I suppose the weekend's headline is that your humble blogger actually watched quite a bit of golf yesterday. The oddity is that it was June 4th and we had a fire going.... I'm liking this latest version of global warming best...
The Name Of The Rose - What took so long?
In stunning pro debut, Rose Zhang keeps rolling — right into history books
Just before the sun set over the New York City skyline Sunday night, golf’s next superstar officially arrived.As cheers rained down from from the grandstands looming over Liberty National’s 18th green, Rose Zhang fished her ball out of the hole and raised her hands over her mouth in disbelief. Just more than a week after the Stanford wonderkid announced she was turning pro, she put the finishing touches on her first professional title at the Mizuho Americas Open.“I just can’t believe it,” Zhang said.With her playoff victory over Jennifer Kupcho, Zhang becomes the first player to win an LPGA title in her professional debut since Beverly Hanson in 1951. She’ll also receive a check for $412,500, immediate membership on the LPGA Tour and eligibility to compete in the Solheim Cup this fall.
This might well be a nit that could go unpicked, but pretty sure it was well after that sun had set that things were resolved, as they don't like leaving much time for playoffs.
When have we ever seen a player win without a single birdie on Sunday:
Although Zhang made no birdies during her final round, she held firm as the pace car. Through17 holes, she’d dropped just one shot, a bogey on the 4th. But, as so often is the case, finishing off the tournament was not so simple.Her drive off 18 sailed left and rolled into the fairway bunker, limiting her chances of hitting the green in regulation. After blasting out to just short of the putting surface, Zhang spun a wedge to within 10 feet of the hole. One putt and the title was hers. The ball rolled end over end true to its line, but drifted right at the last moment, ensuring bogey and a playoff against Jennifer Kupcho.Despite the disappointment, Zhang did not panic.“I’ve done this before, especially at ANWA,” she said. “Even though playoffs are never comfortable, I felt like it was such a familiar position that I’ve been in before.”
Did I hear someone say "Faldo"? Yup, very good, though I give Rose the nod because she played twenty holes without a birdie to Sir Mumbles' eighteen.
I love the shout out to Beverly Hanson, though you might be amused to know that that 1951 win in her first professional start also happened to be her second LPGA win. Yeah, let that rattle around in your brain for a while, as she won the Texas Open while still an amateur.
Many are the times when I relate the absence of coverage of the women's events at the major golf sites, but today they've given this young lady and the women's game the respect and pixels called for, as Rose's win tops each webpage, and they haven't stinted on sidebar coverage as well.
Also paying homage is the Tour Confidential panel, leading with two Rose-related Q&A's:
Rose Zhang, at just 20 years old, beat Jennifer Kupcho in a playoff to win the Mizuho Americas Open, making her the first player to win in their professional debut on the LPGA Tour since Beverly Hanson in 1951. She was a decorated amateur prior to turning pro this week and much was made about her first pro start, but still, did we expect this?Jack Hirsh: Gosh, it’s hard to balance the hype she had coming in with the realization that players don’t typically play this well in their pro debuts. Rose Zhang clearly proved she’s justdifferent. On the broadcast, her amateur career was compared to Tiger Woods. Neither one of them played all that well in pro events before turning pro. But even Tiger took a couple of events (exactly two) before he started contending and winning in his fifth. Now it’s always difficult and borderline unfair to be compared to Tiger Woods, but Rose has already broken his Stanford wins record and now she won much faster at the pro level than he did. I certainly didn’t expect this, but at the same time, we shouldn’t have been surprised.On a side note, have we ever seen someone become mononymous faster?James Colgan: Man, I certainly didn’t. Rose entered the week as one of the most hyped young talents to enter the women’s golf scene in a long time. Now, seven days later, she’s one of the most hyped talents to enter golf in a long time. What an epic week.Claire Rogers: Rose Zhang didn’t look like the new kid on the block when I spent a few days at Liberty National earlier this week. The junior golfers wanted to hang with her, but so did the pros. She had a lot of media to do, and she handled it all with grace. I expected that she’d make the cut. Maybe finish top-25 if she had a great week. But to win in her professional debut after a long college season? Incredible. This was the most fun I’ve had watching a golf tournament in a long time.
Contra Jack Hirsh, she's been mononymous at least since matriculating at Stanford.... What I've been struck by though is how the other girls seem to generally like her. Notably Rachel Heck, who won the NCAA Individual title the year before Rose arrive and who has been over-shadowed by Rose's arrival, but who appear to have become lifelong friends.
What is it about Zhang’s game that allowed her to win on the top women’s tour so soon? And how close is she to becoming the top player in the women’s game? What’s her ceiling?Hirsh: She won in a fairly similar fashion to how she won three months ago at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur when she let a big lead slip away but came up clutch in a playoff. She did the same thing, albeit with a slimmer lead to start. Not only did her second shot on the second playoff hole prove she knew how to win, but I was more impressed by her par putt on the first playoff hole. It was the same line as the one she missed in regulation, but to remember how it broke is also to remember that you missed it, which is not the greatest thought process. However, she handled it expertly. There’s a difference between playing really good golf and then actually winning, but it’s clear Rose Zhang knows how to win.Colgan: As with most of the great ones, it was composure that won her the tournament on Sunday. Rose’s game has all the pieces of greatness (her final six holes on Sunday more than proved that), but it’ll be her even keel that carries her there. It was striking how unbothered she seemed by the whole spectacle, particularly while I was clinging to the edge of my seat. To think she has all that at just 20 years old? Wow. Just wow.Rogers: I think it was her patience. The birdies were not flowing for Zhang on Sunday — she didn’t make a single one all day. But she kept at it and made really steady pars until she could make her move on the second playoff hole. I don’t think she’s “close” to becoming a top player in the women’s game, I think she already is. No other Stanford golfer (male or female) won as many times as Zhang did. She already made history at Augusta National. She has already done incredible things and now gets to continue to do so at the professional level. There’s no ceiling for Zhang, and her NCAA career proved that.
Given that she just won with what might be her C-game, it's unknowable. That said, the game is rarely linear and she's likely running on fumes by now, so I'd not be surprised if there's a slight retrenchment in the short-term.
But she's won everything and, perhaps most importantly, she's won when she's expected to win, which I'd submit is the hardest feat in our game. And keep that thought in the back of your mind as we segue to Ohio.
Memorial Daze - The arc of The memorial matched that of the LPGA event, with a player coming to the 18th tee nursing a one-shot lead. In both cases the leader missed the fairway and made an ill-timed bogey that left them in a playoff, but this ending was more of a downer:
Denny McCarthy had never come as close to winning on the PGA Tour as he did Sunday.That did not lessen the blow of not closing the deal.After leading the 2023 Memorial Tournament for most of the final round, McCarthy bogeyed the 18th hole twice – first in regulation to fall into a tie with Viktor Hovland at 7 under par and then in the playoff.“I’m heartbroken right now,” McCarthy said. “It really sucks. I thought this was going to be the week.”McCarthy, 30, has played 157 PGA Tour events. He had never finished better than third before Sunday.
This game can be too cruel for words.... He made absolutely everything, until he didn't.... But once we saw that shot-tracer on his drive on the playoff hole, we knew he had shot his load....
As for the winner, it's big:
The book on Viktor Hovland, or at least the opening few chapters that have been written this far, is that the young Norwegian needs a better short game to complement his ball-striking talents.Apparently, the young man has been reading up.Hovland wasn’t the best ball-striker this week at the Memorial Tournament. He wasn’t the best putter, either. But he was darn good at both. Throw in some respectable scrambling and you have a recipe for success, which is what the 25-year-old achieved with his playoff victory Sunday at Muirfield Village Golf Club.Enduring a 2022-23 season where he has come frustratingly close in several big events, including a share of second only two weeks ago in the PGA Championship, Hovland finally cashed in when he sank a seven-foot par putt on the 18th hole, the first hole of sudden death, to defeat hard-luck Denny McCarthy. The victory, Hovland’s fourth on the PGA Tour and his first on the U.S. mainland, was set up when he got up and down for par from behind the green on his final hole in regulation and McCarthy couldn’t do the same a few minutes later. They each shot 70 and finished at seven-under 281.
It's one week, so we should be a bit cautious about over-interpreting, but he does seem to be making consistent progress addressing his weakness.
I was an early fan of Bill James, who drove the statistical and data revolution in baseball. One of the bits I remember from James was about pairs of players arriving simultaneously, specifically about how our early assessment of talent could be faulty. Examples I remember were Jose Canseco-Mark McGuire and Bob Horner- Dale Murphy, where the former made the loudest first impression but it was the latter whose talent held up over the long haul.
Viktor came out with Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff, each of whom enjoyed quicker success than the Norwegian. But Wolff lost his game and mind and Morikawa has gone into remission, so I see perhaps the hare coming up on the outside. If nothing else, we should appreciate the Ryder Cup implications, because Team Europe needs Viktor to be a beast in Rome.
If you watched yesterday's final round, there was that guy that went out early. threw up some birdies and waited in the clubhouse to see if -6 might be just enough. Of course he couldn't quite get his round to that clubhouse, bogeying the final hole leaving him that one shot out of a playoff. But if you like statistical oddities, we've got you covered:
Scheffler did not win the Memorial. Nor did he spend most of the weekend particularly close tovictory. He finished Sunday’s final round some two hours before the final groups followed suit. He ended the tournament some one stroke short of the eventual winner, Viktor Hovland.And yet, as he charged up the 18th fairway at Muirfield Village, it was clear that Scheffler had just completed a week unlike any other in his career. In fact, it was a week unlike any other in PGA Tour history. But perhaps not for the reasons he’d hoped.This week at the Memorial, Scheffler had the second-best ball striking performance of anyone in the last 20 years on the PGA Tour. And that performance came on the heels of the worst putting performance of anyone in the field at Muirfield Village.
Here's the yin and yang of that:
Indeed, the ball-striking is doing alright. Better than alright, it turns out. According to numbers guru Justin Ray, Scheffler’s 20.74 strokes gained: tee-to-green ranks as the second-best such performance in a week since the PGA Tour began tracking that data 20 years ago — just four-tenths of a stroke behind Vijay Singh’s 21.14 SG: T2G performance at the 2004 Deutsche Bank.And indeed, the putter has been poor. Scheffler’s -8.58 strokes gained: putting ranked as dead-last in the field at Muirfield Village, nearly nine strokes off the tournament average performance. The eye-test proved equally as damning on Sunday, with Scheffler missing birdie putts of 3 feet, 5 inches; 7 feet, 4 inches; and 12 feet, 3 inches on the back nine alone. He finished shy of a playoff with the tournament’s top two finishers, Hovland and Denny McCarthy, by just one stroke.
Does Scottie have Brad Faxon on speed dial? If not, he soon will...
At one point there was one guy below Scottie in putting stats for the week, but it was this Saturday night header that had me saying "Rut-roh":
You guys know my Unifying Theory of All Things Rory, to wit, that the more he wants it, the worse he plays. See Portrush, Augusta and St. Andrews for any needed clarification...
The TC panel had no time for Viktor or Denny, but asre blowing plenty of smoke here:
Rory McIlroy held a share of the 54-hole lead at the Memorial, but he stumbled to a final-round 75 and finished four shots out of a playoff (in which Viktor Hovland beat Denny McCarthy). Based on his recent results, including a missed cut at the Masters earlier this year, are you more surprised by this lackluster day, or concerned?Hirsh: McIlroy surprisingly said he feels decent about his game and better about it than after a final-round 69 at Oak Hill. He had a noticeably different tune this week than he did at the PGA, which to me shows he’s getting closer to the form that helped him win three times last year. That said, he’s entering his toughest stretch of the season where he’ll play four weeks in a row, including the U.S. Open in two weeks. All that really matters to him right now is ending his major drought, so if the way he played this week leads to him peaking in L.A., then he’s on the right track. I’m not really surprised or concerned about his 75, which was the field average Sunday.Colgan: Not surprised. His game isn’t fully there yet. But disappointed, sure. Sunday was a glimmering opportunity to get the kind of win that could set an uneasy season back on the right path. Rory missed that opportunity. Still, the arrow is pointed in the right direction for LACC, provided he can figure out his irons.Rogers: I think this was a very positive step in the right direction for McIlroy. I’m not concerned that he didn’t get it done today. I’m deciding to “trust the process” when it comes to all things Rory McIlroy.
The very same Jack Hirsh wrote the Golf Magazine game story on Viktor and had this final 'graph in the piece:
But McIlroy struggled with his distance control on the firm greens and made five bogeys in eight holes midway through the round. He faded to a 75.
It's very amusing in the context of the reaction to Viktor, in which the golfing press is clearly watching him work to improve his short game. Folks are so enamored of Rory's prowess with the driver (justifiably so), that they don't seem to realize he's been flying greens with wedges for years and doesn't seem inclined to address that weakness. As for his putting? He and Scottie seem to be in a race to the bottom, so that'll be fun, no?
Say It Ain't So, Jack - two items related to my Golfing God that have me cranky, although you might note that that is a preexisting condition. The first might not properly be Jack's fault, though he should be telling Jay & Co. that they're bloody idiots:
The PGA Tour is strongly considering moving the Memorial Tournament farther from Memorial Day and closer to Father’s Day as it decides whether to push the 2024 event deeper into June, one week before the U.S. Open.“I’d say it’s a strong possibility,” Memorial founder and host Jack Nicklaus said Sunday. “I would prefer to stay where we are. I don’t like being the week before the Open, but if it’s for the betterment of the Tour and what they’re trying to do then I would understand that, too.”Nicklaus stressed that tournament scheduling dates remain fluid, sharing that Tour officials told him Wednesday no final decision on the Memorial had been made. So the Golden Bear may yet get his wish to maintain scheduling status quo.“They’ve asked me about it,” he said. “I’m not in favor of it, but I would cooperate with the Tour.”
This is one of the premiere events on the Tour's calendar, so important that they granted it Invitational status a few years back along with Riviera and Bay Hill. So, who would bury one of their best events the week before the Open when half the guys don't want to play? Mental midgets, that's who.... If you were trying to destroy the Tour's schedule, what would you do differently?
Why do it? Really, you're not going to believe the answer:
So why do it? Money, of course. Mostly to compete against LIV Golf’s Saudi-backed cash, the PGA Tour has designated eight tournaments to offer elevated purses. As one of the eight, the Memorial’s purse increased from $12 million in 2022 to $20 million this year.Many of the top Tour players want a better schedule “flow,” meaning as many designated events scheduled back-to-back as possible. They don’t like one on, one off. In response, the Tour is committed to “bunching” designated events next year.
Did we enjoy this week? Sure, because the course challenged the boys, rendering it a difficult and taxing week. How many guys want that kind of challenge the week before Pinehurst? Sure, let's go to the U.S. Open already exhausted and without time to prepare.... Then perhaps we'll get some typical memorial weather and push the final round to Monday. Are you geniuses listening?
And for what events?
“The issue is not (the Memorial),” he said, explaining how the tour may have little choice but rework the schedule to make both sides – players and non-designated events and their sponsors – happy.What that likely means is the Memorial giving its current schedule spot to a non-designated event, perhaps the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit or Canadian Open, while it moves to June 6-9 (in 2024), right before the U.S. Open, which immediately would be followed by a third consecutive designated event; maybe the Travelers Championship.Such a move would allow two or three non-designated events – the Colonial and maybe Detroit, Canada or Houston – to take place over consecutive weeks while bunching three designated events after them.
It's OK guys, we've all lost interest in your Tour anyway.... In any event, Rory has told us that the guys don't care about the majors any more because the purses are too low, so maybe they'll play in Columbus and skip Pinehurst.
This is the second bit from Jack that is a little maddening:
Which is great, especially given the Ohio roots of both Jack and Tom. Except, that Tom won't be enjoy being feted by Jack because...
Weiskopf, who died of pancreatic cancer last August, was introduced to the game by his parents, Tom and Eva. The elder Weiskopf was a standout amateur in Pennsylvania while Eva was good enough to play collegiately on men’s teams at the College of Wooster and Mount Union. She twice was eliminated in match play in the U.S. Women’s Amateur by future Hall of Famer Patty Berg.
I don't know if Jack knew of Tom's illness, but here's a list of recent honorees:
2023 — Larry Nelson
2022 — Ben Crenshaw
2022 (P) — Charlie Sifford
2020/2021 — Nick Price
2020/2021 (P) — Gene Littler and Ted Ray
2019 — Judy Rankin
2018 — Hale Irwin
2018 (P) — Jock Hutchison & Willie Turnesa
2017 — Greg Norman
The hurry to honor Norman was what exactly? Nick Price? Jeez, how about trying to honor folks before they die? He has twenty years for some of these guys, but Weiskopf to me would have been a special case, given that he toiled in Jack's shadow. And he would have relished it so coming from Jack, so a horribly missed opportunity.
Happy Longest Day - Most sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open is today, and Geoff has a long preview here. One unexplored aspect of that move of Jack's event discussed above is that the mots significant qualification site is, checking notes, Columbus, OH:
Brookside Golf & Country Club and The Lakes Golf & Country ClubColumbus, Ohio; 120 playersTegan Andrews, 21, of Agoura Hills, Calif., earned the last spot available among the 109 U.S. Open local qualifying sites on May 22 in Palmer, Alaska. Andrews shot a 72 in 50-degree weather with strong winds and was three strokes clear of the 16-player field at Palmer Golf Course. Andrews, a junior at Cal State-Fullerton in 2022-23, ended up in Alaska when he waited too long to file an entry to get into any of the Southern California local qualifiers. His grandfather, Gene, was a two-time USGA champion who competed in three U.S. Opens and was a member of the 1961 USA Walker Cup Team.Cameron Champ, 27, of Sacramento, Calif., hopes to return to The Los Angeles Country Club where he was a member of the winning 2017 USA Walker Cup Team. He has played in three U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for 32nd in 2017 at Erin Hills. Champ has won three PGA Tour events and once on the Korn Ferry Tour. His father, Jeff, was selected in the Major League Baseball Draft by the Baltimore Orioles.Kevin Chappell, 36, of Fresno, Calif., has played in eight U.S. Opens. He tied for third in 2011 in his first Open when he shot 66 in the final round at Congressional Country Club. His lone PGA Tour win is a one-stroke victory over two-time U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka in the 2017 Valero Texas Open. Chappell, who played at UCLA, won the 2008 NCAA Championship.Stewart Cink, 50, of Atlanta, Ga., has played in 23 U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for third in 2001 at Southern Hills. He set the U.S. Open final qualifying 36-hole scoring mark in 2003 with rounds of 62 and 61 in Columbus, Ohio. Cink captured the 2009 Open Championship at Turnberry in a playoff with Tom Watson. He has won eight PGA Tour titles, including the 2019 RBC Heritage.Eric Cole, 34, of Delray Beach, Fla., finished second in the PGA Tour’s 2023 Honda Classic, losing in a playoff to Chris Kirk. He comes from an accomplished golf family. His father, Bobby, played in seven U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for 12th in 1970. Bobby won a PGA Tour event in 1977 and captured nine titles in his native South Africa. Eric’s mother, Laura Baugh, won the 1971 U.S. Women’s Amateur. She competed in 14 U.S. Women’s Opens and tied for eighth in 1979. Eric played in the 2021 U.S. Open.Pierceson Coody, 23, of Plano, Texas, won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Panama Championship and has played in seven PGA Tour events in 2022-23. He and his twin brother, Parker, played at the University of Texas and are the grandsons of 1971 Masters champion Charles Coody. Pierceson, a member of the winning 2021 USA Walker Cup Team, advanced through the Columbus, Ohio, final qualifier to his first U.S. Open two years ago.Luke Donald, 45, of England, has played in 14 U.S. Opens. His best finish is a tie for eighth in 2013 at Merion Golf Club. Donald, the 2011 PGA Tour Player of the Year, has won five Tour events and seven DP World Tour titles, including two BMW PGA Championships. He also claimed the 1999 NCAA individual title while playing for Northwestern University.Lucas Glover, 43, of Jupiter, Fla., won the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course. In a Monday finish due to weather, Glover posted a two-stroke victory over Ricky Barnes, David Duval and Phil Mickelson. He has played in 15 U.S. Opens and tied for 17th in 2020 at Winged Foot, his best finish in recent years. Glover owns four PGA Tour victories, including the 2021 John Deere Classic.Carson Herron, 20, of Deephaven, Minn., is attempting to become a fourth-generation U.S. Open competitor. His father, Tim, played in 11 U.S. Opens, with his best finish a tie for sixth in 1999. His grandfather, Carson, and great-grandfather, Clee, competed in 1963 and 1934, respectively. Carson tied for 15th in the Mountain West Conference Championship as a sophomore at the University of New Mexico in 2022-23. He advanced through U.S. Open local qualifying on his college home course.Zach Johnson, 47, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has won two major championships, the 2007 Masters Tournament and the 2015 Open Championship. He has played in 18 U.S. Opens. His best finishes are a pair of ties for eighth place in 2016 and 2020. Johnson, who has won 12 PGA Tour events, was a member of five USA Ryder Cup Teams and will serve as the captain in 2023.Geoff Ogilvy, 45, of Australia, claimed the 2006 U.S. Open Championship at Winged Foot Golf Club when he defeated Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, and Phil Mickelson by one stroke. Ogilvy, who has played in 13 U.S. Opens, won eight PGA Tour and four DP World Tour events. He also was victorious in the 2008 Australian Open and 2010 Australian PGA Championship.Patrick Rodgers, 30, of Jupiter, Fla., has qualified for all four of his U.S. Opens, including last year, through Columbus, Ohio. He tied for 31st in 2022 at The Country Club and also tied for 31st in 2021 at Torrey Pines. Rodgers, who has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2022-23, was a member of two USA Walker Cup Teams (2011, 2013).
It's a great mix of old-timers and up-and-comers, but we can't obviously allow for such things in our pre-scripted games. Most of those guys wouldn't be invited to the 2024 Memorial in any event, given the reduced field size, so goodbye Columbus.
Catch you tomorrow in all likelihood.
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