Weekend Wrap - Tommy Lad Edition

Well, that was some intense drama, no?  Yeah, just kidding, though folks will be appropriately happy for the Southport boy.

FedEx Follies - He's a seemingly good guy that has earned the outpouring of affection, but would now be a good time to remind folks that he beat exactly twenty-nine other guys?  That's less a tournament than it is a Thursday Night league match.

Here's Geoff's take:

Tommy Fleetwood finally won on American soil. Even better, he’s a FedExCup champion without having to survive the whole season-long algorithm, stroke starting, net thingy. Win. Win.

A final round 68 at supposedly-soaking-wet-requiring-preferred-lies East Lake allowed Fleetwood to hold off several stubborn challengers who wilted under the Atlanta Tour Championship heat. Fleetwood was a fan favorite to finally earn a breakthrough official win after near misses, followed by relentless grace.

“They're amazing,” he said of the fan support. “It makes me a bit emotional. I'm always lucky with the support that I get. I said this last month or so when I've been in contention, it's been amazing, and to get the support like that is just so special, and I never want to lose that.”

Fleetwood earned the $10 million first prize in his 164th career start and after 30 career top-five finishes. The 34-year-old seven-time DP World Tour winner arrived at the 2025 Tour Championship as one of just two players in the field winless on the PGA Tour (Jacob Bridgeman was the other).

The breakthrough victory provided a satisfying conclusion to the official stroke play season. Now we’re on to a Ryder Cup race full of juicy subplots now that Europe’s points race ended Sunday with this week’s announcement naming the six American Captain’s picks.

Satisfactory?  Is that what they were going for?

To some extent the Tour has finally taken my advice and made this merely a shootout, though it's awfully precious how they insist on still calling it a season-long event.... Let's face it, they say a lot of things, which is why we've long since stopped listening.

Geoff had some other thoughts:

As for the latest iteration of the Tour Championship, another hot, gloomy and (apparently) soaking wet week at East Lake accelerated talk of a new venue. The twice-overhauled course is under contract through 2027. Yet with fantastic fan support and a good test on Sunday despite the spirit of the rules debacle, East Lake seemed like the least of the Tour’s credibility-killing elements. The formation of a competition committee to upend the way things are currently done now looms over both the venue and the FedExCup.

“[The committee] is aimed at a holistic relook of how we compete on the Tour,” new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp said. “That is inclusive of regular season, postseason, and offseason.”

Playing the ball as it lies would be a nice place to start.

The PGA Tour’s decision to play “preferred lies” all four days seemed especially absurd given the incredible conditioning on display at East Lake. The Tour should have invoked model local rule E-2 to allow players to mark, clean, and replace a mudball in fairways. This would have prevented the shenanigans that now come with entitled players running the tour and taking one club-length relief. (Collin Morikawa used the situation to improve his angle on a putt from the fringe. That’s not remotely close to the purpose of preferred lies.)

Throw in all the smash-burgering in the rough to improve lies, and it’s hard to see how the PGA Tour is a serious organization deserving of a governance voice until they get control back from players who only think of themselves.

Tell us what you really think, Geoff.  But if you were missing Nurse Ratched's B-school speak, Rolapp has us covered with his holistic relook..... Though he seems to want to ignore the eighteen years of holistic relooks that got us where we are.

The Tour Confidential panel is mostly focused elsewhere, but this Q&A is worth a moment:

Tommy Fleetwood won the Tour Championship (and $10 million FedEx Cup first prize) on Sunday at East Lake. Why do you think Fleetwood’s win seemed to resonate for so many — LeBron James included?

Dethier: Golf will inevitably beat you down, especially when you’re not playing the kind of golf you want, but somehow it never beat Fleetwood down. There’s no cynicism there and no nasty ego — just an earnest attempt each and every time out. It’s hard to imagine anybody rooting against Fleetwood. And my gosh, he’s good. For anybody who’s ever come close but fallen short at anything, he’s a model for how to respond.

Schrock: I think the main thing that has made people gravitate toward Tommy is the eternal optimism he has shown in the face of some crushing disappointments. It’s his ability to be open and vulnerable in the moments after defeat and his relentless positivity as he climbs toward his goals that resonate. I think people want to root for people who are authentically themselves, and there is a magnetism in seeing someone fall and continue to get up and finally get across the line. Think Rory at the Masters, but on a smaller scale.

Melton: Sports fans love a story of redemption — and Tommy fits the bill. Watching someone summit the mountaintop after so many heartbreaks will always be compelling. Count me among those who smiled once that final putt dropped.

I think his optimism is important, but perhaps the biggest factor is that he showed up to speak with us after each of his devastating losses.  Let's try a thought experiment: Can you imagine Tommy lad looking into a camera and telling us he doesn't owe anybody anything?  Yeah, it's a pretty low bar, yet guys like Morikawa and Rory can't seem to clear it.

It's a nice win for Tommy in that it puts this one issue to bed.  I already knew he would be a force at Bethpage, and this certainly can only help.  But the field is simply too small to credit the win as anything more than a glorified exhibition.

I would further add that, setting aside this popular guy getting his first "W, the Ryder Cup implications are the only thing that leant any gravitas to the week.

Bethpage Glide Path - So, how will we occupy ourselves for the next month?  Golf is off the table and I think we can safely rule out watching any baseball....

You'll know where things stand with the Ryder Cup, with Keegan to inform us of his choices from Frisco, TX on Wednesday morning.  Any discussion of his picks starts with this one dilemma:

The biggest decision on Wednesday might be if Bradley picks himself to be a playing captain. At East Lake, he admitted his situation is “unique” because of his age (39). “You worry that people maybe on my side will say, if you don’t win, that was a mistake, that was self-indulgent,” he said. “I’m very well aware of that. No matter what decision I make, I’m going to be defined by this decision. If we win, it doesn’t matter what decision I make.” While we already know your opinion on if Keegs should pick himself, do you think it was unfair for the PGA of America to put him in this situation in the first place? Should they have looked for a captain who wouldn’t have had to worry about the potential distraction of playing too?

Dethier: What I’m most intrigued by, looking back, is the fact that Bradley’s selection came with the subtext that the PGA of America didn’t think he’d make the team. For a guy who loves proving people wrong, that must have been welcome fuel. But now that we’re here? I just think it’s awesome. I think he’s provided a spark to the squad and to the U.S. fans. I think it’s fun to see somebody pull double duty; this is a miniature version of Shohei Ohtani or Travis Hunter playing both ways. Sports are supposed to be fun and cool, after all. This makes the Ryder Cup that much more interesting.

Schrock: I think the issue is the captain’s cupboard was pretty bare, with Tiger seemingly uninterested and Phil being, you know, Phil. The PGA of America needed to find a captain and, let’s be honest, they needed to change things up. Based on Scheffler’s quotes about having a captain who is around the top players all the time and knows and understands them, I think the move actually had its intended effect. As Dylan noted, if it also brought the best out of Keegan as a player, that’s a bonus and will make for an electric week at Bethpage.

Melton: It’s still a head-scratcher that Keegan was selected as captain. Seems to me this was the consolation prize after he was snubbed for Rome. Was it an outside-the-box move? Yes — but on what merits? It’s not like the guy has been a stalwart for U.S. teams his entire career. To make a baseball analogy, would Aaron Boone be the manager of the Yankees if he didn’t hit a walk-off home run in 2003? No, and we see how that’s going. Would Keegan Bradley be the Ryder Cup captain if he’d unpacked his suitcase after the 2014 Ryder Cup?

A lot going on here, but I want to start at the beginning, about which only Josh Schrock even hints.  He focuses on the cupboard being bare, but gives  a certain guy a pass.  Remember when the Task Force was formed and Tiger was all in (with his great buddy Phil) to do anything and everything to ensure U.S. Ryder Cup success?  The captain of this team should have been Tiger, who simply couldn't be bothered showing up, for the laughable reason that the negotiations with PIF take up too much of his time.  So that guy will be on his couch playing Call of Duty on Ryder Cup weekend....

Dylan sees this as a snub related to Keegan's chances, which is a fair point.  Though I think it far more likely that they fell in love with the idea of Keegs (which isn't crazy), but simply ignored that his age could result in this dilemma.

So, let's see what the writers think:

With the conclusion of the Tour Championship on Sunday, U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley will now complete his squad with six captain’s picks he’ll make on Wednesday. Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau are already on the squad. Put on your captain’s cap and name the six wild-card picks YOU would make.

Dylan Dethier: Gimme Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, Patrick Cantlay, Cameron Young and Keegan Bradley. Don’t think anybody else needs to answer — those are the correct picks.

Josh Schrock: I have the same six as Dylan. I think it would be electric if Keegan took Sam Burns and left Ben Griffin at home just for the #BoysClub discourse, but those are the right six.

Zephyr Melton: How about Keegan takes Burns over HIMSELF and focuses on his duties as captain? The fact that the U.S. gave the captaincy to a guy who’s got four career Ryder Cup points simply because he got his feelings hurt last time is absurd enough. Let’s not compound errors.

 Geoff had these thoughts:

Captain Keegan Bradley has options. And maybe that’s how “the toughest decision” of his life just got more painful.

Appealing candidates like Cameron Young (T4 at East Lake) and Sam Burns (T7) have emerged to round out USA’s Ryder Cup team possibilities in a year where American depth seemed thin. Patrick Cantlay threw his hat into the equation entered the chat with a strong week too, but it seems a little late in the race to be given strong consideration. But he is on every one of the PGA Tour’s 85 committees, and his whining is the primary reason the USA team will be paid this year. Never underestimate Task Force politics!

Captain Bradley started the week face-to-face with Arnold Palmer’s player-captain bag at player registration. Bradley mentioned longing to ask the King what he’d do in a sticky situation that is not of his doing.

That last bit is ironic, no, given that we spent much of the summer hoping that Morikawa and Rory would channel their inner Arnie, only to end disappointed.  Of course, Keegan might want to ask Arnie, but Arnie is one of the all-time legends f the game, whereas Keegan is...well, not quite that.

Let's see what else Geoff has:

With the official points race having ended after the recent BMW Championship, the Ryder Cup Data Analytics And Geek Squad will let Bradley know the latest numbers as if the ranking continued through East Lake. Bradley finished the 2025 season 11th in the official standings behind Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, Ben Griffin, and Maverick McNealy.

Assuming Captain Bradley would not drop any of the aforementioned who finished ahead of Keegan Bradley, that leaves two spots left to fill from the firm of Bradley, Harman, Young, Cantlay and Burns. In normal times, this would be a dreamy problem to have. But the weird brew of a playing captaincy when the Captain has won twice since being named, those invisible Task Force politics, the perception of needing length off-the-tee to handle Bethpage, and the preference to pick those who have done well on big stages should factor into the decision.

The prime candidates:

• Brian Harman posted a final round 63 to finish T13, finished 12th in the unofficial standings but seems least likely to get a positive phone call. He’s hung around the points list largely off his second place in the 2024 Players. Harman went 2-2-0 in Rome but 0-3-0 in the 2024 Presidents Cup.

• Cameron Young has gone 1st-5th-11th-T4 since missing The Open cut. He has posted a course record at Bethpage in the New York State Open while having the distance, momentum, and history of success on huge stages (2022 Open at St Andrews). “Obviously I really, really want to make that team,” Young said after Sunday’s final round. “If that call goes the wrong way in my opinion, it's going to be a bit of a hard one to take. I feel like I've done everything you could ask of me to make that team over the last four weeks, and then if you look back further, really half a season.”

• Sam Burns ended an unusual season with a T4 at Caves Valley and T7 at East Lake. He lost in a Canadian Open playoff and was in the final U.S. Open pairing with a great shot before ugly weather, uglier lies in fairways and delays derailed his chances. He went 1-2-0 in Rome and 3-0-1 in the 2024 Presidents Cup. “Definitely my No. 1 goal coming into this year,” Burns said of making the team following the final round at East Lake. “Unfortunately, I didn't put myself in a position to be an automatic qualifier. I think it takes a lot of stress off certainly this week and last week to be in that position. I know whatever decision [Bradley] makes is going to be one that he thinks is best for the team. Ultimately, I'm Team USA. If I'm on the team, awesome. I would love nothing more. If I'm not, I'll be rooting for them.”

• Keegan Bradley won the Travelers in June and then went T41-T30-MC-T44-T17-T7 to wrap up the season. He is also said to have a rapport with the Captain. The 12th-ranked player in the world shot 64-63 in the middle rounds of the Tour Championship. After finishing 11th in points while getting bypassed for the 2023 Ryder Cup team, Bradley went 2-1-0 in last year’s Presidents Cup. He has an 8-5-2 record in team appearances and never forget those CVS Health Charity Classic wins with Jon Curran!

If Keegan weren't the captain, I believe that Keegan would be picked for the team, based mostly upon his fiery personality and love of the event (though with him in the top 12 we don't need to rationalize it).  But Keegan can't pick THAT Keegan, the one unburdened by the obligations of the captaincy.  And, to the extent that you believe he was the right choice, it feels a bit odd to allow him to play and not be there for the other obligations of the captaincy.  For instance, the captain's presence on the golf supporting his players is of arguable value, but do we think Kevin Kizner will be an effective stand-in there?

What I have thought from the moment he was give the captaincy is very much supported by Keegan Bradley himself, at least in his initial reaction.  I never read his comments as a promise to not pick himself, but rather as an acknowledgement that it's a dicey proposition to try to do both.  My take has always been that Keegan should play only if his performance makes him indispensable to the U.S. team.  However, in finishing 11th in the points race and not doing anything notable in the final few weeks, he's left himself a viable but not life-altering choice.

Therefore, given the uncertainties and complications of a player-captain, it seems pretty clear to me that he shouldn't pick himself.  I think Geoff is correct that those above him will be chosen, and I expect Cam Young will be as well.  I'd take Mav McNealy or Brian Harman with the last pick.  

That means the biggest Ryder Cup snub will be…

Dethier: Maverick McNealy. The numbers say he’s the best guy not on my team, but he just hasn’t done enough this summer to jump out as a must-pick.

Schrock: The numbers might say McNealy, but I think the biggest snub is Burns, who was nails at the Presidents Cup and pairs well with Scheffler.

Melton: Likely Burns because we all know Keegan is picking himself…

I'm not a fan of calling these snubs, because Dylan Dethier has it right, but his point applies equally to Burns and Keegan as well.  None of these guys have played well enough to deserve a pick, and it can't be a snub if the pick wasn't earned.

There's news on the European team as well, although it's news that effectively changes nothing:

Ryder Cup bound: Rasmus Hojgaard qualifies for the 2025 European Ryder Cup team

Rasmus Hojgaard is Ryder Cup bound but not without some tense moments.

“I’ve been so stressed out,” he said.

The 24-year-old Dane knew the job at hand on Sunday at the Belfry Resort & Hotel at Sutton Coldfield, England, and he delivered. Hojgaard shot a final-round 1-under 71 to finish T-13 at the Betfred British Masters.

“Every hole felt like a tough battle,” Hojgaard said. “I’m over the moon.”

Hojgaard entered the week in eighth place in the European Ryder Cup points race and the Betfred British Masters served as the final qualifying tournament before the top six in the standings would automatically make Team Europe. He needed to finish T-29 or better to leapfrog No. 7 Sepp Straka and No. 6 Shane Lowry and make his first team. Straka and Lowry opted to compete in the Tour Championship, where no Ryder Cup points were available.

Which only means that Straka and Lowry will play as Captain's picks.  As noted previously, the Euros will return eleven out of twelve players from the winning 2023 team, and that unfortunate twelfth guy will be replaced by his identical twin.   I do hope they saved the caddie bibs from Rome, as they can all be reused.

A lot of discussion over the weekend as to which team should be favored.  The U.S. is and will be favored, for the simple reason that the last decade of Ryder Cups has featured home team dominance.  

That's it for today.  I'll logically be back next on Thursday, when we can put Keegan's picks under a microscope.  Have a great week.