Tour Confidential: Ladies's Open surprises, Bob Mac's win with Dad

Examine in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the most popular subjects within the sport, and be a part of the dialog by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we talk about the U.S. Ladies’s Open, Robert MacIntyre’s familial victory, an fascinating Ryder Cup determination and extra.

Yuka Saso burst onto the scene with an surprising U.S. Ladies’s Open victory in 2021, however after a few winless seasons she picked up her second career LPGA victory at this week’s U.S. Ladies’s Open at Lancaster Nation Membership. Was this an surprising winner?

James Colgan, information and options editor (@jamescolgan26): I’m undecided I’d name a participant who completed 2nd and T3 on the KPMG and Evian final 12 months an ‘surprising’ winner. Some gamers have a present for enjoying properly when the circumstances get powerful. A 68 on Sunday — when solely 13 gamers in your complete subject performed underneath par — would appear to be proof.

Zephyr Melton, assistant editor (@zephyrmelton): It’s not as if Saso disappeared the final couple of years — she simply didn’t win. As James famous above, she completed inside the highest 3 twice in majors final summer season. It was solely a matter of time earlier than she broke by way of and received on the most important stage once more. I’d be shocked if that is the final time we see Saso hoist the trophy on main Sunday.

Josh Sens, senior author (@joshsens): I’d like to have a so-so 12 months like Saso had in 2023. Successful’s onerous. So many issues need to go proper (like, as an example, Nelly Korda lacking the reduce). After which it’s a must to be prepared once they do. Saso was. Nice mixture of energy and poise. I second Zephyr. I’d be shocked if she doesn’t repeat the feat earlier than lengthy.

Alan Bastable, government editor (@alan_bastable): Shocking: Nelly Korda lacking a reduce. Not shocking: A participant who already has confirmed she will win a U.S. Ladies’s Open doing it once more. And Yuka did it by dropping the hammer. 4 birdies in a five-hole stretch on the again 9 as the opposite contenders have been struggling to make pars? That’s critically stout stuff. Additionally cool: that Yuka has now received U.S. Opens for 2 nations that by no means had one (Philippines in ’21 and Japan this 12 months).

One participant who didn’t make the weekend at Lancaster was 29-year-old Lexi Thompson, who stole the headlines earlier in the week when she introduced that after this season she’ll now not play a full-time LPGA schedule. Stunned? Not shocked? 

Colgan: The timing was surprising, however the information wasn’t. Lexi has lengthy appeared from afar to be one among golf’s most tortured gamers. No sum of money or fame is sufficient to overcome plain disenchantment with the life of a professional golfer. Good on her for making a choice for her happiness.

Melton: I’m not shocked by the information. Lexi has in the reduction of on her taking part in schedule significantly over the previous couple of years and hasn’t performed exceptionally properly when she has teed it up. And contemplating she turned professional at 15(!) she’s been taking part in professional golf for nearly half her life. That’s a very long time to be on the grind.I hope she will discover happiness within the subsequent stage of her journey.

Sens: Not shocked in any respect. It’s a giant world on the market, and Thompson had lengthy appeared prepared to interrupt from the small nook of it she’s been dwelling in. It’s no secret that the tunnel imaginative and prescient required to compete at that stage requires a ton of non-public sacrifice. She’s over it. For now, anyway. Good for her for recognizing that. Even higher, she’s younger sufficient that she will at all times return to it if she has a change of coronary heart.

Bastable: ​​OK, I’ll chew. Shade me shocked! Sure, Thompson has had a rollercoaster couple of years, however she discovered her type once more within the again half of 2023 and reasserting her place among the many LPGA’s alphas. She even had a brand new ball deal for this 12 months! I didn’t see her pulling the plug. Then once more, I get it. She’s solely 29 however has been underneath the highlight a minimum of since she performed in a USWO at 12 and, on a extra native stage, lengthy earlier than that. In the end the grind will get to you.    

Even when she wasn’t taking part in properly, Thompson had lengthy been a fan favourite and somebody the ladies’s recreation was strongly marketed behind. How large of a blow will her full-time absence be to the LPGA Tour? 

Colgan: Properly, it’s clearly a substantial blow to the LPGA, however it primarily means the burden falls to the remainder of the sport’s stars. I used to be impressed with how Nelly Korda dealt with a disastrous week, and I assumed the timing was telling the place the eye will shift.

Melton: It’ll actually be felt, however fortunately the Tour has Nelly’s starpower to market now. If somebody like Rose Zhang or Lilia Vu can rise as much as problem her, the LPGA will likely be simply advantageous.

Sens: James and Zephyr have stated it properly. I might simply add that this hardly appears like an abrupt departure. Extra like a gradual phasing out, as she’d already been reducing again and never placing herself in competition in lots of large occasions when she did. This isn’t a sudden intestine punch.

Bastable: Massive loss for certain. Not simply because she brings to the ladies’s recreation (and, final fall, the PGA Tour) a model of grip-it-and-rip-it golf that’s a lot enjoyable watch but additionally as a result of she understands the significance of her star energy (a number of gamers final week talked about Thompson’s dedication to waving the LPGA flag at pro-am events). I witnessed this myself only a few weeks in the past on the Founders Cup pro-am pairings celebration in northern New Jersey. Lexi wasn’t simply there to test a field. She was smiling, shaking fingers and current. 

What occasion from the previous week was extra shocking? Nelly Korda recording a 10 and lacking the reduce, or Charley Hull going viral (and gaining a ton of publicity and social media followers) for, properly, a cigarette?

Colgan: Nelly was one of the best participant on the planet, male or feminine, over the past six months. Her dumping three within the water on the third gap on the nationwide championship isn’t simply essentially the most shocking improvement of the week, it’s essentially the most shocking non-jail-related improvement in professional golf throughout this main season.

Melton: Gotta be Nelly. Seeing her make a ten was downright surprising. The one factor extra surprising would’ve been waking as much as her mugshot, a la Scottie Scheffler.

Sens: Primarily based on what we learn about social media by now, does something that occurs on it ever depend as shocking anymore? Nelly’s 10 all the best way.

Bastable: Robust to match the 2, however I used to be fascinated by the response to the Hull video. Really feel just like the virality of the second might simply have gone two methods for her: Gasp! A professional golfer tugging on a ciggy in entrance of younger followers! Or…Wonderful! A professional golfer with vices and weaknesses identical to the remainder of us! Clearly the general public embraced Hull’s everywoman attraction, and the stability tipped towards praising her. Actually fascinating to look at this sociology experiment play out in actual time. If the LPGA had a PIP rating, Hull may be in ballot (pull?) place.       

Robert MacIntyre, with his dad caddying, shot a final-round 68 to win the RBC Canadian Open to say his first profession Tour victory. This comes simply weeks after the Scot talked about battling homesickness and getting snug with the PGA Tour’s extra business-like surroundings. Is that this an essential component of the sport we regularly overlook relating to non-People making an attempt to have success on Tour?

Colgan: I feel the training curve on the PGA Tour is steep for anybody, notably a correct Scottish son like Bob MacIntyre, and I’d say the identical for dwelling full-time in Orlando, Fla.

Melton: Life on the street can get lonely! I’ve skilled it, and my journey schedule pales compared to Tour execs. I can’t think about having to dwell out of a suitcase throughout the pond — not to mention making my homebase Orlando for my uncommon offweeks. 

Sens: Wait, James, are you suggesting that Orlando won’t in actual fact be the Happiest Place on Earth? I’m canceling my Disney journey. Tour execs are individuals, too, so, in fact, these varieties of changes matter. However I don’t assume we overlook them. We frequently hear tales in regards to the interaction between the private and the skilled, and the way what occurs off the course impacts what occurs on it, and the opposite approach round. Generally, we even hear about it in tabloid headlines. 

Bastable: Credit score to Bobby Mac for baring his soul and giving us the PGA Championship’s most fascinating presser this aspect of Scottie Scheffler’s post-arrest musings. The camaraderie the Europeans take pleasure in on the DP World Tour is briefly provide stateside, the place there’s much more of an every-player-for-himself mentality. MacIntyre clearly isn’t accustomed to the lone-wolf life-style, and it’s been carrying on him. Perhaps a PGA Tour title will make him really feel a bit extra at dwelling.          

In a newly created function, former caddie and NBC Sports activities reporter John Wood was named “Team Manager” of the U.S. Ryder Cup crew (which nonetheless doesn’t have a captain for 2025). Might you see this being an essential function the People want, or a easy case of overthinking after final 12 months’s lopsided loss?

Colgan: I loooooooooove this determination. Regardless of the reality was behind Patrick Cantlay’s Hatgate saga final fall, it nonetheless spoke volumes in regards to the state of the American crew room that the allegation arose within the first place. John Wooden lives and breathes the Ryder Cup, and giving him the latitude to handle team-building in lieu of a captain’s announcement is a no brainer.

Melton: First it was a process power, now it’s a “Staff Supervisor.” Have the People thought-about merely not getting their a**es kicked in foursomes each two years?

Sens: Looks as if doing CPR on a useless man. Couldn’t damage. However I doubt it impacts the result.

Bastable: Getting John Wooden again on the squad in any capability is a win. Sensible. Humorous. Musical. True renaissance man. Good for crew vibes.