WHO knows exactly what went through the mind of Robert MacIntyre as he watched Scottie Scheffler’s pitch onto the 17th green in the final round of last week’s BMW Championship at Caves Valley?
If the world number one had left the ball in a perilous position the Scotsman’s hopes of reviving a challenge that had wilted through the previous 16 holes would have been given a vital boost. Instead, the world number one lobbed his ball carefully towards the target, then watched as it traced a path to both the bottom of the hole and centre of his nearest challenger’s heart.
Television footage showed MacIntyre’s head follow the ball’s progress to the pin before it turned to Scheffler and nodded slowly with a dazed combination of admiration and resignation. “Nothing you can with that,” he later said, perhaps speaking for the combined force of the world’s elite golfers.
It makes it all the more astonishing to cast our collective mind back to the end of April when Scheffler had made eight starts in the year and was yet to taste victory. It was a stretch that had been disrupted by the self-inflicted injury to his hand in a bizarre Christmas incident involving a wine glass and the kitchen sink. You sense that the field could throw the kitchen sink at Scheffler at the moment and have considerably less impact than that stemmed goblet did.
In his 10 tournaments since the start of May, he’s won the CJ Cup, the PGA Championship, the Memorial Tournament, the Open, and last week’s BMW Championship. He was third in the St Jude Championship (a career-best finish on the course), fourth in the Charles Schwab Challenge, and sixth in the Travelers Championship (when sharing the halfway lead), but (what a loser) just seventh in the US Open and eighth in the Scottish Open.
It’s a giddy run, and it’s fun to note that in the same month it started, the PGA Tour announced that it was scrapping the unpopular Starting Strokes format that has recently been used for this week’s season finale. Imagine if they hadn’t and Scheffler were getting a head start this week!
The Tour Championship is not the only topic of conversation, of course. There is also the small matter of the two dozen men who will contest the Ryder Cup next month. As of Sunday, six men (Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, JJ Spaun, Bryson DeChambeau, Russell Henley, and Harris English) have already booked themselves a place on Team USA with captain Keegan Bradley to announce his wildcards next week which provides incentive for many in the field at East Lake in Atlanta.
Over this side of the pond, the qualifying period has not yet ended, but Rory McIlroy, Robert MacIntyre, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose, and Tyrrell Hatton have already secured passage to New York. Shane Lowry sits in the sixth and final spot, and because there are no rankings points available on the PGA Tour this week only Rasmus Hojgaard (currently in eighth place) can overhaul him by performing well in the British Masters at the Belfry.
To do so he must finish in a two-way tie for 29th or better which would appear to be well within the scope of a man who was second last week and has finished first, third, and T16 in his four course starts.
For many of us old enough to recall the 1980s, it is impossible not to be distracted by the many echoes of the Ryder Cup past at The Belfry. We stand around the 10th tee and think of Severiano Ballesteros and Jose Maria Olazabal driving the green. We gaze at the 16th green and remember Philip Price’s nose-snorting, fist-pumping celebration of the holed putt during his sensational victory over Phil Mickelson. We stroll down 18 and see Americans repeatedly driving into the water, Sam Torrance holing out for victory in 1985, and Christy O’Connor’s redemptive raising of his arms to the heavens four years later. It was not so much a golfer in a moment of triumph, more like a priest inviting the congregation to celebrate the resurrection of the Cup itself.
Hojgaard is too young to find his mind wandering towards such memories, but he will encounter evidence of The Belfry’s Ryder Cup heritage all week, whether via photographs down every corridor, or bars named after the heroes, or in every exchange with television and the press. It will be a good test for him.
We are, then, set for a week of excellent golf on both sides of the Atlantic, but who to back?
Sam Burns
A tip last week, he landed the place and can get involved again this week. He was the fourth best scorer at East Lake in 2023 and T13 last year (when top seven through 54 holes). Last week’s fourth was solid and he’s among those looking to impress Keegan Bradley with a good showing.
Thriston Lawrence
The South African was second on the course last year and is well capable of contending again. He’s had a poor year in America but was fourth when he played in Belgium in May off a run of missed cuts, and he’s also won at Eichenried, which is another flat parkland track like this week.
Richard Mansell
Players who hit a lot of greens as a consequence of length from the tee fare well on the Brabazon Course and the Midlander has the latter and is finding plenty of greens currently. He was three shots back at halfway on his Belfry debut, eighth in 2022 and T28 in 2023 after a horror start.
Brandon Stone
The South African is long enough, hits enough greens, and if he can find something with the putter, can go low. He was two back of the first-round lead at the Belfry in 2022 and thrashed a second-round 64 when T12 last year.
Please remember to gamble responsibly. Visit our Safer Gambling section for more information, help and advice.
