Sunday of The Open Championship is one of the best days on the annual golfing calendar. A Champion Golfer of the Year is set to be crowned, hot coffee is brewing in the pot for those in the United States and a links golf course that asks numerous questions of players is presented on television.
Monday after The Open Championship may be one of the worst.
Following the dominant victory by Scottie Scheffler at Royal Portrush, in which he became the first player in the last 100 years to win his first four majors by three strokes or more, major championship takes a backseat for nine months. Not until the azaleas bloom again in Georgia will the best players from around the world be together. Not until the Masters will there be historical implications to what happens on the course.
While many are looking ahead at the 2026 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills and the potential for another career grand slam winner to be crowned, let’s not skirt past the Masters and what Scheffler could accomplish should he slip on a third green jacket. That would put him in possession of three major championships at the same time, a feat only Tiger Woods and Ben Hogan have accomplished.
All of this is not possible, of course, without his win at The Open. So, let’s take a page out of the Champion Golfer of the Year’s book and savor the moment — then go beyond Scheffler and take more than 2 minutes to celebrate the final major of 2025, including a look at some winners and losers heading into the postseason.
Most complete performance to date
Scheffler’s iron play remains his separator. He gained just about 10 strokes on the field with his approach play, hitting a shade under 80% of the greens in regulation and averaging a proximity just under 25 feet from the fairway. That’s light work for the right hander and not breaking any news.
What did breakthrough last week was his putter. Scheffler gained more than eight strokes with his putter in hand as he missed just four putts inside 10 feet for the tournament and converted crucial chance after crucial chance. Whenever it felt like a moment had arrived in which Scheffler’s peers would be able to catch up, Scheffler’s stroke on the greens had other ideas.
Combine that success with everything else he can do, and he’s nearly impossible to beat. Scheffler’s shotmaking ability, for one, best exemplified when he played No. 6-8 in 3 under while tied with Matt Fitzpatrick on Saturday to surge back into the lead. His decision-making flashed at No. 2 on Sunday when he was greenside in two on the par-5 2nd and played conservatively to the pin with his chip yet still left the hole adding to lead. His mettle and what occurs inside his head only adds to his physical tools, making it clear that this was not only Scheffler’s most complete performance but his most terrifying one (if you are among his peers).
“Scottie Scheffler is … inevitable,” Rory McIlroy said. “Even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, he’s become a complete player. He’s improved so much with his putter.”
Maturity matters
Following McIlroy’s win at the 2014 PGA Championship, the winningest major champion of all time contended that the young Northern Irishman would win 20 by the time his professional golf career was finished. It’s a quote from Jack Nicklaus that bubbles up in my mind whenever players experience a stretch of form in majors like the one Scheffler is currently going through.
Others have seen similar runs of success recently. Jordan Spieth rattled off two in 2015 and added a third by the time he walked away from Royal Birkdale in 2017. Eight years later, he remains at three — not that dissimilar from McIlroy, who was shutout in majors stuck with four to his name from the start of 2015 to the start of 2025. Brooks Koepka claimed four in a quick period — almost in the same light of Scheffler — and he’s only added one more since his fury of form from 2017-19.
What’s different about Scheffler compared to his counterparts is the timing of his success. His family is already settled, the growing pains of coming onto the PGA Tour are behind him, and he’s found his identity. That’s a big deal. Scheffler is 29 years old; he’s not in his early 20s like McIlroy and Spieth and not a newer face on the PGA Tour, either. Scheffler may be the most prepared player to go on a prolonged run since Tiger Woods.
“That’s one of those funny things that I think, since Rory accomplished that this year, it’s on the front of everybody’s mind just because it is such an historic accomplishment in the game of golf,” Scheffler said. “What a tremendous thing for Rory to be able to accomplish. To win all four major championships is pretty dang special. It’s for sure a career achievement.
“Like I said, I don’t focus too much on that stuff. When this season ends after the Ryder Cup for me, I’ll get home, and I’ll assess kind of where my game’s at and things I can improve on and then kind of go from there. I don’t think about winning tournaments. I just look at the body of work I have and just think about ways to improve.”
Rory rejuvenated?
Rory McIlroy looked a lot more like … Rory McIlroy this week at Royal Portrush. Returning to his home country to play in The Open for the first time since 2019, McIlroy made the most of the opportunity as he engaged with fans and kids, embracing the good with the bad that comes with playing in front of a home crowd.
The career grand slam winner brought the green jacket back to Northern Ireland and brought his fellow countrymen and women out in droves to the golf course. McIlroy mentioned that his eagle putt Saturday on the par-5 12th may have been one of the loudest roars of his lifetime. Perhaps a little home cooking was exactly what he needed to get him out of the funk he experienced from his Masters win to his start in the Scottish Open last week.
McIlroy now turns his attention to another event that’s long been circled on his calendar, the 2025 Ryder Cup. He discussed at the beginning of the year that he only had three goals remaining in his playing tenure. After checking one off the list in April, the 36-year-old finds himself with a great chance to accomplish another (winning a Ryder Cup on U.S. soil) in September.
“I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception,” McIlroy said. “Yeah, look, it’s been an awesome week. I’ve gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug, and that’s just because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us.
“It’s been an amazing week, just the — I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd. Hopefully, I’ll have one or two Opens left here, if the R&A decide to keep coming back, probably one while I’m still competitive and another one while I’m more gray than I already am. It’s just been incredible to come back here and to play, and at least feel like I had a chance today going out there. Just an awesome week.”
Bryson bouncing onto Bethpage
The Open was the last time some golf fans will see DeChambeau until the Ryder Cup, which is set for late September. An omission from the squad at Rome in 2023, the big-hitting American will play for his third Ryder Cup team (2018, 2021) and serve as a spark plug of energy for both those inside and outside the ropes.
“I hope I can bring a lot of energy and a tsunami of a crowd that’s going to be rooting for Team USA,” DeChambeau after finishing inside the top 10 at The Open.
DeChambeau ignited fans at Whistling Straits the last time the Ryder Cup was contested on U.S. soil as he teamed with a relatively unproven Scheffler and riled up the American faithful by hitting jaw-dropping shots like an opening tee shot, which found the putting surface on the par-4 opener. With plenty of good golf in his bag and with plenty of confidence following another strong major showing, DeChambeau is rearing at the chance to get his hands back on the Ryder Cup.
“This year’s no joke. We’re tired of it. We’re tired of losing,” he said.
American dominance
Major championships have been all red, white and blue for what is approaching on a decade. In fact, 25 of the last 33 major champions have hailed from the United States good for a 76% win rate — the highest in a comparable span over the last 40 years.
So, why is this happening? Well, for one, the American major winners have tended to win more than one with Koepka grabbing five, Scheffler possessing four, plus Justin Thomas, Collin Morikawa, DeChambeau and Schauffele each securing two.
Moving the PGA Championship from August to May has helped American players too, given what is required from the golf courses now played and what golf courses they can play. They have won every version of the May edition with the last international winner being Jason Day in 2015 at Whistling Straits. The most impressive run, though, may be in the The Open itself as Scheffler makes it three straight winners hailing from the U.S. and four of the last five Champion Golfers of the Year.
Lost years
There was only one player in 2025 who teed it up in all four major championships and missed every cut: 2022 Champion Golfer of the Year Cameron Smith.
The Australian is not the only player from LIV Golf to disappoint on this stage, though, as Koepka missed three major cuts in the same season for the first time in his career and has not factored in a championship since his win at the 2023 PGA Championship. Their league mate, Dustin Johnson, may have just played his final Open as well as given the exemptions from his 2020 Masters title have officially expired, leaving a question mark around his status in majors away from Augusta National.
There are others, of course, as Patrick Cantlay missed the cut in three of four major championships and Justin Thomas remains with just one top-30 finish across 14 major championship starts since raising the Wanamaker Trophy at Southern Hills in 2022.
Add Comment