Greg Norman’s warning, Trump talks Bryson, 1 golf revelation | Monday Finish

Greg Norman, LIV’s CEO, knows relegation is coming.

Greg Norman, LIV’s CEO, knows relegation is coming.

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Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we’ve been watching the Olympics and wondering how far these javelin-tossers could throw a 6-iron. Plus which PGA Tour pro would do best on the pommel horse. Anyway, to the golf news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
A satisfying win.

Some minutes after the champagne had been popped in Calgary on Sunday afternoon, Lauren Coughlin addressed the media at the CPKC Women’s Open and reflected on the people who’d kept her going.

Coughlin grew up in Chesapeake, Va., was the first girl to play on the Hickory High School boys team all four years and walked onto the golf team at the University of Virginia. That’s where this story starts. But it could have ended prematurely several times since. In the wake of her victory, one specific moment came to mind: after her 2017 season on the Epson Tour, when she’d wanted to quit, before a conversation with college coach Kim Lewellen kept her in it.

Golf can be a lonely sport but it takes a village, and it was clear from the outpouring on social media that Coughlin has plenty of fans. She name-checked her husband John, her caddie Terry, her parents, her friends, the people who’d shepherded her from an aspiring pro to this moment, 13 under par at Earl Grey Golf Club, two shots better than anyone else in an LPGA field.

“Just makes it all worth it,” said the 31-year-old, whose win came in her 101st LPGA Tour start. “All the sacrifices that I made, that my husband made when I was just getting started. My family made when I was just getting started. A lot of people believed in me when I didn’t and I wouldn’t be where I was without them.”

The win hardly came from nowhere; there have been signs in big tournaments all year. This was particularly satisfying because it felt earned, coming on the heels of a fourth-place finish at the most recent major, the Evian Championship, and just a few months after a T3 at the year’s first major, the Chevron. Just three years ago Coughlin needed a fierce finish to the season just to keep her LPGA Tour card. When she made a clutch birdie to a tucked back pin at the par-3 17th to build her lead to two, those struggles all suddenly seemed like ancient history.

“I think — just my story in general shows that I’m always trying, I’m willing to just stay in it, I don’t give up. And I think I showed that today,” she said.

Want to know something else cool? This year’s Solheim Cup is at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia. That’s her home state. It’s where her story began. It’s no small triumph that her next golfing chapter will bring her back there.

Winning when you’ve earned it — that’s golf stuff I like.

“Yeah, I mean, it was incredible,” Coughlin concluded. “I want to do it again.”

WINNERS
Who won the week?

Jhonattan Vegas won the 3M Open thanks to a stellar Saturday 63 and a Sunday where he did just enough — including a clutch two-putt for birdie from nearly 100 feet on the 72nd hole to secure his first victory in seven years.

Lauren Coughlin won the first title of her LPGA Tour career at the CPKC Women’s Open thanks to a clutch birdie at the par-3 17th; she’s now all but guaranteed to be on this fall’s Solheim Cup team.

Jon Rahm won for the first time since the 2023 Masters, claiming LIV’s UK event thanks to a Sunday 67 and a three-putt on the final hole from teammate Tyrrell Hatton. Rahm had nine top-10s in nine LIV starts entering this week; he finally earned the top spot in his 10th.

K.J. Choi won the Senior Open Championship at Carnoustie, the first senior major for the Korean fan favorite. “Carnoustie [is] unbelievably tough,” he said. “Is my dream. Very historical for Korean player to win this.”

And Trevor Gutschewski won the U.S. Junior Amateur despite entering the tournament as the 3570th-ranked amateur in the world; as he said, the golf ball doesn’t care.

NOT-WINNERS
But point-earners, still.

Last week I wrote about those big-name PGA Tour pros at risk of missing this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs. One such player? Matt Kuchar, who is the only pro to have qualified for all 17 years of the Tour’s playoff system. While his T3 finish helped him from 155 to 111, just 70 make it to Memphis in three weeks’ time.

“Certainly making the playoffs, keeping my job for next year, they’re all checkmarks,” he said. “I normally like to check these off a lot earlier in the year than right now, but, ’tis the bed I made.”

He wasn’t the only one to make a move. PGA Tour rookie Max Greyserman began the week at No. 88 and shot eight-under 63 to finish solo second; he’s now No. 63 in the standings and should safely qualify for the first round.

Maverick McNealy finished T3 alongside Kuchar to meaningfully improve his standing; he’s now No. 57, up from 68, and can set his sights on the all-important top 50 with his top-70 status secure.

As for Vegas? He was just No. 149 entering the week and now jumps to No. 66. Victor Perez at No. 70 becomes the last man in, with Davis Riley (No. 71) just 2.6 points behind.

Another notable not-winner: Angel Cabrera finished T5 at the Senior Open; it was his first senior major start since his release from prison in Argentina, where he served more than two years on domestic violence charges. There’s a good chance we’ll see him at the Masters next April.

SHORT HITTERS
This week’s Olympic contenders, top to bottom.

Scottie Scheffler (Team USA, +350) is the clear betting favorite of the 60 golfers at Le Golf National this week; a win would take his surreal season (a Masters, five other Signature Events, fatherhood, criminal charges) to new heights.

Xander Schauffele (Team USA, +600) has staked a claim to Player of the Year honors thanks to his two major championship wins; he’s also the reigning Olympic champ. While Scheffler has been remarkably consistent Schauffele has, too — in his last 34 starts he’s finished inside the top 25 31 times. It feels like a safe bet that he’ll contend.

Rory McIlroy (Team Ireland, +800) sometimes says that, despite his decade-long major drought, he’s won just about everything else there is to win in the game. He’s mostly right — he’s won the Players, the FedEx Cup, the Race to Dubai, Signature Events, World Golf Championships, National Opens, Ryder Cups and more. No Olympic medal, though…

Jon Rahm (Team Spain, +1200) had a strange, disappointing major championship season in his first year as a member of LIV Golf. But he had his best finish at the Open (T7) and just won on LIV for the first time. He seems to have things trending in the right direction.

Gaganjeet Bhullar (Team India, +50000) has the second-longest odds on the board; the World No. 295 keeps winning on the Professional Golf Tour of India and has collected 11 Asian Tour wins over the past decade-plus, too.

Camilo Villegas (Team Colombia, +75000) is representing Colombia thanks to his win at last fall’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship, but 2024 hasn’t been as kind to him — his best finish is a T35 at the Masters (not a bad spot for your best result) and he hasn’t made a cut since. Shock the world, Camilo!

ONE DUMB GRAPHIC
Rory vs. Rory.

ONE SWING THOUGHT
From Jenny Shin.

The third-place finisher at the CPKC admitted she’d had too much coffee on Sunday morning.

“Had really bad acid reflux, so I was really struggling with that most of the day,” Jenny Shin said. But she also said she’d tapped into something new to shoot five-under 67 — thanks to a “revelation” from Sunday at the U.S. Women’s Open. That revelation?

“Actually playing with Charley Hull, she looks so carefree when she plays,” Shin said. “It’s not something that I am really good at, so watching her made me free up a little bit. Then I realized how much I was overthinking and how much I was overanalyzing everything.

“So I’ve let go partially, I guess.”

ONE BIG QUESTION
Who on LIV is Greg Norman warning?

With the future of a PGA Tour-LIV alliance as murky as ever, we’re somehow nearing the end of another golf season. That means relegation on LIV — at least for some non-protected members of the controversial startup. And LIV’s commissioner Greg Norman joined the broadcast over the weekend to offer a warning to his constituents.

“Players know there is relegation coming up and things are going to change very quickly,” he said. “These guys who are on the edge have got to pull their socks up and get themselves going.”

So who is at risk? That’s a good question. Players finishing inside the top 24 at year’s end guarantee themselves a spot in LIV for 2025. Players outside the top 24 but inside the top 48 are in the “Open Zone” and face “potential trade or release by their team.” And players 49 or below are in the “Drop Zone;” they’re relegated out of the league and can only return for the next season through qualifying.

Right now there are eight players in that Drop Zone. Scott Vincent (No. 49) who finished No. 22 last season. Laurie Canter (No. 50) who played just two events this season as a fill-in and has mostly been playing the DP World Tour, where he recently won. Bubba Watson (No. 51) whose status as captain (I’m pretty sure) exempts him from relegation, Kalle Samooja (No. 52), who came through qualifying last year. Branden Grace (No. 53), who finished second and ninth in LIV’s first two seasons but hasn’t found it this year. Kieran Vincent, Scott’s brother, who made it through qualifying, too. And then there are the two wild cards: Hudson Swafford (No. 55) and Anthony Kim (No. 56) who have been playing as individuals and have each failed to earn a point because neither has cracked the top 25 in an event this season.

Norman spoke to the “intensity on the driving ranges” as pros face an uncertain future. “We knew that we had to create this pathway of opportunity for the next generation,” he said. “And there are players out there with FOMO right now. [That’s ‘fear of missing out.’] They want to get in. So the players who are in, know that there’s that FOMO wanting to get in, and they don’t want to get out.”

There are others lurking just outside the Drop Zone: Pat Perez is No. 48, Harold Varner III is No. 47 and big-name captains like Ian Poulter (No. 45) and Phil Mickelson (No. 44) aren’t much higher.

This section is titled “one big question,” but I suppose that big question is actually several: What will happen to those relegated fellas? Will any play their way up the standings in these next few weeks? Who’s coming through the door to replace them from the DP World Tour or PGA Tour? Finally, there’s this: What’s next for Anthony Kim?

ONE THING TO WATCH
Trump on Bryson.

Last week I wrote how surreal it was to have a professional golfer — Bryson DeChambeau, in this case — send a tweet clarifying the video he’d just released with a former president came before an attempt on his life. There are few things more frivolous than golf challenges on YouTube, after all, and few things weightier than a presidential election. But it turns out that was just the first level of surreal; the next came over the weekend when former president Donald Trump brought up their “Break 50” challenge at a campaign rally.

I’ll let you form your own opinions on the speech and the man delivering it — the Monday Finish strives to steer clear of politics where we can — but I will offer this one thing: Trump is entering risky territory telling golf stories to a non-golf audience. This is the same mistake Biden made at the debate when he brought up being a 6 handicap. There is a very specific subset of people who want to hear about your golf game and a much larger subset who do not. Dangerous territory. Could lose the room.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.

Sunset has crept ahead of 9 p.m.; summer’s hardly over but there’s an urgency to the days as August approaches. For golfers in Seattle that means one thing in particular: book a tee time at Chambers Bay ASAP.

I’ll get to work on that. And I’ll get to work on some early-morning Olympic golf viewing. We’ll see you back here next week.

Before you go, a quick request: If you like the Monday Finish, subscribe for free HERE to get it in your email inbox!

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at [email protected].