Weekend Wrap - Teen Angst Edition

Got to watch pretty much all of the golf yesterday thanks to hot and sticky August weather.  Despite some rumblings of thunder, it's now been a full 2 1/2 weeks without being struck by lightning.... so we've got that going for us.

Teenage Wasteland - Makes a guy feel old, but yesterday's final round match at the U.S. Amateur was believed to be the youngest combined age for the two final contestants, which barely reached 37 years.  As they say, I have bunions older than that.....

How was your summer?

When he gets back to class at Brockwood High School in Snellville, Ga., Mason Howell will have an enviable answer for anyone who asks.

In early June, Howell played his way into the U.S. Open at Oakmont with two qualifying rounds of 63, one month before earning medalist honors at the U.S. Junior Amateur in Texas. Those accomplishments alone would have made good schoolyard chatter. Now, though, the Brockwood senior-to-be has something even cooler to talk about with friends. With a 7-and-6 Sunday romp over Jackson Herrington, 19, of Dickson, Tenn on the Olympic Club’s Lake Course, Howell, 18, ran away with 125th U.S. Amateur Championship. The victory makes Howell the third youngest winner of the championship, surpassing Tiger Woods, and the first high schooler to hoist the Havemeyer Trophy since Matt Fitzpatrick in 2013.

“To be ahead of Tiger in anything is amazing,” Howell said. “I’m just so grateful for everything this week.”

You'd think his senior High School golf season would be more than a little surreal, no?

 To this observer, the most memorable moment of the week might have happened late Saturday:

He was also accustomed to the spoiler role. Over the past two days alone, Herrington, a rising sophomore at the University of Tennessee, had knocked off a pair of fan favorites: first, Jimmy Abdo, an underdog from Division III Gustavus Adolphus College in Minn, in the quarterfinals, followed by homegrown hero Niall Shiels-Donegan in a Saturday semifinal that drew what were believed to be the largest throngs at a U.S. Amateur since 1981, when Nathaniel Crosby (son of Bing, and a Bay Area native) won the title on the Lake Course. In front of a Crosby-size contingent cheering loudly for the other guy, Herrington, whose husky build has earned him the nickname “The Fridge,” had carded a cold-blooded birdie to close Shiels-Donegan out on 18.

Shiels-Donegan is a Scot whose family moved to Mill Valley (fictional home of B.J. Hunicutt, which you can Google if it doesn't ring a bell) when he was quite young, but that made him a local.  As frequently happens, though, after the emotional semi-final win, Herrington's Sunday was quite the letdown.  It's a frequent issue in these 36-hole final, because the grueling week can often leave the players running on fumes.

I was able to watch the Wednesday night round of 64, but then didn't check back in until the semi-finals.  My sense is that Howell's key match was his first, when he took out second seed Tommy Robinson in a big upset.  The Tour Confidential panel did at least seem to know that this event was on:

Mason Howell won the U.S. Amateur on Sunday, beating Jackson Herrington 7 and 6 at The Olympic Club. It was an eventful week in San Francisco, headlined by Howell’s victory but also by the run of John Daly II, the emergence of a DIII underdog, raucous crowds (and interviews!) surrounding a local favorite and more. What was your most memorable moment from the U.S. Am?

Colgan: Jimmy Abdo!!!! The 4,292nd-ranked amateur in the world made it into the quarterfinal

round of the biggest amateur event in the sport. I love an underdog story, and I’m not sure I’ve heard a better one in 2025 than Abdo’s, whose last four years have seen him left off his high school travel squad and D1 offer-less in the transfer portal. He made plenty of people remember his name at O-Club.

Piastowski: That I need to try a burger dog soon. Kidding, maybe. Colgan is right about Abdo — it’s one of the reasons why the Amateur is great. But I loved the crowds that Niall Shiels Donegan drew and his wild post-round interviews (which were conducted admirably by Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine). Another attraction of the Amateur is the up-closeness of the event, and this was certainly that.

Sens: The crowds that homegrown hero (and semifinalist) Niall Shiels-Donegan drew all week. Large and rowdy. And the pure joy that Shiels-Donegan demonstrated in putting on a clutch show for them. He didn’t win but he was the story of the week.

One fun aspect of the week was the ubiquitous presence of old friend and Walker Cup Nathan Smith, whom I had met several years back at U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying.   

That's Smith shaking hands with former Willow Ridge Assistant Pro Kent St. Charles at Old Oaks Country Club.  I very well remember my conversation with Kent before the event:

ME:  Kent, who are you paired with in Sectionals?

KENT: Some amateur I've never heard of.  I think his name was Nathan something.

ME: Not Nathan Smith?

KENT: Yeah, that's the guy.

ME:  You're a lucky bastard.

You know what the best part was?  After they finished, I introduced myself to Smith and told him how thrilled I was that my friend Kent got paired with him.  Can you guess how Nathan responded?   He told me how thrilled he was to be paired with Kent...  What a gracious man.

The point of Smith being on site was to complete the Walker Cup roster:

The U.S. Walker Cup team for next month’s match at Cypress Point is complete.

The USGA announced Sunday the remaining five selections to captain Nathan Smith’s 10-man squad – newly minted U.S. Amateur champion Mason Howell, Oklahoma’s Jase Summy, Texas’ Tommy Morrison, Notre Dame’s Jacob Modleski and mid-amateur Stewart Hagestad.

World No. 1 Jackson Koivun of Auburn was among the earlier selections, along with Virginia’s Ben James, Ole Miss’ Michael La Sasso, and Oklahoma State teammates Preston Stout and Ethan Fang.

A few of those names might be familiar, but the name that should have jumped off the page and grabbed you by the throat is Cypress Point.  The event is September 6th and 7th, and you'll want those dates highlighted on your calendar.  The last important event contested at this venue was...checking notes, The Match.  It's never too early to set your DVR.

Scottie In Full - This seems a tad hyperbolic to me:

Scottie Scheffler continues to amaze.

Starting the final round four strokes back, Scheffler stepped on the gas, shooting 3-under 67, and raced past Robert McIntyre to win the BMW Championship on Sunday in Owings Mills, Maryland.

The Ultimate Driving Machine? It’s been Scheffler, the world No. 1, who won for the fifth time, and joined Tiger Woods as the only player to win at least five times in consecutive seasons in the last 40 years. (Woods did it six times, most recently in 2006-07.)

Scheffler even had some Tiger-like heroics in capturing his 18th career PGA Tour title, delivering the knockout punch at the par-3 17th. Nursing a one-stroke lead, he missed the green to the left and faced a delicate pitch that he had practiced earlier in the week from 82 feet.

I don't see where he stepped on any gas pedal (with the exception of the pitch on No. 17).  Seems like he just went about his business, even gave MacIntyre life with two missed short putts but, as is usual, his C-game was plenty.

The TC Gang has run out of platitudes for Scottie, and who can really blame them.  So they logically focused on the Ryder Cup implications:

Scottie Scheffler won the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, the BMW Championship, but we also now know the six auto-qualifiers for the U.S. Ryder Cup team: Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Bryson DeChambeau and Harris English. What’s your biggest takeaway from this week?

Josh Sens. That we can add an item to life’s list of certainties: death, taxes and Scottie Scheffler. But also ( despite Scheffler) the Europeans have a stronger team of automatic qualifiers than the

U.S. does. On paper, anyway.

James Colgan: Other than Scheffler 4X-ing his Ryder Cup counterparts in points? I learned that the Americans are lucky Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa didn’t leapfrog DeChambeau. Bryson was a lock all along, and his auto-qualifier status quiets what could have been a tired news cycle about his deservedness.

Nick Piastowski: Scottie Scheffler’s really, really, really good. And he’s showing this might last a while. And that Robert MacIntyre versus the Bethpage boys and girls will be jolly fun. (But let’s keep it clean, gang.)

Not sure I really understand Colgan's point.  Bryson, JT and Collin all figure to be locks, though I'm not certain that that last guy deserves to be a lock.  Though the combination of "I don't Owe anybody anything" with "I'll wear a hat when I'm paid for it" moves the over/under for the switch of my allegiance from the U.S. to the Euros from midday Friday to...., wait for it, the Thursday Opening Ceremonies.

U.S. captain Keegan Bradley will round out his team with six captain’s picks made after next week’s Tour Championships. That means East Lake is most important for which Ryder Cup hopeful?

Josh Sens: It’s a tossup for me between Cam Young and Ben Griffin. Both have shown good form this year, especially Young of late. Young, in particular, has sounded like a man chomping at the bit, after being passed over for Rome and now with the Ryder Cup coming to his home state, and a course where he won the state am.

Colgan: I think it’s Griffin, who’s safely inside the top-12 but wants to remove all doubt. But don’t leave out Sam Burns, either, who woke up on Sunday in 16th on the U.S. rankings and has the benefit of previous Ryder Cup experience and a close friendship with Scottie Scheffler to help his candidacy.

Piastowski: It’s the captain himself. Finish in the top 10, and Bradley picks himself three days later. Finish 28th, and there’s some doubt. A ho-hum finish at the BMW didn’t exactly inspire him being selected, but a strong run at the Tour Championship will.

I think the Captain finds himself in unchartered waters and, given the absence of a predicate for what this would look like, probably needs to leave himself off the roster.  But Geoff has a funny bit in today's Quad post:

ChatGPT: Should Keegan Bradley Pick Himself?

Since millions now view ChatGPT as a consigliere, best friend, life coach, digital pet, or their even doctor, it’s not a longshot to wonder if Keegan Bradley will seek AI advice regarding his predicament. The new version of the fancy search engine is supposed to be smarter but less wishy washy, yet it spit out a dissertation of McKinseyesque pros and cons before, you guessed it, not helping.

Gee, Geoff, it may be that using ChatGPT as your digital pet or doctor isn't the weirdest aspect of this phenomenon:

Counterfeit Connections: The Rise of AI Romantic Companions

Really, what could go wrong?  But shall we see what ChatGPT came up with?

Can you see why journalists are so despondent?  That's actually better than the drivel coming from all of the major golf websites.

Sam Burns finished T4 at the BMW and Rickie Fowler finished T7, although both, especially Fowler, are further down the Ryder Cup standings. But if you are captain, how do you balance picking someone higher up on the standings vs. someone with better recent form?

Sens: As a tiebreaker, I’d look further back in the historical record. How have they performed in these kinds of pressure cookers?. Burns went 1 and 2 in Rome and has not generally cut the profile of a killer closer. Fowler has a career 3-9-5 Ryder Cup record. In short, I’d probably look past both of them

Colgan: I think the goal is to pick the twelve best golfers. If No. 11 on your list suddenly can’t break 90, I’d think about recent form. Otherwise, I’d let the last 6 months serve as a much better test.

Piastowski: I’d certainly take a look — but then why have the standings at all? If you’ve bought in this far, no need to switch things up. That said, I’d maybe lean toward the hotter hand with picks 11 and 12 than going with the points system (unless, of course, the hot hand is also 11 or 12). Burns also has the benefit of being close friends with the world No. 1, and you want to keep that man happy.

I'm glad that Nick Piastowski came out and said out loud that Sam Burns' primary qualification for the team is that he's Scottie's buddy, and Nick seems to think that is just hunky dory.

The recent for vs. historical record is a longstanding and valid debate and, like the first two guys, I do think it right to default to taking the better golfer.

But there's a far bigger issue at play here, as in evaluating the importance of "Recent form" I'll focus on the recent bit, as opposed to the form.  The FedEx Cup will conclude on Sunday, August 24th and the Ryder Cup will begin on Friday, September 26th.  What we saw in Rome was that the Euro's played at Wentworth two weeks before the Cup and only one or two U.S. players bothered to peg it, so they showed up in Rome rusty, and it seems our vaunted Ryder Cup Task Force has done nothing about this issue.  We can talk about the U.S. players' form the last we saw them, but we can't pretend that form is "recent" by the time the Cup commences.

Udder Stuff - The TC panel wastes two questions on LIV, about which I don't feel compelled to blog.  But there are a couple of bits from Geoff worth a moment of your time.  First, on the subject of Scottie being good at golf:

The 15 Who Played All 16 Rounds

The Royal Selangor Trophy is annually awarded to the golfer with the lowest total score in the four majors and a nice way of recognizing the players who survived the quadrilateral of cuts.

Here are 2025’s survivors, headlined by Scottie Scheffler and a brilliant 21-stroke win:

• Scottie Scheffler (-32)
• Rory McIlroy (-11)
• Xander Schauffele (-10)
• Jon Rahm (-6)
• Harris English (-5)
• Tyrrell Hatton (-1)
• Matt Fitzpatrick (-1)
• J.J. Spaun (+1)
• Aaron Rai (+3)
• Viktor Hovland (+3)
• Maverick McNealy (+5)
• Sam Burns (+6)
• Daniel Berger (+7)
• Rasmus Hojgaard (+14)
• Brian Harman (+17)

 In case you were wondering:

If you’re wondering whether Scheffler’s dominance was a record in the modern era of the Selanger Trophy and established in 1999? It was not.

Tiger Woods finished 35 strokes better than Ernie Els in 2000.

Jordan Spieth continues to hold the record for most strokes under par with his 54-under-par tally in 2015.

Scheffler’s 32-under par total across the 2025 majors tied for fourth among all-time lowest years, trailing just Spieth in 2015, Woods in 2000, and Koepka’s 36-under-par tally in 2019.

And that's with not really being on form at Augusta do to the kitchen mishap..... How lucky was Rory in that?

Lastly, here's the one LIV-related bit I'll share:

LIV’s Chicago final round event averaged a mere 344,000 viewers airing on Fox last Sunday, while the PGA Tour’s FedEx St. Jude averaged over 3.6 million on NBC, up substantially from 2024’s win by Hideki Matsuyama (2.1 million). (Robopz/X.com)

I'm surprised by the strength of the BMW ratings, but who exactly are these 344,000 people and don't they prefer professional golf?

That's it for today.  I'll catch you later in the week.....

Weekend Wrap - Meltdownapalooza Edition

It's been quite the week here recovering from our lightning strike.  Service was switched over yesterday and replacement TVs should arrive today.  

I did watch a bunch of the golf on Sunday, even some of the golf from Memphis.....

Megha-Winner - Meltdown No. 1 (actually, there were two) happened Saturday afternoon on the coast of Oregon:

Megha Ganne was fortunate to make the U.S. Women’s Amateur final at Bandon Dunes.

“I won't say exactly what I was thinking, but you can imagine,” said Ganne, who was three down through 10 holes against Australian Ella Scaysbrook, who had never trailed in any of her five matches and had not even reached the 16th tee since stroke play.

“I reminded myself that I have literally won so many matches from 2 down, 3 down, 4 down,” Ganne said of the semifinal. “Matches start on the back nine no matter what the score [says]. [I] reminded myself of that and how many times I've done it. Today is no different.”

Except that it was the semis of the Women's Amateur and it didn't look like Ella Scaysbrook would ever miss a shot, until someone flipped a switch and she suddenly missed all of them.

Megha, a Jersey girl, has always been hard to evaluate, bursting on the scene young but outshined at Stanford by those other more famous girls:

The Stanford senior first made it on the USGA scene by reaching the 2019 semifinals as a 15-year-old where she lost in 19 holes to then-Stanford senior Albane Valenzuela. Ganne would contend two years later in the U.S. Women’s Open at Olympic Club, but it was the best trophy in golf that she most wanted to win. And Ganne did so late Sunday on a gloriously firm, fast, and breezy Bandon Dunes links by beating Missouri’s Brook Biermann 4&3 to capture the elaborately designed Robert Cox Trophy.

Don't remember that 2019 Amateur, but I do remember her in that final group on Sunday at Olympic.  But these two girls go back even further:

The 22-year-old Ganne was competing in her seventh U.S. Women’s Amateur and drew a worthy opponent in Biermann, a recent Michigan State grad. Each of the women qualified for the 2018 Drive, Chip & Putt national finals at Augusta National Golf Club in the Girls’ 14-15 division and Golf Channel found an image of the two in line together entering the competition’s long drive portion. Ganne, who competed in four DCP finals, finished fourth and Biermann fifth that year.

Not sure why Geoff would tease but not embed that older photo, which I'm unable to find with a Google image search.

Bandon Dunes was a spectacular venue, including providing those great evening viewing windows.  Geoff helpfully informs that the USGA isn't finished with the resort:

The next USGA competition to be staged at Bandon Dunes will be the 2028 Walker Cup Matches. The U.S. Women’s Amateur, along with the U.S. Amateur, will be conducted at the resort in consecutive weeks in 2032.

Let's hope they expand the coverage windows by then....  A great event, and the men are already under way at Olympic.

Say It Ain't So, Tommy-Lad -  I got home around 4:00 p.m. on Sunday and turned on the golf, catching the leaders early on their back nines.  Fleetwood immediately caught my eye with some steely play, which made me stick around because, well, Tommy on the lead can be interesting.

The ending will have the man's fans despondent:

Ageless Rose makes late charge in Memphis, tops Spaun in playoff; Fleetwood comes up short again

Justin Rose has still got it. Still has his nerves. Still has his swing. Still has sufficient power and

level of fitness. Still knows how to shake off adversity. Still has the ability to perform in the clutch.

He still knows how to win.

At age 45, Rose became the oldest winner on the PGA Tour in five years on Sunday in Memphis when he defeated reigning U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff in the FedEx St. Jude Championship.

Trailing fellow Englishman Tommy Fleetwood by three strokes with five holes remaining in regulation, Rose reeled off four straight birdies to surge past his European Ryder Cup teammate and join Spaun at 16-under 264 at TPC Southwind. Then Rose birdied the last two holes of the playoff, the first to stay alive after Spaun buried a long birdie of his own, and the second, from 11 feet, for the title, his second in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the 12th of his PGA Tour career.

After all his near misses, this isn't exactly a great surprise, but we always find ourselves rooting for the old guys....I wonder why that is.

Everyone likes JR, but the headlines are all about that guy that just can't get it done.  This from this week's Tour Confidential panel:

Tommy Fleetwood held the 54-hole lead at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, but a 17th-hole bogey and final-round one-under 69 on Sunday kept him a shot out of a playoff (in which Justin Rose beat J.J. Spaun on the third playoff hole for the title). Fleetwood has won seven times on the DP World Tour but is still famously winless in 162 PGA Tour starts. Is this sample size officially big enough to explain what’s holding him back?

Hirsh: No! I don’t think we know what’s holding him back yet. It could be a lot of different things, but what’s abundantly clear is he keeps putting himself in these positions. And with a game and easily repeatable golf swing like him, it’s only a matter of time before he converts.

Colgan: Yes! And the answer is simple: It’s in his head. I spent a while reporting on the phenomenon of “choking under pressure” — or performing less than your best when it matters most — and I learned that golfers are uniquely attuned to struggle under the limelight. It’s because of how our prefrontal cortex handles stress, and how the “repetition compulsion” of the golf swing fades while under duress. The good news: Practice helps — and Tommy is getting lots of practice.

Marksbury: As Fleetwood said in his post-round interview, it’s really hard to win on Tour. And it’s not like his final round was a complete blow-up — an ill-timed bogey on 17, sure, but that happens. To even have a chance to win, you have to put yourself in position for a potential letdown. Tommy’s definitely getting lots of practice. He’ll get there eventually!

 Bonus question: What's more easily repeatable, Tommy's swing or his meltdowns with the lead?

Unfortunately, Jess Marksbury is grading on a curve, because just when he seemed to have things under command, a series of really loose shots ensued.  That said, there's a really good reason that people keeping hoping for the best for him:

A note about Fleetwood in a year dominated by male players acting like three-year-olds who just had their banky sucked out of a window: the PGA Tour’s most famous winless golfer spoke to both NBC and the on-site press before signing autographs for the many fans who were on his side Sunday. Fleetwood kept a smile throughout. We’re lucky to have him.

“All these experiences and these close calls, like I say, there's no point in making or allowing them to have a negative effect on what happens next,” he said. “What would be the point? It was a great week. I did a ton of good stuff, and as disappointed as I am, I have to try to find the strength to make it all a positive experience and hopefully next time go again, put myself in that position again and we just go again.”

Any chance Rory and Collin were taking notes?

It's such a small thing, but I respect him all the more because he could have ducked the hard questions, but instead showed us his human side.  I think the over-under for my allegiance switch at Bethpage is.....wait for it, 10:30 a.m. on Friday morning.  Earlier if Patrick shows up hatless again....

Shack sums up the Ryder Cup ebb and flow:

On the plus side for Captain Keegan Bradley:

• J.J. Spaun (2nd) may be playing all five sessions if he continues to swing the club like he did in Memphis. Spaun has clinched a top-six spot and looks like a machine under pressure.

• Cameron Young will move up the points list to 14th after a final round 64 and fifth-place finish. It’s hard to imagine how he’s bypassed as a pick

• Ben Griffin registered his ninth top 10 of the year and remains ninth in points.

• Andrew Novak’s T6 finish will keep him in the top 12 points earners with longshot hopes of a Captain’s pick.

• Patrick Cantlay demonstrated signs of life with a 70-67-66-68, T9 finish ahead of the BMW at Caves Valley where he was victorious six years ago.

• Fellow T22 finishers Xander Schauffele and Colin Morikawa each posted a 65 in otherwise ordinary weeks by their high standards. But Morikawa made it through the week without incident using his fifth luggage handler of 2025. Baby steps!

 Missing from Captain Bradley's list of positives is anything favorable about Playuer Bradley.

On the flip side:

On the plus side for European Captain Luke Donald:

• The performance of Rose (Win) and Fleetwood (T3). Not that either man’s place on the team was in doubt, but Rose made four birdies in his last five holes and another two birdies in three playoff holes. It’s absurdly impressive stuff from a guy whose should be starting to scout out the Boeing Classic venue at this point in his career.

• Viktor Hovland (T32) posted rounds of 68-67-67 after opening with 74. Nothing great. But nothing to worry about. Unless he fires another coach.

• Ludvig Aberg (T9) recorded his second top 10 since missing the U.S. Open cut.

• Jon Rahm nearly won the LIV Chicago event.

• Sergio Garcia faded down the stretch and just got that much easier to bypass with the final Captain’s pick.

That last one is just a crushing blow....  but at least leaves my options open to switch sides.

Here's a quick snapshot of team standings:

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Schauffele 3. Spaun 4. Henley 5. DeChambeau 6. English 7. Thomas 8. Morikawa 9. Griffin 10. Bradley 11. McNealy 12. Novak 13. Harman 14. Young 15. Cantlay

 TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS 

1. McIlroy 2. Rose 3. Fleetwood 4. MacIntyre 5. Hatton 6. Straka 7. Lowry 8. R. Hojgaard 9. Aberg 10. Hovland 11. Wallace 12. Fitzpatrick 13. Detry 14. Rai 15. J. Smith

There was this silly bit from the TC panel:

The six auto-qualifying spots for the U.S. Ryder Cup team will be set following next week’s BMW Championship, and with a $20 million purse offered at the BMW, there’s still time for some players just outside that cutoff to make a major move and secure their spot. Which player on the bubble most needs a big week to jump into the top six so they don’t have to worry about receiving a captain’s pick?

Jack Hirsch: I don’t think there’s any other answer than the defending champion this week, Keegan Bradley. Also known as the team captain. Keegan is 10th on the U.S. points list, and he seems to have softened his stance that he wouldn’t pick himself. I don’t know the math, but I would assume only another win would get him into the top-6. Otherwise, it will be very interesting to watch what he decides regarding picking himself or even relinquishing the captaincy.

James Colgan: Keegan is a good answer, but I’m leaning towards Chris Gotterup. He’s been a hard charger in the last few weeks — along with Cameron Young — but a T54 finish in Memphis wasn’t enough to finish the job. He needs another strong performance.

Jessica Marksbury: Agree with my colleagues on Keegan and Chris, and will also add Andrew Novak to the list. Novak was ranked 13th on the Ryder Cup points list heading into the FedEx St. Jude, and frankly, was not a name I would have considered for the team. But a T6 finish in Memphis should help his cause, and backing it up with another strong performance next week could end up being a major difference-maker.

Chris Gotterup the two-week wonder?  Sheesh!

Dylan Dethier had this extended analysis in his Monday Finish column:

Team USA taking shape.

Let’s tier out the Americans.

Tier 1: ALREADY LOCKS BEFORE MEMPHIS (3)

Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Xander Schauffele

Tier 2: JUST NEEDED PROOF OF LIFE; NOW THEY’RE IN (5)

J.J. Spaun (second place), Patrick Cantlay (T9), Russell Henley (T17), Collin Morikawa (T22), Justin Thomas (T28)

Tier 3: FINISHED T48 IN MEMPHIS BUT STILL HAS TO BE IN (1)

Harris English

Tier 4: ONE MORE SIGN OF LIFE IN THE NEXT COUPLE WEEKS COULDN’T HURT (1)

Keegan Bradley

Tier 5: TRENDING UP (2)

Cameron Young, Ben Griffin

Tier 6: ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN (5)

Mav McNealy, Sam Burns, Andrew Novak, Chris Gotterup, Jordan Spieth

DARK, DARK HORSES

Akshay Bhatia, Brian Harman, Kurt Kitayama, and just for fun, Jackson Koivun

Tier 8: OFFICIALLY OUT

Wyndham Clark, Daniel Berger, Jake Knapp, Patrick Reed

SO IF YOU HAD TO PICK TODAY…

Scottie Scheffler

J.J. Spaun

Xander Schauffele

Russell Henley

Bryson DeChambeau

Harris English

–

Justin Thomas

Collin Morikawa

Patrick Cantlay

Cameron Young

Ben Griffin

Keegan Bradley

Ultimately all that chatter amounts to this: You’re skipping past Nos. 11, 12 and 13 on the below list and taking a hot hand (Young) and a proven killer (Cantlay). Up for debate is whether Bradley would like to sacrifice himself in the process…

I think it more likely than not that Bradley leaves himself off the team, unless something special happens this week.   Not that any of the replacements will blow your socks off....

The European team is even more locked down, a virtual mirror image of that 2023 squad:

Team Europe's Likely Ryder Cup Roster

Rory McIlroy
Jon Rahm
Sepp Straka
Tyrrell Hatton
Ludvig Aberg
Viktor Hovland
Tommy Fleetwood
Robert MacIntyre
Shane Lowry
Matt Fitzpatrick
Justin Rose
12th pick???

What have those guys ever done?  

Harry Hall is getting surprising support for that last spot, although I'd bet on a Hojgaard twin to be named later (which logically would be the one that wasn't on the 2023 team).

That will have to do you for today, and I'm unclear as to the blogging schedule for the remainder of the week.  Check back early and often just to be safe.

Thursday Threads - Rebuilding Edition

Humpty Dumpty will be put back together, though at this juncture it's still a work in process.

The big work will happen early next week, for now we have TV on some old TVs we had lying around.  I'm using the disruption to make a service provider change that's long overdue, so we'll be hopefully building back better, as the kids say.

Monday morning is the service switchover, so I'll keep my options open as to whether there will be time to blog.  I'll try not to keep you hanging on an event as important as Memphis in August.....errr, you do know I'm pulling your leg, right?

Bandon Daze - In case you've been in a bubble, the U.S. Women's Amateur is being contested at Bandon Dunes, and yesterday's round of 64 provided great viewing.  Problem is, try to find a game story or any other coverage, so we'll do the best we can:

Co-medalists, including defending champ, fall in Round of 64 at U.S. Women's Amateur

Arianna Lau didn't know how close Rianne Malixi hit her approach shot on the par-5 18th hole, she just knew it was close.

Roughly 10 feet, to be exact, is how close the defending U.S. Women's Amateur champion hit her 3 wood for an eagle look. Lau knew she had to respond, and she did.

Hitting 3 wood herself, Lau smoked her shot to the front left part of the green and watched it roll to about 13 feet from the pin, just outside Malixi's ball. Then, the 64 seed, who advanced to earn the final spot in match play after a 3-hour, 3-minute playoff Wednesday morning, buried the putt, and Malixi couldn't match.

Lau knocked out the defending champion 1 up on Wednesday afternoon under a blanket of clouds at Bandon Dunes on the Oregon coast. She had a 1-up lead on the 17th hole and missed a 3 footer for par for Malixi to tie the match, but she stepped up and hit one of the best shots of her life to knock out the top seed and defending champion on the 18th hole.

That's Lau's reaction in the photo above, and she was hardly the only big name to fall:

Malixi wasn't the only co-medalist to fall Thursday. Asterisk Talley, who lost to Malixi in the championship match last year at Southern Hills, is also heading home.

The No. 2 seed fell to Australia's Ella Scaysbrook 6 and 4, ending an insane run that started last

week with her victory at the Junior PGA Championship in Indiana. Scaysbrook was 2 up after three holes and held that lead until the 11th, where she won four straight holes to knock off one of the best juniors in the world.

Scaysbrook, who is playing in her first USGA event, said she took the underdog mentality in her match, understanding how talented her opponent was. She proved she's worthy of her flowers, too.

"Proud of myself, yeah," she said. "It's pretty big. Yeah, it was very good. Good match."

Both co-medalists have lost in the Round of 64 for the first time in 10 years. Meanwhile, world No. 1 Kiara Romero took her opening match, 4 and 3. The top seed left, Eila Galitsky, a rising sophomore at South Carolina, won her match, 4 and 3.

A few "names" left as per that last 'graph, though none of the names are especially familiar.  But it's match play at a spectacular venue, making for far more interesting viewing than anything that might happen in Memphis.

TV coverage is frustratingly limited, including a complete blackout of this morning's round of 32.  They are back on tonight at 6:00 p.m. EDT with the round of 16.  Worth a watch, if only for the venue.

This additional item informs of some interesting further developments at the resort:

The 125th U.S. Women’s Amateur is under way, the ninth different USGA amateur event held at Bandon Dunes since 2006, including the 2020 U.S. Amateur and 2022 U.S. Junior Amateur.

There are 11 more future USGA amateur events scheduled for Bandon Dunes, dating all the way out to 2045. By then, the trailblazer of modern destination golf in America will likely look vastly different than it does now, but its core will remain unscathed.

Vastly?  Not sure where that comes from, as everything seems quite incremental:

Things are changing, however, as Bandon's profile as the best public golf resort in the country solidifies and demand to play it increases.

Bandon Dunes will host the 2026 PGA Professional Championship, the national championship for PGA of America golf professionals, from which the top 20 players earn a spot in that year’s PGA Championship. The 72 holes will be played across Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, both of which are ranked within the top 10 public courses in America.

“We’re excited to host that championship and bring a level of pro golf here,” Simonds says. “We’ve never sat down and had a conversation of if we want to have a [PGA] Tour event or host a major before. We’re focused on making it the best experience for our guests week in and week out.”

I think they've gotten it pretty correct in limiting themselves to amateur events, but the big news here is that Pacific Dunes, the most telegenic of their five courses, will get a moment in the sun.  Their courses weren't designed to withstand the PGA Tour, and they'd do well to remember that, not even addressing the town of Bandon's inability to handle the PGA Tour's traveling circus.

Memphis In August - That sound you hear is Hoagy Carmichael spinning in his grave, not that I expect many to pick up on that reference.  How bad are the FedEx Playoffs?  Well, for the first time I can recall since 2007, the first playoff event is being defined by a discussion of that guy that didn't show up.

Here's the Golf Digest take, via Joel Beall:

Rory McIlroy didn't create a problem for the PGA Tour, he exposed one

 How does the PGA Tour sell that the FedEx Cup matters when the actions of one of its biggest stars essentially say the opposite?

That is the legitimate worry surrounding Rory McIlroy's absence this week as the tour's three-event postseason series begins with the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis. But the outrage that has followed reveals little about McIlroy's commitment and is missing the point. The problem isn't the player—it's the product.

McIlroy's decision was hardly spontaneous. He telegraphed this move throughout the year, specifically citing last year at TPC Southwind—where he finished second to last yet dropped only two spots in the playoff standings—as proof that his participation carries minimal competitive consequence in the current structure. This strategic absence is not new; McIlroy did the same in 2015 and 2018, and follows an established playbook. Tiger Woods skipped the inaugural FedEx Cup event in 2007 and went on to claim the tour’s “ultimate prize.” That year, Phil Mickelson, leading the standings after winning the second tournament, passed on the third playoff event in Chicago despite literally playing in a corporate outing miles away.

Yet the McIlroy’s absence sparked reactions this week after player director Peter Malnati told Golfweek he was "very concerned" alluded to possible future measures to prevent players from skipping playoff events—social media quickly ready to label any measure the “Rory Rule.”

Beall captures the zeitgeist with this:

The timing couldn't be more perfect for manufactured drama. August represents the dead zone of the sports calendar, when fans and media desperately grasp for storylines worth dissecting. What should have been a footnote about schedule management has metastasized into a capital-T Thing, with pundits debating what this reveals about McIlroy's character, the tour's authority, and the postseason's legitimacy. Meanwhile, the actual guys competing in Memphis have been reduced to background noise in their own tournament.

Yes, Rory's character has been much discussed over the last few months, and quite the dichotomy has developed between his words and his actions.  But more than anything, perhaps we can reframe our perception of Rory (and Tiger, as well) as we see how they do what they damn well please, undermining years of lectures we've endured.

The irony would be delicious if it weren't so damning. For two decades, the PGA Tour has desperately tried to create buzz around its postseason, only to do so through controversy rather than competition.

That's Joel lowering the bar, but fails to lower it sufficiently for the Tour to actually clear it.....

To be fair, Malnati's concern cuts deeper than optics. McIlroy's absence—and the potential for other stars to follow such a path—undoubtedly creates a cascade of disappointed stakeholders: TV networks that paid premium rates expecting McIlroy and corporate partners who tied their investment to star power. Officials with FedEx, pumping nine figures into the playoffs bearing their name, will watch their marquee event in their corporate hometown proceed without arguably the tour's most marketable player, representing the kind of sponsor relations failure that keeps executives awake. Forcing players to compete in all three Playoff events perhaps solves that. But this crisis illuminates the playoffs' vulnerability—its dependence on individual star power rather than intrinsic competitive value. When one player's absence threatens your entire narrative, the foundation was already shaky.

McIlroy deserves some criticism here. He advocated for signature events in 2022, promising star commitment, then skipped several of those too. His post-Masters year has included multiple PR missteps. But given the personal and professional turbulence he's navigated recently, this strategic absence warrants understanding and grace rather than condemnation.

Wow, Joel, that last 'graph feels quite mad and unsupported to this observer, and that grace you're after seems, unearned.  In that linked piece, Beall unsuccessfully attempts to link Rory's off-putting behavior to Scottie Scheffler's pre-Portrush comments about golf not defining his life:

But Scheffler's words resonate louder than ever because of Rory McIlroy's current plight.

The past three months were not what anyone envisioned for McIlroy. The Ulsterman had finally been liberated from the exhausting quest to prove he could reclaim his former greatness. The

career Grand Slam was complete, lifting a burden whose true weight only he could measure. Instead, McIlroy's post-Masters victory lap became a disorienting spiral—marked by media confrontations and behavior that seemed jarringly out of character. When he finally acknowledged his frustration with press coverage, insisting on his right to act as he pleased, it felt like watching someone burn down the very foundation of their public identity. For a player whose enormous popularity rests largely on the perception that he serves as golf's moral north star, it appeared to be not merely incompatible with who we think he is but almost willfully self-destructive.

Much has been dissected about McIlroy's recent months—waves of criticism, indignation, disappointment, and concern washing over a sport struggling to understand what is up with Rory. This is emphatically not the player, the person, that golf has proudly positioned as its standard-bearer. Yet perhaps insufficient attention has been paid to the direct line connecting his green jacket triumph to the chaos that followed. As McIlroy himself has acknowledged, this pursuit had consumed him for so long that he never contemplated what would happen after. What was meant to be his ultimate destination instead stripped away his navigational compass. For all the grace McIlroy has extended to the game throughout his career, the golf world may have failed to offer him the same patience as he grappled with fundamental questions: What comes next, what truly matters, and why any of it should matter at all?

If I understand Joel correctly, Rory deserves grace and is allowed to be a hypocritical asshat because, well here it gets a little hard to follow, he wasn't ready to succeed?  Boy, that bar is so low as to be subterranean....

To me it's pretty simple.  Rory used his status in the game to push for these elevated events, sorry, money grabs, because we the fans needed to know when he was playing.  Yet he feels entitled to skip four of these events in 2025, confirming that he was playing us all along.  

Yet, you likely don't me to understand that Joel's arguments for "grace" means he wants to avoid a troubling question, to wit, did we misjudge Rory all along?  I see a man who can't be bothered to show up or do the things necessary to promote an event (speaking to the media being the most obvious), so I take him to be just another in an endless series of touring professionals who are entirely self-absorbed....  He does what he wants to do, not what needs doing by his own definition.  Noted.

TC Silliness - Looking mostly for low-impact blogging at this juncture, and you'll be amused that this is how the lead this week's Tour Confidential panel:

With the FedEx Cup Playoffs finally here, it means there are only three events left to

influence the race for Player of the Year between the two obvious front-runners: Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy has won three times, which includes the Players and Masters, the latter completing the career Grand Slam. Scheffler has won four times, highlighted by his PGA and Open Championship major titles. Who should win?

Josh Schrock: Who should win is Scottie. Even Rory admitted at the Open that he won three times while Scheffler wasn’t at full flight due to a hand injury. But winning the Players and the Masters, especially in the fashion he did to win the career Grand Slam, might make the voters give it to Rory.

Josh Sens: The career Grand Slam was an epic achievement for McIlroy, emphasis on career. We are choosing the better season. Scheffler has not only won more often this year. He’s won more majors. Case closed.

James Colgan: Golly, I’d love if we chose POTY by accolades alone, but this is a toughie because of the way the Tour structures its ballots and the two different stretches of dominant play we saw this season. Scottie is clearly the best player in the world, with clearly the best resume, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Rory won it in a “Lifetime Achievement” fashion.

Given the discussion above, Rory winning POY would tell us all we need to know about this clown show....which also reminds us why actual PGA Tour golf has become so unwatchable.

And would you ever believe they could milk this subject further?

Is there anything that could happen in the playoffs that would flip your decision?

Schrock: Zero. The meaningful golf was wrapped. Apologies to the sponsors and partners.

Sens: No. Unless we are voting on the guy who most increased his net worth.

Colgan: No, but if McIlroy wins the Tour Championship, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tour’s players (aka, the POTY voters) disagreed.

The better question might be as to what might happen in the playoffs that we'd even care about, but I'm also a hard no.

Given that these guys are typically Tour sycophants (access, and all), those answers should be devastating to the Tour, putting the lie to their season coda.  But everyone is too invested in the current system, so we'll all continue to live the Big Lie.

That's it for today.  I'll be back as time and events permit.  Have a great weekend.

Weekend Wrap - Lightning Round Edition

OK, I'm not going to keep you long, but boy do I have a story for you...

At about 3:30-4:00 Thursday afternoon predicted thunderstorms arrived.  The bride and I were cleaning up after an event at the club, when a bolt of lightning struck with a volume that I'm guessing equates to the Nagasaki explosion, immediately taking down our power and everything else.  The direct strike was on the utility pole across the street, which we were later told was aflame.

Power was restored at about 10:00, though Internet and Tv took another couple of days, including a tech visit from Optimum.  But what became clear only Friday morning was that many of our electronic devices got fried, including two TVs (one quite pricey), my computer monitor and all four cable boxes.  My desktop PC might well have survived, it does show a light when I turn it on, but I haven't gotten to testing it yet because of the absence of a functioning monitor.

We have Internet and TV back, although the later only in a couple of rooms using old TVs.  I have my AV guy coming this afternoon, and much to do before he gets here.  So, while I'll wrap the weekend, I'll do so in a cursory manner.  Given that it's August, will anyone even notice?

Cam, Finally - It took a while and it wasn't exactly a Major (or even major in any sense), but still:

Cameron Young’s dominant Wyndham Championship win had everyone asking 1 question

What took so long?  First some blather that exactly no one will believe:

“I’ve been waiting for it for a while,” Young told CBS’ Amanda Balionis after the win. “I never thought I’d really be that emotional about it. But it’s the end of my fourth season. I’ve had my chances, never quite like this, and I wasn’t going to let it get away from me today.”

“It’s not like a burden that I hadn’t won, it’s just something that I hadn’t done and I’d like to,” Young said. “At times it hurts to have played some really good golf and not had that happen, but in all those cases, there were really no times that I had it in my hands and lost. So it’s different I think than having a burden. It wasn’t really like that. It was more just, you know, when is it going to be my time here, because it just felt like a lot of those tournaments weren’t.

“Not a burden in the traditional sense. Today was a different situation than I’ve ever been in. You know, it was our goal today to come out and see how many I could win by if I stuck to our plan.”

Too big a lead against too weak a field, but shall we get back to that burning question?

Young’s plan delivered a rout in Greensboro that was an example of how the man from Scarborough, New York, can overpower a course when he’s firing on all cylinders. The combination of Young’s dominant display, his skillset and his history in the state of New York had everyone turning their attention from a Wyndham Championship win to another event looming in the distance.

What about the Ryder Cup?

With the win in Greensboro, Young, who won the New York State Open at Bethpage Black in 2017, joins a crowded list of fringe candidates for Team USA, including the likes of Jordan Spieth, Sam Burns and captain Keegan Bradley.

And were those guys even in the field?  I'm too lazy to bother checking, but this win doesn't change my own opinion of Cam, which is of a talented player, but one very mistake-prone and not exactly the best putter out there.  I haven't looked at updated standings, but he remains to this observer, at best, in the mix.

Shall we see what the Tour Confidential panel thinks?  Again, that was rhetorical....

Cameron Young cruised at the Wyndham Championship, winning by six to claim the first PGA Tour victory of his career. Before Sunday, Young’s seven career runner-up finishes were the most by any winless player on Tour since 1983. In 2023, Young was ninth in the Ryder Cup standings yet still wasn’t picked. Was this win enough to secure a spot for 2025?

Schrock: The win was good enough to actually get him in the conversation. He has the length and now has a consistent enough putter to be a weapon at Bethpage, a course where he won the New York State Open. But winning the Wyndham isn’t going to be what puts him on the team. If he makes it, it just means Keegan Bradley was already leaning that way due to his skillset and the New York connection. The way I see it, there are three spots for: Young, Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Mav McNealy, Ben Griffin, Brian Harman, and Bradley. I can see the argument for taking Young, but winning in Greensboro shouldn’t be the determining factor.

Sens: Statistically, you could probably argue this either way. This win moves him to 16th in the Ryder Cup standings. But if I were captain, I’d pick him, in part because he has putted so well all year and makes birdies in bunches, which is great for match play. He’s also a New Yorker (who won the state open at Bethpage Black). Give the home crowd even more reason to get riled up.

Colgan: It shouldn’t be. Young has top-five in the world game when it’s all there, and it WAS all there at the Wyndham, but winning one of the weakest events on Tour by field strength shouldn’t be a Ryder Cup roster-changer.

I think these are reasonable takes, and I agree that Cam wasn't in said conversation before this win, so it at least might get him fitted for the swag.  The NY/State Open stuff seems profoundly silly, I suspect Keegs himself would fire up the crowd a whole bunch more than the kid from Westchester.

It might be worth circling back to Schrock's assessment of that gaggle fighting over the last three spots.  Not saying I agree, but I'm pretty sure that Cam isn't in my top three of those names listed, especially when you consider there's no way Cantlay isn't being picked, and could we extend that to Burns, Bradley and Harman?  You see the issues...

I didn't watch a second of it, but am I wrong to think that no one else did as well?

There was a lot to track on Sunday at the Wyndham, with players moving into or barely missing the top 70 (and advancing to the playoffs). Which player’s triumph (or close call) stood out to you most?

Schrock: Davis Thompson three-putting the 18th hole to drop out of the top 70 and finish at 71 was brutal. Gary Woodland also slipped from projected 70th entering the day to 72 with a tough final round. Two gut punches late in the day at Sedgefield.

Sens: Schrock took the words out of my keyboard with the Thompson three-putt. Painful.

Colgan: Mark Hubbard will get the headlines, but I’m impressed by Ben Griffin, who did not NEED to be in the field, but who wound up moving one slot higher in the FedEx Cup standings with a T11. I’ll be interested to see how that helps him over the coming weeks.

Excuse me, but didn't Griffin need to be there for the same reason as Cam?  I just don't think anything that happens to David Thompson (or even Gary Woodland, at this point) is actually exciting, so they can hype it all they want, but I suspect Nielsen will struggle to discern a viewership.

Porthcawling - The more significant event was the ladies playing the final golf major of the year, at a wonderful linksy venue.  Despite your fatigue, this was only the ladies' fifth major of the year, though it can sometimes seem that they occur on a weekly basis.  Geoff has some thoughts:

You’d never know it by her determined gait, repeating swing, and unflappable demeanor: Miyu Yamashita worked overtime to win the second 2025 major by a Japanese woman.

Sunday at the sensational Royal Porthcawl saw more wind than the AIG Women’s Open field had

seen all week, but nothing close to what forecasters said had the potential to derail Yamashita’s prospects. She had fought all parts of her game during Saturday’s 74 and faced several challenges to the lead. But a final-day 70 turned out to be good enough for a two-stroke win over Charley Hull and countrywoman Minami Katsuto.

“To win such a historic tournament in front of all these amazing fans is such an incredible feeling,” Yamashita said. “To have my family around me to have so much support from everyone here is just amazing. To be part of such a moment in history is something very, very special.”

After only missing five fairways in the first two rounds, Yamashita started spraying the ball during Saturday’s third round. Then her normally trusty putter disappeared to produce a whopping 34 putts. But late evening range session with her father and coach—on her 24th birthday!—did the trick. In Sunday’s tougher conditions, Yamashita hit nine fairways, 14 greens and totaled 30 putts to post the 11-under-par, 277 winning total.

This was her first major win in just 14 previous tries, with her best previous work being a T2 and T6 in the KPMG Women’s PGA.

Yamashita looked unflustered even when she briefly lost solo possession of the lead after playing partner A Lim Kim birdied the second and tied the final pairing at nine-under.

Yamashita responded with three birdies in her next seven holes.

Given our AV issues, I only got to see a couple of hours of the final round, in which Royal Porthcawl looked far more linksy than Crail had firsthand.

To some extent this just highlights the struggle of the ladies game, a great event but a leaderboard with mostly unfamiliar names.  Charlie Hull inserted herself on Sunday, so at least we've heard of her, not that she's actually won anything important.

It's the last major of the season and that TC panel finally gets around to this event, but....  We know their core business is Tiger sycophancy, so maybe we should be happy this wasn't a Tiger-centric question:

Japan’s Miyu Yamashita outlasted Charley Hull and Minami Katsu to win the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Porthcawl, claiming the first major title of her career. Further down the leaderboard, tied for 36th, was Nelly Korda, who one year ago won seven times in 16 starts. Now, with the LPGA major season complete, she is winless in 13 starts. What gives? And which season was more likely the outlier, last year or this year?

Schrock: I think the answer probably lies in the middle. Both are outliers. Korda is a phenomenal player who got blistering hot last year and ripped off seven wins. She has played good golf this year, but just a tick below her normal level, and has nothing to show for it. It’s a disappointing year for Nelly but it’s more disappointing for women’s golf that needs her, or someone, to carry the LPGA to new heights. Nelly’s year reminded me a lot of the stretch Rory had from the time golf picked up during the pandemic through the middle of 2021 when he finally won at Wells Fargo. The golf has been solid to good but not up to her standards and it appears worse given how good she can be at full flight.

Sens: There’s definitely a sense of some existential struggle. Not long ago, she took time off, citing burnout. As everybody knows, the mental and the physical are so hard to disentangle. Scottie Scheffler made that clear in his now-famous pre-Open Championship press conference, which veered as close to philosophical as a press conference gets. I would guess that Korda would benefit from adopting a Scheffler mindset. Who wouldn’t?

Colgan: I am haunted by a piece of Korda analysis from last April delivered by none other than Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley. I’m paraphrasing, but the thrust was: she’s a great player, but she’s not a transformative star for women’s golf. I don’t think there is some greater disappointment afoot here for Korda, I merely think she’s a great player who might not be a transformative star. The women’s game could badly use one of those.

The ladies should be allowed to celebrate their final major and one might expect a major golf publication to have thoughts on it, but they can only see women's golf in the form of just the one lady.  Kind of demeaning to the girls, no?

Udder Stuff -  I'm just going to riff on the TC panel's lede item, only because of the obvious lameness:

With the FedEx Cup Playoffs finally here, it means there are only three events left to influence the race for Player of the Year between the two obvious front-runners: Rory

McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy has won three times, which includes the Players and Masters, the latter completing the career Grand Slam. Scheffler has won four times, highlighted by his PGA and Open Championship major titles. Who should win?

Josh Schrock: Who should win is Scottie. Even Rory admitted at the Open that he won three times while Scheffler wasn’t at full flight due to a hand injury. But winning the Players and the Masters, especially in the fashion he did to win the career Grand Slam, might make the voters give it to Rory.

Josh Sens: The career Grand Slam was an epic achievement for McIlroy, emphasis on career. We are choosing the better season. Scheffler has not only won more often this year. He’s won more majors. Case closed.

James Colgan: Golly, I’d love if we chose POTY by accolades alone, but this is a toughie because of the way the Tour structures its ballots and the two different stretches of dominant play we saw this season. Scottie is clearly the best player in the world, with clearly the best resume, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Rory won it in a “Lifetime Achievement” fashion.

Isn't this question three weeks early?  They seem to imply that nothing that happens in the Playoffs will affect their answers....  Kind of a diss to the Tour, no?

The other point to make is that Rory won his events before Scottie found his form, whereas Scottie won his after Rory had lost his mind.  I certainly know who the better player is...

Then, with this, they admit that they're just wasting our time:

Is there anything that could happen in the playoffs that would flip your decision?

Schrock: Zero. The meaningful golf was wrapped. Apologies to the sponsors and partners.

Sens: No. Unless we are voting on the guy who most increased his net worth.

Colgan: No, but if McIlroy wins the Tour Championship, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Tour’s players (aka, the POTY voters) disagreed.

This is shockingly (and I have to believe, unintentionally) honest, as they are admitting out loud that the playoffs aren't meaningful golf.  I mean, of course they're right, I just expect things like that to be said in plain English.

I like the apology to the sponsors, though they probably know how effed they are.....

I'm going to leave you here and dive into my home issues.  I'll probably see you later in the week, but need to focus on other issues right now.  Have a great week.