Congressional and Colonial Deliver

Reporting from the Senior PGA

By PJ Clark

This past weekend, I drove five hours down I-95 expecting to see three days of senior championship golf before the main event – a Don Rea trophy presentation. Don didn’t show up, but I did get a nasty sunburn and a notebook full of observations from my time at the Senior PGA at Congressional Country Club.

1. I spent the majority of the weekend tracking defending champion Richard Bland, fresh off his T-37 finish at last week’s PGA Championship. Blandy and I were paired with Justin Leonard on Saturday. I found it interesting that Padraig Harrington and Dicky B were two of the only golfers blasting drivers off nearly every par 4 and par 5. Blandy was routinely 50-100 yards past Justin Leonard on Saturday, who plodded his way around with a bunch of 3-woods and hybrids off tees. It was a fascinating dichotomy to watch Harrington and Blandy, who regularly compete against the best players in the world, bash driver while the rest of their peers played much more conservatively off the tee.

2. Another golfer who weaponizes distance to his advantage, Angel Cabrera became quite possibly the first golfer in history to win two majors in a six-day span after last week’s Monday finish at the Regions Tradition. Nobody fact-check that. I did notice some curious vibes surrounding El Pato. There were a few Argentinian flags and voices of support, but even more audible cheers from the Congressional member tent when Cabrera made a couple of mistakes down the stretch. To top it all off, he uses an Odyssey Jailbird putter. Sometimes the jokes write themselves.

3. Coming on the heels of an Andrew Green-led redesign in 2021, the golf course was a significant topic of discussion. In addition to hearing some complaints from players about the severity of slopes on the greens, it was noticeable that there was no first cut of rough. For example, on No. 18, Harrington and Bland both hit from thick, heavy-grass lies on Saturday after missing slightly left off the tee. Without buffers of rough, Congressional played more narrow than many of the courses I’m used to watching pro golfers attack. Not every player liked this facet of the setup. In his post-round comments on Saturday, Stewart Cink specifically called out the “wall factor,” where balls end up right against the thick grass, and suggested that golf isn’t meant to be played this way.

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4. For whatever this is worth, the golf course seemed to separate the haves from the have-nots, as reflected by the top of the leaderboard. It rained like crazy on Thursday, and the wind was insane on both Friday and Saturday. The back nine on Sunday was a solid major championship test, with large swings in scoring in both directions. Eight to ten golfers had chances to win on the weekend, most of whom were top names with success in non-senior major championships, as Cabrera mentioned in his post-round comments on Saturday. I thought this golf course was perfect for the seniors; I don’t know that it’d be long enough for non-senior Tour pros.

5. Society may not care about senior tour golf, but these guys genuinely do, and there’s something admirable about that. Jose Maria Olazabal missed the cut and was absolutely grinding on the range over the weekend for the love of the game. I think that’s cool.

6. Woody Austin had a fantastic tomahawk into the ground with his iron on Sunday after hitting a poor approach shot into 18. Hell of a way to finish your tournament.

7. I took stock of the LIV gear I saw out at Congressional. I spotted a few Crushers hats, a stunning amount of Cleeks gear (maybe five pieces), and zero Majesticks merch. There was no Lee Westwood support to be found despite him entering Sunday one shot back from the lead. Unfortunately for Westy, he was his typical major championship Sunday self, posting a 5-over 77 to finish T-25 in his senior debut. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

8. Harrington led the tournament for the majority of Sunday's final round, but missed a three-footer on the 72nd hole that would’ve eventually gotten him into a playoff. One of the biggest rewards for winning this tournament is an exemption into next year’s PGA Championship, a tournament for which Harrington has already qualified as a former champion. Still, he walked off the property devastated. Witnessing a golfer, who has accomplished everything possible in the sport, downtrodden and sadly loading his belongings into his car after Sunday’s round will stick with me for a long time. I’ll also note that Padraig was very responsibly filming the exterior of his courtesy car before returning it, making sure he doesn’t get dinged for any extraneous charges. Stars, they’re just like us.

It seemed like a successful tournament for both the PGA of America and Congressional, with excitement and storylines galore. In my personal opinion, since I’m allowed to have those, it was a great tournament with an excellent finish. It’s just a shame that Don Rea didn’t make it to the 18th green for the trophy ceremony, but I’d like to think he caught the end with a few of his 31,000 PGA member subordinates.

Griffin Gets it Done

By Joseph LaMagna

In the non-senior division of pro golf, 29-year-old Ben Griffin earned a hard-fought win at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Entering Sunday with a share of the 54-hole lead with Matti Schmid and four shots clear of third, Griffin got off to a hot eagle-birdie start, then didn’t make another birdie the rest of the round.

After a Schmid birdie on the par-3 16th, Griffin’s lead was cut to one with two holes to play. On the 17th, Schmid found a plugged lie in the greenside bunker, leading to a curious decision to play away from the flag and into the rough. Trevor Immelman questioned Schmid’s decision in real time, as did Brendon de Jonge on Golf Central in the postgame. Schmid made bogey, widening Griffin’s lead to two with one to play.

Needing birdie at 18 to apply pressure, Schmid pulled a wedge long and left of the green before holing a clutch chip shot for birdie, forcing Griffin to make a four-footer for the win after a stellar chip shot of his own from an awkward stance.

With two PGA Tour wins, including a partner event at the Zurich Classic,  and a T-8 at the PGA Championship in his last five starts, Griffin has officially entered the U.S. Ryder Cup conversation, a remarkable position for the former mortgage broker to find himself in. As the clock ticks towards Bethpage, Griffin joins a crowded bubble of captain’s pick contenders. Players like Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka, Daniel Berger, Andrew Novak, Akshay Bhatia, Maverick McNealy, Sam Burns, Denny McCarthy, and Griffin all need to prove themselves in the season’s final two majors as they battle for selection.

Distance will be at a premium at Bethpage, and while Griffin isn’t a bomber, he has some sneaky speed in the tank, regularly touching a 180-mph ball speed. A lot will change between now and September, but Griffin is squarely on the radar.

In its second year hosting the Schwab post-renovation, Colonial Country Club delivered another excellent, unique test. A firm, fast, windy Colonial is an exacting examination of players’ full skill sets, especially with the penal Bermudagrass rough. While many other venues on the PGA Tour increasingly trend towards opting for overseeded rough versus true Bermuda, Colonial’s agronomy injects electricity into the tournament and raises the bar of execution required with one’s ball-striking. The Bermudagrass is a refreshing feature.

While we’re on the subject of Colonial, here’s shot data on No. 2 at Colonial from 2005 (top) versus this year (bottom). In many circles, this is referred to as “athleticism over time.”

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As for other results, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler turned in another Scheffler-like performance. With what looked like his C+ game, he still led the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, lost strokes putting, and finished T-4. He also made an incredible recovery to save par on No. 7 on Saturday. His consistency is second to none.

‍This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.