Scottie's common sense, Bob Mac's sunset beer, LIV rumors

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re starting to think this Scottie Scheffler might have a real future in the game. To the news!

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Appreciating the good stuff.

It’s natural to look forward. And, I think increasingly, cultural forces have us moving on to the next thing even faster than ever. That’s doubly true for athletes, who are likely inspired by some end goal (winning the championship, say) but in order to get there must lose themselves in the process. An athlete’s comfort zone is having something left to prove, some skill yet to master, some distance to the mountaintop left to climb. Actually reaching the summit? That can be tough to process, in its own way.

That brings us to Scottie Scheffler, who won again this weekend, this time at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, his ninth worldwide victory this season. He redirected questions about what the victory meant, as he’s used to doing by now, insisting that he plays not for money nor legacy but because he enjoys the competition. His is an aspirational outlook; if you’re in it purely for the joy of winning and the love of competing, you can soak up your victories while also looking ahead to the next chance to contend. Bravo, Scottie.

The crossroads of accomplishment, satisfaction and winning also brings us to Bob MacIntyre. The 28-year-old Scotsman ended up with a fairy-tale season, but it didn’t begin that way. This was his first full year playing the PGA Tour and it took time to adjust; he initially based himself out of Orlando, Fla. but soon found that untethering and unsatisfying. After several months he moved home to Oban to re-center himself.

It was right around that time that MacIntyre, missing home, brought home to him. He tapped in his father Dougie as a fill-in caddie for the RBC Canadian Open and, sure enough, won the whole damn thing. In the moments after the win I was struck by MacIntyre’s instincts. While CBS interviewer Amanda Balionis understandably assumed he’d then tap in for the following week’s Memorial Tournament, a big-money Tour event for which he was suddenly qualified, MacIntyre shook his head. He was headed home with his girlfriend and his family to celebrate a dream come true.

Things only got more outrageous for the popular Scot when he teed it up the next month at his home open, the Genesis Scottish, held at the Renaissance Club. MacIntyre fought off a loaded leaderboard that included Rory McIlroy and eventually outdueled Adam Scott, pouring in a big-time birdie putt at No. 18 to finish off a tournament win he’d dreamt of as long as he could dream.

The Hero can serve as something of a bookend to the year and is often a good time to ask players to reflect. Had MacIntyre gotten the opportunity to appreciate what he’d done?

“I’ve not done that yet and I don’t think I’ll be able to do that until later on in my life, to be honest with you,” MacIntyre said after a bogey-free opening round. “That’s just — it’s work. I try to go week to week, just try and improve every day, every week.” Later on in his career, he said, he’d have an easier time. As a competitor, that makes complete sense. But as a fan of great stories I wanted a moment of real-time reflection for MacIntyre, for his family and friends. Wins this special just don’t come along often enough to let ’em pass by.

I was relieved, then, to see him post a picture to social media on Monday following a seventh-place finish in the Bahamas. He’s sitting on a beach, wearing a grin and holding a beer, sun setting into the horizon behind him. Life’s good, Bob. Good on ya for taking a minute to stop and soak it in. Celebrating the good stuff — that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Another good week to remember that competitive golf truly never stops.

Scottie Scheffler won for the ninth time in 2024 — a total that now includes seven official PGA Tour wins plus Olympic Gold and the tiger trophy handed over by Scheffler’s childhood idol, tournament host Tiger Woods, on Sunday afternoon. Scheffler gapped the field by six shots thanks to a bogey-free final-round 63, low score of the day by four. What a fitting finish to a dominant year.

Joaquin Niemann won the Saudi International, the final Asian Tour event of the season as well as the final International Series event. The win came with subtext: Niemann played two International Series events all season but finished third and then won, which jumped him to the top of the season-long standings. That meant he got the LIV spot that had been promised to the series winner but, because Niemann is already on LIV, nobody will earn promotion. Niemann also jumped back inside the top 100 in the world, though it’s clear he’s playing at a higher level than his No. 74 ranking suggests.

Johannes Veerman won the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, known as “Africa’s major,” which attracted a strong field from the DP World and PGA Tours. The American is off to a hot start in the 2025 DP World Tour season, which continues this week.

And Denmark’s Søren Kjeldsen won the final stage of PGA Tour Champions qualifying by eight shots; he’ll be joined on the senior circuit by Freddie Jacobson, Mark Walker, Felipe Aguilar and Brendan Jones after they made it through at TPC Scottsdale on Friday.

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NOT-WINNERS

A few golfers who didn’t win but still kinda won.

Tom Kim finished second to Scheffler, another chapter in the big bro-little bro rivalry the two have developed at home in Dallas and on Tour. While this wasn’t as close as a playoff showdown at the Travelers nor as fiesty as their Presidents Cup duel, it was a big step in the right direction for Kim, who just missed out on top-50 PGA Tour status at the end of the season but could be in fine form heading to 2025.

Justin Thomas showed out in his first tournament as a father; he had the 54-hole lead before Scheffler steamrolled the field but impressed with a new weapon — a 46-inch driver — in his bag. Thomas easily could have been on the Presidents Cup team and I think he’ll continue to show people why come the new year, where he surely already has Bethpage Black on the mind.

Akshay Bhatia also boasted a new driver this week, this one a Callaway prototype that he says helps counteract his extreme out-to-in swing path. “I’m, I would say, a unicorn person to fit because my club path is anywhere from four to nine right,” Bhatia said. “There’s just not many guys that swing a driver like I do. Just trying to find something that we can keep the spin down but it doesn’t go left. It’s just a hard balance.” So far, so good: Solo fourth at the Bahamas.

And Keegan Bradley quietly finished fifth at the Hero, showing the sort of form that will feed into one of 2025’s most guaranteed storylines: is there any way the U.S. Ryder Cup captain can play his way onto the team?

SHORT HITTERS

Major contenders you forgot.

We discussed this on Monday afternoon’s Drop Zone recording (subscribe on Spotify or Apple); when that publishes first thing Tuesday I’ll post it here. But as the year comes to a close I thought it would be fun to look back and see who I’d already forgotten had contended at the four men’s majors. Here’s one from each:

-The Masters leaderboard was chock-full of talent heading to Sunday’s final round. Scheffler led by one over Collin Morikawa, who was one stroke ahead of Max Homa, who was one stroke ahead of Ludvig Aberg, who was one stroke ahead of Bryson DeChambeau, who was one stroke ahead of Xander Schauffele. But tied with Schauffele in T6? That would be Cameron Davis, who like me lives in Washington but unlike me is a Tour winner, amateur hypnosis enthusiast and one-time Masters contender. Still, he faded Sunday to T12 as Scheffler took the air out of the tournament on the back nine.

-You may remember two specific pairings from the PGA Championship: DeChambeau and Viktor Hovland were the chase pack, storming ’round Valhalla on Sunday and making their way to the 18th tee each six under par for the day. DeChambeau would go on to birdie 18 and set the clubhouse lead, which Schauffele and Morikawa were chasing from the final pairing. Morikawa couldn’t buy a birdie while Schauffele eventually won the whole thing, but lost in that shuffle was the fact that there was another twosome in between those groups. Shane Lowry shot one under par on Sunday to finish T6, while Sahith Theegala needed two late birdies just to salve a 73 that left him T12.

-At the U.S. Open, you’ll remember DeChambeau leading by three shots entering the final round over Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and…Matthew Pavon! The Frenchman made some Sunday bogeys but did well to hang in on a brutally tough golf course in pressure-packed conditions. He played the final six holes in two under par (DeChambeau played the same stretch in one over, and McIlroy in three over) to finish solo fifth.

-And the Open Championship was loaded with fascinating contenders, not least of which was Dan Brown. The unheralded Englishman, who was playing in his first-ever major, was the first-round leader and held the lead through much of Saturday, at which point he double-bogeyed 18. His Sunday 74 kept him out of contention but in the house at an extremely impressive T10.

ONE DUMB GRAPHIC

Wizards, take note.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

From Scottie Scheffler.

No top pro takes a swing change lightly, least of all the detail-oriented Scheffler, who is finishing off a historically good 2024 season. Insert change: how ’bout a new putter grip? Scheffler admitted after Thursday’s opening round that he and short-game coach Phil Kenyon had deferred the potential change until the offseason and that this seemed like the right moment to test it out.

“Figured this is a good week to try stuff just because you can practice and practice and do all the stuff at home, but there’s just something different about being in competition,” Scheffler said. “I really enjoyed the way it felt, I felt like I’m seeing some improvements in my stroke.”

The results speak for themselves: Scheffler is dangerous every week and arguably even more dangerous when he’s just testing stuff out.

ONE BIG QUESTION

Should players get paid to play the Ryder Cup?

I mean, yeah, probably. This topic swirled in the Bahamas this week again, with Tiger Woods echoing history (this was a topic of discussion in 1999, he said, and he thinks players should each get a large chunk of change to donate to charity) and Patrick Cantlay staying out of the fray (“I think that’s a media narrative and I’m not going to fall into that,” he said of talk the Americans were demanding pay) and Scheffler, as usual, making plenty of sense.

“I think every one of our players would pay to play in the Ryder Cup if that’s what was asked of us,” he said, referencing a McIlroy line about the event’s meaning. “I think it’s a little bit silly for a tournament that makes hundreds of millions of dollars to ask for the players to pay as well, but I think we all would. I definitely would.”

That particular resolution seems unlikely, though massive appearance fees also wouldn’t sit particularly well with a golfing public increasingly exhausted by money talk. Scheffler’s exhausted by money talk, too — he insisted, again, that he’s overpaid. But the question then becomes: if the players shouldn’t get paid from Ryder Cup profits, who should?

ONE THING TO WATCH

How hot will LIV’s hot stove get?

Last week saw renewed rumors of Tony Finau to LIV ultimately shot down by Finau himself in an interview with Golfweek; his much-scrutinized Hero WD was due to a procedure on his knee. So now what? Now we wait as see, I guess, but it feels unlikely that any massive Jon Rahm-style transaction would take place this winter. As a result, LIV’s biggest upcoming may well be LIV CEO Greg Norman himself, who confirmed over the weekend that, while he’ll stay with LIV in some capacity it won’t be in his current position.

Anyway, I usually slide a video in here, so this is a sideways shift: Here’s the Ryder Cup doc I mentioned last week. It’s so beautifully shot it’s worth watching for vibes alone. Una Famiglia: