Thursday Threads - Solheim Cup Edition

Lots of worthwhile golf to watch this weekend, just not involving the PGA Tour.  The ladies have their Solheim Cup kick off tomorrow, and the Euros are at Royal County Down for the Irish Open, which comes on in an hour.  

The Fourpeat? - I'm more of a win-lose kind of guy than one of those win-retain pansies, but there is one obvious takeaway to the Euros quest for a Fourpeat, to wit, that the Americans haven't won this thing in a while.  Which renders this hagiography quite lame:

If this is Lexi Thompson’s last Solheim Cup, she'll exit as the heartbeat of the U.S. squad for more than a decade

If?  Damn, were you trying to run my day?

Lexi Thompson is approaching the likely curtain call of her Solheim Cup playing career. While the reality of the end has been dawning on her captains since Thompson announced in May that this

year would be her final full-time season, it has been a challenge to imagine filling the void Thompson will leave behind. The Solheim Cup is her favorite event, with Thompson always praising the honor of wearing her country's colors.

Even while wrestling with the decision to announce her retirement, making the U.S. team to play on American soil again at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club was at the top of the star's goals for 2024. Four top 10 finishes helped Thompson earn a captain's pick from Stacy Lewis for her seventh Solheim Cup. But hearing Lewis describe Thompson's impact on the team, she may have made the team regardless of how she played.

"I think it is her legacy, is her and the Solheim Cup," Lewis said. "Just the way she is with the crowd and the fans, this event is Lexi to a T."

I don't about that, but I'm willing to concede that it suits her to an "L".... Yanno, literally.

This seems to be the best they can come up with from the modern era:

Even mired in a struggling 2023 campaign before the matches in Spain, Thompson played beyond her poor form with an impressive 3-1-0 week. While her performance may have been overshadowed by Thompson's response to a shank on the 18th green during Friday four-ball, she answered numerous critics with a crucial 2-and-1 victory in singles against Emily Kristine Pedersen as the final match on the course to tie the Solheim Cup at 14 points apiece.

When the high point of your week is a shank.... 

I find Lexi so emblematic of the struggles of this tour, wherein the hype bears no relationship to the underlying play.  We're constantly inundated with talk of her greatness, but not the kind of greatness that leaves footprints, apparently.

It's a good event, not least because some bad blood has arisen over the years between the teams.  This Golf Magazine piece captures some of the controversies the event has triggered, including this personal fave:

Mulligan

During a four-ball match on Saturday of the 2000 Solheim Cup in Scotland, Annika Sorenstam thought she chipped in for birdie to tie the match, only to find out she played out of turn since American Kelly Robbins was actually away. The future hall-of-famer had to replay her shot, failed to chip in and Sorenstam and Janice Moodie lost the match 2 and 1 to Robbins and Pat Hurst.

Did you know that golf did hot mics?

Hot mic

At the 2007 Solheim Cup in Sweden, Dottie Pepper was a member of the TV squad and thought the broadcast had paused for a commercial break when she said that, ahem, Americans Laura Diaz and Sherri Steinhauer were “choking freaking dogs.” Pepper apologized, and six years later she served as a Solheim Cup assistant captain for Meg Mallon.

 Trust is not always a defense, as Dottie found out....

Of course, the most famous incident involved a certain protagonist that is making her return this week:

Nine years after Solheim Cup concession controversy, Alison Lee back on U.S. team

The week was a historic one for the Americans as they stormed back from a 10-6 deficit to win

the Cup in Sunday singles, thanks, in part, to a crucial point from Lee. But the day before, the American rookie had unwittingly found herself at the center of controversy.

Paired with Brittany Lincicome in a pivotal four-ball match in the final session before singles, the duo came to the 17th hole tied with Suzann Petersen and Charley Hull. After the Europeans holed out, Lee faced a putt to put her side 1 up. Her attempt slid 18 inches past the hole.

Lee, thinking she’d heard the Europeans concede the short putt and seeing Hull walking off the green, picked up her ball. That’s when Pettersen returned from off the green and asserted that the hole had not been conceded. The ensuing moments were equal parts emotional and tense, with both Lee and Hull shedding tears.

Nine years after the fact I remain convinced that Suzanne Petersen has no idea what she was apologizing for, mostly because Tim Rosaforte so botched that interview.  It was actually just a horrible etiquette violation.  Silly not to concede the putt, but nothing requires you to concede anything./  But Suzanne was already off the green playing her games, and Charley Hull rushed off creating crowd noise while Allison was supposedly left to putt that 18-inchers.  If you want to see it, stand with your arms crossed and watch.  But if you're storming off to the next tee, you can't tell us you wanted to see it...

It's a great event, so give it a look.

Hold on, let me interject just this header, which I'll pay off below:

U.S. captain Stacy Lewis centers entire Solheim Cup week around remembrance of 9/11 and those who serve

 

County Down - What a great venue, as Shack tees up:

In Northern Ireland majestic Royal County Down hosts the Amgen Irish Open for the second time in a decade. And while this event should have been slotted into a links season run during the summer months—assuming a world where the Operational Joint Venture Partners at the PGA Tour and DP World Tour were actual in sync—we still get elites testing the old gem and making your morning coffee taste that much better (assuming you have a Sky or Peacock subscription).

“Playing the Irish Open on arguably one of, if not the best golf course in the world, in my eyes, is a real treat,” said Rory McIlroy on Wednesday after getting reacclimated with a course he played in the Walker Cup and in the 2015 Irish Open. “We don't get to play this caliber of golf course on tour, so to be able to play somewhere like this is amazing.”

Watching the golf from RCD will require some work for American viewers since Golf Channel and NBC are understandably prioritizing the Solheim Cup. The weekend portion of the Irish Open will stream exclusively on Peacock and the NBC Sports app (with a cable subscription):

That argues first and foremost for catching Thursday's coverage, and hopefully we get lots of coverage of RCD's other-worldly front nine.  

LIV Stuff - Time is not our ally, so just some quick notes.  Apparently cashing those big checks comes with consequences, first this guy's plaintive whine about being at Bethpage:

Jon Rahm’s Ryder Cup future is murkier than ever — just ask him

The Ryder Cup is more than a year away but Jon Rahm’s involvement remains murky as ever. He’s alone in this endeavor, and he knows it.

Rahm has set his sights on playing three DP World Tour events in the next six weeks, which might normally be an easy schedule addition, but this isn’t a normal time. Also in his next six

weeks, Rahm has two LIV events and a new baby set to join his family. But before any of that happens, Rahm needs to do something about the fines he’s facing from the DP World Tour. Either pay the fines or appeal them, like Tyrrell Hatton recently did. Otherwise, Rahm will not be playing the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black next fall. (Mandatory asterisk: We live in fluid times. Regulations can change. Rory McIlroy basically asked for things to change the instant Rahm committed to LIV Golf.)

It’s been discussed at an increasing frequency as the summer has gone by. Rahm needs to play four tournaments this season on the DP World Tour to maintain his membership for 2025, which is his mandatory ticket to becoming a Ryder Cup team member. Thus far, he’s only played one, the Olympics in France, which counted towards his total. According to Rahm, he’s signed up for three tournaments to meet this minimum, beginning with the Spanish Open in three weeks, the Dunhill Links a week later, and the Andalucia Masters, also in Spain.

According to the DP World Tour, however, Rahm is currently ineligible.

But is it, in fact, murky?

“Jon has outstanding sanctions for breaches of the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament regulation,” a spokesperson from the Tour said. “Until those outstanding sanctions are resolved, he is ineligible to play in a DP World Tour event.”

Those “sanctions” are suspensions and fines lobbed his way for every start he’s made at LIV Golf. From the earliest days of pro golf’s civil war era, the DP World Tour has issued one-tournament suspensions and £100,000 fines for its members who play tournaments without conflicting event releases from the Tour. While it is understood that Rahm has enough open weeks in his schedule to find space for the one-week suspensions, he is clearly uninterested in paying the fines.

“I’m not a big fan of the fines,” Rahm said from LIV Golf’s individual championship on the outskirts of Chicago, where he and Joaquin Niemann gave a joint press conference Wednesday.

And we're not fans of you jumping to LIV.  Pay or don't pay, but you've become tedious.  

We have some headers for you, mostly that guy that needs to stop opening his pir hole:

Rory McIlroy hopeful amid new PGA Tour-PIF talks

My day isn't affected by Rory's hopefulness or lack thereof, though I remain hopeful about Rory's next three-footer.  This as well about a certain exhibition match:

Rory McIlroy: Not sending message with PGA Tour-LIV match

We cared about your messages for a bit there, but it didn't exactly work out for either you or us.

As everyone knows, the Tour has been meeting with PIF this week, including Tiger.  But, Geoff has the needed perspective

Meanwhile in embarrassing gross are-you-%$#@&*!-kidding-me golf news with potential ramifications for the global schedule, the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudia Arabia have been engaged in two days of meetings this week.

In New York City.

On the anniversary of 9/11.

For those who’ve been in a very long coma: September 11th remains a solemn day of remembrance where millions of a certain American vintage carve out time to think about where they were on 9-11-01, the humans who were lost, and the sacrifice of First Responders who went into the Twin Towers and did not come out. Anyone alive and old enough to remember that day never forgets any detail of the day or the aftermath. The emotions rarely grow dull with any reminder of that awful day.

It’s also a date where, 23 years later, most with a pulse continue to ponder the question: why? Who would do such a thing? Why did these people hate themselves and our way of life to such an extreme? And to the point we have learned after much effort, that government of Saudi Arabia would be funneling money to the hooligans to carry out the attack in an inconvenient fact desperately masked to this day?

Geoff hasn't gotten the memo that it's all OK, now.  The financing of 9/11 and those 15 out of 19 hijackers are a small price to pay when compared to Patrick Cantlay's need to be paid.  he's got lots more snark, all of it justified:

Perhaps the sudden rush in having the “Transaction Subcommittee” meet with Saudi’s fund goons without Adam Scott, Woods and McIlroy was fast-tracked to coincide with the latter’s Irish Open appearance?

You know Rory, he might ask annoying questions!

“Yeah, it's certainly peculiar timing,” McIlroy said Wednesday at Royal County Down, likely referring to the awful 9/11 choice more than his possible role in any negotiations. “I don't know much about the talks that are going on. I know that there is but that's not something that I'm a part of. I know as much as you do at this point, and I'm sure news will start to trickle out here in the next few days.”

Let’s be clear: there is currently no truth to the rumor that the next scheduled meeting will be October 2nd at the Saudi consulate in Turkey on the anniversary of the Crown Prince turning a journalist into sawdust.

Nor are the sides reportedly planning to meet in Honolulu on December 7th or near Normandy Beach in June. At least as of now.

Again, I share this grimness in a major-focused newsletter because it’s an important reminder that these supposedly brilliant people want to grow and run the game on all levels. And they can’t even show the grace to respect one of the most solemn days on the American calendar. How embarrassing.

I guess the good news is that we can't blame this one on Rory.... But I can certainly feel the game growing....

before I leave you let me circle back to Geoff's far more accurate header on the Rahm kerfuffle:

Rahm Unwilling To Pay Fines For Ryder Cup Access

I'm shocked... Shocked, I tell you.

I famously predicted long ago that the result of the fissure in our game would cause us to hate each and every one of them.  Yeah, it's a gift. 

Have a great weekend and we'll catch up on Monday.

 

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of Fall Edition

What would you like to talk about?  Sorry, trick question, as there's precious little to mull...

Solheim Cup Preview - It's a fine event that literally hundreds of people will enjoy.  It's got team match play and a healthy frisson of bad blood between the teams to sustain it.  That may not be enough to overcome the fact that, well, it's women's event and excludes the primary baskets of talent in the world, but why focus on the negative?

Golf Digest tees it up with this header:

What's on the line at the Solheim Cup? Analyzing what feels like a 'must' win for the Americans

 Gee, why the drama?

The U.S. Solheim Cup team travels to just outside Washington, D.C., on an historic cold streak, winless in the biennial match-play event in the last three meetings. American assistant captain Angela Stanford has had enough of it. The fiery six-time Cup veteran as a player was definitive when asked what was on the line in this year's competition.

"There's only one way this can go," Stanford proclaimed. "I mean, we have to win."

Well, why start now?

The only thing stopping Stanford from pushing this mantra onto the team? Her captain, Stacy Lewis, asked Stanford to reel it in until they reached Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va., this week for the three-day Solheim Cup that begins on Friday. With a second playing of the Cup in 12 months as the competition moves to even-numbered years to avoid going up against the Ryder Cup, the Europeans are coming off a 14-14 tie in Spain in 2023 that allowed them to retain the Cup.

Both rosters are much the same as a year ago—19 of the 24 players return, along with Lewis and European captain Suzann Pettersen. Here's a look, then, at what's on the line at the 2024 Solheim Cup:

I thought I had read somewhere that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect different results....  Of course, they pretty much have to send the same team, because the bottom of the barrel doesn't have much in the way of scrapings left.

What happened last year?

A simple question that, oddly, would get you a different answer from each of the team captains. The 14-14 tie at Finca Cortesin was a first in Solheim history and a chance to set a precedent. The

Ryder Cup has had two 14-14 finishes that counted as ties in the record book, with the previous winning team "retaining" the Cup. The Solheim didn't deviate from the Ryder, so the Europeans kept the Cup in ‘23, thanks to their win in 2021.

Pettersen refers to this week as a chance for a Euro four-peat. Lewis mentions trying to get the Cup back for the first time since Europe started its streak in 2019, opening and closing her press conference for the Americans captain's picks with the unofficial slogan of "unfinished business."

I've never loved the "retain" nonsense, but you can tell from the photo that the Euros are calling it a win....

How much pressure is Team USA under this week?

Oddly, this is the photo running right under that sub-header:

I can see that they have their game faces on.

An immense amount. Beyond losing once again being the on-paper favorite, with the team averaging 26.8 in the Rolex Women's Rankings compared to the Euros at 40.5, the winning drought has already had a pervasive effect on the American program. The team is running out of past Solheim winners. The only two returning veterans who have won are Lexi Thompson, competing in her seventh Solheim, and Alison Lee, who won in her rookie Solheim in 2015 and hadn’t played on the team since.

If the U.S. doesn't take the Cup back this year, they could conceivably field a team with no past Solheim winners heading to the Netherlands in 2026. There are no clear corrective steps for the team to take after this year either. Lewis already pulled the lever of bringing analytics into her pairings decisions, thanks to having KPMG Performance Insights lead analyst Justin Ray run statistics to maximize the on-paper odds.

One could argue for more captain’s picks, with the women’s American program only using three compared to the men’s six, but there isn’t a fair roster construction philosophy question to really answer because of the lack of American depth. The only real decision Lewis faced was choosing between three-time Solheim veteran Angel Yin and Sarah Schmelzel. If there was a Justin Thomas equivalent (17-7-4 combined team record), he would never be left off the women’s roster like he was for the President’s Cup.

 Yeah, the bench is weaker than the Yankee's bench...

Not that the Euros are fielding Hall of Famers, it's just that they're not fielding Lexi....

Shall we see if the Tur Confidential panel has anything to add?

The 19th playing of the Solheim Cup gets underway Friday to Sunday at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Va. Last year, the U.S. and Europe tied for the first time in the event’s history, allowing Europe to keep the Cup for the third straight meeting. Who wins this year, and why?

Josh Sens: Team USA. Partly thanks to home-crowd advantage, but also because– with Lexi

playing in what is very likely her last, and Korda coming off an epic season, and the team having a nice balance of youthful fire and experience–it just feels like the way the spirits of the game would want it scripted.

Sean Zak: Wow, Josh Sens — big spirits guy! Put your tarot cards down and look at who is playing well. As much as Charley Hull, Esther Hensleit and a few Euros may be flashing at the moment, the best player is on Team USA, and so is the second-best player in Lilia Vu. Andrea Lee played great in St. Andrews and Rose Zhang is on the cusp of another great run herself. Not to mention the dawgs that are Lauren Coughlin and Ally Ewing. Team USA is going to win, and I fear it may not be close.

Sens: Sorry. I promise to ditch the ‘shrooms before our next roundtable and stick strictly to shot data.

Zephyr Melton: I like the Euros to continue their dominance. The Americans may have some solid form, but that hasn’t helped them much the last few times around. When the lights shine the brightest in these team events, the Europeans always seem to come up clutch.

And when the lights shine brightest, Lexi runs for cover....

I love that Josh Sens rationale.... Lexi is playing he last for, well, reasons, and while Nelly had a season, the good parts of said season seem like they were during the Carter administration.  

Last year it was Spain’s Carlota Ciganda who stole the show, finishing 4-0 and beating Nelly Korda 2 and 1 in singles play. Who will be the most important player for each side come next week, and who will be the event’s MVP?

Sens: For additional feel-good purposes, I’d like to say Lexi. But I’ve got a sneaky sense about captain’s pick Jennifer Kupcho, in a fiery bounce-back from her rough showing in Spain. (The caveat is that records in this format can be deceptive, as they’re largely dependent on how both your partner and your opponents play. For good reason, the MVP is often the lead point earner, who isn’t always the player who performed the best or meant the most to their team)

Zak: Most important? Lilia Vu. She’s capable of winning five matches, and is in good enough form to do it. She went 1-3 last year, during the same season where she won two majors. That’s not cutting it. MVP is going to be Nelly Korda, who will play five matches and be favored in every one of them. She’s on the right path back to dominance after a weird summer, and it may all click this week.

Melton: Gimme Leona Maguire from Team Europe. She’s had an uneven 2024 thus far, but she’s been an absolute stud in this event the last two playings. I like her to continue that trend and improve on her 7-2-1 Solheim Cup record. As far as the Americans go, it’ll be tough for them to come away victorious unless Nelly Korda and Lilia Vu play well.

Zak with the tip-in.  If the U.S. is to show up, Lilia Vu will need to be in the heart of it.  The girl can actually putt and seems to embrace the pressure.  I have no clue what to expect from Nelly, though match-play could be helpful there.  As for Lexi, I expect she'll have a few moments early and she'll crave her Suzann Pettersen moment, then do a Rory impression at crunch time.  Sorry, as per that old adage about the scorpion, it's in her nature.

But it's a good event with some actual bad blood, so beats the hell out of any other golf that will be on the telly.

LIV Stuff -  In case you've not intuited it, we're not going to be here long.  Two LIV-infused items for your delectation, then the exit beckons.

There's a new version of The Match™ on tap, only we're not calling it The Match™:

Golf fans will finally get their first PGA Tour vs. LIV showdown.

As first reported by Golfweek and confirmed by GOLF.com, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy will team up as PGA Tour loyalists to face reigning U.S. Open winner Bryson DeChambeau and five-time major champ Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf in a made-for-TV match in Las Vegas later this year.

The match will air on TNT, which broadcasted the previous nine editions of “The Match,” an exhibition series that started in 2018 with a matchup of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson and most recently saw McIlroy take on Max Homa, Rose Zhang and Lexi Thompson this past February.

Per Golfweek, the match will be produced by Bryan Zuriff’s BZ Entertainment, the developer of “The Match” series and EverWonder, although GOLF has learned the matchup will not be aired under “The Match” branding.

Two things jump out at your humble blogger.  First, nothing promotes a golf competition quite like this explication of branding strategy.... the amusement coming from the knowledge of how God-awful those Matches™ have been, yet they're reluctant to sully their brand with this one.  perhaps not quite as compelling as it sounds in their little bubble.

The second reaction is about those participants.... Hmmm, Rory?  So, I guess we can conclude that Xander didn't care to play?  

Then there's this:

"We're leaning towards making it more like a Ryder Cup to develop it into a series that's completely separate from The Match," said Zuriff, whose producer credits also include the TV series "Ray Donovan" and the film "Steve Jobs."

Although the format is still being finalized, Zuriff anticipates elements from the Ryder Cup, which incorporates four-ball, alternate shot and singles matches. While he says The Match may still continue as more of a celebrity golf series, this new brand will be very different.

"This is intense, real golf," Zuriff said.

I guess Rory is hoping that everything inside three feet will be conceded....

Back to the TC gang:

Golf’s next made-for-TV match will see Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler face off against Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka in December in Las Vegas. What do you think of this matchup? And will the PGA Tour vs. LIV angle help with ratings?

Sens: It better help with the ratings because, really, is there any other reason for the match? This is designed to feed directly off golf’s civil war, and –outside of the majors, with a deal between the two tours nowhere in sight—it’s as close as the two circuits are going to get to giving people what they want. It helps, of course, that you’ve got four mega-names with lots of subplots/tensions in their relationships. But more than anything, this is an extension of the ongoing battle in the men’s pro game. Fans and media alike will assign all kinds of fabricated meaning to it as well, using the results as some kind of proof of which tour is more worthy. Birdies will abound. Ratings will be high. And people who already have a lot of money will make more of it by entertaining the masses with an event full of manufactured ‘meaning’. A perfect confection for our times.

Zak: It really is a compelling matchup, putting two of the Tour’s three best against two of LIV Golf’s best. You’ve got Mr. Entertainer in Bryson, Mr. Jock in Brooks, Mr. Worldwide in Rory and Mr. Best-Since-Tiger in Scottie. It’s as compelling a product as you can field without the names Woods, Mickelson and Spieth. I’m sure it will be marketed as a war of sorts, but I hope that isn’t the case. Because these guys don’t dislike each other. I hope it’s a proving ground for many things. Ultimately, it’s probably just 12 or 18 holes of fun match play.

Melton: I’m certainly intrigued by the event, and having a LIV-PGA Tour angle should do a great job adding hype to the match. Will that be enough to generate some much-needed high ratings? I’m dubious.

Mr. Worldwide?  Sheesh,  how about Mr. Missed Three-footer?  I'm going way out on a limb and predicting that this event will suck, if only for the practical reason that they always suck.  And if they're expecting it to work because of banter and trash talk, they've picked badly.  This may be the first of these Made-for-TV matches where they elect to not mic-up the players....  

Does the PGA Tour vs. LIV tie hint that the sides might be coming closer together on a deal? Or at least learning how to co-exist? How valuable might mini treaties like this be for the future of pro golf?

Sens: Does anyone, even the main actors themselves, have any idea how far or close they are from the deal? With so many moving parts and parties to appease, I get the sense even those directly involved aren’t sure what a final deal would look like. Meantime, a match like this does seem like a search for ways to profitably coexist. Purists might not see it as a great sign for pro golf, but if you look at the game purely as an entertainment product, it strikes me as a savvy way to go.

Zak: Let’s call this a mini-treaty then. I think it’s valuable in the sense that ratings will be improved from the last match: a skins game featuring Rory vs. Lexi Thompson vs. Max Homa vs. Rose Zhang. I think it’s valuable to put LIV Golfers on the same playing field as Tour stars in the month of December (when they might normally be absent from public eye). I think it’s valuable to do it all in a non-major championship setting, too. Will it bring any “nos” from the boardroom closer to “yesses”? I don’t really think so.

Melton: I’m a bit exhausted analyzing every little thing in golf in the context of the Tour vs. LIV battle. The truth is no one knows what’s coming next other than a select few on the ins of the negotiations. I’m not putting too much stock in this event being a harbinger of things to come.

More likely that the PGA Tour, which gets a slice of all this stuff, needs to be generating revenue to service that $1.5 billion investment.

But before we get all hyped-up that this means somethin g in relation to the ongoing PGA Tour-LIV discussions, here's one final LIV note:

LIV Golf announces first four events of 2025, but when they're scheduled says a lot

Late Tuesday night, LIV Golf announced its first four events of the 2025 season, which will be the fourth for the league. The four tournaments all have international flair, but it’s where they fall

on the calendar that paints a bleak outlook for what’s to come in the journey to have all of the best players play together again in more than the four major championships.

Seeing LIV Golf announce events for the 2025 season should be no surprise, as there has been hardly any traction toward a deal to bring the top players in the world back together to play on one tour, but the dates of LIV’s events are a stark contrast to anything seen in the first three years of the league.

LIV Golf has normally played its events opposite of the PGA Tour’s top tournaments, having some crossover but often doing what it can to avoid spots on the calendar like signature events.

Not next year.

LIV Golf Riyadh will be contested the same week as the WM Phoenix Open. Then, LIV Golf Adelaide will go head-to-head with Tiger Woods’ event, the Genesis Invitational.

Fast forward to March, LIV Golf Hong Kong is the same week as the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and LIV Golf Singapore will go head-to-head with the Tour’s flagship event, the Players Championship.

If a tree falls in the forest.... You know the rest, as even the author of that linked piece acknowledges:

It’s important to note, with all four LIV events playing essentially a day ahead and overnight live in the United States, they won’t be competing directly with the Tour events. Nevertheless, the more and more time goes on, it seems less and less likely there’s traction for the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to come together.

The schedule release for LIV Golf in 2025 shows the league doesn’t care what’s going on in the PGA Tour world.

Fair enough, though I'd add that, given LIV's ratings, PGA Tour world has shown an impressive lack of concern for anything LIV-related.

The TC panel had these deep insights:

Speaking of LIV Golf, it released its dates and venues for the first four tournaments of 2025, and while all of them will be played internationally, they also all will be played during the same weeks as some of the PGA Tour’s biggest events — the WM Phoenix Open, Genesis Invitational, Arnold Palmer Invitational and Players Championship. Why would LIV Golf schedule these to compete directly with the Tour? Does it matter?

Sens: On the face of it, you could read it as a flex by LIV, especially going up against the hard-partying Phoenix Open, which is probably the closest the Tour offers to the atmospherics of a LIV event. But I don’t think it’s worth assigning too much meaning to any of it, other than to underscore that LIV is soldiering on, propelled by an endless budget, and that those dates on those venues fit well enough. As a serious competitor for the Tour’s main audience, it doesn’t seem much more than so much spit into the wind.

Zak: LIV can’t compete with the Tour for eyeballs, but I suppose it can try to put a dent in the ratings the Tour is most proud of? It can also stage the best events it can and produce social clips of players drinking beers out of shoes during weeks where the PGA Tour is cool, calm and relaxed at Riviera. It won’t matter, ultimately, to field tournaments during these weeks because the international time zones where LIV will be playing means they won’t actually compete directly. And at the end of the day, there’s about 10- to 15 golfers at LIV who fans really want to watch. And there are at least twice to three times that on the PGA Tour.

Melton: Truth be told, it doesn’t really matter when LIV schedules their events as it relates to Tour events. While Tour ratings might be down, they still dwarf the number of eyeballs drawn by LIV. I’m sure there’s some deeper meaning to this scheduling decision, but ultimately it doesn’t change the fact that LIV doesn’t move the needle.

It's all cone of silence stuff.  But, Sean, could I have that list of 10-15 players?  Because my list goes maybe three deep.

That's have to keep you sated for today.  I'll be back later in the week, Thursday looking most probable.  Have a great week. 

Thursday Themes - Prez Cup Edition

A light blogging schedule is expected until the next golf of any significance....yanno, April?

Prez Picks - Kind of a yawn, though not without some threads to pick at.... As of the close of business, this was the final U.S. points standings:

Alas, that's as big as I can make the file, but you'll first note that the folks at ESPN that do nothing but sports can't seem to keep their cups straight.... The first six automatically qualify, five usual suspects, so cue the speculation about hat sizes.

That put the ball in court of Captain Jim "Alas, Poor" Furyk, whose 2018 Ryder Cup cluelessness is somehow a qualification for this gig.  I'm old enough to remember when our Task Force™ determined to use the Prez Cup to train future Ryder Cup captains, whereas it's devolved into a jobs program fore failed Ryder Cup captains.  Must be run by the federal government or something...

Here are Captain Furyk's picks:

• Sam Burns
• Tony Finau
• Russell Henley
• Keegan Bradley
• Brian Harman
• Max Homa

Brave Captain Furyk seems to have a wee case of PTSD from Paris, perhaps deducing that the way to avoid incoming is to go Full Chalk, taking Nos. 7-12 on the points list.  It's certainly possible that those are the six guys that he really wants and that fit best...  But to this observer it seems to denote the absence of a strong hand.  

Golf Digest did the roundtable thing, including these surprises:

Any surprises among the picks?

DS: Max Homa on the American side. Played well in the Ryder Cup last year, but his form has been less than stellar of late. Teamed well with Brian Harman in Rome, so I’m thinking this was a two-fer choice. Not excited about it.

SR: It doesn't make any sense to me to leave Justin Thomas off the team. Zach Johnson took him last year for his experience and success at team match-play events, and his form is actually better this year! How do you take him over Homa, who has struggled lately? JT is just such a weapon that despite the rough optics of the Ryder Cup, and all the embarrassing “Full Swing” segments, I'd still be looking for any excuse to get him on the squad.

JB: Homa. He was the breakout star of the 2022 Presidents Cup and was solid in Rome for last year’s American squad, but he’s been a mess since May, failing to post a top-20 finish in his last nine starts.

Let me see if I have this right, Homa makes sense because he pairs well with Harman, who himself has done absolutely nothing this year?  Boy that Task Force is Good!

"Snub" is the word of the day, and it's applied most frequently to the one guy:

Justin Thomas

Thomas is on the Ryder Cup committee, which was put in place to make captain’s selections, derive how the team would look, and build a solid foundation for Team USA for decades. He deserves that spot, too, having competed in every team competition since 2017. He’s starred on a number of those teams, too. But he is apparently not a fit for Furyk’s roster. The American captain was asked about Thomas specifically when he joined Golf Channel to explain his picks, and the first two words out of his mouth were rather telling: “Tough, tough.”

If the U.S. loses in Montreal, this is the pick that will be cited more than any other.

There's a case for JT, but Sean Zak couldn't be bothered making it.  Although being on the Committee isn't actually helpful on the golf course, Sean.

Dethier: Fair enough. How ’bout the biggest snub on the U.S. Team?

Zak: It’s Justin Thomas, without question. Everyone reading this article will agree. Thomas has as much good experience as anyone in this event, dominating with Jordan Spieth and Tiger Woods at his side. He injects life into the event, into his teammates, into fans watching at home. That’s the kind of thing you can’t really put specific value on, but you know it can be very valuable.

Colgan: I’ll continue to ride for putting legend Denny McCarthy to earn a spot on a U.S. team, but it’s obviously JT.

Maybe he asked not to be on the team without most of his Ryder Cup pals; maybe he didn’t want to experience life in a fourball pairing away from his pal Jordan; maybe he really was left off the roster. I suppose we’ll find out soon why he won’t be there, but as it stands, it’s the most flagrant development in an ugly 18-month slide.

Dethier: I’m as confused as you guys when it comes to JT. So far all we have is a wholly unsatisfactory answer from Jim Furyk, but I don’t get Thomas’ snub at all. Look, you can argue Thomas shouldn’t have made last year’s Ryder Cup team. But this year? He’s the perfect example of why you have captain’s picks to begin with — so you can select a guy in good form with good pedigree and solid intangibles. He even played well at East Lake, piling up birdies en route to a seventh-place finish on the shadow leaderboard.

I’d also be upset if I was Billy Horschel, who has been playing excellent golf for more than a month now. He was the best of a handful who could have made a really strong case with a top finish at East Lake, but neither Horschel (23rd in raw scores out of 30), Akshay Bhatia (T24), Chris Kirk (T24) nor Tom Hoge (T29) did enough to move the needle.

And others in the conversation like Denny McCarthy or even Davis Thompson, Mav McNealy or Nick Dunlap weren’t there to make their cases.

Apparently Dylan Dethier believes that the legal concept of stare decisis  applies to team golf, because they were required to put JT on this team because they put him on last year's Ryder Cup team.  Has anyone told Dylan that that 2023 team sucked?

There is a case for JT, and Colgan makes it best, but he's also 19th in the points standings.  It's not a snub for the simple reason that he didn't earn it, and the East Lake references are cherry picking basically one strong Sunday against 29 players Sheesh, talk about miniscule sample sizes.

The other point to make is the issue of age.  Are we trying to develop a cadre of young players that will be the backbone of future cup teams?  Russel Henley is 35, Brian Harman is 37, Tony Finau is 34 and Keegan Bradley is 38.  By way of contrast, Akshay Bhatia is 22.... If you're gonna gamble, aren't we looking for upside?

Shall we get to the Internationals?

Same deal, the top six qualify automatically, with Captain Mike Weir picking the following guys:

• Corey Conners,
• Taylor Pendrith
• Mackenzie Hughes
• Christiaan Bezuidenhout
• Si Woo Kim
• Min Woo Lee

The first thing we'll catch is the three Canucks providing red meat to the home crowd.  None of them got there on their own, but obviously Connors was a near miss.  He's a ball-striking machine, sop pencil him for both foursome session.

But to find Mackenzie Hughes one first passes other Canucks, so wassup with that?  Back to Sean zak:

  

Nick Taylor

This year’s Cup will be played in Montreal. It will be captained by a Canadian. There are three Canadians on the roster. But the literal logo for the Canadian Open, Nick Taylor, will somehow not be involved. Taylor won earlier this year, too, at the Phoenix Open, but that was back in February. This is September. Taylor hasn’t nabbed a top-25 finish in the last five months, missing the cut at every major. As far as in-form players go, he’s not on the list. But it’s not all about that.

And Golf Magazine:

II. BIGGEST SNUBS

Dethier: To the juicy stuff, then. Who has the biggest gripe? Let’s start with the International Team — who should be most pissed to be left home?

Zak: Nick Taylor deserves to be the most pissed, but not necessarily at Mike Weir. More at himself. Love me some Nick Taylor, but he would be the first to tell you he hasn’t shown up at the biggest events. He’s missed the cut at each of the last eight majors he’s played. I know it’s eating at him, and this decision won’t make it feel any better.

Colgan: Nick Taylor is the Jerry West of Canadian Golf. He’s the freakin’ logo!!! (Of the Canadian Open, but I digress.) In a tournament built upon adrenaline and high-stakes shotmaking, I don’t see how you can leave out the only Canadian who’s done it on home soil. Yeah, I get the recent resume argument, but I don’t like it.

And speaking of disappointed Canadians, I probably would’ve had Adam Hadwin on the roster, too, for similar reasons.

Zak: The chaos agent in me wanted every single Canadian invited. Mike Weir would have earned legend status in Canadian Golf history, if he hadn’t reached it already, and golf legend status if that would lead to an upset victory.

Dethier: I love that mentality, Sean. Bring on Adam Svensson while we’re at it! Gimme Ben Silverman! An all-Canadian roster would be a bold strategy for a team that needs bold. Look, it’s clear the International side is leaning on the data and it’s tough to argue with that approach. But if things don’t go well we’ll wonder if they should have gone even more Canadian to get the fans (politely) creating as raucous an atmosphere as possible.

I actually like Weir’s picks, overall. I would have loved to find Taylor a spot. And I’m surprised Cam Davis didn’t have a better year, outside of his win. Still, no massive objections.

Davis seems the biggest snub to me, sitting in that eighth slot.  

Golf Magazine did have this interesting take:

I. LAST MEN IN

Dethier: We’ll get to some snubs and second-guessing, but let’s start with the guys who should be grateful to be headed to Montreal. Who was the last man in for the International Team?

Sean Zak: I think it was Taylor Pendrith, who really didn’t show much form until about six weeks ago. He didn’t even play the Open Championship because he was on the outside looking in. That’s not exactly a great indication of top-level ability or form. But hey, he’s gonna be there in Montreal.

James Colgan: It’s probably one of the Canadians — Pendrith or Mack Hughes. Neither had a crazy good resume that necessitated being on the team, but I don’t necessarily fault the decision-making. Fellow Canucks are likely to play well with the crowd.

Zak: James is going to call me a Mack Hughes truther — and he may be fair to do so — but I think Mack made the team months ago, when he showed just how hot his putter can get. You guys were there at Quail Hollow in 2022 — the Internationals needed just a couple hot putters and they would have made it interesting.

Colgan: I’m going to call you that because you are a Mack Hughes truther.

Dethier: If we get too deep on Mackenzie Hughes’ putting stats we’re going to lose every single reader before we even get to the U.S. side, so let’s head there in a second. I do think Hughes was the last man in, for the record. I’ll just add that, from what I heard, these picks were decided pre-Tour Championship, which is good news for Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who finished tied for last at East Lake — though honestly he has the resume to merit a selection regardless.

Fun musings, but Weir didn't depart far from  chalk... Plus, when the last guy on the points list putts like Mackenzie Hughes, that guy will be on the team for sure.

Anyway, who was the last man in for the Americans?

Zak: Considering Jim Furyk’s six captain’s picks were the players ranked 7th through 12th on the Presidents Cup points list, I think technically Max Homa was the last man in. And considering how poorly he has played lately, that checks out. I think even Homa himself probably wasn’t planning on receiving a pick.

Colgan: Maybe on paper, Zak, but in practice there’s no way Homa was the last American in. He practically carried the stars and stripes alone in both of his team play starts (PC in ‘22, RC in ‘23), and he’s shown us he can tap into — to borrow his parlance — that dawg in these events.

I think the last guy, at least by roster fit, is Russell Henley. Henley had a really good season, and he’s a rock-solid player, but I don’t quite get U.S. team stalwart from him.

Dethier: Lousy takes by both of you. Henley might be a top-five player on this team, for one thing. And Homa’s 7.5 points in 2022 and 2023 are a full two more than any other American. If I’m Brian Harman I’m especially grateful to get the invite to Royal Montreal; he’s been solid but unspectacular, has just one top-20 finish since April and the last time we saw him he was making double bogey on the 72nd hole at the BMW to miss out on a trip to East Lake. And while you literally will not find a bigger Keegan Bradley fan than me, he was probably on the edge despite winning the BMW.

But that logic gets applied to Max but not JT.  It may work out and Furyk can hide behind the points list, but Max Homa hasn't been a very good player for some time.   

Just a couple more bits and I'll be on my way.  The home team, captain has one interesting choice to make, and Weir has chosen:

III. SECOND-GUESSING STRATEGY

Dethier: One note that Captain Weir slipped in there is that the Internationals have decided they’re starting with fourball. (This means best ball, while they’ll save alternate shot for Friday.) Does this matter?

Zak: Normally, I’d say no, but I think given the specifics of this competition it actually does? The Americans are notoriously unsuccessful in foursomes in the Ryder Cup, and the Europeans know it. They led with that in Rome and swept that first session, leading to a 3-day romp. How do you make the Americans nervous? You force them to think about using different golf balls and playing off Sahith Theegala’s errant tee shots. This feels like a mistake. (Of the tiniest magnitude, for the record.)

Colgan: Agreed. It feels like a mistake, or maybe just a defensive decision. If you’re Mike Weir, riding foursomes early raises the risk you fall in a big hole early (not good) but it also raises your chances of juicing the crowd with some early momentum. No pressure, no diamonds!

Dethier: Yeah, I don’t get this either. Seems like they’re leaning on data that supports the idea they’re a better fourball team rather than the visual evidence from Rome (and Paris) that the U.S. guys are terrified of playing each other’s golf shots.

Yanno, this discussion would be a whole lot more fruitful if they suppled some data.  My impression is the U.S. foursomes issue has not translated into the Prez Cup, but wouldn't a good place to start be the relative performance in the two formats in recent Prez Cups?  If only we still had golf journalists....

Dethier: The U.S. wins this thing every year — 12-1-1 all-time. Does the home team have a chance this time around?

Zak: Absolutely. Outside of the 2017 Cup, in which the result was almost guaranteed on Saturday night, this event has been extremely close, even if the Americans win each time. And this is the most eclectic roster that Team USA has put together in a team event, right? We know Scheffler and Burns will play together and Cantlay and Schauffele will, too. But I’m not sure there’s much for obvious pairings through the rest of the team. That kind of uncertainty can kick around a captain’s brain at night when the Cup is tied through three sessions.

Colgan: What’s that saying? Innocent until proven guilty? Well, your honor, I’m going to need to see some International wins before I start hedging any differently.

Dethier: I’m with Sean — I’m not convinced the U.S. team will dominate — but I need more from Weir. Didn’t exactly feel the intensity on Tuesday.

I think they have a good chance.  There's the logic of them being due, as well as the fact that the U.S. team isn't exactly a juggernaut.... Also, non-U.S. Prez Cups have varied in the intensity of the environment, but I do think the Canucks will turn out and be loud.  Plus, yanno, Furyk.

Finally: What am I missing? What’s something new you learned from Tuesday’s announcements?

Zak: That Jim Furyk is going to make a name for himself. He has some regrets from the 2018 Ryder Cup captaincy in France and wants to make good on that failure. What that looks like, I’m not sure. But it feels like keeping Thomas off the team is the start of some bold decision-making, and I’m here for it.

Colgan: I learned Jim Furyk has grown a greater appetite for upsetting the U.S. team golf establishment than in 2018. We’ll see if it trickles down to the way the team plays!

Dethier: I learned that, from the outside, the U.S. side still seems to be old-school in its selection process compared to its opposition. The Americans went all chalk, taking guys 7-12 from the Presidents Cup points list. The International side, on the other hand, took its six top-ranked options according to DataGolf’s list, which takes a more analytical approach. It’s possible that’s a coincidence, but if I’m an American golf fan I’m concerned that the International side won Tuesday.

Note the cognitive dissonance.... Apparently Furyk is shacking up the U.S. golf establishment that gave a mulligan after his disastrous Ryder Cup captaincy?  And he's doing it by going chalk on his picks?  Wow, that some serious outside-the-box thinking... Just remember, this is the man that put Patrick reed and Phil out in foursomes....The next fairway either of those guys hits will be the first.  But there's a guy as wild off the tee as Phil on this roster, so watch whether he plays Theegala in alternate shot.

Just one last bit that made laugh.  This is the event promo from the Prez Cup website:

Heh!  Months ago I predicted that this team wouldn't have either of those guys....  Yeah, it's a gift.

Playing tomorrow, so no blogging.  have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.

Weekend Wrap - Holiday Interruptus Edition

No wrappage yesterday, because your humble blogger was playing.... well, taking up space on the tee sheet might be more like it, but thanks for your patience and understanding.

We'll start with the most significant event of the week....

There's No "I" In GB&I - OK, I guess technically there's the one, but what a week at Sunningdale, which unfortunately precious few will have seen.  And while we understand the Jack-inspired expansion of the Ryder Cup to include Continental Europe, some insufferable purists lament the loss of that GB&I moniker.  

Coverage of this event on the major golf sites is somewhere between begrudging and nonexistent, but fortunately Shack has us covered:

Catriona Matthew penciled in her best three players to open Sunday singles and essentially close out the 43rd Curtis Cup before much of America enjoyed a cup of Sunday morning coffee. We should have known better, with this being a Cup event on a grand course and no player appearing to be a drag on their respective rosters.

Sure enough, Matthew’s star trio opened Sunday singles with two losses, headlined by USA’s Asterisk Talley cruising to a 3&2 win over Lottie Woad in the opener. With that shocker, only interrupted by sensational Sara Byrne closing out her unforgettable three days by defeating Catherine Park 3&2, the final day thriller would come down to the final matches.

A sunny and warm Sunningdale day eventually saw Great Britain and Ireland hold on for a one-point difference and first win for the home side since 2016. The team was boosted by a Curtis Cup record crowd of 16,680 for the matches. They witnessed the 10½-9½ victory on an artfully presented Old Course that undoubtedly contributed to the above-average number of tight back-and-forth contests. The crowds and their furry four-legged friends—who are an added component in Sunningdale’s overwhelming charm—also witnessed history in another regard: Matthew is the first professional golfer to Captain the event, bringing her experience (and army of physios!) as a two-time Solheim Cup-winning leader.

However, the Scot reserved all credit for the players.

“They're a fantastic team, I'm so proud of them,” Matthew said. “They really dug in every day and in every session. It didn't look as though it was perhaps going our way today but they really toughed it out. It's just been a fantastic experience for me getting to know them and they were great.”

I have nothing against watching nubile young wenches playing first class golf, but the real appeal here was Sunningdale, one of the special places in golf.  The Old Course is a Willie Park, Jr. design, but one tweaked extensively by God (and by God I of course mean Harry S. Colt).  The course looked as spectacular as I remember from my long-ago day there (thanks, Mark W.), and seemed to be set up perfectly for the ladies.

The photos available are logically of the ladies, but I want to show you how spectacular the courses and club are.  This is of the uphill Par-3 fourth:

My guess is that there's more heather on this track than in all of GB&I combined.... though perhaps I'm exaggerating for effect.

Geoff had this one of the galleries on the finishing hole:

The trip home, with the clubhouse in the distance is really special, here's how it looks without the galleries:

The most significant match was the first one out, featuring the best amateur player in the world pitted against a child named after a punctuation mark (I'm old enough to remember when parents gave their children actual names, but that's not important now):

For all of the clutch play Sunday, the opening win by Asterisk Talley might have been the

performance of the week. The 15-year-old made five birdies and eagled the par 5 10th, putting away world number one amateur and Augusta National Women’s Amateur champion Lottie Woad who was fresh off her T10 at the AIG Women’s Open.

It was her first defeat in the week’s five matches for Woad.

“It was really fun out there today,” Talley said. “I played some great golf. I was just excited to get out there with Lottie and play my best. We (the USA team) had a lot of fun. I felt like we really bonded throughout the week. Even if we lost our matches we still had fun.”

And was it ever fun to watch.  Team match play on one of the great golf courses in the world, an idea so crazy it just might work.  Give the USGA and R&A due credit, the list of future venues for the Walker and Curtis Cups is a purist's wet dream:

2025 Walker Cup: Cypress Point Club

2026 Walker Cup: Lahinch Golf Club

2026 Curtis Cup: Bel-Air Country Club

2028 Walker Cup: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort

2028 Curtis Cup: Royal Dornoch

2030 Curtis Cup: National Golf Links of America

2032 Walker Cup: Oakmont Country Club

2034 Curtis Cup: Pine Valley Golf Club

The least interesting name on that list is Oakmont, which tells us all we need to know.  Or, yanno, you can just continue to watch golf from Memphis and East Lake....

Speaking of which..... just another of those effortless segues, my signature move.

Scottie Makes Bank - Remind me again why I should care?  I did tune in for a bit of it, including that epic bunker shot on the 8th hole. More on that in a sec, but first the Tour Confidential gang:

1. A couple of weeks after calling the format of the FedEx Cup Playoffs “silly,” World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler took advantage of his head start and cruised at East Lake, finishing 30 under to win by four over Collin Morikawa. It was the third straight year he entered the Tour Championship leading the FedEx Cup standings, but his first win. Did Scheffler’s runaway victory prove the format is anticlimactic and in need of a fix, or did it properly reward him for beginning the tournament with a head start since he was the best player all year?

Josh Berhow: I think Scheffler winning this 33.3 percent of the time he’s entered the Tour Championship as the FedEx Cup leader proves it’s random enough to work and the math kind of

checks out — but that still doesn’t mean it’s a good system. The format remains wonky and unnecessarily complicated. I know the drawback of incorporating match play into it all means some big names could miss out on the weekend and hurt ratings, but would it really be worse than an end-of-the-year event taking place with staggered starts? Final point: Match play is great theater, and golf fans already get too little of it at the pro level.

Jack Hirsh: I wrote about the format last year a couple of times and I think we need to look at the champions and ask ourselves, are the right people winning this thing? The answer is 100% yes. There has yet to be an undeserving champion who made the Tour Championship their only win of the year, despite it almost happening a couple of times. Each of the six winners in this format has been a multi-time winner on the season. Last year, Rory McIlroy compared it to how the 73-9 Golden State Warriors team didn’t win the NBA finals. A playoff is a playoff and Josh is right that Scheffler only winning it one of three times holding the two-shot lead makes it random enough to be interesting. But I disagree wholeheartedly that it’s difficult to follow. It’s way better than tracking points down to the fractions in real-time. No one likes math. Match play would be great, but to have a “season-long race” decided by a format not really used all that often in professional golf seems a little wrong.

Josh Sens: The current format is much more about appeasing players than it is about pleasing fans. Professional golf already caters plenty to its stars. I am with Berhow. Switch to match play. The staggered start is ridiculous. If match play brings about some perceived ‘unfairness’ or randomness, so be it. The priority should be to provide good entertainment. Not simply to further line the pockets of already very well-compensated players.

I just wish we could impose some logic on the Tour brass, as well as the golf writers.  The problem with the format is the Tour's inability to decide between a season-long contest and a shootout, and this is the half-baked result.  And how much do I love Jack Hirsh?  The right people win this thing, as long as you ignore Billy Horschel, Brandt Snedeker, Justin Rose, Bill Haas and even Viktor, who merely got hot for a couple of weeks at the right time.  Sheesh!

2. Scheffler became the first person on Tour to win seven or more times in a season since Tiger Woods did so in 2007 (not counting Scheffler’s gold medal). Woods hit at least seven wins a season several times, but can Scheffler? A decade from now, will something like a seven-win season for him seem more like the norm, or an outlier?

Berhow: Saying someone is going to win seven times a season is crazy… but for Scheffler, I

don’t think it will be an outlier. That doesn’t mean I think he’s going to do it six or seven more times, but once or twice? I think he can.

Sens: So many factors make these kinds of forecasts tough. Will he stay healthy? Will the putting demons return? But I doubt this will be the last time we’ll see this kind of season from Scheffler. The more important tally, though, will be the majors.

Hirsh: We’re going to see a lot of comparisons between Tiger and Scheffler over the next few years (see below question as well), but I’ve yet to see anything that suggests that Schefler can match the sustained level of dominance Tiger did. I’d say maybe once more, but if he does it again next season, I’ll be singing a different tune.

Question for you, kids.  Scottie won eight timers including the Olympics.  How many of those wins came against full fields?   Awfully quiet out there....  Anyone?  Bueller?

The answer is ONE.  Specifically the Players Championship. but this is the full realization of Patrick Cantlay's dreams.  You can win $62 million on the golf course and not have to beat many guys.  Is this a great country, or what?  Scottie is a great player and one of the few guys out there I still like, but I'd like to see what he could do playing like this in a season of actual golf tournaments.  Unfortunately, we no longer have those except for the rabbits.

3. Speaking of Tiger, when Scheffler is at his best, is his skillset the closest thing to Woods we’ve seen over the last two decades?

Berhow: Tiger’s 2006 season remains the best SG: tee to green (+2.98) since it was tracked beginning in 2004, but second and third on that list are Scheffler’s last two seasons. Tiger in his

prime was so complete it’s hard to say anyone matched that skillset, and even though we’ve tried to make the comparisons before this might be the most accurate yet, especially when Scottie is putting well. Not sure if Scheffler can ever match his ball-striking or clutch play under pressure, but a good start to earn more Tiger comparisons needs to be winning more majors.

Sens: We’ve seen some other dominant stretches that drew comparisons to Tiger– peak Rahm, peak Rory and peak DJ among them. But nothing as prolific or sustained as what we saw from Scheffler this year, who won in so many settings it was hard to keep track, and who tacked on a gold medal to it all. Peak Tiger remains a different animal. But for all-around game, Scheffler definitely takes the prize. What was amazing was how he put himself in the mix so consistently, even when his putter was cold or when he was sent to the cooler for a traffic violation.

Hirsh: I think Sens hits the nail on the head here, not only was peak Tiger a different animal, but he was a different animal for longer. All Scheffler was missing last year was the wins, now he’s winning at a similar rate, but let’s see how long he can do that for. We have to remember Tiger did most of his damage between 1996 and 2013. Basically he amassed 79 wins in about 17 seasons, which means he was winning more than four and a half times per year. Scheffler has won four-and-a-third times a year for the last three seasons. If he keeps that up for 10 more years, then we’re on to something.

He beat 27 players this week and lost to two, yet we're measuring him for golf's Mt. Rushmore?  

I did like Scotties explanation of the S-word:

Scottie Scheffler talked through his shank on the 8th hole in the most Scottie Scheffler way possible. 😂 pic.twitter.com/nsmcN2Tyc2

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) September 2, 2024

Even better was Claire Rogers comparing it to going full Taurean Prince:

Same vibes pic.twitter.com/FwKhYv43uu

— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) September 2, 2024

Thanks, Scottie, but we know from personal experience.

Of courser, most of us don't respond quite like this:

Then Scheffler hit a cold, hard shank with that bunker shot, a shocking miss that sent his ball skittering off the other side of the green. (Consider that Thing 1: World No. 1 can hit a mean bunker shank.) From there he shorted his chip shot and walked off with another bogey, while playing partner Collin Morikawa made birdie to suddenly draw within two.

I'm very familiar with the cold shank, but a cold, hard shank?  That sounds really bad, but I'm wondering if there are cold shanks that aren't hard?   

But he's Scottie Scheffler, and we're not:

As for his in-round, on-course response? That was downright jaw-dropping. A soaring long-iron at No. 9 from 236 yards to five feet. Birdie. A towering wedge at No. 10 to three feet. Birdie. And a 15-footer for birdie at No. 11 that Scheffler walked in with hardly a reaction, capping off a three-hole stretch that screamed enough screwing around. Then came the door-slamming eagle at No. 14, a reminder that Scheffler isn’t just a talented golfer. He’s the world’s most talented golfer — and he’s an absolute killer, too.

And pretty good at the golf thing as well.

Though I've little sympathy here:

“Yeah, it’s great,” Scheffler said, asked to sum up his seven-win season. But then he paused. “Still don’t understand why the Olympics doesn’t count. That’s a bit weird to me. I think that’s part of the greed that goes on in your brain, is you say seven, I’m like, ‘I won eight.’ I won the Olympics in the middle of the year, and for some reason it doesn’t count as an official PGA Tour win. It counts the same as — no offense to the Hero — but it counts the same as the Hero World Challenge in the grand scheme of things.”

He's right to compare it to the Hero World Challenged, because the strength of field is so comparable.

Dylan spares a moment for Rory McIlroy.  Do you remember Rory?  He used to be pretty good back in the mid-aughts, but that was ages ago.  It's just that Dylan drops a factoid that hadn't crossed my radar, and I'm delighted to hear that we have more linksy goodness on tap:

Rory McIlroy played well but never contended at the Tour Championship, a result that was in some ways fitting for a season that was solid but, by his lofty standards, still disappointing. He described feeling like a “distant third” in the world behind Scheffler and Xander Schauffele and, even though he still has five starts left this fall to make 27 for the year, plans to cut back his schedule for 2025.

“I’m usually sort of like a 22 [start] sort of person. But again, that was when I was sort of in my 20s and didn’t have the responsibilities that I do now,” he said. “I’m going to try to cut it back to like 18 or 20 a year going forward, I think.”

Whether that’s just end-of-season fatigue talking remains to be seen; in the meantime we’ll look forward to McIlroy at the Horizon Irish Open at the legendary Royal County Down in just two weeks’ time.

That's great, though I especially recommend Thursday-Friday viewing.  That's because it's the front nine at RCD that's so off-the-charts spectacular, whereas weekend coverage will be concentrated on their less visually dramatic second nine.   

That's it for today. I'll be back on Thursday to catch us up on the Prez Cup and anything else of note. Have a great week.