Memorial Tournament et al. Recap and Weekly Preview

Last week saw some Umcee noise...but not from the places you'd expect.

At the Memorial Tournament in the Columbus, Ohio suburb of Dublin, Scottie Scheffler won his fifth event in eight starts. Much of the drama, then, centred around how he held on to win, rather than that he won again, in that he was forced to par the last hole to prevent a playoff against Collin Morikawa. As is recent tradition, the Memorial is also an Open Qualifying Series event, awarding exempt places in the Open Championship every year. Or, this year, a place since, due to the reworking of the tournament as a signature event (in part against Jack Nicklaus' wishes, as Muirfield Village is AKA Jack's Place) there were just 73 entrants.

(USA Today/PGA Tour)

Only one of the limited field's threescore and a baker's dozen was an Umcee. Tom Hoge, who qualified for every signature event this year by virtue of reaching last year's BMW Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, started out brightly, but he collapsed during the weekend, struggling to avoid needing 300 strokes on the par-72 course (+10/298) over four days. He finished T45, but he at least cracked the top sixty--hell, the top forty-five--for the first time at Jack's Place, albeit against a reduced field.

And with Hoge's endeavours, the Memorial had an Umcee make the cut. The same can't be said of the Korn Ferry Tour's BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greer, South Carolina. Given the format, scoring was bound to be low, and this reflected in a cutline of -5/138 after two days on two courses--one par-72, the other par-71. It was an eminently forgettable week for both Umcees involved, to say the least. With Frankie Capan III taking the week off to prep for the U.S. Open, AKA the masochist's major, a wipeout might have been expected. Sure enough, Van Holmgren missed the cut by five strokes (even par), but Andre Metzger, who is prominent on the Dakotas Tour, was far worse. He went +9/152 in his two rounds! That does NOT cut it at a pro-am tournament, regardless of the level of competition!!!

Add to this O.J. Farrell (former Wisconsin Badger) MCing on the Clutch Pro Tour in England and heading into Saturday, it didn't look good for any big time moving up by Umcees anywhere in the world. That changed when Kim Kaufman started to kick ass at the Firecrackers Casino-Hotel Championship in Battle Creek, Michigan, AKA the home of Kellogg's cereals, on the Epson Tour. Kaufman was a modest even-par 72 heading to Saturday, which wasn't going to move her up in the Race for the Card, period. But then she went under par in the difficult conditions and was T15 heading to the final round Sunday. She then matched her -1/71 from the day before and moved up to T8 at the last for a check of $4379. Moreover, the R4C points she earned moved her to fifth on the list. It increasingly looks like a return to the LPGA Tour in 2025 awaits Kaufman.

This week, of course, is dominated by the U.S. Open. In addition to Hoge, who qualified by a top-60 placement in the world rankings after the PGA Championship last month, former Minnesota Gopher Erik van Rooyen was automatically exempt as one of the top five "leftovers," according to the FedEx Cup. Furthermore, three other Umcees qualified for the event on their own. As mentioned in the post I linked, Capan qualified as the Durham, North Carolina medallist, while Carson Schaake earned his way via Springfield, Ohio. Finally, Gunnar Broin, who will be a grad student at Kansas in the fall, held on to a place via a 4-for-3 playoff. Though as it turns out, he would've been granted a place if he'd been the odd one out, as this week's OWGR top sixty added just two--Bob MacIntyre of Scotland, who won the Canadian Open earlier this month, and Australia's Adam Scott, whose 92nd successive major appearance should come with an apology to the loved ones of Grayson Murray. This left four places for alternates, and the Columbus first alternate got in. There are currently twenty alternates on the USGA's master list, eight of whom are first alternates. The remaining twelve, of course, are all the second alternates except for Springfield, Ohio. That's because Maxwell Moldovan moved into first alternate after Scott's exemption, allowing him relative dibs.

Among other events, the Wichita Open once more sees Metzger take on a field of 156, and Iowa native Charles Jahn will be there, too. However, Holmgren will sit this one out. The Epson Tour also rolls on into Columbus, Indiana, home of the Otter Creek Championship. Kaufman and Kate Smith-Stroh, who missed last week's cut by two strokes, will tee it up as of Monday night, while Emily Lauterbach, coming off a failed attempt to qualify for a second LPGA Tour start this year, is fourth alternate. Over in England, Farrell will try to pick up the pieces from another missed cut at the Manor House on the Clutch Tour.

Lastly, the final Q-school session for the PGA Tour Americas' North American segment tees off tomorrow. Former Gopher Angus Flanagan will try to get back his status on the pyramid, and he'll be joined by Ben Sigel, the Minnetonka High School alumnus who preceded Broin at KU. The top nine finishers (no ties, which must be broken by playoffs if needed) will be exempt, and the rest of the top 25 and ties will be conditionally exempt in a rotation among the six sites and the finishers on the Latin American segment outside the top sixty.

Edward the Scop

Umcee Success Stories on the Longest Day of Golf

 As mentioned in my last post, the "Longest Day in Golf" went down yesterday. Ten of the thirteen final qualifying sites, each a 36-hole test sending a given number of top finishers to the U.S. Open, contributed 44 places in this year's event at Pinehurst No 2 in North Carolina. Among those trying their luck at a spot were numerous Umcees. While not all qualified or earned alternate places (each site designates two), three earned their way into the season's penultimate men's major and its most masochistic, just as last week's women's edition was for women's golf. Below, I provide a recap of the three.

Frankie Capan III won his U.S. Open qualifier (St Paul Pioneer Press).

Frankie Capan III (Duke University Golf Club, Durham, NC, medallist, -6/134)

Capan was the most impressive of the three Umcees who qualified via open qualifying (as opposed to exemptions). He was already exempt from local qualifying due to his top-500 OWGR standing at the time of application that he has maintained. FCIII beat Brian Campbell and former U.S. Amateur Sam Bennett to win the medal by one stroke, and Chesson Hadley and Webb Simpson qualified without any questions as well. That left two places to be determined among seven players, along with both alternate places, in a sudden-death playoff. Carter Jenkins and Harry Higgs--the latter of whom beat Capan in another playoff at the Korn Ferry Tour's Visit Knoxville Open--prevailed, while Spencer Oxendine and Matt McCarty were first and second alternates, respectively.

Gunnar Broin (amateur, Ohio State University Golf Club, Scarlet Course, Columbus, OH, 4-way T3 and won in odd-one-out playoff, -9/133)

The sole amateur on the list, Broin just completed his fourth year at the University of Kansas and is intending to play one more season of college golf before turning pro. He missed out on the medallist honours by one stroke, as Justin Lower and Seamus Power shared them at -10. Since there were only five places available and he was in a four-way tie for third, Broin had to undergo a playoff, whose loser would be first alternate. As it turned out, he did just enough to make Pinehurst, along with Brendon Todd and Chris Naegel, while Otto Black missed out. In a separate, seven-way playoff, Joshua Lee won second-alternate status.

Carson Schaake (Springfield Country Club, Springfield, OH, T2, -8/132)

The third and final Umcee to qualify tied for second with Beau Hossler. Only Zac Blair beat them, finishing -9. Schaake sealed his trip to Pinehurst with a birdie on No 17, enabling him to avoid a playoff with Aussie stars Cam Davis and Adam Scott. (Even now, I can't believe that neither has qualified his way into the U.S. Open!) As it is, both went to one, and it made headlines. Scott failed to match Davis' second playoff hole birdie, putting his streak of 91 straight major appearances in jeopardy. Equally heartbreaking--even more so from an Upper Midwest perspective--though not totally unexpected was Troy Merritt's loss to Maxwell Moldovan of Ohio St in a playoff for second alternate. Otherwise, I would have given Merritt an honourable mention.

One more thing: Speaking of qualifiers, PGA Tour Q-School applications dropped today, so in a post later this week, I will be examining the differences (if any) between Q-school last year and this year. For now, look for me to announce the Upper Midwest Connection of the Week tomorrow (5 June).

PGA Championship Week Recap (etc.) Part I: How Did LIV Golfers Fare?

 In the Norse tradition, Valhalla is the place where heroes go when they die in combat. But there is another, IRL Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky, and it's just hosted its fourth PGA Championship.

No, we didn't see Rory McIlroy end his major drought dating to the 2015 Masters. No, Jordan Spieth didn't complete the career grand slam. And no, Scottie Scheffler wasn't able to keep alive his Scottie Season Slam hopes. He did, however, get clapped into jail for not cooperating with the cops at a traffic stop after a poor fan had been killed in a car crash. This led to a third day of split tees, which you normally don't see at majors.

We also saw yet another dramatic finish on the premises. In 1996, Mark Brooks nipped local boy Kenny Perry in a one-hole, sudden-death playoff. In 2000, Tiger Woods caught Bob May and effectively beat him with his birdie on the first hole of what was now a mandatory three-hole aggregate playoff. In 2014, Rory McIlroy won the PGA Championship as fast fell the eventide by one stroke over Phil Mickelson. And just today, 19 May 2024, we saw Xander Schauffele launch the first-ever season Golden Slam bid (and add to his career one) by responding to LIV founding member Bryson DeChambeau's closing birdie with one of his own from just outside 6' to set a new scoring record for men's majors against par (-21/263).

I mentioned LIV Golf. What you see here is a grid of what I call "expectations versus reality." Since the majors are the only events at which LIV golfers compete against PGA Tour loyalists these days, I decided to compare the proportional performances of the various LIV contingents at the majors since the start of last year to assess their "real" performances when the size of the field and its nature (club pros and amateurs excluded who are not otherwise exempt to the majors) are taken into account. In other words, I'm sort of making like Phil Steele, except for professional tour golf.

The "LIV" column is simply the number of members of LIV Golf at each major. The "aField" column is the total field size minus any amateurs (Masters, U.S. Open, Open Championship) or not-otherwise-exempt club pros (PGA Championship). I say "not otherwise exempt" because of the case of such guys like Michael Block, who placed in the top fifteen and ties at last year's PGA Championship, so he didn't need to play the PGA Professional Championship to get in (he did anyway but finished outside the top twenty). The "tField" column is simply the total number of golfers--tour pros, club pros and amateurs--who are competing in that major.

"aProp" refers to the proportion of LIV golfers among those covered in the "aField." "tProp" is the overall proportion of LIV golfers in the field. As you can tell, there has been a slight decline in the proportions due to the lack of OWGR points for LIV golfers. In general, the largest percentages of LIV membership at each major have been correlated with the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship. This may be because the first category for exemption to each of those majors is simply having won the event in the past, no questions asked. This year's contingent at Valhalla may also have benefited numerically from further defections to LIV among the OWGR top 100 (Jon Rahm, Tyrrell Hatton, Adrian Meronk), a good performance among last year's contingent (especially winner Brooks Koepka) and special invitations extended to members outside the top 100 (Talor Gooch comes to mind). While the jury is still out on the last two majors of this year, last year's "open" majors had much lower percentages of LIV members. This may stem, in part, from restrictions on past champions (such as the USGA's ten-year limit and the R&A's age-sixty, soon to be age-55, limit).

The three columns with the letters "NY" revolve around the number of golfers invited to the following edition of that particular major by virtue of a top finish. For the open majors, one must finish in the top ten and ties to be automatically invited next year if not otherwise exempt. For the Masters Tournament, it's top twelve and ties. For the PGA Championship, it's fifteen and ties. The column "xNY" multiplies the original "NY" column by "tProp" to ascertain the number of expected LIV golfers among the top finishers. This year, seventeen overall players finished among the top fifteen and ties. Of these, two--DeChambeau and South Africa's Dean Burmester--are affiliated with LIV Golf. The latter number is noted under "lNY," which indicates the actual LIV membership among the top finishers.

The last three columns are marked "T4." These refer to the number of top-four finishers at a given major. The original column is, again, multiplied by "tProp" to derive "xT4." As with "xNY," "xT4" is the expected total of golfers in that range. I track this because the three majors other than the Masters send their top-four finishers to next year's Masters, no matter what. This year's PGA "lT4" came up with one LIV member, Bryson DeChambeau. Not as though he needs the exemption because he won the 2020 U.S. Open, which gives him Masters access through next year. After that, though, it'll matter.

This year's majors have been a mixed bag for LIV so far. Given the data above, I would argue that the LIV contingent was generally successful in living up to expectations at Valhalla. But this is a step down from the Masters, where they exceeded expectations in terms of top-twelve finishes. So, how will they do at Pinehurst next month, home of the U.S. Open? Or at Royal Troon, home of the Open Championship the month after? Feel free to offer your predictions, either on the YouTube short I posted or in the comment form below.