Breakfast Ball #20: Golf Fought the Law and the Law Won

Well… that was quite a weekend of golf. It is very difficult to sum up this week’s events within a newsletter, but I will try my best.

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Xander Schauffele WINS the PGA Championship Amid a Weekend of Drama

Xander Schauffele won his first major championship with a wire-to-wire victory at Valhalla Golf Club. This was no fluke. Xander has been knocking on the door of a major win for years and is a well deserving champion. In his 27 prior major appearances, he had 11 top 10 finishes and 20 top 20 finishes. He showed poise and composure on Sunday, shooting a 6-under 65 to hold off Bryson DeChambeau in second place.

There were many, including myself, that doubted if Xander would ever win a major. He clearly had the ability; the main issue he had was finishing the job on a major Sunday. He did that yesterday. Tied with DeChambeau on the 17th hole, Schauffele found the bunker off the tee and was short of the green on his approach. This is exactly where he would have faltered in the past. However, he had the mettle to get up and down, save par, and would move onto the par-5 18th where a birdie could give him the win. Schauffele’s drive on 18 found the first cut of rough off the left hand side of the fairway which was a fine position, but his feet were in the bunker for his second shot down a treacherous split fairway with water in the middle. He laid up 36 yards short of the pin, hit a pitch to six feet, and nailed the putt for an extraordinary win.

Schauffele deserves an incredible amount of credit. He came into this week after being embarrassed by Rory McIlroy at Quail Hollow, leading for the first three days before McIlroy ran away with the victory by five shots. Most people would go into a dark place after an experience like that, but he came out all guns blaring and shot a remarkable 62 on Thursday, equaling the best ever round in a major. This time, he took the lead and never looked back.

Scheffler’s Friday Morning Escapade

Despite Schauffele’s win, the story of the weekend was undoubtedly Scottie Scheffler’s run-in with the law on Friday morning. A tragic accident set forth a bizarre sequence of events that led to the world number one spending a few hours in a Louisville jail cell before playing in a major championship. If you haven’t seen what happened, this article sums up the situation well.

I woke up on Friday morning with a bit of a heavy head having spent the previous night at Citizens Bank Park watching the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies battle it out. As with most Friday mornings, I checked my phone to see how the players in the early tee times had started their rounds. I thought I was having some sort of episode when I saw a picture of Scottie Scheffler in an orange jumpsuit.

Scheffler’s post-round press conference on Friday was a rare display of humility and maturity from someone who is the best in the world at what they do. When most people would be extremely angry to be in that situation, Scheffler was thankful for those that arrested him: “The officer that took me to the jail was very kind. He was great.” Some say Scheffler is too boring to be a superstar. If that is the case, I think we need to reevaluate what kind of role models we put on a pedestal, because if there were more Scottie Schefflers in the world, it would definitely be a better place.

McIlroy’s Search for a Major Continues as Lowry Shoots a Historic 62 and Hovland Regains His Form

A few weeks ago, Viktor Hovland was searching for answers. After finishing 2023 as the FedEx Cup champion, he changed his swing coach and the results were not positive. His best result of the year before this week was a 19th place finish at the Genesis invitational. However, last week he rehired his swing coach Joe Mayo (a great article about that process here) and the results were immediate. Hovland shot three consecutive rounds of 66 to finish in third place and show the world that he still has a place at the very top of golf.

Shane Lowry Shoots Historic 62

Shane Lowry shot an historic round of 62 on Saturday to become only the fifth person to post that score in a major tournament. While Lowry was in the top 20 of the field in strokes gained from tee to green, he really shined on the dance floor. Lowry holed a career-high 161 feet of putts on the day, with only 24 total putts over the course of his round. Yes, that is TWELVE one putts in 18 holes. “I really enjoyed it. I kind of stood back and allowed myself to enjoy the moment.“ What made the day even more remarkable was that Lowry was 168th in strokes gained putting on the PGA Tour so far in 2024. “it's nice to finally see a few going in the hole because it's been a slow year for me on the greens. It's been nice to see it this week.” Lowry finished the week in a tie for 6th, seven strokes behind eventual champion Schauffele.

McIlroy Finishes in T13, 9 Strokes Behind Schauffele

Another major went by without Rory McIlroy being in contention on the weekend. While McIlroy has definitely had many close calls since his last major win in 2014, these occurrences are all too often for a player as talented as McIlroy. He was 6th in strokes gained off the tee, but struggled with his short game as he finished 48th in putting and 42nd around the green. You have to admire McIlroy’s persistence to keep coming back year after year and still be one of the best in the world at his craft. It is also not easy for anyone to go through a divorce (McIlroy filed for a divorce from his wife of seven years last Monday), especially with a three-year-old daughter in the mix.

I want nothing more than to see him back at the pinnacle of golf once more. It is just very hard to see happening right now.

The PGA Championship in Numbers

-21

Xander Schauffele’s winning score, the lowest in men’s major history. Valhalla was damp and there was no wind, making for easy pickings for the best players in the world despite it being the third longest course on tour this year.

-214

The combined score of the field at Valhalla. The most under par score for a PGA Championship of all time, 245 strokes better than the next best at Riviera in 1995.

5.56

Strokes gained putting by Shane Lowry in his historic round of 62 on Saturday. If you would like an explanation on strokes gained, see here. It is essentially a measure of how much better a player is at a certain element of their game than the average player in the field that day/tournament.

4

The number of charges received by Scottie Scheffler after the incident on Friday morning. Reports are saying all charges will be dropped, but we will know more after his hearing on Tuesday at 9am.

Other European PGA Championship Results:

• 🇧🇪 Thomas Detry had a very impressive performance, finishing T4

  • It has been a great 2024 so far for Detry, who is putting himself directly in the crosshairs for a Ryder Cup spot

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Justin Rose is still at the top of his game at 43, placing in T6 for his first made cut in 4 major starts

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Bob MacIntyre and 🇸🇪 Alex Noren both had great weeks, finishing in T8 and T12 respectively

  • MacIntyre’s result will push him 33 places up the FedEx Cup rankings

• 🇸🇪 Ludvig Åberg, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matt Fitzpatrick, and 🇪🇸 Jon Rahm all missed the cut

  • It was a particularly disappointing week for Rahm, who was well below average both off the tee and in his approach game, which are usually strengths for the Spaniard

Coming up this week on Tour

• The Charles Schwab Challenge takes place on the PGA Tour

  • Not interested? I don’t blame you. However, Scottie Scheffler is supposed to play and that is usually worth watching. The top ranked European in the field will be Sepp Straka.

• The Soudal Open begins the European Swing of the DP World Tour in Belgium

• The next major is the US Open in Pinehurst from June 13th to 16th. Bring it on!

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!