Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we have reached the stage of the World Cup where we’re just watching to see how it ends. Kinda like the latest Harlan Coben series on Netflix. No offense to the sport and the event, because I’ve watched more than ever this year and it’s been fun, but it’s getting a bit dragged out now. Plus, it seems more rigged than the NBA Finals (Not that that kept my Knicks from winning!). Anyway, let’s focus more on an even better sporting event (IMO) happening this week, the Open Championship, and talk about everything else going on in the world of golf. Before a mob of soccer futbol hooligans tracks me down.
Haeran Ryu: And just like that, we’ve got at least a debate for LPGA Player of the Year. The 25-year-old South Korean won a second consecutive major at the Evian Championship, and she did it in spectacular fashion.
Ryu defeated Brooke Henderson, who had one of the craziest final rounds ever, in a playoff, but this week will be more remembered for what she did on Saturday with an insane 60, the lowest score ever shot in a major. Even crazier? She didn’t even realize what she shot until after the round:
Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.
It doesn’t seem right to talk about prolonged struggles and career comebacks for a guy who just turned 24, but when you’re that young, going nearly three years without a win must seem like an eternity. Incredibly, Kim was ranked outside the top 150 in the Official World Golf Ranking just last month. But after a solo third at the U.S. Open and now his fourth career PGA Tour title, he’s all the way back to 33rd. And after nearly four years, it may be time for me to add another verse to “The Ballad of Tommy the Kid”:
I’ll get working on that.
Steven Fisk: This 29-year-old Georgia Southern product is suddenly a multiple-time winner on the PGA Tour. Fisk first won the Sanderson Farms Championship in the fall and now he adds the opposite-field ISCO Championship after beating Taylor Pendrith in a playoff:
And if Steven needs any more inspiration, he just has to look to Tom Kim, who was playing alongside him in an opposite-field event just two months ago in Myrtle Beach.
Mardy Fish: This was the least-surprising result of the week, but Fish deserves his flowers. The former tennis star won the American Century Championship for a third time to reclaim his throne as the King of Celebrity Golf:
We’ve done some cool stuff with Mardy over the years, including this Golf Digest profile in which he opened up about his mental health battles and how golf has helped him. So congrats to him on adding to his trophy case with his latest Tahoe triumph.
Scottie Scheffler’s streak(s) ending: The reigning King of Pro Golf didn’t have quite as good of a week, missing the cut at the Scottish Open to end a remarkable four-year streak. But while his 78 consecutive made cuts got most of the attention, I think his much more impressive streak ended as well: 37 straight top-25 finishes.
I’ll say that again: THIRTY-SEVEN straight top-25 finishes. Just unbelievable consistently high-quality golf. Good luck to anyone ever beating that again.
Another big betting win: For the second time in three weeks, according to DraftKings, someone has won more than $4 million(!) betting on the PGA Tour winner. First, it was a mystery gambler wagering $77K on Viktor Hovland to win the Travelers and now it was a $47,700 bet on Tom Kim at 84-to-1 odds to win the Scottish Open.
I’m not selling this because I doubt it’s true, but rather because I’m really, really jealous. Imagine having so much money you could bet $77K on a longshot winning a golf tournament?! Insane stuff.
Literally heating up your putter: That’s what William Mouw actually did, sticking his “cold” flatstick in a pot of boiling water with the hopes of heating it up. And it . . . kinda worked? After an opening 68 at the ISCO Championship in which he struggled on the greens, Mouw rolled to a second-round 63 and wound up finishing T-10 in his title defense.
“I put my putter in hot water last night and it stayed hot. I woke up with it hot out of the water and stayed hot all round. That was nice,” Mouw said. Good for Mouw, but I don’t try this at home. Unless you want to accidentally melt your putter.
Arguably the most fun week on the golf calendar is here with the Open Championship, AKA the British Open, AKA THE OPEN, AKA that one where the winner gets an old silver jug. Word on the street is that this links test will be extra-linksy this week at Royal Birkdale where conditions are particularly FIRM AND FAST (Don’t do any drinking games involving that phrase this week or you’ll end up passed out and missing the golf). I’ll never forget being there in 2017 for Jordan Spieth’s bizarre bogey on Sunday and ensuing birdie-eagle-birdie-birdie stretch that was right out of a movie. But no one will be able to recreate his recovery on 13 because of a fan village:
A rare bogey for the Grow-The-Game Movement. Anyway, there”s nothing keeping him from giving us another “Go get that!” moment, though.
Random tournament fact: There hasn’t been a playoff in the past 10 Opens and there’s only been one playoff in the 10 previous Opens at Royal Birkdale. I’m not seeing any odds on if there will be a playoff this week, but talk about something being due.
RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
—A British Open champ will boil his putter in the claret jug: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds
—Tommy Fleetwood will win AND England will win the World Cup: 50-to-1-odds
—I won’t see my English colleagues for a while if that happens: LOCK
This from Pro Shop’s Chad Mumm really got Golf Twitter talking:
For the record, Chad is currently a plus-one so I think his main point is that most golfers don’t consider themselves to be ‘good’ players.
This is the greatest golf shot you didn’t see last week. Congrats to our Jamie Kennedy on doing the unfathomable: Making a walk-off hole-in-one albatross. At North Berwick. While using a hickory driver.
What a great—and crazy—game.
Charles Barkley got frustrated at Lake Tahoe—and took it out on his golf ball:
Too bad that shot didn’t count, because that might be the purest strike of Chuck’s career.
THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION
At least he didn’t knock his swing speed, though. And he did say some nice things as well.
THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NON-TAHOE DIVISION)
Erling Haaland played golf in Miami ahead of Norway’s quarterfinal match with England. And Golf Twitter appreciated his tucked-in shirt and on-course etiquette.
And Noah Kahan made a hole-in-one at Boston Golf Club—then thanked his caddies, his host and his “pure-ass 5-iron”:
Amazing. Maybe there’s a future song from that.
“Oh my god, I’m so bad at golf.” —Rory McIlroy, who definitely isn’t bad at golf.
That might be the most relatable golf quote of all time. And it ties in perfectly with that tweet about “good” golf handicaps. Golfers are never satisfied with their games. Not even Rory f-ing McIlroy.
Jason Day and Malbon are up to their usual tricks this week:
Honestly, the most egregious part of that outfit is the white belt. . . . Wyndham Clark has turned to a coat hanger to help him with his game:
If you’re on Instagram as much as me, you’d know this is a pretty common drill. Just not for a guy who just won the U.S. Open. . . . And I don’t think I’ve ever seen a golf course embrace the Fourth of July (Keep in mind, this was a week later) like Maple Moor in White Plains:
I had “God Bless the USA” stuck in my head for the entire round.
RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Should I wear camo on the golf course?
Should I use a coat hanger on the range?
What will your golf buddies say about you when you die?