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On Monday morning, the R&A announced a big change for its flagship tournament, the Open Championship, for 2028. Instead of its normal mid-July dates, the 2028 Open will be postponed until early August.

The reason? A conflict with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Here’s what you need to know.

Olympic golf pushed 2028 Open Championship to August

The 2028 Summer Olympics are heading to sunny Los Angeles, Calif., the first Olympics to be held in the United States since the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. The last Summer Olympics in the U.S. was the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

One event that was not included in 1996 that will be part of the 2028 Olympics is golf.

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Golf initially returned at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The 2028 golf events will be played at iconic Riviera Country Club, home of the PGA Tour’s Tiger Woods-hosted Genesis Invitational. It will feature separate men’s and women’s tournaments, in addition to a new mixed-team event.

But the dates for the 2028 Olympic golf competitions present a problem for one of golf’s most important tournaments: the Open Championship.

The Olympic golf events are scheduled for July 19-29, 2028. Traditionally, the Open Championship is held in mid-July. So something had to be done to solve this scheduling issue to allow golf’s best male players to compete.

The answer came Monday morning, when the R&A announced they would push back the playing of the 2028 Open to make room for the Olympics. The new dates for the 2028 Open will be August 3-6.

But the men’s Open isn’t the only tournament moving dates. Both the 2028 ISPS HANDA Senior Open and the 2028 AIG Women’s Open will also be held in August. The Senior Open will be held the week after the Open (August 10-13), and the Women’s Open will be played the week after that (August 17-20).

R&A CEO Mark Darbon explained the decision in a press release, adding that the Open would return to its usual July date in 2029.

“We have worked collaboratively with the relevant bodies and our partners to agree alternative dates for staging our major championships in 2028 to accommodate the Olympic golf competitions,” Darbon wrote. “We appreciate the constructive discussions we have had with all of the stakeholders and believe that providing clarity on the dates now will assist with the planning of the global golf calendar in 2028. We can also confirm that The Open will be returning to its normal mid-July dates in 2029.”

While we now know the date of the 2028 Open Championship, we don’t know where it will be played. The R&A has yet to announce the Open host courses past 2027, when it will head back to the Old Course at St. Andrews.

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There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and championship golf courses getting longer. Yes, that’s even true for the Old Course in St. Andrews — especially ahead of the 2027 Open Championship. 

The most revered links in the world is set to undergo numerous changes that will lengthen it by 132 yards before the best golfers in the world compete there in 20 months. It will be the most significant lengthening of the championship tees since the early 2000s. Here’s everything you should know about the changes.  

Four new tee boxes

The 5th, 6th, 7th and 10th holes will have new teeing grounds for the 2027 Open. That’s a par-5 and three par-4s that all run in the mostly the same northerly direction on the eastern end of Fife. 

The par-5 5th will see the biggest increase, adding 35 yards, which at least makes some sense for championship purposes. The 5th played to an average of 4.598 during the 2022 Open, the third-easiest hole, according to par. 

The 6th and 7th will grow by 17 and 22 yards, respectively, but neither was an easy birdie hole at the 150th Open. The 7th, however — at 371 yards — was subject to players launching tee balls high in the air downwind, carrying over the massive, Shell bunker (324-yard cover) and finding a putt for eagle. 

“It was very firm and very fast  [in 2022] and that created a challenge,” said R&A Chief Governance Officer Grant Moir, ”but certainly there had been an increase in the number of par-4s that were reachable and both par-5s were reachable (in two) most days.”

With 29 yards added to the 10th and 21 to the 11th, the total yardage for the par-72 setup will now stretch to 7,445, extending an obvious trend you can see in the chart below. 

Where will the tee boxes go? 

Great question! It’s unclear. The design firm in charge of the adjustments is Mackenzie and Ebert — though the St. Andrews maintenance staff will play a major role — which has been helping the R&A make Open Championship adjustments for years, inclusive of adding new holes to ancient properties. Recall their renovation to the finishing stretch at Royal Liverpool for the 2023 Open, creating a new, bite-size par-3 17th that had everyone talking that week. (And not necessarily glowingly.) Or look ahead to next year’s site, Royal Birkdale, which will employ a new par-3 15th. 

As for St. Andrews, there is still room to contort land behind where current tee boxes are located, but not much! The renovations will no doubt require removal of various gorse bushes and will creep beyond various walking paths that snake through the property. But given the out-and-back nature of the course, every step backward from the tee starts to encroach upon either the previous hole or a hole on the New Course next door. Check out the photo below to understand what currently sits beyond the 6th and 7th tee boxes.

Bunker movement 

Two of the lengthened holes — 6 and 10 — will also find new bunkers added nearer the green, or, rather, closer to “elite level drive length,” as the R&A put it. Now, the bunkers up the right side of the 6th are a measly 260-yard cover. Of course, the alleyway to the green narrows some, but bunkers nearer the green will do more damage to a player’s scorecard than playing from any length of rough. With 17 extra yards from the new tee, players will be tempted to hit driver, but very worried if it starts moving offline. 

The bunker addition that has the R&A particularly jazzed is along the left side of 16, where in previous years the rough was cut close to the famous Principal’s Nose bunkers. In 2027, players will find two additional bunkers up the left side, with some of the rough cut down to fairway level to allow aggressive plays to either skirt the sand or fall victim to it.

“We felt that in recent times players have targeted hitting the ball into the rough there, to avoid the strategic challenge that the hole traditionally provided,” Moir said. “So it might sound counterintuitive to some, but widening the fairway with the placement of two new bunkers in there actually enhances the strategic challenge and the challenge across the board on that hole.”

There’s truth in there. During a practice round of the 2022 Open, I watched Scottie Scheffler drop balls in the rough left of the 16th fairway and play his way onto the green with a wedge. It felt funny to see a player hit multiple shots from various spots in the rough on purpose, especially when one of his drives finished in the fairway. Scheffler told me he was purposefully aiming in the left rough, fully content to play from there, too, if his drive didn’t cut back to the short grass. Below is a screenshot from the final round of the 2022 Open, showing just how often players attacked the left flank of the hole, and were still often rewarded for doing so.

Pace of play; bits and bobs

A major reason for all this? Pace of play during the Championship. During the 2022 Open, which saw record crowds and incredible weather, opening rounds extended beyond six hours. Without much for wind, it became apparent that players were reaching a numerous par-4s in one, and both par-5s in two. Normally, if there’s wind, only one of the par-5s is reachable in two, which helps pros play their second shots without waiting for the green to clear ahead of them.

Below are a few other adjustments on the docket.

What does it all mean?

The Old Course will never be the same. In much the way it has never been the same. It is a living, breathing organism that adapts over time. Gorse grows in well some years and not so well in others. Bunkers were added to the course ahead of the 2022 Open, but no one really seemed to notice. There wasn’t much for weather during that dry summer, but there was so much wind and rain in 2015 that basically the entire Saturday of golf was canceled. 

It does mean that the Old Course continues to be pushed and manipulated for championship purposes, the likes of which will mostly matter during Championship week alone, or during major comps like the Dunhill Links or high-level amateur comps. The Old Course that you play will mostly be unchanged, with the Black tees stretching to 6,721 yards. The people in charge at the Links Trust are not making these changes without years of discussions.

“We are being very sensitive to the history of the course with these changes,” Moir said, “but we do feel that it’s appropriate to make these changes at this time to adapt to the way the modern game is played.”

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Naoyuki Kataoka entered the week at No. 500 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He hadn’t won a tournament since the Japan Players Championship in 2021. He had just two top-10 finishes this season on the Japan Golf Tour.

On Sunday night, Kataoka stood alone at Nikko Country Club with a ticket to the 2026 Masters and 2026 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in his hand after winning the 2025 Japan Open.

A recent decision by Augusta National Golf Club and the R&A changed the qualification criteria to award winners of certain national opens entrance into their fields. That meant the 2025 Japan Open came with added incentive for those in the field.

Kataoka shot a final-round 68 and then made a par on the first playoff hole to beat Satoshi Hara and clinch the first two major starts of his career. Scores were high at Nikko Country Club. Kataoka shot 70-70-69-68 to finish the 72 holes at three under par.

“It’s really a dream come true for me,” the 27-year-old Kataoka said after the win, via The Japan Times. “I’m really happy to be able to play in the Masters and The Open.

“I’ll work as hard as I can, prepare by April, and do my best to be able to compete. I felt a really strong sense of accomplishment as I finally won again after enduring so many near misses during those barren four years [since the 2021 Japan Players Championship].”

With the win, Kataoka jumps to No. 355 in the OWGR, which puts him right behind Dylan Wu and in front of NIcholas Colsearts. Kataoka is the second player to earn a trip to the Masters and Open Championship since the qualification criteria changed. Marco Penge won the 2025 Spanish Open, which was his third win of the year on the DP World Tour.

The decision by Augusta National Golf Club and the R&A show the governing bodies, at least these two, are shifting their priorities to embrace international golf and its history while adjusting to the more tiered structure of the PGA Tour. Our Dylan Dethier dove into that here.

“The Masters Tournament has long recognized the significance of having international representation among its invitees,” Augusta National Golf Club and Masters chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement. “We, along with The R&A, have a shared commitment to the global game and are proud to work together.

“Today’s announcement strengthens our organizations’ collective vision of rewarding top talent around the world who rise to the top of historic national open championships.”

“We share the same goal as Augusta National to offer places in both The Open and the Masters to players competing in national opens and by doing so to help to showcase and strengthen our sport in those regions,” added R&A CEO Mark Darbon.

The tournaments that now have tickets to the Masters and Open Championships include the Japan Open, the Spanish Open, the Australian Open, the Hong Kong Open and the South African Open.

Kataoka secured that ticket with a playoff par on Sunday. And now, the 500th-ranked player in the world is headed to Magnolia Lane.

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MANCHESTER — In the last three weeks, I’ve jumped from country to country following this silly game — from the Scottish Open (PGA Tour) to the Open Championship (major) to LIV Golf UK. Along the way, we’ve seen breakout stars, fading stars, zero shooting stars, and just enough things that make you wonder — where is this sport headed?

For that, we’ve got seven thoughts on the state of things, interesting observations from the road … and how golf and European football have run parallel paths. Dive in…

1. Gotterup’s Traveling Heater 

It was exactly 17 days ago that Chris Gotterup shot 61 in the second round of the Scottish Open. It was a quiet, morning round at Renaissance Club that few people, and few cameras, were even following. But it pushed him to the top of the leaderboard, and from there he’s done so much. He toppled Rory McIlroy over the weekend at the Scottish, and then did about as well as you could against Scottie Scheffler the following weekend. Then he raced over to Minneapolis and was in contention again, finishing T10.

When we chatted after that Friday morning 61, Gotterup still had a flight itinerary booked from Edinburgh to Reno for the Barracuda. He told us he was planning to play out the full season, meaning Reno —> Minneapolis for the 3M Open —> Greensboro for the Wyndham Championship. My, how things change. He’s shot up to no. 20 in the FedEx Cup and in the American Ryder Cup standings. The former is going to make him a lot of money, considering he’s in great position for East Lake. The latter, well … a few thoughts:

In many ways, this run by Gotterup is exactly what Keegan Bradley wants for his Ryder Cup squad. And in other ways, it’s exactly what he doesn’t want. A last-ditch move from a player who wasn’t on your radar only complicates the roster building, and makes life difficult on the Patrick Cantlays, Wyndham Clarks and Jordan Spieths of the world. It feels like Memphis and Delaware are a two-week trial period for all of the American “bubble” players, and I hope Gotterup keeps it up because three things feel very true. 1. His game clearly travels, from East Lothian to Nor’n Ireland to the wet, hot mid-America summer. 2. It hasn’t just been the last 17 days — he’s been great since mid-April. 3. He stared McIlroy down and beat him. That has to bode well for Bethpage. 

2. Koepka’s Grind

Three days after his major season ended with another goose egg, I found Brooks Koepka grinding on the LIV range on … ball position. Ricky Elliot was working around for different looks from every angle, trying to will some simplicity into Koepka’s setup. Before long, Pete Cowen was observing Koepka, and not long after that Graeme McDowell, too. 

“It just feels awkward as shit,” Koepka said to Cowen, stepping back after one driver swing. G-Mac then stepped in to over-emphasize how Koepka needed to keep his stance as it was — not open to target, which is what he seemed to be experimenting with — and lean on his front leg more. 

This is the kinda of nitty-gritty golf stuff that tells a story on its own. A story about Koepka, the 5-time major champ who was unhappy with his game this summer. About Elliot, the caddie who was speaking very frankly with his pro — something Koepka says he needs from his team. And McDowell, the teammate who probably wouldn’t give a damn were Koepka not essentially his employer. 

It may not be much but it felt like a window into the team element of LIV. Team stuff matters as much as anything to that enterprise because it needs to. They’re reportedly upping the team purse for 2026 events, but it’s not all money. Sergio Garcia absolutely believes he’s doing something for the future of Spanish golf by signing young Spanish players to his team. Bubba Watson says he’ll be a non-playing captain in the future, maintaining belief that the Range Goats will live for years down the road. (Who knows if that’ll be true, but Watson has to believe it. He may have no choice!) The Majesticks have built out larger and larger activations at every U.K.-based LIV event over the years, and it seemed to be a hit with their home crowd. Again, they have to do this. It’s their model! And it’s ultimately undercut by their bleak TV viewership. But it still feels worth noting when you see it.

3. How much bigger should The Open get? 

It’s possible the sheer size of this Open was perfect. Particularly for the R&A, who claimed it “set a new benchmark” for overall viewership, in person and through broadcast and digital channels. But there’s a worthy question to be had about how big the Open has become.

This year’s Open was massive, and we may have looked past its size because of the spectators’ obsession with the reigning Masters champion. You could scale dunes at Portrush for a better view, but you cannot do that at St. Andrews. Or Royal Liverpool. That complicates anyone’s ability to actually see the golf. The 2025 iteration was aided by the meandering, criss-crossing course routing, which allows fans to move about from hole to hole, from front nine to back nine, quite easily. But on out-and-back courses — two of them named above, in addition to Troon — the immense crowds tend to gather toward the start/finish area and not leak out into the extents of the course.

All of that is relevant … before even discussing the commutes — quietly, spectators were left disappointed by two-hour delays from a park-n-ride on Tuesday at Portrush — or how many beds there are in these tiny, lovely beach towns. I don’t anticipate this to be much of an issue during next year’s Open at Royal Birkdale, in which both nines return to the clubhouse, with plenty of hosting towns nearby, but it will be the first Open with a play-in qualifying tournament on the Monday of Open week. Attendance for that day will surely be up. The R&A wants attendance to keep going up. But where is the ceiling?

4. Where will LIV history…live? 

During my time in Manchester — post Open and pre-LIV — I made a stop at the National Football Museum, tucked into the town’s Northern Quarter. It’s a multi-level building that mostly caters to dynamic visuals (and interactive areas for children), but I appreciated how the curators didn’t balk at the inclusion of some of English football’s more angsty topics. 

Included were sections about racism and sexism — some of the obstacles that have hindered not just football but society for centuries — but also more soccer-focused, recent issues like Super Leagues, foreign investment and priced out fans. It got me wondering about the main angsty issues in golf these days, and if we’ll see that chronicled in, say, the USGA Museum or the R&A Museum someday. It’s probably too soon to archive LIV Golf in an official capacity as it keeps chugging along, but I certainly have a few artifacts/videos to contribute from my time visiting its tournaments. 

5. 13 rules seems perfect

While we’re on the topic of European football, I found it cute (and nothing more) that the original list of rules for football was just as long as the original rules of golf. Thirteen decrees deep!

Within it was another reminder of just how well the original rules of golf have held up — and for longer — because the footie rules have certainly changed a lot since 1863. The original pitch? Two hundred yards by 100, basically twice the size of the current field of play. How about catching the ball? That was apparently a thing.

In golf’s original rules, though, made in 1744 by the Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, plenty has sustained. You still aren’t allowed to change ball once you’ve started a hole, you still must play it as it lies, and you still must start each hole from an area that fits the original definition of a “teeing ground.” This stuff largely hasn’t changed in 281 years. The folks at Muirfield got a lot right. Something tells me they could have seen golf’s distance problems on the horizon, too.

6. Not the only one on summer vacay

During July, I noticed a lot of people — outside the ropes and inside — clamoring for the PGA Championship to return to August, willfully ignorant to the fact of what it left August to begin with: the NFL schedule. Our sport cannot, and should not, try to compete with football, which many executives agreed with when the PGA was moved to May in 2019. The month of August is best left to the PGA Tour — the most important purveyor of the pro game — and its chief sponsor, FedEx, and that’s that. The toothpaste is already out of the tube!

My thoughts: embrace this fascinating moment in the pro golf schedule, where the game’s stars are going on holiday… so long as they’re in good standing. Viktor Hovland went mountaineering in Norway. Ludvig Aberg enjoyed some time at home, too, and even ran a 6k race with his girlfriend. Justin Thomas went on a golf buddies trip. Rory McIlroy took a non-golf trip to Saint-Tropez before taking in Padraig Harrington’s Open win at Sunningdale. These are examples of summer break that is badly needed for anyone on Tour. The players who haven’t earned it, unfortunately, have a bit of summer school to tend to. Many of them flew from Belfast to Minneapolis for the FedEx Cup points on offer at the 3M Open. Adam Scott, Sam Burns, Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowler might not have been happy about the commute, but their professional standing is better for it.

There’s something very valuable in starpower for the PGA Tour — see: Jordan Spieth playing the Wyndham Championship this week — so don’t expect the Tour to loosen the grip on August. In fact, they should embrace it. And urge the PGA of America to consider a format change first. (Wink.)

7. Yasir’s Game 

I stepped out to walk a few holes with Bryson DeChambeau during his LIV pro-am, in part because I always enjoy watching Bryson be Bryson, but also because he was playing with Yasir Al-Rumayyan — aka the straw who stirs the drink in any future billion-dollar PGA Tour investment. No, I didn’t get any clarity on if that investment will ever actually take place, but I did get a good look at Yasir’s game … again. 

It feels irrelevant, but in some ways it’s not. By almost every account, Al-Rumayyan’s interest in investing in pro golf comes from a burning love for golf. He’s obsessed, was (at least at one time) very much interested in using this investment to gain access to Augusta National, and he regularly still shows up to LIV pro-ams for face time with players. I’ve been there for a few of these pro-am starts over the years, and I think his swing has improved. Is that worth anything to the future of golf? Probably not. Just a dumb little observation. Just like this one: I did see H.E. hit a cold shank over my head on the 9th hole at JCB. Unfortunately, the forecaddie was too quick and tracked down the ball before I could. I did, however, watch him play a deft chip over a sponsorship sign for Riyadh Air, which felt like … the whole point.  

The author welcomes your comments at sean.zak@golf.com.

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The post Brandel Chamblee drops details on heated Bryson DeChambeau slow play dispute appeared first on Golf.

The post Brandel Chamblee drops details on heated Bryson DeChambeau slow play dispute appeared first on Golf.

Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee never shies away from criticizing LIV Golf. LIV’s biggest stars like Bryson DeChambeau rarely get a pass either. But Chamblee had nothing but good things to say about DeChambeau on his latest podcast episode.

In addition to calling Bryson one of the “top 5 players in the world,” he also revealed that DeChambeau got into a heated slow-play dispute with an R&A rules official at the 2025 Open Championship.

And he argued that the dispute shows why the two-time U.S. Open champion will be a huge boon to the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team.

DeChambeau complains about slow play at Open

The fact that DeChambeau had an issue with slow play during the Open at Royal Portrush is not news. After the third round, Bryson revealed that his pairing had been put on the clock for pace of play.

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“[The R&A] official said we just kept losing time,” DeChambeau explained on Saturday at the Open. “Unfortunately, on the 16/17 exchange, you’ve got a downhill, drivable hole you can play pretty quick if you get it in the right spot. They did that and we just lost more time to the group in front of us. They put us on the clock, which was unfortunate.”

He also suggested an easy solution to slow play in pro events: put everyone on the clock all the time.

“It’s very simple,” DeChambeau said. “It’s not difficult at all. You individually time everybody for their whole entire round. It’s very simple. Nobody wants to do it. Because people are too scared to get exposed. Which, I’m an advocate for. I’d love to be timed, and I have no problem with that.”

Chamblee reveals new details on Bryson’s slow-play flap

On this week’s episode of their podcast “The Favorite Chamblee,” Brandel Chamblee and his wife, Bailey Chamblee, got to talking about DeChambeau and the Open.

That’s when Brandel revealed more color to DeChambeau’s slow-play dispute at the Open than previously known.

While explaining how Bryson can be “cantankerous” on the course, Chamblee said that when DeChambeau was put on the clock at the Open, he got “right in the face” of the rules official who made the decision.

“[Dechambeau] was told to speed it up on 17 out there [at the Open Championship] by the R&A in the third round, I think, and he took strong exception to it. Got right in the face of the R&A guy,” Chamblee said on the podcast. “So he can be quite cantankerous. He’s got a little Eddie Haskell in him. He turns it on when the camera comes on and wants to look like he’s doing the right thing, pretend like he is doing the right thing, but out there it’s very much a me, me, me environment.”

Why ‘cantankerous’ DeChambeau would be good for Ryder Cup

It’s essential to note that Chamblee’s comments were not meant as a slight to DeChambeau. Instead, Chamblee was using the example of the dispute as a reason Bryson would influence the 2025 Ryder Cup “in a positive way.”

Chamblee said that DeChambeau is a lock for the U.S. team, adding, “You can’t deny he is one of the most exciting players in the game of golf and one of the best players in the game of golf, and he will add to the frenzied atmosphere at the Ryder Cup.”

He then expounded on the reasons Bryson will be great for this September’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.

“He’s one hell of a player and hits it nine miles and does all these amazing things, so he’ll put on a great performance at the Ryder Cup and the fans will love it,” Chamblee said. “So I think the Ryder Cup is going to be heightened by his being there.”

You can listen to the full episode of “The Favorite Chamblee” podcast here.

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The post Why Scottie Scheffler’s controversial comments ‘spoke to’ NFL MVP Josh Allen appeared first on Golf.

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler caused a stir with some existential comments in his press conference ahead of the 2025 Open Championship. But another top athlete, NFL MVP quarterback Josh Allen, only has gratitude for the words Scheffler spoke that day.

The Buffalo Bills star explained his appreciation for Scheffler’s Open comments in a recent interview with CBS Sports.

Scheffler asks ‘What is the point?’ before Open win

First, let’s look back at Scheffler’s comments at Royal Portrush last week.

By Sunday night, everyone was talking about Scheffler’s dominant Open victory while throwing around comparisons to Tiger Woods. But ahead of his second major win of the year, Scheffler was the talk of the town for another reason: his thoughtful but controversial press conference comments.

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Scheffler’s complicated thoughts were encapsulated in a four-word pull quote: “What is the point?” But his lengthy comments revolved around his realization that his many golf accomplishments do not provide him with deep fulfillment. For that, he looks elsewhere, to his faith, friends and family.

“This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart. There’s a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and you get there, you get to No. 1 in the world, and they’re like what’s the point? What is the point?” Scheffler asked before the Open. “Why do I want to win this tournament so bad? That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis.”

As if predicting the many ways in which his thoughts would be interpreted over the ensuing days, Scheffler tried to clarify his point.

“I don’t know if I’m making any sense or not,” he said. “I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”

The media firestorm that followed was only somewhat quieted when Scheffler hoisted the Claret Jug in the air on Portrush’s 18th green.

Josh Allen says Scheffler’s comments ‘spoke’ to him

Which brings us to Allen. Beyond being one of the best football players alive, Allen is an avid golfer who often takes part in celebrity events and pro-ams.

Like most golfers, he tuned into Scheffler’s play at the Open Championship. But Allen was also attuned to Scheffler’s controversial comments before the tournament, as he revealed in his recent CBS Sports interview.

While he took home the NFL MVP award last season and has consistently been one of the best players in the league, Allen has not yet won an AFC Championship, let alone delivered Bills fans their long-awaited first Super Bowl title.

But as he explained in his interview, he’s had to put things into perspective not to let his teams’ playoff failures weigh on him.

“I’ve come to grip with this, sometimes the ball is going to bounce the other way. And you’ve got to be OK with that,” Allen explained in the CBS Sports interview. “That’s where it’s like ‘Hey I gave it my best effort, I put out everything I could do.’ Sometimes when that ball is in the air the wind can change and take it the other way.”

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Then, when asked if he found that reality “maddening,” Allen invoked Scheffler’s wise words at the Open and expressed his appreciation for them.

“Yea it’s maddening, but at the same time I think it helps put things in perspective in terms of what really matters in your life, and you figure out what that is fairly quickly. Scottie Scheffler had that really good interview before the Open [Championship],” Allen revealed. “It spoke a lot to me, and I really appreciate him sharing those words. It’s kind of crazy. Where you’re just kind of coming out here and you’re doing everything you can for a quick enjoyment of it and then you’re onto the next. It’s like the MVP award, I don’t look back and think about that night. It happened, it’s over with and I’ll never think about it again to be honest. I’m so moved on to trying to help this team win football games this year.”

You can watch Allen’s interview clip, including his comments about Scheffler, below.

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Finally, we are back to golf.

After a long and tiresome period where the two most prominent golf people were a Saudi investor (Yasir Al-Rumayyan) and a PGA Tour executive (Jay Monahan), golf has been returned to golfers, to (most prominently) Rory McIlroy, newest member of the career Grand Slam club, and Scottie Scheffler, the golfing philosopher and newest Claret Jug handler.

These two golfers are, each in his own way, both dynamic figures, revealing themselves in their play, their interviews, their Sunday-night I’m-a-winner dance parties — and their Jimmy Fallon appearances. 

Maybe we will see them face one another in the Sunday singles at the Ryder Cup on Long Island in September. They could make a joint appearance on Fallon’s late-night show the next day. It’s only 40 miles, not even, from Bethpage Black to the NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center, but the Long Island Expressway into town is always a crapshoot. What isn’t?

Would you have bet that Rory McIlroy would ever win the Masters, given his history at Augusta National, starting with rules weirdness in his first appearance and various missed chances in the years to come? Plus, all that recent live-at-the-majors heartache? (See: Wyndham Clark in celebration, Cameron Smith, Bryson DeChambeau.) Mick will tell you, and so will Phil, Snead, Arnold, T. Watson and other golfing legends: You can’t always get what you want. Sunday afternoon at Augusta, Rory looked like he was having another meltdown. Live sport. Live theatre. Nothing like it.

And there he was, in the late light of that Sunday afternoon, making a short putt others have missed, to win in a playoff over Justin Rose. McIlroy, a month short of 36, fell to his hands and elbows for 20 long seconds, his hands in his face, his chest heaving. The emotion running through him, he said later, was . . . relief. Millions of people, McIlroy among them, have been anticipating this moment for close to a decade. Not even AI can measure mental weight, but it had to be a heavy load.

Two weeks later, McIlroy, wearing a new sport coat and a thick tie, sat beside Fallon for an entertaining 10-minute interview. He looked at a still photo of himself on the 18th green and Fallon asked the Masters champ to reveal his thought bubble. “I’m just thinking, ‘Thank goodness that is over,’” McIlroy said.

Scheffler, the bearded 29-year-old, won the British Open at Royal Portrush by four shots on a dank Sunday night. His golf wasn’t regal but it was unrelenting. His wait wasn’t long, by golf’s standards, to get there. This Open was only his fifth. He tapped in an 18-incher to win, he pulled his ball out of the hole, he hugged his caddie, his bro-shaked with his playing partner, he wiped his brow. His arms went above his head in ecstasy only after seeing his wife and their young son.

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When Scheffler appeared with Fallon, it wasn’t an interview at all. It was a bit. Fallon, in his opening monologue, asked to see Scheffler with the Claret Jug. (It’s the name of a trophy you get for winning the British Open. Why would anyone deny this proper noun the capital C and a capital J she deserves?) A photo of Scheffler went up, no jug. A photo of the jug went up, no Scheffler. Then, from behind the blue curtain, was the big reveal: Scheffler with the Claret Jug, wearing a shirt he borrowed from Monday-night bowling league team. Fallon, a golf nut himself, snapped a selfie.

McIlroy, in victory at Augusta, looked inward. Scheffler, in victory at Portrush, looked to his family. You might be drawn to one over the other, but the fact is each won at a very different moment in his career. McIlroy comes out of a rich tradition, the exuberant golfer. Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Seve Ballesteros, Phil Mickelson were all out of that tradition, too. Scheffler is contemplative and quiet, in the tradition of Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson. (Hard to put Tiger Woods in one category or the other.) It takes all kinds, to make this world the interesting place it is.

Golf is in a good place, with Scheffler and McIlroy batting first and second. On a July day in 1977, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson walked off the final hole of the Open at Turnberry, each with one arm around the other. Looking at a photo from that moment, you might not have known who had won. Golf is about a million things, its playfields, its rule book, its strange equipment. The technical requirements of the swing. But most especially, it’s about the people who play it and how they express themselves through their golf. Rory in early spring at the Masters, Scheffler in mid-summer at the Open — so good. So good!

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com

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The post Scottie Scheffler makes surprise (nearly silent) Tonight Show appearance appeared first on Golf.

Fresh off his dominant win at the 2025 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, Scottie Scheffler made it clear he wanted to return home to Texas as soon as possible. But even the world No. 1 doesn’t always get what he wants.

Instead of flying home, Scheffler jetted to New York City for a whirlwind media tour highlighted by a surprise and slightly bizarre appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Scheffler’s (almost) silent Tonight Show spot

It’s not unheard of for major winners to be appear on late-night shows (though there are increasingly fewer late-night shows for them to choose from), but it is rare. Less so with Jimmy Fallon’s show.

The longtime Tonight Show host has invited the likes of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to his stage, sometimes to celebrate major victories and promote video games. Those appearances often involve a sit-down interview, much like traditional guests’ experience.

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Scheffler’s Tonight Show spot was much different. He crashed the monologue.

As Fallon was talking about Scheffler’s win at Royal Portrush, he asked his crew to show the audience a photo of Scheffler with the Claret Jug. When a photo of just the Claret Jug popped up on the screen, Fallon reiterated his request.

“I really want to see Scottie and the trophy,” Fallon said.

At that moment, the curtains behind Fallon opened up and out walked a smiling Scheffler with the Claret Jug in hand.

That’s when Scheffler spoke his only words of the night, though they were barely audible over the audience’s cheers. While peeking at the teleprompter, Scheffler quietly asked Fallon, “Alright, if you want a picture, let’s go and do it.”

The two posed for a selfie with the crowd in the background, then, without saying another word, Scheffler walked off the stage. Check it out below.

Scheffler and the Claret Jug visit Happy Gilmore 2 premiere

Fallon’s show wasn’t the only stop on Scheffler’s spontaneous trip to New York. He also attended the New York premiere of Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2.

Scheffler walked the red carpet with the Claret Jug, mugging for photos along with fellow pro golfers Tony Finau and John Daly.

Scheffler talked about the influence of the original Happy Gilmore on golfers everywhere.

“Everybody knows what the Happy Gilmore swing is,” he said at the premiere. “Everybody tries to enact it when they’re young. It’s a part of golf culture for sure.”

But Scheffler’s appearance at the premiere wasn’t just for fun, it was for business. Scheffler reportedly appears in the new movie alongside Tour pros Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Keegan Bradley and Will Zalatoris.

Happy Gilmore 2 hits Netflix this Friday, July 25.

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Oh, how the tables turn.

In mid-April, when Rory McIlroy won the Masters, the U.S. Ryder Cup nightmare appeared to be in full swing. Through the first stanza of the major calendar, the Euros had grabbed the season by the horns, with McIlroy’s three wins fullbacking victories by Ludvig Aberg and Viktor Hovland — and arriving in the foreground of Jon Rahm’s continued strong LIV play. The Americans, meanwhile, were struggling just to tee it up. Scottie Scheffler was grinding his way back from surprise hand surgery in January, providing his first glimpse at life as a mere golfing mortal. Xander Schauffele was grinding his way back from an intercostal muscle strain that would linger for much of 2025. And Jordan Spieth was recovering from wrist surgery that appeared to have been preempted by a career low point.

Three months later, the concerns of the American internet cognoscenti appear to have quieted … for the moment. The U.S. roster is suddenly flush with form and health, and the Americans are riding victories in the final three majors of the year. Scheffler in specific has re-emerged as a force, entering the home stretch before the Ryder Cup fresh off completing the third leg of the grand slam in a blowout at Royal Portrush.

But the Americans are not the only ones with an advantage. The Euros have seen a recent resurgence of talent, and turn to Bethpage with the roster considerably deeper than 2023 in Rome (when, you might remember, they blew the doors off Zach Johnson’s U.S. side).

With the Open out of the way and the golf world finally turning its attention to Bethpage, let’s take stock of the players on both sides of the ledger, starting with the biggest member of the home team.

The Blue Bloods

Scottie Scheffler: Stock UP

Winning two majors in a year, getting three-quarters of the way to the career Grand Slam, and generally providing golf with the closest comparison to Tiger Woods of the last three decades? Yeah, I’d say Scottie Scheffler has had a good year.

He has not played well in match play events historically, but I don’t think it matters very much. He’s so much better than everyone else that he’ll be a major advantage for the Americans. And if his FDNY sweatshirt’s appearance at the Open was any indication, he’ll know how to endear himself to the Long Island faithful, too.

Rory McIlroy: Stock NEUTRAL

There is a clear best player in the world. There is also a clear second-best. His name is Rory McIlroy, and his performance under the spotlight in his home Open shows just how much his game has matured and hardened with age.

McIlroy and Scheffler have been the main characters of the year in golf, and barring some sort of injury, the same will be true of the Ryder Cup. Anyone expecting McIlroy to repeat the Ryder Cup failures of his youth at Bethpage will be sorely mistaken.

Jon Rahm: Stock NEUTRAL

A slightly disappointing major season for Rahm includes a pair of top 10s and a bunch of other really good rounds. In other words, he’s a lock to be one of the most valuable players on the European side.

Xander Schauffele: Stock UP

If Xander Schauffele weren’t one of this generation’s most underrated players, he might have flopped at the Open, giving fans ample reason to tune out after winning two majors in 2024.

Fortunately, Schauffele is one of this generation’s most underrated players, and he starred in the Open, grinding out a T7 finish to end a frustrating major season on a strong note. The injury bug wasn’t his friend in ’25, but his game is headed in the right direction for Bethpage.

(An aside: The 293-yard 2-iron I watched him hit from the left rough on the 7th hole during Wednesday’s practice round at Portrush will live in my memory forever.)

Bryson DeChambeau: Stock Is Actually Flood Insurance

DeChambeau was in full form on Sunday at the Open when he spoke — in a tone much too serious to be sincere — about the “tsunami of a crowd” he hoped to bring to Bethpage.

He was obviously hamming it up, but I was actually impressed by another answer he gave earlier in the press conference about his growth over the last half-decade as a teammate. Bryson is a total wild card in the Ryder Cup, but I think he’s a much better fit for the environment than he lets on.

Patrick Cantlay: Stock DOWN

It was a down year at the majors for Cantlay, who missed three cuts and generally struggled to get it into gear when the lights were brightest. He enters Ryder Cup season ranked 23rd in the world, 19 spots lower than when he arrived at Rome in 2023 as an American match-play killer.

He’s still likely to make the roster (his aforementioned match play record is unimpeachable, and he’s played sneaky-well on the PGA Tour this year), but Cantlay didn’t do much to help himself during the big ones. He’s opened up a window of uncertainty.

Viktor Hovland: Is Sourcing Stock Tips from Reddit

Hovland was the third head of a three-headed European monster in Rome in 2023. Now, with September looming, it’s hard to make sense of where his game is — not the least bit because he’s spending some of his time on Tour taking mid-week excursions to world heritage sites and pondering the existence of aliens.

Is he the guy who finished third at the U.S. Open? Possible! Is he the guy who WD’d from the Travelers the following week with a mysterious injury? Definitely possible! Is he the guy who missed four cuts in five weeks to start the season? Still possible! The point, I suppose, is that Viktor is a golfer with an open mind … and at times perhaps too open.

Whichever version arrives at Bethpage, know he will have done his own research.

The Guys You Know

Keegan Bradley: Stock NEUTRAL

A T30 finish at the Open Championship did absolutely nothing to affect Bradley’s chances of serving as playing captain on this Ryder Cup team.

Matt Fitzpatrick: Stock UP

The final major of the year can be a game-changer for a player on the Ryder Cup bubble, and this year, no player on the bubble benefited more than Fitzy.

Sure, T4 wasn’t what he was hoping for when he made it into the final pairing on Saturday, but Fitzpatrick showed form this weekend much closer resembling the golfer who won the 2022 U.S. Open than we’ve seen in some time. It was good for his Ryder Cup chances, yes, but also just good to see: Fitzpatrick is one of golf’s sneaky good talkers when he’s playing well.

Collin Morikawa: Stock DOWN

It’s been a weird year for Morikawa, whose public relations battles outside the ropes have been overshadowed by his struggles inside of them, including multiple caddie changes and the extension of a lengthy winless streak.

The good news is that his golf still tops out as clearly one of the 10 best players alive, the bad news is that his consistency hasn’t. He’s the player on the U.S. side with the most to gain from a strong showing at Bethpage, assuming he’s picked for the team (and we’re assuming he will be, even after a seven-over finish at the Open).

Jordan Spieth: Stock DOWN

Spieth didn’t do anything too notable at Portrush other than talk about Scottie Scheffler. Of course, that’s part of the problem: He hasn’t played noticeably good golf all season.

There’s still hope that Spieth, 26th in the Ryder Cup rankings, will turn it on during the FedEx Cup Playoffs to land on the team, but it’s dwindling.

Justin Thomas: Stock UP

I’m not sure JT would call his season a “feel-good story,” but I’d argue it is. It’s easy to forget now that Thomas spent the Open Championship two years ago plumbing the depths of his pro career, scraping through the 3M Open and Wyndham Championship just for a chance at the U.S. team in Rome. He’s back in Justin Thomas form in 2025, and though that hasn’t netted many wins, a 7th-place spot in the rankings is good enough to ensure he’ll be at Bethpage.

The Hopefuls

Chris Gotterup: Stock UP

A Southern New Jersey guy through and through (read: porkroll, not Taylor Ham), Chris Gotterup picked a hell of a few weeks to play the best golf of his life. A win at the Scottish Open and a T3 at the Open have him suddenly screaming into position for a spot on the U.S. roster, where he’d be the closest thing to a hometown kid.

Bob MacIntyre: Stock UP

Depending upon your roster arithmetic, Bobby was either the last or penultimate pick to make it onto the European roster in 2023. He’s second in the current Ryder Cup rankings after strong finishes in each of his last two major starts.

MacIntyre has shown some serious gumption as a player over the last 24 months, and when he’s wearing the blue and gold at Bethpage in September, it won’t be hard to figure out why.

Ludvig Aberg: Buy Low

It was a nauseating year for those on the Ludvig train: A career-altering win at the Genesis Invitational in February followed by a bunch of quiet months. The good news? A sneaky top-25 finish at the Open has him as the ideal sleeper candidate heading into the fall.

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For Scottie Scheffler, everything is in the details.

That’s why he wins and keeps winning. That’s how he learned to work the ball both ways, how he developed a world-class short game and how he became one of the best putters in the game. Scheffler, now a four-time major champion after his dominant Open Championship win at Royal Portrush, is obsessed with the little things.

That attention to detail also extends outside the course, as we found out on Sunday as Scheffler made the media rounds following his resounding win in Northern Ireland.

In a video captured by the R&A, Scheffler is sitting with Golf Channel’s Paul McGinley, Brandel Chamblee and Rich Lerner preparing for a segment of “Live From,” when Scheffler shows McGinley the “first thing” he noticed about his newest prize.

It wasn’t where his name was, nor was it about all the other legendary golfers who had etched their names into the silver.

“The first thing I noticed was this,” Scheffler said, showing McGinley and Chamblee a spot on the trophy. “2020: No championship owing to global pandemic.”

Scheffler then pointed out the location of his name under 2024 Champion Golfer of the Year Xander Schauffele.

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To get his name on that jug, Scheffler steamrolled the field at Royal Portrush.

After shooting three under to open the tournament, Scheffler picked Portrush apart with a seven-under round on Friday to take a one-shot lead into the weekend. He extended that lead to four with a bogey-free Saturday and cruised to a four-shot win over Harris English to claim his second major of the season.

“None of us could hang with Scottie this week,” Rory McIlroy, who finished tied for seventh, said after his final round. “He’s an incredible player. He’s been dominant this week. Honestly, he’s been dominant for the last couple years. He is the bar that we’re all trying to get to. In a historical context, you could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run, the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive.”

Added Schauffele, who also finished at 10 under and tied for seventh: “I don’t think we thought the golfing world would see someone as dominant as Tiger come through so soon, and here’s Scottie sort of taking that throne of dominance. You can’t even say he’s on a run. He’s just been killing it for over two years now. He’s a tough man to beat, and when you see his name up on the leaderboard, it sucks for us.”

Scheffler’s week at Royal Portrush started with an existential answer to a press conference question that left everyone wondering about the World No. 1’s desire to continue romping over the sport. If he wasn’t “fulfilled” by winning, then why would he keep doing it?

Of course, as is often the case, Scheffler’s message was lost in translation. He wasn’t saying that being great at golf doesn’t bring him joy. He loves the work. He loves to practice and compete. But for a man who so clearly is grounded in his faith and his family, Scheffler was merely trying to say that being good at golf is not all he has. He knows that winning, adoration, fame, etc., are all fleeting, but the things that matter most to him — his family and his faith — will always be what actually fills his soul.

“I don’t know why I’m so lucky that I get to live out my dreams, but it’s something I’m very grateful for,” Scheffler said. “If somebody was going to listen to the comments I had this week, I would encourage them to listen to all of it, and I hope I did a good job communicating that, yeah, this is amazing to win the Open Championship, but at the end of the day, having success in life, whether it be in golf, work, whatever it is, that’s not what fulfills the deepest desires of your heart.

“It’s just tough to describe when you haven’t lived it. It’s something I actually talked to Shane [Lowry] about this week was just because you win a golf tournament or accomplish something, it doesn’t make you happy. It doesn’t — maybe for a few moments, maybe for a few days, but at the end of the day, there’s more to life than playing golf.”

While that’s true, no one has played better golf than Scheffler over the past two years.

Scheffler has won three majors, a gold medal, and 13 times total worldwide since the start of the 2024 season.

That level of dominance has many comparing Scheffler to another man whose name graces the Claret Jug: Tiger Woods. But Scheffler doesn’t think he has done enough to put himself in the conversation with his idol, who transformed the sport.

“I still think they’re a bit silly,” Scheffler said of the Woods comps. “Tiger won, what, 15 majors? This is my fourth. I just got one-fourth of the way there. I think Tiger stands alone in the game of golf. He was inspirational for me growing up. He was a very, very talented guy, and he was a special person to be able to be as good as he was at the game of golf. I don’t focus on that kind of stuff. That’s not what motivates me. I’m not motivated by winning championships. I don’t look at the beginning of the year and just say, hey, I want to win X amount of tournaments, I want to win whatever it is. I don’t do that. I have dreams and aspirations that I think about, but at the end of the day, when I wake up to practice, I feel like what motivates me is just getting out and getting to live out my dream. I get to play professional golf, and I feel like I’m called to do it to the best of my ability.”

Scheffler has now won four majors by a combined 16 shots. He will arrive at Shinnecock Hills next year with a chance to complete the career Grand Slam at the U.S. Open.

Of course, none of that is on Scheffler’s mind. He’s focused on the details and the process. That’s what has got him to the top of the game and why there’s no sign he will come down.

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