The PGA Tour added Utah. These 5 states should come next | Monday Finish
Viktor Hovland won last year's BMW Championship in front of a packed house of Chicagoans.
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Welcome to the Monday Finish, where we hope your weekend tee shots were more Baker Mayfield (325 yards) than Will Levis (95). But either way, you’re a winner if you got out there. To the news…
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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
A new venue — and a new lefty.
In several ways the PGA Tour’s fall events are still stuck in a weird limbo. They boast stronger, deeper fields than Korn Ferry Tour events but they’re clearly a step behind regular-season PGA Tour events, not to mention juiced-up Signature Events. In this current structure, winning the Sanderson Farms means winning a PGA Tour event, getting a multi-year exemption and earning an invite to the Masters. But it’s also a very different accomplishment than winning, say, the Genesis Invitational or the Travelers Championship or even the RBC Canadian Open. As golf fans it’s still not clear how we’re supposed to categorize the stakes of these competitions. Other than crystallizing next season’s top 125, I don’t know exactly what they mean.
But given its limitations, this week’s Black Desert Championship worked pretty damn well. Southern Utah may not be a massive population center but it is a golf destination on the rise. I’m fairly confident the TV ratings will be somewhere between “mediocre” and “dismal” — unless the blowouts in the 4 p.m. NFL slate had sports fans hunting for alternative programming — but for those of us sickos who watched a bit of the action, Black Desert brought it. The course was visually stunning in a distinctly different way than anything else on Tour and it was an interesting strategic test; the wind didn’t blow, so scores were plenty low, but there was a fairway-or-lava dynamic that made tee shots interesting and some slippery green surrounds that added dimensions to short-game shots.
Even better, the BDC crowned a worthy champion: Matt McCarty. Because Scottie Scheffler‘s effectively in his offseason, I’m not sure there’s anyone in golf who’s winning at the current clip of McCarty, who won three times in his last eight Korn Ferry Tour starts, zipped up to the PGA Tour and now won in his second week as a member.
In addition to McCarty’s rise serving as inspiration for small-college late bloomers to reach golf’s pinnacle, he’s also an exciting addition to another trend: the reappearance of the left-handed golfer. Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson cannot be replaced, but perhaps they can be recreated in the aggregate. With his win, McCarty jumps to No. 47 in the world and now joins beloved Scot and World No. 16 Robert MacIntyre, dogged Open Championship winner and World No. 22 Brian Harman, and dynamic, enthusiastic youngster and World No. 29 Akshay Bhatia inside the top 50 in the world.
So the inaugural BDC played things right. New venue. New market. Striking visuals. Winner on the rise. A lefty winner, at that. Doing your best in golf’s weird limbo — that’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who won the week?
Matt McCarty won the Black Desert Championship by three shots, holding tight to his 54-hole lead (and building on it, thanks to his sporty back-nine eagle) and claiming the first PGA Tour title of his career.
Ruoning Yin won the Buick LPGA Shanghai by six shots and became the first woman from China to win the tour’s stop in her home country.
(This is niche but shoutout to the LPGA’s website, another winner; a couple months back they redid the site like a course designer would overhaul a country club in distress and disrepair. Good stuff!)
Dan Bradbury won the FedEx Cup Open de France (or the French Open, if you prefer) in our latest return to Le Golf National; Bradbury’s victory was the second of his DP World Tour career.
Jerry Kelly won on the PGA Tour Champions at the SAS Championship at Prestonwood in North Carolina for the 12th time but the first in more than two years and called this his “favorite” win yet.
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NOT-WINNERS
A few guys who didn’t win.
Two determined fortysomethings tied for third in Utah.
Kevin Streelman, 47, is in a fight this fall to earn back his status as part of the PGA Tour’s top 125. “I don’t have much to lose,” Streelman said after the first round. “It’s go for it this fall. If it doesn’t [happen], I’ll get in a few events, and if I’m done at age 47 after next year, it’s awesome. I’ll be home with my family for three years before the Champions Tour … whatever is meant to be is meant to be, but I’m going to go out swinging, that’s for sure.” He’s now No. 138.
Lucas Glover, 44, is a year removed from a shocking multi-win renaissance and finally re-finding his footing. He had a spectacular ball-striking week and shot 9-under 62 on Sunday to surge into T3 for the second consecutive week; the T3s are his first top-10s since last year’s wins.
“I still don’t know how any of this works,” Glover said of the fall schedule and his FedEx Cup standing (he’s now up to No. 61). “I’m here because I didn’t play good the regular part of the year. I think I got three or four weeks off now and show back up in Bermuda. All the math and — I don’t know, you need a Nobel math scholar to figure it out all. Just trying to play well.” Mission accomplished, this week.
And then, from our latest segment of “confusing Viking-esque names”: At the French Open, Rasmus Hojgaard finished T13 at 10 under par. You may have heard of Rasmus; he’s a young, talented Danish pro with five DP World Tour wins including one over Rory McIlroy at last month’s Irish Open. You may have also heard of his twin brother, Nicolai Hojgaard, who made it onto last year’s European Ryder Cup team and played the PGA Tour this season. Nicolai finished one shot behind his brother in T18 at 9 under par.
But get this: two other Danes finished at 9 under alongside Nicolai. The first is Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen. The second is Niklas Norgaard. What’s the point? There isn’t one, really, except that Rasmus Hojgaard is a different guy than Rasmus Neergard and Nicolai Hojgaard is a different guy than Niklas Norgaard. Hojgaards and Neergards and Norgaards everywhere you look. Nicolai is already on the PGA Tour; Rasmus H. and Niklas N. are likely to join him there next year. Buckle up, American broadcasters.
SHORT HITTERS
Five golf things to know, in brief.
1. Wyndham Clark told his side of the Tom Kim Presidents Cup controversy; here’s what we know before we happily move on.
2. Fun fact: There are more golfers in the 18- to 34-year-old age bracket than 65+. More here.
3. Sergio Garcia may pay his fines, rejoin the DP World Tour and make a run at next year’s Ryder Cup. He and the Bethpage fans have history: at the 2002 U.S. Open his back-and-forth with the rowdy crowds inspired Sports Illustrated to dub him “El Whino”. Maybe, 23 years later, both sides are ready for more.
4. The Showdown pitting Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau against Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler will go down Dec. 17 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. LIV Golf’s account tweeted excitedly about it on Monday, no doubt eager to throw McIlroy and Scheffler on a LIVish graphic; I’m not sure the PGA Tour is quite as thrilled.
5. Caitlin Clark nearly made an ace. You can just imagine the legions of YouTube golfers reaching out to Clark’s team right now, hoping to catch a piece of the mania…
ONE SWING THOUGHT
Back to Matt McCarty.
We quoted McCarty last week before his win, so let’s go back for more. After his fourth win in 10 starts, he thought back to a tournament before he’d won any of ’em: He’d held a three-shot lead and then surrendered it the final round of a KFT event in Colorado — but it ultimately helped him:
“Yeah, I think the biggest thing I took [from that loss] is lots of confidence from that week, even though it sounds weird,” he said. “Just to put myself in that position out there on a course I wasn’t super comfortable … The last round I hit it fine. I just didn’t putt well. Was a little tentative. And I think just understanding that tightness and being tentative doesn’t lead to good golf shots is honestly the biggest thing I learned.”
That last bit seems crucial. “Tightness and being tentative doesn’t lead to good golf shots.” Easier said than done…
ONE BIG QUESTION
Where should the PGA Tour go next?
Now that the Tour has checked off Utah for the first time in six decades, which uninhabited states should it visit next? Factoring in venues, crowds, proximity to golf-hungry populations and personal bias, here are five…
Honorable mention: Illinois. I’m not including the Land of Lincoln because the John Deere is technically in Silvis, Ill. every July — but that’s a different Illinois than the Chicago area, which was terrific as BMW Championship host last summer and should have a Tour event more frequently.
5. Alaska
What, like you wouldn’t watch the Yukon Challenge? Bring in David McLay-Kidd to design TPC Matanuska Glacier, leave your mark as the best golf course in Alaska, tee off any time you want…
4. Pennsylvania
Next year’s Truist (the artist formerly known as the Wells Fargo) is coming to Philly Cricket Club next summer, which should serve as a proper litmus test. In my mind greater Philadelphia is ideal for a golf tournament — a blend of well-to-do Main-Liners and ungovernable Eagles fans? Sure! — so let’s make it happen.
3. Wisconsin
Let’s tap into the ghost of the Greater Milwaukee Open and take advantage of elite golf by the lake.
2. Washington
I’ll make no attempt to hide this list’s bias; I live in Seattle and I’m from (spoiler alert) Massachusetts. But it’s time the Tour returns to Chambers Bay. Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile — let’s make it happen!
1. Massachusetts
Okay, let’s talk full vision. I may expand on this for a future piece, but the simple version: Memphis and East Lake are fine Tour venues but they should be in the spring, not the summer. August in the Southeast is humid and lifeless. The Tour’s three playoff events should rotate as follows:
Playoff Event I: The West. I’m talking Chambers Bay (Wash.), Castle Pines (Colo.), Pebble Beach (Calif.) etc.
Playoff Event II: The Midwest. This is where Wisconsin and Chicago come in. Whistling Straits or Erin Hills (Wisc.), Olympia Fields or Medinah (Ill.), maybe even Crooked Stick (Ind.)? Okay, that sounds hot and humid, too, but you see where I’m going.
Playoff Event III: The Northeast. Let’s ping from Greater Boston to Long Island to Philadelphia and back, one every three years, constant rotation. This is your new Tour Championship. Does this ignore all existing big-time sponsorships tying the TC to Atlanta and East Lake? Sure it does. But that, for our purposes here, is not my concern. See you at The Country Club!
ONE THING TO WATCH
Watch and listen, in this case.
The absolute delight of the DP World Tour’s broadcast discussing Matthieu Pavon‘s cold shank is well worth your time:
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.
Signs of fall in Seattle: our farmer’s market is about to shut down for the season, which means my weekly mega-slice of pepperoni pizza is no longer within walking distance. You could argue going to the farmer’s market for pizza is very much not the point. Whatever.
We’ll see you next week!
Before you go, a quick request: If you like the Monday Finish, subscribe for free HERE to get it in your email inbox!
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
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