Spieth’s scary crossroads, Scottie’s ‘silly’ comments, 3 stars return | Monday Finish

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where first Hideki got robbed — then stole a tournament [crowd groans]. Folks, let’s get to the golf news!

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Three fellas back on their games.

It was good to see Will Zalatoris back. He’s been back, of course. Sickos among you will remember his return at the Hero World Challenge with the long putter and it wasn’t long before he appeared ready to tangle with the big-timers with a T13-T2-T4 swing from Torrey Pines to Riviera to Bay Hill. Expectations readjusted so quickly that he entered the Players Championship with the sixth-best odds in the field. A few weeks after that he contended at the Masters, finishing T9 despite a second-round 77. He was back.

But it wasn’t that simple. Backs tend not to be. Zalatoris went underground indie band on the world, failing to crack the top 40 [crowd groans again] for his next 11 events, sprinkling in five missed cuts and a WD that set off serious alarm bells.

“Yeah, it’s been a pretty long year, to put it mildly,” he said at TPC Southwind, looking back. “Some ups and downs with kind of the recovery with the back.”

This week was a definite “up.” Considering Zalatoris won this tournament the last time he played it, finishing T12 might not sound like a big deal. But he entered the week on the bubble and moved up to No. 37, cementing his spot in next year’s Signature Events and ensuring we’ll be seeing much more of him on golf’s biggest stages next year. That’s good.

It was good to see Wyndham Clark back. He’d already been sort of back, I guess, but Clark’s trajectory has been tough to track.

When he set the course record en route to victory at Pebble Beach this February and then, just a few weeks later, finished runner-up to Scottie Scheffler in back-to-back weeks, Clark entered major season as one of the contenders for the title of Best Player Not Named Scottie.

But then he crashed out of major season, missing the cut at the Masters and the PGA Championship and fighting to a T56 finish at the U.S. Open. Back-to-back top-10s at PGA Tour events promised signs of life but a missed cut at the Open was another setback. And when Clark opened with 75 at the Olympics the American boo-birds showed up (mostly on the internet, but still) questioning his form. But that’s when something flipped; he finished 68-65-65 to climb into a share of 14th. And there he was climbing the leaderboard again at Memphis this weekend, firing a bogey-free six-under 64 on Sunday to finish T7. He was already No. 5 in the world. Now he’s playing a bit more like it.

And it was really good to see Viktor Hovland playing the type of golf we saw him play around this time last season. Early in the week Hovland was philosophical in an interesting but fairly dark sort of way. “It’s just not that fun to play golf when you don’t know where the ball is going,” he said. “I do pride myself in trying to make the best out of it, but it gets to a point where you kind of lose that belief.”

But by the time Hovland reached the 72nd hole he was staring down a short birdie putt to take the clubhouse lead; for the moment he was the likeliest player to win. It didn’t work out that way. He missed his birdie try while Hideki Matsuyama made one of his own (and then another), but still: Hovland’s T2 was his best result since last year’s playoffs and earned him a spot in next year’s Signature Events. Maybe Hovland, like the rest of us, works best on a deadline. This week he had no options left but to shoot a really low score. So he did.

“The ball is starting to behave like I’m expecting it to,” he said. That’s good. It’s good that he’s good. The Tour’s blue-chippers finding their games — that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Hideki Matsuyama won the FedEx St. Jude Championship, ending a turbulent week in triumph. After he’d won bronze at the Olympics, Matsuyama, his caddie and his coach were at dinner in downtown London when they were robbed of some personal effects; Matsuyama lost just his wallet but his compatriots lost their passports, so he played this week with a fill-in caddie and a FaceTime coach. No matter. He built a five-shot lead entering Sunday’s final nine, made it disappear with two bogeys and a double and then pulled a win from his hat anyway with birdies at 17 and 18 to close. That’s two wins on his year and 10 for his career — though just one with an emergency caddie.

Lauren Coughlin won the Freed Group Women’s Scottish Open by four shots; the win was the second of her career and came in just her second start after her first career win. The American is now up to a career-best No. 14 in the world and cemented her Solheim Cup standing; the afterburners she showed on Sunday’s back nine at Dundonald Links will be useful when the team competition comes to her home state of Virginia next month.

Brooks Koepka outdueled Jon Rahm at LIV’s event at the Greenbrier in West Virginia; Koepka shot seven-under 63 on Sunday, Rahm birdied two of his last three holes to tie him and then Koepka won when Rahm bogeyed the first playoff hole. Koepka now has five wins in LIV’s history, the most of any player. He called this his favorite LIV win yet. Does this change his “disappointing” year? “No, not at all,” he said. “The four majors were pretty disappointing. I think I’ve only had two chances to win and I won them, but that’s not enough.”

Max McGreevy won the Magnit Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour at Metedeconk in New Jersey, ensuring his return to the PGA Tour for the 2025 season.

David Ravetto won the D+D Real Czech Masters on the DP World Tour, jumping inside the top 200 in the world for the first time in his career.

NOT-WINNERS

Spieth’s uncertain future.

Jordan Spieth was visibly frustrated as he spoke to reporters following his second-to-last place finish in Memphis. But there was another emotion mixed in there, too: relief. “Yeah I’m going to get operated on ASAP,” he said Sunday, referring to a nagging injury in his lead wrist that he’s battled for more than a year. “We’ll go through the process from there.”

Spieth has done his best not to make excuses for his on-course play, but the evidence is tough to ignore: Even though this was arguably the best driving year of his career, his iron play was far below his standards.

“Anything that impacted the ground was not a good situation for me this year,” he said. “It’s incredibly frustrating,” he added. “Probably the most frustrating year I ever had.”

His comments were nearly lost in Sunday’s shuffle; they came before the leaders had even teed off, and so Spieth’s season ends fairly quietly. But his absence will be significant. It’ll be strange not having him at the BMW or the Tour Championship. It’ll be stranger still not having him at the Presidents Cup this fall; he’s missed just one U.S. team since 2013.

So we won’t see Spieth for a while; he suggested he might be back for the Hero World Challenge in December but even that might be too soon, and when the 2025 season kicks off at Kapalua in 2025 he won’t be exempt. After a glorious first decade, this feels like a crossroads for Spieth’s career. We just don’t know where this next path will lead.

SHORT HITTERS

Who’s in (and out) of the FedEx Cup, in brief.

The 18th hole at TPC Southwind produced a whole bunch of agony on Sunday; next year’s biggest events will look different as a result.

When Eric Cole was eight under par for the day and inside the top-50 cutoff heading to 18 on Sunday one announcer made the guarantee that Cole wouldn’t end up anywhere close to the left water off the tee — so naturally that’s where he hit his drive. But one miraculous bogey save later, Cole was safely through at No. 46.

Playing in the same pairing, Cam Davis — five under for his day, safely inside the number — bailed out right with his tee shot but skittered his second left of the green and into the water. Then he hit a poor chip and missed the putt for a brutal double bogey. But not brutal enough, it turned out, to cost him a top-50 slot. He’s through at No. 49.

Keegan Bradley didn’t have his best week, finishing T59, but did just enough in a Sunday 68 to finish 50th in the standings, a measly 17 points ahead of No 51. That’s a welcome relief for Bradley and for the entire U.S. Ryder Cup system; it’ll be nice to have the captain qualified for the Signature Events to avoid the awkwardness of repeated sponsor invites.

One man barely making it in means another is barely out; Tom Kim was unlucky No. 51 after a disastrous late-round crash-out on Sunday. His 6-6-6 finish included a missed five-footer, poor short-game shots on multiple holes and a rinsed tee shot at No. 18. As the 18th-ranked player in the world, Kim may have no issue staying inside the top-30 cutoff for Signature Events in 2025. It was jarring to see his nightmare finish nonetheless.

Maverick McNealy, who has had his brother Scout on the bag these last two weeks, finished eagle-birdie-par but that was likely one shot short of a top-50 slot. “Like eight points is the difference between playing seven tournaments and playing four tournaments this fall,” he said. “There’s weddings I want to go to. There’s life stuff. There’s taking a bit of a break and a rest. Getting to spend a little bit of time at home. Those are all things that are on the line.” He said how proud he was of his effort. He’ll be back to the grind.

There are others, too, whose seasons finished agonizingly close. Mackenzie Hughes finished No. 51 last year and No. 52 this year; he eventually moved up to No. 50 after Jon Rahm departed for LIV — he’ll be a curious observer again if golf’s free agency heats up. Patrick Rodgers (No. 54), Justin Rose (No. 55) and Seamus Power (No. 56) were the next three out. Min Woo Lee (No. 60) is a rising Tour star who missed out, too. Spieth finished at No. 66 and will hit rehab dreaming of a brighter 2025. And Mark Hubbard (No. 68) ran out of steam after making his first 19 cuts of the season.

ONE DUMB GRAPHIC

Are we entering the Bobby Mac Era?

ONE SWING THOUGHT

The secret to playing sweaty.

Denny McCarthy contended despite a heat index in the triple digits — and a tendency to get very, very sweaty.

“I sweat a lot, and I lose a lot of salt when I sweat, so I’m drinking a lot of sodium, a lot of salt before I even sweat,” he said. “I got professionally sweat-tested in the fall last year just to find out more about my body, more about this sweating problem that I have. It’s helped out on some of the hotter weeks this year for sure.

McCarthy added that he “wasn’t even close” to being properly hydrated.

“I was drinking things thinking that that was enough last year, and it wasn’t nearly enough. I needed way more salt, and way more salt earlier in the day, and at nighttime, too. I was doing things thinking it was the right thing, and it wasn’t. So just a little change there, and that seemed to help … I made sure I was on top of it coming into this week.”

ONE BIG QUESTION

Will anything change with the FedEx Cup Playoffs?

Scottie Scheffler reignited the FedEx Cup Playoff format debate with some unusually pointed comments pre-tournament.

“I talked about it the last few years, I think it’s silly,” said Scheffler, who sits at No. 1 on the points list, on Wednesday ahead of the first event. “You can’t call it a season-long race and have it come down to one tournament.

“Hypothetically, we get to East Lake and my neck flares up and it doesn’t heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament? Is that really the season-long race? No, it is what it is.”

Rory McIlroy joked that he loves the format for the same reason Scheffler doesn’t. “Because if it wasn’t this format, then none of us would have a chance against Scottie because he’s so far ahead,” McIlroy said. “So I really like this format.”

Eventual winner Hideki Matsuyama echoed those sentiments.

“I like the system, especially where I’m at,” he said through a translator. “It’s a little bit — I don’t know if unfair is the right word, but Scottie deserves to be much further ahead than just two strokes there at the Tour Championship. With that in mind, it’s tough for him, I think. But for me, I’m enjoying it.”

The question, then: Will anything change?

ONE THING TO WATCH

A grateful caddie.

Whatever Taiga Tabuchi did as Hideki Matsuyama‘s caddie, it worked. It was cool to see his gratitude as their rollercoaster week came to a close — and with Shota Hayafuji expected to return at the BMW, the pair will be one-and-done (and won) for now.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I grew up in New England, which means thunderstorms are just part of summer. But we never get ’em here. So I watched Friday night’s storm roll across the Puget Sound with nostalgic anticipation — and then wham. This storm really brought it. Lightning peppered the water and then worked its way ashore, arriving dramatically in our neighborhood. One bolt struck just a couple streets away, shaking our house. It was an [sighs] electric night. A good night to be inside.

I hope you — my smart, clever, discerning, good-looking readers — settled in for a moment of zen this weekend, too. And I hope you’ll be back next week.

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