Hey Everyone,

Spending some time outside of the city this week on vacation. It’s been delightful even though the weather hasn’t been great. Will play some golf before heading home. It’s been nice to spend a bit of time chipping and putting at a nearby course without having to battle traffic in the tunnel or on 93.

I have a lot of golf lined up for the next couple of weeks, including the MassGolf Public Links on Tuesday at The Ledges. Then I hit a small “Four-Ball Tour”, playing in the Dawson Cup at Concord CC (highlight of the year) and the Fallon Cup at Wollaston. A true golf binge.

News and Notes:

• U.S. Junior Amateur: Recent Belmont Hill grad CJ Winchenbaugh bowed out in the Round of 16 to Miles Russell. Russell is probably the favorite to win the championship. He was the youngest AJGA Player of the Year in history last year (Breaking Tiger’s record) and made a cut on the Korn Ferry Tour this spring. Josiah Hakala, who straddles the Granite State and the Bay State, reached the Round of 32.

• Ouimet Memorial will finish on Friday: U. Michigan golfer and Cohasset native Jack O’Donnell has built up a four-stroke lead with rounds of 66-67 (-11) at Indian Pond. North Reading’s Isabel Brozena continued her hot play this summer, she holds a six-shot lead after shooting 66-71 (-7). Morgan Smith is in second place. In the Lowery Senior Division, Frank Vana Jr. shot 69-71 (-4) for a two shot lead over John McNeill. The field will head to Woodland CC, as is tradition, for the final round on Friday. Even with the big leads, heading to a new course for the final round always makes it a little more interesting. MassGolf has all the coverage you need and here’s live scoring.

• U.S. Amateur Q: At Concord CC on Monday James Imai, Matt Parziale, and Joey Lenane earned spots in the U.S. Amateur. It seems like it will be Imai’s last amateur event before turning pro. MassGolf with the full story.

• U.S. Women’s Mid-Am Q: At The Ridge Club Megan Buck, Claire Richardson, and Mary Mulcahy will have a USGA home game this year when they tee it up in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Brae Burn. MassGolf.

• U.S. Senior Am Q: Also at The Ridge Club, Doug Clapp, David Pierce, and Don Foberg qualified for the U.S. Senior Amateur. MassGolf

The Open Championship is the best major… and other thoughts

1. A lot of folks have joined me on the Open-Championship-is-The-Best-Major Island this week after the incredible event at Royal Troon. You’re only allowed to really claim property on this island when you can make that statement during weeks of the other three majors. The real ones wake up Thursday morning of the Masters excited for Augusta National while knowing that the best major is in the middle of July.

2. NBC coverage of The Open last weekend was absolutely atrocious. The commercial load will always be heavy. That’s a given at this point. They stuffed the booth with too many people. That has to change. However, what bothered me most was that they did a terrible job of laying out the golf course aside from The Postage Stamp (8th hole) and Railway (11th). I watched a lot of the coverage from Friday-Sunday, and I had no real sense of the routing or the other important holes that could sway the tournament.

   This is where Augusta National benefits in major season. Everyone knows the course, what holes relinquish birdies, and where the trouble lurks. NBC made zero effort to teach us about Royal Troon.

3. Something that I appreciated about the U.S. Open and Open Championship was that they put professional golfers into a reactionary mindset. Golf drives people nuts because it’s so hard, and the ball isn’t moving! Everything moves slowly, and that’s the challenge of the sport. The mind can wander and drum up imagined trouble, and negative thoughts can creep in.

   At Pinehurst No. 2 and Royal Troon, plans changed quickly for players who were at the top of the leaderboard. The wire grass at Pinehurst made it tough for players to make decisions. They walked to their ball, unsure of what kind of lie they would have. At Royal Troon, the wind changed on Thursday, and suddenly, the practice rounds went out the window, and players had to adjust like a quarterback staring at a secondary shifting its coverage before the snap. All the film room work went out the window. Players like Xander Schauffele, Justin Rose, and Billy Horschel looked like Tom Brady calling audibles at the line of scrimmage, while Rory McIlroy, Bryson Dechambeau, and Wyndham Clark looked like Mac Jones.

   There aren’t enough tournaments that force players to react. More links golf, please.

4. Rory McIlroy said that after his 22nd hole at Troon, he was thinking about where he was going on vacation.

   Whoa.

   That’s not good.

   Sunday at Pinehurst was still lingering in his mind, and he wasn’t ready to tee it up and grind.

5. I’m not sure who is going to feel the pressure of the next 259 days before The Masters more: Scottie Scheffler or McIlroy.

   Scheffler has had an incredible year, but winning one major while Xander Schauffele nabbed two majors has to leave him wondering what he left on the table.

   It would be crazy if Scheffler wins a third Masters before winning any other major. The questions are starting to pop up for Scheffler, especially after a horrendous putting performance.

   McIlroy, on the other hand, has between 5-8 Masters left to complete the Grand Slam and he has a lot of time to think about it. The rollback could actually help him in 2028.

6. Jon Rahm resurfaced this week at Royal Troon and finished T7. Probably a good thing for professional golf. I still consider this a lost major season for Rahm, and I’m sure he’s crossing off the days between now and April on his calendar.

7. LIV players recorded six top-ten finishes in majors this year. Bryson had three (Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open), Cam Smith and Tyrrell Hatton each had one at The Masters, Rahm had one at the Open Championship. If you want to stretch the limit to Top 12, then Patrick Reed (Masters), Dean Burmeister (PGA Championship) can join the club.

   If we’re being honest, it was a poor year for LIV golfers. Bryson was really the only player who had an opportunity to win a major. Heck, he could have won two or maybe three if the weekend at The Masters went better. DJ stinks and Brooks, I think, is off my list of “Dudes who are absolutely going to win one more major.” Brooks has five… feels like enough.

8. It stinks that the major season is over. We should be counting down the days to the PGA Championship in August. Instead, we’re 259 days away from Masters Thursday while trying to drum up excitement about the Olympics and Presidents Cup. Oh, and how could I forget the FedEx Cup Bubble Watch?

Double Click(s)

1. This week, Charlie Woods competed in the U.S. Junior Amateur, an event his dad won three times. It was his first USGA event. Some sons of superstars need their dads to draft them into leagues... At least Charlie earned his spot… the number of people out following him at Oakland Hills CC was insane. Maybe leave Charlie alone? Golfweek did a piece about the scenes around Charlie and so did my colleague Cameron Spraggins at Amateurgolf.com.

   Shoutout to Chase Kyes and Davis Ovard, Wood’s playing partners, who both made it to match play.

2. I’m not entirely sure what this means, but when golf courses start closing in golf-rich areas, it seems like a bad sign. Two Tom Fazio courses closed outside Las Vegas.

3. This NYTimes quiz about how fast various Olympic objects, such as javelins, arrows, and shot putters, travel was fun.

4. If you played video games back in the 1990s, this was a fun walk down memory land.

5. USGA released an “Every Televised Shot” of Bryson’s U.S. Open final round. It’s very on-brand that the first shot of the video isn’t his opening tee shot even though he was the leader of the tournament on Sunday.

When I’m not golfing…

I’m reading…

• The Hunter by Tana French has been awesome.

I’m listening to…

• Listened to “Up All Night” by James Bay, The Lumineers, and Noah Kahan. Liked it a lot.

• I’ve been listening to a few of the Puck podcasts. The Town is always good. It offers a 30-minute look at something in media and Hollywood. The latest one is about broadcasting the Olympics.

• This No Laying Up episode with Nico Darras was very good. Darras runs Blueprint Golf. He’s high energy and comes across as cocky and intense, but some good nuggets about improvement and learning.

I’m drinking…

• Cisco’s Gripah is always a good summer beer.

I’m eating…

• Been a good week of eating. Tiff ordered a scallop quesadilla for dinner this week. Wild combo that was very good!

• We also made these two salads to save a bit of money dining out each night.

  • Zucchini Salad With Basil, Mint and Feta

  • Radish, Cucumber and White Bean Farro Salad

I’m watching…

• We dove into a couple classics from the 90s this week. First, we watched Twister this week. It was pretty good! Just constant action with a sneaky good cast for a 1996 movie. Then we watched Patriot Games with Harrison Ford and Sean Bean.

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