Weekend Wrap - Redemption Song Edition

Who doesn't love a comeback story?  I did watch a little golf amid the college basketball frenzy....

I do apologize for skipping the back end of last week.  I got hit with a bug that's only now lifting, so need to not wear myself down in the Masters glide path.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Good Things Come... - I'm not saying the Valspar is a like-kind replacement for The Players, but we like this sort of thing:

A week after heartbreak, Matt Fitzpatrick roars to Valspar victory

Roars?  A one-shot win over David Lipsky and we're trotting out leonine references?

A week after he bogeyed the 72nd hole to lose the Players Championship by a single shot, Matthew Fitzpatrick flipped the script with a fist-pumping final-hole birdie to win the Valspar Championship by one.

Fitzpatrick — who’d never birdied No. 18 at Innisbrook’s Copperhead Course in 11 previous tries — found the fairway at the finisher and hit his approach to 13 feet, setting up a look at 3. He poured that putt in the center of the hole, punctuating the moment with an emphatic uppercut that electrified the surrounding crowd.

When David Lipsky’s birdie try finished just below the hole some 10 minutes later, Fitzpatrick’s win was official.

“I think the big thing was I felt like I was playing well,” Fitzpatrick said of his Players Championship bounceback. “I was playing well going into this week, obviously wanted to continue that and I felt like I had confidence in myself to do so. Then obviously to do that over four rounds was special this week.”

To me, this is Karma in non-bitch mode.

Not sure you caught it, but after his devastating loss last Sunday, Fitzpatrick went out of his way to speak with Cam Young's family and congratulate them on his huge win.  It's that gesture that was top of my mind yesterday, and makes me happy for his success.

Now, right on cue, commence the over-interpretation of this win, in this instance from the Tour Confidential panel:

One week after he lost the Players Championship on the 72nd hole at TPC Sawgrass, Matt Fitzpatrick bounced back to win the Valspar on Sunday. While he’s won 10 times on the DP World Tour, this was just his third PGA Tour title. Has Fitzpatrick’s last two weeks proven he’s ready to go on a heater this summer? Or just a couple of good weeks?

Melton: As the cliche goes, you want to get hot at the right time — and Fitz seems like he’s peaking right when you want to. It’ll be hard to maintain this form all summer, but as far as maximizing his Masters chances go, he’s put himself in a great spot.

Dethier: The most encouraging thing about Fitzpatrick’s surge is his stellar approach play — that travels anywhere. I’d expect him to be a factor in multiple majors.

Berhow: Now he needs the major success. Sure, he won the U.S. Open at Brookline in 2022 but he’s still had just six major top 10s in 42 starts. But he was T4 and T8, respectively, in The Open and PGA last year, so maybe it’s coming. He’ll be a popular sleeper-ish pick come Masters week.

You see how this goes?  he contends for two straight weeks and suddenly we're putting him in the final group at Shinnecock....

The other thing I'll credit him for was surviving an epic PGA Tour pace of play fail.  Though Golfweek seemed to bury the lede in its header:

Winner Matt Fitzpatrick complains about 'glacial' slow play at Valspar

Whereas Golfweek seems far more on point:

Matt Fitzpatrick won Valspar but was still miffed at his playing partner’s ‘glacial’ pace of play

But to this observer the Tour just quite obviously is making it up as they go along:

Fitzpatrick, a 31-year-old Englishman, was paired with Adrien Dumont de Chassart, and complained to a PGA Tour rules official about the pace of play of the 26-year-old Belgian.

“It is glacial, to be kind,” said NBC’s John Wood.

Wood added Fitzpatrick hit his approach to the 11th green first, even though he was closer, and walked up to the green, where he waited several minutes before Dumont de Chassart hit his approach. Rules official Orlando Pope confirmed Fitzpatrick expressed his dismay with the pace, and the Tour decided to give Dumont de Chassart an official warning after timing him unofficially since Fitzpatrick’s request.

"That was really frustrating. It was slow today. I felt like there was a lot of stop-start. Yeah, just, you know, just not ready. When you're not ready to play a golf shot it gets frustrating after awhile. Particularly when you playing well yourself or you're in contention or whatever it is," Fitzpatrick said. "It definitely knocks you out of your rhythm. Because you hit, you walk to it, you kind of think about it, you hit again, and you go. There in particular that hole then you're around a stretch there that can get a little bit quirky with different shots and stuff, so you have to be on it." It was been a trying day for the Belgian, who hit his opening tee shot out of bounds and made two triple bogeys on par 5s. He shot 3-over 74 on Sunday. But Dumont de Chassart never was penalized, extending the Tour's streak of not handing out a penalty shot for pace of play yet another week.

Next time you find yourself wondering how Patrick Cantlay is never penalized for his glacial pace of play, remind yourself that the Tour protects Adrien Dumont de Chassart.

LIV South Africa - Gee, begs the question of which is the bigger trainwreck, the LIV Tour or South African self-governance?  Too soon?

Geoff has an amusing take on things:

Bryson DeChambeau defeated Jon Rahm on the first hole of sudden death to win LIV Golf South Africa. The 26-under-par win marked DeChambeau’s second straight victory.

Rahm closed with a 63 to DeChambeau’s 66. But on the first crack at the 18th in sudden-death, DeChambeau received relief from mud off the fairway, then struck an incredible 3-wood from 285 yards to 12 feet, setting up the win after Rahm missed a 15-footer for birdie.

DeChambeau’s strong final round allowed his Soul Crushers to hold off the home country Security Guards for the team title.

“I'm super proud of the guys,” DeChambeau said. “I can't tell you how excited I am to have these guys a part of the team. I think that's nine team wins now. This is my fifth LIV individual win. I'm still pulling that dang driver. I've got to fix that.”

DeChambeau hit just 35 of 56 fairways in winning at the pillowish Jack Nicklaus-designed Club at Steyn City.

That security guard bit will piss some folks off.... though I'm pretty sure that "pillowish Jack Nicklaus design" is redundant.

Shall we cue another recency-bias infused over-reaction?

Bryson DeChambeau beat Jon Rahm in a playoff to win LIV Golf South Africa and claim

his second straight LIV victory in what was the league’s final tune-up before the first major of the year. With the way DeChambeau has played the last two weeks, has he taken away the title as Masters favorite? Or does that still belong to Scottie or Rory?

Zephyr Melton: Considering Scottie’s early-season slump and Rory’s uncertain health, I think it’s fair to say that Bryson is the early favorite at Augusta. However, if he doesn’t control his distances with his irons well (which has plagued him in recent years at the Masters), I fear his chances to claim a green jacket are slim.

Dylan Dethier: It’s gotta be Scottie still; his demise is greatly exaggerated. But the fact that DeChambeau is in the middle of this conversation now is significant — and fun. Add in a few other stars ramping up with top-tier golf (Xander, Rahm, Fitz) and there should be plenty to talk about pre-Augusta.

Josh Berhow: Vegas won’t call anyone but Scottie the favorite, and as Dylan says, Scheffler’s “slump” has consisted of three top-25 finishes that followed two top-fives and a win. Scheffler is also playing this coming week in Texas before he heads to Augusta, so he’s got one more chance to fine-tune some things. Bryson playing like this adds mega juice to any major. Few players energize a venue like him. I hope he plays well at Augusta.

Bryson is a great player and deserves to be on the short list, which makes it unfortunate that he doesn't play golf in public any longer....  Not sure why he thought that was such a good idea.

But how do three allegedly professional golfers answer this question without citing this Karmic Konundrum?

Before the 2020 Masters, Bryson DeChambeau infamously claimed he viewed Augusta National as a par 67 rather than par 72, arguing his immense driving distance allowed him to reach all four par-5s in two shots, effectively turning them into par-4s. While intended to highlight his strategy, the comment was seen as disrespectful by many, and he has since expressed regret and walked back the statement

I would argue that the key bit is the 67.  Had he called it a Par-68, I think it would be long forgotten.  But the enhanced hubris of calling that third hole a Par-3 has angered the gods of Augusta, and they're not terribly interested in his walk-back.

I do think Bryson's play at Augusta is one of the more interesting sub-plots of the event, but I think he needs to prove that he can manage his way around the place.

Otherwise, the premise of the question isn't of much interest.  We know the issues with Scottie and Rory.  In the modern world we're supposed to be interested in such issues being adjudicated by DraftKings and the like.  I'm old school, I'll wait for it to resolve on the golf course...

And this inevitable dreary Q&A.  Really, they can quit him at any time:

Last month at the Genesis Invitational, Tiger Woods offered a promising Masters update. But on Tuesday during TGL Woods said he’s “working on it,” adding, “the body doesn’t quite heal like it was when I was 24. Doesn’t quite bounce back. So I have good days when I can pretty much do anything, and other days where it’s hard to just move around.” Has this changed your opinion on if Woods will play the Masters?

Melton: Not at all. I’m just waiting for his WD to become official so we can put this silliness to bed.

Dethier: Meh, I’d still bet he plays. But it’s clear getting to that point is anything but easy. As long as we approach his start with a proper lack of expectations (unlikely, given it’s Tiger at Augusta) we should be fine. It’s all bonus.

Berhow: I wish I was as optimistic as Dylan. I’m moving his percentage chance of playing down to about 40 percent, although he probably truly doesn’t know until the week of with how things change so quickly with his body.

Wouldn't it be more interesting to speculate how many holes he might actually play before that WD?  The only saving grace is that in this major, his egocentrism doesn't cost another player a slot.

Rahm In Full -  Who is this man and what have you done with Jon Rahm?  From Geoff:

According to Golf.com’s Sean Zak, Jon Rahm dropped his appeal of DP World Tour’s fines he’d been contesting since leaving for LIV Golf. But he also won’t be paying the fines that LIV is reportedly on the hook for. The move means no DP World Tour appearances in the near future and leaves his 2027 Ryder Cup status in serious doubt.

Zak notes that Rahm has not resigned his membership and remains hopeful of playing the Spanish Open this fall, even as he will rack up more fines playing LIV events throughout the 2026 season.

Rahm dropped the appeal on March 10 and would have to pay a tab over $3 million to play a DP World Tour event now that the appeal has been dropped.

A winner of 10.5 points in four Ryder Cup appearances dating to 2018, Rahm insists he would comply with settlement terms accepted by eight other players as long as the DP World Tour reduced the number of mandatory appearances from six to four (two of the Tour’s choosing).

“I did tell them, funny enough, lower that to four events, like the minimum says, and I’ll sign tonight,” Rahm said in Hong Kong. “They haven’t agreed to that. I just refuse to play six events. I don’t want to, and that’s not what the rules say.”

So he'll be racking up more fines for each LIV event?  There's no way he won't be at Adare Manor, he just seems committed to ensuring that we have no remaining respect for him.  Works for me.

Food For Thought - Ewan Murray, the long time voice of Sky Sports is retiring, but for all the wrong reasons:

Ewen Murray recently marked his 35th anniversary as one of the defining voices of Sky Sports' golf coverage, a tenure that has spanned generations of the game's biggest moments.

Now, the former professional — winner of the 1977 Northern Open at Royal Dornoch — is beginning to wind down his broadcasting career. With only a handful of events remaining, Murray is preparing to step away from the microphone for good.

The moment that finally nudged the legendary commentator toward retirement came at the 2025 Ryder Cup.

 Really, what bothered him?

Speaking on a compelling episode of the Sliced podcast, alongside musician/golf superfan (and fantastic social media follow) Sam Harrop as well as British journalist Ben Coley, Murray explained that his resolve hardened after hearing the nature of the abuse directed at Rory McIlroy and others — comments shouted from the gallery that crossed a line he could no longer ignore.

Murray’s shift that Saturday began late in the day, giving him time to linger near the turn at Bethpage Black as players passed through. What he heard there stayed with him — and ultimately clarified a decision that had been quietly forming.

“I heard stuff in that half-hour that I can’t repeat to you, it’s that bad. Not fired at Rory but at Rory’s family. I walked back and I thought, ‘Do you really need to be part of this anymore?’ That’s when I decided to finish commentary. By the time I got on the plane on a Monday, I looked out over New York and thought it's been a fantastic journey, but if that’s our future, I really don’t want any part of it.”

The personal attacks on Saturday were directed at McIlroy’s marriage and Lowry’s figure, with one American fan approaching Gerry McIlroy, Rory’s father, who was walking inside the ropes and apologizing for the classless behavior of fans shouting F-you and much worse.

Though these are the comments drawing the most reactions:

Murray noticed, and he saved his most scathing criticism for the PGA of America and Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley.

“I just thought, what a terrible organization," Murray said of the PGA of America. "And I shouldn't say that because my father was the captain of the PGA in Scotland in the mid-70s, so it was very much part of my growing up.

"I don't think they did themselves any favors at all. I also feel with the woman who was swearing behind the tee, shouting at Rory in a horrible manner, if Keegan Bradley, who came and supported it and waved his hands to get the crowd to get louder, if he spent as much time looking at his pairings, Keegan Bradley may well have been a winning Ryder Cup captain. I think they spent way too much energy on something that was disgusting and really had no place in our game.”

Well, they are a pretty bad organization....  just ask any of its members.

I'm very much on the fence about Keegan, though he was a victim in all this as well.  But the first question we should ask ourselves is, why did they want to go the Bethpage?   They'll try to defend themselves by saying they wanted a wild, passionate crowd, but in no way condoned the over-the-top stuff....  Right.  You'll notice that they also didn't do anything to stop it.  They knew they were playing with fire, but how funny is it that all the accomplished was another "L".  These guys are good!

Is Tom Watson available for Adare Manor?  

I shall leave you nice folks here and hopefully catch you later in the week, not that you didn't heard that from me last week.