Got to watch pretty much all of the golf yesterday thanks to hot and sticky August weather. Despite some rumblings of thunder, it's now been a full 2 1/2 weeks without being struck by lightning.... so we've got that going for us.
Teenage Wasteland - Makes a guy feel old, but yesterday's final round match at the U.S. Amateur was believed to be the youngest combined age for the two final contestants, which barely reached 37 years. As they say, I have bunions older than that.....
How was your summer?When he gets back to class at Brockwood High School in Snellville, Ga., Mason Howell will have an enviable answer for anyone who asks.In early June, Howell played his way into the U.S. Open at Oakmont with two qualifying rounds of 63, one month before earning medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur in Texas. Those accomplishments alone would have made good schoolyard chatter. Now, though, the Brockwood senior-to-be has something even cooler to talk about with friends. With a 7-and-6 Sunday romp over Jackson Herrington, 19, of Dickson, Tenn on the Olympic Club’s Lake Course, Howell, 18, ran away with 125th U.S. Amateur Championship. The victory makes Howell the third youngest winner of the championship, surpassing Tiger Woods, and the first high schooler to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.“To be ahead of Tiger in anything is amazing,” Howell said. “I’m just so grateful for everything this week.”
You'd think his senior High School golf season would be more than a little surreal, no?
To this observer, the most memorable moment of the week might have happened late Saturday:
He was also accustomed to the spoiler role. Over the past two days alone, Herrington, a rising sophomore at the University of Tennessee, had knocked off a pair of fan favorites: first, Jimmy Abdo, an underdog from Division III Gustavus Adolphus College in Minn, in the quarterfinals, followed by homegrown hero Niall Shiels-Donegan in a Saturday semifinal that drew what were believed to be the largest throngs at a U.S. Amateur since 1981, when Nathaniel Crosby (son of Bing, and a Bay Area native) won the title on the Lake Course. In front of a Crosby-size contingent cheering loudly for the other guy, Herrington, whose husky build has earned him the nickname “The Fridge,” had carded a cold-blooded birdie to close Shiels-Donegan out on 18.
Shiels-Donegan is a Scot whose family moved to Mill Valley (fictional home of B.J. Hunicutt, which you can Google if it doesn't ring a bell) when he was quite young, but that made him a local. As frequently happens, though, after the emotional semi-final win, Herrington's Sunday was quite the letdown. It's a frequent issue in these 36-hole final, because the grueling week can often leave the players running on fumes.
I was able to watch the Wednesday night round of 64, but then didn't check back in until the semi-finals. My sense is that Howell's key match was his first, when he took out second seed Tommy Robinson in a big upset. The Tour Confidential panel did at least seem to know that this event was on:
Mason Howell won the U.S. Amateur on Sunday, beating Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 at The Olympic Club. It was an eventful week in San Francisco, headlined by Howell’s victory but also by the run of John Daly II, the emergence of a DIII underdog, raucous crowds (and interviews!) surrounding a local favorite and more. What was your most memorable moment from the U.S. Am?Colgan: Jimmy Abdo!!!! The 4,292nd-ranked amateur in the world made it into the quarterfinalround of the biggest amateur event in the sport. I love an underdog story, and I’m not sure I’ve heard a better one in 2025 than Abdo’s, whose last four years have seen him left off his high school travel squad and D1 offer-less in the transfer portal. He made plenty of people remember his name at O-Club.Piastowski: That I need to try a burger dog soon. Kidding, maybe. Colgan is right about Abdo — it’s one of the reasons why the Amateur is great. But I loved the crowds that Niall Shiels Donegan drew and his wild post-round interviews (which were conducted admirably by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine). Another attraction of the Amateur is the up-closeness of the event, and this was certainly that.Sens: The crowds that homegrown hero (and semifinalist) Niall Shiels-Donegan drew all week. Large and rowdy. And the pure joy that Shiels-Donegan demonstrated in putting on a clutch show for them. He didn’t win but he was the story of the week.
One fun aspect of the week was the ubiquitous presence of old friend and Walker Cup Nathan Smith, whom I had met several years back at U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying.
That's Smith shaking hands with former Willow Ridge Assistant Pro Kent St. Charles at Old Oaks Country Club. I very well remember my conversation with Kent before the event:
ME: Kent, who are you paired with in Sectionals?
KENT: Some amateur I've never heard of. I think his name was Nathan something.
ME: Not Nathan Smith?
KENT: Yeah, that's the guy.
ME: You're a lucky bastard.
You know what the best part was? After they finished, I introduced myself to Smith and told him how thrilled I was that my friend Kent got paired with him. Can you guess how Nathan responded? He told me how thrilled he was to be paired with Kent... What a gracious man.
The point of Smith being on site was to complete the Walker Cup roster:
The U.S. Walker Cup team for next month’s match at Cypress Point is complete.The USGA announced Sunday the remaining five selections to captain Nathan Smith’s 10-man squad – newly minted U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell, Oklahoma’s Jase Summy, Texas’ Tommy Morrison, Notre Dame’s Jacob Modleski and mid-amateur Stewart Hagestad.World No. 1 Jackson Koivun of Auburn was among the earlier selections, along with Virginia’s Ben James, Ole Miss’ Michael La Sasso, and Oklahoma State teammates Preston Stout and Ethan Fang.
A few of those names might be familiar, but the name that should have jumped off the page and grabbed you by the throat is Cypress Point. The event is September 6th and 7th, and you'll want those dates highlighted on your calendar. The last important event contested at this venue was...checking notes, The Match. It's never too early to set your DVR.
Scottie In Full - This seems a tad hyperbolic to me:
Scottie Scheffler continues to amaze.Starting the final round four strokes back, Scheffler stepped on the gas, shooting 3-under 67, and raced past Robert McIntyre to win the BMW Championship on Sunday in Owings Mills, Maryland.The Ultimate Driving Machine? It’s been Scheffler, the world No. 1, who won for the fifth time, and joined Tiger Woods as the only player to win at least five times in consecutive seasons in the last 40 years. (Woods did it six times, most recently in 2006-07.)Scheffler even had some Tiger-like heroics in capturing his 18th career PGA Tour title, delivering the knockout punch at the par-3 17th. Nursing a one-stroke lead, he missed the green to the left and faced a delicate pitch that he had practiced earlier in the week from 82 feet.
I don't see where he stepped on any gas pedal (with the exception of the pitch on No. 17). Seems like he just went about his business, even gave MacIntyre life with two missed short putts but, as is usual, his C-game was plenty.
The TC Gang has run out of platitudes for Scottie, and who can really blame them. So they logically focused on the Ryder Cup implications:
Scottie Scheffler won the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the BMW Championship, but we also now know the six auto-qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team: Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English. What’s your biggest takeaway from this week?Josh Sens. That we can add an item to life’s list of certainties: death, taxes and Scottie Scheffler. But also ( despite Scheffler) the Europeans have a stronger team of automatic qualifiers than theU.S. does. On paper, anyway.James Colgan: Other than Scheffler 4X-ing his Ryder Cup counterparts in points? I learned that the Americans are lucky Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa didn’t leapfrog DeChambeau. Bryson was a lock all along, and his auto-qualifier status quiets what could have been a tired news cycle about his deservedness.Nick Piastowski: Scottie Scheffler’s really, really, really good. And he’s showing this might last a while. And that Robert MacIntyre versus the Bethpage boys and girls will be jolly fun. (But let’s keep it clean, gang.)
Not sure I really understand Colgan's point. Bryson, JT and Collin all figure to be locks, though I'm not certain that that last guy deserves to be a lock. Though the combination of "I don't Owe anybody anything" with "I'll wear a hat when I'm paid for it" moves the over/under for the switch of my allegiance from the U.S. to the Euros from midday Friday to...., wait for it, the Thursday Opening Ceremonies.
U.S. captain Keegan Bradley will round out his team with six captain’s picks made after next week’s Tour Championships. That means East Lake is most important for which Ryder Cup hopeful?Josh Sens: It’s a tossup for me between Cam Young and Ben Griffin. Both have shown good form this year, especially Young of late. Young, in particular, has sounded like a man chomping at the bit, after being passed over for Rome and now with the Ryder Cup coming to his home state, and a course where he won the state am.Colgan: I think it’s Griffin, who’s safely inside the top-12 but wants to remove all doubt. But don’t leave out Sam Burns, either, who woke up on Sunday in 16th on the U.S. rankings and has the benefit of previous Ryder Cup experience and a close friendship with Scottie Scheffler to help his candidacy.Piastowski: It’s the captain himself. Finish in the top 10, and Bradley picks himself three days later. Finish 28th, and there’s some doubt. A ho-hum finish at the BMW didn’t exactly inspire him being selected, but a strong run at the Tour Championship will.
I think the Captain finds himself in unchartered waters and, given the absence of a predicate for what this would look like, probably needs to leave himself off the roster. But Geoff has a funny bit in today's Quad post:
ChatGPT: Should Keegan Bradley Pick Himself?Since millions now view ChatGPT as a consigliere, best friend, life coach, digital pet, or their even doctor, it’s not a longshot to wonder if Keegan Bradley will seek AI advice regarding his predicament. The new version of the fancy search engine is supposed to be smarter but less wishy washy, yet it spit out a dissertation of McKinseyesque pros and cons before, you guessed it, not helping.
Gee, Geoff, it may be that using ChatGPT as your digital pet or doctor isn't the weirdest aspect of this phenomenon:
Really, what could go wrong? But shall we see what ChatGPT came up with?
Sam Burns finished T4 at the BMW and Rickie Fowler finished T7, although both, especially Fowler, are further down the Ryder Cup standings. But if you are captain, how do you balance picking someone higher up on the standings vs. someone with better recent form?Sens: As a tiebreaker, I’d look further back in the historical record. How have they performed in these kinds of pressure cookers?. Burns went 1 and 2 in Rome and has not generally cut the profile of a killer closer. Fowler has a career 3-9-5 Ryder Cup record. In short, I’d probably look past both of themColgan: I think the goal is to pick the twelve best golfers. If No. 11 on your list suddenly can’t break 90, I’d think about recent form. Otherwise, I’d let the last 6 months serve as a much better test.Piastowski: I’d certainly take a look — but then why have the standings at all? If you’ve bought in this far, no need to switch things up. That said, I’d maybe lean toward the hotter hand with picks 11 and 12 than going with the points system (unless, of course, the hot hand is also 11 or 12). Burns also has the benefit of being close friends with the world No. 1, and you want to keep that man happy.
I'm glad that Nick Piastowski came out and said out loud that Sam Burns' primary qualification for the team is that he's Scottie's buddy, and Nick seems to think that is just hunky dory.
The recent for vs. historical record is a longstanding and valid debate and, like the first two guys, I do think it right to default to taking the better golfer.
But there's a far bigger issue at play here, as in evaluating the importance of "Recent form" I'll focus on the recent bit, as opposed to the form. The FedEx Cup will conclude on Sunday, August 24th and the Ryder Cup will begin on Friday, September 26th. What we saw in Rome was that the Euro's played at Wentworth two weeks before the Cup and only one or two U.S. players bothered to peg it, so they showed up in Rome rusty, and it seems our vaunted Ryder Cup Task Force has done nothing about this issue. We can talk about the U.S. players' form the last we saw them, but we can't pretend that form is "recent" by the time the Cup commences.
Udder Stuff - The TC panel wastes two questions on LIV, about which I don't feel compelled to blog. But there are a couple of bits from Geoff worth a moment of your time. First, on the subject of Scottie being good at golf:
The 15 Who Played All 16 Rounds
The Royal Selangor Trophy is annually awarded to the golfer with the lowest total score in the four majors and a nice way of recognizing the players who survived the quadrilateral of cuts.Here are 2025’s survivors, headlined by Scottie Scheffler and a brilliant 21-stroke win:
- Scottie Scheffler (-32)
- Rory McIlroy (-11)
- Xander Schauffele (-10)
- Jon Rahm (-6)
- Harris English (-5)
- Tyrrell Hatton (-1)
- Matt Fitzpatrick (-1)
- J.J. Spaun (+1)
- Aaron Rai (+3)
- Viktor Hovland (+3)
- Maverick McNealy (+5)
- Sam Burns (+6)
- Daniel Berger (+7)
- Rasmus Hojgaard (+14)
- Brian Harman (+17)
In case you were wondering:
If you’re wondering whether Scheffler’s dominance was a record in the modern era of the Selanger Trophy and established in 1999? It was not.Tiger Woods finished 35 strokes better than Ernie Els in 2000.Jordan Spieth continues to hold the record for most strokes under par with his 54-under-par tally in 2015.Scheffler’s 32-under par total across the 2025 majors tied for fourth among all-time lowest years, trailing just Spieth in 2015, Woods in 2000, and Koepka’s 36-under-par tally in 2019.
And that's with not really being on form at Augusta do to the kitchen mishap..... How lucky was Rory in that?
Lastly, here's the one LIV-related bit I'll share:
LIV’s Chicago final round event averaged a mere 344,000 viewers airing on Fox last Sunday, while the PGA Tour’s FedEx St. Jude averaged over 3.6 million on NBC, up substantially from 2024’s win by Hideki Matsuyama (2.1 million). (Robopz/X.com)
I'm surprised by the strength of the BMW ratings, but who exactly are these 344,000 people and don't they prefer professional golf?
That's it for today. I'll catch you later in the week.....
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