Ryder Cup dilemmas, LIV’s relegation shockers, Scottie’s moment

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’re ODing on creatine and getting ready to charge headfirst through a wild week in golf. To the news!

GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Scottie’s moment.

A few weeks ago, as Scottie Scheffler blew the collective golf world’s mind with yet another runaway victory, a somewhat concerning question kicked up online: Does Scheffler have any memorable shots?

The answer was that he does, of course — you can probably picture his made chip shot on No. 3 at Augusta National en route to winning that first Masters, for instance — but Scheffler tends to win tournaments by a touchdown or so, he bludgeons the field to death with his relentless iron play and he’s the opposite of a showy guy; his understated reactions can make even his best shots seem routine. As he’s increasingly compared to human highlight reel Tiger Woods, he’ll always fall short in the memorable-shot category.

But then came Sunday at the BMW Championship. Scheffler started the final round four shots behind leader Robert MacIntyre, a margin he eliminated in the first few holes. But then he let MacIntyre hang around, a cat playing with a trapped mouse, missing a couple short putts including a gasp-worthy two-and-a-half footer at No. 14. Eventually, though, Scheffler did what he does best, bouncing back with a preposterously good approach shot from the fairway bunker at No. 15 that he described as “a really important shot in the tournament, one that I think will fly a little bit under the radar.” More from Scheffler, king of the bounce-back birdie, on that moment:

“I had just made a sloppy three-putt on the hole before to let Bob back into the tournament. Brought my lead only back down to one, and all of a sudden he hits it in there about seven feet on 15, it’s a golf tournament now. I stepped up there and hit it inside of him to about six and a half feet and was able to hole that putt.”

MacIntyre clawed back within one by making birdie at No. 16 before he and Scheffler both missed the green on the par-3 17th. And then? The World No. 1 pulled off one of the most epic shots of the year, one of the most iconic shots of his career, a perfect chip shot that died in the center of the cup in front of one of the biggest crowds on the golf course. This was a Scottie Scheffler Moment. It won’t be the last.

(LeBron James tweeting about your golf round feels like some sort of important threshold.)

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Scottie Scheffler won for the fifth time this season and for the 18th time in his PGA Tour career. He won $3.6 million for the first-place check and logged another $5 million for his positioning in the FedEx Cup; that’ll pair well with the $18 million in bonus money he cleared at the end of the regular season.

Akie Iwai won the LPGA’s Portland Classic, joining her twin sister Chisato (who finished T3) as rookie winners on the LPGA this season. Akie is the fifth Japanese player to win on the LPGA Tour this season and they’re now the fourth pair of sisters to win on the LPGA Tour, joining the Kordas, Jutanugarns and Sorenstams.

Sebastian Munoz chased down Jon Rahm at LIV’s Indianapolis event, ultimately beating him in a playoff to prevent the Spaniard from his first win in 2025 (he now has four runner-ups). Munoz shot 59 in the opening round; the win was his first worldwide victory in six years.

Marco Penge of England won the DP World Tour’s Danish Golf Championship, his second title of the season.

Emilio Gonzalez of Mexico won the Korn Ferry Tour’s Albertsons Boise Open.

David Law of Scotland won the HotelPlanner Tour’s (formerly Challenge Tour) Vierumaki Finnish Challenge.

Kazuki Higa of Japan won the Japan Golf Tour’s well-named “ISPS Handa Explosion In The Summer. How Many Birdies Can You Make;” he shot 65-62-66-65, clarifying that he could make “a lot.”

Richard Green of Australia won his first PGA Tour Champions title at the Rogers Charity Classic in Calgary, Alberta.

And Erika Hara of Japan won the Epson Tour’s Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic in Pendleton, Ore.; she’s now No. 3 on the tour’s points list and expected to earn her LPGA card for 2026.

NOT-WINNERS

A few notes on assorted others:

Robert MacIntyre was understandably frustrated following his runner-up finish. He cited his “absolutely horrific start” despite feeling good entering Sunday with a four-shot lead.

“I was really expecting to go out there, foot down, and perform the way I have the last couple days,” he said, adding that he felt like breaking all his clubs. His consolation prizes? He’s officially qualified for the European Ryder Cup team, he’s up to No. 8 in the world and he’s putting distance between himself and the rest of the competition (cc: Akshay Bhatia, Brian Harman, etc.) when it comes to best lefty in the world.

Xander Schauffele’s season ended with a whimper; he played nicely in a Sunday 66 but that left him T28 and feeling a bit odd as he’ll miss the Tour Championship for the first time in his career.

“I mean, everyone out here is trying really hard,” he said post-round. “There’s nothing worse than trying your hardest and playing like ass. It’s the worst combo. Some of us do it, some of us don’t. It’s been a while since I have, and I did it for a few weeks now, and it sucked.”

And although Rickie Fowler’s summer surge came too late for him to be a serious factor in Ryder Cup discussions (not to mention going bogey-double on 14-15 to doom Tour Championship chances), but he’s finished top 20 in four of six starts including T6-T7 the last two weeks to show some promise for 2026 and beyond.

On LIV, Jon Rahm’s second-place finish earned him LIV’s season-long points title and the $18 million bonus that comes with it. This was somewhat controversial given Joaquin Niemann won five times this season. But they had opposite years; Rahm’s worst finish was T11, while Niemann’s T4 on Sunday was the first time he’d cracked the top 10 without winning.

“I know I’m supposed to be happy; it’s a great moment. But it just doesn’t feel great to finish the year losing two playoffs,” he said.

SHORT HITTERS

Five pros on LIV’s relegation bubble.

The league has talked a big game about relegating stars in the part but hasn’t followed through; this year it’ll be interesting to see where those who finished outside the season’s top 48 end up.

1. Lee Westwood avoided relegation with his second top-20 of the season; he finished at No. 46 in the standings and inside the “Open Zone.”

2. Ian Poulter birdied two of his last three holes to jump inside the top 20, finishing T17 alongside Westwood to end his regular season with 6.5 points, cruelly spelling doom in the process for…

3. …teammate Henrik Stenson, whose 6.12 points left him in 49th, on the outside looking in. It’s not clear what comes next for the 2016 Open champ, who finished T12 in the second event of the season but never better than T20 in the weeks that followed.

4. Mito Pereira finished the season in 51st; his final-round 65 helped his team to the title but wasn’t enough to save his own prospects.

5. Anthony Kim failed to earn a point while playing the full season as a “wild card” individual; his season peaked with a T25 at Dallas in June but he had just one other top 40. It will be interesting to see where Kim’s comeback tour heads next.

RYDER CUP WATCH

Now what on Earth happens?

Team Europe faces a fascinating dilemma. We talked last week about its situation: 11 players from the 2023 team essentially locked in for an encore performance (Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton, Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Sepp Straka, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick) plus one complete wild-card spot with front-runners that included Rasmus Hojgaard (No. 8 on the points list) or Harry Hall (the top-ranked FedEx Cup finisher not already named). This week? Rasmus nearly won his home Danish Championship, making eagle at No. 18 to lose by one. Hall, meanwhile, finished solo 6th at the BMW Championship and is clearly in top form.

One particularly interesting wrinkle: Rasmus could play his way into the No. 6 spot on the team (and make himself an auto-qualifier) at this week’s British Masters, while Hall (still No. 17 on the points list) can’t earn any points at the Tour Championship. So what do you do?!

(Others who could still complicate the picture: Aaron Rai, back in action after missing the top 50 in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, last week’s winner Marco Penge, current Ryder Cup No. 11 Matt Wallace, Norwegian star Kristoffer Reitan and 2023 alum and Rasmus’ twin Nicolai Hojgaard.)

The U.S. team’s situation seems even more confusing. Captain Keegan Bradley now has his six auto-qualifiers — Scottie Scheffler, J.J. Spaun, Xander Schauffele, Russell Henley, Harris English and Bryson DeChambeau. He also seems to have three more nearly guaranteed picks in 7-8-9: Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa and Ben Griffin. Patrick Cantlay at No. 15 also seems like a lock given his consistent form and his team history. But it’s messy. If you were looking for clarity you didn’t find it in Maryland; Maverick McNealy surged back into the conversation with a third-place finish while Sam Burns (T4) stated his case, too. Cameron Young (11th) played well for a third consecutive start while Bradley (T17) played well enough to show decent form, too. Cantlay (T30) and Morikawa (T33), meanwhile, finished closer to the bottom.

So now what do you do? Our most scientific solution is something like “lean on vibes.” No matter what happens at East Lake this week, though, we now appear to be hurtling towards a situation where Bradley’s is going to have to make some extremely tough decisions — the toughest being whether to pick himself.

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Spaun 3. Schauffele 4. Henley 5. English 6. DeChambeau 7. Thomas 8. Morikawa 9. Griffin 10. McNealy 11. Bradley 12. Harman 13. Novak 14. Young 15. Cantlay

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. McIlroy 2. MacIntyre 3. Fleetwood 4. Rose 5. Hatton 6. Lowry 7. Straka 8. R. Hojgaard 9. Aberg 10. Hovland 11. Wallace 12. Fitzpatrick 13. Detry 14. Penge 15. Rai

Complete standings here.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

No days off.

Scheffler on his continued success:

“I think it has a lot to do with the intensity that I bring to each round,” he told NBC’s Cara Banks post-round. “I try not to take days off. I try not to take shots off. When it gets to this time of the year it can be a little bit tiring. Today was a grind, and I think it just has a lot to do with the intensity we bring to each round and each shot.”

ONE BIG QUESTION

Back to the Ryder Cup. What should Keegan Bradley do?!

This may sound very obvious, but let’s talk it through: U.S. captain Keegan Bradley should do whatever he thinks will give his team the best chance to win. If he feels like that involves him playing, and the competitive pressure of playing captain excites him, he should absolutely follow that instinct. If it seems like a terrifying prospect with unthinkable pressure amidst a laundry list of tasks, he should skip it. But he shouldn’t bother pandering to the inevitable second-guessing he’ll face; we’re so far down this that if the U.S. team loses he’ll get crushed and if they win he’ll be a hero and it’s hard to imagine an in-between.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Dustin Johnson, Warming Up.

I got a real moment of joy when I exclaimed in awe at one of Dustin Johnson’s tee shots and he just agreed: “Yeah.” If there’s a sales pitch for the below video it’s that DJ was very much himself. Come hang:

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NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

We moved on Friday of last week — still in the same Seattle neighborhood! — which naturally coincided with the first two rainy days of the entire summer. But mostly I was struck by just how much stuff can lurk in the corners of what I think of as a relatively clean, minimalist apartment. I kept thinking I was done with boxes and then I’d need like, several more boxes. Enough to make a guy want to toss it all and start over from scratch. Except the golf clubs, of course.

We’ll see you next week!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.