Lexi’s close call, Paddy’s In-N-Out, Airbnb checkout time | Monday Finish

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re planning on eagles for July 4th but fireworks seem more likely. To the news…

GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Overcoming adversity.

We relish in professional golf’s underdog stories. Unlikely backgrounds, unlikely comebacks, unlikely shots in pressure-packed moments.

But on Sunday Aldrich Potgieter overcame something far more relatable: the early Airbnb checkout time.

Anybody who’s ever gone anywhere on a weekend trip knows this struggle. You’ve got a late flight but time to kill, or you’re playing Sunday morning golf but have nowhere to change post-round, or you’re scrambling after a big Saturday night to somehow clean up your mess and rouse your most useless buddy before the cleaners arrive. (Looking at you, Matt.) Or, in this case, you’re leading a PGA Tour event by two shots, but it’s midsummer, so you don’t tee off until mid-afternoon.

“Waking up this morning was kind of difficult. I had to book out of my AirBnB at 10 o’clock,” Potgieter said. He dutifully followed those directions, perhaps storing up good karma in the process, but because he didn’t want to be at the course until noon, the 20-year-old South African did what plenty of us might do to while away a couple hours: he stopped at a coffee shop — and overdid it. “That got me a little shaky,” he said later with a laugh. “No, it was okay. I kind of struggled to eat a little bit, the nerves kicked in when I got here kind of sitting at player dining, but I think that’s just kind of normal and kind of have to get through that.”

Normal is right. And get through it he did. Potgieter had already experienced Sunday Tour contention; he was in the mix on Sunday at the Farmers but faded with a final-round 78 and, in his next start, lost in a playoff at the Mexico Open. Then he saw just how tough the Tour can be: he missed seven of his next eight cuts. Then came a T6 at the Charles Schwab Challenge — and then, after several weeks at home spending time with family, he triumphed in five playoff holes for his maiden PGA Tour victory.

“I thought I didn’t hit enough balls at home, I could have done a little bit more work, but it’s nice to kind of see some results coming from [his recent] club fitting and having some time off to breathe a bit.”

It was a reminder that golf isn’t a game of perfect — it’s a game of dealing with challenges as they arise. Like Sunday nerves, early wake-ups or overcaffeination. And with Potgieter’s newly acquired $1.8 million winner’s check, here’s betting he can afford a late checkout fee going forward.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Aldrich Potgieter won the Rocket Classic in a five-hole playoff over Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk. His only regret? Tossing the winning ball to a fan.

“I was just pumped up. I know my grandma’s probably going to be quite mad at me. I give her all my stuff that I’ve won with, so she’s not going to be pretty happy,” he said.

Somi Lee and Jin Hee Im won the Dow Championship — the LPGA’s only team event — on the first playoff hole over Lexi Thompson and Megan Khang. While Lee and Im have 11 combined victories on the Korean LPGA, this was the first victory for either on the LPGA.

Patrick Reed won LIV Golf’s Dallas event in a playoff with a birdie on the first extra hole, securing his first victory on the Saudi-backed circuit and stirring up suggestions that he could enter the U.S. Ryder Cup team discussion.

Adrien Saddier won the Italian Open, his first win in his 200th DP World Tour start; the win was his first pro victory at any level since 2016 and qualified him for the Open, too.

And Padraig Harrington won the U.S. Senior Open for the second time, another win on the Champions Tour circuit to add to his three major titles in 2007-08.

“It kind of validates your career,” Harrington said. “It validates the past in a lot of ways. You’re reliving the past glories, hitting shots, waving at the crowds. People are coming out because they know you from the past.”

NOT WINNERS

But agonizingly close…

Lexi Thompson nearly broke her six-year winless drought in dramatic fashion; she and partner Megan Khang shot a final-round 60 at the team-tournament Dow Championship and fell in a playoff.

“I think for someone with a limited schedule…” Khang said post-round before Thompson cut her off.

“You almost said it,” she said, referencing Thompson’s hard-to-label, not-actually-a “retirement” which has led to plenty of good play.

After falling to Potgieter on the fifth playoff hole, Max Greyserman now has four runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour but hasn’t yet broken through. His summation:

“Handled myself really well, hit a lot of good shots under pressure all day from the start. Being at the top of the leaderboard in the final group — I’ve been in the final group once or twice before, but just to get that experience is good.

“I started the day two back. Obviously wish I could have had a few shots back or a few putts, but hit a couple good putts at the end with pretty decent speed and sometimes putts don’t go in.”

Chris Kirk’s playoff bogey knocked him out first; he finished T2 alongside Greyserman.

The rest of the leaderboard was densely packed with emergent names like Michael Thorbjornsen and Jake Knapp (T2) and Jackson Suber and Nico Echavarria (T6). Tournament favorite Collin Morikawa, who announced a caddie split earlier in the week, finished T8, three shots outside the playoff.

Sergio Garcia finished high enough to stay inside LIV’s top five and will earn a spot in the Open as a result. And Jon Rahm finished T11 — remarkably, his first LIV result outside the top 10.

SHORT HITTERS

5 notable made (and missed) cuts.

We’re not handing out participation trophies here — but we are giving shoutouts to some guys who played four rounds and sending our condolences to a couple fellas falling short.

1. Aaron Wise finished T51, which might not seem like much until you realize it was his first made cut on the PGA Tour since May 2023.

2. Here was Will Gordon, needing birdie-birdie to make an emotional cut to keep his card — and delivering (more here):

3. Finishing T67 at week’s end: Gordon Sargent, the mega-talent out of Vandy who earned his PGA Tour card last year but struggled with his game enough this year that he was dropped from their starting lineup. His first made cut as a pro is worth celebrating.

4. Rickie Fowler‘s 71-71 week left him well outside the six-under cut line and has him hovering around another line: the Top-70-Make-the-Playoffs number. He was No. 69 entering the week; now he’s No. 72. There will be plenty of interesting churn come playoff time.

5. Alex Noren is among the top 50 players from last year currently outside this year’s top 100; he missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury and is now outside the top 150, while Will Zalatoris (also injured, No. 118) and Adam Hadwin (No. 120) are the others not otherwise secure in their status for 2026. (Others like Max Homa, Sahith Theegala and Nick Dunlap still have winners exemptions that will give them some status for next season.)

RYDER CUP WATCH

No movement?!

Neither top 12 saw any movement; Potgieter is from South Africa and therefore not eligible. Greyserman made the most significant move up from No. 37 to 28, and he’s an intriguing theoretical for Bethpage — big hitter, hot putter, from New Jersey — but still a few high finishes away from that conversation. Keegan Bradley shot under par all four rounds and finished T41, which says more about the tournament setup than his theoretical player-captain readiness.

Patrick Reed made the biggest statement with his LIV win; it would be interesting to see how U.S. leadership would handle his candidacy if he made noise in his next few tournaments, too.

On the European side, Thorbjorn Olesen jumped Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen into No. 15; Frenchmen Martin Couvra and Adrien Saddier moved into No. 24 and No. 26, respectively. Here’s where we now stand:

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

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

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

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

Complete standings here.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Padraig Harrington on enjoying competitive golf.

The newest U.S. Senior Open champ dished on how he’s changed:

“I would have done some things different when I was younger for sure. I don’t regret how I approached the game and the way I went about it, but certainly I now appreciate more how much effort it takes to play on a Sunday compared to every other day.

“If you want to win tournaments, you’ve got to be exceptionally fresh and mentally fresh on Sunday. You’ve got to have the least amount of stress all the way you can during the week.

“Literally, probably just because of the nature of it, I definitely make an effort to enjoy my tournaments more, enjoy what’s going on around them. It’s not all work. And having your family here is part of that.

“Like, on Wednesday night? I went for an In-n-Out burger. I didn’t eat a french fry or a burger for 10, 15 years of my career. It was all about everything was get the right diet, all that sort of thing. But the start of this tournament, I actually had two double-doubles.

“You might think that’s not the best in terms of everything should be perfect, but at this stage of my career, I’ve got to enjoy my life out here. Opportunities like that to — when you come from Ireland, you don’t get the opportunity to go for an In-n-Out burger too often, so that was a nice bonus.

“I’m a more relaxed person. Still not relaxed, but more relaxed than I was as a younger player.”

ONE BIG QUESTION

Who’s gonna make a move at the John Deere?

This is the strongest field at the Deere in years, featuring big-name players (Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Sungjae Im), red-hot players (Aldrich Potgieter, Ben Griffin) and even top college players (Michael La Sasso, 2025 Division I national champion, and Jackson Koivun, the game’s top-ranked male amateur). Somebody’s going to move into playoff position. Somebody’s going to qualify for the Open last-minute. Somebody’s going to raise a little Ryder Cup noise — at least for a day or two. Who will those somebodies be?

ONE THING TO WATCH

Carlos Alcaraz, working on his move:

It’s Wimbledon Szn. And also PGA Tour-players-show-up-at-Wimbledon Szn. See you there.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I’m off to the East Coast this week to see some family and dive headfirst into the humidity. Let’s see how the 1-year-old likes New Hampshire’s finest black flies and thunderstorms…can’t wait!

We’ll see you next week.

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