The post Max Homa defends PGA Tour changes in epic press conference rant appeared first on Golf.

The post Max Homa defends PGA Tour changes in epic press conference rant appeared first on Golf.

“I could rant on this for a while.”

And then, for 1,400 words, 11 paragraphs and some four uninterrupted minutes, he did precisely that.

Homa came into the press room on the heels of change on the PGA Tour — significant change. Under the new structure outlined by Tour commissioner Jay Monahan in a memo to players Wednesday, many of the Tour’s 17 so-called “designated events” will take on a dramatically different shape in 2024 next to their initial 2023 iterations. Some events will now have a limited field of 70-80 players, some will feature no cuts, and all will be adjusted to make for a consistent playing cadence for both players and fans.

Among the changes enacted by the new schedule are two hard realities: it will be harder at times for some players to climb the Tour ranks, and it will be easier at times for those in the upper echelon of the sport to stay there. That is mostly good news for those who wish to see golf’s biggest stars more often, but it is mostly bad news for those who adore the pesky underdog stories that form a noticeable chunk of golf’s subculture.

Enter the rare player to have lived both of those realities: Max Homa.

It was just five years ago that Homa found himself on the fringes of golf relevancy, a gifted-but-inconsistent player floating between the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours. For a time, the number of golfers ranked higher than him numbered in the thousands. Today, the number of golfers ranked higher than Max Homa can be counted on just two hands. He is the eighth-ranked player in the world, a six-time PGA Tour winner, and at age 32, unquestionably one of the Tour’s brightest stars.

So, what does Homa — one of the biggest beneficiaries of the PGA Tour’s old guard — think about the new regime? He’ll need a minute (or four) to explain it.

“I love the new changes,” he said, beginning a lengthy, uninterrupted answer on the subject at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. “The product is important. I think it’s easy to frame these changes as a way to put more money in the top players’ pockets. But it has been made to make it easier and more fun for the fans. I know it’s low-hanging fruit to jump on, Oh, this is just a money grab. This is to make it better for the fans. It is a guarantee on who will be at events and leaning more on the more there.

“It is more opportunity for the top players to battle it out late on Sundays,” Homa said. “Which, you look back at times of Phil and Tiger, the two best players growing up for me watching, and they had like maybe two real battles. So we’re going to have more of that.”

Homa says he recognizes that golf’s much-bandied “meritocracy” will suffer under these changes. The best players will inherently have an advantage in earning the largest sums. But Homa wonders if the new schedule could have the unintended benefit of helping those in the PGA Tour’s middle class.

“The non-designated events are the same purses with, on paper, weaker fields,” Homa says. “There’s a lot of room for growth throughout that. You can play your way into the designated events.”

On the topic of limited fields, Homa was particularly protective of those on the outside looking in. In restricting access to those high-money weeks to “70-to-80 players,” per Monahan’s memo, Homa argued the Tour’s intent wasn’t to keep players out, but rather to provide a lifeline to those in non-designated events.

“The part that’s frustrating and maybe just simply misunderstood is that if we made these fields very large in these designated events, it would ruin non-designated events,” Homa said. “It would ruin them. No one would play in half of them because it would no longer fit your schedule.”

Homa should know this. As a member of the Player Advisory Council responsible for drafting the new schedule, he was in the room when these changes were proposed.

“I think that the Tour’s done a great job of looking into it,” Homa said. “Seeing that [70-80] would be a great number to cut to make sure that we still have competitive events that are non-designated.”

It’s a strange logic — exclusivity for the sake of inclusivity — but it’s one that might make real sense as it involves the PGA Tour. Last week’s Honda Classic drew a historically dreadful field, the result of a series of large-field designated events nearby on the calendar. Under the new format, the Honda could represent the event most aided by the changes.

With so few slots in the big events, notable players will find themselves in non-designated events, raising the status and intrigue behind those tournaments. It’s not perfect, Homa admits, but it’s a way to keep golf’s meritocracy alive at all.

“Maybe not the top-50 big names, but big names [will be] keeping the sponsors and the fans happy with the parity,” Homa said. “Guys everybody has watched play golf, win golf tournaments and excel at this game still in those [non-designated] fields. So I think that that is an important distinction to make before jumping on something negative.”

As Homa finished that final sentence, a hush fell over the press room. A PGA Tour moderator stepped into the silence.

“Do you need a break?”

Homa flashed a smile.

“No, I’m good,” he said. “Sorry guys.”

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The post Why an injured Rory Sabbatini performed unusual, chivalrous act at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

The post Why an injured Rory Sabbatini performed unusual, chivalrous act at Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

Rory Sabbatini, Olympic medal winner and evolving golfing statesman, performed a most uncommon and chivalrous act during the third round of last week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational.

He withdrew from play after 13 holes with an inflamed right knee. His scorecard was nothing to write home about. (Sabbatini, who was eight over for the day, can call Slovakia, South Africa and the United States home.) Intra-round withdrawals happen much more commonly now than they once did.

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But here’s something that never happens: from 14 to the house Sabbatini kept walking with his playing partner, Anirban Lahiri, the 34-year-old veteran from India. Sabbatini’s purpose was simply to keep Lahiri company, to keep his scorecard and to slow down Lahiri’s pace. That way, as a single golfer, Lahiri would not be nipping at the heels of the two players in front of him, Lucas Glover and Dylan Frittelli. It’s ironic because Sabbatini is a famously fast-playing, and one might say impatient, golfer.

“To be honest about it, there’s only about 20 percent of the guys out there that I would do that for,” Sabbatini said Monday afternoon in a phone interview. “But Ariban is obviously one of them. He’s such a gentleman. I would definitely consider him a friend.

“In fact, it was Ariban who first asked if I should be playing, because my knee was blowing up and I couldn’t really make a proper swing. On 11 he mentioned something to a rules official, that I was in pain.”

After Sabbatini went WDWK (a new term for withdrawing from a tournament but continuing to walk with your playing partner) Golf Channel coverage showed Sabbatini carefully raking a greenside bunker. That was on the par-3 17th after Lahiri needed two shots to get out of it. The broadcaster and former player Peter Jacobsen noted in his many years in the game he had never seen a player withdraw and not head into the clubhouse. Jacobsen is 68, by the way. He’s seen a lot of golf.

“I sent my caddie with my bag in after I withdrew,” said Sabbatini, a six-time winner on Tour. “I figured if I raked the bunker, it would give Ariban and his caddie a little more time to read the green.” Ariban made a six-footer to salvage a bogey.

Sabbatini raked the trap with considerable care.

“I’ve always enjoyed [bunker raking],” Sabbatini said. “I was taught as a junior fix your ball mark and one other and leave the bunker better than you found it.” Sabbatini said that sometimes, in competition, he likes to rake his own bunker for a moment of contemplation.

He’s an interesting guy.

Sabbatini said he was not aware that short news accounts and a brief clip of his bunker raking had made an impression on various golf websites and social-media channels. “I don’t really follow that stuff,” he said.

“I did hear an ignorant comment from somebody in the gallery, like ‘Way to go, Rory, faking an injury to get out of the tournament, Arnold Palmer would be really proud,’” Sabbatini said.

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If you know anything about the life and golfing times of Arnold Palmer, you know he would have done anything he could to stay in the tournament. He would have surely applauded Sabbatini’s courteous act. Sabbatini noted how much he admired Arnold, and how much he enjoyed playing in the tournament that bears Arnold‘s name.

Sabbatini was limping noticeably Saturday on the unusually flat Tour course but said the act of walking did not make his injury worse. He said it was the tension of the swing that was the cause of the knee issue. He said he was consulting with a doctor about his knee and considering a cortisone shot.

He is not in the field for the Players Championship this week. He hopes to play next week in Tampa but said he does not know if he will be able to do so. He is 45 and has had a long and fruitful career but also an injury-prone one.

Lahiri shot a third-round 76. Sabbatini said Lahiri simply thanked him for staying on the course and keeping him company. On Sunday, Lahiri, a former Presidents Cup player, shot 82.

“I’ve had plenty of rounds where I’ve played by myself and if you’re first off it’s fine,” Sabbatini said. He could recall being in a threesome where one player withdrew, leaving two golfers. He could not recall ever being in a twosome where one player withdrew.

“If you can keep the other guy company, I think it’s a good thing to do,” Sabbatini said.

He may have started a new tradition, Saturday afternoon at Bay Hill. The WDWK. Rory Sabbatini has made it a thing.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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The post ‘Embarrassing’ range swing starts pro’s day, $908,000 payout caps it appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Embarrassing’ range swing starts pro’s day, $908,000 payout caps it appeared first on Golf.

Pros feel that weirdness, too.

Ask Tyrrell Hatton. After a steady three-under 69 in the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational last week, the volatile Englishman’s next two rounds were anything but. In the second round, he actually scored one stroke better than his Thursday mark but said he didn’t hit the ball well; he just got lucky with his misses. “I think the score is pretty flattering,” he said. “I know that I can’t keep hitting it that badly certainly with it’s going to be playing much tougher this weekend.”

In the third round, Hatton’s misses caught up to him. Conditions were admittedly challenging at Bay Hill, but Hatton’s ballstriking was once again loose. After seven bogeys, he signed for a six-over 78 that dropped him eight strokes behind 54-hole co-leaders Talor Gooch and Billy Horschel. He did not appear primed for a Sunday charge.  

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That was the head space Hatton occupied when he strolled on to the Bay Hill range Sunday morning. Who knew what was coming?

For starters, one of the worst pull-hooks you’ll ever see from a top-20 player. It came on Hatton’s second driver swing. “I missed the 9th fairway left from the driving range,” Hatton said Sunday evening, recalling the incident with delightful candor. “I didn’t shout fore out of pure embarrassment that no one on a driving range should ever have to shout fore. That kind of shows you how bad it was.”

The swing epitomized what Hatton characterized, all in all, as a “shocking warmup.”

He seemed destined for another 78 (if not 88), but then the darndest thing happened.

“I don’t know what I found, but just started hitting the ball good again,” he said.

Hatton said he liberated himself from the horrors of his range session by having “one simple feeling.” He’s prone to leaning too much into his toes on his backswing, he said, so on Sunday he focused on keeping his weight balanced in the middle of feet. “If I can kind of keep my weight more centered,” he said, “then I’m more likely to strike the ball a bit better.

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“I kind of just went out there with that thought. Today it worked. Some days it does. Some days it doesn’t.”

It worked, all right. During a brutally tough round, when the wind was swirling, the greens were humming and the scoring average was a meaty 75.481, Hatton offset four bogeys with seven birdies to shoot a three-under 69. The rags-to-riches effort rocketed him up the leaderboard; when the dust settled Sunday evening, he found himself in a tie for second with Horschel and Viktor Hovland, good for a cool $908,000.

“My job’s done,” Hatton said after visiting the scorer’s table, with seven pairings ahead of him still on the course. “I’ll just sit back and wait, see what happens, and we’ll go from there.”

A golfer’s job is never done, of course. Next stop for Hatton: the Players Championship, up the road from Bay Hill in Ponte Vedra Beach. The deepest field in golf awaits him. So, too, does more time on the range.

Hopefully without the need to holler “fore!”

NEWSLETTER

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The post How to ‘cut’ your pitch shots, like players were required to do at fire-breathing Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

The post How to ‘cut’ your pitch shots, like players were required to do at fire-breathing Bay Hill appeared first on Golf.

Bay Hill was a battlefield in a war of attrition. Pars came with a sigh of relief and big numbers lurked with every mis-hit shot. Gary Woodland summed it up best when he came off the course following a bruising final-round 73.

Instruction

“I’m glad I’m off that golf course,” he said. “I’m glad I’m done.”

It was that type of week in Orlando. And with the conditions so difficult, players were forced to use every shot in their bags — especially around the greens. Standard driving-range chips and pitches were largely ineffective.

Sometimes, reaching those tough-to-reach hole locations required shaping the ball — even on pitches inside 75 yards. It’s a high-level play, but one that is required when playing a brute of a course like Bay Hill. GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood shared a video over the weekend explaining the technique behind these shots so you can add it to your arsenal as well.

“Imagine the flag is 12 o’clock on the clock face,” Yarwood says. “Aim your body at 11 o’clock.”

With a slightly open setup, you now want to set up the clubface behind the ball. But instead of having the face square to the target, open it up just slightly.

Stand closer to the ball than you would on a normal pitch, and pull the handle of the club down and toward your lead knee.

“From this setup, I’ve got no choice but to lift the club up and away from me,” he says. “But then the key move from here is feeling like the left pocket keeps moving, the ribs keep moving, the belt buckle keeps moving — so the handle gets pulled sharply left. It almost feels like I’m pulling the handle into my pocket.”

By releasing the club to the left, you’re effectively cutting across the ball through impact. And as long as you keep the clubface open and don’t roll it shut, you should create cut spin that will work the ball from left to right.

“It increases spin as well if you really rip your body open,” he says. “It’s a great shot to have in your bag.”

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf.

NEWSLETTER

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The post Tour Confidential: Bay Hill carnage, Jin Young Ko domination, Players week appeared first on Golf.

The post Tour Confidential: Bay Hill carnage, Jin Young Ko domination, Players week appeared first on Golf.

1. The best in the world melted down at Bay Hill this weekend. Thick rough, high winds and speedy greens across an already testing layout befuddled the pros, with Scottie Scheffler coming out on top — surviving? — with a five-under total. While it’s a break from the birdie bonanza from earlier this year, do you think the course bordered on the unfair? 

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Michael Bamberger, senior writer: No, it’s fair. You can’t have the rough deeper, but it’s fair. With the wind up and the sun out, it is bound to play super hard. There’s nothing wrong with that. No matter what they shoot, they’re still eating cake. 

Josh Sens, senior writer (@JoshSens): It wasn’t just fair, it was also entertaining, a refreshing break from those 20-under birdie fests we see plenty of already.

Dylan Dethier, senior writer (@dylan_dethier): Variety is the spice of life! I wouldn’t say they melted down. I’d say they battled a difficult golf course in difficult conditions. The players are allowed to be frustrated. I’m also allowed to enjoy it. Hard golf makes for prime viewing.

Josh Berhow, managing editor (@Josh_Berhow): Not unfair. The wind is always a wild card. These guys are the best in the world and don’t particularly enjoy shooting high scores, so when courses and conditions bite back, you hear some of them get a little more defensive. I don’t want 18 under winning every week. I’m good with gritty pars winning golf tournaments.

2. Jin Young Ko continued one of the more impressive runs in recent history. In winning the HSBC Women’s World Championship on Sunday, she has now finished atop the leaderboard six times in her past 10 events, and in shooting 66, she has now shot 15 consecutive rounds in the 60s and 30 straight rounds under par. In short, she’s on fire. How do you see her season playing out? How many wins will she have at year’s end?

Bamberger: How many tournaments will she play? She looks like she’ll literally contend every time she plays. It’s happened before in women’s golf. It’s impossible to sustain, but it’s fun while it lasts.

Sens: Remember when Yani Tseng was never going to lose again? Michael’s right. It has happened and best to enjoy it for what it is rather than worry about what might be coming. That said, she’ll win two majors this year.

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Dethier: Six? Eight? Who knows. As Sens lays out, let’s appreciate this for what it is. Ko almost never misses a green in regulation. She almost never makes bogey. She almost never shoots an over-par round. It’s going to make the Chevron all that much more exciting when she and Nelly Korda next tee it up in the same field.

Berhow: She won five last year, and it seems like she’s going to get at least that again this season. I hope she goes on a tear and threatens double digits, but I also hope another big-time star (Nelly Korda?) can have some good battles with her to give the sport a nice juicy rivalry at the top.

3. Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour announced, won the first Player Impact Program, an initiative that measures, among other metrics, a player’s buzz. Notably, Woods may have also won next year’s PIP when he humorously responded to an earlier tweet from Phil Mickelson, who had declared himself the winner. With one year of the program in the books, how would you rate its success? Would you change anything?

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Bamberger: I’d eliminate it. I’d say the results show it is a ridiculous contest or whatever you want to call it.

Sens: I’m for scrapping it as well. But then, I think it would be a net gain for the world to get rid of social media altogether, so I’m biased. If you have to keep it, just give it to Max Homa and be done with it.

Dethier: Look, it doesn’t do me any good, so I don’t much care about the future of the PIP. But its purpose was essentially to keep the top pros on the PGA Tour a little bit happier at year’s end — essentially a prize pool in lieu of appearance fees or guaranteed money. From a competitive standpoint, it serves no purpose. But from an organizational standpoint, I get it. As much as anyone can “get” those rankings and final standings, at least …

Berhow: It’s really a bizarre thing. Here they talked about something called Q-rating and MVP index and then Google search and this and that, and really what it means is that they just unloaded millions of dollars to most of the players you thought would get it anyway. I don’t know — I get the idea was to keep the stars who bring eyeballs to the game happy, but there’s gotta be better, more genuine, ideas than this. I don’t have one, though, so maybe there isn’t.

4. Following Woods and Mickelson in the PIP standings were Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm and Bubba Watson. Among the notables who missed the top 10 — and the money — were Rickie Fowler, one of the more popular players on Tour, and Max Homa, one of the more social media friendly players. What, to you, is the biggest surprise from the PIP results?

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Bamberger: That anybody cares about it at all. Except those who are cashing checks.

Sens: I don’t think it’s surprising at all that people care about it. But I am surprised that Homa didn’t get more love. He’s smart and funny. Isn’t that what this sort of thing should be about?

Dethier: At risk of sounding like a know-it-all, I’m not surprised by either of these things! I’m intrigued by the results and, despite Homa’s reign as emperor of Golf Twitter, that doesn’t change the fact that Twitter ain’t real life. I was, however, surprised that Rickie Fowler wasn’t on the list, given the nature of the criteria.

Berhow: Homa not registering in the top 10 was a reminder to me that Twitter is just one small corner of the internet. 

5. Scheffler has now won twice in his past three starts, and he’s projected to leap Rory McIlroy and become the fifth-ranked player in the world. His hot streak has come at the right time, too, since the Players Championship begins this week and kicks off the heart of the Tour’s schedule — Players Championship, Masters in April, PGA Championship in May, U.S. Open in June and Open Championship in July. From what you’ve seen through the first half of the Tour season, who are you buying for the stretch run?

Bamberger: Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Gary Woodland and Jordan Spieth, and in that order.

Sens: What, no Morikawa or Cantlay? 

Dethier: We’ll discuss this on the next PGA Tour Stock Exchange podcast, so I don’t want to give too much away, but if we’re buying low, how about Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau?

Berhow: The guy you just mentioned, Scottie Scheffler! A rocking Ryder Cup, two wins in his past three starts, confidence galore and, now, proof he can win on the PGA Tour in both birdie-fests and U.S. Open-style grinds. Look out. Oh, and Morikawa.

6. Pat Perez, on this week’s episode of GOLF’s Subpar, said that Jon Rahm told him: “I’m not done until I win 19 majors … I’m not going to take off golf until I get to 19. Whether I do it or not doesn’t matter. But I am not quitting until I pass Tiger on that list.” To date, of course, Rahm has won one major. While we appreciate Rahm’s confidence, let’s make a prop bet — Rahm will win over/under six majors?

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Bamberger: Based on the quote above, I’m taking the over. The way, way over.

Sens: Rahm will win multiple majors, but the talent pool is so deep and winning is so hard, six feels like a pretty good line. I’ll take the under.

Dethier: Under. Six is so many majors. He has played golf at a higher level than anyone else for a couple years in a row now and he has one. In golf, peaks are difficult to sustain. But I’d be delighted for Rahm to prove me wrong.

Berhow: Push!

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The post ‘I felt good about 17:’ Gary Woodland explains late crumble at Bay Hill  appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I felt good about 17:’ Gary Woodland explains late crumble at Bay Hill  appeared first on Golf.

And that was how close Gary Woodland believed he was to being your 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational champion. And how he finished tied for fifth instead. 

“I’m glad I’m off that golf course,” he said after Sunday’s final round. “I’m glad I’m done. That’s where I’ll start. I’ll take the positive from that.”

If he sounded exhausted, it’s because he was. And understandably so. He had gone four rounds and 72 holes with a bruiser named Bay Hill. And the biggest blows came at the bell. He landed the first. On the par-5 16th, which he started one shot out of the lead, Woodland hit a drive into the dirt area right of the fairway, then hit two of the best shots of the tournament — a bullet out of the dirt that dropped 24 feet from the hole, and the ensuing eagle putt that he sunk — and he led by one with two holes to go. 

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From there, his scorecard reads this way — double bogey on the par-3 17th, bogey on the par-4 18th. Only he struggled to think of what he may have done differently. Golf happened. On the 17th, he hit a cut 8-iron off the tee, the wind slightly hung up his ball, and it splashed in the bunker, 5 yards short from maybe being perfect. On the second shot, needing to plop his ball just onto the green, his hands slightly decelerated, and the ball fell a couple yards short of where he wanted it to go, and it stayed in the sand. 

One shot out of the bunker, and two putts later, he was out of the lead for good. 

“I felt good about 17,” the 2019 U.S. Open champion said. “It was a good number. I tried to hit a cut in there and just got eaten up by the wind. A little unfortunate with the lie. The lie came out of the pitch mark, but it was still plugged a little bit. So I tried to chunk it, and I chunked it, chunked it too much.

“Frustrating. I played a lot better than the score showed. I can take a lot of positives, but it stings right now.”

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On 18, after a drive into the thick left rough, a punch-out short of the water and a chip on, he slid an 11-foot putt for par just to the left. Had Woodland made it, he would have joined a group at four-under, one shot back of eventual winner Scottie Scheffler, who was in the group behind.  

“I did,” Woodland said when asked if he thought the putt was good. “I thought I made a lot today that didn’t go in. Feel good on the putter, which is nice. Will tighten up the driving a little bit, but all in all, I’m doing the right things.”

Indeed. While a blow, the tie for fifth was his second in as many weeks — which followed a seven-tournament stretch this year where he missed five cuts. He’ll head to next week’s Players Championship in search of his first win since his Open victory. 

“I’m getting a little more confidence,” Woodland said Saturday. “I’m starting to walk with a little more swagger.” 

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The post WATCH: Scottie Scheffler’s elated wife joyfully crashes post-win interview appeared first on Golf.

The post WATCH: Scottie Scheffler’s elated wife joyfully crashes post-win interview appeared first on Golf.

To recap: Scheffler had just signed for his even-par 72, and after Billy Horschel missed a birdie putt on the 18th hole, it was good enough for a one-stroke win at the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Sunday. Scheffler had just started an interview with NBC Golf’s Kathryn Tappen, but Tappen’s second question was interrupted. She was trying to ask Scheffler how challenging the week had been, but before she could finish, Scheffler smiled, stared off screen and was soon greeted by Meredith.

“I’m so proud of you!” she said. “Way to go, [caddie] Teddy [Scott]! I’m so proud of you!”

Meredith also informed Scheffler that his grandma and parents were there for it all. (His grandma, who will be 87 next week, walked all 18 holes on Sunday.) Whether or not Meredith knew she was on TV is unknown. Whether she cared, also unknown. But who can blame her? The guy just won $2.16 million.

Scheffler eventually returned to answer one final question before he resumed the celebration.

“Meredith obviously knows me better than anybody, being my wife,” Scheffler said later in his press conference. “She knows how hard it is when I don’t win. So being able to celebrate a win is pretty special, and to have my parents here for this one is extremely cool with all the sacrifices they made growing up. I’m just really pleased.”

As the broadcast was signing off for the night, the cameras showed Scheffler and Meredith walking through a parking lot, en route to one of their post-win obligations. Meredith was still pumped.

“Well, Meredith is certainly excited, and why not?” said Dan Hicks. “Her husband has arrived, big time, on the PGA Tour.”

“Yep,” added Paul Azinger. “He’s a star now.”

Horschel, and the rest of the family, got in on the celebration later.

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The post How a U.S. Open champion was crowned Sunday (at Bay Hill!) appeared first on Golf.

The post How a U.S. Open champion was crowned Sunday (at Bay Hill!) appeared first on Golf.

Sunday, Sunday at Bay Hill Speedway.

Jon Rahm, who won the National Open at Torrey Pines last year, needed three putts on 16 in the finale, and when he came off the green he raised his putter head high above his head as if readying to smash it into the rear bumper of a parked golf cart.

The great and large Spaniard held off that swing but not the swift kick he gave to the boom mic beside the left Mastercard tee marker on 18 after his last tee shot finished in the gnarly right rough. You have to like a man who cares, though he, of course, should have replaced the microphone himself. A tournament staffer did it for him, immediately and silently.

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Rahm signed for 74 and the word was out even before his shirttails were: Rahm would not be doing media on this Sunday afternoon. His playing partner, Aaron Wise, returned 74, too, though his had fewer histrionics.

Pairings are a funny business and there was no hand-of-man influence that brought together two U.S. Open winners from the north of Ireland for Sunday’s 1 p.m. tee time, Graeme McDowell (2010, Pebble) and Rory McIlroy (2011, Congressional). Both men shot 76 — not too shabby on a day when six players shot 80 or worse — and lived to tell the tale. (Lucas Glover, winner of the 2009 U.S. Open, shot 81.) “I feel punch drunk, to be honest,” McIlroy said.

If you watched the golf on TV over the weekend, you likely saw the defending Arnold Palmer Invitational winner, Bryson DeChambeau, your 2020 U.S. Open winner at Winged Foot. You didn’t see him on the course this week — he withdrew as he recovers from who knows what exactly — but he came out of limbo again and again in a TV spot in heavy rotation for a shaft manufacturer called LA Golf. If you thought the company made sunglasses, it’s totally understandable.

Gary Woodland, stolid and solid and the winner of the 2019 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, played a superb round of golf on Sunday — for 16 holes. But he closed with 5-5 (double bogey, bogey) for 73, one over par and was more pointed than even McIlroy. “I’m glad I’m off that course,” he said. “I’m glad I’m done.

“The last two weeks, it’s just a mental grind.”

PGA National, Week I of the Florida Swing: water and wind and rough.

Bay Hill, Week II of the Florida Swing: water and wind and rough.

TPC Sawgrass, Week III of the Florida Swing: water and wind and rough.

Arnold Palmer was born and raised on the U.S. Open, U.S. Opens at Oakmont in Pittsburgh, down the road from his family’s home in Latrobe, Pa., most particularly. He once said that, as a golfer, he was never the same after winning the 1960 U.S. Open at Cherry Hills, in Denver, that he had checked off, at age 30, the single-biggest professional ambition in his life.

Bay Hill was Palmer’s crowning achievement as an architect. (It’s a Dick Wilson course in the club history but over the years Palmer shaped every green, every bunker, every tee, every square inch.) He wanted the course to play hard for his tournament and it did. 

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Scottie Scheffler, at 25, has now played in five U.S. Opens. He missed the cut in 2016 and ’19 but he was the low amateur in 2017, and last year at Torrey he had a T7 finish. Then came his fifth Open start, the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.

An hour after victory, he was still wearing his game-day shoes and still had his glove in his back left pocket but now he was wearing the red Arnold Palmer cardigan awarded to the winner here. Scheffler shot an even-par 72 on Sunday to win by a shot. As Johnny Miller (winner of the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont) used to say, “Pars are the good guys at U.S. Opens. They wear white hats.”

“Par is a pretty good score on every hole out here,” Scheffler said in victory. “I’m never upset with par.”

Your new U.S. Open winner is lanky, easy-going, unpretentious. He doesn’t make things harder than they are, especially when they’re hard enough on their own.

“This course is a total beatdown,” he said.

U.S. Open II, at The Country Club, begins June 16.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com.

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The post Winner’s bag: Scottie Scheffler at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational appeared first on Golf.

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft), 8 degrees

3-wood: Nike VR Pro (Fujikura Atmos Black Tour Spec 8X shaft), 13.5 degrees

Utility: Srixon Z U85 (3-iron; Nippon Pro Modus3 Hybrid Tour X shaft)

Irons: Srixon ZX7 (4-iron; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shaft), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100 shafts)

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50-12F, 56-14F degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shafts), Titleist Vokey Design 2021 Proto (60K degrees; True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400 shaft)

Putter: Scotty Cameron Special Select Timeless Tourtype GSS Tour Prototype

Golf ball: Titleist Pro V1

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Want to overhaul your bag for 2022? Find a fitting location near you at GOLF’s affiliate company True Spec Golf. For more on the latest gear news and information, check out our latest Fully Equipped podcast below.

The post Winner’s bag: Scottie Scheffler at the 2022 Arnold Palmer Invitational appeared first on Golf.