Roger Maltbie and Kevin Kisner returned to motion on the Fortinet.
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Welcome again to the Monday Finish, the place the paragraphs are pumpkin-spiced — so seize a cider donut and dive in. Fall golf is right here — let’s get to it!
FIRST OFF THE TEE
The PGA Tour’s fall season has one thing proper.
We’re precisely one week into the PGA Tour’s new-look fall season, so it’s most likely a bit early to leap to conclusions. But I’m into it. That’s not as a result of it’s must-watch TV — it truly is perhaps as a result of no person’s forcing you to assume that it’s.
For too a few years the Tour’s situation was that it by no means stopped. Even when there was an offseason there wasn’t actually an offseason. Now? There’s an offseason!
Sure, there’s nonetheless consequential golf occurring. There was loads of drama on the Fortinet this weekend. But it’s additionally differentiated from the regular-season consequential golf. The fall golf season means a ton to the contributors, significantly these preventing for PGA Tour standing. But you, as a fan, even have the Tour’s (unwritten) permission to tune out and in the place you so select. The massive fellas gained’t be counting FedEx Cup factors till the brand new 12 months. This is sicko season, meant for the diehards of diehards.
Last week I wrote in regards to the coherence of the brand new DP World Tour schedule; it’s remarkably wise each from a storytelling perspective and a journey perspective. It additionally meshes significantly effectively with the PGA Tour’s fall slate of occasions. This is the time of 12 months to benefit from the Irish Open and the BMW PGA Championship within the morning and wrap up in time to get to your afternoon soccer — however maintain Sahith Theegala’s Fortinet run on a second display screen, by no means far-off.
Hell, you can even think about stepping exterior, when you so select.
The world of males’s skilled golf nonetheless has quite a bit to kind out. Can LIV, the DP World Tour and the PGA Tour all logically coexist long-term? Nah — one thing must give, ultimately. But this fall’s schedule looks like a step in the proper course.
WINNERS
Who gained the week?
The International Team
It’s Solheim Cup week and it’s Ryder Cup Season, which suggests Team Europe and Team USA are taking heart stage. But New Zealander Ryan Fox singlehandedly stared down the European 12 within the BMW PGA Championship, capturing 66-67 together with an up-and-down for birdie on the par-5 18th to win by one.
The First-Timer
At the conclusion of the BMW Championship Sahith Theegala penned a moderately forlorn Instagram post; his 72nd-hole bogey saved him one shot exterior the highest 30 that certified for East Lake. This was the top of his second PGA Tour season, he wrote. All of this simply added gas to the hearth.
But it turned out to not be the top of the season. Not actually. Theegala arrived in Napa with one factor on his thoughts: his first PGA Tour victory. He shot 68-64-67 to construct a lead. Then he saved the pedal down, making seven Sunday birdies to shut out a two-shot win on the Fortinet Championship.
“I probably practiced more than most of the guys in this field leading up because I was so fired up about not making East Lake, and I was disappointed and I had a hard time putting the sticks away for a bit. I just kept reminding myself that I’m playing really well.”
The Second-Timer
That could be Korn Ferry Tour winner Grayson Murray, whose Simmons Bank Open victory was his secnod in simply 12 begins this season and got here after a visit to overcome a far more durable opponent than anybody else within the subject: worry. A trip to see “fear management instructor” Tony Blauer helped the famously mercurial Murray to what his caddie Kip Henley attested was his greatest psychological efficiency but. Now he’s headed again to the PGA Tour for subsequent season.
ALSO-WINNERS
We’re feeling beneficiant.
Team Europe
Aaron Rai was one of many first gamers left off the European Ryder Cup crew, and he completed a formidable T2 on the BMW PGA Championship. But the blokes on the crew weren’t slouches, both.
Tyrrell Hatton completed T2. Jon Rahm completed fourth. Viktor Hovland fifth. Tommy Fleetwood sixth. Rory McIlroy T7. Ludvig Aberg held the 54-hole lead however nonetheless wound up T10 — alongside Sepp Straka and simply forward of Matthew Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry, who tied for 18th. All 12 guys confirmed up and all 12 guys made the minimize. Solid method to kick off subsequent week’s festivities.
The Justin Thomas Discourse
Did Justin Thomas want end on the Fortinet with a purpose to play effectively within the Ryder Cup? No, he didn’t. But he’s most likely fairly glad he performed his method to one nonetheless. U.S. captain Zach Johnson have to be, too.
Now that we’re clear from the fog of struggle that accompanied Ryder Cup picks within the thick of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, it appears extra apparent that Thomas must be on this squad regardless of a lackluster Tour season. The Ryder Cup comes a month faraway from the Tour Championship, in spite of everything. A month is sufficient of a reset that sizzling putters can cool off and funky gamers can warmth up. That seems to be the case for Thomas, who completed solo fifth in Napa and may have a greater style in his mouth (and face fewer prying questions) en path to Rome consequently.
Lovemark’s Last Chance
You seemingly know the title Jamie Lovemark; the previous No. 1 novice on the planet performed on the PGA Tour and is a previous champion on the Korn Ferry. But his previous winner standing ends this 12 months and he entered the week at No. 130, which meant he wanted a giant week to maintain his profession going. He received it with a T2; he’s now as much as No. 70 with two occasions to play. The prime 75 retain full standing for 2024, which suggests Lovemark can set his sights on one other prime end and maintain the dream alive.
WHAT WE’RE SEEING
A well-recognized voice.
Roger Maltbie was again in motion in Golf Channel’s presentation of the Fortinet and man, it was a nice shock to listen to the legendary on-course reporter breaking down the motion.
Last fall, the beloved Maltbie and Gary Koch have been knowledgeable they wouldn’t be a part of NBC Sports’ broadcasting future. Maltbie had some poignant feedback on his departure on the time:
“I would have liked to have kept going, but it’s a funny thing the phases your career goes through over the course of 31 years,” Maltbie mentioned. “When I first began, hell, I knew each participant. I used to be a participant nonetheless. I used to be one among them and I used to be doing TV. I knew the names of their wives and the names of your children and competed with and in opposition to them. There was an actual familiarity.
“Then you go through a period where they know who you are and they know you played and so on and so forth, and then you meet a new bunch of young kids and you go on and then the later years, most of those kids don’t even know I played golf for a living, really to be honest with you. There’s a timespan to everything.”
Maltbie and Koch bid farewell finally 12 months’s PNC Championship, however Maltbie returned at Napa, a longtime beloved website. It was good to see him, though my understanding continues to be that this was a one-off.
WHAT WE’RE HEARING
Rory on Augusta.
Rory McIlroy posted up on the Subpar podcast this week and gave, unsurprisingly, an insightful interview. One nugget I discovered significantly intriguing was his perspective to approaching the Masters — significantly his stunning missed minimize this 12 months.
McIlroy wants a title at Augusta National to spherical out his profession grand slam. And though he hasn’t gained a significant since 2014 he has been enjoying his greatest golf within the greatest occasions of late; the final two seasons he’s completed prime eight in seven of the eight majors. That Masters MC is the notable exception.
“Sometimes because it’s the one that I haven’t won the only thing I think about that week is winning it,” McIlroy instructed Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “As you know, Colt, that’s not the way to approach a golf tournament. If I look at the way I approached (U.S. Open site) LACC, you’re dissecting the golf course, you’re like okay, this is how I want to play the first three or four holes. You’re just into the tournament, you’re into your process and you’re into just figuring out how to manage your way around the golf course. I think sometimes at Augusta I’m too much of a leaderboard-watcher too early.”
He gave an instance.
“This 12 months Brooks [Koepka] received off to that basically sizzling begin and he was on the eighth inexperienced on Friday morning and I used to be on the primary inexperienced. And I feel I used to be even par for the event and Brooks had simply birdied the eighth gap to go to 10 below for the event. So I’m like, 10 pictures again and I already really feel like I must chase. I want to love, do one thing.
“It’s hard. You know what those leaderboards are like at Augusta, those big, white — you can’t miss them. They’re everywhere,” he added. “At Augusta I feel I sometimes get too results-oriented too early instead of just getting myself in the tournament, playing my way into contention like I do every other tournament and then going from there.”
McIlroy did tease out a brand new method to majors, together with Augusta National, that he’ll make use of subsequent season to get his sport in one of the best form and handle the hype.
“I’ve realized that to get the best out of myself I like playing my way into the major champions,” he mentioned. “If you look at next year, I’ll probably play San Antonio going into Augusta. And then I love that Quail Hollow is directly the week before [PGA Championship site] Valhalla. The Scottish Open into the Open is nice. And the Memorial into the U.S. Open as well.”
Good information for golf followers in San Antonio. And, if the plan works, excellent news for McIlroy, too.
WHAT WE’RE SEEING
Kevin Kisner’s return.
Back in July, Kevin Kisner was requested when he would possibly return to motion on the PGA Tour.
“When I can break par at home consistently,” he wrote on Twitter.
We hadn’t heard a ton else from Kisner, who withdrew midway through the Travelers in June. That was just the latest in a rough stretch of tournaments; his struggles with driver were particularly glaring.
It wasn’t until late August that we got an explanation for the Travelers WD. What happened there?
“I asked [caddie Duane Bock] Dewey walking off 18 what I should do and he said, ‘you should go home,’” Kisner recalled on the Fore Play podcast. “And I was like, ‘I think you’re right.’
“He was like, ‘You’re not even into this at all. And you’re hitting terrible shots. And you’re not even making putts now because you’re only worried about your tee balls.’ And I was like, ‘you’re right.’ So that’s what we did.”
The next we heard from Kisner? An announcement ahead of the Fortinet:
He was back. As it turns out, he was back in style: He opened with a round of three-under 69. Kisner even gained strokes on the field off the tee!
It wasn’t quite so easy the rest of the week. He struggled off the tee on Friday, rallying to an even-par 72 just to make the cut.
The weekend was a mixed bag: Four-over 76 on Saturday and four-under 68 on Sunday. Making the cut was a success. Finishing T62 was no doubt less exciting. Finishing 64th of 68 in strokes gained off the tee was discouraging, too. Next week’s Ryder Cup will be a reminder that last year around this time Kisner was preparing to represent the U.S. at the Presidents Cup. This year? He’s a work in progress. He has a large contingent pulling for him.
WHAT’S NEXT
3 things to watch this week.
1. The Solheim Cup!
It’s match play. It’s U.S. vs. Europe. For American TV-watchers it’s delightful morning golf. For in-person attendees it’s fun, tense, high-stakes. It actually feels trite to tease this in a one-paragraph summary. You should just be sure to make this part of your viewing week.
2a. The French Open
That would be the Cazoo Open De France, the latest in a nice run of DP World Tour events. Tom Kim enters as the 10-1 favorite, just ahead of Min Woo Lee and Ryan Fox. From what I can tell the only Ryder Cupper on Team Europe who’s playing this week is Robert MacIntyre, chasing some form ahead of Rome.
2b. LIV Chicago
LIV is back! If it feels like it’s been a while, that’s because it’s been a while. Bedminster was five weeks ago; now the fledgling league heads to Chicago. So does new father — and the only American Ryder Cupper playing this week — Brooks Koepka.
3. Sahith’s father
Murli had a message for his son.
“You proved to me that you are a resilient boy.”
He sure is.
We’ll see you next week!
