Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re practicing our 1-footers, and our 3-footers, and our 5-footers…to the news!
Getting honest about short putts.
We may be well into football season now, but the golf competitions this weekend were many, varied and filled with delight and anguish. There were pros fighting for their jobs and amateurs showing off. There were unofficial Ryder Cup training camps happening in parallel. And while there was a World No. 1 who snuck out a win, there was also a World No. 1 who kicked one away. The latter two were the standout moments of the week: a heartbreaking three-putt and an even more heartbreaking four-putt that decided the events on the PGA and LPGA Tours, respectively.
My favorite sound bite that emerged from that mess was Charley Hull, winner of the Kroger Queen City Championship, describing how she’d felt over a one-foot putt on the last. Initially she’d expected the putt to cement her one-shot loss. But after Jeeno Thitikul took a shocking four putts to get down for bogey, suddenly Hull’s shortie was far more consequential: it was to win her first tournament in more than three years. Hull began to address her putt, stepped off it, returned to it, stepped off again and then finally holed it — although from the angle on TV it didn’t exactly look like it went in the center.
“I feel like I was pretty calm coming into the green, I knew I had to hole the putt for eagle,” Hull said. She was down a shot to Thitikul, who’d hit the par-5 finisher in two shots; Hull assumed her opponent would two-putt from there. “Missed it and had a [one-]foot putt. When I realized I had it for the win I had this mad shock of adrenaline come through me and my hands were like, shaking.
“I was like, oh, no. Usually I can calm it down in like five minutes — but I had to play straightaway. I had to back off it twice. I don’t know how like Tiger Woods won that many tournaments, that much pressure. It was just a shock.
“If I knew it was to win coming up the hole I think I would’ve been fine. I think I was just so shocked. Yeah, I holed it and it was good. Even though it was a foot putt, they feel like 10-footers.”
If a one-footer felt like a 10-footer to Hull, it’s tough to know the conversion rate to Ben Griffin‘s five-foot second putt on the par-5 finisher at the Procore Championship. But he made no excuses when that putt wandered wide left, a final gift to a man who doesn’t need one, Scottie Scheffler, who’d suddenly won for the sixth time this season.
“I had a couple on the front nine that I missed, and then I had a couple down the stretch that I missed from mid-range,” Griffin said, referencing putts in that ticklish five- to eight-foot range. “I make a good amount. It’s just a bummer, seems like it’s a consistent thing.”
As he spoke a replay of his putt appeared on TV.
“I’ll look at it, I’ll watch all my — there’s my putt, yeah, just broke a little bit.” And then he seemed to move on in real time. “S— happens, I’ll bounce back.”
It struck me that both admissions were therapeutic. Hull admitting how nervous she’d been and Griffin admitting there’s something troubling him in that five-foot range. Thitikul didn’t address the media post-round and I wonder if she would have been better off had she taken it head-on. After all, if you admit you choked away a lead, what’s the worst thing anybody else can say about you?
Hull’s win was a victory for press conference fans everywhere, as she was a quote machine all week — you can add “pain is a weakness of the mind” to your lexicon — and was particularly insightful in victory. She’s been battling injuries for months, she said, tearing a ligament in her foot in a parking lot and then pulling a muscle in her back lifting up a box. But she turned a nine-week estimated recovery into three. And she turned injury into an advantage.
“I probably expect less and do less. My days are usually full out, going to the gym, golf, practice. When I’m kind of [feeling] poorly or injured I do a lot less and I put less pressure on myself. Then I kind of do better sometimes.”
It’s tough to do better than winning. Credit to her for knocking in that one-footer — and for bringing us into that moment.
Who won the week?
Scottie Scheffler entered the Procore as by far the favorite, going off at unheard-of two-to-one odds, so it was hardly a shock that he emerged the winner. But there was something particularly striking about the way it all unfolded. Scheffler just kept climbing the leaderboard, kept stacking up birdies (including 10 in a third-round 64), kept watching guys alongside him waver and fall behind until only Griffin was left to challenge him. And when Griffin three-putted the final green? It felt like further proof how much better Scheffler is than everybody else. He didn’t have to do anything spectacular, by his lofty standards, to win the golf tournament — but somebody else would have had to do something spectacular to beat him. And so Scheffler added to his greatness.
One thing that jumped out to me about Alex Noren‘s win at the BMW PGA Championship: his mindset the night before.
“Yeah, it’s going to be so much fun,” he said. “I love this. I’m going to work a little bit with my coach now and pick out a few shots that I didn’t feel comfortable over and do some putting stuff, and just get prepared for tomorrow with a clear mind what to do. It’s so much fun, yeah.”
Charley Hull’s win at the Kroger Queen City Championship was her third consecutive top-two finish but, her first LPGA win since 2022 — and just the third in her career. It was also the 25th LPGA Tour event this year and there have still been zero repeat winners.
Zachary Bauchou may be best known as Viktor Hovland’s ex-roommate and his Oklahoma State teammate; after winning this week’s Simmons Bank Open on the Korn Ferry Tour he’ll be playing on the PGA Tour next season. (Their team his senior year? It included Hovland, Matthew Wolff, Austin Eckroat and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen. No shock they won the stroke-play portion at nationals that year…)
And Michael Brennan won for the third time in his last four starts on the PGA Tour Americas; not only will he have his Korn Ferry Tour card for next year but he’s climbed to No. 121 in the world, particularly impressive point accrual for someone on a lower-tier tour.
A few notes on players who came close:
That one quote from Ben Griffin’s near-miss seems to sum up his entire mentality this season:
“S— happens. I’ll bounce back.”
His latest runner-up finish means he’s been T14 or better in 11 of his last 13 starts. And if you ask literally anybody who has interacted with Griffin to describe him they will use the word “confident” (“he’s a guy that has
a lot of confidence, he’s got a lot of self-belief,” Scheffler said on Sunday) which means that although it’s possible this short miss will carry over to the Ryder Cup and beyond, you’re better off betting on Griffin these days than against him.
Lanto Griffin may have narrowly lost the battle for Low Griffin but won the Procore’s non-Ryder Cup category, finishing solo third if you include the Bethpage Boys. The result was significant for a guy who detailed his struggles with his swing, with recovery from injury and with the mental battle that comes from playing for your job. He moved from No. 280 in the world to No. 164 with the third-place result; he also moved to No. 100 in the FedEx Cup, a particularly significant number given the top 100 guys get full status at the end of the season.
Rico Hoey’s coach and caddie suggested that he try out a long putter; he’s one of the PGA Tour’s better ball-strikers but one of its worse putters. Keegan Bradley used to say that if he could just putt at field average he felt like he’d have a good chance to play his way into contention; that’d be a good North Star for Hoey. So far, so good: he was essentially neutral with the putter at the Procore (-.05 strokes gained) and finished T9.
“With the long putter I thought it would be kind of hard to adjust to, but it’s like you just set up to it and it’s kind of easy,” he said.
Jeeno Thitikul had about as fisappointing a second-place finish as you could imagine but still tightened her gip on World No. 1; she’s at 11.48 average points, well ahead of No. 2 Nelly Korda (9.4) and in a different zip code than No. 3 Lydia Ko (6.45).
Lottie Woad finished third; she turned pro only recently but has already ascended to No. 11 in the Rolex Rankings. And Korda, still winless on the season, played well as part of a group that finished T5.
Five non-Ryder-Cuppers who made statements.
Alex Noren (winner) didn’t just prove he’s still got it at age 43, coming off injury — he won for the second time in his three most recent starts, beating arguably the strongest DP World Tour field of the year. As far as current form goes, the European vice captain is No. 21 in DataGolf’s ranking, just one spot behind Robert MacIntyre and aead of other Ryder Cuppers like Harris English (No. 22), Justin Thomas (No. 23), Collin Morikawa (No. 31), Tyrrell Hatton (No. 32), Sepp Straka (No. 36), Shane Lowry (No. 39), Rasmus Hojgaard (No. 50) and Justin Rose (No. 53).
Aaron Rai (T3) was one of odd men out from Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup list; by beating everybody on that list at Wentworth, he sent a very clear message.
Patrick Reed (T3) wasn’t a serious part of this year’s Ryder Cup picture, but given his Captain America past and his on-and-off play this was particularly fitting timing for a top result.
Jackson Koivun (T4) is still a student-athlete at Auburn but his last four PGA Tour starts — T11-T6-T5-T4 — are absurd for any amateur. He’s up to No. 42 in DataGolf’s pro ranking, the only amateur inside the top 200. He’s exempt into the next PGA Tour event, the Sanderson Farms. In a former, NIL-free world, he may rue the $900,000-plus in missed earnings. But in this era of college athletics it’s safe to say that Koivun is being well-compensated as he lives his dream golf life.
Maverick McNealy (T13) may have had the best resume of anybody not named to the U.S. team (besides that captain, of course) and while he didn’t make a loud statement, another solid finish served as a reminder that he could just as easily be part of the crew headed to Bethpage.
We’re almost there…
Here’s a full accounting of the 21 Ryder Cuppers (out of 24 possible) who teed it up this week, with the Euros in England and the Americans in California.
TEAM USA
1 – Scottie Scheffler
2 – Ben Griffin
6 – J.J. Spaun
T9 – Cameron Young
T13 – Sam Burns
T19 – Russell Henley
T30 – Patrick Cantlay
T43 – Harris English
T43 – Collin Morikawa
69 – Justin Thomas
TEAM EUROPE
T5 – Matt Fitzpatrick
T5 – Tyrrell Hatton
T5 – Viktor Hovland
T13 – Jon Rahm
T20 – Ludvig Aberg
T20 – Rory McIlroy
T46 – Tommy Fleetwood
T46 – Shane Lowry
T61 – Justin Rose
T74 – Robert MacIntyre
MC – Rasmus Hojgaard
From Lanto Griffin.
“It’s crazy, when you work on some wrong stuff, it actually feels so wrong to do it right. So it
took me three, four weeks after Wyndham to start feeling comfortable, and it started clicking
the last week or two. It wasn’t great this week but the rest of my game was, but I know the
foundation’s set now.”
What will Greg Norman’s LIV legacy be?
We batted around this question in Tour Confidential on Sunday night following Norman’s Instagram reminder that his time with LIV Golf has officially come to a close. I know he’s been in LIV’s background for a while now but I still can’t quite wrap my brain around the idea that Norman and LIV are just — done. In my mind LIV is Greg Norman. The league took on his personality; its players took the chip from his shoulder and put it on theirs. Again, I know this was announced and telegraphed long ago, the finality of a Norman-less LIV is very, very strange. The question, then: what will his LIV legacy be?
I don’t think we have the full answer yet, because the league’s legacy will double as his and it’s a bit tough to say where we stand on LIV’s legacy, too. But as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to make inroads in sports (latest entry: Tom Brady, flag football and what you can assume is a whole barrel of cash) there’s no question that Norman and LIV have been instrumental in paving the way.
Tiger Woods swinging a golf club.
For the first time in my golf-media career a leaked video of Tiger Woods swinging a golf club was greeted with something slightly less than frothy enthusiasm by the collective internet. Perhaps this represents something in the way of maturity on the part of the golf audience, who are finally coming to terms with the idea that Woods will not be playing competitive golf forever. Perhaps we understand at last that he does have limits, that it’s unrealistic to expect anything from him at this point. Still, it’s worth letting yourself dream a little bit, perhaps of another run through the cut line at Augusta. Hope keeps us going, after all.
