Major grades for 2025: Who passed and failed golf’s biggest tests? | Golf Channel Podcast

In this week’s edition, the guys discuss Kurt Kitayama’s win at the 3M and all of the other storylines from the penultimate regular-season event, break down 10 players’ major grades for the 2025 season and answer a bunch of your listener questions.

Chapters:
0:00: The guys are back home after three weeks away – and Rex’s lawn is long
2:00: Kurt Kitayama goes lights-out on the weekend to take the 3M Open
11:30: The penultimate regular-season event had a little bit of something for everyone
15:30: Names that stand out on the top 100, 70 and 50 bubble heading into the Wyndham
20:00: Major grades for 2025: Aberg, DeChambeau, Henley, Hovland, Koepka, Morikawa, Niemann, Rahm, Schauffele, Thomas
42:00: Lottie Woad announces herself with a win in her pro debut
44:00: Listener questions! TGL’s viability, Brooks vs. Scottie, Player of the Year race, and where’d the grilling #content go?
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Major grades for 2025: Who passed and failed golf’s biggest tests? | Golf Channel Podcast
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[Music] Hello and welcome into this edition of the Golf Channel podcast with Rex and Lav. We are back in the lab and Kurt Kityama aka the Quadzilla is back in the winner circle at the 3M Open. Rex, are you fully recovered now after three weeks overseas? Jet lag’s real. I mean that that’s a real thing. I didn’t I normally don’t get hit that hard, but I guess being over there for 3 weeks has a it takes a toll. Couldn’t Couldn’t go to sleep the first night. Struggled all night long. Woke up at 5:00 a.m. Last night I was asleep by 8:00 p.m. I expect the same thing tonight. Uh 8:00 bedtime is not too uh out of the ordinary for me. Jetlike for me is fine. Like electrolyte packet. I’m feeling good. I am curious how your lawn was looking though after three weeks away. The temperature in Orlando has been stiflingly hot. A good look through that. Plowing through what I can only assume was like Oakmont type rough six in just plowing through that again with the real feel of 115. Certainly great to be home and ready to close out the PJ tour season. So are the PJ tour players as well before we get into the Windom Championship in the regular season finale on the PGA Tour. Who’s on the various bubbles whether it’s top 100, top 70, top 50. Certainly a lot to get to with the 3M Open. It was not pretty, Rex over that final hour for Kurt Kityama. Really some nervy shots the second and third into the home hole 18, the 72nd hole in particular, but he does now win on the PJ tour for the second time backing up the win he had at Bay Hill in 2023. What stood out to you? Yeah, I think it’s a testament to Chris Ko’s work, not just with Kurt. I mean, we talked about last year his work with Xander Schoffley, how he turned him in Xander from a really good player into a great player who was winning multiple championships and now it was on display again and it was pretty impressive to see how Kurt was able to turn things around so quickly, specifically with his driving. I mean, it would have been easy on that Sunday afternoon, especially as they came down the stretch when the wind came up, you get a little nervy, you start hanging on a little bit and things can get away from you really quickly and he didn’t let it happen. So, I I was impressed from a ball striking standpoint. He was first in the field. Strokes gained T Green. That’s a given. That seems to be where Kurt is angling towards, which is pretty impressive considering he probably wasn’t the best ball striker in the game earlier in his PGA Tour career. It’s his putting though that did it. His putting has not been very good. You look at where he stood on the season rink, well outside the top 100 and putting. And you look at the 60 on Saturday, that was all about putting. He made 145 feet of putts. He didn’t make 145 pet butt putts combined in his last drug play round at the John Deere Classic on the PGA Tour. So that’s really what pushed him over the top. But the one thing and and this is a bit of a soapbox moment that I I’ve been thinking about because we had this conversation earlier in the season. I went to Mav Mav McNeely who was going to be on the policy board next year and pace of play, speed of play, whatever you want to call it, has been an issue has become an issue again on the PGA tour. And I remember explaining that he He sort of explained his situation in the simplest of terms. If you play in two sums instead of threesomes, you play better. And when he first said it, I kind of rolled my eyes like, well, yeah, that’s obvious. Like, duh, what are you talking about? But where what he was going towards is you start with the same field size for Thursday and Friday. He wasn’t taking away playing opportunities, but his thought was we cut we cut the cut down to top 65, maybe even top 60. And that way, you’re going to end up more often than not with tsums on the weekend. And we was at Tory Pines when we had this conversation and the difference was more than an hour between his round and threesomes on Friday and his round and twosomes on Saturday. And it really made sense to me up until today because you look at what Kirk Kurt Kh Kirk Kittyama had to do on Friday just to make the cut. And he talked about it on Friday afternoon. He was well outside the number. And every player on the PGA Tour has a weekend like Kurt inside of them. It’s not always going to be there, but they can always string together 36 maybe even 54 holes. And if you take away that opportunity, which if Mav does go forward with this and the PGA Tour considers it, that that’s the danger. I’m not even saying that Mav is wrong still. I I agree that if you want to make the product better on the weekend, which is part of the conversation, making the cut top 60 or top 65 makes perfect sense, but you’re going to do away with these types of stories. Uh, that’s a good point. I hadn’t really considered that. We did have a situation earlier this year. Remember uh in Palm Beach, Joe Highmith made the cut in the number went absolutely bananas uh at PJ National with the golf course getting more firmer and more difficult. Ends up winning the golf tournament. Kirk Kitama made the cut by one then goes 6065. How about his nine-hole splits Rex on the opening nine? 28 on Saturday, 29 on Sunday. The dude made 32 birdies. And that was sort of the biggest takeaway for me cuz here’s a player in Kirk Kitama who had really gone quiet. Like he won at Bay Hill, beats a star-studded field, uh stared down Roy Moy, wins a signature event on the PG tour, didn’t make the playoffs the following year in 2024. He actually didn’t even have a top 30 finish on the PJ tour this year until May and obviously been working hard in those changes with Chris Ko. Seen seen some signs of progress over the last couple weeks. But to make that many birdies, particularly on the weekend, and we hadn’t seen that in at least 22 years in the PG Tour, there are so many players just like Kurt Kitama, who have that firepower, who have that potential, who when they get hot, particularly on a soft golf course like TPC Twin Cities that they can just absolutely run it up. That’s why it’s so hard to win full field events on the PJ tour, particularly if they’re making those changes, as you mentioned, to the cut line. It just condenses the field even more. And you can get a guy who goes absolutely ballistic on the weekend and all of a sudden he steals the golf tournament. And he showed a lot of grit coming down the stretch. You’re right. Like as quick as hot as his his start was on Sunday, he struggled quite a bit on the back nine. I I’ll go to really the second shot on number 14 from the bunker on the telecast from CBS. Ridiculous shot. Yeah, it was a ridiculous shot. And they were talking about the degree of difficulty. He had a seven iron. It was uh just inside 200 yards. And it would have been one thing to put it on the green. Maybe even dump it in a greenside bunker. just give yourself an opportunity because there was a lot in play on that shot and he essentially took it right at the flag and I think that probably won the tournament for him. I’ll also say two holes earlier on number 12. I think the six-footer for par was pretty big and just from a clutch standpoint because he had just bogeied the previous hole. He had gone from a three-stroke lead really quickly to a one-stroke lead and if you ended up paring the par five in that situation that’s pretty much giving maybe not a full stroke to the field but a fraction of the stroke and suddenly I feel like things could have felt much different. So, those two shots in my mind are kind of what separated him. I I’ll go back to that win in 2023 at Beel, though. I covered that event and you can actually point to a very similar situation on the 17th hole, which is probably one of the toughest par 3es on the PGA Tour. It’s even gotten more difficult with the redesign at Bay Hill. And he birdied that hole on Sunday to essentially win the tournament. He has those shots in him. He doesn’t seem to be afraid. And I was fascinated. I was kind of going through a little some of the transcripts specifically after the round on Saturday and he said the difference now after having worked with Chris Como is he feels like he can put driver in his hand really in a difficult situation and there was plenty of those on Sunday at the 3M open and I think that speaks to the type of player he has become. Uh I I certainly think that’s the the case and I think he showed you know just how far he has come with those changes because there’s a lot of trouble and let’s be honest it’s pretty jarring is it not to go from Royal Port Rush to TBC Twin Cities in backtoback weeks. One is a majestic links the other is a very mediocre PJ tour venue that also has a backdrop of like town houses and and and and ponds and and lakes and swimming pools. like it’s it’s a pretty jarring uh it’s a pretty jarring move from from week to week. However, I will say there there is at least some volatility that there is the the potential where as on on 16 on Saturday at least it was drivable. 17 was was a 210 yard par three with the wind whipping off the left almost impossible to get it close. And on 18, I I actually really liked this because there was obviously the potential to block it right as William Mao did uh to sort of doom his chances. Sam Stevens also had an opportunity to potentially get in the house, tie the clubhouse lead or at least set the clubhouse lead and make Kurt Kityama birdie the closing par five instead just runs it uh through and and and does his best just to make a par five. But Kurt Kyama split the fairway with a 3-wood and he had 219 yards left into the reachable par five. He has a he’s nursing a one-shot lead. Again, there’s plenty of trouble. The wind is whipping. Jake Knap just dumped in the water before him. So, there is at least some some potential disaster there. And and Jim Nance asked Trevor Imlman, the the booth analyst, any other option here other than going for it? Nope. just have to step up and hit a shot from 219 yards. Again, it was a nervy shot. It was not a wellexecuted shot. In fact, I jumped off my couch thinking that he was potentially going to flail this into the water. All of a sudden, Sam Stevens is going to be the winner of the 3M Open. That then leads Rex to an incredible Greenside bunker shot from such a severe downhill lie in that bunker. I’m very surprised the ball did not roll back uh at least down to the bottom of the bunker where his right heel was off the ground. Like I’m not sure that I’ve seen that in that position, that shot could have gone anywhere, particularly scold across the green and into the pond instead just dumps it out and safely two putts for par. So, as much as I do not like TBC uh Twin Cities, as much as I think that is one of the worst venues on the PJ tour, I did like the closing stretch. I did like that Kirk Kitama had to stand up and hit two really, really good shots to close out the golf tournament and ultimately win the golf tournament. Twin Cities catching some strays for me. I’m not quite sure where this vitriol came from, but all right. It’s not the only tour event that’s played on a TPC that I would rank as mediocre, nor is it the only tour event that you’re going to see houses. I’ll I’ll fast forward just two weeks. TB TBC Craig Ranch, we’re looking at you. Uh, yes. Yes. And there’s a there’s a couple others that I would throw out there. So, I would like to get your top five worst TPCs, but we’ll save that for maybe the Wednesday podcast because that that’s something you’re probably going to mull. I I tend to agree. I thought that was pretty good analysis by Trevor saying that yes, there really is no choice because what are you going to do? Go wedge wedge? That doesn’t seem like the smartest move either in those exact That’s exactly what I would have done with a one shot lead. I probably would have as well to be honest with you, but the part that got me was I don’t think the second shot was the really the scariest one. You’re right. He seemed to kind of come through with the club face a little bit open and flared it out to the right. And I’m sure that was pretty nervy when it was in the air, but he had the grandstands behind him. How many players do we see coming down the stretch that just airma mailed their shots into the grandstands? I think Jake Knap pretty much did the same thing. But no, I’m sorry. Jake Nap did not do the same thing. Unfortunately, he put it in the water. But almost every other player either they were on the green or they were in the grand stands and taking a drop and and moving on from there. The part that got me was this was the third shot from the bunker. You’re right. He totally had to manufacture that that shot. He had to come up with something and that was pretty impressive to do it into the wind downhill with water behind it. That’s tough. Kirkyama now a two-time winner on the Pitor. And Rex, you and I have talked a lot about the full field events on the Pi Tour season. What happens now sort of post signature events? Do these summer events which you know have been sort of sleepy on the Ptor schedule, do they now have more meeting? Do they now have more significance? And this might be getting into the weeds. This might be getting really golf nerdy. This might not resonate with a wider audience, but I did think it was worth noting that when you look at the top 13 players on the final leaderboard, eight of them were outside the top 100 in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the penultimate event. It will never cease to amaze me how these these players who are the very best at their craft, the best players on the planet, can somehow someway, even if they have not done much over the past couple of months, summon the goods when they absolutely need it. And it’s not just, you know, getting inside the top 100 and thus sort of securing your card for next season. It’s also the top 70 trying to get into the playoffs. It’s also the top 50 and trying to get into the signature events. It’s also the top 30 trying to get into the tour championship and and having a a chance to win the FedEx Cup title like Sam Stevens trying to get to East Lake. Jake Knap trying to get in the top 50, William Mau trying to get into the playoffs a couple weeks after winning the Isco Championship. Chris Goddard trying to lock up a spot on the US Ryder Cup. There are still plenty of of storylines, plenty of players to watch. Again, it might not resonate with the wider golf audience. Like I don’t think the 3M is is going to draw the biggest ratings of the year, but I think if you really love this game and if you’re invested week in and week out on watching the PJ tour, I still think there’s something for everyone. And in my opinion, these sort of late season fullfield events have actually only increased in important significance and watchability. I don’t know that the 3M Open has. I guess you you’d have to compare it to previous years. Certainly, you added the drama and that’s what the tour wants. I mean, this came from the fan forward initiative that they announced earlier this year. This was something that the tour wanted to make a point of start telling these stories on Friday afternoon. Start making it much more compelling instead of just being a random second round at TPC Twin Cities, which man, I still can’t believe you buried them that that badly, but and I think they did a good job of that this week. I will go ahead to next week and I know you didn’t want to jump forward to the Windham Championship, but I was teasing Mark Brazzle, the tournament director, when I saw him a few weeks ago at the Scottish Open about he’s essentially become the fourth deacto playoff event because everyone will be scrambling for something. And I don’t think there’s any surprise that the field that Mark has next week in Greensboro is the best ever, at least since they’ve been tracking these things because you have so many players. I think you you said it earlier, Jordan Speed will be there. Chris Kirk will be there. He made a big jump this week, but he still has to crack the top 70. Every player will be playing for something. And I think that’s the benefit of where these events fall. You’re right. Normally, post open championship, there was a law. It got kind of sleepy and there probably wasn’t a whole lot attention. I still don’t think that I’m totally on board with going from top 125 to 100 of fully exempt cards and whatever it is they’re going to do with the numbers going forward to make East Lake more compelling, but it certainly has made these two events certainly much more interesting. Yeah, I think any move that a professional tour can make to make it more competitive, to make it more cutthroat, to introduce more Jeopardy, I think is a is a stronger move. Again, I don’t think it’s that significant. You look at the the players who are sort of on that bubble now and you’re you’re again it’s it’s the shift for the first time to top 100. They’re players who have largely gone through some pretty significant lols in their season. Maybe had a top 10 or two, but ultimately were not as consistent as they needed to to at least secure their playing privileges as of right now. So when you look at this Rex and sort of the the the names who are on that top 100 bubble, who are some that really stand out to you that are going to have your attention uh this coming week at the Windom Championship? Well, the two obvious ones that stand out is Kittyama. He moved from 110th to 53rd as you said, which is a huge jump that guarantees at least the first playoff event. Emiliano Go. He moved from 71st to 66th. Again, probably locked up that spot. I can’t imagine he jumps out, but it was Chris Kirk who I just mentioned. He moved from 77 to 72nd and it’s still outside and he’s still on the wrong side of that cup. But at least you gave yourself a chance coming up this week at the Windham championship where he is playing it. If you only have to move up two spots or three spots, suddenly that’s doable. Suddenly you start looking at a top 15 finish, maybe a top 10 finish. If you have to move up 10, 15, 20 spots, now all of a sudden you’re looking at if I don’t win this and I’m not in the top two, it’s probably not going to happen. So those two interest me. Keith Mitchell fell out. He was one of the two players that actually fell out of that bubble. And here’s an opportunity for Keith Mitchell to try to do something special. But if you’re not in that first playoff event, your season next year is pretty much set. You will not be playing in the signature events. Wouldn’t say that necessarily about Jordan Speed. Wouldn’t say that necessarily about every player because there’s also top 30 in the world that get you in there. But if you’re Chris Kirk or you’re a Keith Mitchell, you either do it next week or you’re not playing the biggest events next year. And we’ve seen now we have enough of a sample size to understand how difficult it is to make up ground not playing in those events against the players who are playing in them. They’re getting more points and there’s no cut. Yeah, I I like all those names. Uh I think back to the 54hole co-leader at the at the 3M Open. A player like Theorbjorn Olison who had an opportunity not just to win the golf tournament but to improve his standing ultimately squandered it with a really poor final round. Now uh he’s well outside the top 100. needs to make it happen at the Windom just to secure his card. Joel Damon, it does not matter, Rex, what the what the cuto off would be. You could make it top 200, top 150, top 125, top 100. Joel Damon is always going to find his his place right around that bubble. He’s like the He’s like the chief pro uh uh chief procrastinator where he cannot he cannot do it enough early. I don’t think he wants to be there. I don’t think he enjoys being there. No. And now like if if history’s any indication, he’ll probably get it done at the Windham championship. But a late triple bogey on the 72nd hole at the 3M, bouncing from 99 to now 101. A couple other names that were certainly intriguing to me, a player like Tom Kim, uh much was expected of him just a couple years ago, 89th uh in points, probably secure for the top 100 to keep his card. Uh but very but very much needs to have a good week at the Windham championship inside that top 70. I look at a player like Adam Scott, although his FedEd Cup playoff streak uh was snapped in 2023. He’s 85th in the standings. Could miss again. It could have looked entirely different for these next couple years had that Sunday at Oakmont gone a little bit differently. And players like a a Nikolai Hogard uh who’s just outside top 70 71st trying to make that uh European Rder Cup team a great week at the Scottish Open and the Open Championship as well. been playing well of late. If he gets into the playoffs, uh it’s it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibilities that he can make a deep run as well. Speaking of Port Rush and the Open Championship, Rex and I are going to be handing out major grades for the 2025 major season. We got 10 names. It’s going to take a while. It’s coming up after this short break. All right, Rex, it’s time to hand out some major grades. We gave it a week. We let it simmer. We let it marinate. plenty of time to think about exactly how these top performers on the PG tour and live golf performed in the major championships. Let’s first start in alphabetical order with Ludvig Oberg. What did Luda get for you in 2025 majors? I would have hated to have me as a teacher because for all of these grades I grade them it was a little bit on a curve because the idea is what were the expectations coming into the season and what is their history in major championships? if they’d never won one before, had a top 10. Clearly, I would grade that on a on a scale. So, in Lu’s case, this is definitely on a curve because I went with a C and you would probably bring him in higher than that. He finished seventh at the Masters, but then he missed the cut in two of the other majors, finished tied for 23rd at the Open, so it was a little bit of up, a little bit of down. I just think after his first season, what he did in his very first major at the Masters, I think of what he did in the RDER Cup and that first start. We always talk about, oh, every round, every hole in the RDER Cup feels like a major championship. The expectations were so high and he really didn’t give himself to win any of them. That was surprising to me. So, you thought you were being too harsh with a C. Uh, I’m not sure what that makes me then with giving Luda a C minus. Keep in mind when you go back to the Masters, Ludvig Oberg actually got it to 10 under par. At the time, he was just one shot back of Roy Mroy. I know everyone was fixated on Rory and what was happening and Bryson whether they were going to be dueling. Uh Justin Rose obviously had a chance to win his first Masters title. Ludvig Oberg finished bogey on 17, triple bogey on 18 to end up uh in a in seventh place. Like this is a exa almost carbon copy of what happened a year ago at the Masters where he flew a little bit too close to the sun, got close to the lead, rinsed it on 11 and ultimately tumbled down the leaderboard. To me that was very disappointing coupled with the fact again that you mentioned miscuts in the PJ championship US Open had not been a good spring for him. Had not been a good summer really over the past couple months as well. Needs to get his putter in gear. His ball striking at least off the tea remains very very good. Lou Big Oberg for me was a C minus. How about Bryson Dashambo the big bopper and Liv’s preeminent star. Again this is about expectations. So I went with went with an A minus. I am curious to see where where you’re going to come in with that. He didn’t have a win and coming off last year what he was able to do at Pinehurst. That is going to be the expectation for Bryson going forward in his career, but he was tied for fifth at the Masters runner up at the PGA Championship. We can sit and debate how realistic that was given what Rory was doing there. And then he finished tied for 10th at the open. And I’m going to be quick with this one because the idea being that we’re going to point to that top 10 finish at the open and say, “Well, that’s where Bryson learned to play Lynx golf.” Even Bryson said in his own words, “Well, not really.” Struggled on day one when there was something close to what we would call Lynx’s weather. The wind was blowing a little bit. We got we had some rain, had some crazy squalls come through, but then the other three rounds were pretty much perfect and that’s what he’s going to do when it’s pretty much perfect. I I just think that’s going to be the expectation for him at the open, but certainly it felt like a step forward. So, I’m going to take this as a positive sign. Eight months, the Wikipedia top 10 never fails. Bryson Sham will look back, we’ll all look back favorably on that T10 finish at Port Rush. I’m going in a similar vein. I’m giving him a B+ and he was in the final group at the Masters, ended up getting stuffed in a locker on Masters Sunday, shot 75, then had the weird comments after about how Roy wouldn’t talk to him. I thought it was a really deflating moment for Bryson when he really I mean he could have been the biggest star on the planet had he overcome that two-shot deficit had he overcome Roy Moy and won the Masters a year after defeating Rory to win the US Open. The T2 at the PJ championship, yes, it’s going to go down as a as a co-runner finish. However, he was five shots back at Sky Sheffller was not really in the mix. You look at Oakmont in the US Open, the putter really let him down. probably wasn’t a great fit for his game anyway because of his Bronny bashing. I I really give him I think the most credit for what he did at the open championship and you can dismiss it because of the conditions and how easy it was on the weekend. Still had to do it. Still touched 65 to make the cut. 6864 on the weekend. Second top 10 finish in his open career. He’s still I think the game’s most interesting player, but in the major championships it was good, not great. How about Russell Henley? player who has been great has vaulted and now become a mainstay in the top 10 in the official world golf rankings. Where’d you have Russ in the major championships? Got stuffed in the locker. What exactly does that mean? I’ve never heard that saying before. Where you going with that? He got bullied. He did. He he he was standing up. He had his chest he had his chest puffed out because Rory didn’t talk to him. No, he No, because of how he played. Everyone was anticipating a duel and Bryson did not do his part. Stuff to the locker. I don’t think you’re going to like this what about Russell Henley because you are a Georgia Bulldog and you’re a bit of a homer when it comes to that. But I’m going to go C plus. It was better. He played better in the majors in 2024, but I don’t know if it’s fair to say that’s the expectations. But he did finish top 10 in both the opens, the Open Championship and the US Open. Certainly, I felt like that was a step forward for him. But then the other half of it, he missed the cut in the Masters and the PGA Championship. If you’re going to get a grade better than C++, you have to be a little bit more consistent than that. It can’t be all or nothing. And I’m not even necessarily saying that Russell Henley is going to be a major factor going forward in his career. He’s not going to become his generation’s Brooks Kepka. However, I think he’s gotten to the point in his game in his career where the expectations should be high of at least giving himself a chance and he didn’t do that in 2025. Yeah. I mean, I think it’s notable he had the top 10 finishes in the final two major championships of the year, but he really didn’t have a chance to win those golf tournaments. That’s still sort of the missing piece for him is actually being in the mix late on Sunday. He had that opportunity a couple years ago, remember at Tory Pines in that US Open, ultimately won by John Rom. Was not the player then that he is now. It’s it is surprising though cuz for such a consistent player that Russell Henley is, he’s put up some huge numbers the last three years in the major championships. 75, 76, 77 twice, and a 79, which is just very unrussell Henleyike. We look at what he does week in and week out in the PJ tour. You do wonder Rex like the low ball flight that he has is that a detriment in the major championships as often cited sort of the reason why walking Neman Max haven’t been able to gun in the major championships. Russ Henley at one of the lowest apexes on the PJ tour as well. C plus for me. How about Victor Havland? He had that surprise win at the Valpar Championship sort of out of nowhere but he is still very much a prime time player. Where’d you put Vic in 2025? I think I was soft on Victor. I went with a C++ and and here’s why. He has one decent finish in the majors this year. He finished third at the US Open. And let’s be honest, that was a bit surprise. That was a it was a good one. And I will say you and I probably watch Victor a little bit closely, more closely than most people do. And to see him going through his struggles with his swing coach and how hard he works and how much time and effort he puts into it. That one finish there probably got gave him the plus to be quite frank with you because he didn’t do anything else in the rest of the major championships. He finished outside the top 20 and the other three. I’m not quite sure. The expectations were really high given how his game overall in the majors or outside of the majors were, but he is still the type of player that has proven himself that he can find something. Last year’s PGA Championship being the primary example when he showed up at Vajalla. I think he famously was the last guy on the range Wednesday searching for something, anything. And my bet is always that yep, that guy’s not going to play well. If you’re the last guy on the range on Wednesday, you’re probably not going to perform well. And he did. And I think it was an indication of what he can do if something does click. He’s just that smart. His golf IQ is that high. When he won earlier this year in Tampa, he said it himself that no, it’s still not great, but at least I can manage it a little bit. Probably could have gone actually a little bit better than that given the expectations here. But C plus that’s that’s the explanation that I’m going to be using for this grade as well where the grade is relative to his play this season and the expectations and sort of the context. That’s why I’m going with a B minus for Victor Hava as you mentioned that Oakmont US Open was the only top 20 finish. That’s pretty notable. Like he played his way to one of the final groups uh on Sunday. And to think the quality and caliber of shots that you had to strike at that golf course to succeed and a player who was really struggling with confidence was standing up on the tea trying desperately to avoid the right miss that has dogged him for the better part of two years. for him to do what he did on that golf course and give himself an opportunity to win the toughest major championship in all of golf. I was really impressed. That’s why I’m giving Victor Havlin a B minus. I still think there’s so much good golf in there. He will get a major championship and he will get a major championship soon. How about big bad Brooks Kepka? We’ve been grading him uh well over the past several years since he now has five major championships. What do you grade him though in 2025? You said it. Is he big game Brooks still? Is he? Would you consider him to be that guy who just cast such a long shadow over the major championships that said that he only had to beat I forget the quote. Was it five guys at a major or maybe 10? Oh, 25. The same guy who seemed to do so many things earlier in his career at the majors that only Tiger Woods was capable of doing. The guy that made it clear, I’d much rather win a major championship than a regular PGA Tour event. That guy, I don’t know. He certainly doesn’t exist now. I’m not saying that he can’t refind it or rekindle whatever that is that made him special, but it’s a D. And by the way, that’s not my worst grade I’m giving out outside of the US Open where he finished tied for 12. He didn’t do anything. He missed the cut and the others. And I will say the level of aggravation and the level of hopelessness at the Open Championship when he left Northern Ireland, it was obvious like he he was someone who was absolutely a drift with his game. And it doesn’t necessarily apply to live golf because he has played decent out there. Not great. But he has his entire career is based on how he performs in the major championships. And now what are we two two and a half years downwind and he’s still struggling in the events that matter the most to him. Does not have a top 10 finish in the major championship since that surprise win in 2023 at the PJ Championship. I’m going actually just slightly worse. This is actually, spoiler alert, a very rough section in the grades for me. I’m going D minus for Brooks. The only reason it wasn’t an F because of the US Open where he finished T12, but that was a serious fade job over those last three rounds. He was two off the early lead. He was five back at the halfway point and then over the weekend was a non-factor. I certainly think that the course of of skeptics is only going to grow and I think for good reason. He’s 35 years old. He’s got an injury history. as swing coach Pete Count had mentioned, at least uh at least in the the pre-ournament runup to the Open Championship, he’s dealing with a little bit of a knee issue. He’s not been great on Liv this season. He’s not doing anything statistically through the bag particularly well. And I I do wonder though, Rex, is there a little bit of embarrassment that’s showing? Because when you when you saw photos, when you saw fans, you look at the the reports from the live event uh in England this past week where where Brooks kept almost finished dead last. He was grinding. He was the last player on the range on Thursday. He was the last player on the putting green on Saturday. He wants to find something because he’s I mean he’s too proud of a champion. He’s been too good in his career to be as listless as pedestrian as he has been in the major championships and the trims. Sausage finger please go ahead. And when it comes to Brooks and like look this is the broader conversation about where he is in the game right now. I mean there the rumor has been consistent over the last really two years that Brooks would be the one that wants to come back. He’s the one that doesn’t necessarily want to play on live golf anymore. He wants to come back to the PGA tour where he experienced all of that success and maybe this is where he feels most comfortable. It will be a fascinating year and a half as we get towards the end of those some of those contracts at live golf because he has been the one that it seems like the rumor mill everything that we’ve heard that drum beat is pretty loud. Uh his live contract extend expires at the end of 2026. Negotiations for that said to be underway later on this year. Keep it rolling with Ken Morawa. Had a good spring, a a turbulent and tumultuous summer. What are you pulling K Morawa in terms of 2025 grade? I gave him a C, which I could probably go higher with that one. But in my mind, I kept hearing K Morawa’s own voice saying that yep, I I don’t I don’t deserve a C. My guess is if he was on this podcast with us, he would tell us that yes, my season is not a se he has one top 15 finish in the majors this year. That was a tie for 14th at the Masters. Otherwise, a complete non-factor. And I don’t think anybody maybe outside of Justin Thomas is harder on themselves when it comes to their game and how they stack up at major championships than Colin Morawa. And it’s simply not there. And the part that gets you is the success that he had so early in his career at the majors was predicated on him being the best long iron player in the game. And that’s simply not the case anymore. It seems like you pointed it out in the spring he seemed to make some strides that he him and his swing coach R Singhouse had found some of that magical formula that made him such a consistent player in the biggest events. But it wasn’t there this year. It certainly wasn’t there this this year. And I think that was sort of most surprising to me because when he when you go into the Masters, the PJ tour leader in strokes gain T Green wasn’t Scotty Sheffller. It wasn’t Roy Moy. It was Kyle Morawa. And yet he didn’t have a top 10 finish in a major championship this season. The first time what has been a pretty decorated career that he does not have at least one top 10 in a major. Clearly off his game, he had some epic rain sessions at Port Rush. literally just hitting irons over and over again. If Kyle Morawa cannot shore up his iron play and be one of the very best players on the PJ tour in proximity to the hole, he’s going to struggle, right? Because he’s not a long driver of the golf ball. In fact, he’s below average in terms of distance. Although he has made strides with his short game and his putting, that’s never going to be the strength of his game. He needs to be able to pepper the flag sticks. That’s why Russell Henley has been successful this season on the Pich. That’s why Se struck has been successful on the PGA tour. Until Korakawa can get back to that preeminence that he had earlier in his career, it’s going to be a little bit on the struggle bus. Keep it rolling with Wen Neman who again just won for the fifth time on Liv this season. Five of 11 vents this season on Liv have been won by Neman. But what say you about Neman’s performance in the major championships? I was actually going to suggest we change the lower third on this one that starts with Waqen Neman just won for the fifth time on live but dot dot dot he he got the lowest grade of everyone I gave grades to. Oh my. He got a D minus. And there was one top 10. I think he was played impressively at the Masters. Again, never really a factor. He missed the cut at both opens. Never really had an opportunity to prove himself. And this goes to the broader conversation when it comes to Neman. Even before this year, you had to be impressed with how he’s playing on live golf. There’s only a handful of players that I truly believe went to live golf and improved. And I think Waqen was one of those. He was a world-class player before he went over to that tour, but he has only gotten better. And you can make the arguments that he’s competing against smaller fields. You can make the arguments that maybe there he’s not playing on the toughest golf course when he’s on live golf. But that just hasn’t translated to the majors at all. Not just this year, but over the course of his career. And if he’s going to make any kind of move towards sort of that ne next echelon of players, if he’s going to move into that category where we talk about him every time the major comes up, he’s going to have to play better than he did this year. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. He he blew the doors off the field this week at the Liv event a week after missing the cut at Port Rush. Like there is such a disconnect between what he is doing week in and week out on Liv and what he does against all of the best players on the most demanding exacting tests of the year. He did at least have his first top 10 in major that came at the PJ championship, not the Masters. He backdoored off of Sunday 68. Otherwise, T20 at the Masters miscut as you mentioned in both summer opens. So when you look and and you try to sort of figure out why this happens, his iron play, which was sort of the reason that a lot of folks didn’t think that he could tend the major championships, it’s too low. It’s too boring. He’s actually made strides. He made strides with the swing coach he just fired to increase the trajectory. Uh dial in his spin better. Like his iron play in the major championships was totally fine. That was not the reason it he was losing strokes on the greens in three of the four major championships. that speed control that’s not accounting for enough break. Whatever the case may be, a combination of the two, that’s the area that I’d like to see Walke Neman really address. Again, he just fired his caddy. He just fired his swing coaches. He called it a weird deal. Not sure what’s exactly going on there, but he is a dominant player on Liv. He’s doing on Liv what I think we all expected John Rom would be doing when he signed with Liv at the end of 2023. He’s way too talented of a player as Walke Neman not to contend in the major championships. But his struggles there again all of the best players on the most demanding test. I think it’s only going to add to the narrative that he can only mop up when it’s a meaningless tournament. Speaking of John Rom, speaking of Liv, what was your grade for Rombo in the major championships in 2025? I want to revisit my criteria again. And this is a bit of a comparison to what he did in 2024 because we we talked endlessly over the last last year about how John Rom struggled in the majors and everyone immediately wanted to pin it on live golf and maybe 54 holes or shotgun starts and loud music and shorts just weren’t the way he prepared for major championships. I think he disproved that. I think he put himself in a position this time where excuse me he was able to he finished in the top 15 in three of the four major championships. I think that was a step forward. B minus. B minus. I went with B for John Rom. Uh I thought when you look sort of the Masters didn’t have an opportunity to win that golf tournament, but the PJ championship. I mean, he was tied for the lead on the back nine at Quail Hollow with Scotty Shuffler who was faltering on that first nine. It’s easy to forget though how John Rom finished that golf tournament. We talked about Lou Vigberg and how he flew too close to the sun. John Rom I think only added fuel to some of the skeptics that he had. The way that he closed out that call German on 161 171 18 bogey double double squandering what had been by far his most encouraging performance in the major championships. Sort of rekindling why I think everyone thinks this could potentially be a player who could one day complete the career grand slam. Other than that he had uh his his iron play was really poor at the Masters. He couldn’t make anything at Oakmont. He is such a gifted player. And I’ve loved watching John Rom for the majority of the past decade. He’s just not winning enough golf tournaments in general, whether it’s on Liv, it’s on the DP World Tour. He’s just not winning at a high enough clip rate. And you look at, you know, his consistency and his top 10 rate and what that means. It’s great. And it it it proves he is a high level player. data golf still has him squarely inside the top five. He’s just not winning golf tournaments. He’s just not dominant. He’s just a tick off his best self. I think that’s costing him the major championships. You didn’t say a grade. Give him a grade. Oh, I said I said B. I said I was slightly more generous than you with that B minus. All right, two more players. Xander Schoffle, the former two-time winner in the major championships in 2024. What do you give him for what he did in 2025 coming off that rib injury? I’m going to give him a C. I guess he would probably rate his entire season as a C. So by comparison the expectations in major championship there was a top seven I mean a tie for seventh at the open championship just a week ago at Royal Port Rush. I think that was a sign of where he feels like things are going. You’re right. I think the injury impacted him much more than he probably let on earlier in the season when we found out about it. Rib injuries I think are a little bit more complicated than some of the other injuries because it just makes it uncomfortable. You can probably continue to play. You can probably continue to play through it, but it’s always going to be there. And even when you’re 100%, it’s going to be much more difficult. Hello, Tito. Great to hear from you. It’s been too long. Similar vein for me. I’m going with a B for Xander Schaer. This was another grade though that was sort of relative to his form and his expectations. You mentioned the tie for seventh at the Open Championship. That was his best result of the year. The tie for eighth that he had at the Masters, again, just sort of a month into the comeback from the rib injury. for a while. That was his best finish of the year. It just shows the game, the caliber, the class of this player. Like the made cut streak that he currently has in the PJ tour is amazing. Was it disappointing compared to 2024? Of course it was. It was going to be incredibly difficult to follow up a major season in which he won twice and was eighth or better in all the major championships. I think Xander Sha though learned a lot about his swing and about his body. I think a big bounceback’s coming in 2026. All right, let’s round out Rex these major grades with Justin Thomas. What’s you for JT? I gave him a D. And my guess is, of course, JJT thumbs all of his goals into his phone at the beginning of the season and sort of unveils him. He famously did that at East Lake. My guessing there was something thumbmed into that phone at the beginning of the season about being more consistent in the major championships and he has not been more consistent. I would say this is probably one of his worst years in the majors. His best finish was a tie for 34th at rural port rush. He missed the cut at the PGA, missed the cut at the US Open. A player of his caliber at this point in his career, he he prepares, he plays, he practices, everything he does is focused on the biggest events, the majors. And even going into the PGA, I think there was a high expectation having won the PGA at Coil Hollow. And he simply did not perform. And it didn’t go across the entire season. As I just pointed out with Xander Schoffé, Xander played like a C student pretty much all season long, maybe even less than that. When it comes to JT, he had a decent year, but he didn’t do it in the major championships. It took us 10 players, but we finally agreed on a grade. I also w sad to say gave JT a D. There is such a stark difference between again what he does for PJ Tour performance in the major championships. Just one top 30 since the 2022 PJ Championship win for Justin Thomas doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. his putter, at least in 2025, he has made significant strides in that department, has become actually a very good above average putter on the PJ tour, but he remains a subpar driver of the golf ball in a major championships where the penalty for a miss is higher. And I think that’s why you see Scotty Shuffler so dominant in the major championships over the past couple years because he is the most accurate driver of the golf ball among the elite players. And Justin Thomas though is 92nd on the PG tour. Strokes gained off the tea, 155th in accuracy. He needs to shore up that part of his game. I’m sure that’s going to be a major point of emphasis for JT heading into 2026 because the other parts of his game certainly look good. All right, we have so many listener questions to get to the final block of the show as well as Lahi Wde on the LPGA in her first start as a professional. Little bit more of this podcast coming up on the other side of this short break. All right, Rex, how about this story? Lahi Wde won on the LPJ in her first start as a professional. That followed up a dominant win on the le in Ireland, a near win at a major championship at the Evian, and now this at the Scottish Open beating a star-studded field. Does Lahi W have your attention this week, the AIG Women’s Open? Absolutely. because for someone in a pro debut on the LPGA tour to do that and as you pointed out after coming off these last three starts in Europe be that dominant she was the world number one amateur for a reason she had that resume and she’d accomplished so much in the amateur game but that doesn’t always translate to the professional ranks and you probably see it a little bit more often on the men’s side where the hot shot from college doesn’t necessarily deliver early in their career but this is still impressive beyond words because the expectations are there now what she was able to accomplish in college. Everyone’s sitting there with their arms folded waiting for her to do the exact same thing in the pro ranks. And she’s done it. She certainly has done it. I remember I mean the golf world lost its mind two years ago and Rose Zang won in her debut on the LPGA. Now Laiywood does it uh in Scotland. Like this is a this is the total package. I mean has spent time with the target on her back as the world’s number one player. Really good ball striker. She’s not afraid to take it deep and shoot really low scores. She’s obviously a fast learner, level-headed, has a good team around her. She’s still young, 21 years old. She might not have she sort of has a shy personality. I’m not sure she sort of has the commanding presence who could take over a tour, but the LPGA with Craig Kesler now at the helm as commissioner. They are in desperate need of having household names. Lahi Wde could soon become one. Watch out for her this week in Wales. All right, plenty of listener questions to get to. Let’s first start with this one from Nick Gable who is thinking about TGL for some reason here we as we said at the end of July and the season doesn’t kick off until January. Will TGL work in the long term? Seems too fake for Nick Gable. Uh too big to fail I would say on that front. You have ESPN behind it and they’re clearly invested in this. You have the PGA Tour behind it. The PJ tour is clearly invested in this. It’s one of their properties. You have Tiger Woods and Roy Maroy. Those are probably three of the biggest names or three of the biggest organizations when it comes to golf. They’re going to drive it. And I would counter and say the first season was successful. Not everyone’s going to like it. I understand that. Not everyone likes vanilla in this particular case. Some people did find it to be contrived. Some people found it to be fake. That’s probably the best way of saying it. But I would argue that the people they were trying to get to aren’t normal golf fans. Normal golf hands who are going to sit down and watch 72 holes of stroke play uh at a normal PGA Tour event probably don’t have a lot of interest. But if you’re ESPN and you need content during that time of year on a Monday and Tuesday evening, that’s about as good as you can do. And that’s what this is about. This is about the business model and filling in holes for a network that needs sports 247. And it is a perfect show for them. And I would say some of the things and we had Jeff Newart, the executive producer for that show for TGL. We had him on the podcast about mid-season and he talked about some of the things he has done with that telecast and I would imagine a lot of those things are going to make their way over to PGA Tour telecast because they’re very cutting edge. They’re not doing it by the the mold that we’re used to seeing for the last few decades on TV. And they’ve created what I would argue is a compelling product. Again, you’re not going to switch away from a football game. You’re not going to switch away from 72 holes of stroke clay golf to watch this. But the the window that they were in on Monday and Tuesday nights, it’s going to draw fans. Shortterm, I certainly think it’s it’s fine entertainment on a Tuesday night during the winter. Long-term, I I still think I have some questions. And I know they’re they’ve got a a boatload of investors. I know they’re talking about expansion that’s going to happen over the next couple years. When you look at sort of the marquee names, you know, Tiger Woods has hobbled, hasn’t played at all on the PJ tour in 2025. His his future is very much uncertain. Roy Moy has a hard enough time now getting up for regular PJ tour events. It’s like it’s really hard for me to see him dawning a Boston Common jersey on a random Tuesday night in the winter and all of a sudden being jazzed for that. So I I do think other players are going to have to carry it other than their two co-founders long term. I also think the the the main viability is going to be through gambling. And if they can sort of untap that market, I certainly think TGL could work out in the long term. How about this one from Piffed Pete who said, “Who is more boring to watch, Brooks Keepka or Scotty Sheffler?” I I assume this means when they were in their prime because Brooks Keeper right now would not be boring to watch because he’s he’s hitting it everywhere. Uh I don’t know it’d be entertaining to watch Brooks Keeper play golf right now either. I I will say and we’re going to do this I think next week’s podcast. I watch Happy Gilmore 2, the new movie. You haven’t gotten around to it, so I’ll give you some chance to view it. I will say the person I felt like walking away from that movie that helped themselves the most was Scotty Sheffller because you and I both know he’s a funny guy. If you don’t have a microphone and a camera in his face, he’s got a really good sense of humor. It’s a cutting sense of humor and you can often be as I have been from time to time on the wrong side of that cutting sense of humor. Makes you feel bad a little bit if I’m being honest. However, he is a funny guy. You just don’t see it and this gives the world an opportunity to see that. I strongly recommend everyone tune in and watch it because I think they did a really good job of pointing out that he is interested. Like he’s not the vanilla guy that you see in interviews that’s questioning why he does what he does for a living because all he wants to do is spend time with his family and his faith. That is a long answer to say Scotty Sheffller over and over and over again. That I would argue that maybe his golf is boring, but there is a brilliant mastery to it that I don’t think many other people could have. I think there has to be a level of of appreciation when he is doing Scotty Shuffler things on a golf course. I do find that entertaining. It might be boring to some people because he probably makes the game look a little bit too easy. He makes it look a little bit too polished, but I think you can appreciate the brilliance of it and the mastery of it more so than anything else. Yeah, I actually take great exception of this this question from from Piff Pete. Like Brooks Kepka in his prime was was plotting. He was all about avoiding mistakes, hitting the fat side of the green, hitting a stock shot over and over again, and just sort of using brute force. And I always say, if you think that Scotty Shuffler is boring, I would strongly encourage you to go out to a PG tour event and watch him for all 18 holes because he does not hit one stock shot. He does not hit two of the same shots during the course of a round. It is all about varying his trajectory, varying his shot shape, the finishes, the footwork, the finesse, the distance control, the ball control, the spin control. Like, it’s all there. Scotty Shuffler in person versus Scotty Shuffler watching on TV, I think, are entirely different animals. Scotty Shuffler to me is actually one of the best watches in person on the PJ tour just because the variability in his shotmaking. There’s way more artistry and creativity in Scotty’s game than Brooks’s ever was. This from our friend Joseph Boza. How close is the PJ tour player of the year race between Scotty Sheffller and Roy Moy? I wanted to make it close. I I really did. I love doing that story when I show up at the first playoff event, which this year is going to be the Tour Championship. I always love the narrative, especially when it’s close, and we’ve ran into those situations the last few years. It’s not going to be close at all. You can just mail the trophy to Scotty Sheffler. I think what he was able to do coming down the stretch. Rory said as much that look Rory peeled off some big wins earlier in the season and he was really quick to say when Scotty was hurt and Scotty’s not hurt anymore. He is by far the player of the year. Yeah, I think had the open championship not gone Scotty’s way, I think Roy would have a would have had a compelling case. Now it is not very at all. I don’t even think if Roy sweeps the BMW championship, he’s skipping the first playoff event. If he wins the BMW and the Fed Cup title, I still don’t think that’s going to be enough to sway voters Scotty Sheffller will be the player of the year in 2025. How about this last one from Michael Ruffice? Maybe I’m mispronouncing that. I apologize in advance. I missed the grilling updates. Oh yeah. Has this been sacrificed for the big time now that we’re big stars on liner television? No, we were just in Europe for three weeks and there’s not much grilling over there. We stayed in little tiny apartments that didn’t have grills. But that the first thing I did today, pork butt because I had to come back to American. That’s the first thing that I had to do it. There you see there. The house is not on fire. That’s my pit barrel smoker. I got it going. Actually, it’s it’s resting right now as we speak. It It was a perfect port butt. There it is right there, resting, getting ready for me to go and tear that thing apart. I’ll be very quick on this. There’s a twofold issue for me. Yes, I’ve barely been home this summer. I also got a very troubling medical report. So, I need to cut out some saturated fats. Need to cut out some sugars. Need to do like 8020 eating healthy to eating poorly. Yeah, I don’t know. Grilling has not been one of my chief priorities over the past couple months. Hoping to get into though. I certainly appreciate your concern, Michael. All right, that is going to do it for this edition of Golf Show Podcast with Rex and Lav. Rex and I’ll be back on Wednesday for a full preview of the Windham Championship, the final regular season event on the PJ Tour schedule. Thanks for listening. Thanks for the support. We’ll talk to you guys in a couple of days. [Music]