Nicklaus talks Scottie, Griffin talks sunglasses | Monday Finish

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where Scottie Scheffler leads by four. To the news!

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

An all-time great on a current great.

Scottie Scheffler won his second consecutive Memorial Tournament on Sunday and while there are 1,000 stats, shots and stories that could sum up the ways in which that’s impressive, I was most struck by the way Jack Nicklaus, tournament host and 18-time major champ, talked about Scheffler post-round. Older generations of athletes can be dismissive of new waves, but Nicklaus seemed intent on proving the opposite. He raved about Scheffler’s game, and included the highest compliment of all: that it reminds him of his own.

The two sat beside each other for Scheffler’s winner’s press conference, which turned into a fascinating dynamic of Scheffler as humble winner (“It’s always special being able to come here and play Mr. Nicklaus’ tournament”) and Nicklaus as his hype man.

“Ben Griffin’s a nice player. Sepp Straka is a nice player. Nick Taylor is a nice player,” Nicklaus said. “[Scottie] knows that those guys are not in his league.”

At one point Nicklaus fielded a couple of Scheffler’s questions for him.

“I’ll answer for you,” Nicklaus said after Scheffler was asked about his killer instinct. “He doesn’t want to brag about what he does. But he has the ability to bring his level to whatever level it needs to be. That’s what good players do. And, you know, he’s not a good player. He’s a great player. I mean, look at the record that he has had the last few years. It’s unbelievable.”

Then Nicklaus said two particularly interesting things in two sentences:

“He reminds me so much of the way I like to play. I don’t think I played nearly as well as he played,” Nicklaus said. “He’s playing better than I played and more consistent. He’s just been playing fantastic, and I love watching him play. Whether it’s here or on the television or whatever it is, I love to watch. Anytime he’s playing, I want to watch.”

That’s a remarkable observation — not just that Scheffler plays like Nicklaus but that, according to Nicklaus, he’s playing at a higher level.

By the end, they were finishing each other’s sentences talking about another great: Tiger Woods, who has won this event more than anybody.

“One thing I think Tiger was really good at was bringing that level of intensity to each and every shot,” Scheffler said.

“On Thursday,” Nicklaus interjected.

“Hungry,” Scheffler added.

“Started the tournament with it,” Nicklaus agreed.

“That’s something I always tried to emulate,” Scheffler said.

And so on.

So what’s it like for Scheffler to sit there and hear this from Jack?

“It’s really hard to put into words what it’s like sitting up here with arguably the greatest player of all time and we’re sitting here talking about stuff that I did today on the golf course. It’s a pretty weird feeling,” he said.

An all-time great appreciating a current great — that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Maja Stark won the U.S. Women’s Open thanks to a relentless performance at Erin Hills; the first title on U.S. soil for the 25-year-old Swede was the biggest in the game. She’s now up to No. 6 in the world.

Scottie Scheffler’s Memorial win was the 16th PGA Tour title of his career and came just three years, three months and 19 days after his first win — just sixteen days behind Tiger Woods’ time span and two months behind Nicklaus’.

Nicolai Von Dellingshausen won the Austrian Alpine Open for his first DP World Tour title, completing a journey back to the top of the tour after he’d lost his card two seasons ago.

Trace Crowe won by five at the Korn Ferry Tour’s UNC Health Championship; it’s the second KFT title for Crowe, a 28-year-old Auburn grad who’s from Raleigh, N.C. and won this week at Raleigh Country Club.

NOT-WINNERS

But still winners.

Ben Griffin finished solo second a week after winning the Charles Schwab, Sepp Straka finished solo third two starts after winning the Truist, and Nick Taylor finished solo fourth, his best result since winning the Sony Open in January.

Rickie Fowler played his way into this summer’s Open Championship thanks to a T7 finish at Memorial, taking full advantage of a sponsor exemption. Fellow sponsor invitee Brandt Snedeker shot a Sunday 65, the round of the day, to improve from T38 to T7 and jump 69 spots on the FedEx Cup list in the process. Whether that’s proof that sponsor exemptions work when properly deployed or are proof that sponsor exemptions are anti-meritocratic and far too powerful is a debate we’ll wage another day.

SHORT HITTERS

Five notes of note from the U.S. Women’s Open.

1. Maja Stark’s eyes popped when she was informed that the U.S. Women’s Open’s winner’s check is for $2.4 million. “I didn’t even know that,” she said. What will she do with the money?

“Maybe move out of my studio apartment. That could be one thing. I don’t know … I’m very happy with what I have in my life right now. Having the security for the future, I think I’ll just be very happy about that.”

2. Nelly Korda finished T2, two shots back, which she described as a “heartbreaker” of a result but was a victory of sorts, too; it’s her best result in a tournament that has beaten her up. Last year she was in the midst of a historically good season when a 10 on a par-3 led to a missed cut and “definitely put a dagger into my heart”, she said. This year, though?

“I just need to continue knocking on the door, and hopefully it will open.”

3. The top 10 finishers from this year’s USWO earn an automatic berth in next year’s event. Playing in the final group, Julia Lopez Ramirez needed par at 18 to remain inside that crucial number and made 8 instead. The other side of the coin? Several groups ahead, Hailee Cooper had gotten up and down from 46 yards to earn a top 10, a return trip to this tournament a “life-changing” check for $358,004. Our Sean Zak had more.

4. Kiara Romero was in last place after a third-round 84. Then the 19-year-old amateur, with nothing to lose, shot a final-round 67, the lowest final-round score for an amateur in tournament history.

5. An absolutely bizarre story involved Amari Avery, whose week started with a promising 1-under 71, turned for the worse after an attempted break-in at her rental home and got downright strange when her boyfriend accidentally grabbed the wrong travel bag, leaving with her clubs instead. Avery ended up borrowing the clubs of Gabi Ruffels for her Friday round just a couple hours after Ruffels had played them in the morning round; Avery made ’em work and shot 73 to cruise inside the cut line. Her own sticks in hand, she shot 76-76 on the weekend to finish T45 — but she’ll leave with a heck of a story.

ONE BIG QUESTION

What’s up with Ben Griffin’s glasses?

The universal experience of watching Ben Griffin on TV is that when he pops onto the screen, somebody in the room will inevitably ask, “so what’s up with his sunglasses?” On Saturday he offered an insightful (and comprehensive) answer:

“I see floaters. I have really bad vision,” Griffin said. “So about a year ago is when I started seeing floaters, went to an eye doctor, realized my retina was starting to kind of try to detach itself. I had retinal holes, so I had to go get basically laser surgery to fill in those holes. I had eight retinal holes in both eyes, so I was at risk of losing vision maybe within five or six months had I not gotten the treatment. So I still see the floaters, I had to get the surgery just to maintain my level. Because of that, when I wear sunglasses it’s a little bit darker out, so I don’t necessarily see the floaters as well. So if it’s really bright out and I’m not wearing the sunglasses, I look into the clouds or whatever and I see black stuff everywhere.”

Griffin added that he thinks there’s an additional benefit of the shades, which he identified as Uswing Mojings (the same type Phil Mickelson debuted several years ago): improved green-reading.

“They say the science behind ’em kind of helps with green-reading and I think it’s 100 percent true. I love the ability to see the contrast a little bit better, than when it’s really bright it’s kind of hard to see maybe grain changes from time to time. So seeing contours is definitely a little bit easier I think with the sunglasses.”

How does he feel about the glasses as his iconic look?

“I guess I’m getting to the point where I have more and more fans and people like it, so I’m not going to stop wearing ’em, that’s for sure.”

ONE SWING THOUGHT

From Maja Stark.

How’d a player without a ton of confidence in her game win a testing U.S. Women’s Open?

“I don’t really think I ever felt that my confidence was great. I think that I just stopped trying to control everything, and I just kind of let everything happened the way it happened,” Stark said post-victory. How’d she do that? She stuck to her processes, listened to her comedian caddie and added one interesting chill-out move:

“During the practice days, I realized that, if I just kind of hovered the club above the ground a little bit before I hit, I released some tension in my body,” she said.

RYDER CUP WATCH

The next American tier…

The Memorial had nearly endless U.S. Ryder Cup subplots, particularly on the margins. Russell Henley (sixth in the ranking) had been scuffling and MC’d at the Masters and PGA but earned a ton of points with a T5. Mav McNealy finished T5 alongside him and moved up to No. 8 after a few weeks of slippage. Griffin made the biggest move, jumping to No. 7 thanks to his runner-up finish. The group finishing T7 was particularly compelling, as it included U.S. captain Keegan Bradley (now 16th in the ranking) and human rollercoaster Jordan Spieth (still just 25th) plus Tom Hoge (quietly 14th). Harris English and Patrick Cantlay finished T12; they’re Nos. 9 and 12 in the ranking, respectively.

On the European side, Sepp Straka moved up to No. 3, where he’s a lock for the team. There wasn’t a ton else to report, with a bunch of Euros playing well without shifting the balance of the team (Aberg T16, Fleetwood T16, MacIntyre T20, Lowry T23, Hovland T25).

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Schauffele 3. DeChambeau 4. Thomas 5. Morikawa 6. Henley 7. Griffin 8. McNealy 9. English 10. Novak 11. Harman 12. Cantlay 13. Spaun 14. Hoge 15. Berger

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. McIlroy 2. Lowry 3. Straka 4. R. Hojgaard 5. Hatton 6. Fleetwood 7. Rose 8. Aberg 9. Detry 10. Wallace 11. Norgaard 12. MacIntyre 13. Hovland 14. Olesen 15. Canter

Full standings here.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Scott’s celebration.

There’s nobody doing things quite like Scottie Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, who seems to be some sort of winning savant, delivered a pre-round sermon on Sunday and finished out his day like this:

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I spent a few days at the Memorial and won’t comment on rumors that I averaged more than a milkshake per day from the clubhouse, other than to say that Oreo is a great start to any combo. Also, if you spend enough time standing on the driving range with a milkshake in hand you will get heckled by players and coaches alike as to what, exactly, your “job” is. I’m just hoping my bosses don’t start asking the same thing.

We’ll see you next week.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.