Scottie Scheffler’s Tour Championship win revealed two attention-grabbing issues about him.
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Welcome to the Monday End, the place soccer’s high receiver acquired put in handcuffs and everybody began making golf jokes! Scottie Scheffler actually IS reaching famous person standing. To the information…
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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
Beef is again.
Matt Wallace was in tears as he stepped up for his post-round interview.
“Knackered,” he mentioned. “That was a tough day.”
It was an understandably emotional second for Wallace, who’d simply gained on the DP World Tour for the primary time since 2018. He’d damaged his worldwide winless streak eventually 12 months’s Corales Puntacana Championship, however a win on his residence circuit meant one thing additional for the 34-year-old Englishman. His four-shot final-round lead had evaporated however he’d punched again with a birdie on the primary additional gap.
“I caught at it and that’s me, and that’s golf. For me, that’s Matt Wallace golf proper there,” he mentioned.
It was becoming that Wallace gained this match, the European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre in Switzerland, given this was the location of a heartbreaking playoff loss right here two years in the past. However his time beyond regulation birdie lifted him over Alfredo Garcia-Heredia of Spain and instantly he reset his objectives to one thing larger.
“Ryder Cup, let’s go,” he mentioned.
However arguably the larger comeback belonged to Andrew “Beef” Johnston, who didn’t win however got here rattling shut.
It’s been an extended climb for Johnston, who burst onto the scene in 2016 as a Spanish Open champ and an Open Champ contender with a trademark beard and an infectious smile. The accompanying fanfare was quite a bit to deal with; in subsequent seasons he misplaced his PGA Tour card and struggled with expectations. Nonetheless, he remained a fixture on the European tour — till, amid a battle with each bodily and psychological well being, he all however disappeared from aggressive golf in 2022 and 2023, enjoying only one match and slipping outdoors the highest 2,000 on this planet.
Even his comeback has been removed from glamorous; our Sean Zak detailed how the week of this 12 months’s Open, the eight-year reunion of the “finest golf of his life,” he was lacking the minimize in California on the alternate-field Barracuda Championship.
However one thing has clicked within the final month. T23 on the Czech Masters. T18 on the British Masters. After which got here Sunday’s 66, which secured a solo third for Johnston, his finest end in 4 years. He was one wiggle shy of a playoff however the end catapulted him up 69 spots to No. 85 on the Race to Dubai rankings, securing him some standing past this season.
“There’s a whole lot of reduction,” he mentioned. “It’s been a troublesome couple of years. It’s been powerful.”
The truth that Beef’s been going via “powerful” — and he’s nonetheless going? That’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who gained the week?
There have been no occasions on the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, the LET, the Korn Ferry Tour or LIV however there’s at all times golf being performed, which implies we’ll by no means run out of winners.
Matt Wallace gained on the DP World Tour for the fifth time and moved as much as No. 73 on this planet.
Japan’s Kensei Hirata gained on the Asian Tour’s Shinhan Donghae Open, an occasion co-sanctioned by the Japan Golf Tour, to maneuver to No. 131 on this planet.
Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen gained the Problem Tour’s Massive Inexperienced Egg German Problem, residence to my favourite tee markers in golf.
Fatima Fernandez Cano gained her third Epson Tour title of the season; she’s now mathematically assured to get her LPGA Tour card again. With three tournaments left so are Yahui Zhang, Jessica Porvasnik and Lauren Stephenson.
The PGA Tour Americas wrapped up its summer time as Will Cannon gained the Fortinet Cup Championship and 10 execs secured their Korn Ferry Tour playing cards: John Keefer, Frederik Kjettrup, Matthew Anderson, Barend Botha, Clay Feagler, Cannon, Harry Hillier, Sandy Scott, Ryan Burnett and Ian Holt.
And Y.E. Yang beat Bernhard Langer in a playoff on the Ascension Charity Traditional, claiming his first PGA Tour Champions title 15 years and a month after beating Tiger Woods on the 2009 PGA Championship.
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NOT-WINNERS
Who’s out?
LIV Golf’s Particular person Championship takes place outdoors of Chicago this week. There are big-time prizes up for grabs on the high of LIV’s season-long race, the place Jon Rahm leads over Joaquin Niemann. However there’s arguably much more at stake for gamers decrease on the order of benefit. Gamers who end 25-48 on the checklist and don’t have contracts (the contracts are secret, so your guess is nearly as good as mine) will turn into free brokers after this season with no assure of re-signing, whereas gamers outdoors the highest 48 can be booted from the league (except they play their means again in by way of LIV’s Promotions occasion).
In response to LIV, seven gamers at the moment within the Chicago discipline are outdoors that high 48 — the “Drop Zone” — whereas seven extra may technically fall into that relegation zone, too.
The seven at the moment on the surface: Scott Vincent, Branden Grace, Bubba Watson, Kalle Samooja, Kieran Vincent and wild card gamers Hudson Swafford and Anthony Kim. Watson is a captain and thus exempt from relegation; it’s not clear what’ll occur to the wild card gamers.
The seven at the moment on the within and hoping to remain there? That features some star energy, too: Henrik Stenson, Mito Pereira, Phil Mickelson, Jinichiro Kozuma, Ian Poulter, Harold Varner III and Pat Perez. Stenson, Mickelson and Poulter are captains and due to this fact protected. However whoever will get relegated could have an attention-grabbing and unsure future; they’ll seemingly have alternatives to play Asian Tour occasions however any highway again to the PGA Tour for, say, Varner doesn’t at the moment exist.
SHORT HITTERS
5 execs with one thing to show on the Solheim Cup.
Nelly Korda is anticipated to steer the American aspect; she’s gained at historic ranges this season and is runaway World No. 1 however it is a distinctly totally different kind of strain: group play and match play in particular context: the U.S. group hasn’t gained any of the final three Cups. (They tied final 12 months, however Europe retained.)
Lauren Coughlin makes her Solheim Cup debut in her residence state, capping off a dream 12 months during which she gained her first LPGA title — after which her second, only a couple weeks later. Coughlin grew up in Virginia and went to the College of Virginia, too. She’ll hope to win some matches on her residence turf, too.
Lexi Thompson caps off her closing full season on the LPGA Tour with a captain’s choose onto her seventh (!) group; she’ll step into the fireplace of group match play as considered one of solely two gamers on the roster who has been on a profitable U.S. group.
Charley Hull is available in as the highest points-getter amongst European qualifiers; this has additionally been a banner 12 months for her play and recognition. Hull has battled some harm late within the 12 months however relishes match-play conditions and crowds rooting towards her; we’ll see how she fares this go ’spherical.
Leona Maguire hasn’t been enjoying notably properly however remained excessive sufficient in Rolex Rankings to qualify robotically; she would have been an apparent choose regardless because of her 7-2-1 report during the last three cups.
ONE DUMB GRAPHIC
Like I mentioned, I’m a sucker for the mini Massive Inexperienced Egg.
ONE SWING THOUGHT
Get again to your roots.
Collin Morikawa‘s resurgent 2024 season got here partially attributable to his reconnection with lifelong coach Rick Sessinghaus. Viktor Hovland confirmed some enchancment after getting again with swing coach Joe Mayo. Rory McIlroy noticed his recreation enhance when he stopped messing about and went again to work with childhood coach Michael Bannon. Coach-player connections are difficult and fickle however I’ve grown fascinated by the concept golfers on the highest stage do finest once they return to some type of important id.
An Irish TV station posted a video exhibiting McIlroy and caddie Harry Diamond enjoying Royal County Down forward of this week’s Irish Open with Bannon alongside, working via some swing ideas. That’s good vibes — contemplate that Bannon got here to the U.S. earlier this 12 months forward of the Wells Fargo, which wound up being McIlroy’s most dominant match win in years. But it surely doesn’t fairly assure a win; Bannon was there at Royal Troon, too, forward of McIlroy’s MC. What’s the swing thought right here? Keep true to your roots, I assume. Swing your swing. Particularly when you’re a top-10 golfer on this planet.
ONE BIG QUESTION
What are Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy doing?
There are golf matches and there are golf matches, and the just lately introduced showdown pitting Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau towards Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler is the latter.
For the time being PGA Tour gamers can’t freely enter LIV occasions. Nor can LIV gamers play PGA Tour occasions. They meet at majors, at the least a few of ’em, nevertheless it appeared from the surface like that was kinda the one possibility.
However apparently it isn’t?
This fourball appears like a robust suggestion, like a deliberate message, like a shot despatched from the PGA Tour’s finest participant and its greatest star to golf’s management that they’re keen to work with LIV execs.
“I believe for the gamers it’s a method to capitalize on all the pieces that’s been happening,” McIlroy instructed UTV on Monday. “For golf to be as sturdy as it may be we want the most effective gamers enjoying towards one another extra usually, and never simply the 4 instances a 12 months on the majors. So if this match assist alongside the way in which at getting folks again collectively, hopefully that’s a superb factor.”
The match seems to be an olive department prolonged and accepted by keen co-conspirators. DeChambeau just lately mentioned that he thinks LIV’s high precedence needs to be figuring issues out with the Tour. Koepka has by no means been overly rah-rah about his new circuit and has expressed a need to play towards PGA Tour guys extra usually. The 2 of them stand to profit from the match as a result of it will get them again within the ring with two high Tour stars.
The match stands to profit, too, from being the primary LIV vs. PGA Tour-style showdown. And the cynics amongst you could possibly recommend that this gained’t do something to meaningfully advance negotiations and that that is only a money seize for all 4. You would possibly even be proper. And the entire thing would have extra juice if it was a true grudge match and these guys brazenly hated one another moderately than working collectively as enterprise companions arriving at a mutually useful association. Nonetheless, that is vital, particularly because it pertains to one query:
If this match is a tiny first step, what’s the second?
ONE THING TO WATCH
James Earl Jones.
Let the voice of the incomparable James Earl Jones wash over you for a pair minutes of nostalgic goodness. What a strong presence. He’ll be missed.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday End HQ.
I’ve been working in espresso outlets recently which implies this week I used to be uncovered to what I think about is an every-year phenomenon: Again to College Week means dad and mom go wild. My common spots had been jam-packed after drop-off. Dad and mom socializing, commiserating, working, slamming espresso, hammering pastries. If the bars had been open these might need been packed, too.
Already by Week 2 issues have slowed down, however huge congrats to all of the dad and mom on the market. I hope you discover peace after drop-off. You earned it.
We’ll see you subsequent week!
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Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
