Season-long race? That's 'silly' talk
Scheffler struggles with season-long efforts boiling down to one week; Matsuyama plays on after London robbery; No. 1 Clanton dismissed from U.S. Amateur
Arguably the best three years running, Scottie Scheffler has yet to win FedEx Cup (Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
If you talk to Scottie Scheffler, who has won seven times in 2024, it’s hard for him to comprehend that whatever he does in the Tour Championship in two weeks in the playoff finale at East Lake will determine whether he wins or loses the SEASON-LONG RACE.
If Scheffler was the No. 50 player in the world who has maybe won one PGA Tour event during the season, then his comments would likely fall on deaf ears. But when it’s the best player in the world enjoying a crazy run of success, it makes his opinion matter.
Since the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup season-ending series started in 2007, the use of the word “playoff” has always been problematic.
It’s never been a real playoff, yet the PGA Tour, in its infinite wisdom, has tried to sell the playoff concept to the public.
They need to do a better sales job closer to home since Scheffler is also not sold on the idea. The call is coming from inside the house.
“I think it’s silly,” said Scheffler before the start of the FedEx St. Jude Championship this week. “You can’t call it a ‘season-long race’ and have it come down to one tournament. Hypothetically, we get to East Lake, and my neck flares up, and it doesn’t heal the way it did at the Players. I finish 30th in the FedEx Cup because I had to withdraw from the last tournament. Is that really the season-long race? No. It is what it is.”
“I don’t really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it’s called. But you’ve got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race … but I know for a fact you can’t really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year.” — Scottie Scheffler
The playoff issue has many facets; one is the element of grass. Where is the inherent fairness in playing two weeks of the postseason series on bentgrass and then the final tournament on Bermuda grass?
In golf, different grasses benefit different players. Unlike traditional team sports with playoff systems that provide a “home-field advantage” to the highest ranked teams based on season-long results, playing the same course in golf for the season finale every year doesn’t necessarily favor the top seed.
The types of grasses on a course make a difference for each golfer. Depending on the type of turf, a benefit exists. There’s a reason some players always do better on the West Coast Swing but struggle more when the tour moves to the southeastern U.S.
Because Coca-Cola sponsors the playoff finale and wants to keep the event in Atlanta, where Coke is headquartered, the inherent unfairness will continue to favor certain players who like East Lake.
Scheffler has never been one of those guys who prefers East Lake, having not won the FedEx Cup either of the last two years when he arrived as the top seed starting at 10-under par, two shots ahead of second on the handicapped leaderboard. His actual 72-hole score each of the four times he’s played are T21, T13, T17 and second.
Xander Schauffele has played East Lake more consistently well, shooting the lowest 72-hole score three times in seven starts and never finishing worse than seventh. Yet he's never lifted the FedEx Cup trophy.
So it’s understandable why Scheffler doesn’t understand why the season-long separation he annually creates in accumulated points over his peers can be wiped out by a couple of bogeys at East Lake.
“It’s a fun tournament,” he said. “I don’t really consider it the season-long race like I think the way it’s called. But you’ve got to figure out a way to strike a balance between it being a good TV product and it still being a season-long race.
“Right now, I don’t know exactly how the ratings are or anything like that, but I know for a fact you can’t really quite call it the season-long race when it comes down to one stroke-play tournament on the same golf course each year.”
Hideki Matsuyama lost his wallet but not his bronze medal in London (Ben Jared/PGA Tour/IGF)
Airport mugging shakes Matsuyama team
Despite the absence of his usual caddie and his coach, Hideki Matsuyama should no ill effects from an airport heist he endured after his bronze-medal performance at the Paris Olympics, shooting 5-under 66 to sit tied second just a shot behind leader Chris Kirk after the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tenn.
Matsuyama told Golf Digest Japan that his travel party was a victim of a robbery in the UK airport en route back from winning the bronze at Le Golf National two weeks ago, and he was forced to play the first PGA Tour playoff event without his team in Memphis.
In addition to Matsuyama’s wallet, the passports of his caddie, Shota Hayato, and coach, Mikihito Kuromiya, were stolen, preventing them from traveling to the U.S. for the first of three FedEx Cup playoff events. He picked up Ryo Hisatsune’s caddie, Taiga Tabuchi, for as long as it takes his own caddie to get back.
The incident happened during a layover in London. Matsuyama’s caddie and coach were forced to return to Japan temporarily to get expedited passports and visas reissued, and there’s slim hope that they will make it before next week’s BMW Championship at Castle Pines in Colorado. The earliest they may be able to travel to the U.S. is just before the Tour Championship.
“There’s a chance they’ll make it (to Colorado), but we have to go into it thinking it’s close to zero,” he told the Japanese media in Memphis.
Matsuyama said he was lucky that his own passport and bronze medal were not stolen. Matusyama, who ranks eighth in FedEx Cup points, is trying to remain focused on the playoff series.
“I’m going to play golf as if I went back to the way I was before I had a coach,” he said in Memphis. “I feel like all the responsibility is on me. I’m looking forward to that for the first time in a while. I want to pass on to him (Tabuchi, his fill-in caddie) what I’ve cultivated with Shota on the course.”
Luke Clanton eliminated in U.S. Amateur Round of 32 (Chris Keane/USGA)
New No. 1 Clanton gets ousted at Hazeltine
Luke Clanton has risen to the top of the World Amateur Golf Ranking this summer on the backs of three top-10 finishes in the professional ranks on the PGA Tour, including a runner-up finish in the John Deere Classic. Back with his amateur peers at Hazeltine National Golf Club this week, Clanton’s red-hot ride came to a halt with a loss in the Round of 32 at the U.S. Amateur.
After breezing through stroke play at 3-under and advancing from the first round of match play with a 4 and 3 win over Dylan McDermott, Clanton met his match against WAGR No. 17 Jackson Buchanan on Thursday, who claimed a 1-up win after rallying from a hole down through 14.
“I know him pretty well. It’s hard to go against one of your good buddies out here,” said Clanton.
“You’re not going to get easy matches all the time. He’s a good buddy of mine. He played really well, and I don’t see him losing much.”
Instead of contending for a U.S. Amateur title and a spot in the 2025 Masters, Clanton will head back to Florida State for his junior season. The Seminoles lost in the NCAA team championship match to Auburn last season.
“I’m pretty pumped to go back and play for FSU,” Clanton said. “So I’m excited to do that. I’m excited to go see all the guys. It’s going to be fun.”
Buchanan, a rising senior at Illinois, had already eliminated No. 6 Preston Summerhays in the Round of 64 and advanced to the Round of 16 against 16-year-old Tyler Mawhinney, the last qualifier into the U.S. Amateur field after winning the Canadian Amateur last week. Buchanan did it again, rallying from 1 down through 16 holes with birdies on 17 and 18 to beat Mawhinney 1 up and advance to the quarterfinals to face Jacob Modleski, who defeated No. 14 Omar Morales of Mexico, 2 and 1.
“I’ve never played two matches in one day,” said Buchanan. “Luke (Clanton) just brought it all out of me. That was the toughest match I’ve ever played.
“I knew coming into this one it would kind of be a little bit of a dogfight. Tyler played well, and I was able to close, but I’m just gassed right now.
“It’s golf. It’s match play. As you guys know in match play, anybody can beat anybody. It’s not stroke play. You just have to bring it no matter if you’re playing a 16-year-old or the best player in the world.”
No. 10 Jose Luis Ballester of Spain is the highest ranked player remaining and will face 36-year-old trainer Bobby Massa, the first mid-amateur since Stewart Hagestad in 2022 to reach final eight in the U.S. Amateur.
No. 11 Brendan Valdes, a rising senior for reigning NCAA champion Auburn, will face another Spaniard, Luis Masaveu, who made the cut at Royal Troon after qualifying his way into the Open Championship.
“If you’re in this tournament, you’re going to be a pretty good player,” said Valdes. “I’m just going to try to keep it rolling.”
Oklahoma State 19-year-old Ethan Fang, the No. 64 seed after getting through a 14-foor-11 player and knocking out medalist Jimmy Ellis, will face rising Iowa sophomore and USGA championship rookie Noah Kent.
“Honestly, as long as you get to match play, anyone can win it,” said Fang, trying to become the first 64 seed to ever win a USGA championship. “It doesn’t really matter what seed you are. It’s pretty cool I’m the 64 seed. Just the underdog coming in and see if we can win it.”