Monday Leaderboard: Scottie Scheffler resumes his reign of terror with another win

Welcome to the Monday Leaderboard, where we break down the weekend’s top stories in the wonderful world of golf. Grab an Arnold Palmer, pull up a chair and watch out for the 18th green…

1. Scottie Scheffler is back to his unstoppable ways

Well, if you were hoping that Scottie Scheffler’s reign of terror was over after he finished T41 at the US Open, guess again. Scheffler won the Travelers Championship, the final (and final) signature event this season, and once again collected a monstrous check. He has now earned nearly $30 million on Tour this season, more than Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus earned in their entire careers, combined and doubled. (Golf has changed a bit.) Scheffler is already fifth on the list of career money leaders on the PGA Tour, and could be as high as third by season’s end, behind Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. (Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson would be ahead of him if they were still on the PGA Tour.)

Scheffler won despite a late-round protest that briefly disrupted the tournament – ​​and also ended in the disruption of some faces:

This isn’t common in the United States, but as the Tour is about to head to Europe for the Open Championship and several other tournaments, the world of golf and the world of climate change protests are likely to overlap more soon.

2. Jon Rahm has had it with drones

Look, it hasn’t been a great LIV run for Jon Rahm yet. He’s yet to win on a tour he should have dominated, he’s been sidelined from golf’s mainstream and he’s gone T45-MC-WD at the three majors so far. So you can imagine that he’d be a little frustrated with, well, pretty much everything at this point. This weekend, drones were his target:

He’s not the first player to complain about drones being too close, and given the widespread presence of drones, he won’t be the last.

3. Amy Yang finally claims her first major

Golf is tough if you don’t win consistently, and Amy Yang, now 34 years old, has spent most of her career without winning consistently. She had won 74 majors prior to this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and was 0-for-74. But this week everything came together for Yang to take a three-stroke victory on a vicious Sahalee Country Club course. Not only that, she qualified for the Olympics on the last possible day. Not a bad afternoon, and the celebration around Yang on the 18th green was one of the most jubilant of the season.

4. Cam Young gets low, low, low

Connecticut’s TPC River Highlands, home of the Travelers Championship, isn’t exactly a tough course to begin with, and after rain softened the course early this year, conditions were perfect for some deep dives. Cam Young lit up the scoreboard early Saturday, going 5-under through the first four holes, and it was on from there. Young became the twelfth player in PGA Tour history to record a score of 59, and it was his own best round ever by three strokes. Young was able to finish the 59 with a five-foot putt, and would finish the tournament at T9, five strokes behind Scheffler.

5. Nelly’s struggle continues

Normally, missed cuts don’t really constitute ‘news’. It happens to everyone sometimes. But if you’ve missed three in a row after winning five tournaments in a row earlier this year, we’re going to pay attention. Nelly Korda scored a career-worst equalizer at KPMG on Friday and fell from one stroke off the lead to out of the tournament. The three-MC streak is also the longest in Korda’s career, and nothing seems to be working right now. “It’s just been golf for me lately,” Korda said after her round. “There are no words for how I’m playing now. A lot went my way at the beginning of the year and I just gave it back.” Stupid game.

Mulligan of the Week: The longest putt you’ll ever see

Stunt golf! We’re in the golden days of golf content and the Bryan Bros. – old-school YouTube golf content creators – are back in the game, even as they continue to try to find their way into the real professional game. This week’s entry: Wesley Bryan draining a putt, with a full swing over the shoulder, from 144 meters further:

That putt traveled 450 feet – or, put another way, 144 Rory McIlroy Pinehurst Misses. It’s not an official world record, as there was no Guinness World Record representative on site (the current record is apparently 400 feet), but it was impressive nonetheless.

Swing away and roll ’em through this week, friends, and we’ll see you back here next Monday!