Girls’s Open surprises, Bob Mac’s win with Dad

Test in each week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most well liked matters within the sport, and be part of the dialog by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we focus on the U.S. Girls’s Open, Robert MacIntyre’s familial victory, an attention-grabbing Ryder Cup resolution and extra.

Yuka Saso burst onto the scene with an surprising U.S. Girls’s Open victory in 2021, however after a few winless seasons she picked up her second profession LPGA victory at this week’s U.S. Girls’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership. Was this an surprising winner?

James Colgan, information and options editor (@jamescolgan26): I’m undecided I’d name a participant who completed 2nd and T3 on the KPMG and Evian final 12 months an ‘surprising’ winner. Some gamers have a present for enjoying effectively when the situations get robust. A 68 on Sunday — when solely 13 gamers in the complete subject performed underneath par — would appear to be proof.

Zephyr Melton, assistant editor (@zephyrmelton): It’s not as if Saso disappeared the final couple of years — she simply didn’t win. As James famous above, she completed inside the highest 3 twice in majors final summer time. It was solely a matter of time earlier than she broke by means of and received on the largest stage once more. I’d be stunned if that is the final time we see Saso hoist the trophy on main Sunday.

Josh Sens, senior author (@joshsens): I’d like to have a so-so 12 months like Saso had in 2023. Successful’s arduous. So many issues must go proper (like, as an illustration, Nelly Korda lacking the minimize). After which it’s a must to be prepared once they do. Saso was. Nice mixture of energy and poise. I second Zephyr. I’d be stunned if she doesn’t repeat the feat earlier than lengthy.

Alan Bastable, government editor (@alan_bastable): Stunning: Nelly Korda lacking a minimize. Not shocking: A participant who already has confirmed she will be able to win a U.S. Girls’s Open doing it once more. And Yuka did it by dropping the hammer. 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch on the again 9 as the opposite contenders had been struggling to make pars? That’s critically stout stuff. Additionally cool: that Yuka has now received U.S. Opens for 2 international locations that by no means had one (Philippines in ’21 and Japan this 12 months).

One participant who didn’t make the weekend at Lancaster was 29-year-old Lexi Thompson, who stole the headlines earlier within the week when she introduced that after this season she’ll now not play a full-time LPGA schedule. Shocked? Not stunned? 

Colgan: The timing was surprising, however the information wasn’t. Lexi has lengthy appeared from afar to be one in every of golf’s most tortured gamers. No amount of cash or fame is sufficient to overcome plain disenchantment with the life of a professional golfer. Good on her for making a choice for her happiness.

Melton: I’m not shocked by the information. Lexi has in the reduction of on her enjoying schedule significantly over the previous few years and hasn’t performed exceptionally effectively when she has teed it up. And contemplating she turned professional at 15(!) she’s been enjoying professional golf for nearly half her life. That’s a very long time to be on the grind.I hope she will be able to discover happiness within the subsequent stage of her journey.

Sens: Not stunned in any respect. It’s an enormous world on the market, and Thompson had lengthy appeared prepared to interrupt from the small nook of it she’s been residing in. It’s no secret that the tunnel imaginative and prescient required to compete at that stage requires a ton of non-public sacrifice. She’s over it. For now, anyway. Good for her for recognizing that. Even higher, she’s younger sufficient that she will be able to all the time return to it if she has a change of coronary heart.

Bastable: ​​OK, I’ll chunk. Colour me stunned! Sure, Thompson has had a rollercoaster couple of years, however she discovered her type once more within the again half of 2023 and seemed to be reasserting her place among the many LPGA’s alphas. She even had a brand new ball deal for this 12 months! I didn’t see her pulling the plug. Then once more, I get it. She’s solely 29 however has been underneath the highlight a minimum of since she performed in a USWO at 12 and, on a extra native stage, lengthy earlier than that. Ultimately the grind will get to you.    

Even when she wasn’t enjoying effectively, Thompson had lengthy been a fan favourite and somebody the ladies’s recreation was strongly marketed behind. How large of a blow will her full-time absence be to the LPGA Tour? 

Colgan: Properly, it’s clearly a substantial blow to the LPGA, however it primarily means the burden falls to the remainder of the sport’s stars. I used to be impressed with how Nelly Korda dealt with a disastrous week, and I believed the timing was telling the place the eye will shift.

Melton: It can actually be felt, however fortunately the Tour has Nelly’s starpower to market now. If somebody like Rose Zhang or Lilia Vu can rise as much as problem her, the LPGA will probably be simply nice.

Sens: James and Zephyr have stated it effectively. I’d simply add that this hardly seems like an abrupt departure. Extra like a gradual phasing out, as she’d already been chopping again and never placing herself in competition in lots of large occasions when she did. This isn’t a sudden intestine punch.

Bastable: Large loss for positive. Not simply because she brings to the ladies’s recreation (and, final fall, the PGA Tour) a model of grip-it-and-rip-it golf that’s a lot enjoyable watch but additionally as a result of she understands the significance of her star energy (a number of gamers final week talked about Thompson’s dedication to waving the LPGA flag at pro-am events). I witnessed this myself just some weeks in the past on the Founders Cup pro-am pairings celebration in northern New Jersey. Lexi wasn’t simply there to examine a field. She was smiling, shaking palms and current. 

What occasion from the previous week was extra shocking? Nelly Korda recording a ten and lacking the minimize, or Charley Hull going viral (and gaining a ton of publicity and social media followers) for, effectively, a cigarette?

Colgan: Nelly was the very best participant on the planet, male or feminine, during the last six months. Her dumping three within the water on the third gap on the nationwide championship isn’t simply probably the most shocking improvement of the week, it’s probably the most shocking non-jail-related improvement in professional golf throughout this main season.

Melton: Gotta be Nelly. Seeing her make a ten was downright surprising. The one factor extra surprising would’ve been waking as much as her mugshot, a la Scottie Scheffler.

Sens: Based mostly on what we learn about social media by now, does something that occurs on it ever rely as shocking anymore? Nelly’s 10 all the way in which.

Bastable: Robust to match the 2, however I used to be fascinated by the response to the Hull video. Really feel just like the virality of the second might simply have gone two methods for her: Gasp! A professional golfer tugging on a ciggy in entrance of younger followers! Or…Wonderful! A professional golfer with vices and weaknesses similar to the remainder of us! Clearly the general public embraced Hull’s everywoman attraction, and the stability tipped towards praising her. Actually attention-grabbing to observe this sociology experiment play out in actual time. If the LPGA had a PIP rating, Hull is likely to be in ballot (pull?) place.       

Robert MacIntyre, together with his dad caddying, shot a final-round 68 to win the RBC Canadian Open to say his first profession Tour victory. This comes simply weeks after the Scot talked about battling homesickness and getting comfy with the PGA Tour’s extra business-like setting. Is that this an necessary aspect of the sport we frequently overlook with regards to non-Individuals attempting to have success on Tour?

Colgan: I believe the educational curve on the PGA Tour is steep for anybody, notably a correct Scottish son like Bob MacIntyre, and I’d say the identical for residing full-time in Orlando, Fla.

Melton: Life on the street can get lonely! I’ve skilled it, and my journey schedule pales compared to Tour execs. I can’t think about having to stay out of a suitcase throughout the pond — not to mention making my homebase Orlando for my uncommon offweeks. 

Sens: Wait, James, are you suggesting that Orlando may not the truth is be the Happiest Place on Earth? I’m canceling my Disney journey. Tour execs are folks, too, so, in fact, these forms of changes matter. However I don’t assume we overlook them. We frequently hear tales in regards to the interaction between the non-public and the skilled, and the way what occurs off the course impacts what occurs on it, and the opposite approach round. Generally, we even hear about it in tabloid headlines. 

Bastable: Credit score to Bobby Mac for baring his soul and giving us the PGA Championship’s most attention-grabbing presser this facet of Scottie Scheffler’s post-arrest musings. The camaraderie the Europeans take pleasure in on the DP World Tour is briefly provide stateside, the place there’s much more of an every-player-for-himself mentality. MacIntyre clearly isn’t accustomed to the lone-wolf life-style, and it’s been carrying on him. Possibly a PGA Tour title will make him really feel a bit extra at house.          

In a newly created function, former caddie and NBC Sports activities reporter John Wooden was named “Group Supervisor” of the U.S. Ryder Cup staff (which nonetheless doesn’t have a captain for 2025). Might you see this being an necessary function the Individuals want, or a easy case of overthinking after final 12 months’s lopsided loss?

Colgan: I loooooooooove this resolution. Regardless of the reality was behind Patrick Cantlay’s Hatgate saga final fall, it nonetheless spoke volumes in regards to the state of the American staff room that the allegation arose within the first place. John Wooden lives and breathes the Ryder Cup, and giving him the latitude to handle team-building in lieu of a captain’s announcement is a no brainer.

Melton: First it was a activity pressure, now it’s a “Group Supervisor.” Have the Individuals thought-about merely not getting their a**es kicked in foursomes each two years?

Sens: Looks as if doing CPR on a useless man. Couldn’t damage. However I doubt it impacts the end result.

Bastable: Getting John Wooden again on the squad in any capability is a win. Good. Humorous. Musical. True renaissance man. Good for staff vibes.