Scottie Scheffler, his spouse Meredith and their son Bennett coming off No. 18 at Muirfield Village.
CBS
Welcome again to the Monday End, the place we’re double-mowing our entrance yard. It’s U.S. Open week! Let’s get to the information.
However first: Are you able to do one thing that’ll assist each me and you? We’ve finished a cool factor the place this column is now a e-newsletter (subscribe totally free proper right here!) that’ll arrive recent from the oven into your inbox each Monday. Are you able to press the hyperlink under and make that occur?
SUBSCRIBE TO THE MONDAY FINISH NEWSLETTER
And now, over to 14.
GOLF STUFF I LIKE
Are we getting main championship checks…each week?
As Xander Schauffele addressed the media final Tuesday forward of the Memorial Match, he admitted he was bracing himself for exhaustion. Partially he was nonetheless worn out from profitable (and celebrating) his first main championship. However that is additionally part of the schedule the place the Tour (and its superintendents) are bringing the warmth. And rising the tough.
Assume again to Quail Hole, the place Schauffele obtained outdueled by Rory McIlroy on a difficult setup that featured juicy tough, agency greens and swirling winds. Brutally laborious. By week’s finish there have been simply three scores higher than six underneath par.
Then got here PGA week, sometimes one of many hardest on the schedule. However tender situations and comparatively gentle tough meant Valhalla truly yielded one of many simpler scoring checks of the 12 months.
A pair “common” Tour occasions adopted however these had been powerful, too, together with execs tackling the rock-hard new greens at Colonial Nation Membership, the place solely winner Davis Riley cracked double-digits underneath par. Undoubtedly laborious.
After which the cream of the crop arrived in Dublin, Ohio for the Memorial Match, the place Schauffele supplied a succinct appraisal of the check: “The course is in nice form. It’s actually laborious. The tough is like, essentially the most dense I’ve ever seen, so a whole lot of work to do.” Arduous. However good. Welcome to the Tour.
Muirfield Village’s greens started the week comparatively tender however issues obtained rapidly more durable because the week wore on; by Sunday they’d firmed up, the goal sizes on touchdown areas had shrunk to almost nothing and the scoring common ballooned to almost 75. The tougher the greens get, the tougher the greens get.
However there’s a cause we like issues powerful — it tends to determine a becoming champion! Unsurprisingly it was the perfect participant who survived the hardest check greatest; Scottie Scheffler emerged the winner at simply 8 underneath par. Solely 11 golfers completed the week in crimson figures.
“What we wish as gamers is to be rewarded for good photographs and punished for unhealthy ones. At present was a type of days the place I felt just like the rewards for good photographs had been acceptable, and the punishments for unhealthy photographs had been simply extreme sufficient. It was a great check,” mentioned Scheffler.
That’s what we wish as followers, too. I assume I ought to communicate for myself: that’s what I would like as a fan, to see gamers challenged and examined and rewarded and punished and separated. It’s made for satisfying viewing these previous few weeks and it’s no marvel that winners like Scheffler and McIlroy have emerged. However it was fascinating seeing a PGA Championship-style check the week earlier than the PGA Championship, and now we’ve had a U.S. Open-style check the week earlier than the U.S. Open. Maybe we’ll get one other the week after, too.
“I hear the tough is up over in Connecticut as nicely, so I really feel prefer it’s going to be a extremely fascinating stretch,” Schauffele mentioned of the Vacationers Championship website, which is able to host a Signature Occasion subsequent week. “Really, the U.S. Open might need the least quantity of tough out of all of the locations we’re taking part in the subsequent three weeks, which sounds flawed.”
Time will inform if that is an excessive amount of all of sudden, if gamers are overwhelmed down by the point they arrive in Hartford and if it dilutes Signature Occasions to have them on the shoulders of majors. However within the meantime? Benefit from the viewing. Pinehurst will look, really feel and play completely different than something we see on Tour. And what we see on Tour is, of late, exceeding expectations. Prime execs being examined at each flip? Stress-cooker pars profitable golf tournaments? That’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who received the week?
Scottie Scheffler received the Memorial, ending a prolonged two-tournament drought. The title was his first as a father and — unrelated — his first victory since full exoneration.
Linn Grant received the Scandinavian Combined — a cosanctioned occasion between the DP World Tour and Girls European Tour — in notably dramatic style. She chipped in on No. 18 to complete off a final-round 65. As she waited on the vary post-round, fellow Swede Sebastian Soderberg horseshoed a two-footer at No. 18 to put up 77, give away his eight-shot lead and hand Grant the title.
With her first Scandinavian Combined win in 2022, Grant turned the primary girl to win on the DP World Tour. With Sunday’s victory, she’s the primary girl to win twice.
One other Swede, Linnea Strom, got here storming again from T52 with a final-round 60 to win the ShopRite LPGA Basic. She teed off at 8:20 a.m., required simply 20 putts and watched all afternoon as one rating after one other got here in behind her. None completed higher.
Carlos Ortiz received LIV’s Houston occasion for his first victory on the circuit, whereas the Cleeks took dwelling their first staff title.
And Ernie Els received for the second consecutive week on the PGA Tour Champions, beating Steve Stricker in a playoff on the American Household Championship.
NOT-WINNERS
However not losers, both.
Collin Morikawa is again. Whereas he didn’t fairly full his chasedown of Scottie Scheffler on Sunday, he shot a final-round 71 to chop a four-shot deficit to only one.
Morikawa reunited together with his lifelong swing coach Rick Sessinghaus simply earlier than the Masters and whereas correlation and causation are laborious to show, he’s been on a tear ever since. T3 on the Masters. Ninth on the RBC Heritage. A decent T16 on the Wells Fargo. T4 from the ultimate Sunday pairing on the PGA. Fourth on the Charles Schwab. And now a runner-up end on the Memorial. Morikawa mentioned it’s been a whole lot of enjoyable discovering himself in these remaining pairings once more after a while away. However he additionally gave the impression of a person with a chip on his shoulder.
“I imply, I really feel like I’m at all times underneath the radar, so I simply sort of present up and do my factor,” he mentioned. “Look, I’m not flashy by any means. The golf recreation doesn’t spurt out lengthy drives or loopy placing or no matter. However I simply sort of discover a method to get it finished and that’s sort of what I’ve stayed true to.”
We’d advocate he sticks with it.
SHORT HITTERS
Saudi stuff you must know, briefly.
-The PGA Tour’s transaction subcommittee performed its first in-person assembly with the Public Funding Fund of Saudi Arabia, the backers of LIV Golf.
–Tiger Woods was among the many Tour aspect’s in-person attendees in New York Metropolis, whereas PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan attended, too.
–Rory McIlroy dialed into the decision from Ohio and described it as “very productive, very constructive, very collaborative”.
-The edges have been assembly remotely to debate a possible funding within the PGA Tour, McIlroy mentioned. However this three-hour session targeted extra particularly on the way forward for skilled golf.
-One McIlroy takeaway may appear apparent however has been some extent of competition all through the LIV/PGA Tour saga: the PIF is occupied with monetary return.
“That’s what they need. It doesn’t appear to be they’re getting that on the minute inside golf,” he mentioned, referencing LIV’s present steadiness sheet. “And this — hopefully if issues progress and we get to a sure level, then hopefully they see a future the place that may occur, they will begin to get some returns on their cash.’’
-The PGA Tour confirmed in an announcement that the perimeters had met, that “extra progress was made” and referenced “a shared imaginative and prescient on the way forward for skilled golf.”
ONE DUMB GRAPHIC
This made me snort:
ONE SWING THOUGHT
From Collin Morikawa.
“I simply obtained on this little rut … as a result of I wasn’t feeling out the photographs, I used to be simply taking part in numbers in my head attempting to do that math equation as a substitute of really being an artist and taking part in photographs.”
ONE BIG QUESTION
What can we anticipate from Tiger Woods?
As a result of typical U.S. Open setups are notably taxing on the physique, analysts have assumed Tiger Woods and his nationwide championship received’t be a fantastic match the remainder of his profession — excluding this week at Pinehurst, the place he may get round on short-game, guile and creativity.
However Woods’ brief recreation was a part of what let him down at Valhalla, the place he admitted after lacking the reduce that he wants extra event reps to get his recreation prepared however isn’t certain his physique can deal with any extra. I’m perpetually a Woods optimist, so I say he makes the reduce this week — however he hasn’t but proven he’s able to deal with 4 rounds of event golf. Let’s hope that is the week that adjustments.
ONE THING TO WATCH
Wyndham’s turnaround.
How’d final 12 months’s U.S. Open champ go from No. 300 on the earth to No. 3? By making these three dramatic adjustments:
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday End HQ.
We accomplished (survived?) our first cross-country flight with our four-month-old child this week. I’ve a couple of billion takeaways, however one among ‘em is that this: anytime the flight attendant disturbs a sleeping child with a blaring credit-card promo they need to be arrested. Or on the very least that child’s mother and father get a free drink.
Can’t wait to look at the U.S. Open with you all. I’ll meet you again right here subsequent Monday — or in your e-mail inbox with particular inexperienced graphics. However provided that you subscribe under!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE MONDAY FINISH NEWSLETTER
We’ll see you subsequent week.
