We should start this text with a pair of admissions: We stay eternally envious of our co-workers and media heart brethren spending their July gallivanting round Scottish hyperlinks programs, and take a look at as we would, we’ve not mustered any enthusiasm for the 3M Open. We recognize your understanding and as an alternative have opted to write down down and publish a dialog that started Sunday through the finish of the Open Championship.
Hugh Kellenberger: Let’s begin right here: The boys’s golf participant of the 12 months race has gone from a coronation of Scottie Scheffler to a two-man race between Scheffler and Xander Schauffele. The latter made it a dialog together with his stirring win on the Open Championship, in a single season vaulting from “finest participant to by no means win a significant” to “a man who can win half of the majors in a given 12 months.” However I’m curious, Gabby, is efficiency within the majors the one knowledge level that issues on this race, at the least to you?
Gabby Herzig: It is a difficult one as a result of I’m undoubtedly within the camp that majors outline a profession, however do they — and may they — outline a single season? It’s onerous to argue in opposition to the actual fact Scheffler has been dominant all 12 months lengthy, although Schauffele was the very best throughout two essential weeks. Scheffler’s six wins (in contrast with Schauffele’s two) embody the Gamers, the Masters and 4 PGA Tour signature occasions, one coming only a week after his runaway victory at Augusta — and we nonetheless have the playoffs to judge. There are quite a lot of knowledge factors to take note of right here, with strokes gained statistics, consistency and wins exterior of majors being simply the tip of the iceberg. Ought to Schauffele’s two-major season overshadow all of that?
Hugh: Deciding that it does means no different occasion issues greater than the 4 main championships, and although that’s true within the broad scope of a profession, there’s a stage of nuance to it on a year-to-year stage. Is Schauffele profitable at Valhalla in 2024 robotically extra spectacular than Scheffler’s win at TPC Sawgrass, simply because we’ve determined one is a significant and the opposite isn’t? No, I don’t assume so. They’re roughly equal in nearly each different manner, together with subject high quality. So for those who say that of the 5 largest occasions of the 12 months, every received two, that narrows the hole on this POY dialog. And that’s earlier than we get to this: Each might be on the Olympics and the Tour Championship. Are we going to finish up having to crown somebody based mostly on what they do at Paris’ Le Golf Nationwide subsequent week?
Champion Golfer of the 12 months. pic.twitter.com/Ea025M6WL6
— Gabby Herzig (@GabbyHerzig) July 21, 2024
Gabby: That’s why issues might get dicey — I wouldn’t say any of the remaining occasions within the 2024 season are essentially going to sway the controversy a lot, except Scheffler or Schauffele goes out and wins two and even three extra occasions. So why not simply flip to the numbers? Scheffler remains to be main the PGA Tour in strokes gained complete by a big margin — a stat purely based mostly on week-to-week efficiency, in contrast with the sector. No biases on which event means extra. Simply knowledge. Scheffler holds a 2.760 strokes gained on common, in contrast with Schauffele’s 2.201. Then the listing drops off to Rory McIlroy at 1.896. Schauffele is catching as much as Scheffler, however he stated it himself after profitable the PGA: “All of us are climbing this large mountain. On the prime of the mountain is Scottie Scheffler. I received this right now, however I’m nonetheless not near Scottie within the huge scheme of issues.” Participant of the 12 months is set by a PGA Tour member vote. If there’s anybody who understands how tough it’s to carry out to that prime of a typical on a week-to-week foundation, it’s Scheffler and Schauffele’s friends.
Hugh: Proper, and it’s that group that picked Patrick Cantlay in 2021 regardless of his not profitable a significant, and Scheffler a 12 months in the past although he didn’t win a significant. What does that imply? I feel it’s a Scheffler three-peat, although I’m right here for the argument that Schauffele deserves his flowers. Gabby, I’ll allow you to make your choose after which ask you this: Who might be Keegan Bradley’s subsequent vice captain choose after choosing Webb Simpson on Tuesday?
Keegan Bradley will captain the U.S. Ryder Cup crew in 2025. (Ross Kinnaird / Getty Photographs)
Gabby: I’m with you, Hugh. I feel they’ll go along with Scheffler. That is the award for Participant of the 12 months, not the Participant of the Majors. However Schauffele deserves all of the reward for what he completed at Valhalla and Royal Troon. He’s gotten over the major-winning hump and shortly joined a rising listing of prime energetic gamers with two majors (Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson). Maybe his capability to knock off the primary two so shortly will make him the very best candidate to first get to 3?
On to my Ryder Cup vice captain prediction. Tuesday, we noticed Bradley choose three-time U.S. crew member Simpson as his first appointee. The choose aligns completely with what Bradley shared about his intentions when he was first introduced as captain: He needs to encompass his crew with youthful voices who’re on the market, week to week, interacting and constructing relationships together with his potential members. I don’t assume we’re going to see the subsequent vice captain’s choose for a short while as a result of I’ve a sense it will likely be Rickie Fowler. Whereas reporting on the choice course of for Bradley, I used to be advised Fowler’s title was a part of the dialog about who may very well be the subsequent captain. If Fowler doesn’t completely flip round his sport someway (he’s ranked forty third within the U.S. Ryder Cup crew standings), it’ll be a no brainer resolution for Bradley to deliver him on board. He’s performed in 5 Ryder Cups however he’s solely 35 years previous, and all the blokes — and the followers — love him. In addition to Tiger Woods, who’s an entire query mark at this level, who can be higher?
Hugh: Rickie Fowler, vice captain answerable for the vibes with a secondary emphasis on hydration. I can get behind it.
(Images: Patrick Smith, Kevin C. Cox / Getty Photographs)