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The post Have Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay become the U.S.’s new dominant duo? appeared first on Golf.

Team Schauffele/Cantlay reached the 14th in a state of euphoria. They were 5 up with five holes to play, and needed only to find the putting surface on the 223-yard, lake-defended par-3 to close things out. The two players — ranked 4th and 5th in the world, respectively — walked arm-in-arm, smiles plastered on their faces. Once again, they had utterly dominated their match-play opponents. Soon they would be basking the glow of another shared victory.

But then something odd happened. After a short conversation, Cantlay swung first, a skyball that started off the toe of the club and ended short left of the green. Then came Schauffele. Another mishit, this one starting right and careening off a bank into a collection area.

Their opponents, Hideki Matsuyama and Tom Kim, both found the green with their tee shots. A few minutes later, Schauffele and Cantlay watched as Kim poured in his birdie putt to extend the match.

“Pat and I, unfortunately, normally one of us will save each other,” Schauffele said later of his pairing’s effort on the 14th. “But we hit two of our worst tee shots all week on the same hole.”

Finally, the U.S. Presidents Cup team’s juggernaut pairing looked human.

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Can anyone stop Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay? Goodness, it doesn’t look that way.

At the Presidents Cup, Schauffele and Cantlay have not just beat opponents, they have embarrassed them. It’s the continuation of a growing trend for the uber-talented friends, a pattern that has them morphing quickly into the United States’ most lethal match-play pairing.

On Thursday, Schauffele and Cantlay stuck an early knife in the Internationals hopes in their first match against their opponent’s only experienced pairing, Matsuyama and Adam Scott. In a sign of confidence, captain Davis Love III put Schauffele and Cantlay out first for the heavily favored Americans and offered a simple message: take care of business. The two golfers wasted no time getting to work, trading birdie after birdie until they walked off the course after the 13th hole with a 6-and-5 throttling.

The victory moved Schauffele and Cantlay to 6-2-0 as teammates and 4-0-0 in the last 12 months (5-0-0 if you count the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic, where Schauffele and Cantlay broke the tournament scoring record), a stretch in which the pair’s average margin of victory is 4 up.

“They don’t even need to talk to the captains anymore,” NBC Sports’ John Wood said Friday. “‘Just tell us our tee time for the first round and we’ll see you there.’ Just throwing more and more coal on the fire and when they get the train going, it’s unbelievable how good they play together.”

Of course, it hasn’t always been this easy. At the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne in 2019, captain Tiger Woods paired the two rookies together for much of team play. With the Americans on their heels in the opening days, their play sagged.

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“We were sort of put in the fire there playing all matches,” Schauffele remembers. “We were both rookies there. We knew each other pretty well, but you get to know each other really well when you’re in these team rooms. Probably in Australia is when we became very close, and we continued our friendship from there.”

The friendship blossomed into a full-blown bromance at the Ryder Cup in Whistling Straits, where the two golfers went 2-0-0 together in a triumphant American win. On a historically topsy-turvy U.S. team, Schauffele and Cantlay were stronger than granite on the course, and tighter than anyone off it. Then came the 2022 season, the win at the Zurich Classic, the shared trip to Napa Valley, and, at long last, the Presidents Cup.

When they arrived at Quail Hollow, it was less of a question of “if” they would be paired together at the Presidents Cup than “when.” (“If it’s cool with you guys, we’re just going to run it back,” Love told Schauffele and Cantlay.)

These days, Schauffele and Cantlay are beginning to draw more attention than the U.S.’s other high-profile pairing, Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth. At least some of that is due to personality. Thomas and Spieth play a high-flying style that is dazzling and very often terrifying. Schauffele and Cantlay, on the other hand, are relentless.

“Our style of play is very similar,” Schauffele agrees. “Throw it to the fat part of the greens, try to take advantage of par-5s, low stress.”

Low stress, and very often, high reward. These are the benefits of sharing the same style and, it often appears, the same brain.

“I feel like Melbourne, we played all of the first four matches with each other,” Schauffele said. “Ever since, we’ve just felt really comfortable playing this format with each other. The New Orleans tournament this year kind of secured that feeling between the two of us, and we’re just going to ride that hot streak.”

Their bid for 7-3-0 will have to wait until at least Saturday afternoon at the Presidents Cup. On late Friday evening, Love announced he would not be playing Schauffele and Cantlay in Saturday’s morning foursomes session.

At long last, it seems, Schauffele and Cantlay have met their match: their captain.

NEWSLETTER

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The post PGA Tour or LIV? Patrick Cantlay doesn’t think it’s that simple appeared first on Golf.

The post PGA Tour or LIV? Patrick Cantlay doesn’t think it’s that simple appeared first on Golf.

“Imagine a picture on a wall,” he says. “If I have a tough decision to make, a complex issue I’m trying to navigate, I’ll call four or five people that I think are the smartest in that subject matter. I might have 25 to 30 percent of the picture filled in. By the time I’m finished talking to those people, I might have 90 or 95 percent. They may all say don’t do it and I may still do it. But I’m better off for having heard.”

We’re talking about how golfers make decisions, which means the conversation has made the inevitable leap to the topic of LIV vs. the PGA Tour. Cantlay has thought plenty about it. He’s imagined pictures on walls. He’s called subject-matter experts. And he’s decided that the decision players are continually asked to make — LIV vs. the PGA Tour — doesn’t actually exist. At least, it’s not black and white the way they think it is.

Cantlay has no plans to join LIV. There will be no announcement this week trumpeting the fact that the World No. 4 has jumped ship. But he doesn’t want you to mistake his current commitment to the PGA Tour with a permanent, unending loyalty.

“It’s an ever-evolving calculation, right?” he says. “Because if 20 of the 24 guys here this week go out and play the other tour, then it makes it way more likely that I’m going to want to go to the other tour. So to say that I would never, ever play on that tour — I don’t think that’s truthful.”

Part of the experience of talking to Patrick Cantlay is recognizing that he does not like to say things that are untrue. Many people have this instinct, but Cantlay seems fully committed to it; to say something false or imprecise would violate his way of being. He knows other pros lack that same precision, but he’s still surprised others have been so outspoken about their decisions, whether in leaving or going, knowing the uncertainty of the future.

“A lot of people have been like, ‘No, not ever going to do it.’ And then they get irate when you guys ask questions about it, like, ‘I already said I’m never going to do it.’ And then you see guys go and do it,” he says. “I’m surprised by that.” That’s one reason for the precise language — to avoid the blowback of a red-hot topic.

“If you’ve been reading the Eamon Lynch articles [on Golfweek], nobody wants that written about them,” he says.

Cantlay enters this week’s Presidents Cup on the heels of another strong season. He defended his title at the BMW Championship. He finished T7 in the final FedEx Cup standings. He finished inside the top 10 in 11 of his 19 PGA Tour starts. Now he returns to Team USA, where at 30 he’s suddenly become something of an elder statesman.

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“I think you just kind of look around, and you go oh, who’s the oldest guy here, and there’s maybe only two or three guys older than you. And then you start thinking, I’m pretty old,” he’d said just earlier, addressing a pool of reporters.

Cantlay isn’t old, of course. (He’s 30.) But he does have some old-school tendencies. There’s his approach to social media, for one thing: He doesn’t use it. At all. “Zero percent,” he says. “If it’s happening on social media, I don’t know it’s happening.”

I ask if there are exceptions, like when rumors circulate of his own defection to LIV. Does he have people who tell him these things? He laughs.

“What is going to improve my life if they tell me something that’s happening on social media?”

Touché.

But being old-school isn’t the same thing as opposing change. Cantlay believes his methodical approach to decision-making — and his certainty once he arrives at a decision — means he frequently ends up going against the grain. Does that make him a contrarian?

“I consider myself able to stand in the minority if I think I’m right,” he says. “So if I do that enough times, then I will get labeled as a contrarian.”

He doesn’t mind the label. Nor does he mind a healthy debate. “Everyone has a negative connotation to ‘argue,’ he says. “But I like debating.” He’s engaged in plenty of debates this year. Most aren’t about LIV vs. the PGA Tour — but plenty are, too. I ask about his role in the Tour’s players-only meetings, where he acknowledges engaging in some healthy debate.

“I always try to put my pro-player hat on,” he says. “I think guys should do that more. I think they should put their pro-player hat on.”

The alternative, he says, is blindly supporting the status quo. Supporting the way things have always been done. The default.

“I think players in general don’t realize the power that they have,” he continues. “I think they in general have a lot more power than they think. And they’re very reluctant to view things through a lens of: How do I do better for professional golfers?“

I ask Cantlay if he thinks professional golfers have had a good year as far as power goes.

“Competition definitely gives the workers more power,” he says.

And that has been good for the players?

“It’s definitely been a good thing for professional golfers.”

How about for professional golf?

“That’s a different question. Philosophically, it’s a tough question.” He pauses. “I think it’s not good for professional golf to be fractured. Like, I would love for [Dustin Johnson] to be here. I would love Cameron Smith to be on the International team. I would love to have the best competition you could possibly have.”

If he looks into his crystal ball, Cantlay suspects professional golf will settle somewhere in the middle. That’s another reason he’s surprised the conversation around it has gotten so heated.

“It’s been so contentious, and it seems like it just continues to be contentious,” he says. “I would be surprised if there’s not some coming-together intervention because I just don’t know of any sport, really, that has a legitimate fractured sport.”

He could be wrong. He doesn’t know how the Tours would compromise or who would help them do so. But when he looks at other sports, all the best players tend to play in the same league.

“We had the American Football League. That went away. I mean, nobody continued to play on the American Football League,” he says. “So I just feel like at some point, when you start looking back on it, people will be surprised to hear, ‘Oh, man, it was really contentious.’ Because it will feel like a blip on the radar once it’s all settled. It’s just, right now, it’s very unknown.”

He does know a few things. He knows he and partner Xander Schauffele will try to put the first point on the board for the U.S. team on Thursday. He knows he’ll continue to ignore rumors and stay off social media. He know’s he’ll continue trying to remove emotion and ego from every decision. And he knows that as this all plays out, he’ll continue trying to get the full picture.

The author (cautiously) welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

The post Who’s playing in the Presidents Cup? Meet the U.S. and International teams appeared first on Golf.

Due to the pandemic, this will be the first Presidents Cup since 2019, when the Tiger Woods-captained U.S. team narrowly edged the Ernie Els-led International squad with a miraculous come-from-behind win in Sunday singles.

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The U.S. team holds a dominating 10-1-1 record in the matches and most expect a similarly dominate performance with LIV Golf defectors being ineligible to play in this year’s event and taking the hardest toll on Trevor Immelman’s International team.

Without further ado, let us introduce you to the players who are playing this year.

United States Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Davis Love III

Love was a six-time member of the U.S. Presidents Cup team and compiled a 16-8-4 record in those matches. Love — who was born in Charlotte, N.C., home of this week’s host, Quail Hollow Club — won 21 times on the PGA Tour, including one major win at the 1997 PGA Championship. He also notably won the 2015 Wyndham Championship at the age of 51, becoming the third-oldest winner in PGA Tour history. Love was an assistant captain on the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Presidents Cup teams and captained the 2012 and 2016 Ryder Cup teams.

Sam Burns

Career Presidents Cup record: First appearance

Burns may have been overshadowed by close friend Scottie Scheffler in the early part of the 2021-22 season, but the Louisianan had a break out year himself, winning three times, including taking down Scheffler in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge in May. This will be his first appearance at either the Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup.

Patrick Cantlay

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Cantlay had another solid year in 2022, winning once while defending his crown at the BMW Championship in Wilmington and teaming up with Xander Schauffele to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. He played all of his matches in 2019 with Schauffele and figures to do so again. Cantlay was also very successful at last year’s Ryder Cup where he compiled a 3-0-1 record at Whistling Straits, the one tie coming in the only match he wasn’t paired with Schauffele.

Tony Finau

Record: 0-1-3 in one appearance (2019)

The big-hitting Finau had a slow start to the season before catching fire over the summer, notching five top-5s in a stretch of eight events, including back-to-back wins at the 3M Open and Rocket Mortgage Classic in July. He somewhat surprisingly did not notch a win in his only Presidents Cup appearance in 2019. He only had one loss in four matches, however, and he’ll be looking for a new partner as both his partners from 2019, Matt Kuchar and Bryson DeChambeau, are not playing this year. He’s picked up three wins in his two Ryder Cups in 2018 and 2021.

Max Homa*

Record: First appearance

Homa comes in as perhaps the hottest player in the matches. He won in dramatic fashion last week at the PGA Tour season opening Fortinet Championship, holing a chip shot from off the 18th green to win. He also finished a career best tied for fifth in the Tour Championship in his previous start. This will be his first team match appearance.

Billy Horschel*

Record: First appearance

If you were shocked to learn Horschel is making his first ever appearance in either the Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup this week, you’re not alone. Horschel’s career resume includes seven PGA Tour titles, including this year’s Memorial Tournament, and the 2014 FedEx Cup. He’s had a mixed bag of a season, missing four of last eight cuts on the PGA Tour, but with the win in Columbus sandwiched between two of them. He did earn a top 10 in his most recent appearance during his title defense at the DP World Tour’s BMW PGA Championship.

Kevin Kisner*

Record: 2-0-2 in one appearance (2017)

Kisner is the oldest player on Team USA’s roster and has become known as somewhat of a match play savant, including a win at the 2019 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and owning an undefeated record at the 2017 Presidents Cup. His best finish this past season was a second at — you guessed it — the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but he did rack up five other top 10s. Kisner will also be looking for a new partner as he played with Phil Mickelson in all three team matches in 2017.

Collin Morikawa*

Record: First appearance

Morikawa came out just as hot as his first three years on Tour to begin this season with five straight finishes of T7 or better, but he fell back to earth a little toward the end of the year, his first on Tour without a win. Although he did lead the U.S. Open through 36 holes, he struggled Saturday and was out of contention by Sunday. The two-time major winner, who is still just 25 years old, showed better form at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August with a T5 finish, but needed to be one of Love’s six captain’s selections to make it to Quail Hollow. He led the U.S. team in qualifying for the Ryder Cup last year and went 3-0-1 at Whistling Straits, his lone tie coming in singles.

Xander Schauffele

Record: 3-2-0 in one appearance (2019)

Like Finau, Schauffele also had a strong end to the season, finishing in the top 20 in all but one of his last 11 events. Again, like Finau, he notched back-to-back wins at the Travelers Championship and Genesis Scottish Open. He also teamed with Cantlay for a team win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and figures to see a lot of his close friend whom he has a 4-2-0 record with in Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup matches.

Scottie Scheffler

Record: First appearance

Scheffler has come a long way from being a captain’s selection at last year’s Ryder Cup. The Texan notched his first four PGA Tour wins last season, including a major victory at the Masters, and earned the World No. 1 ranking. While he didn’t come away with the FedEx Cup title, PGA Tour Player of The Year honors are a decent consolation — as well as the $5.75 million he got for finishing T2 at East Lake. He went undefeated, going 2-0-1 at Whistling Straits, teaming with Bryson DeChambeau in two four-ball matches. He also beat Kisner at this year’s WGC-Match Play.

Jordan Spieth*

Record: 8-5-1 in three appearances (2013, 2015, 2017)

After missing the 2019 matches, Spieth is back on the U.S. team at just the right time. With stalwarts like Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Patrick Reed absent this year, Spieth and Justin Thomas are the only players with multiple Presidents Cup matches under their belt coming into the week. The 29-year-old notched a win at the RBC Heritage this season and finished a respectable tied for 13th in the FedEx Cup. He carries a career 16-12-4 record in U.S. team cup matches and played with Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed in all of his partner matches in 2015 and 2017. At last year’s Ryder Cup, he paired most often with good buddy Justin Thomas.

Justin Thomas

Record: 6-2-2 in two appearances (2017, 2019)

Thomas may not have met all of his preseason goals, but he notched 11 top 10s last season and his second major title at the PGA Championship. He brings with him the most impressive U.S. team match record, going 12-4-3 across two Presidents Cups and two Ryder Cups. In his two previous Presidents Cups, he paired with Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler and Daniel Berger, all of whom are not playing this week. He figures to play more with Spieth as he did twice at Whistling Straits.

Cameron Young*

Record: First appearance

Young had a debut season to remember, notching six top-three finishes and was one of two rookies to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship. Those top finishes also include just missing out on the playoff at the PGA Championship by one stroke, and the memorable eagle finish at the Open Championship at St. Andrews to earn the runner-up spot.

International Team

*denotes captain’s pick

Captain: Trevor Immelman (South Africa)

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Immelman is the youngest captain in International team history at just 42 years old. The South African is a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, including one major, holding off Tiger Woods to win the 2008 Masters. He’s also picked up six victories around the world on the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour. He’s a two-time veteran of the Presidents Cup and served as assistant captain under Ernie Els in 2019. Many fans will know him now for his broadcasting as he is expected to take over as the lead analyst for CBS’s golf coverage, following Nick Faldo.

Christiaan Bezuidenhout* (South Africa)

Record: First appearance

Bezuidenhout had a solid rookie year, making 20 cuts in 24 starts on the PGA Tour with 10 top-25 finishes. He’s perhaps better known in Europe, having a breakout year in 2020 while notching three victories including the Alfred Dunhill Championship. His best finish on the PGA Tour in 2022 was a T2 showing at the John Deere Classic and he advanced to the second FedEx Cup Playoff event at the BMW Championship. He’s one of five Presidents Cup first-timers selected by Immelman.

Corey Conners (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Conners played his way to the Tour Championship for the third time of his career thanks to 20 made cuts in 25 starts and four top-10 finishes. One of those top 10s came last month at the BMW Championship where he finished in T5, but he missed the cut last week in the PGA Tour’s season-opening Fortinet Championship. The Canadian has one win under his belt on the PGA Tour, coming at the 2019 Valero Texas Open.

Cam Davis* (Australia)

Record: First appearance

Davis notched five top-10s in 25 starts last season on the PGA Tour. His best golf came toward the end of the season when he made his last 10 cuts in a row. His best year on Tour came a season ago when he made 21 of 26 cuts and notched his debut win at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. His cuts-made streak broke last week at the Fortinet Championship where rounds of 74 and 70 sent him to Charlotte early.

Sungjae Im (South Korea)

Record: 3-1-1 in one appearance (2019)

The iron man of the PGA Tour, nobody plays more golf than Sungjae Im. Im had another strong season on Tour in 2021-22, winning for the second time at the Shriners Children’s Open and finishing strong with three T2 finishes in his last five events, including at the Tour Championship. The World No. 19 will be heavily relied upon as one of just four veterans on the International team with Presidents Cup experience. All three of his partners from Royal Melbourne — Adam Hadwin, Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith — are not on the team this year.

Tom Kim (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Kim burst onto the scene in 2022, finishing third at the Genesis Scottish Open, seventh at the Rocket Mortgage, and then capturing his first win at the Wyndham Championship in August to secure his PGA Tour membership and even qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs. He was only a special temporary member when he won, but had earned enough points to get his full status for 2023. He’s now exempt through 2024 and he auto-qualified for the International team.

K. H. Lee* (South Korea)

Record: First appearance

Lee has two PGA Tour titles and both have come at the AT&T Byron Nelson. At this year’s tournament, Lee outdueled Jordan Spieth down the stretch to defend his title. The rest of his season wasn’t much to write home about, with almost as many missed cuts (7) as top-25s (8), until he used T20 and T5 finishes in the first two Playoff events to catapult his way into his first Tour Championship appearance.

Hideki Matsuyama (Japan)

Record: 6-7-4 in four appearances (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019)

Hard to believe the 30-year-old Matuyama is about to start his fifth Presidents Cup, but the Japanese star heads to Quail Hollow as the alpha of the International squad. It was another good year for the World No. 17 on the PGA Tour, finishing 11th in the FedEx Cup after winning twice, with one of those victories coming last fall in his home country at the Zozo Championship. Only one of his previous partners, Adam Scott, is on the roster this week and they haven’t played together since Matsuyama’s Presidents Cup debut in 2013.

Sebastián Muñoz* (Colombia)

Record: First appearance

Munoz hasn’t quite played up to the same level as he did in his breakout season in 2019-20 when he got his first win at the Sanderson Farms Championship and then went on to finish 8th in the final FedEx Cup standings thanks to a solid performance at East Lake, but his 2021-22 campaign was enough to earn a captain’s pick. He had two runner-up finishes on the season.

Si Woo Kim* (South Korea)

Record: 1-2-0 in one appearance (2017)

Kim was the only one of Immelman’s captain’s selections with previous Presidents Cup experience, winning a four-ball match and losing in foursomes and singles matches in New Jersey in 2017. That season was also the year of his signature win, The Players Championship. He won in early 2021 at The American Express, but has not played well as of late, only recording one top 10s in 21-22, last fall at the Sanderson Farms Championship. Both of his partners from 2017 are not on this year’s team.

Taylor Pendrith* (Canada)

Record: First appearance

Normally for a rookie, an injury can be devastating. Taylor Pendrith missed time between The Players in March and the Barbasol Championship in July because of a rip injury, but it didn’t stop him from earning nine top 25s in 16 starts. Since coming back from the injury, Pendrith finished worse than T13th once in six starts, including a tie for second at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and a tie for eighth at the BMW Championship.

Mito Pereira (Chile)

Record: First appearance

Heartbreak at the PGA Championship overshadowed what was otherwise a very respectable debut season on the PGA Tour for Pereira. He opened the year with a solo third at the Fortinet Championship and had two other top 10s, including at Southern Hills. Of course his season will be remembered for the leading the PGA through 71 holes, only to hit his tee shot in the water on 18, leading to a double bogey and missing the playoff. Pereira was rumored to be joining LIV Golf, but reportedly is waiting to jump so he could play in the Presidents Cup.

Adam Scott (Australia)

Record: 16-22-6 in nine appearances

The 42-year old hasn’t missed a Presidents Cup since 2001 and is by far the most experienced player on either team, having more appearances than the entire International team combined and as many as the entire American team combined. His 10th appearance will break his own record for the Internationals. He also has a chance to tie or pass Ernie Els’ International record of 21 points this week. Aging like fine wine, the 42-year-old didn’t win on the PGA Tour this year, but only missed two cuts all year and had five top 10s. His back-to-back T5s to start the FedEx Cup Playoffs helped him play his way into the Tour Championship from outside the top 70 at the end of the regular season. Matsuyama is the only teammate his paired with before on the International roster.

NEWSLETTER

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The post ‘I’m not a fan’: Is the Tour Championship format working? Pros are lukewarm at best appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I’m not a fan’: Is the Tour Championship format working? Pros are lukewarm at best appeared first on Golf.

Yes, most weekend warriors can relate to this week’s format at the Tour Championship because it features a staggered start.

Or in other words; handicap strokes.

Well, sort of. Instead of worse players (or in this case, lower-ranked) being given strokes to help level the playing field, it’s the top players who are given the advantage and given a head start based on their play this season.

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For the players, it’s unusual to say the least. For Scottie Scheffler, who starts the event with a two-shot lead at 10 under by virtue of being the FedEx Cup leader, he doesn’t even recall if he’s ever been given strokes before.

“I can’t remember anything off the top of my head if I was ever the one getting strokes. I’m not going to give you a hard ‘no,’ but I can’t think of any off the top of my head,” Scheffler said Wednesday. “It’s nice being on this end of the strokes versus having to give them up to everybody, which is nice, like I have to do at home.”

Patrick Cantlay took advantage of the format last year, winning the BMW Championship the week before to springboard to the top of the standings and start the Tour Championship with a two-shot lead. He went on to the win the tournament, and by extension the FedEx Cup by a stroke over Jon Rahm.

However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he likes the system, especially considering he won the BMW again this season, but instead starts two behind Scheffler this week.

“I’m not a fan,” Cantlay said bluntly Tuesday. “I think there’s got to be a better system, although frankly I don’t know what that better system is.”

Perhaps no one may have more reason to gripe with the Tour Championship format than Cantlay’s friend, Xander Schauffele. Schauffele has a remarkable record at East Lake, winning in his first appearance there in 2017 as a rookie.

Since the format change in 2019, Schauffele has never finished outside the top-5 at the Tour Championship and in 2020, Schauffele had the best aggregate score at East Lake by three strokes. But that year, Dustin Johnson played well enough to keep Schauffele out of the mix and thanks to his start atop the leaderboard, won the tournament by three over Schauffele.

Schauffele’s starting score that week: three under.

“I’ve obviously been on sort of both sides of that fence, too, from a competition standpoint,” Schauffele said Tuesday. “I understand why it’s the way it is, but I think the overall consensus just from talking to players is maybe a sit-down needs to happen to sort of reshape it or try to make it better, at least come up with options and then show it to us or just give it a whirl.”

It seems like a sit down between players did well for the Tour’s schedule and structure, but the opinions of what needs to be changed seem far from agreed upon.

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U.S. Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick brought up how he finished 15th in the standings and will start this week at three under, while Cameron Smith came in 6th, but is only one stroke ahead. He suggested the gap may be “a little bit unfair.”

And of course with a subject as polarizing as the format, there are still players who like the format, Fitzpatrick said.

“I actually spoke to [Collin Morikawa] about it last week, and he defended it,” Fitzpatrick said.

Morikawa entered last year’s playoffs as the No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings. He underperformed in the playoffs, missing the cut at the Northern Trust and finishing tied for 63rd at the BMW. He played poorly at East Lake too, and walked away with a T26 finish in the FedEx Cup.

Fitzpatrick chalked it up to the playoff events having too many FedEx Cup points, being worth four times as many as a regular Tour stop.

“He’s got more class than me, I guess, I’d be fuming if I was him,” Fitzpatrick said of Morikawa. “I just think it’s hard to sort of do these extra points in our game. I did have a thought that somehow the Playoffs could be match play somehow where it’s a bit more realistic to every other sports playoffs if that’s the way the Tour want to go.”

Match play was something Cantlay said could be part of the “limitless” solutions to the format.

Fitzpatrick said Morikawa continued his defense by comparing the format to playoffs of other sports. That’s where Fitzpatrick disagreed.

“Golf is just so different to the other sports,” he said. “That’s why I think looking at match play would probably be more of an answer because you’ve got a team that makes the Playoffs in last place or whatever and you don’t think they’re going to go anywhere, and then they end up going all the way.

“And then you could have a guy say in 90th gets all the way to the final.”

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It is hard to argue the three FedEx Cup winners were unworthy of the title since the format change. Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson and Patrick Cantlay each led the PGA Tour in wins during the season in which they won. However, only McIlroy has won the Tour Championship not starting from the pole position at 10 under.

In fact, in 2019 when McIlroy won, Justin Thomas was the pre-round leader at the Tour Championship, despite only winning once that season, the week prior at the BMW Championship.

Regardless of the format, players seem to be treating it the same. Scheffler called his two-stroke lead “nice,” but he said it won’t change how he plays the week.

“I’m still just preparing like it’s a regular four-day event and kind of going from there,” he said. “Definitely haven’t felt like I’ve been sleeping on a lead or anything like that. Just kind of feel like I’m just getting ready for a tournament.”

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All of which begs this question:

How does Patty Ice turn up — or is it turn down? — the thermostat?

“I think maybe in the bigger tournaments it’s easier to kind of narrow your focus, and I’ve done a good job of staying in the moment and trying to get in the right frame of mind and good attitude,” Cantlay said.  

Yes, he was all that. 

In the end, Cantlay held off a determined Scott Stallings, shot a four-birdie, two-bogey 69 at Wilmington Country Club and won the BMW by a shot over Stallings. It was Cantlay’s eighth PGA Tour victory, and this win was vintage Cantlay, especially late. He bogeyed 10 and was down two before he started this stretch:

— Birdie on the par-4 11th on a 13-footer to move one back of Stallings. 

— Birdie on the 622-yard, par-5 14th after getting home in two to move into a share of the lead with Stallings. 

— Birdie on the par-4 17th, behind the break of the tournament. Cantlay hit his tee shot right, then his ball kicked off the downslope behind a fairway bunker and finished in the fairway. From there, from just 64 yards away, he hit to 5 feet, and the birdie gave Cantlay a one-shot lead. 

— Par on the par-4 18th, behind one of the better shots of the tournament. Cantlay again hit his tee shot right, into the right upslope of the right fairway bunker, and he hit a fine left-to-right shot to 46 feet. From there, he nearly rolled in the birdie putt, and he tapped in.

And he was your winner, the first to defend a title in the 16 years of the Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs. He can turn the trick again next week at the Tour Championship. 

The takeaway 

Ice cold. These playoff events aren’t easy. The accomplishment is outstanding. 

The leaderboard breakdown 

— Patrick Cantlay leads by one entering the final round. He’s at 12-under, Xander Schauffele and Scott Stallings are at 11-under, Adam Scott and Scottie Scheffler are at 10-under, and Collin Morikawa and Aaron Wise are at nine-under. 

— Stallings birdies the 563-yard, par-5 3rd on a 6-foot birdie putt, and he moves into a share of the lead. Cantlay and Stallings are at 12-under, Schauffele is at 10-under, and Scheffler and Scott are at nine-under.

— Cantlay birdies the 417-yard, par-4 4th, and he retakes a one-shot lead. He’s at 13-under, Stallings is at 12-under, Schauffele is at 10-under, and Scheffler and Scott are at nine-under. 

— Stallings bogeys the 504-yard, par-4 5th, and Cantlay now leads by two. Cantlay is at 13-under, Stallings is at 11-under, Schauffele is at 10-under, and Scheffler and Scott are at nine-under. 

— Stallings birdies the 387-yard, par-4 6th after hitting his second shot to 2 feet, and he moves to within a shot of the lead. Cantlay is at 13-under, Stallings is at 12-under, Scott and Schauffele are at 10-under, and K.H. Lee and Joaquin Niemann are at nine-under. 

— Cantlay bogeys the 489-yard, par-4 8th after missing the green with his second shot, and he drops into a share of the lead. Cantlay and Stallings are at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, Lee is at 10-under, and Niemann, Scheffler, Shane Lowry and Corey Conners are at nine-under. 

— Schauffele birdies the 479-yard, par-4 9th on a 12-foot putt, and he moves to one back of the lead. Cantlay and Stallings are at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, Lee is at 10-under, and Scheffler, Conners and Jon Rahm are at nine-under. 

— Stallings birdies the 415-yard, par-4 11th after rolling in a 10-footer, and he takes a one-shot lead. He’s at 13-under, Cantlay is at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, and Lee and Taylor Pendrith are at 10-under. 

— Cantlay bogeys the 442-yard, par-4 10th after missing the green with his second shot, and Stallings now leads by two. Stallings is at 13-under, Cantlay and Schauffele are at 11-under, and Lee and Pendrith are at 10-under. 

— Cantlay birdies the 11th on a 13-foot putt, and he moves within a shot of the lead. Stallings is at 13-under, Cantlay is at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, and Lee, Scheffler and Scott are at 10-under. 

— Stallings bogeys the 150-yard, par-3 after his birdie putt, from near the fringe collar, hits it, and he drops into a share of the lead. Stallings and Cantlay are at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, and Lee, Scheffler, Scott and Aaron Wise are at 10-under. 

— Stallings birdies the 622-yard, par-5 14th after getting home in two, and he takes a one-shot lead. He’s at 13-under, Cantlay is at 12-under, Scheffler and Schauffele are at 11-under, and Lee is at 10-under.  

— Scheffler birdies the 393-yard, par-4 16th, and he moves to one back. Stallings is at 13-under, Cantlay and Scheffler are at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, and Lee and Scott are at 10-under. 

— Cantlay birdies the 14th after getting home in two, and he moves into a share of the lead. Cantlay and Stallings are at 13-under, Scheffler is at 12-under, Schauffele is at 11-under, and Lee, Scott and Conners are at 10-under. 

— Scheffler misses a 3-footer on the 444-yard, par-4 18th, and he drops two back. Cantlay and Stallings are at 13-under, Scheffler and Schuffele are at 11-under, and Lee, Conners and Scott are at 10-under. 

— Stallings misses a 9-footer for birdie on the 18th, and he finishes at 13-under. Cantlay is also at 13-under. Scheffler and Schauffele are at 11-under, and Lee, Conners and Scott are at 10-under. 

— Cantlay, after a tee shot that was heading into a left fairway bunker, only to bounce left and into the fairway, birdies the 420-yard, par-4 17th after hitting his second shot to 5 feet, and he takes a one-shot lead. He’s at 14-under, Stallings is at 13-under, and Scheffler and Schauffele are at 11-under. 

— On the 18th, Cantlay hits his tee into the right upslope of the right fairway bunker, and he hits his second shot to 46 feet. Cantlay two-putts, barely missing the birdie, and he wins his eighth PGA Tour title. 

The final word 

“I hit a lot of solid shots, and I got a couple good breaks. Obviously on 17, that break is something I’m not expecting and it was really big for me to take advantage of it. I mean, I played a lot of great golf this week, and I’m happy to come out of here with a win.” — Cantlay on NBC after his victory 

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The post ‘They haven’t figured it out’: Patrick Cantlay mystified by glut of ‘distance-based’ PGA Tour venues appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘They haven’t figured it out’: Patrick Cantlay mystified by glut of ‘distance-based’ PGA Tour venues appeared first on Golf.

“I’m so surprised that [the Tour hasn’t] figured it out,” Cantlay said Tuesday ahead of his title defense at Wilmington Country Club. “It just seems like we’re getting more and more of the same bomb-it-as-far-as-you-can golf courses week after week.”

The 7,534-yard South Course at Wilmington Country Club is making its PGA Tour debut this week and many players have commented, one way or another about the sheer length of the course. Last year’s BMW host, Caves Valley in Maryland, was also considered bomber-friendly and led to crazy-low scoring.

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“The way we combat the distance, the way these architects seem to think they want to combat distance is by taking all the trees out and playing it 7,600 yards and put the tees way back and all the par-5s are at 600 yards,” Cantlay said. “I don’t think that makes any sense.

“I’m surprised every time I come to a golf course where they say it’s recently been redone and then there’s no real shaping of golf shots. It’s just how far can you hit it and grab your driver on every hole and hit it as high and hit it as far as you possibly can. If you can hit it 315 yards, you’ve taken out all the bunkers, and you’re maybe in the rough, but it’s way better in the rough with a 9- or 8-iron than it is maybe in the fairway with a 5-iron if you were to lay up to the fat part of the fairway before the bunkers.”

Cantlay went on to win last year’s FedEx Cup after his triumph at Caves Valley, but he did so as just the 50th-ranked player in driving distance on tour. Bryson DeChambeau, on the other hand, finished tied with Cantlay at last year’s BMW at 27-under through 72 holes. DeChambeau averaged more than 340 yards off the tee that week.

But Cantlay said many of the players who hit it long tend to skip the smaller, more strategic courses on Tour.

“It’s so surprising to me that the golf courses that none of the guys who hit it far, they don’t go to Hilton Head, they don’t go to Colonial, they don’t go to the short, small, dogleggy tree-lined golf courses,” he said.

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The post This Tour star’s little brother just set a U.S. Junior Amateur scoring record appeared first on Golf.

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Two bogeys, a double and a lone birdie added up to 39 as he made the turn at Bandon Dunes on Monday. It was a respectable score, but if he really wanted to make some noise, he’d need some more inspired play on his closing nine.

Coming right up!

Cantlay — younger brother of PGA Tour star Patrick — carded four birdies and two eagles over his final nine holes at Bandon, good for a record-setting 28. The total represented the lowest nine-hole score in U.S. Junior Amateur history.

“It’s just another round of golf,” Cantlay said after his opening-round 67. “Sometimes you play good and sometimes you play bad. Today, I played good.”

Good is a bit of an understatement. Cantlay’s front nine (he started on No. 10) was nothing short of blistering.

The 18-year-old made 3 on every hole but one during his run, carding a ho-hum 4 on the lone outlier at the par-4 7th. He eagled both par-5s — each stretching over 550 yards — and birdied four of the five par-4s. Oh, and this was the first time Cantlay had ever broken 30 for a nine.

“[There’s] a first time for everything, I guess,” he said.

He picked a heck of a time for a first like this.

Through eight holes on Monday, Cantlay was four over and looked to be fighting just to make it to the match-play bracket. But after going nine-under over his last 10 holes, he’s just a shot off the lead heading into Round 2.

“Every round of golf is the same,” Cantlay said of his mindset heading into the second round. “Just try and go out and do what I did today.”

If he continues to play like he did Monday, Patrick won’t be the only famous Cantlay in golf for long.

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The post Kordas’ coach: These 4 ‘simple’ rules will improve any golf swing appeared first on Golf.

GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jamie Mulligan truly has one of the best track records in the game. He’s shepherded both Luke List and Patrick Cantlay‘s rises from junior golf all the way to the PGA Tour, with Cantlay winning a FedEx Cup title in 2021.

And then, in late 2021, Mulligan got a call from Jessica and Nelly Korda, two of the best swings — and players — on the LPGA Tour. How do you begin improving such an impressive slate of players? That’s the question we put to Mulligan in the latest episode of Swing Whisperers, which you can watch above.

You can learn from Mulligan’s system, too. Here are 4 ways his teaching philosophy can take strokes off your game:

1. Simpler is better

If there is one word that best describes coach Mulligan’s approach, it’s “simple.” To turn a good swing into a great one — or a bad one into a good one — he says the trick is learning to eliminate excess movement.

“If anything, their golf swings get simpler over time,” he says of the Kordas. “They make the right movements at the right time, and they do the same things over and over again.”

Being part of the Nelly Korda cover issue was so rewarding, especially because it means I now have about a thousand videos of Nelly’s golf swing on my phone.

Instruction piece of the cover story is dropping tomorrow. In the meantime, here she is silking a 9 iron pic.twitter.com/LAmHYuqdhT

— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) May 10, 2022

2. Start your swing right

Another key component of a good swing, Mulligan says, is starting your swing on the right foot. These means making sure the fundamentals of your ball position, grip, and stance are all in a place that puts your swing in a position to succeed. Most important: your posture, which will allow your body to power the rest of your swing, moving the club on the takeaway and then into the downswing.

“Her posture is beautiful,” Mulligan says of Jess Korda’s swing. “It’s what allows her body to move the club on the takeaway, and create what I call a ‘loaded takeaway.’”

3. Body guides the hands

Many teachers try to take the hands out of the swing, but Mulligan prefers to see the hands as an asset that can help you square the clubface.

“I always liked the phrase your hands are angels not devils,” he said. “But they should follow the movement of your body.”

In Mulligan’s mind, that means nailing the sequence of your transition: Shifting to your front foot, then rotating through. To help with this, he often uses a drill with his students where he puts the grip end of the club on his players’ lead hip and pushes them toward their front foot as they begin their downswing.

4. “Shots to spots”

When Mulligan talks about one of his longtime students, Patrick Cantlay, he praises above all else something that has nothing to do with his swing.

“His mentality, even as a junior golfer, was always so impressive,” he said. “He was always wise beyond his years.”

How can you adopt a similar mindset? Mulligan says to approach golf like a game of chess: When you hit your ball out of position, focus on getting safely back into position, and then continuing. It’s about limiting mistakes, and again, keeping things simple.

“It’s shots to spots,” Mulligan says. “That’s what golf is.”

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The American Ryder Cup duo used a Sunday 72 in alternate shot to polish off a wire-to-wire finish at TPC Louisiana, but it was hardly the most impressive round of their week. The real fire from Team Cant-elle (or is it Schauff-lay?) came on Thursday and Saturday, during the best ball portions of the competition.

On Thursday, they grabbed hold of the tournament with the aforementioned 59, a tournament record that even they couldn’t get excited about. “We played really well, made a lot of putts today on a day that was a little tricky with the wind and didn’t birdie a lot of the same holes. When you do that in this format, that’s really the key.”

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Riveting stuff! 

It was the first 59 of either of their careers, which they were happy to joke about, in the lead after Day 1. They extended their lead with a 68 in the second round’s alternate shot format, but start out slowly on Day 3. 

The Best Ball Blazers turned in 32 Saturday morning. By no means bad, but by no means amazing. That was still to come. Team Cant-elle then birdied eight of the final nine holes Saturday afternoon to take a 5-shot lead into the final day. For the second time this week, they described it plainly — “we made more birdies than the rest of the field,” Schauffele said — and for the second time this week, they compared it to the layout of a basketball game. 

“It’s the third quarter,” Schauffele said. “We finished a really good three quarters here and we have one more to go.”

A record-setting three-quarter performance, to be clear. It was the best 54-hole performance since the event adopted a team format in 2017. Finishing off the fourth quarter was no simple task. Not in alternate shot, were bogeys can pile up with slight misses here and there. 

They were pushed for a minute by Billy Horschel and Sam Burns, who started the final round five under through 11. Schauffele and Cantlay helped out by making bogey on the 9th and 10th, too. But when Burns’ tee shot on the drivable par-4 16th went swimming in the hazard, they lost their last chance at an easier birdie for added pressure. 

The rest of the round played out rather anticlimactically. Cantlay and Schauffele made par on holes 12-16, and when they got up and down for from a tricky lie on 17, Colt Knost captured the status perfectly on the CBS broadcast: “Start icing down that champagne.”

Team Cant-elle did their best to keep the hype down by laying up off the tee, laying up into the green and scraping out a 6 on the par-5 finisher. It didn’t matter, of course. They had won by two.

“It’s awesome, Schauffele said when it as all over. “I said it earlier this week, you know, if there’s any success I could share with someone, it’d be Pat. So I’m happy we could get it done.”

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The post Tour Confidential: Jordan Spieth is back again, Tiger, Phil and rules  appeared first on Golf.

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1. Jordan Spieth is back. Again. Spieth made two eagles, shot a five-under 66 and parred the first hole of a playoff with Patrick Cantlay on Sunday to win the RBC Heritage, his first victory since last Easter, and his 13th PGA Tour win overall. Notably, it also helped him overcome a disastrous 18-inch missed putt a day earlier. Everything taken into account, what’s your assessment of the Spieth win?  

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Josh Sens, senior writer (@JoshSens): He’s been striking it well for a while now (to the amazement of some of us who can’t figure out how he’s making that awkward-looking pre-shot routine work so well) but was having an off-brand stretch with his putter. His putter came back this week. I think it’s also notable that this win came on the heels of his first missed cut at the Masters. GOLF.com’s own gambling prognosticator, Erick Lindgren, picked Spieth to win this week, saying he expected a prideful bounce back. I don’t discount that as a factor.

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): This certainly wasn’t one of Spieth’s most dominant victories, but the roller coaster nature of the entire experience served to remind us that he’s the game’s most intriguing figure because he can hit shocking golf shots of every variety. The fact that he overcame such a subpar putting performance is a testament to his ball striking and hopefully a sign of more brilliance to come.

Michael Bamberger, senior writer: He backed into this win. He won with a par. But he won. He’s won more recently than Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau — even Scottie Scheffler. He won! He’ll be on the Presidents Cup team. He’ll contend more before the year’s out. He won on a good course with a good field on CBS. It counts.

Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): Backed in? Come on, Michael! I’ll give him credit for two front-nine eagles and a birdie on the 18th that was good for a 66 and, turns out, just enough for a playoff. This is the Jordan Spieth I think we’ll see from now on (and I’m pretty sure I said this after his last win) — a guy who is always grinding, always tinkering, always luring us in, always giving us reasons to believe. Then, just a week later, leaving us scratching our heads. It’s a roller coaster. It’s not for everyone. But when he finds it, it’s a blast to watch.

Bamberger: Well, good point, Josh — backed in is too strong, but pars don’t win many Tour playoffs.

2. Tiger Woods, whose return at the Masters marked his first play in over 13 months, will play in another event, though it may not be what you had expected. The JP McManus Pro-Am Twitter account tweeted on Thursday that Woods will be playing in the 2022 event, which is scheduled for July 4-5 at Adare Manor Hotel Golf Club, in Limerick, Ireland. It’s also just one week before the Open Championship returns to St. Andrews, Scotland, a short flight away from Limerick. Considering this news, and how Woods looked at Augusta, how do you see Woods’ schedule shaping up this year?

Sens: The majors and one or two more, including the Memorial. I would place the over-under line at five appearances for the rest of the season  

Dethier: The PGA Championship (a good fit!), the U.S. Open (not so much), Memorial (he’ll hope they cut the rough), JP McManus’ shindig, the Open Championship, the Hero World Challenge and perhaps 1-2 others, like playoff events or the Zozo, depending on a whole bunch of things.

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Bamberger: I don’t know. The McManus event and the Open — and maybe the Presidents Cup, where you don’t have to play very much at all, and your presence means a great deal. That’s about it. (Note: Everything I predict about TIger Woods is wrong. You can count on it, almost.)

Berhow: PGA, U.S. Open, JP McManus Pro-Am, Open Championship, Presidents Cup, Hero. I want to say the Memorial, but gnarly rough and a renovation since Tiger has last played it might make him think twice, not to mention it would make three events in a five-week span if he plays the PGA two weeks before it and the U.S Open two weeks after it. I think he’d be a great addition to the Presidents Cup team; he might not play in many more and he doesn’t have to play a ton of sessions. Here’s hoping he’s healthy enough to put together a handful of starts this year.

3. Woods, various outlets reported, also has submitted his entry for the 2022 U.S. Open — as has Phil Mickelson. When do you foresee Mickelson making his next start, and how much are we likely to see him in competition this year?

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Sens: The question is where: on the PGA Tour or in one of Norman’s LIV Golf events. So much conjecture at this point. Has he been suspended? Not sure how any of us can know Phil’s sked when he himself might not know it. If I had to guess, I’d say a couple of times.

Dethier: He’ll play the PGA Championship, right?! It’s tough to imagine that Mickelson wouldn’t show up to Southern Hills to celebrate the crowning achievement of this stage of his career. With that said, there are extenuating circumstances here, so it’s tough to know anything for sure.

Bamberger: My guess is he’ll play the Open at the Old Course — because how can you not? Other than that, I’m with Josh — he likely doesn’t know himself.

Berhow: It’s hard to imagine him not defending a PGA Championship title. The first one back will obviously be the toughest for him, but after that, I think he can eventually get back to a pretty normal Mickelson-like schedule, if he wants one (and is allowed one). But I’m not ready to bet any real money on where exactly we’ll see him next because there are just so many layers here it’s impossible to predict. 

4. In one of the more bizarre rules scenarios you’ll see, Harold Varner hit a tee shot near an out-of-bounds area at the RBC Heritage, then asked a fan to check whether a ball was his. Varner confirmed it was — and then things got really interesting. A rules official was called over. Varner said the man moved the ball from inbounds to out of bounds while checking. But the man said he didn’t, Varner said, and the rules official sided with the man. Whew! What’s your read on how the situation was adjudicated?

Rules

Sens: If things went down as Varner says they did, that’s a very strange way to go about things. The foundations of the rules are underpinned by the idea that you trust the player. It flies in the face of that principle if Varner’s word was discounted. 

Dethier: Yep, Sens is spot on here. It was tough for us to see the entire exchange, but it certainly didn’t feel like a satisfying conclusion to the ruling. Varner wound up missing the playoff by a single shot on Sunday, and I think he has a legitimate gripe, if it went down as he described.

Bamberger: Agree with all Josh Sens says, but here’s something even more basic: DO IT YOURSELF. A central tenet of golf is self-reliance. Fans do look for balls often, but you never hear of a player or a caddie ASKING fans to look for balls. If a fan does find a ball, the player typically steps right in and takes over — it’s the player’s job to identify the ball and proceed from there. In other words, how did it ever get to the situation where it was the “fan’s word” over the “player’s word”? If the fan moved it, was there a way to determine if it went from inbounds to out of bounds? Lacking confirmation, you had to presume the ball was out of bounds. That is the rules official protecting all the other players. Even saying “it’s mine” based on the fan’s description is odd to me. It sounds like yours, but until you put your own eyes on it, in the spot where it lays, you cannot know. The golfer is collecting evidence: Is it my ball, and where is it? It’s not a crime scene, but the player is in charge of it, and the player’s job is to make sure it doesn’t turn into one. 

Berhow: Yes, weird that they took the fan’s word over the player’s. But, as Michael said, that’s not an issue if Harold or his caddie goes over there themselves. Sure, there was a lot going on and some odd circumstances, but this one’s also a bit of bad luck.

5. According to a report from Sports Illustrated, in the latest news from the upstart, Saudi-funded golf league, the LIV Golf Invitational Series now says that players do not have to join as members, and that amateurs will be invited for its 48-player tournaments. With the first tournament set for early June, how do you see the first few events shaking out?

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Sens: A lot of buzz around them but without the viewership to match. 

Dethier: Vague curiosity mixed with apathy from fans — and jealousy from Tour pros when they see exactly who is walking away with all that cash. The one-off nature of the events will make for some interesting potential waiver requests with the PGA Tour, though.

Bamberger: You would not be inviting amateurs if you have 48 name pros. BUT inviting amateurs is a good way to start the recruitment process. Payday over legacy, etc. The first few events don’t matter. The first few years do. I think the Saudis are playing the long game here.

Berhow: I think, initially, there will be a bunch of interest from fans and fellow players, and I’m curious to see which big(-ish?) names are the first to sign on, and if that creates any sort of minor domino effect among other pros who: 1) won’t have to be the first to dip their toe in; and 2) see some other guy bring home a massive paycheck. Although one quick question: Do we know if we can watch this on TV yet?!

6. Patrick Cantlay, ahead of the RBC Heritage, opined on the various reasons why younger players are finding success early, then added this: “[Davis Love III], I don’t know how many years this is for him on Tour, but it’s got to be near 30 and he’s still playing this week past 50. I would be surprised if we saw a lot of kids of this generation do that into their 50s. The competition seems more fierce and so it takes more out of guys, more out of their bodies, more out of their preparation, more from a time perspective, and so the careers get hotter and shorter. And I think you’re seeing that in all sports. And there always will be exceptions, Tiger still being able to win majors in his 40s. [Tom] Brady being able to win Super Bowls in his 40s. So there will always be exceptions, but I think in general, as a rule, careers will be shorter and guys will play better younger.” Do you agree with Cantlay?

Sens: “Hotter and shorter” hits the nail on the end. So many factors — injuries, burnout, huge paydays — encourage that shooting star phenomenon. In short, Cantlay is spot on. 

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Dethier: He’s hitting on the contradiction here, isn’t he? On the one hand, we’re seeing Stewart Cink, Phil Mickelson, Brian Gay and others win in their late 40s and beyond. We’re seeing Tom Brady play into his 40s and Rafael Nadal stretch the limits of a tennis career. And yet we’re also seeing guys peak and then flame out. Careers can’t be getting longer and shorter at the same time, so which is it? It seems like some golfers are able to take care of their bodies better than ever and take advantage of institutional knowledge and mastery of skills — a la Brady — to extend their careers. But it’s tougher than ever for golfers not named Scottie Scheffler to get hot and stay hot. As a result, if you’re a PGA Tour pro playing well, savor that moment! But make a 20-year plan, too.

Bamberger: I do agree with Cantlay. He’s speaking broadly, and broadly it’s hard to argue with it. If you really love the game and love the life and your body holds up and your skill holds up, you could have a wildy long career like Brian Gay and Phil Mickelson. Cantlay might be one of those people. But can you imagine Bryson and Brooks and many others still dialing up all that intensity at 43? I cannot.

Berhow: Yes. But at the same time, one thing I have always thought about is that most pro athletes retire from their sport and … play golf. So what do golfers do when they retire? Well, probably play golf. Might as well keep getting paid for it, if you can still hit it around pretty well. But yes, I think we will see top-tier guys play less on the PGA Tour as they get older than what we see now, but I also can’t imagine any of them skipping majors if they are qualified and think they can compete. Did I answer the question? 

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