:

Gil Hanse

Crail Golfing Society (Craighead Links)—Crail, Scotland

Gil Hanse was beaming with pride when he learned that he’d been selected to design Craighead Links, the second course at the Crail Golfing Society. After all, this was in the late 1990s, which meant Hanse was only getting started in his career, but it also positioned him as just the third American to design a new course in Scotland. As for the work itself, Hanse remembers an archeologist monitoring their work at every turn, sifting through the spoils from the excavations made for bunkers and green complexes. “He was looking for artifacts associated with a Viking landing spot,” Hanse explains. “He never found much, but it was nerve-wracking for sure.”

Today, as Hanse looks at the finished product, he takes pride in the routing he and his team created and how they “navigated the terrain to create an interesting set of holes that wander the property in such a natural and thoughtful way.” But what he’s most proud of is how the course has matured, which is largely due to the vegetation that has grown in across the property. “This is often an overlooked part of the course design,” he says, “and takes many years to come to fruition.”

A couple of reactions.  First, a little surprise that he doesn't mention the defining challenge in his design, the small size of the site.  As for that vegetation, Oy Vey!   These are essentially gorse bushes, scattered throughout a very tight routing.  The issue isn't that there's a hazard to catch your errant shot, but that "hazard" is a lost ball with a rather severe stroke-and-distance penalty that seems overly harsh.

Of course, I've just reread The Spirit of St. Andrews and the Good Doctor has assured me that the perfect spot for a hazard is always where it happens to be.  They included this video with Gil's comments:

If that doesn't play, you can watch it at that link above.

I also found this amusing Golf Club Atlas comment thread on the Balcomie vs. the Craighead, which includes some name-brand participants.

All of which is to say that we are quite excited about our impending return to beloved Pittenweem.

Have a great week and I'll be in touch from the Kingdom of Fife.

Weekend Wrap - Browser Tab Purge Edition

It's the dog days of summer and we had a house full of visitors, so no televised golf was consumed.... The best I can offer is a cursory scan of the headers, then a brutal putsch of lingering browser tabs.  Hope that works for you.

3M - What the heck was Scottie doing there?  From the Tour Confidential panel:

Jackson Koivun outlasted a handful of major champions — including World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler — to win the 3M Open on Sunday in Minnesota in what was the rising star’s 13th

career start. What did you think of Koivun’s maiden victory on the PGA Tour, and are you surprised he held off Scheffler?

Josh Berhow: It was extremely impressive, and then he also made it somewhat relatable with a clunky par down the stretch. Still, we can call that a good par. He made the big putts when he needed to and rarely showed emotion until his winning putt dropped in on 18. It was cool to see his reaction after. I would not have been surprised if he dropped a shot or two down the stretch to let Scheffler in, but he hit fairways and greens and lag-putted well and played like someone who knew exactly how to close out a tournament.

Josh Schrock: The poise was what impressed me. Even with a sizable lead entering Sunday, I expected Koivun to look his age at some point, especially with Scheffler rising up behind him. But he never faltered, never gave anyone in the field an opening and cruised to the first of what I assume will be many wins. Am I surprised he held off Scheffler? Because of the gap he had to start the day, no, but I am surprised it was never in doubt on Sunday.

Josh Sens: I was struck by how unflinching he was. This was not a young player just trying to hang out for the win. A birdie right out of the gate and no let-up from there. There are tons of precocious talents in golf, of course. But not all of them show such veteran poise.

On the one hand, it doesn't sound like I missed anything.... On the other hand, though, this kid's first win might just be something one will have wanted to see.... For instance, I asked Googel's AI bot to sum up Koivun's  amateur career and got this:

Jackson Koivun put together one of the most dominant amateur and collegiate golf careers in history at Auburn University, rising to World No. 1 in the Amateur Rankings, winning two national team titles, and sweeping nearly every major individual award before turning pro in June 2026

In fact, Golf Digest probably jinxed the kid with this header:

Hello, world! With Scottie Scheffler in hot pursuit, Jackson Koivun calmly wins his first tour title in only his third pro start

I guess they see him becoming a pain medication addled cripple asleep on the side of the road....

That Schedule - The Golf Magazine crew then segues into this rumination of things to come:

A surprise Scheffler start at the 3M Open led to soaring ticket sales and was the Minnesota event’s biggest draw in its young history. However, when the Tour introduces its new two-track system in 2028, players on the Championship Series will not be able to drop down and play events on the Challenger Series. While it’s unclear what track the 3M Open will land on in two years, this sort of star-player splash we saw this week might be a thing of the past. Is that a disservice to tournaments and communities? Or simply the price of doing business with the Tour’s new structure?

Berhow: It can be both. As the Minnesota resident who covers this tournament every year — I bought a great mug from the merch tent this time — I’ve never seen crowds like this. Usually attendance is solid, but one group has rarely drawn the entire course as Scottie did from Thursday to Sunday. It was fun to see. But the Tour schedule was also due for a makeover, and I understand why this rule had to be put in place. It seems too difficult to allow one-off starts here or there for certain guys and could get messy.

Schrock: The answer is both. We saw talk of this at the John Deere as well about former champions not being able to play and those who win a Track 2 event being unable to defend their title the following year. It sucks for good golf communities like Minnesota and the Quad Cities that they won’t get to see stars like Scottie or Jordan Spieth, but the Tour couldn’t keep going the way that it was. It needed a facelift to make the schedule and stakes easier to understand so that everything leads to somewhere and we don’t just have 40 one-off events that head to a confusing postseason.

Sens: No doubt that the schedule had to change. The question is whether these changes actually solve the root problem, which is that there are only so many golfers people really want to watch. Without big names in the field and the eyeballs they draw, how much longer will the lower-wattage event survive? Are we just postponing the inevitable when the schedule has to be pared down even further?

Funny they should talk about doing business with the Tour's new structure and not recognize how the Tour continually screws its sponsors by changing the rules after the ink on their contract dries.

In the present case, I will concede the need for change from the current structure, though change is needed because they screwed it up the last time they assured us that it needed changing.  Got it, guys!  You'll get it perfect this go around...

I'll respond by asking a question.  What was wrong with what we had pre-Covid and pre-LIV?  One of my frustrations and one of the things I think they get wrong is the advantage of ambiguity.  They want to define each and everry event as being either an "a" or a "B", but forget the importance of the events making themselves worthy of a visit from Scottie or Rory.  They forget how the significance of events could ebb and flow, and why that's actually a good thing.

But, if Scottie can electrify the community in Minneapolis, one can readily see why that can't be allowed.  Wouldn't be prudent.

Brendan Porath of The Fried Egg recently mused about its effect on the rest of the golf world:

Seth Waugh put up a few warning flags early last year in an interview with Golfweek after he had just left his post leading the PGA of America. Waugh, an accomplished businessman, was reticent to critique any specific moves but simply outlined that things may be about to change.

“People underestimate what putting a for-profit entity into the game is going to mean over time,” he said, speaking of the recently formed PGA Tour Enterprises and Strategic Sports Group getting their hooks into the Tour. He’d later add, as a veteran of the “for-profit” world as well as a PGA Tour event sponsor, that “every entity in the game has to look at its situation now in a different light because it's no longer five families acting in the best interest of the game.” That sounds harsher than probably intended, but it was a notice.

This notice has been on my mind lately as the table gets crowded at the golf ecosystem summer BBQ. Everyone can have a seat, it’s just that some are getting filets while others scrap for hot dogs or crisped hockey pucks. There are men’s majors, senior majors, women’s majors, fake majors, amateur titles, international attractions, and all manner of championships from different organizations looking to eat.

Unfortunately, Porath doesn't take this important point any further. but I do think the need to provide an ROI to the private equity world will hit folks down the road.  Though this concern of Brendan's seems a tad naive:

This came to the fore last week when I pondered if the PGA Tour should have an interest in the success and promotion of the LPGA. The two jostled for TV time between the last signature event of the year (Travelers) and the last U.S.-based major (KPMG Women’s PGA). Weather threw some curveballs at both, but the women were planned to go off early in threes to finish on NBC and get out of the way for the Travelers finish, also on that network. The usual wails came about a major taking a backseat to a “regular” weekly PGA Tour event. The annual requests were made: Shouldn’t the PGA Tour be helping, getting out of the way, and promoting the women’s major stage?

I thought about Waugh’s quote and the new Tour leadership, which had just unveiled its big overhaul for the future, and posed that the opposite is probably closer to the truth. The PGA Tour might come for more, not acceding. They’re two different leagues with their own goals and motives — the fact that it’s the same sport does not necessarily mean their interest is shared, similar perhaps to conferences in college football. Aren’t the PGA Tour and LPGA more competitors than collaborators? The correct answer is somewhere in between, but shading more toward competitors. If the most popular golfer in the world played on the LPGA, and that became a powerhouse with rights negotiation leverage and a bigger seat next to the PGA Tour, that would be bad news at the Global Home, no? The fantasy of these organizations working together and relative stasis from the PGA Tour will likely change now that it has 1) leadership from outside the golf bubble that seems more aggressive and competent, and 2) a for-profit element.

The ladies putting their trust in Jay Monahan to arrange their TV coverage is pretty hard to watch.  It's obviously their worst alternative except, yanno, for all the others.  

That's one browser tab that's been dealt with, and I'll exit this subject on this tab needing similar treatment:

New Schedule, New Venues: PGA Tour Host Course Wish List

When the PGA Tour announced Tuesday that it was restructuring its schedule, introducing match play to the Tour Championship and hoping to bring Tour events to iconic venues it had not previously been to, one part of the report caught our eye. ESPN stated that the Tour will be leaving East Lake and bringing its season-ending Tour Championship to places “such as” Pine Valley, Cypress Point, and Seminole Golf Club.

A lot of work is being done in that sentence by the clause “such as.” As our own Garrett Morrison put it on X:

I will believe "Tour Championship at Pine Valley/Cypress Point" when I see it on the schedule, and not a moment sooner.

It gets predictably depressing as he goes market-by-market:

New York

Where they should go: Ridgewood, Plainfield, Bethpage Black, Westchester CC

Where they’ll likely end up: Liberty National

Per Kander & Ebb, give them the old razzle-dazzle....

Those Majors -  Not to be a downer, but the next important golf event is in, checks watch, nine months.....

Now that you’ve had a few days to digest the 2026 men’s major season, let’s reflect. What was your biggest takeaway from the four majors?

Berhow: That it was … a weird year? Stars like Rory and Scottie and Bryson and Xander and Brooks were winners the previous three years, but this year Ryan Fox and Aaron Rai snuck in as surprises. And then there’s Wyndham Clark, who had won a major before, but let’s be honest — how crazy is it that the guy who busted up lockers at a U.S. Open won that same tournament one year later? Oh, and that even as an American, he was heckled by American fans the entire final round? Another takeaway: With two Masters wins already and playing with house money, Rory could be a legit threat at Augusta for another decade. And lastly, this is more of a fun fact I found amusing, but Scottie has finished outside the top 10 at a major just twice in the last three years. It’s so hard to win these; I’d like to say, of course, he gets one next year, but he still played very good major golf in 2026 and didn’t add to his major-title tally.

Schrock: That after several years of big names dominating the big tournaments, we got three straight surprises after Rory repeating at Augusta. Heading into the PGA, eight of the last nine majors had been won by either Rory, Scottie, Bryson or Xander. The only real outliers we’ve had since 2021 have been J.J. Spaun and Brian Harman. Then we got three straight outlier winners with Aaron Rai, Ryan Fox and Wyndham Clark, the latter winning his second U.S. Open after being in the wilderness and presumed lost. What I’ll think about going forward outside of how fast we’ve gone from “Can Rory win at Augusta?” to “How many green jackets will he win?” is which of the big names finally gets off the schneid in 2027? Collin Morikawa has been stuck on two majors for five years, Jon Rahm for three, Justin Thomas for four. Xander and Bryson have now gone two years without majors and are both still at two. Jordan Spieth has been on three for nine years. Who in the non-Rory/Scottie star division adds to their resume next year, if anyone?

Sens: That a good deal of the drama came from factors not directly related to the competitions themselves. Rory seeking a repeat. Fan abuse of Clark. Bryson’s penalty histrionics. When it came down to the action itself, only the Open Championship had a truly dramatic final hole.

Yeah, not a great year by any measure.  I take some ironic pleasure in the game asserting its unique characteristics to put the lie to the elite players' power grab.  No, the game isn't only about those ten guys, though you can see the strategic brilliance in keeping guys like Rai and Fox away from the money grabs.

Which means the most memorable major moment was?

Berhow: Garrick Higgo’s late tee time arrival, penalty and explanation at the PGA Championship is up there, and so was how the fans treated Clark at Shinnecock Hills, but beyond Rory’s second green jacket, in 10 years what we’ll still probably remember is Bryson’s bizarre Friday night at Royal Birkdale.

Schrock: I think it’s Bryson’s penalty and the scene that unfolded, from him taking the officials back out to the scene to threatening to withdraw to reportedly asking to call Trump to try and get the penalty removed; it was an insane moment that will be what the 2026 Open is remembered for. Honorable mentions to Scottie finishing second at Augusta and then semi-detonating the course for not having equal conditions in the first two rounds and Haotong Li’s final-round 80 where he spent 30 minutes in the bushes at No. 13.

Sens: Bryson’s penalty saga for sure. My barometer for big moments in golf is when friends who don’t follow the game start texting me to chat about the news. The hubbub around that ruling was the one moment this year that nearly blew up my phone.

I agree with the Bryson call, though I see broader implications.  First and foremost being a reexamination of how each and every one of these guys behaves around their golf balls, starting with a Mr. Scheffler.  But also because of the threat to WD and how that should be perceived as we consider Bryson's path back to respectability.  Yes, he has YouTube followers, but are we sure we need him?

Whose major stock are you buying for 2027?

Berhow: Sam Burns was one stroke off the 54-hole lead at the Masters, finished a shot behind Clark at the U.S. Open and was the 54-hole leader at the Open Championship. He’s close. But more than anything, I like the way he’s handled himself in these situations. Sometimes you need to maneuver a few close calls before you can really cash in.

Schrock: Cam Young held the lead on Sunday at the Masters and then put together a blistering Sunday to almost steal the Open at Royal Birkdale. He has taken a leap over the last calendar year. He won at Wyndham, nabbed a Players and rolled over the field at Doral. The major(s) are coming.

Sens: Good calls above but I’ll go with Scheffler. Not that I was ever shorting his stock to begin with. But more reason than ever now to buy. Hard to imagine him getting blanked again next year.

Young is blindingly obvious, as was Scheffler (though thanks for the reminder, Josh).   I just think Burns is a hard one to figure.  In his follow ups, Shack had him as a winner:

Sam Burns. Another major, another heartbreaker. And that’s just in June through July, 2026.

What a brilliant week for someone who hadn’t planned to be in Birkdale before wife Caroline kicked him overseas instead of sitting on the couch and watching commercials occasionally interrupted by golf. “Just didn’t have my best stuff,” he said. “Didn’t have things go my way. I hit a great tee shot on 17 to end up in an awful lie. Sometimes that’s the way it goes.” The Golf Gods will eventually send Burns one of their ITSYOURTURN coupon codes. If nothing else, for the lovely show of sportsmanship at the last and the inevitable appreciation he’ll develop for links golf after openly admitting last week that it’s not his thing.

Someone referenced him as the next Tom Watson, but I'm just slightly more skeptical.  And perhaps this man's skepticism is worth noting as well:

Scottie Scheffler recently used Theodore Roosevelt's famous "man in the arena" quote to describe the intense pressure of elite competition. He noted that not everyone is built to stand tall and fight in that kind of high-stakes environment, reflecting on heavy fan atmospheres and close peers like Sam Burns.

Geoff has his usual tripartite follow-up, but for some reason I'm headed straight to the third (the Cut-Missers) for that certain someone:

Bryson DeChambeau. Made his first major cut in 2026 and finally finished on the plus side with his approach play (+0.93 SG/60th). But making it to this edition after the fourth straight major means “BAD” became the first golfer to ever hit The Quadrilateral’s (Point) Missers Impregnable Quadrilateral. Bryson’s Birkdale week was an unmitigated career disaster. His army of flunkies, toadies, and general groupies seems unable to tell the boss to cut back on the aggrievement and conspiratorial tendencies following his strangest major championship fiasco yet. And his continuing refusal to speak, much less acknowledge reckless and highly suspicious lie improvement effort with a cameraman feet away, will not increase his chances of earning MENSA status. Barring a public apology, DeChambeau’s excessive and desperate attempts to make the case against a two-stroke penalty will forever stain his career. As fellow players realize how long of a leash he received to make his case and at the expense of others being able to go about their business, it’s the details of his behind-the-scenes antics with rules officials that he should be most embarrassed about. DeChambeau is also on thin ice in our brave new governing body world, one where Codes of Conduct policies will get codified and give organizations the right to withhold invitations (Augusta’s already does this). DeChambeau needs someone to remind him that, just like the Rules of Golf, majors are a privilege and totally optional. Including the invitation to play in one.

No longer staring at a $500 million payday from His Excellency (if he ever was), DeChambeau’s post-LIV future on the PGA Tour has become more complicated. Drama and antics are good for business. To a point. But after the 32-going-on-12 “Crusher” revealed a bonkers-level puerility unimaginable not long ago, players and Ponte Vedra brass should be less excited about welcoming him back with one of their makeshift Returning Members Program clauses. In stomping down grass around his ball too many times and demanding a crime scene to hysterically plead his case, it’s the threat of a third-round boycott that will linger with leading organizations and potential investors in whatever he’s pitching. He badgered R&A officials, refused to sign his card, and demanded the leader of the free world’s time while holding up the last few groups from signing their cards. Those antics should have wiped out what respect his peers had left for him. (Max Homa and Michael Kim came to his defense and hardly made Cal proud defending an obvious violation.) Setting aside the lack of self-awareness to realize a wartime President should not be bothered with his petty golf problems—Tiger made such a call but he could at least blame the pills—the whole episode encapsulates the sad culmination of what happens when someone’s surrounded by sycophants. Or in Bryson’s case, simply doesn’t listen to anyone. That talented, charismatic and fun-loving DeChambeau who once had the potential to transcend the sport seems to be gone. But at least his iron play is on the upswing.

Thanks, Geoff, you saved me a lot of typing.  because of his leadership of that class action suit, he already had issues with a return to the PGA Tour.  But that threat to WD should not be forgotten....  It's pretty much the sine qua non of this overly-entitled generation of players.

That will have to be it for today.  Have a great week. 

Weekend Wrap - Crazy Like A Fox Edition

Can we agree that, notwithstanding the seemingly iconic venues involved, that it was quite a strange troika of majors after Augusta?  To wit, if Aaron Rai and Wyndham Clark had the viewing public a wee bit cranky, I don't think Ryan Fox was quite what the situation demanded.  Although, leaving Wyndham far to the side, Rai and Fox at least are two of the most genuine guys out there....  And, as a blogger prone to typos, what's not to like about the confluence of monosyllabic winners.

Let's lede with Geoff's British Open Championship by-the-numbers:

• -10: Winning score of Ryan Fox

• 270: 72-hole score by Fox

• T52: Fox’s position after 36 holes (Even par)

• 2nd: Player from New Zealand to win (Bob Charles, 1963)

• 64: Final round score by Cameron Young (2nd)

• 11 ft. 0 inches.: Stimpmeter speed

• 7,157: Final round yardage (7,223 max)

• 11 ft. 0 inches.: Stimpmeter speed

• 4 mm: Green mowing height

• 0.73 inches: (.001 inches firmer than Round 3)

• 2:20: Official starting time of the final Burns/Fox pairing

• 2:35: Actual starting time of the final pairing

I caught it on tape, so had no clue that tee times ran late, though presumably unrelated to events in New Jersey, although I'm still getting over that third-place England-France match.  I could enjoy soccer if only I could rely upon their being ten goals per game....

Ryan Fox would wake up in the New Zealand night to watch The Open and dreamt of merely playing the world’s oldest professional championship.

“And now to be an Open champion, to be the Champion Golfer of the Year, it's unbelievable, surreal, crazy,” he said moments after an electric finish at Royal Birkdale. “I don't have enough words in my vocabulary to explain it, to be honest.”

After tying the lowest score ever shot in a major early in Saturday’s third round, the 39-year-old battled Sunday’s tougher conditions to reach the disaster-laden 18th. There, he improbably held off Cameron Young by a stroke to register the greatest 36-hole comeback by position in major championship history. Fox’s 130 weekend total tied Ian Baker-Finch’s record for low final 36 holes.

A late starter by modern standards and the son of rugby great Grant Fox, Ryab picked up his first club at 13. After toying with rugby and cricket in high school, he got serious about golf at 16 and dreamed of Sunday’s scenario. Sort of.

“To cap it off with a putt -- everyone practices on the green, I guess, you’ve got to a putt to win a major championship, to win The Open,” Fox said. “It’s not like that in real life. It’s not a very comfortable feeling. It’s certainly very enjoyable when you see it go in.”

I love that photo above, as the rest of us can only dream about being in that position at impact....  But I'll long remember how he played that 18th, a scorecard killer for sure:

With final-day wrecks breaking out all over the dead (ish) fescue fairways and heavily revamped links ahead of this championship, Fox kept up his crisp iron play and hot putting that started with

Saturday’s third 62 of the week (and eighth in major championship history). Arriving at the 18th after three back-nine birdies, Fox needed another on the brutal closer to avoid a playoff with Young, who’d already returned to the range to prep for a playoff. Young finished over two hours before Fox and third-round leader Sam Burns walked up the 18th fairway.

 Fox smoked a 331-yard beauty between the revamped bunkering to set up a slim chance at avoiding the first aggregate playoff since 2015 (set for the 14th, 15th and 18th holes). The landingarea played narrow due to the dry conditions and wind out of the left, with only 445 drives finding the tight turf all week. Just 33% of second shots (155/467) even hit the green in regulation. Only 27 birdies had been made at No. 18 all week.

“That drive is not a very comfortable tee shot, obviously, and to hit it in the fairway and give myself a chance was huge.”

Factoring in adrenaline and the wind direction capable of taking the second to a pin cut 25 back and six from the right edge, Fox drew an ideal 176-yard nine-iron.

“I did say to my caddie, Dean [Smith] on the tee that we were going to take it on, that I was going to try to win the tournament, and I’d live with the consequences if I stuffed it up.”

Fox flushed the approach.

“I think I screamed to it, ‘Please be good,’ in the air, and it was.”

One can only assume it's not THAT Dean Smith....  But how perfect, a golf nobody playing his way to a life-changing win and, at crunch time, taking it on.  He earned it for sure, and that's even before I mention his dreamy pace-of-play.

This guys is piling up the near misses, but it won't be long now:

Finishing just over two hours ahead of Fox, Young’s 64 started with three birdies, finished the front nine in just 29 strokes, and nearly played a bogey-free round on the championship’s windiest afternoon. Leading at 10-under after a 17th-hole birdie and with 54-hole leader Sam Burns faltering after reaching 11-under par, Young drove into the 18th hole’s fairway bunker. The Players champion earlier this year thinned his second into the bunker face and found his ball in the rough. He then dunked the next shot into a greenside bunker, where he was fortunate to salvage a bogey and get in at nine-under. Young gave himself little chance at that point.

“I thought 10 [under-par] had a decent chance,” Young said.

Still, his final round 64 came up one short of the all-time best closing score in The Open after Henrik Stenson’s 63 at Troon in 2016. Young also posted a closing 65 in 2022 at St Andrews.

How great was it?  Young walks off No. 17 at -10 and then faces the hardest tee shot in golf, and agonizingly catches a bunker.  The bogey that followed had me formulation adjectives in my mind from the surname Spieth   Ultimately it didn't scale quite to Spiethian heights of farce, but it was still an all-world five, leaving us (and, more importantly, Cam) with a few hours to speculate.  But it wasn't just Cam that thought -10 could be useful....

More than two hours later Fox comes to the same tee tied at -9, but having frustratingly failed to utilize his last legitimate birdie opportunity.  Then he does what he did, and that bounce of their tee balls on the burnt-out 18th fairway is your Open Championship, at least after Fox hit a sterling approach and made his 12-footer.

One of your humble bloggers amusements this week, especially as the final group formed, is their differing reactions to the environment, which Fox embraces:

“I’ve just always loved links golf from the first time I played it,” Fox said moments after he’d

gotten his first up-close look at the Claret Jug. “I just love the creativity needed. I think growing up in New Zealand, we play in a fair bit of wind, so getting to do that and having to control your ball and hit some not proper golf shots or not normal golf shots is really cool, and I enjoy -- that’s probably what I enjoy about golf and links golf the most.”

“I feel like I’ve played well in Opens before but just never really put four rounds together. I probably wouldn’t say I put four rounds together this week either. I put three together, obviously, to give myself even a chance today after yesterday’s round. You’re not expecting that going out, even though you feel like you can shoot a low score early, to go out and shoot 62 and go from 52nd or whatever I was into the last group. That doesn’t happen very often.

“And to go out with the pressure on, with a chance to win The Open, and to actually do it -- I didn’t know what I was going to feel going out there today. I did say to my caddie a few holes in, I feel better than I thought I was going to feel, but I probably still didn’t feel that comfortable. But got a little bit more comfortable down the stretch.”

Compare and contrast with his playing partner yesterday:

“I'm not a huge fan of links golf,” Burns said after the round. “I just haven't played well on links golf. It's not something I'm very familiar with. I get to do it maybe once a year.”

Can someone tell Sam Burns that he could play links golf more than once a year if he wanted to? Anyway, he went on.

“Like yesterday, I hit a really – not a bad shot on 17,” Burns continued. “I hit a 3-iron in and was trying to hit it just left of the green. And I get up there and it's in the left side of the lip and I have to hit it backwards. That kind of stuff is frustrating to me. You feel like you've hit a decent shot, and you get up there, and the next thing you know you're hitting it backwards. That's kind of been something I've tried to work on, playing links golf is trying to be more accepting and (I’m) still getting there. But yeah, I think the main thing is you just try to come out and execute to the best of your ability and learn to accept whatever the outcome is.”

Doesn't make him a bad person, does it?  That's from a Fried Egg post that makes the point by comparing Burns to the great Tom Watson, who initially hated links golf every bit as much as Sam.  Obviously with one of the four majors on links, you'd think they'd put a little more effort in, although obvious Burns was not able to play the Scottish this year, as life got in the way in a beautiful manner.

Do you remember those standardized tests from school days in which one has to pick the item on a list that doesn't belong?  This list just acquired it's version thereof:

• 2017: Jordan Spieth
• 2008: Pádraig Harrington
• 1998: Mark O'Meara
• 1991: Ian Baker-Finch
• 1983: Tom Watson
• 1976: Johnny Miller
• 1971: Lee Trevino
• 1965: Peter Thomson
• 1961: Arnold Palmer
• 1954: Peter Thomson

Or Finchie got company from his part of the world....

I'm not the only one that found it a strange week:

Why Ryan Fox was the perfect winner for a strange Open week

 Not that they really pay off that header....

Ryan Fox was not the victor the scriptwriters had in mind for this 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. In fact, he might arrive in the winner’s circle as the most compelling evidence against the scriptwriters, beating out hometown kid Tommy Fleetwood and major-winner-in-waiting Cam Young and new-dad Sam Burns en route to his narrative-altering win.

And yet there was something fitting about his run to the title on Sunday evening at this Open Championship, about the tears that fell in scoring as he talked with his parents shortly after that victory was complete. An exceedingly nice guy and exceedingly normal golfer winning a week in which golf showed its impressive penchant to be anything but nice or normal.

I'm going to dive into the Tour Confidential panel here, then circle back on the D.A.D. man.

Ryan Fox birdied four of his last six holes to shoot 68 and win the Open Championship by one over Cameron Young and claim his first major title. How did Fox, who shot 62 on Saturday, rule the weekend and win the Claret Jug?

Josh Sens: As in every Open, conditions mattered and Fox took advantage of some relatively

benign ones on Saturday. More importantly, though, he stayed patient. The quirks of Royal Birkdale drove some guys crazy this week. Fox, by contrast, stayed cool even when he got a couple of terrible bunker breaks coming down the stretch. That was especially impressive, as was the way he stuck with his (wonderfully) brisk routine. A lot of guys get out of rhythm when they’re trying to close. Fox stayed in his rhythm.

Zephyr Melton: While others wilted under the pressure, Fox thrived in it. On a day when seemingly every contender struggled to hit the shots when the lights got the brightest, Fox did not. It may seem overly simplistic, but the best golfers are the ones who can perform under pressure. No one was better than Fox in that regard on Sunday.

Jessica Marksbury: Agree with the great points from my colleagues here. Fox hung in impressively on Sunday — and he suffered some adversity too. That chip shot from behind the green on 9 that came right back to his feet could have really derailed him. But he managed to get the next shot up and down for bogey. That kind of mental fortitude is everything on a major championship Sunday.

Good point from jess on that 9th hole mess up, though most of us were struck by his handling of the horrible lie in the 15th hole bunker, where he just got on with things.

Any issue with three 62s at Royal Birkdale? (And before this week, Branden Grace had the first major 62 ever at the 2017 Open at Royal Birkdale.)

Sens: It’s hard to take issue with scores when everyone’s playing the same course. But I do wish they had found a way to keep some of the juice in the rough, despite the dry conditions. Ideally, I think, there should be more punishment for driving it wildly in an Open than there was this week.

Melton: I don’t have an issue with it. Despite the flurry of 62s, the winner still took 270 strokes, one less than at Aronimink, which got rave reviews from fans. While low scores were out there, they had to be earned. Good shots were rewarded and bad shots were punished. That’s all you can ask for.

Marksbury: No issues with the low scores. Sometimes the overseas weather bestows some gifts. And, as we witnessed, the course was still capable of baring some teeth.

I suspect that they were as surprised as we were about how the rough played.  While admitting how hard it is to get things right, I was frustrated by the softness of the greens.  We heard all week about controlling the run-out on the ball, but at the same time the greens were target practice, with balls spinning back.

Still, with three 62's, one would have expected the winning score to be further under par.  And the place looked tough enough for guys like Sam and Si Woo coming down the stretch.

Shall we spend a few moments on Bryson?  First the TC's muddled take:

Before Fox lifted the Claret Jug on Sunday, Bryson DeChambeau was the talk of the tournament with his Friday penalty and the dramatics that followed it. Opinions of the penalty (and how Bryson handled the situation) flooded in from fans, players and analysts. How would you sum up Bryson’s week? Was it a net positive or negative?

Sens: I would think it was a huge net positive in social-media followers, which is all that counts these days, right?

Melton: Positive for his YouTube channel, that’s for sure. I’m sure he’ll give us a breakdown of his thoughts on his channel. Be sure to smash that like button and hit subscribe to hear more.

Marksbury: Probably a net positive in terms of the general public and support from his fans, but if Rory McIlroy’s sentiments about the situation are any indication, it could be a possible net negative with his pro golf peers.

Let's take first things first, I caught his play on No. 5 on tape and was gasping at his aggressive movements around the ball, much like Rory's reaction.   His whole reaction was off-putting and to this observer part of larger integrity issue in our game, as the guys feel entitled to drop each of their fourteen clubs behind their balls to tamp down rough.  I'll even take the incoming to note that Scottie Scheffler is one of the bigger offenders in this regard, so I'll just leave you with that marker.

As for the threat to pull out of the tournament, don't let the door hit you on the way out, Bryson.  We've been completely OK with you in your golf cone of silence, and won't miss you at the majors either.  They feel entitled to improve their lies and then they feel entitled to act like spoiled children, entitling me to ignore them.

Rory McIlroy didn’t hold back when asked for his opinion on DeChambeau’s Friday drama, saying, “I’m not particularly fond of him. I think a lot of it’s performative. I think a lot of it’s for attention.” There’s an obvious history between these two, but was this fair from McIlroy? Or crossing the line?

Sens: Fair game for McIlroy to share his thoughts when asked for them. I think the forthrightness was refreshing. I’d quibble with Rory’s assertion that DeChambeau was holding the tournament hostage. The uncertainty around tee times was overblown, I thought. You’re playing the weekend in the Open Championship. Do you really have other plans? Go to bed early, get up early and be ready to go. A grizzly old-timer might be left to conclude that not knowing whether you’re teeing off at 11 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. is what qualifies as adversity for today’s pros.

Melton: Is it fair to call the content king Bryson “performative?” Absolutely. Everything he does is for the cameras. I don’t take any issue with his behavior being called out.

Marksbury: I do think it’s a bit ungentlemanly to publicly air your dislike for another player like that. And I don’t understand how DeChambeau’s situation delayed the release of tee times. But for Rory and Bryson, there’s some history fueling the bad blood here. As for Bryson’s “performative” antics, well, the whole situation was fairly dramatic. I’m not sure how much was driven by heat-of-the-moment passion for an alleged injustice, or Bryson’s desire to milk the moment for his personal brand. Maybe a little of both.

Talk about taking a head fake, Josh....  The point of the hostage allegation wasn't the tee times.  It's that a major player threatened the establishment with a withdrawal if they didn't rule in his favor.  Pulling that s**t was never likely to work on the R&A, but are we so confident in our other golf organizations?

And Jess is more upset by Rory's reaction than by Bryson trying to take the 154th Open hostage?  Strange priorities, girl.

But are you open to the premise that these guys are clinically insane?  Or maybe I' just over-interpreting their sense of entitlement.  Because, well, Earth to Bryson (from the Geoff' link above):

DeChambeau Wanted Trump To Join Penalty Discussion

While making his case against a two-stroke penalty for violating Rule 8.1 following Friday’s second round, Bryson DeChambeau asked rules officials to bring President Donald Trump into the chippy conversation.

Sources with knowledge of the thirty-minute discussion said DeChambeau wanted the President to join a campaign against the eventual two-stroke penalty that ultimately dropped his score from 66 to 68. The request came after DeChambeau had already been given a rare bit of special dispensation to return to the scene where he’d stomped around tall fescue rough in his backswing. (The R&A’s hard card states that “a player’s scorecard is officially returned to the Committee when the player has physically left the recording office/area.”)

After returning from the fifth hole scene in a R&A Executive Director of Governance Grant Moir, and DP World Tour referee Mark Litton, DeChambeau and the officials reconvened in the Recorders trailer. They were R&A Chief Executive Mark Darbon and Executive Director of Championships Johnnie Cole-Hamilton. During the thirty-minute session, DeChambeau had still not signed his scorecard and late finishers coming off the 18th green were not able to sign for their rounds, causing tee time processing to be delayed until nearly midnight. DeChambeau was pleading his case and wanted the President of the United States to weigh in.

The request was denied, as were DeChambeau’s pleas not to penalize him for the breach.

Did he think the R&A gave him a red card?

A couple more bits from The TC gang:

Who won the Open Championship without winning the Open Championship?

Sens: On the one hand, hometown favorite Tommy Fleetwood had to be disappointed not to make a Sunday run. But he also spoke of the memories he made, the experiences you can’t buy, and how much they meant to him. Coming from another player, a cynic might read that as a crushed soul trying to rationalize. But I get the sense that Fleetwood was being entirely sincere.

Melton: How about Casey Jarvis with his first-career major top 10? This was his first Open start, and he performed well enough to qualify for next year at St. Andrews. I’d say that’s a pretty great week.

Marksbury: Both great picks. I’ll second Tommy. The hometown hero was in the conversation throughout and birdied his last two holes on Sunday. Not a win, of course, but that had to feel pretty good.

It was a sweet week for Tommy Lad, though he may be from there, but he is certainly not of Royal Birkdale.  Seems like that little bit was underreported this week.

I think the most complicated reaction will be to Sam Burns, as I still can't get my thoughts around him.  he hung in after those three straight bogeys, but just seems to struggle on his important Sundays.  The contrast with his playing partner yesterday couldn't have been starker.

And who’s the most upset wondering what could have been leaving the final major of the season?

Josh Sens: Scottie Scheffler, the defending champ. With even a halfway decent week with the putter, he could have won by several shots.

Melton: Absolutely Scottie. He hit the ball well enough to put on a repeat performance of last year, but his putter was ice cold. Tough way to end the major season for the world No. 1.

Marksbury: Cameron Young. He bogeyed 18, then held the clubhouse lead for more than two hours, with a playoff looking imminent, before finally being crushed by the tournament’s very last putt. That makes eight career top-10s in the majors — and the pursuit of his first major continues.

Cam will be disappointed for sure, though hard to be overly upset with a 64.  He'll replay No. 18 in his mind until April for sure.

I've opined on Scottie previously, the frustration seems to erupt with great frequency these days.

That's most upset.  For most depressed I nominate your humble blogger, who will struggle with the knowledge that the next meaningful golf is nine months away.

Have a great week, but don't expect to see me, as way too much golf is on the swchedule.

Weekend Wrap - West Lancashire Edition

Yeah, I suspect that Weekend Wrap header will prove to be more of a head fake....  I did watch the Scottish, though spent more time tuned to the Wimbledon men's Final than the golf.  Mostly I just tuned in to see the camera shots looking North across the Firth of Forth, where the bride and I will be in a mere four weeks.

Shall we speak of Birkdale?  Yes, good to see you finally getting the hang of these rhetorical questions.  The first bit is always the green vs. brown query.  There's joy to be had, as this pic from Geoff will demonstrate:

Be still my foolish heart.

That's a more interesting photo than it may seem, as the player hitting is Jordan Spieth in his first visit to Birkdale's 13th hole since 2017, when he made an unremarkable bogey.  Here we see him on the left side of the fairway, virgin territory for him.

Scottie Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, and Cameron Young were among the top names out on a sizzling

82-degree Sunday at Royal Birkdale. A strong turnout of spectators dialed in their pinkmaxxing, while the fescues of all heights continued to transition from beige to that (almost) sickly shade of grey that means one thing: a fiery links for the year’s final major.

If you have been hankering for a 2006-style Hoylake and St Andrews four years ago didn’t quench your thirst for dusty divots, then 2026 Birkdale should do the trick. The turf is still spectacular but about as dry, firm, and fast as any rota venue since the Old Course. The taller unmown roughs won’t pose the challenge of nine years ago, but in spots the fescue could trip up a few players from time to time. (See the dreaded rough ball-toss video below.)

The only downer might be this:

Forecasts continue to call for very tame winds.

Still time for that to change....

Geoff has a couple of preview videos at that link.  I went in a slightly different direction today, my mind traveling back to 2010.  We spent ten days in Southport playing the best of the Lancashire Coast.  I documented that trip on a friend's website and, as you may have heard, the Internet is forever.

I'll spare you the links because the piece is overly long and needed a strong edit.  Today's kids would give it a deserved TL:DR, but it has its moments.  I lead with this quote:

For those only vaguely familiar with the term, “links golf” refers to a very specific variant of the game that is found only on seaside courses in the British Isles and Ireland. The British Golf Museum defines linksland this way:

A stretch of land near the coast on which the game is played, characterized by undulating terrain, often associated with dunes, infertile sandy soil, and indigenous grasses such as marram, sea lyme, and the fescues and bents which, when properly managed, produce the fine, textured, tight turf for which links are famed.

To add some color to this accurate, if somewhat clinical, definition, let me quote from “To the Linksland,” Sports Illustrated columnist Michael Bamberger’s homage to Scotland:

Do you know what I mean when I say linksland? Linksland is the old Scottish word for the earth at the edge of the sea — tumbling, duney, sandy, covered by beach grasses. When the light hits it, and the breeze sweeps over it, you get every shade of green and brown, and always, in the distance, is the water. The land was long considered worthless, except to the shepherds and their sheep and the rabbits, and to the early golfers. You see, the game comes out of the ocean, just like man himself!

Only four weeks!

 My comments on Birkdale were reasonably brief, including this:

As we first approached Southport in the fading light of early evening, we suddenly found ourselves driving through spectacular dunes comparable to the dramatic dunes of Western Ireland (sufficiently distracting that my wife felt compelled to remind me to keep my eyes on the road). These were the Ainsdale Sand Dunes, a National Nature Reserve and home to our three favorite courses of the trip. First amongst this memorable troika is Royal Birkdale, universally and deservedly considered the finest of England's British Open venues. Birkdale is an extremely fair test of golf, with surprisingly flat fairways winding amidst the tall dunes. It has many memorable driving holes, where the player has alternative lines available to avoid the strategically placed fairway bunkers.

It can seem perhaps a bit Americanized, with perhaps too many tee shots needing to be placed between bunkers on both sides of the fairway, but we are very much picking nits here.

I also had this:

Birkdale immediately vaults into my Top 10 links courses and warrants only a couple of demerits on its scorecard, the most significant of which is temporary. Birkdale is not particularly close to the water, with the Irish Sea visible from only a couple of the elevated tee boxes. Therefore, the delightful sense of the sea as a constant companion during a round, such as at a Royal Dornoch or Ballybunion, is missing. As for the clubhouse, built in the 1930s and designed to evoke an ocean liner, we’ll consider that an acquired taste.

 But more knowledgeable and gifted writes have these takes on the venue:

Standing within a glorious expanse of dunes on the Lancashire coast, Royal Birkdale has been the setting for more championships and international matches than any other British course since the end of World War II—not even St Andrews has been as richly endowed. Without the variety of Muirfield or [Royal County Down], the charm of St George’s or the subtleties of St Andrews, Birkdale has nonetheless tested the mighty and produced champions of enduring stature. Pat Ward-Thomas

Many of the tees are high up on the sand hills, exposed to the full fury of winds that steadily lash the area. Others are comparatively sheltered, but when the ball soars up from the shelter, it receives a sudden, mighty buffeting, and unless it is perfectly struck, it will be carried far off line into that ferocious scrub bordering the fairways. Henry Longhurst

The great panorama of hills is most beautiful, and to sit on the top of one of them in the sunshine and see the cloud shadows flitting across that noble expanse is one of the pleasantest things in life. Bernard Darwin

Royal Birkdale...lies only two sneezes and three coughing spells from the redbrick seaside town of Southport, England, where people go to enjoy the icy mist and sit on beach chairs in the mud and stare at incoming squalls. Dan Jenkins

Been a while since we've quoted Dan Jenkins....

Shall we do one of Geoff's Birkdale by the numbers?

Birkdale By The Numbers

• 1889: Birkdale Golf Club formed at its original location

• 1897: Club leases land for new location at today’s site

• 1922: Club secures long-term lease from Sefton Council

• 1951: Receives Royal title

• 10: Previous Open Championships (1954, 1961, 1965, 1971, 1976, 1983, 1991, 1998, 2008, 2017)

• 1965: Year Birkdale hosted the Ryder Cup and The Open

• 37: Total major championships won by Birkdale’s Champion Golfers of the Year

• 8: Architects who have worked on the course (George Lowe, F.G. Hawtree and J.H. Taylor, Fred Hawtree, Donald Steel, Martin Hawtree, Tom MacKenzie and Martin Ebert)

• 7,223: 154th Open course yardage (7,156 in 2017)

• 70: Par (Par-73 in the 1954, 1965, 1971 Opens, Par-72 for the 1961 and 1976 Opens, Par-71 in 1983, Par 70 for Opens in 1991, 1998, 2008, and 2017)

• 3,394 vs. 3,829: Front nine (34) vs. back nine (36) yardage

• 1 of 2: Rota courses with nines returning to the clubhouse (Muirfield)

• 108: Bunkers (123 in 2017)

• 0: Bunkers to the rear of greens

• 1: Donut bunker (restored to original size on No. 7)

• 12: Bunkers on the 14th hole

• 10th: Fairway will play as out-of-bounds from the 9th tee

• 49: Feet above sea level of the highest property point (Clubhouse)

• 21: Feet above sea level of the lowest property point (6th fairway)

• 6: Holes with water in play

• 3: Returning holes significantly shortened since 2017 (Nos. 5, 7, 16)

• 151-186-219-241: Official yardages of the four par-3s

• £495: Unaccompanied visitor guest fee

 There are six holes with water in play?  That's kinda news to me, though 2010 was a long time ago.

I had completely forgotten those 1965 events.  The Euros are a bit strange, as they not only took back-to-back Ryder Cups to Birkdale, but they had back in the day taken back-to-back Ryder Cups to Southport & Ainsdale, which abuts Royal Birkdale.  Four Ruder Cups with a few hundred yards seems, well, overkill?

There's no shortage of great reads, first Geoff's take on that Spieth bogey:

He was trying to hit it there!

That may be the strangest byproduct of Jordan Spieth’s surreal Royal Birkdale expedition of nine years ago. His odd route to a 13th hole bogey took Spieth into the steepest and deadliest dunes on

the course before ending up dropping amidst equipment trucks to produce what remains the Best Bogey By A Leading Man In A Modern Major.

To all who believe he tried to hit it there, I have bad news: he did not. Also, the moon landing was not filmed in Burbank, and New Coke was never a ploy to make us drink Old Coke. And while we’re at it, the Golf Illuminati did not remove OB stakes surrounding the range and then whisper in young Spieth’s ear to bank a drive off some unsuspecting ticketholder’s head to gain a better path to the green while taking over 10 minutes for officials to sort out an unplayable ruling that would freeze out Matt Kuchar’s final-round comeback bid.

The entire episode has since taken on a strange life. The weird theories may coarsen this week during the 154th Open now that another row of dunes has magically erupted out of the practice range border. Right where Spieth took his drop in the 2017 Open Championship.

The cover-up is always worse than the crime.

Shack even had a cameo in the proceedings:

 Can you spot him?

But perhaps this is the most important takeaway:

The R&A has installed out-of-bounds over in Spiethland that also wasn’t there before. The club’s driving range will be serving as the 154th’s Fan Village and requires a defined boundary on the off-off-off-chance someone blows a tee shot even farther right and induces another “where to drop” saga as picnicking patrons enjoy their fish & chips.

Though perhaps Birkdale's biggest moment was this:

Arnold Palmer’s win at The Open Championship in 1961 at Royal Birkdale is the stuff of legend

When The Open Championship returns this July to the northwest coast of England, about an hour north of Liverpool, it’s hard not to remember the heroics of Arnold Palmer, who was at the peak of his powers, 65 years ago.

“I wanted this championship more than anything in my life,” he said upon winning. “But anything you want real bad is awfully hard to get.”

Americans had won The Open before Palmer’s title in 1961, most notably Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones, who took seven titles collectively from 1922 to 1930. Gene Sarazen won in 1932, Sam Snead in 1946 and Ben Hogan in 1953. But Palmer’s victory popularized the significance of The Open as a major title.

There's a plaque on the 15th hole (although I believe that hole has been changed) honoring this shot:

When Palmer’s tee shot at the par-4 15th came to rest behind a blackberry bush, his lead suddenly

was in doubt. Although the ball was barely off the fairway, it might as well have been a mile off line because of the deep stuff. Longhurst described the lie as in “the bottom of a small sandy bank, buried deep in some blackberry bushes.” The prudent play would have been to take his medicine and muscle a wedge sideways back to the fairway and a clear shot at the green and hope to salvage par.

His usual caddie in The Open, Tip Anderson, urged him to do just that. But Palmer had other ideas. He saw a shot that others could not see. Palmer switched from a 7- to a 6-iron and “whipped the club down and through the ball with such velocity that the shaft of the club was barely visible,” wrote Herbert Warren Wind, the longtime golf writer for The New Yorker.

The result was impeccable: The ball bore through the breeze and stopped 15 feet from the hole.

This is why he was The King.  He performed a huge service for our game in traveling to St. Andrews in 1960, where he was rewarded with a heartbreaking one-shot loss to Kel Nagle.  he responded by making the arduous journey the next two years, and winning both times.  Then, when he didn't return to St. Andrews for the 1964 Open, he offered Tip Anderson to Tony Lema, who proceeded to win.

At the link above, Geoff has some details on the substantial changes made to Royal Birkdale, summarized here:

The key changes to know about since Jordan Spieth’s 2017 victory:

• Redesign and shortening of the par-4 5th

• Shortening and major redesign of the par-3 7th

• Modifications to the 13th hole landing area

• Removal of the par-3 14th

• Remodeling of the existing par-5 15th into the new 14th hole

• A completely new par-three 15th.

• A shortened par-4 16th

• New bunkering on the 18th fairway

Geoff also details Brandon Grace's 62 in 2017, the first in major championship history, duplicated three times since.  The changes are so substantial as to lead to this result:

After multiple course changes since 2017, Grace’s round will no longer be considered the competitive course record once a new mark is set during the 154th Open. With a lack of rough or significant distance added to the course, plus the uncontrollable explosion of pure, unadulterated athleticism in the years since, expect even shorter approach irons than Grace hit in 2017.

I guess we'll find out whether firm and fast will control scoring, even in the absence of wind.

Did you watch the Scottish Open?  It's become quite the raging success, what with the co-sanctioning by both the DP World Tour and PA Tours.  But that brave ne world that Brian Rolapp is fisting on us comes with some risks:

Rory McIlroy has urged the PGA Tour to "be careful" with the future of the Scottish Open when it introduces its two-tier format in 2028.

Under the new system, the schedules for the Championship - which will contain the PGA Tour's leading players - and the second-tier Challenger series will run concurrently.

Championship players will not be able to feature in Challenger events and vice versa, although anyone who wins two Challenger events in the same season will gain immediate promotion to the Championship.

The Scottish Open would not qualify for Championship status so, while 14 of the world's top 20 are competing at this week's tournament at Renaissance Club, many of those big-name players could be ineligible to play in the tournament from 2028 under the new rules.

Bob MacIntyre, Scotland's leading player, called for "exceptions" to be made for his home Open when the new schedule is implemented.

"We've got to be careful with that because then these national opens lose the fabric of what they are," said McIlroy, the two-time Masters champion.

"You can't call yourself a national open any more if it's a closed-off tournament and there's a certain number of guys.

"These events need to be treated differently than the Travelers Championship or RBC Heritage or whatever else is going to be in the Championship series."

The real problem is that the powers that be don't see the difference between the Scottish and the Travelers.....  Remember, it's just a product.

That will have to do you for today.  As always, the blogging schedule remains undefined.  Have a great week and enjoy the ccontrolled descent into Birkdale.