A PGA For The Ages

Well, well, well!

What a week that was at the PGA Championship at Valhalla.  It was just what the men’s professional golf game needed – multiple storylines, compelling golf and that rarity of a major being decided with the very last shot.  If marketing men had sat down to dream up a scenario that would start to win back the fans’ interest in the game, they couldn’t have done much better with their script than the reality that unfolded over seven days.

It all started with the then world No 2 Rory McIlroy filing for divorce in the Florida courts last Monday week.  He and Erica Stoll had been married for seven years and the announcement seems to have been orchestrated to coincide with the beginning of a major week when Rory would only have a carefully controlled Wednesday meeting with the press before play started in earnest on the Thursday.  After that it would be all about the golf.  It was not widely known that things had not been well in the McIlroy household for a year or so, so for most the news was a bit of a bombshell.

Bombshell or not, it was old news very quickly indeed.  After a (men’s) major championship, record-equalling Thursday round of 62 by Xander Schauffele and a more than tidy 67 by world No 1 and new Dad Scottie Scheffler, who holed his second shot at the first for an eagle two, few of us suspected that Friday would unfold as it did.

Tragically, John Mills, on his way early in the morning to work at the tournament, was knocked down and killed by a shuttle bus as he was trying to cross a busy road.  Understandably, huge traffic congestion ensued with emergency vehicles attending the scene and hundreds of people – players, spectators, volunteers, tournament staff and delivery drivers – all trying to access Valhalla at the same time.  In the middle of all this chaos, Scottie, allegedly following one police officer’s instructions, failed to hear another’s and proceeded to turn in the gate at Valhalla.  Next thing we knew he was arrested, handcuffed, hustled into the back of a car, hauled off to jail, put in an orange jumpsuit, fingerprinted, photographed and charged.  You couldn’t make it up.  Yet another over-zealous cop acting precipitously?  Time will tell.

The delay in so many people accessing the course meant a delay in the starting times, which resulted in Scottie managing to return from jail in time to tee it up in the second round.  Despite his admission of being in “total shock and shaking” he managed to switch on to auto-pilot and shot a remarkable 66.  Saturday, however, was a different matter altogether.  With his body drained of the adrenalin that had fuelled him through the nightmare of Friday and with his good friend and caddy Ted Scott absent attending his daughter’s graduation, he stumbled to a 73 and his first over par round for some eight or nine months.  Goodbye Grand Slam for another year at least.

Meanwhile, interest on this side of the Atlantic was high with talented Belgian Thomas Detry, genial and popular Irishman Shane Lowry, home-loving Scot Bob McIntyre and evergreen Justin Rose all there or thereabouts after close of play on Saturday.  And let’s not forget the resurgent Viktor Hovland, happily reunited with his coach Joe Mayo.  Lowry, however, must get a special mention for his own 62 on moving day – “should have been a 61”, he said.  And perhaps it should.  Whatever, he had lots of support in Kentucky with the fans perhaps hoping for another rousing Irish celebration after what would have been his second victory stateside in a matter of weeks.

Bob McIntyre, the quiet, gentle Scot from Oban has made no secret of how difficult he has found living in America.  He is a total homebird and returned recently for a three-week visit to Oban, no doubt getting in a bit of shinty with his mates.  When it came time to return to the States, Bob took his Mum Carol with him and, according to him, she has been cooking and cleaning and looking after him ever since.  Perhaps his tied fifth finish means he can now afford a housekeeper.

Every good yarn needs a villain and it was Bryson DeChambeau who, for many, fulfilled that role.  Boy, did he bring energy to the proceedings with charismatic, lay-it-all-on-the-line golf that kept us on the edge of our seats till the final putt dropped.  He added theatre and verve and the championship was all the richer for it.  He was the perfect foil to Xander Schauffele who won his first major wire-to-wire. He succeeded in his intention to try and “stay in his own lane” and in doing so he silenced all the doubters who felt he couldn’t get it done when it mattered the most.  Now he has a major title to put alongside his gold medal.

For perhaps the first time at a major Tiger Woods didn’t really feature in the many storylines.  Frankly, he looked like an old man and couldn’t frighten the cut mark.  Time to call it a day, perhaps?

So, how can men’s golf in general and the PGA tour in particular build on a week like that?  Well, they could do worse than invite Nelly Korda, who has just won her sixth title out of her last seven appearances, to play.  That would have lots of folk tuning in again – including me.