Breakfast Ball #16: Who Came Second to Scottie This Week?

No, this is not the same newsletter as last week. Scottie Scheffler won again. The man is unstoppable right now, but will be taking a couple of weeks off to have his first kid!

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Scheffler Continues Historic Run with a Win at the RBC Heritage

Scottie Scheffler is on another planet right now. One week after winning The Masters, he picked up his fourth title of 2024 in South Carolina with relative ease. This was perhaps the most impressive win of them all.

Coming off a very emotional and tiring week in Augusta, Scheffler spent 36 hours at home before arriving in Hilton Head Island on Tuesday evening. When he teed off for the tournament on Thursday morning, it was his first time playing the front nine all week as he only played the back nine during his practice round on Wednesday. He shot a 2-under 69 on Thursday and was six shots off the lead. As always, he didn’t panic and continued playing his game. By the end of his round on Saturday, he was in the lead. Once again, it just felt inevitable. He won the tournament by 3 strokes after play resumed on Monday morning due to storms on Sunday.

There is no doubt that many of the world’s best golfers went to LIV, but as Scottie proved at The Masters last week, even if they were still in the PGA Tour they probably couldn’t beat him. He has the ability to just play his game and not let any external factors get to him. He may not be the most charismatic and he doesn’t have a perfect golf swing, but he is complete cinema.

It is hard to put this stretch of form into words, so I thought it would be best to list some of the stats that prove how impressive it is:

• Scheffler has 39 rounds in a row without shooting over par, a PGA Tour record

  • He has more wins (four) than rounds over par (zero) in 2024

• Between the 15th hole on Thursday and the 15th on Sunday, Scheffler didn’t make a five

• Scheffler has a scoring average of 68.8 this year, over a stroke per round better than Xander Schauffele in 2nd

  • The gap between them is the same as the gap between Schauffele in 2nd and Kevin Yu in 63rd

• Scottie Scheffler’s caddie Tom Scott (if Scheffler uses the traditional 10% cut of a winner’s check) would be 38th on the PGA Tour money list this year, ahead of the likes of McIlroy and Tony Finau

It is the best run of form in men’s golf since Tiger Woods in 2000 according to data golf, and the second best since they started tracking data in 1995. However, it is not even the best run in golf right now. Congrats to Nelly Korda on winning her second major and fifth straight tournament at the Chevron Championship.

European Results:

• 🇸🇪 Ludvig Åberg had another good week, finishing in T10

  • Ludvig double bogeyed the last hole when play resumed on Monday morning, and would have had another top 5 otherwise

• 🇦🇹 Sepp Straka was in second place going into the final round, but couldn’t capitalize and shot a 1-over 72 to finish in 5th

• 🇮🇪 Seamus Power had his best result of the season with a T12, pushing him up 21 places in the FedEx cup standings to 70th

• ☘️ McIlroy had a disappointing week, closing out with a final round 74 to finish T33

  • McIlroy was 64th in the field of 69 in strokes gained putting, as he struggled on the greens

• 🇩🇪 Stephan Jaeger (T18), 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Matt Fitzpatrick (T28) and 🇧🇪 Thomas Detry (T28) all posted top 30 finishes

Rory McIlroy Quiets Rumours About an Offer from LIV Golf as he Prepares to Team up with Lowry in New Orleans

The Masters provided a brief but welcome respite from the LIV/PGA news cycle as all of the world’s top golfers were finally in one place for a tournament. However, on Monday evening that break came to an almighty halt as rumours emerged that Rory McIlroy was considering an $850M offer to join LIV Golf. A London newspaper named City AM published the story with a claim that sources had told them that a “deal was close.”

Speaking from the RBC Heritage on Tuesday morning, McIlroy put those rumours to bed: “I honestly don’t know how these things get started. I have never been offered a number from LIV and have never contemplated going.” It would have been very difficult to picture McIlroy moving to LIV after all he has said over the past three years. However, if there was an offer of $850M on the table, it would be very hard to turn down.

The Zurich Classic:

This week, McIlroy will be teaming up with fellow Irishman Shane Lowry at the Zurich Classic. This is one of the more unique events on tour, as players pair up and play as a team of two. The tournament consists of two days of alternate shot (players take turns taking shots, playing only one ball) play and two days of best ball (each player plays their own ball and the best score from either player on each hole counts) play. Lowry has participated in the event in the past, pairing up with Ryder Cup teammates Padraig Harrington and Ian Poulter.

Some of the other European pairings include brothers Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick as well as Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard. Americans Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele are the pre-tournament favorites having won the event in 2022. The action kicks off on Thursday at TPC Louisiana in New Orleans.

Coming up this week on Tour

• The PGA Tour moves on to the Zurich Classic at TPC Louisiana

• LIV Golf is in Australia for the Adelaide stop on their world tour

  • There were some outrageous scenes at this event last year, and it should be more of the same this week

• The DP World Tour is in Japan for the ISPS Handa Championship

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!