1. Viktor Hovland blew away the competition at the Tour Championship, finishing at 27 under to win the FedEx Cup title by five and claim the $18 million top prize. This, mind you, also follows his final-round 61 and win at the BMW Championship a week ago. So, what in the world has gotten into Viktor Hovland?Ryan Barath: For Viktor, I think it simply comes down to learning how to become a professional golfer. Now I realize that doesn’t make a ton of sense, but for context, he mentioned recently thatwhat has helped his short game even more than improving his technique was improving his misses. Rather than be hyper-aggressive and shortside himself he’s picking smarter targets, placing himself in better spots around the green and going back farther off the tee. At the highest level, those misses add up, and reducing those small mistakes has made a huge difference. On top of that he’s gained driver distance from speed training and along the way improved his bank balance too.James Colgan: I don’t think anything has gotten into Viktor Hovland. As best I can tell, one of the best younger players on the planet just won the biggest event of his young life. It’ll be only a matter of time until we’re asking the same thing at the end of a major championship. He seriously is just THAT good.Josh Berhow: For Viktor, it’s usually been about his short game. He’s always been an excellent ball-striker, but the rest has held him back, and he hasn’t been shy to admit that. Last week he was 22nd in SG: around the greens and 2nd in SG: putting. At East Lake, he was 20th and 1st. But what’s really apparent the past couple of weeks is his confidence, and those close calls are now turning into wins. He said it well himself on Sunday night: “Before it felt like, Man, I have to not give up any shots to shoot a good round of golf. However, now that’s not true anymore. I can hit one bad and I can get up and down and move on and birdie the next three and then suddenly we’re right there.”
Thanks, Ryan, for doing the my job for me, pointing out that your answer makes little sense.... Common ground, baby! Can we also spare a moment to enjoy the Christmas-sweater level of ugliness of the J. Lindbergh shirt.... Viktor is completely charming on the subject, making it clear he just wears whatever they send him, still one can only wonder if, like Jack, he's color blind....
There seems little doubt that Viktor has attacked his weaknesses, and is certainly chipping better than he used to. That said, Josh Berhow's stats paint a slightly different picture, because those SG: Around the Green numbers aren't all that special, especially 20th in a 30-player field. To me it still seems a weakness, though his ball-striking and putting are good enough, at least certain weeks, to cover.
But an impressive stretch for sure, and it's not hard to imagine that he'll be a force in Rome.
2. Now that the first year of the (slightly) new-look FedEx Cup Playoffs is in the books — with 70 making the first stop, 50 at the next and 30 at the Tour Championship — what did you think? Do you like this format better than 125 making the playoffs? What would you change?
Gee, could we start with that ridiculous staggered start.... I mean, if it's a clown show you're after, I've got just the thing for you.
Barath: I think this year has been a big improvement from a drama perspective, and really created a need for top players to play more often, especially in less popular events. If I had it my way I’d tighten it up even more to just the top fifty and cut 10 players after each of the first two events leading up to the Tour Championship. I want to see the top 50 really go at it and I think having the playoffs start at 50 would make later season events matter even more for those on the bubble.Colgan: Seventy, 125, who cares? Sure, it improves the quality of the product marginally, but it doesn’t change the fact that the FedEx Cup is by far the least compelling “postseason” in pro sports.Berhow: I didn’t notice too much of a difference from this year to last, which might be to say it’s really easy to forget they went from 125 to 70. I’m going to wait until I see how the new fall series shakes out before I make any big conclusions here, although for starters I wish we could have things stay the same for just a bit longer. The constant change — although some of it is forced via LIV, etc. — is exhausting to keep up with. Even for media members!
What the hell is Ryan babbling on about? We just finished a season in which the top players were forced to play fourteen specific events, leaving exactly no time for them to play elsewhere.
As for Josh, the Fall nonsense has been severed from the actual Tour season, so by all means watch that before offering an answer, though that's not even his strangest bit. He has to be the only golf journalist complaining about the turmoil, because God forbid the world actually offers a subject of interest about which to write.
But James Colgan actually says the quiet part out loud, to wit, that the faux-playoffs are a hot mess. That provides a segue into this kinda silly premise:
This oughta be good, right? But set Rory aside, lets' lead with Jon Rahm's gripes:
“I don’t think it’s the best we can come up with,” Rahm said Tuesday. “I think I’ve expressed my dislike towards the fact that you can come in ranked No. 1 in the FedExCup. You can win every single tournament up until this one. You have a bad week, you finish 30th, and now you’ll forever be known as 30th in the FedExCup this season. I don’t think that’s very fair.”
Who wants to remind Jon that golf wasn't designed to be fair....
But what Rahm is arguing for substantively is at least coherent. The whole problem with the FedEx Cup is that they're trying to accomplish two mutually-exclusive objectives, to make it a season-long competition but simultaneously leave the outcome in doubt until Sunday at East Lake. Most will remember the year Vijay had it all locked down before the Tour Championship,
But this is the gist of Rory's argument:
But if the PGA Tour wants a true “playoff” to decide its season-long champion, isn’t this exactly what it should be looking for? That’s what McIlroy thinks.He was asked if it’s fair that Rahm’s season will go down simply as finishing 18th this week despite his incredible run in the first half of the year.“A basketball team could go 82-0 and lose in the first round of the playoffs,” McIlroy said Sunday night.
I might have gone with hockey, given the Bruins playoff loss.
The problem seems to come from folks not understanding our game. Everyone remembers the hue upsets (the Patriots are mentioned as well), but for something to be an upset requires there to be a favorite. There are no favorites in golf, no mater the extent to which you shrink the fields. The best players only win maybe 5% of their starts, so how do you structure a "playoff" around that?
You can't, so I would argue that the choice is between Jon Rahm's season-long points race, and a high-stakes shoot-out. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that, unless you mistakenly think it means something or relates to that which comes before. That's where the hot mess originates, the necessary points resets and that staggered start at East Lake. I would use the points race to qualify (and I've certainly no problem with rewarding the top finishers there), but after that I'd just create a high-stakes shootout and watch the feral fun that would ensue.
Ryder Cup Tuesday - I don't know what job Zach Johnson signed up for, but there are going to be some pissing and moaning after he reveals his picks tomorrow. I'll also warn readers that I have golf planned for Wednesday morning, so it's unclear when I'll get a chance to blog the actual picks.
Eamon Lynch has thoughts on one of Zach's dilemmas, not that I think there's much doubt as to which way he'll go:
Koepka didn’t earn a place in Rome but deserves one. Not for what he did on LIV, but in spite ofit. Exhibition golf only counts toward his bank balance, but when he did face the world’s best this year, he delivered: victory at the PGA Championship, runner-up at the Masters, top 20 at the U.S. Open. He has been his old, familiar self — competitive, ornery, focused, cutthroat. Even Europe’s stars would feel pressure facing him, which can’t be said of many who will line out for the U.S. For all his bro belligerence on social media and the assiduous marketing of himself as a lone wolf, Koepka is popular in the team room. He didn’t sign on to lawsuits or take shots at his former circuit. PGA Tour politics are immaterial to the Ryder Cup and he is by far LIV’s most competitively relevant member.Johnson has options, but few that are Koepka’s equal. For Ryder Cup captains, there’s often a fine line between decisions being hailed as bold or derided as botched. Johnson faces criticism whatever call he makes on Koepka. Better to be slated for bringing a controversial soldier into battle than for leaving him in the barracks just because he’s a mercenary.
There's also those five majors on his C.V., so you might be curious what the case against is....
The sentiment — common in some quarters — that Koepka should not play for the U.S. because he joined LIV is legally problematic. Any move by the PGA of America or its agents, in this case Johnson, to punish a LIV player out of misplaced loyalty to the PGA Tour is fodder for an antitrust complaint. Even if Johnson has an aversion to LIV, he must assess Koepka by the same standards as other candidates. And if he decides against including him, he’d better be prepared to explain why in granular detail.
Not much there, and all of it went out the window on June 6th. With the PGA Tour all in on the PIF deal and the PGA of America riding shotgun, is there any scenario under which Brooks is not on the team? I certainly can't see one.
The TC panel weighs in with some comical results:
4. U.S. Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson will finalize his team with six captain’s picks on Tuesday, meaning the Tour Championship was a handful of players’ final audition. Keegan Bradley finished 11th in the standings yet still was often talked about as a player who might be left off. So is Sam Burns, who won the WGC-Match Play this season and finished 12th in the standings. Both finished T9 in Atlanta this week. How much stock will Johnson put in Tour Championship performances?Barath: Overall, the Tour Championship is likely only going to play a very small factor in Johnson’s picks, and it’s going to come down to stats and recent form.Keegan has proven to be a strong matchplay golfer, and I think his play this season and finish at East Lake warrants a pick for the Ryder Cup team.Colgan: I think there’s some stock to be placed in recent form, but the biggest advantage will come when ZJ is comparing these two to, say, Justin Thomas, who spent this weekend watching alone from home. When the margins are so thin, these are the sorts of things that can help make up a captain’s mind.
Berhow: Even though Keegan didn’t play as well on Sunday his 54 holes before that obviously helped his chances. If either of them would have finished 20th or worse in a field of 30, it would have made it easy for ZJ. Now? Not so much.
We'll know that as soon as we see the picks.... Speaking of which....
5. Let’s keep this simple: Who should be the six picks come Tuesday? And who will be the last man out?Barath: Picks: Brooks Koepka, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Lucas Glover, Jordan Spieth, Cam Young.My last man out is going to sound a little far-fetched but it has to be Russell Henley. The man is consistent as you get (without winning that often) and on a tight golf course when you need to hit fairways and greens — especially in alternate-shot he would be my pick.Colgan: Koepka, Spieth, Bradley, Morikawa, Fowler and … Denny McCarthy. Yeah – I know that last one is a bit of a dark horse, but the U.S. has needed a player of his putting and recovery skills on European soil for 20 years. Give Denny a shot to prove he belongs!Berhow: Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth, Cameron Young, Collin Morikawa, Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler, which means Fowler (who finished 13th in the standings), would leapfrog Burns, who was 12th. That puts Burns as the odd man out, but I don’t think there’s a chance Fowler is left off and I think Keegan really helped himself at the Tour Championship. You could argue Cam Young didn’t even make it to East Lake, but finishing 9th in the standings like he did, I think that was enough already. (As for JT, well, see below.)
As you can see, there's a follow-up that we'll excerpt before opining:
6. Two popular American players sit outside of the top 12: Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas. If you can only take one, whom are you selecting?Barath: I’m taking Rickie. Other players all like him, and unlike JT, his putting stats are good.Colgan: Fowler and I don’t think it’s particularly close. Ultimately, JT is the better player, but Rickie has played the better golf over the last 12 months. A pick for JT would be a character pick all the way, and I tend to lean in the direction of those who have earned it with their play.Berhow: Fowler. I had more confidence that Thomas would be on this team a couple of weeks ago, but this is not a great time of year to be absent. While JT has been out of sight and out of mind, others have made their case and, in my mind, should be rewarded. Thomas has been great in these events, but his play this summer has not been.
When I hinted that they were beclowning themselves, I had Colgan's Denny McCarthy pick foremost in mind. I think your humble blogger has a better chance of being selected by Zach than Denny, who I frankly doubt was even measured for uniforms.... yes, the man can putt, but any analysis of his overall performance can only yield one uncomfortable truth, that he must be really bad at the other parts of the game.
But it's quite weird to ask about the JT-Rickie binary choice, when I think Rickie is likely to be on the team already. As noted last week, while Cam Young is obviously a young talent worth watching, I would not take him to Rome. Not only has he not played well in some time, but his skill set seems off for the task, specifically horrible putting and driving accuracy stats. Last week, it seemed to me like these guys would get a call:
KoepkaMorikawaSpiethGloverFowler
Interestingly, despite being asked about the effect of East Lake on Zach's picks, Keegan and Sam Burns got a call-out, but no mention of Lucas Glover. If we're considering recent form, it's hard to pick an American who's shown more recent form than Lucas. That said, he had a middle-of-the-pack week at East Lake, so he might be the odd man out.
It felt last week like the final agonizing decision for Zach would be between Keegan and JT, though in the here and now it might be easy to see leaving Glover home and taking them both. Let me just circle back to Eamon who makes a point that I've noted as well:
Points determine the first six. The final six make it on metrics we don’t know — the intangibles most valued by Johnson, whether statistical (skill sets that are complementary for foursomes, strengths that balance shortcomings elsewhere), populist (personalities that fit, performances on prior teams), or personal (advocacy by influential voices, antipathy toward LIV). All or none of those might matter to Johnson, but it’s impossible to deny that the potential selection of Koepka is freighted with politics.
Personal advocacy? Hmmm, who could Eamon be thinking of?
We've seen two coups in the professional game in recent years, first Phil's hostile takeover of the U.S. Ryder Cup efforts and the far more significant coup of the elite players, which recently culminated with Tiger's elevation to the Tour's Advisory Board.
It's completely opaque, so no use sorting through whether Zach is an actual independent decision maker, or whether he's taking "guidance" from above. The cynic in me assumes that he's been instructed to put Koepka on the squad, as the context seems to demand it (as well as his play). Less clear is the result when Tiger whispers in Zach's ear that JT has been playing lights out at Medalist and is really good in the team room....
Now it's just wait and see....
Have a great week.
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