⛳️ Straka Wins In Philly
Plus: LIV Players Performing Worse, Golf Gal Of The Week, and More.
Josey Orr
May 12, 2025
Good afternoon. It’s PGA Championship week! Will we see another Rory vs. Bryson showdown? Will Spieth complete the career grand slam? Will Scottie get arrrested again?
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Quick Recap: The Truist Championship
Reports of old golf courses becoming obsolete may have been premature.
Philly Cricket Club ended up holding up quite well as the wind picked up and the greens dried out over the weekend. The great roll-back debate continues on.
Meanwhile, Sepp Straka won for the 2nd time this year and the fourth time in his career.
He and Shane Lowry were neck and neck almost the entire round. Lowry had a 21 foot birdie attempt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff, but ran it 6 feet by the hole and ended up with a 3-putt bogey. Straka rolled in a 5-footer for par to seal the deal.
He did so with a fill-in caddy on his bag, which is in and of itself a pretty great story. His caddie for the week, Drew Mathers, plays at the same club as in Birmingham and when his regular caddie had to sit out due to a back injury, Mathers was asked to fill in.
Mathers has been grinding it out on mini-tours for the last 10 years, so getting even a small percentage of that purse can be life changing money for him, as pointed out by Monday Q on Twitter.
Overall, pretty good weekend of golf in the city of brotherly love.
Ryder Cup Concerns Are Growing
European Ryder Cup teammates keep winning.
So far, Rory McIlroy, Sepp Straka, Viktor Hovland, and Ludvig Aberg have all won on Tour this season. In all, likely teammates from the European side have won 1/3 of the events played so far.
On the American side, Scottie Scheffler, Justin Thomas, and Brian Harman each have one win, but that’s it. Harman isn’t even a lock to make the Ryder Cup this year.
We’re still a few months out, but for the first 1/3 of the season it’s been Team Europe all the way.
Captain Keegan is gonna have his work cut out for him. We better not blow it on US soil.
More From Philly:
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Shots Heard Round The World
LIV Players Struggling In Majors
Out of the 18 golfers that have signed with LIV and played in at least three majors since joining, 14 have performed worse on average in major events compared to their 3-year strokes gained average per round in majors before joining.
Rahm 2.58 SG/rd 📉 1.50
Koepka 2.56 📉 1.30— Ron Klos (@PGASplits101)
12:18 AM • May 12, 2025
If you don’t have an X account, here’s what Ron’s data says:
Out of the 18 golfers that have signed with LIV and played in at least three majors since joining, 14 have performed worse on average in major events compared to their 3-year strokes gained average per round in majors before joining.
Rahm 2.58 SG/rd 📉 1.50
Koepka 2.56 📉 1.30
D. Johnson 2.55 📉 0.48
Smith 2.32 📉 1.39
Oosthuizen 2.70 📉 -0.03
Watson 0.59 📉 -0.39
Reed 2.06 📉 1.60
DeChambeau 1.41 📈 2.11
Hatton 1.08 📈 1.34
Niemann 1.01 🟰 1.01
All 18 LIV golfers combined...
SG/rd: 1.51 📉 0.80
Average Finish: 43.6 📈 58.5
T10s: 22.9% 📉 15.1%
If you do have X, Ron has a great account for golf data. Follow Here.
Thing We’d Buy: Dad Hat
Mother’s Day is over and Fathers Day is right around the corner.
Chances are, you’re a dad that plays golf or you know someone who’s a dad that plays golf. Either way, this is a great gift to give to golf dads.
With each order, GolfDads donates to the Fort Worth Hope Farm to help at-risk youth and moms break the cycle of fatherless families.
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That’s all folks! See you Wednesday with some PGA Championship picks.
