Cup of Tee

As an homage to the boys at No Laying Up, I’ve decided to take this writing and make it more personal through the use of their GHIN and Tonic format. I enjoy writing about pro golf but it started to feel like I was going through the motions spitting out stories so I wanted to challenge myself. With this I’ll be running through both some personal golf stories and personal takes. 

Real Deal: https://nolayingup.com/blog/ghin-and-tonic-vol-23-neil

GHIN

I was playing well but nothing crazy out of the ordinary. I had just made a 2 putt par on the par 3 7th hole to stay at even par on the day after a bit of a roller coaster first 6. I stepped up to the gettable short 8th and went and got it. After a short chip shot and a dripped in 15 footer I could see the gears turning towards a great round. After making the turn and birdieing the first three I was officially in that mode. Golf felt easy and with my new spider putter, hitting cups felt like hitting water after falling out of a boat (stay tuned for an article about the flatstick journey). I kept the pedal down from there. By the time the final putt rolled in, I had plotted my way to a -3 69, cashing 7 birdies along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I play this good far less than I’d like, but I do know it’s in there waiting to be unlocked. Playing high level golf is a quite delicate dance between hyperfocus and mindless flow, between expectation and acceptance, and between aggression and patience. Or maybe it’s between taking it this serious and realizing I’m just hitting a ball with a stick then chasing after it. It’s an exercise in balance and while seemingly mundane from the outside looking in, a thrilling one at that. Now more about the significance of this round. 

After graduating from UVA this past spring and with no more organized club golf to play, I have found myself thirsting for competition. And unfortunately, the Northern Virginia golf scene hasn’t been able to quench that thirst. It’s an egregiously overpriced region for golf that quite frankly lacks soul as much as it does quality golf courses. There’s not that many golfers hungry to test their game on a public stage. Maybe that’s harsh but go spend one weekend down in Charleston and play the Muni with regular Eli Sachs and you’ll find yourself thinking Northern VA golf just ain’t up to par. Fortunately though, I was able to satisfy a little bit of that craving by playing in the South Riding Beat the Pro 4 ball tournament. It was not much more than a hit and giggle, but it was something to play for. After the aforementioned round and some help from a top tier partner, Mr. Chase Hutson, we emerged victorious. Winning is fun. 

Tonic

It’s been prime sport watching season with my beloved New York Yankees making a run to the World Series, as well as being squarely in football season for both College, my personal preference, and the NFL. But man was it a bad weekend to be a team the Coritz family was rooting for. After watching the yankees get walked off after a series of preventable mistakes, UVA and Navy football both got absolutely pantsed on Saturday afternoon. As deflating as deflating losses get for all three. As expected, the yanks came out flat a day later and we now sit behind 2-0. A day off before heading home to regroup in New York is much needed. Minor setback for a major comeback. After a weekend like this it’s easy to try to distance from the results and say why do we as fans even invest in these games we have no control over. But just like winning is fun, caring is fun. Freddie Freeman ripping Yankee fans heart out of our chests will only make the eventual wins sweeter, just as the years of mediocre UVA and Navy football will make the years of success that much sweeter as well. It’s all part of the process. 

Also on the dockett today is Halloween. It’s the time of the year you start seeing pumpkins on porches, skeletons and ghosts littering yards, scary movie advertisments following you around, and the beautiful fall foliage. I will start this off with a confession and important preface, I’m not a huge Halloween guy. At my age I don’t particularly love costume parties, I despise scary movies, and to be honest I don’t even really love candy. All this to say, the take I’m trying to get across here is that I think Halloween is a children’s Holiday. It’s for kids getting to dress up and the community coming together with a fun tradition of dishing out candy and just the right amount of spooky. I might come off like I hate fun, but for me it’s just a bit odd if you’re a grown adult and a Halloween is your thing. If you want to play pretend, head to disney world. 

Also, wanted to throw out some shows, I’ve been watching recently. After a brilliant recommendation from our editor in chief, Katie, I was enthralled with the Perfect Couple on Netflix. I’ll be the first to admit I’m a sucker for both cheesy and whodunnits, and it was a perfect blend of both. Great show. About as far on the spectrum from that is a podcast I rolled through recently. The Real Dictators series of episodes covering 20th century Spain of which I previously knew nothing about. It actually recommended on the real No Laying Up version of this and it was downright wild. Everybody knows the dictators of the Axis Powers and Stalin as well, but Francisco Franco is the forgotten man in that bunch. Like Neil says in the link above, it’s recommended if you’re into history. 

Matthew Coritz

Uh oh, Scottie learned how to putt. With a simply breathtaking performance, Scottie Scheffler blitzed the field at Bay Hill to take home the Arnold Palmer Invitational title. Outside a couple of funky misses short on the early par 3’s where he pulled the wrong club, he seemingly stepped up and hit the ball exactly where he was looking every single time. He was on autopilot all day, sending dart after dart, marching up and knocking it in.  In round 4, he led the field in strokes gained putting, holing 16/16 putts inside 15 feet. He ended up gaining over a stroke for the event, finishing inside the top 10 in all facets of strokes gained: putting, approach to the green, around the green, and off the tee. A lethal combination. 

Rory Mcilroy might have to pay up for unleashing this beast on the rest of pro golf. After another week of Scheffler’s putting struggles with his trusty Scotty Cameron blade, Rory was quoted saying, “I feel like my stroke has to be so perfect when using a blade, and the mallet really gives me margin for error. So I’d love to see Scottie try a mallet. But selfishly, for me, Scottie does everything else so well that he’s giving the rest of us a chance.” One week into this new equipment change, Rory and the rest of the players are certainly hoping this was a one-week aberration and not the new norm. 

Finally, a signature event with real juice. The PGA Tour has endured a rough start to the season with little buzz being generated by a combo of lower-profile winners and non-exciting finishes. The Genesis was solid but the Tiger withdrawal and Spieth disqualification really sucked the life out of an otherwise fun weekend. There was plenty of star power at the top of the leaderboard but also quite a few stinkers put up from some of the top 20 players in the world rankings. Rory was never really in it and shot 76 on Sunday. Hovland hasn’t been the same player we saw last summer, and had back-to-back 75’s on the weekend. Collin Morikawa, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tommy Fleetwood all managed to be three of the 11 players to miss the cut.  

Scottie outclassed the field in a way only the best player in the world can. A player of his caliber just looks inevitable when he has all facets of his game going. How satisfying it is when you get to watch the best in the world at his best. A player like Scottie simply has a level that others cannot reach and it was on full display late Saturday into the full final round on Sunday. 

Bay Hill is such an awesome venue. When courses are difficult, the match is so much easier to follow— you can easily tell when somebody is doing something special, exactly like what Scottie did this past week. In years past, this tournament was always a dogfight, and as noted many times on the broadcast, the winner is quite often in single digits. There are some goofy holes and some ludicrous shots required but it’s a proper test and it frequently produces great champions. It’s a course that fans can look to each and every year for an entertaining week.

The Players next weekend should be fun. TPC Sawgrass is always amazing television, has a brilliant design, and has one of, if not the best, finishing stretches in golf. Are we going to see a Scheffler repeat? If the putting is for real something we could be seeing a star dominate the game just in the way golf needs to pull the average fan back in. See you next week.

Matthew Coritz

Nick Dunlap has won at every level. He won a bunch of junior events. A whole lot of Amateur events as well, including the most coveted of them all, the U.S. Amateur. Oh, you bet he’s won in College too. He’s been on a winning Walker Cup team. Surely the PGA Tour is a different level though right? It’ll definitely take him time to adjust to the major leagues of golf competing with the best in the world. Ok, maybe at best he’ll compete over the first 3 days of a tournament and fade a little bit on Sunday while we all commend the amateur’s valiant effort. Nope. Winners win. With his win at last week’s American Express, the 20 year old University of Alabama star Nick Dunlap has become the first amateur to win on the PGA Tour since Phil Mickelson last did it in 1991. This after last year joining Tiger Woods as the only players to complete the US Junior and US Amateur double. What a moment and what a player. 

Starting the day 3 clear of the closest challenger, Nick Dunlap was paired in the final group with 2 elite players Justin Thomas and Sam Burns. Both are not only household names but also came in with a knack for chasing down the competition on Sundays. Both have wins when down by as many as 7 strokes going into the final day, with Sam Burns doing it at the 2022 Charles Schwab Challenge and Justin Thomas more famously doing it at the 2022 PGA Championship. Dunlap had to fight through some self inflicted adversity as well, after doubling the Par 4 7th after a shanked tee shot into the water. With Burns birdieing the hole, it was quite the swing as he drew even with Dunlap at -26. From there, it was all Dunlap though. He was able to pull away, playing bogey-free with 3 birdies in the final 11 holes. Burns was the one who folded down the stretch with a couple doubles. Justin Thomas had a solid day at -4 but that was not enough to close the gap after starting the day 4 back of Dunlap. 

The kid simply has it all. The ball speed is easy into the mid 180’s. He has all the makings of a generational talent but to get this win this soon? Crazy. We are starting to see the next generation creep into the game and the game is just getting more and more athletic. These kids are taught with pro-style teaching and have access to launch monitors, better coaches, and new philosophies driven by statistics and the results are showing. Ludvig Aberg, Nick Dunlap, Gordon Sargent, and more are here and they’re here to stay. It is easy every year for the big amateur talent to be branded as the next big thing but once again this is different. He’s some kind of mix of Bryson Dechambeau and Jordan Spieth. Both were top level prospects with Bryson getting the job done at the US Amateur, and Jordan Speith being the youngest to win on the PGA Tour at 19. Dunlap is taking the resume of great players all over and making their accomplishments look routine. 

While giving the kid time to enjoy this incredible win, the question has to go immediately to whether he will turn pro. He’s now exempt into all the signature events for the rest of the year. He was already exempt into the Masters, US Open, and The Open with his US Am win but now he could turn pro and be eligible for the Masters, US Open, and the PGA Championship, with the chance to qualify for The Open by way of being ranked in the top 50 of the OWGR. It is a tough spot to be in with his college teammates though as it is midseason and I’m sure he’d love to win a national championship with his boys, but this is a pretty unprecedented spot. I’m sure his teammates would understand the decision to go pro. Then again, this is the NIL era. What’s to say some Alabama Boosters don’t get together and throw him quite a bit of money to stay the rest of this season? He’s already in the Masters anyway and that PGA Tour Card will still be waiting. These will be an interesting next couple of days to weeks for Mr. Dunlap. 

With that being said, let’s take time to again appreciate what we just witnessed. It could be easy to say, with the fractured state of the Pro game, this would not have happened with all the guys on one tour. That is simply not true. This is the strongest field this event has had in quite a bit of time. With the new schedule the Tour has adopted each week will have much stronger fields than in years past because of the stakes of playing being the ability to qualify into the signature events. This win is not only legitimate, it’s magical. 

Alabama Coach Jay Seawell has seen plenty of talent in his day most notably, fellow Sunday Groupmate and 2-time major champion Justin Thomas. But when asked about Dunlap, he had this to say, “If he stays healthy and all the things that happen in athletics, I think he could be … I don’t want to say Jack [Nicklaus] or Tiger, but he’s the first person I’ve ever seen that could be. I don’t want to put that kind of pressure on him, but I do think he’s a guy who I think has the ability and the mindset and the physicality to be historic in this game.” Quite high praise from one of the college game’s best coaches. While he deservedly will enjoy this win, I can’t wait to see what Dunlap does next. 

Matthew Coritz

It’s that time. After a 2 year wait golf in its purest form at the professional level is back. So much has changed in the golf world since the rout that took place at Whistling Straits two short years ago. Since the last edition, LIV has spun golf into a frenzy, purses have ballooned to astronomical amounts, Rickie Fowler is back, and Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman are major champions. These are just to name a few of the wild changes. This time, the Americans will be on enemy soil. All roads lead to Rome. The 44th edition of the Ryder Cup will be played starting this Friday at the Marco Simone Golf Club. 

First, the venue. Marco Simone is an awesome course. For the DP World Tour fans, it may be familiar as it has been the host of the Italian Open for the last couple of years. It’s a pretty open layout, and Rome is a hilly area providing this course with views that can see multiple holes which should set it up for an awesome stadium layout. The course is great, but a primary reason the event will be here is everything that its location brings. Being just a short drive from downtown Rome should provide this event plenty of buzz and hopefully it will be great theater. The course is pretty tight, which is a theme for European Ryder Cups, but there are a lot of risk reward options which is always fun in match play. There’s a good mix of draws and cuts off the tee, and the key will be being decisive off the tee and precise with the iron play. There’s a fair amount of tiered greens that being on the proper level will be key. Hopefully matches get to the final 3 holes as they will be thrilling to watch. 16 is a wild short Par 4, with no clear layup and a difficult green to hit, 17 is a tough par 3, and who doesn’t love a finishing Par 5 where anything can happen. 

There’s a lot of statistics that go into course setup these days. Particularly fascinating is the Alternate Shot portion. With one player taking the tee shot on 9 of the holes, and the other guy on the other 9 giving the Home Side quite the opportunity to tailor the course to each player’s strengths. Say there’s a 3 hole stretch of a long Par 3, reachable Par 5, followed by a relatively short Par 4. One of the guys is a very solid long iron player but only a so-so driver of the golf ball. The other guy is a great driver and elite wedge player. They can then set it up so the long iron player can hit the long iron tee shot on the Par 3, the second shot of a long iron approach on the Par 5, and not have the most stressful tee shot on the Par 4. This would then simultaneously play to the other player’s strengths too. He would have at worst a greenside shot on the Par 3, would lash at a driver on the Par 5, and would be able to dial in a wedge to the Par 4. This is an elementary explanation, and there is tons of data that goes into it, but quite interesting to watch how teams navigate this. The Americans have the reputation of being bombers that aren’t as precise, with the Europeans being shorter straighter hitters. In a slightly biased opinion, I think this is a lazy take that downplays the overpowering athleticism and talent the American side brings, but we will see it in action this week. The Europeans will have the course set up to squeeze every possible point they can get. 

Next, the teams. The view after a dominant win by an American team full of young superstars 2 years ago was one of a potential American dynasty starting to take hold in the event. What has happened over the 2 years has not all trended in that direction. The American Roster is still shoulder to shoulder with studs but Europe is firmly in the mix, with their fair share of star power. The United States Ryder Cup team is:

1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Wyndham Clark
3. Brian Harman
4. Patrick Cantlay
5. Max Homa
6. Xander Schauffele
7. Brooks Koepka
8. Jordan Spieth
9. Collin Morikawa
10.  Justin Thomas
11.  Rickie Fowler
12.  Sam Burns

1-6: Auto Qualifiers

6-12: Captain’s Picks

The rise of Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman was certainly something not many saw coming but they are 2 well deserving auto qualifiers after major championship victories. JT, Rickie, Spieth, Koepka, and Morikawa were always locks for picks. The final man came down to a toss up with Sam Burns and Cameron Young, with Captain Zach Johnson taking the better putter. I think that’s a solid call for a European Ryder Cup setup that always places such a big emphasis on the flatstick. There was some controversy after Justin Thomas had a rough summer, and some felt he was only picked because of his name but he all but put that to rest with a top 5 finish at the Fortinet Championship last weekend. Realistically he was always a guy the Americans needed, and the decision to include him shows improvement from the American side in regards to choosing the best team versus the old strategy of choosing who is playing that best that has proved costly for the Americans in the past. The better player is always better than the guy who is “the hotter player” a month away from the event when picks are made. Also, you have to feel for a couple of guys that didn’t make the cut. Emotionally you want a spot for Keegan Bradley and have to love that it matters so much to him but it was the correct decision. Also shoutout to Lucas Glover for a heck of a little run this summer with wins at the Wyndham and Fedex St. Jude but it was never really a serious candidacy. Don’t get caught up in recent form, these teams are selected a month plus in advance so can’t get caught up in that. Europe has beaten us off this strategy for years. 

European team

While the US team had some names pop up it really felt like it just came down to Young and Burns for the final spot, but the euro picture was a bit cloudier. Team Europe is:

1. Rory Mcilroy
2. Jon Rahm
3. Viktor Hovland
4. Tyrell Hatton
5. Matt Fitzpatrick
6. Robert Macintyre
7. Tommy Fleetwood
8. Sepp Straka
9. Shane Lowry
10.  Justin Rose
11.  Nicolai Højgaard
12.  Ludvig Aberg

1-6: Auto Qualifiers

6-12: Captain’s Picks

There were really 3 guys in the picture for 2 spots and there were many arguments for each guy. Nicolai Hojgaard, Ludvig Aberg, and Adrian Meronk were the guys jockeying for those spots. Ludvig Aberg is the uber talented potential world beater but the guy hasn’t even played in a major championship! Definitely the right pick, but Abergs resume is unprecedented for a Ryder Cupper. Adrian Meronk has 3 wins in the last 2 years and won the Italian Open at the same course this spring at Marco Simone. But Captain Luke Donald has gone all in on the youth movement and taken Højgaard. Meronk will be left on his couch watching this weekend wondering what more could he have done to make the squad. 

Prediction: The Europeans put up a stronger fight this time around, but the Americans get it done winning by a slim margin 15 to 13.

Matthew Coritz

The BMW Championship had all the makings of a classic Scottie Scheffler win. Olympia Fields is a ballstriker’s paradise and there’s nobody who flushes the ball like Scheffler does. After 3 days he was on top of the leaderboard, and while he seemed a class above the whole week, there were still some big names up there with him like Matt Fitzpatrick, Rory Mcilroy, Max Homa, and even lingering 4 back at -8 was Viktor Hovland. It would take something special to catch him on Sunday. Viktor Hovland stepped up to the plate and delivered. Seemingly shot out of a cannon on the final nine holes, he shot a course-record 9 under 61 to snatch the tournament away from Scheffler and those trailing. He had 8 3’s on the back 9! Incredible stuff on his way to a back nine 28 after making the turn at only 2 under on the day. Touting the best smile in golf along the way, Viktor just absolutely diced up the back 9 holes. He hit 7 of his final 9 approach shots within 15 feet gaining an astonishing 6.48 strokes on the field along the way. With the win, Hovland moved up to second in the FedEx Cup Standings behind only Scheffler so they will start next week at the top of the leaderboard for the Tour Championship’s staggered start format. 

Olympia Fields was a very solid venue and while it could’ve played a little tougher, I thought it was a good fit for a playoff venue. It was Distinct from the majors, yet more demanding than the week-to-week PGA Tour venues. Also, add in the fact that the tournament was in the Chicago market which added some juice to the tournament. I saw an idea floated around that the three playoff weeks should run through the massive markets of New York at a course like Liberty National, then to Chicago with Olympia Fields, and then the Tour Championship of course being in Atlanta at East Lake. That would add some year-to-year consistency and a sense of meaning to a product that really needs some. 

What once looked like a possible American dynasty setting up after the rout at Whistling Straits 2 years ago now looks like a much more formidable matchup between Team USA and Team Europe at next month’s Ryder Cup. Team Europe is officially trending. Mcilroy, Rahm, and Hovland are absolute stalwarts at the top, and Fleetwood, Hatton, and Fitzpatrick have looked very solid all year. The United States team is in a bit of flux with a few prospective players not at their usual level like Justin Thomas, Tony Finau, and Cameron Young. Also, the team will be mixing in guys who weren’t really on the radar before their major triumphs in Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman. Regarding the tour split, Brooks Koepka is likely to be the sole LIV guy for either team, and considering how little he spoke out against the PGA tour after leaving there shouldn’t be any drama on that front. Rome should be fun.

Now over to Denver to cover one of my favorite weeks of the year in golf with the U.S. Amateur. Nick Dunlap has been the best amateur all summer having won the North and South Amateur as well as the Northeast Amateur. He’s looked at as arguably the top PGA Tour prospect in college right now alongside Gordon Sargent. After his first 7 holes of the week, he was 5-over par. Hardly the transcendent play he’s displayed all summer after an All-American freshman year at Alabama. That’s when his caddy, Jeff Curl, wrote a note on the 8th hole of Dunlap’s yardage book. “This can be an amazing story if you let go and LET IT HAPPEN!” It shook Dunlap right out of his funk and he never looked back. He got into the Match Play portion of the tournament as the 41st seed. He then promptly ousted the Number 1 Amateur in the World Gordon Sargent in the Round of 64. He steadily made his way through the rest of his matches before dispatching Ohio State senior Neal Shipley 4 and 3 in the 36-hole final. After being tied through 18, Dunlap pulled away on the second 18 to win handily. With the win, he joined Tiger Woods as the only players to have won both the U.S. Junior Amateur and the U.S. Amateur. Of course, Tiger won both tournaments 3 times, but it’s still a huge step in Dunlap’s journey. Special shoutout to my friend Paul Chang on an incredible run to the round of 16 taking down Walker Cupper Caleb Surratt along the way. After 2 years of grinding on the Club Team at UVA, working with Coach Rob Failes, and many hours at the Birdwood Member’s short game area, he finally got a well-deserved spot on the varsity squad after the staff caught wind of his play this summer. There was one champion, but there were many winners at this year’s United States Amateur Championship.

See you next week for the Tour Championship.

Matthew Coritz

1. Brian Harman – That’s it. What a performance from the Bulldog. He played all week with that chip on his shoulder. Facing some early doubts after a slow start on Saturday, one fan poked the bear. “Brian you don’t have the stones for this!” He shouted. That’s all Harman needed to kickstart into gear and never look back as he coasted to the 6-shot victory. He’s 5’7 and swings around 109 mph, but this wasn’t all a putting masterclass. A recipe of 2 bunkers hit all week, striping the ball off the tee, and putting 61/62 inside of 10 feet all week? Yeah, that’ll work. On Monday I came across an interesting thought on golf digest. If Harman hits the driver 290 and the other guys hit three wood 280 it may seem like a disadvantage. But if their driver is negated by the pot bunkers looming just over 300 yards, Harman can be just as accurate and get the extra yardage from the driver vs other players’ 3 woods. That is an underrated advantage. It seems kind of backwards but boy did he play it. He was deadly accurate all week and got the job done to seal the first major of his career.

2. Shocker at the Venue of Great Champions – It was a generational performance, but the man behind it was a surprise. Coming into the week, Royal Liverpool was advertised as a “Breeding ground of Great Champions.” We may have been looking at that phrase wrong. In the past, it meant great champs as the players themselves like Tiger, Rory, and Walter Hagan all having titles at Hoylake. But this week it meant great champion in what Brian Harman was able to accomplish over the four days. It truly was one of the most dominant winning performances in recent memory at majors. This week, Royal Liverpool lived up to the moniker of great champions with Harman’s display but just not in the sense we expected.

3. Road Game – There was a lot of talk about the fans being a little hostile towards Harman and creating a “road game” environment. I don’t think it had anything to do with disliking Brian Harman, even if he’s not the most magnetic personality. It was more just people rooting for their guys, and for the majority English crowd, that meant Fleetwood and Mcilroy. He’s an American trying to win a tournament in England. I’m not advocating for picking on certain players but what’s wrong with rooting for your guys? Sometimes that may include the other guy not doing well. Here’s an example. I’m a Yankees fan. If I go to a Yankees-Red Sox game and say Rafael Devers makes an error and the Yankees score a run on the play. I’m not allowed to clap for that? Or even worse if Devers hits a home run, you want me to cheer?? I can appreciate how great the play was, but that’s not gonna happen. Now back to the Open Championship. Not every fan is there just to appreciate the golf being played. Some fans have a rooting interest so why are they not allowed to cheer as such? As long as it’s not personal attacks that cross the line or done with poor etiquette why not let somebody hear it? Let ‘em have fun.

4. Waggles Galore – NBC Coverage did not shy away from showcasing Brian Harman’s preshot routine, even going so far as including a live counter on the number of waggles as he addressed the ball. He would take as many as 20 waggles over the ball until he felt ready and would then proceed to hit his shot. I get it, the major championships come with massive pressure and you’ll do anything to steady yourself. But this was a little out of control. In golf, you can take as long as you want to steady your nerves. I don’t know the solution right now but we have to speed things up, golf is getting slower as every other sport is going in the other direction. You can’t pause a basketball game to shoot your 3 pointer when the time is right. You can’t even take more than ten seconds for a free throw, but you can waggle 14 times before you address a shot? I’ll sit and watch golf all day long but I want to watch golf shots not the golf preshot, and with Harman that’s hard to do. 

5. Links Golf is Art – Links golf is sensational. It was spoiled a bit by the rainy, soft conditions and we never really got the wind at full bore, but it is so fun to see the artistic golf that links style brings out. Cam Young’s stinger early Sunday on the 3rd hole that pierced through the air was a thing of beauty, and Sepp Straka’s inch-perfect chip using the mounds and slopes of the 18th hole on Friday was even better. It can be difficult to appreciate on TV just because of picture quality due to the weather, as well as the relatively flat landscape but links golf is something to behold. Golf is art in motion, and links style provides the perfect canvas for players to paint their best pictures. 

6. Leaderboard shoutouts – Sepp Straka continues to golf his ball and got the T2 at a major seemingly locking up his Ryder Cup spot. A heroic effort from Tom Kim on one leg. Or was it? There were differing reports on the extent of the injury but either way, a massive finish for the development of the young Korean. Max Homa got the monkey off his back! He secures the first Major Championship Top 10 of his career. Local boy Matthew Jordan finishes at -3 in a dream week for the Royal Liverpool Member in the feel-good story of the week. 

7. Another year of Rory – Another year has gone by and the major drought continues. Is it mental? Is it his gameplan? Is it just his play isn’t good enough anymore? What if it never does happen? I wish there was a little more of the bravado there once was. Where is the guy we saw just a week ago smiling, seemingly toying with the opposition as he wielded his golf ball on a string at the Scottish Open? There’s always next year.

8. Only 4 Shots at it – That being said the impact of the majors is interesting. Golf is so unpredictable yet so much emphasis is placed on these 4 weeks of the year. It’s what makes the guys with a lot of wins in these events so impressive because they took their shot and got it done. At the same time though, guys can be week in and week out the best players but maybe when the major rolled around it just wasn’t their week. I think that dilemma is what makes these weeks so good. Anything can happen. 

9. Ryder Cup Implications – This was a big week for Ryder Cup Teams. With the top 6 for both side being the players occupying the automatic qualifying spots the other 6 are my choices for the captain’s picks. 

TEAM USA

1. Scottie Scheffler
2. Wyndham Clark
3. Brian Harman
4. Brooks Koepka
5. Xander Schauffele
6. Patrick Cantlay
7. Max Homa
8. Cameron Young
9. Jordan Spieth
10. Collin Morikawa
11. Rickie Fowler
12. Justin Thomas

Bubble: (Keegan, Finau, and Sam Burns)

Gotta give credit to Keegan for multiple wins this season, and Finau and Burns are great players but JT is the guy for me that gets that 12th spot.

TEAM EUROPE

1. Rory Mcilroy
2. Jon Rahm
3. Robert Macintyre
4. Viktor Hovland
5. Tyrell Hatton
6. Tommy Fleetwood
7. Matt Fitzpatrick
8. Sepp Straka (trending up)
9. Shane Lowry
10. Justin Rose
11. Adrian Meronk
12. ABERG!

Bubble: (Yannik Paul, Perez, Hojgaard)

I think Meronk and Aberg are the right ones for the 11 and 12 spots. The Euros got absolutely blitzed the last go around in this event in Michigan so maybe an injection of youth potential and spirit is what’s needed for a turnaround. Meronk also just won the last Italian Open held at the same venue so he’s a good fit. 

10. The Justin Thomas Ryder Cup Question – I vote yes. He’s the heart and soul of the team man and he’s gotta be going to Rome. I understand he’s looked downright lost on the golf course a few times over the past couple of months, but he’s a two-time major winner with double-digit wins on the PGA TOUR. No disrespect but if Brian Harman can show up like this and win the open championship, then a player of JT’s caliber can put together a few matches at the Ryder Cup. That’s how golf goes it comes in waves but trust your guys, hot hands don’t necessarily correlate to a good performance because it’s a different format and a totally different atmosphere. Justin Thomas has been the guy for years now in this event and I think the only people that would be celebrating if he was left off would be whoever got the spot in his place and the Europeans because JT is not a guy they like to see.

11. MegaCorp!– Quick shoutout to Megacorp. MegaCorp is the sponsor front and center on Brian Harman’s hat. They’re just a freighting logistics company from North Carolina. But what a name! It sounds like they have Lex Luthor as CEO, and they’re plotting to take out Superman. It actually has been pretty big for their business, with Harman’s win seeing their searched amount on Google go up 5000%. 

12. Scottie woes – What an interesting year for the number-one player in the world. It seemed like he played too good to not win a major, but that’s the rub of the green. The putting issue is real but there are so many factors. He hits so many greens and usually plays later in the day which both statistically point to less made putts but he just seems to be so close yet so far. He insists he’s hitting good putts, and starting the ball on his line but something has to be off with reads or speed. If he can get back to his 2022 ways with the flatstick look out.

13. See ya next year – And that’s a wrap. It’s only July but the men’s major season is over. It’s such a long wait until next year’s majors and I believe they should take a page out of tennis’ book and put the PGA championship back in August. Tennis has longer breaks between majors and the season seems to flow much better. It provides breaks between each major and adds to the buildup. Having majors in April, May, June, and July just feels way too compressed. Respectfully, the FedEx Cup playoffs mean less than ever with a fractured men’s game. But alas, the countdown to April and sweet Georgia begins. 

Matthew Coritz

It was starting to get late in the final round on a typical Scottish Sunday and a familiar feeling was sinking in for Rory Mcilroy. He couldn’t do much wrong but once again in such a similar vein to what we’ve seen recently, he just couldn’t get much right. He was stuck in par-land, merely staying afloat in the tournament whilst the Scotsman Robert Macintyre was swimming past him. The similarities between this Sunday and a famous one last summer seemed to be taking root, with Robert Macintyre playing the role of Cam Smith at St. Andrews, stealing another tournament on Scottish soil that surely should have been Rory’s. 

The scene picked up on the brutal final 2 holes. Macintyre had ascended to -14, but had to grind out a bogey on 17. He then stepped up to the brutal finishing 18th hole and leaked a driver left into the unpredictable fescue that borders the fairways on the links of the UK we’ve grown so accustomed to seeing over the years. By this point he’d found himself level with Rory at -13 working the low round of the day and had done this while fighting through gale-force wind conditions. Proper golf from a proper Scot. He stepped up and delivered a knifing low three-wood through the wind and set up a birdie seeming to twist the knife into Rory and win. There was still golf to be played, but entering that final stretch it was getting late very quick for Rory. With Macintyre in the house 1 ahead, it was make or break time for Mcilroy. He flighted an iron beautifully into the par 3 17th and played the contours to give himself a short look to draw even with Macintyre. He canned it. On a brutal 18th, a par to force a playoff seemed like a great outcome, but Mcilroy had other ideas. The wind was really whipping now and it was straight in his face as he stepped up to his second shot from 200 out with 4 iron in hand. For reference, his 4 iron goes about 240 yards, so Mcilroy was accounting for about a 40 yard wind. Once again, proper Scottish golf.  But he figured that club wasn’t enough, and stepped back and pulled the 2 iron. What a call. Delivering his “best shot all year,” he stung a 2 iron, showing Macintyre anything you can do I can do better, and put it to 10 feet. Right as the putt dropped, you could see the weight fall from his shoulders as he leaned back and soaked in the win. There was Sunday heartbreak, but for the first time in a while Mcilroy was on the winning side. 

This was the more aggressive Rory we’ve been longing to see in the big moments, and boy did he deliver. With this win, he is now the first player ever with victories at the Scottish Open, Irish Open, and the Open championship to his name. For someone from that region, that has to mean the world to him. But it didn’t always look like it would fall his way. This had all the makings of another death by a thousand pars showing from Rory on Sunday, but this really did seem like he may be turning that corner. With that said all credit to Robert Macintyre for a sensational Sunday showing. A 64 in these conditions, the low round of the day to vault himself into contention at his own national open? Brilliant golf. Knowing he gave it all he had to give and being the leader at the time, it was so cool to see him walk off the 18th green in tears showing just how much this tournament means to him. It’s been a great year for national opens, with Nick Taylor’s incredible putt at the Canadian and Wyndham Clark’s emotional win at the U.S. Open, and while he came up short, Bobby Mac certainly added to the highlights with this showing. 

Boasting a very strong field, the Scottish open has been a fun preview for the more important Open championship that is played this week. Links golf is a different beast than traditional golf this side of the Atlantic, with the typical venue being of the Parkland variety.  The Gale force winds, browned out turf, with not a flat lie on the golf course is typical for the home of golf. It’s golf how it was originally meant to be played, and it is one of the most fun “swings” of the golf season. The Open this year will be at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake. It’s a typical links style venue that we’ve seen twice this century, with Tiger and Rory coming away as the champions. As a golf fan, I’m hopeful another player of that caliber rises to the top on Sunday. Keep an eye on how the short Par 3 17th with trouble everywhere and the gettable Par 5 finisher will play. In terms of predictions, there are 3 guys yet to win a major this year whose play has seemingly been above the rest so I’m looking at Scheffler, Hovland, and Mcilroy as prime candidates to get it done this week. It’s already time for the final major of the year, and the dreadful 8 month wait until the Masters in April looms. Let’s enjoy it while it’s here.

Matthew Coritz

The United States Open tournament had never been to Los Angeles Country Club. Fans, players, and the USGA alike did not know what to expect. They had been hearing good things about the setup from players and if you took a look at a few pictures of the course online, you knew it was going to be fun to watch on TV with intriguing holes and stunning views, not to mention the barrancas. As far as storylines go, if you asked a writer to dream up his top five coming into this week without question a Rory Mcilroy 5th major after a shocking PGA-LIV Merger and years of missed opportunities, or a California kid Rickie Fowler comeback victory to finally reach the mountaintop after the depths of the past few years, would both surely be in there. What most didn’t have on the docket coming into this week is both of those possibilities being so close on Sunday afternoon, yet being spoiled by someone the average fan had not really heard of prior to this week. Everyone loves the underdog but not so much this week. Wyndham Clark had to come out and play spoiler—and spoil the party he did. 

Wyndham Clark had gone under the radar this year but he turned a corner a few weeks back when he took the Wells Fargo title in a designated event at Quail Hollow. Taking down a major-like field at a venue that has hosted major events in the past, sometimes has an immeasurable impact on a player’s confidence. He’s always had the talent too. He cruises in the high 180s for ball speed with his driver and showcased a super comfy short game all weekend. Guys like that just need a solid week and a few bounces to go their way and they could win it. Maybe he’ll be a flukier major winner like Gary Woodland or Danny Willet, or maybe this is just the start of huge things to come. We’ll just have to wait and see but for now, what we do know is that he’s had a heck of a season and we’ll almost surely see him donning the Red, White, and Blue in the Ryder Cup this fall. 

In a town so famous for its scripts maybe Wyndham’s just went under the radar. He was 19 years old when he lost his mother to cancer. He was in his first year at Oklahoma State and he was lost, citing multiple times he stormed off the golf course and would just get in the car and take off with no destination in mind. He thought about quitting the game altogether. He transferred to Oregon and a change of scenery did bode well for him, but the struggles remained. As an uber-talented player, facing struggles like this hit him even harder. This wasn’t just a just shot an 80 I never want to see my clubs again frustration, this was a different beast. When everything seemed stacked against him he persevered. He “played big” like his Mom told him to. He worked his way through the ranks and did not have the shiny traditional route to the top. Sometimes all it takes is four days to change your life and have all that hard work pay off. Just like Rickie said as they embraced on the 18th Green after Wyndham had become a major champion, “Your Mom was with you, she’d be very proud.”

All the credit to Wyndham Clark, but man did this feel like the one for Rory Mcilroy. In a performance eerily similar to the Open at St. Andrews last year, he came up just short. He played solid but something just felt off the entire day. The putter wasn’t working, he didn’t give himself enough good looks, and there was the fateful wedge into the lip on 14. For a player of Rory’s caliber chasing down one with Wyndham’s resume, there should be an air of inevitability that Rory will chase him down and nab the major, but following along all day it really just felt the other way around. Each time a missed opportunity like this goes by more and more doubt creeps in, will it ever really happen again? The scar tissue is very real as evidenced by Mcilory leaning in to hug his manager after a tough round and the first thing he said was “St. Andrews all over again.” Ouch. It looks to me like he continually gets himself to the spot and instead of pouncing and going for broke, he hopes the other guy will fold. The 14th hole was a perfect example of that. After a drive left, he drew a decent lie in the tough bermuda rough. He had a decision to make. The scoring had been about a shot better when going for the green in 2 vs laying up and trying to make birdie the hard way, but he did have to play from the rough. Rather than pressing and making the bold play he proceeded to lay up, dump the wedge in the bunker, and make bogey. Just a few minutes later Rory had to watch Wyndham effectively ice the tournament after majestically cutting a 3 wood onto the green in 2 and 2-putting his way to birdie. We were offered a glimpse into Rory’s great mindset when he was asked if he’s getting tired of going through missed chances like this, saying “I would go through 100 Sundays like this just to get my hands on another major championship,” but I’d love to see him go for broke and live with the consequences rather than be left wondering what could have been. 

There was a lot of hype about the venue coming into this US Open, with Los Angeles Country Club’s North Course frequenting the top 20 World Top 100 golf course lists and the picturesque views of the City of Angels in the background of many holes. Unfortunately, relative to expectations, the atmosphere fell pretty flat. There was nobody there until Sunday! Of course, there were people there but it was missing the roars and the masses that Major Championship golf is so synonymous with. They only hosted 23,000 fans daily, compared to previous years being closer to 50,000 and many of the tickets were corporate suites which aren’t exactly the fans that bring the energy.  The venue does have space limitations just due to the routing but still very disappointing stuff from the USGA. The course itself also had some big hits but I think it had some surprising misses. The short Par 4 6th was super entertaining all week with its risk-reward with a layup vs going for it. I was very disappointed by the short par 3 15th though, as it just never had any juice. The green was supposed to cause havoc even while playing under 100 yards and it just never did, and as mentioned earlier the fanfare was poor. My main issue was that for a player like Wyndham Clark, no disrespect, but guys like that have a serious history of blowing it. That’s just how it goes your first time in contention at a major. Example A: Mito Pereira just last year on the 72nd Hole at the PGA. But the course simply didn’t let him. He had a two-shot lead when he tugged a wedge left with a finish leaving you knowing he hated it. But he found a weak spot in the rough just left of the green and got up and down. And then he hit a wipey fade off the planet right and there was no penalty for it. It was in the fairway! I felt like on the final hole of a major, especially the US Open, you really have to test the guy’s nerves. The tee shot on 18 was the furthest thing from that. The 17th hole and the 18th both felt like very hard birdies but relatively easy pars for these guys. It was tough to get close in 2 but not too difficult to get down in 2 for par from around the greens. Once again, Wyndham was the guy, they all played the same course but the finish was a bit of a dud. 

After a pair of 62s on the board Thursday, setting a new US Open record and then tying it a few minutes later, there was a public outcry that the USGA had gone soft. This was a tournament that fans know, and the USGA themselves brand as Golf’s Toughest Test. I understand the whole par is a relative number and it’s about rewarding shot value and not simply the score at the end of the day, but that’s just not it. For the common fan, even par as a winning score means it was a struggle. This is the US Open. The people want to see carnage. You can miss me with the “Oh they just duffed a chip, they’re just like me.” Cut it out they’re nothing like you, but man it is fun to watch them struggle for one week a year. Give me players complaining about the setup being unfair, I want putts flying past the hole off the green, and wedges not sticking where they’re supposed to. All of it. A quote came out from the USGA setup man John Bodenhamer, “We want to identify the best players not embarrass them.” How soft is that? Is it really a US Open if there are no complaints about the setup being too diabolical? The US Open’s always done a good job toeing that line between unfair and just extremely difficult and we should do what we can to get back to that, not just catering to the players. May the grittiest man win.

The season is ramping up, and it’s crazy we’re already through 3 of the 4 majors this calendar year. We’ve got a month until we find out who’s going to step up and be the man in Hoylake. 

Matthew Coritz

New York was rocking, and two horses had pulled away from the field. Rather than the final straightaway of the Belmont, this was the back nine on Sunday. Brooks Koepka and Viktor Hovland had separated themselves from the field and it was 3 holes for all the glory. Koepka had a shot in hand, 1 ahead of Hovland as they stepped to the tee. Hovland went first and pushed it just a touch right getting an unlucky bounce into the fairway bunker. Advantage Koepka. All he was looking to do was find the short stuff and it could be smooth sailing from there. But he too blocked one right into the gnarly rough that had eaten up competitors’ chances all week. Hovland was away and was staring at the big lip between him and a chance at a taste of that first Major Championship glory. He pulled 9 iron not thinking twice, and he stepped up to the make-or-break shot. He swung, made contact, and everyone watching turned their heads to the green trying to find where the shot would drop. The ball never got out of the bunker. It embedded in the lip and forced a drop and pitchout shot from Hovland. What Koepka did next was as lethal a shot that you may ever see. While Hovland’s whole bunker ordeal may have lasted 10 minutes, Koepka’s lash of a pitching wedge from the rough to 5 feet took all of about 10 seconds. Koepka has said it himself, he hangs around the top of leaderboards in the majors, never forces anything, and when his opponent blinks, he strikes. Much easier said than done with the nerves and stakes involved at Majors but Brooks backs up all his talk. He’s like a boxer that controls a fight until the final round, and right when his opponent provides an opening he slips in for the knockout punch.

It was a long journey back to this world-beater, major championship juggernaut player that Brooks once was. After multiple years of injuries and doubts, as seen very openly through the Full Swing profile Netflix did, that guy seems to be back. And this time it feels different. When we last saw Brooks with the Wanamaker Trophy in his hands, he seemed to really lean into the apathetic douche character. The “I don’t really practice” persona that seemed cool and different but never painted the full picture. This time around there’s a maturity to it, having been humbled after seeing how quickly it all can go downhill. He had to put in the work and grind he did. The guy is a winner, but don’t ever let him fool with that early career talk about how easy it was. Don’t get me wrong there’s still that ultra-alpha in there that has said he can just “eliminate 80 guys from the field because I’m just better than them” when discussing his success at majors, but this time around it seems a lot more on the confident side than the cocky past version. 

There was another storyline that stole the show over the weekend up at Oak Hill. That was the fairy tale of Michael Block. The Block Party you could call it. Golf isn’t like most other sports. You don’t see a High School football coach get to play in the Super Bowl. You don’t get to see a shooting trainer get minutes in the NBA Finals. But golf offers the same chance, and as long as you can get the ball in the hole in as few shots as possible, it doesn’t matter whether you’re old or young, tall or short, scrawny or built, you can compete. And compete Michael Block did. It was an unprecedented performance in the modern era of golf, and with steady play all week he ended up in a tie for 15th guaranteeing him a return trip next year. Polishing off the story with a slam dunk ace at the 15th hole on Sunday while playing with arguably the most famous golfer of this era is a moment straight out of the cheesiest writer’s script. It was beautiful to see throughout the week you could see the raw emotion and how much it meant to him. Stories like this are what makes this game truly one of a kind.

To be completely honest I didn’t love Oak Hill. It was super hard, which was a Major Championship should be but something felt off to me. As I write this article a week on from the tournament, I find myself not really recalling any holes or shots that players had to hit that I loved watching. The short par 14th was pretty cool, but man did the broadcast really want to let you know how cool it was and shove it down your throat. It was like they thought they had to convince me how cool the golf course was. Also, man was that rough gnarly. At times there weren’t really opportunities to make recovery shots. Watching golfers take their medicine and punch out is fun from time to time. It’s relatable and it’s humbling, but I don’t want to watch it all week long, that’s just not fun. The main problem I had with it was that the PGA Championship just lacks a brand. This gets talked about a lot of years but it really is true. The Masters is in a world of its own with Augusta. The US Open is the toughest test in golf and every year at a classic brutal American course, the grittiest man wins. Finally, The Open is golf at its beautiful roots. The PGA Championship is the odd man out and I really want it to go back to its original Match Play format. Match play is played at every level of golf from College and High School team golf, to the money game between friends at the local Muni. I think a format modeled after the US Amateur is ideal, with 2-3 rounds of stroke play to weed out the non-competitors than a full-on bracket-style format to the finish. It’s a roller coaster of entertainment and would give Match Play the platform and love it deserves at the highest level of golf.