Lexi Thompson rode {the golfing} rollercoaster this weekend.
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Welcome again to the Monday End, the place we’re protesting sluggish play, three-putts and ‘Cart Path Solely,’ amongst different issues.
Let’s get to the information. However first: Inform your buddies to subscribe to the Monday End e-newsletter right here! That’ll assist us deliver you this column in e mail kind each Monday morning.
GOLF STUFF I LIKE
Lexi rides the rollercoaster.
Since her arrival on the LPGA Tour greater than a decade in the past, Lexi Thompson has been one in all professional golf’s predominant characters. She’s standard, gifted, dynamic and profitable. She’s additionally run into some actually tragic outcomes on a few of golf’s greatest phases. The mixture has made her one of many sport’s most fascinating figures.
It was comprehensible, if shocking, when she introduced on the U.S. Girls’s Open that this may be her last full-time season on the LPGA Tour. It hasn’t been straightforward residing and performing within the public eye, she stated, notably through the powerful stretches. It’s time to determine what the remainder of the world seems like.
However in her subsequent event post-announcement Thompson performed her finest golf in months, battling for 4 days to get right into a playoff and end T2. After which at this week’s KPMG Girls’s PGA she performed her means into rivalry by means of 54 holes; she started Sunday’s last spherical simply 4 again. She’s been reluctant to confess that the great play and the announcement are associated however it’s powerful to not join the 2, notably when she referenced “swinging free” as if a weight had been lifted from her sport.
On Sunday, although, actuality set in quick. Thompson bogeyed No. 1, bogeyed No. 2, bogeyed No. 3, doubled No. 4. She bogeyed 7 and doubled 8. She was eight over par by means of eight holes and was instantly greater than a dozen photographs behind.
However then one thing wild occurred: Thompson flipped a swap. She stuffed her tee shot on the par-3 ninth to 4 ft, delighting the big crowd that had gathered by the clubhouse. Then she bought up-and-down on the par-5 eleventh for one more birdie. She fired one other strategy in shut at No. 12 and tapped in for a 3rd birdie. She hit it to eight ft and made one other at No. 13. And she or he putted one in from the tough at No. 15. By the point she reached No. 18 any likelihood at contending was lengthy gone however an opportunity at a smaller victory remained: a birdie on the ending par-5 would get her again to crimson figures for the event and safe a spot inside the highest 10. She left her chip some 14 ft brief — however then dripped the putt into the center of the outlet, sending the grandstands right into a frenzy. It was an inspiring, irritating end. It was onerous to not marvel what might have been.
A small group of reporters caught up with Thompson after the spherical. She described a posh mixture of feelings; how do you sq. eight over by means of eight with six underneath in your final 10?
“That’s the magic query,” she stated. “I don’t know what was occurring on the entrance 9, that’s the higher query.”
In all, she stated, it had been a very good week.
“I feel the positives are outweighing the negatives of in the present day, simply due to how I got here again and I simply fought and by no means gave up,” she stated. “So actually simply going to construct on that.”
Is it potential she’d reverse her retirement resolution? All week she’d been cryptic about her future, saying issues like “sooner or later at a time” and “see the place it takes me.” Sunday she acknowledged how satisfying it was seeing her sport come collectively figuring out how onerous she’d labored in her weeks off. Thompson has stated she has nothing left to show however nonetheless — she appeared like a golfer with one thing left to show.
“It was enjoyable,” she stated, then caught herself. Main championship golf isn’t actually enjoyable. “It was enjoyable with the followers, it was general a tremendous week, we have been handled so effectively, the golf course was in nice form, it was simply mentally draining as a result of it’s a troublesome golf course.”
Enjoyable wasn’t the phrase. Irritating, difficult, satisfying, rewarding? These all utilized. Using the golf rollercoaster — and ending with birdie? That’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who gained the week?
Amy Yang gained the KPMG Girls’s PGA in a Sunday runaway; she began the ultimate spherical with a two-shot lead, constructed it to seven halfway by means of the again 9 and in the end gained by three. I wrote concerning the scene behind the 18th inexperienced, the place greater than a dozen gamers rushed the inexperienced to congratulate Yang on her first main victory in her seventy fifth begin. (I wrote concerning the scene’s significance right here.)
Scottie Scheffler gained the Vacationers Championship in a playoff over Tom Kim. The attention-catching a part of this victory was the protestors storming the inexperienced. The wilder half was that Scheffler now has six wins this season — together with the Masters and the Gamers — and retains climbing larger on the historical past ladder.
Tyrrell Hatton gained LIV’s Nashville occasion by six strokes; it was his first win anyplace in three years. It’ll be attention-grabbing to watch his main eligibility going ahead; he’s into subsequent 12 months’s Masters by means of a T9 end however is one in all LIV’s most gifted gamers with no main exemption.
Guido Migliozzi gained his fourth DP World Tour title on the KLM Open within the Netherlands; he gave up a three-shot lead after which battled again to drive a playoff, which he gained with two consecutive birdies. The win boosts him to No. 122 on this planet and earns him a berth into the Open Championship.
NOT-WINNERS
However the subsequent smartest thing.
Tom Kim had a giant week; he celebrated his twenty second birthday with Scottie Scheffler and a few pizza (Scheffler turned 28 the identical day), he made his eighth consecutive PGA Tour begin, he birdied No. 18 to complete off a 62-65-65-66 week and drive a playoff.
“I really feel like this 12 months has been a variety of studying,” Kim stated. “I’ve had a variety of studying classes of making an attempt to not label issues. I’m who I’m, 10 wins on the PGA Tour, zero wins on the PGA Tour, it’s not going to alter me.” He’ll make his ninth consecutive begin on the Rocket Mortgage in Detroit this week.
The KPMG had three significant runners up: Jin Younger Ko registered her finest end at a significant since 2020, Lilia Vu confirmed her comeback from damage is for actual and Miyu Yamashita performed her means into Japan’s last Olympics spot.
And Bryson DeChambeau adopted up his U.S. Open victory with a T3 end on LIV, the place he gave the impression to be the celebrity-in-chief.
SHORT HITTERS
U.S. Open follow-ups, in short.
I’d been questioning why Matthieu Pavon completed out after Bryson DeChambeau on the 72nd gap of the U.S. Open; he defined right here.
Rankings from Pinehurst have been sturdy — the ultimate spherical was the most-viewed East Coast U.S. Open since 2013. Extra right here.
There was loads of chatter about Rory McIlroy’s placing, notably his miss on 18. Padraig Harrington and Jon Rahm stated it was tougher than folks suppose.
And our Alan Bastable deep-dived the query of whether or not, as the printed asserted, DeChambeau bought fortunate on his Sunday tee photographs right here.
ONE DUMB GRAPHIC
Scottie vs. the NFL.
ONE SWING THOUGHT
From Jin Younger Ko.
I actually loved Jin Younger Ko’s press appearances all week lengthy, notably her perception on “taking part in easy.”
“I’m actually grateful to be taking part in actually good,” Ko stated en path to T2 at Sahalee. “As a result of the final couple months I wasn’t taking part in good, so I practiced rather a lot and I spotted: golf will not be straightforward however it’s not too onerous.
“Every little thing is from my thoughts. If I’m pondering, like, ‘let’s play easy,’ it comes out rather well. However like, this golf course isn’t straightforward; this golf course is absolutely troublesome. So if I’m overthinking, the outcome comes out dangerous. So I’m making an attempt to suppose straightforward.”
ONE BIG QUESTION
We’re doin’ it, huh?
I’ll forgive you when you missed the huge announcement from Boston Widespread this week: they’ve accomplished their roster by signing Hideki Matsuyama, who will take the spot vacated by Tyrrell Hatton following his LIV signing. Coming off a Sunday the place golf followers’ consideration was divided between a PGA Tour Signature Occasion, an LPGA main and a LIV occasion — and all of this the week AFTER the lads’s U.S. Open — it feels kind of comical to recommend that we in truth want extra televised golf.
I’m not anti-TGL. I’m down with the TGL. It’s one thing totally different and it’d flop, certain, however it is perhaps kinda enjoyable and it gained’t compete with Sunday drama at stroke-play tournaments and no person’s pretending it’s something greater than a distinct sort of exhibition. Why not?
Nonetheless, I can’t consider it’s truly going to occur. We’ve heard concerning the concept now for a pair years however haven’t seen a match nor do we’ve got a way of how the entire “league” goes to really feel. At the same time as discussions proceed with the PIF and the PGA Tour about golf’s muddled future, the TGL rolls on. This part is meant to finish with a query, so right here’s one: We’re actually doing this TGL factor, huh?
ONE THING TO WATCH
Rory and the equator.
As I wrote within the tweet beneath, I’m in means too deep right here, however a side-angle of Rory McIlroy’s putt on 18 on the U.S. Open introduced me again to one thing he’d stated at Augusta.
“Generally I can let the putter stand up slightly bit an excessive amount of on the best way by means of, after which I can catch the ball kind of extra on the equator,” he stated on the time.
Look, that four-footer was a slippery fella. Even when he’d hit it agency he would have needed to begin it outdoors left. However is it potential he mishit the putt simply sufficient that it lacked conviction and missed low proper? I’m simply asking questions right here — determine for yourselves.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday End HQ.
It was unimaginable having a dwelling sport this week. There aren’t any common PGA Tour stops which can be each north and west of Memphis (sure, significantly) so Seattle can really feel a bit distant. However the LPGA professionals appeared to embrace Sahalee as a significant venue — the ambiance, the situations, the problem, the pure magnificence, even the bushes — and Seattle’s golf followers embraced the event in return.
It’s cool when main championships go to underserved markets. It’s particularly cool when a type of markets is the town the place I dwell. Now let’s simply get the world’s finest golfers again to Chambers Bay…
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See you subsequent week.
Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
