Every Wednesday, SI Golf will rank nine newsmakers from the golf world. Sometimes we’ll cast a wide net. Tell us what you think on the SI Golf X account.
1. Lottie Woad: A star is born. The 21-year-old won the Scottish Open last week to become the third LPGA player since 1951 to win in their pro debut. It’s also Woad’s second win in her last three starts, and the non-victory was a third-place finish at the Evian Championship, a major. Now, the Englishwoman is the betting favorite for the AIG Women’s British Open this week. Hello, world.
2. Kurt Kitayama: The 32-year-old didn’t just win the 3M Open after nearly missing the cut for his first victory since 2023; he did it historically. Kitayama played his final two rounds at 18 under and had 20 birdies in the last 36 holes, the most by a Tour winner since 2003. He shot a third-round 60 and had six birdies in his first eight holes of the final round. That secured him a spot in the FedExCup playoffs.
3. Joaquin Niemann: Here we go again. The Chilean won a LIV event for the fifth time this year, so the cycle continues. When he wins a bunch of these “golf” tournaments, we ask ourselves the question, “Is he a top player in the world?” Then, we remember only had two rounds in the 60s this year in all four major championships. However, the 26-year-old’s LIV victories have banked him a lucrative amount of cash, and that was the trade-off for being banned from events most people actually watch. With the liquidity he’s amassed, who’s to say he made the wrong decision?
4. Padraig Harrington: The 53-year-old won his second straight senior major and became the fifth player to win both the U.S. Senior Open and Senior British Open. This time, though, he didn’t have a run-in with NBC’s Roger Maltbie. That’s good for Harrington, but if he did, he’d be higher in this ranking.
5. Adam Sandler: He could be No. 1 on this list. On Friday, Happy Gilmore 2 was released on Netflix and debuted with 46.7 million streamers, the platform’s biggest opening ever. And the film has a bevy of cameos—and in some cases, large roles—from the biggest names in golf, such as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau, to name a few, maybe serving as a bridge in the LIV-PGA Tour divide.
6. Scottie Scheffler: In his post-British Open victory media tour (which was light), he went on the Pardon My Take podcast and revealed it was he who passed gas at Royal Portrush during a shot, with the broadcast picking up the sound. He also tongue-in-cheekly said he would give up one of his four major titles to see the Dallas Cowboys win a Super Bowl. What will happen first, if at all? Scheffler wins a U.S. Open to complete the career Grand Slam, or Jerry Jones hoists a Lombardi Trophy? The Giants fan writing this list hopes it’s the former.
7. Mia Hammond: Perhaps the best story you might have missed last week. The 17-year-old high schooler won on the Epson Tour, playing on a sponsor’s exemption at the Greater Toledo Classic. In her home state, Hammond became the first amateur to win on the circuit in five years. Now, she’s teeing it up in this week’s Four Winds Invitational. Can she go back-to-back?
8. Victor Dubuisson: This really shows you how slow of a golf news week it was. The former European Ryder Cupper retired from golf over two years ago at age 33. Yet, last week, the Frenchman competed in the Alps Tour’s Biarritz Cup in his home country on a sponsor’s invite—and won. Then, he surprisingly declined to accept the winner’s check “in a gesture of personal principle.” Instead, the prize, worth about $9,000 in U.S. dollars, was given to the second-place finisher. Not many people would do something like that, so good on Dubuisson, whose career earnings are roughly $13 million from the DP World Tour and PGA Tour combined.
9. Lydia Ko: Whew, getting to No. 9 this week was tough. And there aren’t many options left. Rory McIlroy attending the Senior British Open as a spectator? Eh. Let’s go with Ko here. In her AIG Women’s Open title defense, the 28-year-old will be paired with Woad in the first two rounds. And Tuesday in the Hall of Famer’s pre-tournament presser, Ko admitted she wants to see Woad’s game up close to analyze “the things that I could possibly learn from her and why she’s playing good.” Considering Ko is a multiple-time major winner and Woad is an up-and-comer, shouldn’t it be the other way around? But in golf, even the greats are always searching for something. Just ask Tiger, who went through three swing coaches.
Also considered: Rory McIlroy, Chris Gotterup, Jake Knapp, Hamilton Coleman, Donald Trump, Nelly Korda, Hunter Mahan
Dropped out from last week: Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry, Bryson DeChambeau, Keegan Bradley, Smylie Kaufman, Kevin Kisner, Ryan Gerard, Ian Baker-Finch
