By USNN World News Aggregator
Welcome to the Monday Leaderboard, where we run down the weekend’s top stories in the wonderful world of golf. Grab an Arnold Palmer, pull up a chair and let’s check in with one of our 2025 Masters main characters …
The reaction to DeChambeau’s latest victory speaks volumes
On the same week that Bryson DeChambeau won LIV’s Korea event, his Masters final-pairing-mate Rory McIlroy visited The Tonight Show and basked in the glory that comes with winning a green jacket. The contrast is striking: Where McIlroy is (justifiably) basking in his status as a newly-minted sports legend, DeChambeau is playing literally on the other side of the planet. And while DeChambeau is one of the biggest names in the game, there was little juice, little social-media acclaim, little notice of his victory — which just happened to be his first in any tournament since the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Korea was also the first time in four attempts this year that DeChambeau won a tournament he led heading into the final day.
Granted, Sunday was a huge sports day — a couple Game 7s, a stateside Grand Prix, and a popular winner in the PGA Tour event of the day — but even so, DeChambeau’s win seemed to barely make a ripple. True, the event happened in the predawn hours for American audiences, but that’s part of the issue here. Even the aura of DeChambeau isn’t enough to escape LIV’s gravitational pull.
We realize the irony of a media publication saying that DeChambeau should be a bigger deal in media publications — don’t we control who does and doesn’t get to be a “bigger deal”? Yes, but the ratings, clicks and social media reach numbers don’t lie — LIV events simply don’t have the juice that PGA Tour events do, even four years on.
LIV isn’t necessarily laser-focused on American audiences; the tour’s aim is more global. But DeChambeau’s audience is uniquely American-geared thanks to his YouTube popularity, and many of the other LIV stars — Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed — are American and presumably would enjoy a bit more resonance in their home country. Decision time is nearing for several significant LIV players as their contracts run out, and the tour’s continual struggles to draw interest for its on-course product have to be a significant factor in their decision of whether to re-sign.
Scottie Scheffler storms to Texas-sized victory
At last, Scottie Scheffler ended his long nightmare winless stretch of … eight months by claiming the awkwardly-named CJ Cup Byron Nelson in Texas. Scheffler carded a 253 for the week, tying the lowest 72-hole score in the history of the PGA Tour for an eight-stroke victory over the field. This wasn’t exactly a Rory-at-Augusta win; the course is as tame as a kitten, and the field wasn’t particularly stacked. Still, this is the last tournament Scheffler will play before the PGA Championship, and it’s always nice to go into a big week with a win. It’s also nice to leave a tourney with a new hat:
LPGA gets tough on slow play, levels two-stroke penalty
Picking up the pace won’t solve all of golf’s problems, but it certainly won’t hurt. After much dithering and debating, the sport’s powers-that-be are starting to get tougher on slow play, recognizing that nobody tunes in to a tournament to watch players assess shots for four minutes. The LPGA swung a big (and costly) hammer last week at the Black Desert Championship, tagging Chisato Iwai with a two-stroke penalty for slow play. The penalty proved the difference between a paycheck and an early trip home, as Iwai missed the cut by two strokes. The LPGA’s penalties call for a fine for a violation up to five seconds, a one-stroke penalty for a six- to 15-second violation, and a two-stroke penalty for any player who takes 15 or more seconds above their allotted time to play a shot. Step lively!
Tour’s first rangefinder penalty leads to clutch eagle
The PGA Tour is experimenting with new options for players, like range finders, as well as new penalties, like using the slope setting on your range finder. Davis Riley realized during Saturday’s rain-delayed second round of the CJ Cup that he hadn’t turned off the slope setting, and he self-reported the penalty. Good on him, except that the penalty was two strokes, he fell from inside the cut line to one stroke out … and he was on the 17th hole. Not great! But Riley stepped up on the 18th and carded a clutch eagle to make the cut. He finished the tournament at T45 and won a tidy $31,185, money he wouldn’t have had if he’d missed the cut. So he gets both his honor and a paycheck! Nice work!
Coming up this week … PGA Tour: Truist Championship (Pennsylvania) and ONEFlight Myrtle Beach Championship (South Carolina); LPGA: Mizuho Americas Open (New Jersey); PGA Tour Champions and LIV Golf: off.
