Viktor Hovland with Amanda Renner, with Jay Monahan wanting on.
Getty Images
Welcome again to the Monday Finish, the place we’re Venmo-requesting Viktor Hovland $1 million — simply in case he’s in a giving temper. Let’s get to it!
FIRST OFF THE TEE
Is the Tour Championship really damaged?
The Tour Championship format is just not good. I would really like that on the report. It’s very bizarre changing FedEx Cup factors into strokes earlier than the beginning of a PGA Tour occasion. That’s not how this forex works. Mulligans can’t be bought. Nothing might be transformed to strokes. And the one factor strokes convert to is cash — and that solely comes after 4 rounds. This format might be complicated, too, when the man who shoots the bottom rating for the week doesn’t essentially win. That’s not very golf. So yeah, I perceive your objections.
But right here’s my scorching tackle the matter: I … really don’t assume it’s that unhealthy.
When Scottie Scheffler birdied three of the primary six holes on Thursday to open up a five-shot lead, you can really feel the inevitability of a Scheffler blowout win looming. Sure, he’d be a becoming, deserving champion. But it wouldn’t precisely be appointment viewing if he was up a landing and simply held on for the final three rounds.
The second highlighted the problem of designing the right Tour Championship. If you give the No. 1 seed too nice a bonus, he’ll preserve taking part in the terrific golf that acquired him there and run away from the sector, leaving zero narrative rigidity in his wake.
But what if the Tour Championship was simply winner-take-all? Then you’d introduce the potential for, say, Adam Schenk lifting the trophy. I’d be thrilled for Schenk, however he wouldn’t essentially really feel like a correct season-long champ.
This format settles someplace within the center. Scheffler didn’t run away with the trophy. Far from it! He made triple bogey on No. 15, misplaced his lead earlier than Thursday was finished and wound up T6 by week’s finish, together with his four-round complete decrease than simply six of his 29 rivals. In different phrases, the end result was hardly a foregone conclusion.
Nor did Viktor Hovland run away with issues. Collin Morikawa was tied for the lead after the primary spherical and performed within the ultimate pairing on Saturday after starting the week at only one below par. Sure, Hovland opened up a six-shot lead on Saturday when he shot 66 and Morikawa shot 73. But by the 14th gap on Sunday he confronted a 24-foot par putt simply to maintain his lead from shrinking to 2 over a hard-charging Xander Schauffele.
He made the putt. And then he birdied 16-17-18, inflating the ultimate successful margin to five. But how effectively they’d every performed was outstanding; even in stroke play they’d have been seven photographs away from the third-place finisher. This was going to be a two-horse race whatever the format. Sometimes we get blowouts. But by 5 playings of this model of the Tour Championship we’ve seen nice duels most of the time.
In 2019 the Tour Championship gave us Rory McIlroy buzzing previous Brooks Koepka after a summer season wherein issues had gone the opposite approach round.
In 2020 Dustin Johnson began within the lead and held off Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm to remain there, previewing his upcoming Masters win within the course of.
In 2021 Patrick Cantlay and Rahm traded blows down the stretch; Cantlay took the title by a single shot.
In 2022 Rory McIlroy chased down Scottie Scheffler in one other one-on-one duel, turning a six-stroke deficit right into a one-shot win.
And in 2023 we acquired a duel between two of the highest 5 – 6 gamers on this planet. Hovland shot 63. Schauffele shot 62. Neither made a bogey.
I’m open to a artistic resolution that might enhance issues. I’m right down to work in match play, if there’s a technique to keep away from the drudgery of simply two matches (a ultimate plus a comfort) on Sunday afternoon. I’m sport to maneuver the finale to completely different venues annually if that’d assist the spark (and sponsors would cooperate). I’m open! But you’re additionally allowed to benefit from the Tour Championship for what it’s. Because Viktor Hovland was an extremely deserving champion and Xander Schauffele pushed rattling exhausting en path to runner-up. We may do lots worse.
WINNERS
Who gained the week?
Viktor Hovland gained the Tour Championship, he gained the FedEx Cup, he gained $18 million, he gained for the second week in a row and he gained the hearts and minds of golf followers in every single place. I’d say kudos to Viktor however he looks as if he doesn’t want something else in the intervening time.
Megan Khang bogeyed No. 17 on the CPKC Women’s Open, which meant she stepped to the 18th tee down one chasing her first win in 191 tries on the LPGA Tour. Bad information: there had solely been 4 birdies on No. 18 all day.
But that’s didn’t appear to faze Khang. She striped her tee shot. And then she flagged her method, stiffing an iron to 5 toes earlier than pouring that in for birdie to drive a playoff with former World No. 1 Jin Young Ko.
Her placing stroke was regular. But she got here off the course trembling.
“There were definitely nerves. I was shaking signing my scorecard. I triple-checked that scorecard to make sure everything was correct,” she mentioned.
As it seems, par was sufficient. Ko acquired in hassle off the tee within the first playoff gap and by no means recovered, leaving Khang to two-putt from the perimeter for the win.
“Eight years is a long time,” she mentioned. “It’s great to get the first.”
Chan Kim hadn’t gained on the Korn Ferry Tour till final week. Now? He’s gained twice on the Korn Ferry Tour! Kim gained the Albertsons Boise Open, taking part in the complete week (!) and not using a bogey en path to a 66-62-64-64 exhibiting. The win strikes him to No. 2 on the KFT’s factors listing, locking up his PGA Tour card for 2024. Well earned.
Trish Johnson gained the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, making par at No. 18 to hold tight to a one-stroke victory at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore.
ALMOST-WINNERS
Gross co-winners, issues of that nature.
Xander Schauffele completed second on the Tour Championship leaderboard and T1 within the secret gross leaderboard, incomes $6.5 million within the course of. In 5 years of this format, Schauffele has now completed runner-up thrice. He’s had the low gross rating twice. And that’s ignoring 2017, when he gained the event.
He sounded understandably involved concerning the renovation coming to East Lake earlier than subsequent 12 months’s occasion.
“The guy that’s going to come, Andrew Green, he said he’s going to take out a lot of trees and it’s a little concerning, to be honest,” he mentioned. “I’m not a member here. I hear members are excited. But as a Tour pro, we talk about distance and all those things, but the thing that we can’t do is hit it through trees. So when you start taking a bunch of trees off a property it definitely can change how it plays. And I’m hoping that East Lake keeps its teeth. Because when it plays hard you shoot 10- or 12-under you’re going to win this golf tournament.”
The exhibiting additionally means one other sort-of win for Schauffele, who has spent the previous few years racking up victories which might be barely tough to place in a field. A sampling of wins that aren’t fairly PGA Tour particular person victories:
2020 Tour Championship, low gross
2020 Olympics gold medal
2022 Zurich Classic crew win (with Patrick Cantlay)
2022 J.P. McManus Pro-Am winner
2023 Tour Championship, tied for low gross
It was a spectacular cap to a strong season for Schauffele, who hasn’t missed a minimize because the 2022 Masters. Splendid.
NOT-WINNERS
It’s good when shedding nonetheless means successful.
Scottie Scheffler had an odd finish to a spectacular (however unusual) season by ending T6 on the Tour Championship, a whopping 16 strokes behind Hovland. You already know the statistical breakdown that’s coming now: Scheffler hit it fairly effectively (although his method numbers had been worse than typical) however had the worst placing numbers within the discipline, shedding 5.5 strokes for the week simply on the greens. Credit to him for not publicly snapping any flatsticks by this level, both over his knee or the knee of the following reporter to pry on the topic.
And Jon Rahm, who entered the playoffs as FedEx Cup No. 1 and is the frontrunner to win Player of the Year, completed T18 after an uncharacteristic five-over-par weekend, the second-highest rating within the discipline. The World No. 3 logged his fourth win of 2023 by the second week of April and completed runner-up on the Open however completed the season with a little bit of a whimper. It nonetheless looks as if a protected assumption that he’ll gear again up by the Ryder Cup.
COACHING CORNER
Who’s working with who?!
I met Hovland’s coach-slash-confidante, Joe Mayo, at East Lake. He agreed to talk so long as it wasn’t an interview; he’s eager to remain behind the scenes. But Hovland shouted him out post-win anyway.
“When he came on board he had no idea how I played, what I was doing, what it looked like. So he kind of had a fresh set of eyes,” he mentioned. “Yeah, he’s just brought a lot of math and physics to my golf game and we’ve just applied that, put a lot of hours in, and funny enough it works.”
It positive does.
When I arrived on the driving vary on Monday afternoon of the Tour Championship, Hovland and Mayo had been on one finish of the vary — lower than 24 hours after his win on the BMW, I’d add — and on the different finish of the vary was Tom Kim and his coach, Chris Como. I didn’t understand that pair was working collectively however it looks as if excellent news; Como has finished some actually spectacular stuff with Bryson DeChambeau, Jason Day and Si Woo Kim in very latest reminiscence. Tom Kim logged a T2 on the Open shortly after they started working collectively; he completed prime 10 on the BMW, too. Bright occasions forward.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.
After spending the beginning of the week in full sweat mode on the Tour Championship I zipped again to run Hood to Coast, an enormous ol’ relay race in Oregon that begins at Mt. Hood and finishes (you guessed it!) on the coast, the place we took a cold, triumphant plunge into the Pacific.
I’d by no means finished something fairly like this earlier than however it was infectious to be round such a constructive assortment of individuals all striving for one thing, a bunch of unabashed try-hards on an journey, with completion much more essential than competitors. In golf I usually marvel on the sight of a jam-packed driving vary, everybody looking for self-improvement and enlightenment. This was like that however everybody cheering for one another. Good occasions. (And good that the Tour Championship streams to rural Oregon, too.)
WHAT’S NEXT
3 issues to observe this week.
1. Viktor talks cash.
Never change, child.
2. Viktor talks about his haters.
Sorry in the event you’ve seen this interview already; after we ran it initially I didn’t understand he’d win three of his subsequent eight begins. We’ve actually been milking this factor. But this clip was significantly enjoyable, on Hovland’s self-image, his public picture and his unknowability:
3. The PGA Tour offseason…
It’s right here! That doesn’t imply there’s no golf happening. But it does imply the highest canines will probably be just a little bit quieter. And maybe the Monday Finish will probably be, too. But I like being right here, breaking it down with you guys. Thanks for studying all season and for studying what’s subsequent to come back, too!
Appreciate you.
Dylan welcomes your messages at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
Source link
