Weekend Wrap - Haste Ye Back Edition

We are home from Scotland, facing the inevitable fact that our summer of golf has already peaked....  The good news is that it'll be so hot for the next few days that I wouldn't play without a gun to my head.  At least until Wednesday....

Hit The Deck Running - Hard to see her making a living out there, no?

Phenom Lottie Woad wins first LPGA event in her pro debut at Women's Scottish Open

It all depends upon your definition of "debut"....

Majestic. Sublime. Extraordinary. Flawless. The television announcers were running out of adjectives for the phenom Lottie Woad.

KPMG Performance Insights gave Woad a 40 percent chance of winning heading into the final round of the ISPS Handa Women's Scottish Open. Heady stuff for a 21-year-old making her professional debut.

Woad's magical July run continued at Dundonald Links, where the newly-minted pro became only the fourth player in LPGA history to win in her first start as an LPGA member, joining former world No. 1 Jin Young Ko (2018) and Beverly Hanson (1951).

A Sunday 4-under 68 put Woad at 21 under for the tournament, capping off a maiden LPGA victory in her native U.K., with a three-stroke win over Hyo Joo Kim. Woad becomes the 20th different LPGA winner in a season in which no player has won twice. She heads next to the AIG Women's British Open in Wales, where she finished tied for 10th last year at St. Andrews.

A bit of as head-scratcher, no?  We're using terms like "debut" and "maiden". but what is this "July run" then?  Well, there's a technicality involved:

Woad, of course, recently became the first player to graduate from the tour's new LEAP program, earning her card for the rest of 2025 and 2026. Immediately after winning the Irish Open on the LET, she missed out on a playoff at the Amundi Evian Championship by one shot. Woad turned pro last week, forgoing her final season at Florida State. She also accepted membership on the LET, which makes her eligible for the 2026 Solheim Cup.

In her last three professional starts, Woad is 55 under par with a 67.4 scoring average. She notched only three bogeys for the week in Scotland.

So, shew damn near won a major, she just didn't take the check that week.... So it's a funny kind of debut, given her success against that best women professionals in two successive high profile events.

The Tour Confidential panel took note

Former top-ranked amateur (and newly turned professional) Lottie Woad won the Women’s Scottish Open to become the third LPGA Tour member to win in their LPGA Tour debut. What impressed you most about the 21-year-old’s victory? And how much could the LPGA benefit from another up-and-coming young player challenging the stars?

Bastable: Whatever happened to easing into your pro career? Like so many other elite young players these days, Woad arrived in the game’s highest ranks ready to win — and then did just that. So, yeah, I’d say I’m most impressed by how undaunted she looks. Even when Hyo Joo Kim applied some pressure, catching Woad in the middle of the final round, Woad showed no signs of cracking. Instead, she birdied 13 and 14 and never looked back. How about this stat: In Woad’s last three pro starts, her scoring average is 67.4. If she’s not the favorite at the Women’s Open next week, she’ll be right up there.

Zak: The LPGA could always benefit from an up-and-comer. Particularly one as certain-for-stardom as Lottie. She’s got a fun name, she just beat Nelly, she’ll be comfy on the links next week for the AIG Women’s Open. Could she somehow pull off the links double?

Berhow: She didn’t make a bogey on Saturday and made just one on Sunday. That’s the weekend recipe for winning big tournaments. But if you rewatch her press conferences from the week, none of this looked too big for her. She was ready for the moment, knew her game was good and trusted it. She’s going to be a problem for the U.S. Solheim Cup squad, that’s for sure.

The LPGA, better known as the tour that can't shoot straight, needs identifiable players for their fan base to watch develop.  The last women to win her LPGA debut was Rose Zhang, and could there be a better proxy for what can go wrong for the ladies?  And dare I mention Leona Maguire?

But the ladies are headed to Royal Porthcawl, where the bride and I had quite a memorable day a few years back.  So, I may have to dig out that old post, which included quite the lesson about the origins of the Stableford.

This week's TC includes no attention to events in Minneapolis, which I'll take as permission to ignore it as well.  

Portrush Outtakes - We shan't dwell too long, but Geoff did post his usual point-missers post, leading with this still curious move by the R&A:

Eliminating The Rakers. Little traditions mean more to The Open than any other championship.

Or, it’s at least a first-place tie with The Masters. The yellow scoreboards. Teeing off from the first tee (only). Where the announcer sounds like he’s been goosed midway through a player’s name. And until this year, the practice of a certified BIGGA greenkeeper following along with each group to rake bunkers ended after a decades-long run. The practice helped keep play moving just a bit faster because Open courses—I can’t believe I’m having to explain this—feature pot bunkers in fairways where the golfer usually blasts out only a short distance. The player is then quick to their ball. The rakers used to come in while the caddie moved on with their player. Not this year. The tradition was also a nice nod to the hardest-working and earliest risers in golf. None of the excuses for jettisoning this tradition passed the smell test. The mob scene inside the ropes remained just that. Play did not get faster. Caddies did not get paid better because they were back to raking. The whole thing is silly.

Tough week for loopers in general, then combine this added work with the failure to increase purses....

Geoff did two posts on this off subject that I blogged only in passing, but it remains hard to understand:

Boundary Lines. You didn’t think they’d get better, did you? By the tournament days, the painted lines had faded due to foot traffic on the 18th, only highlighting the graffiti-like silliness of it all.

Since the club seems to be in love with something so beneath a place of its stature, here’s another angle to consider: Portrush’s first and 18th holes are as good as any opener and closer on the rota. Starts and finishes are often the least interesting design pieces on links. Not here. The first and last holes need no assistance from white stakes and paint. It’s like they’re wearing band-aids on non-existent wounds. Meanwhile, we get the safety issues out by the cliffs behind the fifth green. But the club also has one of the best short par-4s in golf it is junked up by the sheer volume of stakes vandalizing up the skyline green effect.

Which coincided with our return to the Crail Golfing Society, which is similarly over-invested in white stakes.  Things your humble blogger just doesn't understand....

Geoff, have you been to the Tom Morris Golf Shop along the 18th fairway at the Old Course?  Yanno, the hole that's named Tom Morris?  Because if you have, this can't come as a surprise:

Signage on Tees. They aren’t going away. We get it. But given the effort put into freshening up grandstands and other Open branding to give off a more sophisticated aura, the garrish onslaught

of commercialization gives the impression that two different organizations are responsible for signage. The worst part? On several tees, these billboards eliminate key spectating opportunities to watch players in The Open where many tees are placed atop dunes and fans are below the players. At some point, something’s gotta give: either prioritize corporate partnerships or ticket sales. Trying to do both is failing the people who paid to see golf shots.

We all get attached to our own issues, but needlessly squandering their tie to Old Tom and his actual workshop seems the more significant crime against humanity, at least to this observer.

Geoff takes some parting shots at something I didn't experience, having consumed the Sky Sports coverage:

NBC. Americans watching the telecast came away with the sense that Portrush was a lifeless affair. That certainly wasn’t the feeling on the ground and the reaction can be attributed to the network relying solely on the world feed without supplementing its shows with extra microphones, cameras, and course graphics that elevate a modern broadcast. It’s a particularly sad situations since NBC won The Open rights (starting in 2016) by selling the R&A on its then gold standard combination of coverage, marketing reach and love of the game. Then the network got off to a wonderful start in 2016 and dreams of NBC’s “Breakfast At Wimbledon” success seemed within reach. Then Arnold Palmer died and the Comcast slashing began, first to Golf Channel and now the network. With NBC having the Olympics, Super Bowl and year one of its overpriced NBA package net year, do not expect things to get better. Trusted voices like Mike Tirico and Terry Gannon will be key cogs in the NBA coverage. The future is also uncertain for the linear cable channel spinoff effort called Versant, which the Open broadcasts tackily pointed each day was now stitched on Rory McIlroy’s golf bag as part of his long-running GolfNow ambassadorship. What “value add” for the viewers. The whole thing is a shame for the American fans of the Open and the R&A, who took less money believing NBC could be trusted to care.

Kevin Kisner. Lead analyst duties call for hot takes and there will be misfires. But his comments on the Wyndham Clark situation—suggesting anything not kept private in a locker room is a violation of the precious players’ privilege of doing what? Damage? Forgetting to tip? Passing gas that forces an evacuation? Or whatever it is Kisner thinks is kosher behind closed doors. He point-missed on the notion of a player’s responsibility to be a good guest at a great place. Sadly, he’s delivering just the kind of forgettable, d-bro friendly, player-apologist nonsense that makes for awful television and seems to be what player-run TOURs demand. The good news? Kisner’s a Ryder Cup Vice Captain and won’t be able to offer vapid takes during September’s matches. Since Kisner blamed the USGA for somehow being to blame for leaking a photo of the locker damage induced by Clark, maybe “Kiz” should stay in the locker room and out of the announce booth.

I found Kiz an odd choice for the NBC analyst chair.  The combination of his southern drawl and his tendency to force his humor into the events led me to believe that he wouldn't age well in the roles, and I also thought, don't you already have Smylie Kauffman filling that role?

Of course, this comes from a man who was just subjected once again to the wit and wisdom of Sir Mumbles, so you might expect a higher tolerance for pain.

Geoff does at least get one hysterical bit in before diving behind his paywall:

 

I assume Jordan Spieth is in active discussions to immediately switch from Titleist to TaylorMade....  Alas, it's probably too late for Stewart Cink.

A Quick Look Back - The TC panel sdpent a bit of time on the Ryder Cup, a subject deserving more attention than I'm currently prepared to invest.  I'll just copy-and-paste this and hold back the other bits for later this hot and steamy week:

Last week, we put a bow on the men’s major season, but there’s still plenty to unpack there. What was the most memorable moment of the major season?

Bastable: Kind of cliched, but I’ll remember this year for the emotional victory walk Rory took from Augusta National’s 18th green to scoring. That outpouring of joy — and relief — was something to behold. The moment from that scene most burned in my memory bank is when McIlroy fell into Shane Lowry’s arms and Lowry bear-hugged his old pal a foot off the ground. For honorable mention, shoutout to the five-way sudden-death playoff at the Chevron, won by Mao Saigio. What a wild way for a major to be decided — just wish it had extended longer than one hole!

Zak: Who cares if it’s a cliche if it’s the truth! I’ll pivot slightly off Alan’s answer and say simply the seconds after the putt dropped for McIlroy, when he dropped to his knees. I find it funny when athletes collapse to the floor of their sporting arena — think of all the tennis stars who crumble when their opponent hits a ball out on match point — but given how up and down the day had been, it felt like perhaps McIlroy was running purely on adrenaline and nothing else. There was no more energy to sustain him when it finally went in. Every part of his body seemed to touch the green in that moment, like a focused, crying, giddy yogi. Won’t ever forget it. Also won’t ever forget J.J. Spaun’s 64-footer.

Berhow: Scottie Scheffler wins two majors and you guys don’t even type his name once. Sad! But yeah, fair, I get it. McIlroy collapsing, weeping, celebrating and then walking to scoring was one of the most memorable moments of my 10 years at this job, right up there with Tiger winning the Masters in 2019 and Spieth’s Sunday surge at Royal Birkdale in 2017. There’s so much more that goes into McIlroy’s moment that helps make it special — it secured the career Grand Slam, gave him his first green jacket and changed a narrative. McIlroy’s more recent memorable major moments (Pinehurst 2024; St. Andrews 2023) were memorable for the wrong reasons. He didn’t let that happen again (although it was close).

Hard to argue with that in one sense, though I think it may look different in the rear view mirror.  The emotional release of Rory getting it done touched people greatly.  I can't tell you how many people insisted on calling it the greatest Masters ever, whereas I thought it some thing even more compelling, but not a great Masters (hope that makes some sort of sense).

My problem is that, while the world is conferring immortality on Rory, I can't credit him too greatly with those early majors.  Does anyone remember how soft Congressional was?  Or even Kiawah?  It's about as unimpressive a list of venues as can be found, and Scottie's 2025 was quite the progress towards his own career slam, one that I expect will dwarf Rory's achievement.

There we have it for today.  We'll get to Ryder Cup stuff down the road, though I'll be evasive as to my intended blogging schedule.  Have a great week, but stay cool.