Weekend Wrap - Winter In June Edition

I know it will warm up from here and we'll be whining about the humidity, but WTF  We show up for an afternoon golf event yesterday and the first thing I see in the locker room is a gent coming off the course in a....wait for it, ski hat.  In June!

Didn't see any of the golf, but we shan't let that impede us.

A Stark Reminder - These Swedes are good at the golf thing, and this youngster could be a force for some time.  Though this you'll agree is an odd lede for a game piece:

Maja Stark confused her friends.

A day earlier, she’d turned philosophical. How would she fight obvious jitters during Sunday’s U.S. Women’s Open final round, where she’d start ahead by two strokes? Through pride. And how do you make yourself proud? Stark offered that it was by sticking to her routines and sticking to her swing thoughts, thus controlling all you could control. Deep stuff. Only when asked about it a day later, two of her closest confidants were a bit flummoxed.

“I don’t know exactly what it means,” Ingrid Lindblad said of pride playing.

“Ooh, I don’t know what she would think that that is,” Linn Grant said.

That rings oddly in my ears given the Era of Woke we're in.  Not sure a white person is allowed to exhibit pride, and her typically Swedish features render her white pride extremely pale.  

Geoff's summary includes this on her looper:

“I didn't look at the leader boards until I was on like 17,” Stark revealed after hoisting the trophy. “I caught a glimpse of it. It was nice.”

Stark’s lively home stretch conversations with caddie Jeff Brighton were allowed to breathe by

NBC’s announce crew because (A) they were insightful, (B) entertaining, and, (C) gave the impression the two have been working together a long time. Turns out, he’s pretty new on her bag after a long career working for multiple players, including Monty. So he heard everything. At select times, it sure seemed like Brighton’s willingness to artfully push back at Stark’s plans, was vital in getting this previous major contender across the line.

“I wasn't as nervous as I thought that I would be because it felt like I have somewhat control of my game and I kind of know what's going on,” Stark said. “Then, obviously, with the pressure and everything, your mistakes get bigger but it felt like I could just like control anything that was thrown at me today.”

I guess that pride thing actually works...

Shall we see what the Tour Confidential gang saw in this event?  Yeah, sorry, but that was rhetorical:

Maja Stark won the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills, taking a one-stroke lead into the final round and holding off Nelly Korda and Rio Takeda to win by two and claim her first major title. What impressed you most about Stark’s major triumph?

Sean Zak: Her Sunday. She had every reason to buckle. Her playing partner was sagging. They were playing slow. She bogeyed a par-5. Nelly Korda was chasing her. But she played so steady, in her own bubble. Good shot selection. Good caddieing. Good bounces, too. It all added up.

Zephyr Melton: Her steadiness was remarkable. Sleeping on a 54-hole lead is never easy, but she handled the pressure beautifully. She has some serious guts to put together a Sunday like that without wavering.

Josh Schrock: Agree with both of you. How many times have we seen players enter Sunday with their first lead in a major and completely melt? She didn’t flinch even though she didn’t have her best stuff throughout the day. But when the moment called for it, she hit some incredible shots and didn’t give the chasers a chance once she took that three-shot lead on the back nine.

She put it away to the extent that bogeys on the final two holes were irrelevant.  Though it sounds something short of dramatic....

Lots of teeth gnashing and rending of garments over that girl that finished T2:

Korda has four top 10s this season but is still winless, and at this time last year she already had six victories. While it might be impossible to replicate her start to 2024, what’s holding her back this year? Any reason to worry?

Zak: The putter. She was the only player in the top 13 who finished negative in Strokes Gained: Putting. But she’s been a solid putter all season, so we’ll call it a one-week fluke on tricky USWO greens. But she’ll find something similar in three weeks at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Texas.

Melton: If you look at her strokes gained stats, the only thing that jumps out is her chipping. Last season, she was fourth in SG: Around the Green. This season, she’s all the way down at 90th. She just hasn’t been able to save par quite as often this year. It just goes to show that the margins are razor thin.

Schrock: It’s the flatstick. She was the best player tee-to-green at Erin Hills but the putter was a problem. It reminded me a lot of Rory McIlroy’s loss at LACC. He was the better player that week but just couldn’t get anything to fall and it cost him.

Josh Shrock is relatively new to the Golf Magazine staff, and I've not yet taken his measure (although we can't help but enjoy his Twitter handle @Schrock_And_Awe.  I'll have more in the next Q&A, but the Rory callout is quite curious, especially since, if you asked most folks to name an Open Rory lost with his putter, I'd think Pinehurst would outpoll LACC by quite a large margin.

I for one have been more lukewarm on Nellie than most.  That putter is a recurring issue, but she also seems to have a few too many loose shots in her game.  Perhaps Josh's Rory callout isn't so off the mark...

One thing you may not know is that ShotLink isn't typically available for the ladies, only here at the Open because the USGA wanted to give the girls an upgraded experience.

Erin Hills hosted its first U.S. Open since Brooks Koepka ripped it apart in its debut in 2017, although this week, the USGA’s chief championships officer, John Bodenhamer, told our Sean Zak, “I think both the USGA and Erin Hills were just disappointed in 2017 in the sense that people didn’t see this place in its full glory.” How do you think Erin Hills performed as a U.S. Open test this week? And would you like to see more Opens return to it?

Zak: Well, I’m biased! I thought the course finally got its chance to send balls in bad directions. To be firm enough to make hitting greens a reward on its own. Getting close to the hole was difficult! Now imagine if there was wind. Although I feel like we’ve said “imagine if there was wind” for a decade regarding this course. Guess we’ll have to wait for the 2027 U.S. Amateur Four-ball.

Melton: Are we sure the wind blows out here? So far, they’re 0 for 2! Even without much of a breeze this week, I was impressed by the venue. Saturday was extremely fun to watch and showed what kind of test Erin Hills can offer up if things break their way.

Schrock: Maybe we will get wind next time? Even so, I thought Erin Hills was a proper test, especially with some of the ridiculously tricky pin locations the USGA unleashed on the weekend. I hope Erin Hills gets another U.S. Open, but if not, how about the PGA Championship just becoming the home for castoff U.S. Open courses like Erin Hills and Chambers Bay? It’s an identity!

I saw a little of Saturday's coverage, where it seemed the balls were releasing a bit.  That was enough to cause the ladies to struggle, so perhaps wind for them isn't such a good idea.

But can you all help me analyze Josh Schrock's answer, specifically whether or not his tongue was extended into his cheek.  Because a partial listing of PGA Championship venues includes Baltusrol, Oak Hill, Southern Hills, Olympic, Hazeltine, Medinah and Congressional, all formerly U.S. Open venues.  So Schrock is suggesting a strategy that was implemented some decades ago, leading to conclude that either, he is blessed with a delightfully dry sense of humor or, in the alternative, he's just a clueless, wet-behind-the-ears new hire.   I tends towards the cynical so my money is on the latter....

Lastly on the USWO, did you happen to catch the ladies' pace of play?  Trick question, as apparently  there was none.  Third round games were clocking in at six hours, and one woman was especially called out for her glacial progress around the course.  From Shack:

Lexi Thompson (73-74-MC) took to Instagram to clear the air on pace of play and her retirement status. After thanking the USGA, volunteers and fans and admitting her game was not ready for the week, she wanted “people to realize our group basically waited on every single hole on the group in front, we were never out of position/warned/or on the clock,” Thompson wrote. “I’ll be the first one to say I’m not as fast as my playing partners the two days, but I’m also the last person that wants to be out there for six hours. So before you make assumptions, make sure you get all the facts right before basing it on pictures and little clips. That’s all! 😊” Then she addressed her playing status. “AND I’m not sure how many times I’ll have to repeat this , but I never used the word retire, I said not a full time schedule, because I’m not sure how much I will play. Just taking it one at a time. That’s why I’m still playing the tournaments I actually enjoy or want to play in.” Thompson launched the fake retirement news last year with a thanks-for-the-memories video and spoke about leaving the game better than she found it at last year’s U.S. Women’s Open.

I find Lexi tiresome, and ironically more so in retirement.  How can we miss you if you won't go away (although she was sufficiently considerate to go away for the weekend)?  And given that she wasn't competitive when playing a full schedule, these drop-ins are just a further beclowning of the ladies' game.

Memorial Daze - Scottie seems to still be good at the golf thing, no?

Scottie Scheffler defended his title at the Memorial, pulling away on the back nine to win for the third time in his last four starts. Although, as host Jack Nicklaus put it, Scheffler didn’t really have to do “anything special,” on the back nine, as all the contenders made mistakes in front of him. Has Scheffler’s dominance over the last couple of years created almost a Tiger-like effect that tightens up the field knowing they have to be perfect?

Zak: Absolutely. Ben Griffin — man of the moment! — admitted as much last week when he won. He said he was planning on Scheffler shooting a Sunday 62, because that’s what you have to plan for! I’m looking forward to someone standing up in his way soon.

Melton: Sometimes the best golf is boring golf, and Scottie has perfected that. Perhaps some other players should take a page out of his book and play a little more “conservatively.” Seems to be a solid strategy. Of course, it’s not as easy as Scottie makes it look.

Schrock: Absolutely. As Jordan Spieth said Saturday, you know Scheffler isn’t going to go backward so that forces you to have to play pedal-down golf to try and catch him. He is precise and exacting and never takes himself out of the fight. To beat him, you have to beat him. Would love to see any of the top players really put up a fight at Oakmont.

I'll comment after this next query:

One of those aforementioned Memorial contenders was Ben Griffin, who won the Zurich team event at the end of April, won the Charles Schwab Challenge a week ago and finished solo second this week. Did getting into this position following his win last Sunday prove to you this run is no fluke and he should be in the Ryder Cup conversation in the fall? Or should we still just classify this one as a heater?

Zak: Ben Griffin is on a heater, no doubt. But to merit a look, he needs to keep some form through July. That’s just how it goes! There are a lot of guys who will want that same look, but we’re four months away from Ryder Cup tee shots. That’s a long time.

Melton: Bethpage is a longggg way off. Let’s save the Ben Griffin for Ryder Cup talk until August at least. I’m gonna have to see more than a four-week heater to feel comfortable sending him into the hornet’s nest that is the Ryder Cup.

Schrock: We have sooooooo much golf left, as Zephyr noted. He should absolutely get a look but I wouldn’t be thrilled sending him out there against a stacked European team based off a nice May. He’s in the conversation because we haven’t really seen Patrick Cantlay, Tony Finau or other expected members of Team USA to this point.

Am I the only one that finds these Signature Events to be a complete yawn?  Are they delivering the head-to-head confrontations between and among those very few elite players about whom the golf audience cares?  Because Scheffler v. Griffin sounds dreadful, and even Jack seems to agree on that score.

The other blindingly obvious point to make is that, no sooner had Rory finished informing us of the importance of these Money Grabs so that people would know when he was going to play, he stopped playing in them (missing three of eight this year).  Everyone thinks he ducked the press at Quail Hollow because of the failed driver test, but maybe it was this hypocrisy that he didn't want to defend, with the omission of a phone call to Jack just a red herring.

I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I find myself disinterested in any further lecture from Mr. McIlroy on growing the game.  He has publicly agreed with Morikawa that they don't owe us anything, and I agree so enthusiastically that I don't owe them my viewership.

Clown Central - I wonder what would happen if you Goggled "Clown Show" and "golf"?  Sight unseen, I'm guessing that the FedEx Cup would have to be the first result, no?  It's always been a snoozefest, but in recent years they rendered it an humiliating snoozefest with their staggered start.  But lest you think these folks get it, nothing says integrity quite like changing the rules in the middle of an event:

The PGA Tour announced a revision to its Tour Championship (again), and beginning this year it will ditch the “Starting Strokes” format it has used since 2019 and return to its previous format of 72-hole stroke play with everyone starting at even par. Why the change might not be surprising given the criticism the previous format received, are you surprised the Tour reverted to an older format and didn’t create something new?

Zak: I think this was a little bit of a bridge to a future format that checks a few more boxes. Like stroke play into match play. Or match play into stroke play! For now, it’s appeasing the players … and TV. Little more than those two things matter.

Melton: Am I surprised the PGA Tour didn’t get creative with its product? No, not at all.

Schrock: The PGA Tour is all about bridges. Let me know when we get to the end of the bridge and if there’s some creativity at the end of it. But I am glad to see the starting strokes go.

I'm gonna go with the Bridge to Nowhere analogy, notwithstanding my optimism that the 18th revision of this format will prove to be epic... The whole concept of playoffs in golf is flawed, but perhaps it's a big ask to expect those running the most prestigious golf tour on the planet to understand their own  game.

To make this work the Tour first needs to understand their game and its ramifications.  A season-long competition is dreadfully boring, a season-ending shootout, on the other hand, can be fun, but not if it comes with pretensions of cosmic significance.  

I also think that, as much as match play intrigues, we tend to forget the challenges for televised golf.  There's no way of avoiding one individual match on the final Sunday of the season, which works only if it's Rory v. Scottie.  If, like yesterday, it's Scottie v. Ben Griffin, well dozens will tune in for that.  Hence their dilemma, and that's how we end up with brilliance such as "starting strokes".  

That's all for today, kids.  I have a brutal golf schedule this week, so it's possible you might not see me again until next Monday.  I'll watch the news cycle and see if anything compels me to the keyboard, but we've a full week of nothingness until we focus on Oakmont.  So, perhaps a week off for your favorite blogger is well warranted?

Thursday Themes - A Game For Gentlemen Edition

Yes, the lies we tell ourselves....

COR Follies - It's interesting what stories folks react to, because these failed driver tests have generated more questions to your humble blogger on the golf course than any other recent golf story, as well as the lknked post from Geoff.

I wonder if Lucas Glover might be headed for the El Salvador prison for these comments:

Asked during his SiriusXM show about driver test failures at the PGA Championship, Lucas Glover suggested that some of his brethren knowingly skirt the Rules of Golf.

“I’ve been trying to think all morning and all day how to say this without sounding like it’s going to sound – but most guys don’t give them their real driver anyway,” Glover said. “They give them their backup just in case.”

He added, “I know a lot of guys, they keep two drivers in their bag just in case.”

Which was a diplomatic way of saying they are cheating, without saying they are cheating. But are these players doing it from a place of unsportsmanlike duplicity? Or just trying to keep up with the distance chase that their “teams” and craven marketeers tell them is essential to financial success in pro golf? Either way, the revelation hurts the image of a sport that has long taken pride in the integrity of its vast majority of self-policing players.

Gee, Geoff, I guess we read those comments differently, because I think he quite clearly accused his fellow Tour members of cheating.  Is there another way to read that bit about not players not submitting their actual gamers?

Here's some background o the testing:

The random “Characteristic Time” driver tests at the heart of this dust-up have been conducted for years now. They happen throughout the PGA Tour season, at major championships, and on other global tours. Prior to year’s PGA Championship, it is believed multiple drivers were deemed non-conforming or close to the line and subsequently taken out of play before round one. The two top-ranked players in the field, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, had to switch.

Scheffler revealed after winning that he was aware his driver was trending in the direction of non-conformity. McIlroy did not address a SiriusXM report by Jason Sobel suggesting the Masters champion had to make a switch after his was deemed non-conforming. Both players use a TaylorMade. But at least neither player attempted the backup ploy alleged by Glover.

Majors are theoretically the best place to check all drivers since the weeks include golfers from other Tours, where testing is less robust or non-existent. (LIV has been in discussions about testing with the USGA and R&A as part of newfound efforts with an eye on obtaining world ranking points and legitimacy.)

“If we’re going be on an equal playing field, and the four biggest events are going to bring all these people and all these tours together,” Glover said, “let’s make sure we’re playing under the same rules.”

We assume that those two guys submitted their actual gamers, but that's just an assumption...

But to me Geoff is ignoring that 600 lb. elephant in the corner, to wit, the assumption that Rory might well have presumably won his Masters with a non-conforming driver.  Isn't that rather a devastating takedown of the testing regime?

See what you think of this 'graph, because to me it's got a whole bunch of crazy contained within:

Glover’s proposal would add a significant amount of pre-tournament work and likely require full disclosure to the public of failed tests. Given how golf sells the integrity of its players to corporate partners, that’s less than ideal. Particularly since the current system appeared to be working until Glover’s suggestion of intentional obfuscation.

Work?  That's an issue in a game rolling in cash?  We were just told that the Tour hasn't touched their $1.5 billion large, but  God-forbid anyone needs to actually do anything.

More substantively, why would disclosing failed tests be less than ideal?  We are told (I'm not buying it completely) that the player is not aware the driver is non-conforming, and a rigorous testing protocol would seemingly provide comfort that the guys are achieving these crazy low scores under the rules.... 

But peak crazy is the italicized bit.  It's a bit of a remembrance of rants past, but the Tour insists that its members are all gentlemen, and refuses to disclose its disciplinary actions so that we have no evidence to the contrary.  Of course omertà can only be maintained to a certain extent, things like the release of John Daly's Tour disciplinary file inform us of how much crap has been shoved under the rug.

What the Tour wants, and what Geoff shockingly seems on board with, is not a system of rigorous enforcement of equipment regulations.  What they want is merely a system that appears to be working.  See the difference?

Here's more from Geoff:

The testing involves a pendulum-type implement measuring tool to check how long a strike stays in touch with the clubface. The test takes about 15-20 minutes, and the drivers are returned to the player with results, minus exact testing numbers. The player is told if the club was either “Green” for conforming, “Yellow” for conforming but close to the tolerance limit, and “Red” for a failure to conform under the testing rules. The maximum “characteristic time” lasts 257 microseconds with a tolerance of 18 microseconds.

The major manufacturers have similar testing capacity in their traveling trucks. Some have alleged privately that the test is not accurate enough to be trusted. They cite the case of Xander Schauffele’s failed driver at the 2019 Open because the club reportedly passed internal testing. Other skeptics of the process have suggested the clubs are not quite the same after going through the test. But if that’s the case, it’s the manufacturers who are to blame. The sensitivity of the driver's face and vulnerability to non-conformity occur after normal wear and tear. Only greed and disdain for the rules drive a company to deliveres clubs so close to the line.

It’s all quite a ridiculous thing in the name of a few yards of distance from companies that also steadfastly refuse to make non-conforming clubs for everyday golfers because, get this, golfers want to play by the rules.

Most companies test to prevent the kind of inconvenience and embarrassment to their staff members. And since the situation involving Schauffele six years ago, nothing has come close to what transpired at this year’s PGA. As many as ten of the 50-or-so drivers may have failed. But it also came as no surprise to the PGA of America, which relies on the USGA to test.

“Finding driver heads that have crept over the line of conformance is not an unusual occurrence, especially for clubs that are hit thousands of times over a long period of time,” the PGA of America’s statement read. “The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware the club has fallen out of conformance and not responsible for it falling out of conformance other than hitting the club thousands of times. Players are simply asked to change heads if necessary, and all do without issue.”

Even as incredible as the manufacturers are today at making exact replicas, players find one they like, and it can be frustrating to take a “gamer” out of play.

In another piece on this issue, drivers were likened to snowflakes, each one different from the other.  Thus the issue with tasking gamers out of play art the last moment.

 We have pushback from the Tour, but first let me excerpt this bit:

Under the testing protocol, which USGA representatives conduct on site working at the request of

the PGA Tour, about a third of the players in the field submit a driver for testing, the players chosen randomly. The CT test, also called the pendulum test, takes a few minutes to run and drivers are characterized as either passing or failing the CT limit, which is a measurement of how the face flexes at impact. A higher CT number than the limit of 257 microseconds means a driver face is too flexible and thus nonconforming. During the testing, players also are notified if their drivers measure close to the CT limit. The idea is that driver faces that are hit repeatedly at high speeds will start to show a creep in the CT that would take them from conforming to nonconforming. That is what is believed to have happened with both Rory McIlroy’s and Scottie Scheffler’s drivers, which failed CT testing early in the week at the PGA Championship.

Ya got that?  It takes only a few minutes, but we can't test every driver.  

This on the Glover allegations:

While Lucas Glover may believe there’s some bait-and-switch shenanigans happening during driver testing on tour, the PGA Tour seems certain there is not. That said, the tour remains committed to a random testing approach versus weekly full-field testing at this point.

“The PGA Tour works with a survey team to confirm that the drivers being tested early in the week are the drivers being used in competition,” the statement reads. “By matching serial numbers, those drivers are validated moments before players begin their competitive rounds.”

I think we understand why the PGA Tour is committed to only a random testing regime.  But that makes their assertion that they've confirmed that only actual games are tested rather dubious, especially since it's moments before competitive rounds begin.   

It's the most prestigious Tour on the planet, but we see the subterfuge and the importance that is placed on optics, to the detriment of the actual underlying competition.  

The Tao Of Rory - As I understand such things, the Ulsterman achieved his grandest objective in life in April, and should be the happiest guy on the golf planet.  Yet, he seems churlish and bitter, most notably in spurning the press each day at Quail Hollow.

Then there was the Rory and Jack bit:

Jack Nicklaus found out that Rory McIlroy wasn’t going to play in this year’s Memorial Tournament around the same time that everyone else got word that the Masters champion wouldn’t be making the trip to Dublin, Ohio.

There was no back-channel conversation between McIlroy and Nicklaus about the World No. 2’s decision to sit out for the first time since 2017.

This meant the decision came as a bit of a shocker to Nicklaus, given the status of the event, McIlroy’s history at Muirfield Village and the Signature Event sticker that comes with it now.

But while caught off guard by McIlroy’s absence, Nicklaus didn’t feel the need to criticize McIlroy on Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference.

“It surprised me,” Nicklaus said. “But guys have got schedules and got things they do. I haven’t talked to him for him to tell me why or why not. It’s just his call. I made a lot of calls that I had to make when I played to play or not play, and sometimes it wasn’t as popular as people thought it was. But sometimes you have to make those calls.

“I don’t hold anything against Rory for that. He did what he likes to play. I know he likes to play so many in a row. He likes to play the week before a U.S. Open. And so that’s what he’s doing. I really don’t have a comment on it. It’s very difficult. I’m a big Rory fan, I always have been. I’m sure that I will remain that way.”

What this tells us is that Jack is an adult.  On the one hand, there shouldn't be an expectation that Jack's ring needs to be kissed, but on the other hand, anyone remember Rickie and Arnie?  When he realized he wasn't going to play Bay Hill one year, Rickie got in his car and drove up to Orlando to deliver that bad news to the King over lunch.  Are you taking notes, Rory?

But the bigger issue to me is always the lies they tell us.  According to Rory himself, the game can only grow if we the fans know when and where Rory will play.  Hence the creation of the Signature Events Money Grabs™, so we know that those weeks all the best players will be there.

The PGA Tour’s signature event model that Rory McIlroy helped to create in 2022 in response to the LIV Golf League incursion into men’s golf appears to not be working for some players—most notably Rory McIlroy.

The reigning Masters champion is skipping this week’s 50th edition of the Memorial Tournament,

marking the third time this year that the No. 2 player in the world is skipping one of the $20 million limited-field events. On Tuesday, tournament founder and host Jack Nicklaus said he was surprised by McIlroy’s decision to bypass the Memorial in favor of next week’s RBC Canadian Open leading into the U.S. Open but stopped short of any criticism of a player who has sought his guidance through the years.

A day later, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan essentially cut McIlroy considerable slack when he was asked if he had any concerns about McIlroy’s scheduling decisions.

“The beauty of our model is that our players have the ability to select their schedule,” Monahan told a small group of media Wednesday morning at Muirfield Village Golf Club. "What Rory McIlroy has done, I think he's played in this tournament every year since 2017. And you look at the tournaments that he's supported. I don't have any concern, because you look at this on balance over time, his support of our tournaments and our partners is extraordinary.”

It's great, Jay, it just proves that you guys have been lying to us since day one.  The point about LIV isn't to grow the game, it's to be used to grow the top 20'sd bank accounts.  The thing is that Rory won't be missed, because he couldn't be bothered sharing a few thoughts at the PGA.   You simply can't have it both ways, Rory, at least not in my book.

I'm not going to blog the NCAA men's championship, though I hope you were able to view some of it.   I was rooting for Virginia for the simple reason that we have more than enough orange on the big tour, but it's likely a happy morning in the Fowler household.

I will likely see y'all on Monday.  have a great weekend.

Weekend Wrap - Day Late Edition

You guys know the rules.  The blogging of golf shall not interfere with the playing of golf and, mostly due to the Spring weather, the latter has been in short supply...

If you've come for my typically trenchant insights about the PGA Tour event at Colonial, you'll leave disappointed.  I didn't watch any of it, save a bit on Sunday with the Yankees in a Rain delay, and you can't make me care about it.

But I found this interesting:

Another week another win for Angel Cabrera, who captures his second major title in just 6 days

OK, we don't exactly flood the zone to cover the round-belly tour, not least because of the back-to-back major thing....  Why not hold all twelve majors in succession?

On this championship Sunday outside the nation’s capital it was the two-time major winner (Cabrera) who topped the three-time major champ (Harrington), with both looking for their second Champions Tour major. Cabrera shot a final-round 69 to end the week at eight-under-par total, one ahead of Harrington and Thomas Bjorn. He just won the weather-plagued Regions Tradition, the first Champions Tour major of the year, on Monday before heading to Washington, D.C.

So, yes, that’s two majors in six days, and three Champions Tour titles in the last seven weeks.

Cabrera’s win at the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in early April was his first in 10 years and nine months. The former Masters and U.S. Open champion was jailed for 30 months in Brazil and Argentina for domestic assault and released in August 2023. He had played in 11 Champions events in 2019 and 2020 before his conviction. He returned last year to play some and is now the best player on the Champions Tour and its only three-time winner.

“I thought that I was going to fail, especially after being sitting without touching a club for a while,” Cabrera said. “But I've been working very, very hard and I feel that all the hard works pays off and this is what I'm having right now, like winning this tournament.”

I guess there are, as the saying goes, second acts in life.  One assumes that certain heads will be exploding over Cabrera's success, which I cover recently in connection with his act of kindness to Rory at the Masters (the note in the locker, for those that don't recall).  The thing is that there are many such stories about the Argentine, I still remember his thumbs up to Adam Scott in the reaction to the shot that cost him the Masters, a nice piece of spontaneous sportsmanship.  He seems to have quite the generous spirit, which I'll readily concede is hard to square with the events that left him incarcerated.

NCAA Men's Championship - It's a great couple of weeks on the golf calendar, though I admittedly prefer the young ladies to the gents, for reasons best left unexplored.

The men's individual title was awarded last evening, and they'll begin the team match-play competition this afternoon:

Michael La Sasso is close with Braden Thornberry, the 2017 NCAA individual champion at Ole Miss, and chats with him often.

Coming into the postseason, Thornberry told La Sasso, now a junior for the Rebels, to enjoy the final tournaments of the year and have plenty of fun. Safe to say La Sasso took that advice to heart.

La Sasso captured the 2025 NCAA Men's Golf Championship individual title on Monday at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa's North Course, joining Thornberry as the only individual winners from Ole Miss. He shot even-par 72 on Monday, finishing at 11-under 277 for the week and two shots in front of Texas A&M senior Phichaksn Maichon.

"I felt pretty good out there, kind of walking down that last stretch of holes, and kept my head pretty good."

La Sasso, a finalist for the 2025 Haskins Award, earned an exemption into the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont and the 2026 Masters, provided he remains an amateur, with the victory.

I'm OK with allowing the kids to play in shorts, but shouldn't we require at least a 10" inseam on those shorts?   

The indy comp also qualifies the eight remaining teams into the match-play bracket:

Eight match play teams set

Only eight teams have a chance to win a national title, including defending champion Auburn.

The Tigers, along with Arizona State, 2023 champ Florida, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Texas, Virginia and Ole Miss make up the eight teams who will make match play, which begins Tuesday morning.

Golf Digest has an odd thumbsucker up on this topic:

Match play or stroke play to decide the NCAA Championship? We have some strong thoughts

Here's how they frame this rather moot issue:

Deciding the national champion in college golf with match play has brought excitement to the sport since the format was adopted to crown a team winner for the men in 2009 and the women in 2015. Golf Channel came on board to televise the finals, which more often than not come down a dramatic final match and even a final putt.

But with the switch has also brought is controversy.

The Stanford women’s golf team finished this past season undefeated in stroke-play tournaments. During the 72-hole stroke-play portion of this year’s NCAA Women’s Championship at Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., the Cardinal posted the lowest score in the history of the event, outpacing the next closest team by 21 shots. Yet after rallying for comeback wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals, Stanford fell in the championship match, 3-2, to Northwestern—a team it had beaten by 29 strokes earlier in the week.

So, did the best team really win the national championship?

Is that the right question?   How often does the best player win a golf tournament?  But somehow the test is whether the best team wins?  In golf?

Greg Gottfried, Web Producer: As much as I love chaos and upsets, it just doesn’t make much sense to have an NCAA Championship decided by match play. All love to Northwestern—they made the best of a weird decision—but finishing an entire season with such a fluky outcome feels a little wrong. I guess March Madness is similar in that it turns the postseason into bedlam, and yet, it feels a bit more random and odd when it comes to golf, a sport that centers on consistency. I still think there would be unpredictable outcomes with stroke play, so it’s not as if stories like Northwestern’s women’s team would disappear completely. Nor should they! There’s nothing better than an 11th seed making a historic run.

Joel Beall, Senior Writer: Match play strips away months of consistent performance to a handful of volatile head-to-head battles where anything can happen. Yet March Madness has built its status on this same fundamental flaw—the tournament's refusal to reward the most deserving team in favor of the most opportunistic one. Golf desperately needs this kind of beautiful chaos. In a sport obsessed with precision, where players methodically grind through stroke-play rounds in relative isolation, match play injects something almost revolutionary: direct confrontation. Suddenly, a perfectly struck iron shot means nothing if your opponent holes out from the bunker. A player's internal scorecard becomes irrelevant when they're staring down a must-make putt to stay alive. This mano-a-mano format transforms golf from a meditation on personal excellence into genuine psychological warfare, where momentum swings wildly and mental fortitude matters as much as technical skill. The sport's traditions rarely allow for such raw, unfiltered drama—making match play's volatility not a weakness to be endured, but an essential jolt of unpredictability.

There's another metric on which to judge this conundrum.  When contested at stroke play, the NCAA champions did not have a TV contract and nobody cared.  Since implementing team match play, the event has eclipsed the U. S. Amateur as the premier amateur event in golf, and folks such as your humble blogger eagerly await the event each year.  Can't let that stand, can we?

U.S. Open, Distaff Edition - The ladies are at Erin Hills this week for their Open, and Shack has an endless version of his event preview by the numbers:"

80th: Playing of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship Presented by Ally.

3rd: Time in Wisconsin (first at Erin Hills)

5th: USGA championship at Erin Hills

4th: Course to have hosted the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur (Hazeltine National, Cherry Hills, Atlanta Athletic Club)

16: Courses that have hosted the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open

156: golfers in the 2025 U.S. Women’s Open

90: Players full exempt into the field

8: Former champions in the field (In Gee Chun (2015), Allisen Corpuz (2023), Ariya Jutanugarn (2018), A Lim Kim (2020), Minjee Lee (2022), Jeongeun Lee6 (2019), Sung Hyun Park (2017), Yuka Saso (2021, 2024))

1: Field member who played the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links at Erin Hills: Allisen Corpuz (at a record-young age of 9!)

19: Most U.S. Women’s Open Appearances in the field: Lexi Thompson (19), Amy Yang (19)

13: Years since former World No. 1 Yani Tseng played (qualified in Arizona)

40: First-time competitors

26: Amateurs in the field

30: Countries represented in the field

25.98: Average age of the field

$12 million: Purse

222: Days since the course was open for public play (10/18/24 to 5/27/25)

6,829 Yards: U.S. Women’s Open yardage for Erin Hills

72: Par (36-36)

2006: Course opened for play

2010: Course receives major renovation

3: Architects of record (Mike Hurdzan, Dana Fry, Ron Whitten)

620: Total acres

40: Acres of fairway

10: Acres of rough

150+: Acres of native rough

1756: Yards from the clubhouse to the 16th tee (1 mile)

132: Bunkers

0: Water hazards penalty areas

6,500: Average green square footage

.090”: Mowing height for A4 bentgrass greens

.300”: Mowing height for 007 bentgrass fairways (fine fescue in 2017 U.S. Open)

25-30: Yards of average fairway width

3.5”: Fine fescue rough height

19: Years at Erin Hills for Director of Maintenance/Co-Manager Zach Reineking, GCSAA

35/75: Full-time employees/U.S. Women’s Open volunteers

1: Golf course dog (Bob, 5-year-old Bernedoodle)

555: Yardage for the par 5 18th this week

I did say that it was a bit long....

 Shall we see what the Tour Confidential panel has on their mind?  Yeah, that was mostly rhetorical...

The U.S. Women’s Open kicks off this week at Erin Hills in Wisconsin, which will be the course’s biggest event since it hosted the 2017 U.S. Open (won by Brooks Koepka). All eyes will be on top-ranked Nelly Korda, although in the last five years she’s missed three cuts and has just one top 10 at this tournament. Why hasn’t everything clicked for her on women’s golf’s biggest stage? And how do you like her chances this week at Erin Hills?

Sens: I wouldn’t make too much of that relatively small statistical sample. There’s nothing about Korda’s game that makes her ill-suited for this particular event. She also has two top 10s in the

U.S. Women’s Open. It’s no secret that Korda went through some struggles in recent years, so a handful of missed cuts isn’t a shocker. Funny game, golf. That’s just how it goes. She’s obviously righted the ship since. This week, it is more likely that she contends than not.

Marksbury: Well said, Josh. The game is fickle. Look at Lydia Ko’s ups and downs over the last several years. Erin Hills seems like a good fit for Nelly, and after skipping this week’s stop in Mexico, I expect her to be ready with all cylinders firing for the Open.

Dethier: You’re both right, but if there’s a hole in Korda’s resume, it’s that she hasn’t played as well at the LPGA’s toughest tests. I believe our Zephyr Melton looked into this and found that all of her stroke-play wins have come when the winning score is 9 under par or better; this will be a good week to keep the wheels on the track and grind her way into contention. The course should set up extremely well for her game.

It just reinforces how untenable the LPGA is, because these allegedly sophisticated golf writers only know two names  in the field.  

Besides Korda looking for her first win of the season, what’s your favorite storyline for this week at Erin Hills that viewers need to be aware of?

Sens: Extreme bias here but any women’s major offers the treat of watching Lydia Ko, a generational talent and one of the great kind-hearted people in the game. Enjoy her now because she has said she doesn’t plan to stick around for too much longer.

Marksbury: Lexi Thompson — in her “step-away” season — will be making her 19th consecutive U.S. Women’s Open start. That’s incredible. There’s obviously something she’s still seeking from her professional golf career. A U.S. Women’s Open win — a championship where she’s endured heartbreaking near-misses — would mean everything.

Dethier: Jeeno Thitikul has been playing like she’s ready to challenge Korda for the No. 1 ranking and she’s coming in off a win; meanwhile, her trophy case is missing a major championship. That pursuit will be intriguing to watch.

Lexie?  Yeah, that's the ticket....

I know about this gentleman:

Speaking of the LPGA Tour, last week it announced Craig Kessler as its 10th commissioner, and on Thursday he laid out his four “building blocks” he wants to focus on. What’s his biggest challenge moving forward and, if you are Kessler, what’s first on your to-do list?

Sens: The main challenge strikes me as a kind of catch 22. Kessler’s pillars include shoring up the circuit’s financial future and showcasing the game’s biggest stars. Hard to argue those. But to draw more sponsors requires proof that the events are reaching a large audience. And drawing a large audience is tough when TV/media exposure is so much more limited than it is for the men. This is an old narrative. Changing it is easier said than done. Player personalities are key for sure. We know that people are drawn to stories, rivalries — they want to follow the arc of compelling performers in big events. How you get those stories out there given the obstacles — I don’t have the answer.

Marksbury: All excellent points, Josh. I would add that I’m also not opposed to shortening tournament yardages a bit. Sometimes the length of the courses seems excessive. What’s wrong with a birdie-fest every once in a while? The more these women can shine, the better.

Dethier: Theirs is a different version of the same challenge every professional golf league faces: How do you make it entertaining? There’s no simple answer, but the most entertaining tournaments are the most meaningful events, they’re played on the memorable courses, they involve big-time players and their TV productions help elevate all of the above. As for Kessler’s role? He needs to think outside the box and he needs to be a hype man. Excited to see how he tackles the gig.

It's a hard position to be in, but I often feel that their so focused on  copying the men's tour that they lose sight of their actual audience.  They can't compete with them, heck they can't even really compete with the Korn Ferry Tour, so good luck there.

Wither Golf, Eamon Lynch Edition - Eamon's been kinda quiet recently, but he's got thoughts on the current impasse:

The most tediously unshakable assumption about the division in men’s professional golf is that

responsibility for resolving it falls to those who didn’t create it, while those who did just keep dealing from a seemingly inexhaustible deck of victim cards. The Framework Agreement was announced 719 days ago and the expectation ever since has been that the PGA Tour must engineer the reunification of a game it didn't fracture, and that its members must make concessions to facilitate the return of guys who split to LIV of their own accord.

Count Scottie Scheffler among those finally pushing back publicly against that ersatz sentiment.

A few days ago, he was asked about the state of negotiations, in which he isn’t involved. "If you wanna figure out what's going to happen to the game of golf, go to the other tour and ask those guys," he replied. "We had a tour where we all played together, and the guys that left, it's their responsibility I think to bring the tours back together. So go see where they're playing this week and ask them.”

Scheffler’s comment generously grants LIV players agency they don’t actually enjoy. Having sold their services, they are hostages of Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the chief of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. What they want is irrelevant and what Al-Rumayyan wants is unclear since he hasn’t engaged with the Tour since a fractious meeting at the White House on February 20. And that’s why the Tour should forget about any onus to build bridges and focus exclusively on what will help its business.

To coin a phrase, guys like Jon Rahm have sworn fealty (anyone remember that phrase from the Waybasck Machine?) to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, so we wish them the best with that.

But this is the Eamon I've been missing:

Which leaves players as the only thing LIV owns that the Tour does want. Just not all of ‘em.

Most of the 50-odd guys on LIV used to compete on the PGA Tour. How many of them are missed? Jilted loyalists might insist on none, but that’s untrue. A handful are clearly missed, though the reasons why vary. Take Patrick Reed. Every entertainment product could use a villain who needs a slab of bacon strapped to his face to get a dog to lick him. Or Sergio Garcia, since it’s always useful to have a reminder that age and maturity are mutually exclusive. Only a few players left a real void because they competed at a high standard and had obvious commercial value. Should the Tour be presented with an opportunity to welcome them back—whether via a deal, a defection, the demise of LIV or a contract expiration—it should do so.

He certainly took care of two of your humble blogger's favorite piñatas',  so I'd be happy to give Eamon the rest of the day off.

That needn’t mean the Tour alienating its loyal members (beyond the unavoidable) since the only

guys it would want back could be argued to have status that didn’t expire during their LIV sojourn. Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka and Cameron Smith have all won major championships since 2022. The only other unquestionable status belongs to Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, lifetime members with more than 20 wins. Beyond that, it’s a grey area. For example, being top 50 or top 25 on the career money list is good for a one-time season pass; Garcia and Reed were deleted from that list when they split but would still rank 14th and 30th, respectively.

The rest of the LIV roster are discards for the PGA Tour but not without utility for the DP World Tour, which likely sees value in Messrs. Hatton, Kaymer, McDowell, Stenson, Westwood and Poulter. Perhaps too for the Aussie contingent. But if any of them want status in the States, go earn it back.

Yeah, don't miss Poults at all....

All good fun, that bacon bit might be an all-timer.  But this might be the more significant factor:

Golf executives have spent years deliberating how to share in Saudi riches without upending the entire structure of the sport. A PIF-PGA Tour deal would be driven by money, regardless of any grandiloquent waffle about unity and a shared future. But the Tour doesn’t need their conditional investment—it hasn’t yet spent a dime of the $1.5 billion infusion it obtained 16 months ago from Strategic Sports Group. Nor does it need any component of the LIV product. There’s no market of scale for team golf to exploit, no broadcast audience to co-opt, no revenue to redirect, no sponsors to covet (unless Jay Monahan has an undisclosed craving for Freddy’s Frozen Custard). There’s literally nothing that should entice the Tour to jettison its current model or commercial partners to make space.

Is it true that they're not experiencing a high burn rate?  Because if they've funded these higher purses without touching that investment, they might be in better shape than I've thought.  But I just don't see how that's possible....

That'll be it for today.  I'll try to get back later in the week, though there are some scheduling challenges.  Check back early and often just to be safe.

Thursday Threads - Post-NCAA Letdown Edition

Hope you caught some of it, as the NCAAs just rock.  And I'll admit that, perhaps somewhat inappropriately, I enjoy the ladies more than the men.

Northwestern Passage - team match play has not been especially kind to the loaded Stanford Cardinals, it's great viewing:

Northwestern shocks Stanford, earns first title in school history at NCAA Women's Championship

Enter Northwestern. The Wildcats won one tournament this year, lost by 29 strokes to Stanford at NCAAs and finished nine shots behind the Cardinal at the NCAA Norman Regional two weeks ago.

But none of that matters in match play, and Northwestern is leaving Carlsbad with its first national title.

Northwestern claimed the NCAA Women’s Championship on Wednesday, topping Stanford 3-2 in the match-play final on a sunny afternoon north of San Diego. It’s one of the biggest upsets in the history of NCAAs, with the Wildcats preventing Stanford from winning its second consecutive championship and third in four years. A relentless team that took full advantage of the reset match play provides, and the Wildcats are headed back to campus with extra hardware.

Freshman Dianna Lee, who went to high school about 25 miles from Omni La Costa, buried a 5 footer for par on the 18th to beat Andrea Revuelta and give Northwestern the distinction of arguably the biggest upset in women’s college golf history.

I don't actually think anything is an upset in match play, given its unpredictability.  As good as the Stanford ladies are, each of the five matches was basically a coin flip.

It's just a great event and, given the unseasonable weather, I watched the final match in front of a roaring fire.

PGA Championship Detritus - Shack, as you might recall, had only a short list of winners from the PGA Championship, so you'll have intuited that the next too lists will be lengthier.  First, the cut-makers:

LIV Golfers. Curtis Strange repeatedly referred to you as the El-Eye-Vee Tour during ESPN’s broadcasts. It could be worse! Eight of 16 LIV players playing on invites or past champion status made the cut. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau contended while Joaquin Niemann recorded his first top 15 in a major to earn a return trip. All in all, a decent week if you ignore that Patrick Reed’s invite to the Ryder Cup bonding dinner got lost in the mail. But why does it still feel like a bunch of recent stars have lost their mojo playing 54 holes over C-list courses?

We seem to be setting the bar especially low..... But more substantively, who cares?  And that's more than just petulance, as I find myself not missing any of these guys.

Here he maybe goes a bit far:

Americans. Of the top 16, where there was a 10-way tie for eighth, ten Americans made the

bunch group highlighted by the top four finishers. But a good week for the red-white-and-blue cannot mask the dim prospects for this September’s Ryder Cup. Captain Keegan Bradley joined the T8 group last week to rise to 17th in points. In any other year, he’d be a prime candidate for a Captain’s pick given his match play record and familiarity with Bethpage. Billy Horschel was another veteran option until hip surgery took him out for months. So beyond Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas and Harris English seeming like the only consistent Americans right now, Thomas then went and missed the PGA cut. At least Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa seem close to having some big weeks. But with only two more majors to go, it’s looking like the Americans may be the underdogs on home soil.

I agree that the U.S. team isn't setting up on an optimal arc, but underdogs?  C'mon, not for a home game....not even close.

Geoff, were you watching the ame event as the rest of us?

Rory. There were two ways PGA week could go. He’d either maintain his Masters momentum and contend. Or come in still recovering from his April triumph firing on most cylinders. We got our answer. McIlroy’s refusal to speak after any round was an odd flex. However, the legit online rage over of his media slighting ignores that, (A) he’s more than generous with his time most weeks, (B) generally makes up for weeks when he’s not spoken (see the 2024 U.S. Open), and, (C) had to have been fuming over his Taylormade driver’s non-conforming test. Such a proximity to illegality should have been flagged by TaylorMade before a major week. The word of his and others’ failing is something for the organizations to sort through and for the golf world to ask why such info is a secret. McIlroy may be trying to delay commenting until after Taylormade is sold. Otherwise, saying just about anything prickly about his driver situation could cause problems or even jeopardize a deal for a company where selling drivers is the primary focus.

The really weird flex is Geoff defending Rory.   Whatever the rules, Rory tells us that he's all about growing the game, except when he's butthurt over something.  And, it needs to be said, he's always butthurt over something....  So, another guy I'm rapidly losing interest in.

 At best the least bad option:

Move To May. The PGA of America can always counter another year of dicey weather with, “yeah, but remember August?” Fair enough. Surprisingly light Thursday/Friday crowds offered another reminder that people have jobs, kids are in school, and the air of late summertime fun has been lost with the move to May. Spring weather is clearly overrated based on the May PGAs to date.

 It's a better date in a lot of locales, just not necessarily the places the PGA is going....

But of course the final list, the Point-Missers, is where the fun is to be found:

Annual Tour Event Hosts As Major Sites. Quail Hollow’s ubiquitous presence seemed bound to have a dulling effect on the 2025 PGA. It did! A more-than-suitable venue in checking the various financial boxes would have seen more enthusiasm if not for its WachFargoist Championship hosting role since 2003. Unlike West Coast venues Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines where players see radically different playing conditions from Tour events in winter and a major in the summer. They also have distracting views that Uptown Charlotte can’t match. Riviera will face similar antipathy hosting too many events in the coming years but in a market that likes pro golf in much smaller doses. Quail Hollow should either go all in on majors or focus on continuing to build its Tour stop into one of the biggest non-majors of the year. Hoping to have it both ways serves no party well.

It's pretty simple.  You would think that majors would only be taken to good Tour venues, but you would be misinformed.

Par 3s. Quail Hollow presents the dreariest set of one-shotters in all of major championship golf. Only the downhill, over-water 17th is remotely memorable and a child could have sketched that one out. But it did offer moments of risk and reward while the others just stink. The lack of a super short par-3 doesn’t help given the eagerness to play from distances no upright mortal enjoys playing (or watching). At least Kerry Haigh tried to vary yardages a bit. But the actual holes are notable only for mundane bunkering, weird greens for the yardages, or any sign that they were remodeled in daylight by people who like golf. The cruddy fourth is as forgettable as they come. The sixth features a short par 3 green played from 250 yards. The 13th blends extreme blandness with notes of goofiness. It takes a certain kind of talent to produce such a terrible set of one-shotters, particularly given the money spent modifying the place.

I'm blogging Geoff's work on the fly, so I'm guessing the next two entries will be Par 4s and Par5s.... Because they're all pretty dreadful.

The funniest bit to me was hearing an announcer refer to one of the one-shotters as "One of the most famous Par-3s in the world".  I don't even know which one was being discussed, but it's bat-guano crazy.

Wannamaker Follies. Einstein must have been thinking of the PGA of America when issuing his insanity-defining proclamation about “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” The Wannamaker Trophy is large and heavy (as several packaged vignettes told us last week). Its unfastened top went flying when Scottie Scheffler admirably wanted to lift the giant jug with a jolt of unexpected emotion. As a result, 2025 joins 2014 and 2020 in the PGA of America Hall of Shame. Has the organization not heard of tape? Velcro? Glue? Twist Ties? Rubber bands? Just deal with it, PGA. Before someone loses an eye.

It is beyond weird that they don't secure the top.  But this is hardly the first time we've noticed that they're not the sharpest knives in the drawer....

TaylorMade. The top two players in the game had their drivers ruled non-conforming on the eve of a major. It’s an undeniable stain on the company as it’s reportedly up for sale.

More of a feature than a bug, I'm guessing.

That'll be it for today, kiddies.  Have a great weekend and I'll catch you next week (not sure when, given the holiday). 

Tuesday Tastings - Errata Edition

Just don't know where my mind was yesterday, I'll blame it on the travel hangover....  or, yanno, just being an old fart.

The Kids Are All Right - It's one of my very favorite events of the year, yet I somehow forgot to give my readers a heads up yesterday.  We are officially in the NCAA Championship Fortnight, and it always delivers the goods.  Not least in the first week, when the ladies have the stage.

First up, the individual title was awarded last evening:

Maria Jose Marin follows in footsteps of Arkansas legends to win NCAA individual title

Maria Jose Marin enjoys when there's pressure.

Last year as a freshman, she shot four rounds under par in a T-4 finish at her first NCAA Women's Golf Championship. Then she went into the summer and won medalist honors at the 2024 U.S.

Women's Amateur at Southern Hills and dominated her way into the semifinals of match play, where she had to withdraw because of an injury.

As a sophomore, her stellar play has continued, and coming to Omni La Costa, Marin was perhaps the star in the field most under the radar because she cooled off this spring.

After Monday, she's no longer going to be overlooked.

Marin won the 2025 NCAA individual title, finishing at 12-under 276 for the biggest win of her college career and third of the season. She shot up the leaderboard Sunday morning, signing for 7-under 65, then backed it up with a 3-under 69 on Monday to polish off a two-shot win over Florida State's Mirabel Ting.

But that's just the appetizer, as it's the next two days that will be such fun.  The individual event also serves as team qualifying for the match play bracket, and you'll want to catch some of it:

Stanford made NCAA history at Omni La Costa — and it meant nothing. That’s a problem

The underlying question in women's collegiate golf is who will deny Stanford this year?

Stanford just completed one of the greatest performances in NCAA Women's Golf Championship history, and in another 12 hours, it won’t mean a thing. That's a problem.

The Cardinal shot 27-under 1,125 for 72 holes of stroke play at the 2025 NCAA Women's Golf

Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa's North Course, putting the finishing touches Monday on an NCAA record. Stanford's 27-under mark is the lowest 72-hole score in NCAA Women's Golf Championship history. USC held the previous record of 19 under, set in 2013.

Even more impressive, this Stanford team just completed an undefeated season in stroke play. in nine stroke-play events, not a single team beat the Cardinal, making Stanford the second team to go undefeated in a single season in stroke-play events after Arizona State accomplished the feat in the 1994-95 season. Stanford does have one blemish on its resume, though, after losing to Wake Forest in the semifinals of ACC Championship match play. Stanford beat Wake Forest by 28 shots in three rounds leading into the bracket.

Which means absolutely nothing:

Ultimately, a dominant performance at the NCAA Championship in stroke play — rewriting the record books and running away from the field — doesn't matter because no trophy is awarded after stroke play. That happens Wednesday after match play.

The national-championship format was altered to include match play at the 2009 NCAA Championship and 2015 NCAA Women’s Championship in an effort to make the championships more interesting for television. Now, in addition to 72 holes of stroke play, the top-eight teams advance to match play, where they battle it out to determine a champion.

It may not be fair, but why start now.  What's more important is that it provides great drama, though it is often misunderstood.  Folks will attribute the drama to it being match play, but the more appropriate credit is to the Team Match Play format.  

They play two rounds today, with the quarterfinals on in the early afternoon.  Give it a watch and you can thank me later.

PGA Championship Leftovers - Geoff is up with his list of winners from Quail Hollow, and you'll have guessed that it's quite a short list.  Here's his day-after take on the winner:

Scottie Scheffler. Two elements of his victory must be pretty depressing for his peers: the man does not play for fame or fortune so he’s not going to lose interest any time soon, and Scheffler’s

better attitude last week helped carry him to victory while sporting his B game. Having taken the week before meant Scheffler was rested and hungry. Whether you agree with him on mudballs or not, his answers also suggested a certain mental clarity and reflection about last year’s often chaotic approach to improving his putting. Avoiding wasted energy during a major week is essential to winning and there was less of Scheffler’s tendency after missed putts to look at caddie Ted Scott as if he’d been arrested again. Even losing his driver to a non-conformity test Tuesday did not appear to fluster Scheffler. He has no interest in building a brand, “growing the game”, or increasing his YouTube subscriber base because he doesn’t have one and never will. Scheffler’s a driven performer in the purest golf sense and should have only one real concern in what looks like a path to more major wins: remaining healthy. He’s off to a good start by pledging let others make the ravioli on Christmas Day. Tall golfers have generally experienced more injuries and sticking with an approach of letting longtime instructor Randy Smith monitor his technique instead of launch monitors or video should help on the longevity front. Oakmont, here he comes.

Talk about not playing for fortune, Scottie passed up the Truist Money-Grab to be rested for the PGA Championship.   Just like the LIV players have shown us what they value, so has Scottie.....Maybe, if Rory had skipped the Truist as well, he might have had enough energy to speak to the media.  Oh really, you don't think energy was the issue....

Dylan Dethier, in his weekly Monday Finish column, documents the profound swing thought that turned Scotties day around:

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Scottie Scheffler’s complex tip.

Scheffler has said plenty of times that the things he works the most on are pretty basic setup adjustments. It was fitting, then, that this was the story of the mid-round tweak that saved his Sunday, which came from caddie Ted Scott:

“On 7, 8, 9, I felt like I hit the shots really solid and it was coming out left,” he said. “And I told Teddy walking off 9 tee, I was like, ‘That one felt pretty good. I don’t know why that was left again.’

“He was like, ‘Well, maybe you’re aimed over there. Just try and hit a little further right.’

“I was like, okay. So I got on 10, and felt like I squared up my shoulders and hit it right up the middle.”

Hmmm, that's why Ted Scott gets the big money.... Not just the layers that are good.  And while Scottie seems a perfectly well-adjusted sort, the fire does burn pretty hot:

Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship by five shots, reminding the golf world of its current pecking order. He’s No. 1 and everybody else — even the recent-career-grand-slam-winning Rory McIlroy — is fighting for second. Magnificent win, magnificent finish, magnificent command of the golf ball throughout the finishing stretch on both Saturday and Sunday, when Scheffler dominated the easy holes (Nos. 14 and 15) and the brutish Green Mile (16, 17 and 18) en route to a comfy final margin. One quote from the PGA Tour chaplain Brad Payne, Scheffler’s good friend and frequent pickleball partner, from this Scottie story I wrote:

“I’m a good athlete,” Payne says, “but he’s on a different level. Usually we don’t lose, but if it gets close, he starts pushing me farther to the sideline. He goes from taking up 50 percent of the court to 65 to about 90 percent. Then, when we get up by about six points, he’ll let me back in.”

Geoff was worried about ravioli above, but if you were Scottie Scheffler, would you risk playing pickleball?  Am I the only one that sees a blown knee or ankle coming?

Dylan has some other curious takes.  I still can't get my arms around Jon Rahm leaving for LIV, given that he made the most eloquent  arguments against it of almost any player.  You'll like him more after hearing this reaction, although there is a blindingly obvious follow-up question triggered:

2. Jon Rahm enjoyed the chase:

“God, it’s been a while since I had that much fun on a golf course, 15 holes,” he said. He added this, from Sir Charles:

“I always like to go back a little bit on something that Charles Barkley likes to remind basketball players all the time. Like, I play golf for a living. It’s incredible. Am I embarrassed a little bit about how I finished today? Yeah. But I just need to get over it, get over myself. It’s not the end of the world. It’s not like I’m a doctor or a first responder, where somebody if they have a bad day, truly bad things happen.

“I’ll get over it. I’ll move on. Again, there’s a lot more positive than negative to think about this week. I’m really happy I put myself in position and hopefully learn from this and give it another go in the U.S. Open.

“Sorry for the long answers. I’m trying to process things right now.”

(We like long answers, Jon.)

Jon, any thoughts on why it's been such a long while?  And by thoughts i really mean, yanno, second thoughts....

Did you catch Bryson's interview on CBS after his round?  The first thing to note is that he actually made himself available, which is quite the low bar, yet notable.  He was bizarre, speaking of tricks under his sleeve, but this is about as hot a take on the subject as you'll find:

1. Bryson DeChambeau (T2) wants a better golf ball:

“What I really think needs to happen, being pretty transparent here, is just get a golf ball that flies a little straighter,” he said.

Feel free to eye-roll at that one — Oh, you want a straighter golf ball? Same, Bryson! — but DeChambeau’s outside-the-box thinking has unlocked efficiencies through the bag and it’s reasonable to think he could push some engineering team to break new ground with the ball, too, which he explained presents extra challenges at his speed and trajectory.

“Everybody talks about how straight the golf ball flies. Well, upwards of 190 [mph ball speed] like Rory and myself, it’s actually quite difficult to control the golf ball,” he said. “The ball sidespins quite a bit and it gets hit by the wind quite a bit because our golf balls are just in the air longer. So I’m looking at ways of how to rectify that so that my wedges can be even tighter so it can fly straighter.”

So, you think you're owed a golf ball that only goes straight?  Would one of you please send Bryson a case of Tour Balatas?

Back to Geoff and his tiny list of winners:

Vegas, English, Riley. They each recorded their best finishes in a major after experiencing career peaks and valleys. Vegas ended up T5, English T2, and Riley T2. Of the three, English has been quietly building a nice U.S. Open record since 2020 (4-3-T61-T8-T41), so he should be a legitimate threat at Oakmont in a few weeks.

Harris English at Oakmont?  Geoff, I know weed is legal in California, but maybe it would be better to wait until after you publish the post?

He also liked the short hole:

Short 14th. Another major, another short par-4 livened up proceedings that desperately needed a little architectural intervention. Fun stuff happened at the 14th. The hole livened up the round after the series of utterly forgettable holes from the eighth to the 13th. The difficult finishing holes were made more palatable by the opportunity to score here and at the par-5 15th. Eventual Champion Scheffler played 14/15 in a field-leading nine-under-par. For the inevitable next PGA when the field is carrying it 10-15 yards longer, it would nice to see the lake banks cut a bit closer. They don’t need a tight shave ala Augusta’s 15th, but a bit more fear factor and visual crispness would add a little more tension.

And the inevitable scatter diagram:

I agree there were some great drone shots and other technology, yet I still feel that Geoff is listening to some kind of second screen Manningcast not available in my home:

CBS. The investment and upgrades of recent years continued to make the PGA Championship a fantastic viewing experience: constantly improving use of drones, informative on-screen graphics rarely used during The Masters (including wind gauges), realistic hole portrayals to highlight green contours, and crisp work from all the broadcasters. While traditionalists might think it’s all too much, the gizmos salvaged an event dulled by playing at a regular PGA Tour stop. The announcers fed us just the right amount of stats to highlight trends or bolster points. And unlike NBC’s four-wide mess where it’s not clear whose role is what and when they should speak, it was obvious which holes were the primary responsibility of Frank Nobilo, Ian Baker-Finch and Andrew Catalon (who was a tad too excited at times working his first PGA, as evidenced by several declarations of any non-rainy day as spectacular even when it was in the high 80s and muggy). On-course reporters Dottie Pepper, Colt Knost and Mark Immelman stood out with quick, sharp and informative takes, but Knost needs an acting class to learn how to be surprised when great shots he’s just witnessed are shown to the audience on tape. Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman continue to gel as a lead team, with Immelman having a Johnny Miller-like week of immediate, succinct, and pointed takes when necessary. He and brother Mark do superb swing analysis when allowed. As promised by the producer, viewers got new perspectives of several key holes and wind gauges proved handy on a breezy Saturday (but still could have been used more). The drone tracers remain spectacular, even though the jarring cuts to show a ball hitting the ground remain annoying if it’s clear tee shots are going to finish in the fairway. We really don’t need to see what the ball does unless it might roll into a hazard or if it finishes in a divot. An 18th hole crane shot was a great addition, but over four days, there was no view to tell us whether balls were in or out of the fake creek. Maybe a creek cams in some fake rocks for 2033?

In case you didn't notice, I made quite the hash of my concluding Players Behaving Badly segment.  First, while Shane Lowry might be a corpulent, foul-mouther Irishman, he is not now nor has he ever played on the LIV Tour, so my bad.

Equally importantly, I missed the worst outburst by a player, though perhaps the day's delay makes it even more interesting, because Twitter will not permit me to embed the video.  I believe you can see it here, and you really should see the ferocity and danger involved.

I can embed this:

For those defending Wyndham Clark’s crazy club throw, this is from the marshall who stood near.

That driver hit hard, 5 feet from him.
That’s serious impact.

Zero reason a volunteer should have to deal with this petulant behavior. Crazy people defend this idiocy. pic.twitter.com/uTY5xH8r1r

— Rick Golfs (@Top100Rick) May 18, 2025

Is there anyone defending Clark?  Kinda hard to defend the indefensible, especially when you see the chunk taken out of the wall.  he did apologize, and it at least isn't the prototypical non-apology apology:

On Monday, Clark issued a formal apology via social media, saying

"I would like to sincerely apologize for my behavior yesterday on Hole 16," Clark wrote. "As professionals, we are expected to remain professional even when frustrated and I unfortunately let my emotions get the best of me. My actions were uncalled for and completely inappropriate, making it clear that I have things I need to work on. I hold myself to a high standard, trying to always play for something bigger than myself, and yesterday I fell short of those standards. For that I am truly sorry.

"I promise to better the way I handle my frustrations on the course going forward, and hope you all can forgive me in due time."

I especially like that last sentence, in which he acknowledges that he actually has to earn forgiveness.....  I could provide a lengthy list of players that could not be reached for comment, wink, wink.

That'll be it for today, a bonus Tuesday post.  We'll catch up later in the week.