You just hate to see Duke suffer a loss like that in Coach K’s final home game. One day something good will happen to that program. One day.

The Stalemate at Meadowbrook

The Fried Egg will return to the Detroit area on September 12 for the second edition of The Stalemate at Meadowbrook Country Club. Registrations open today (March 7) at noon ET. Checkout the Stalemate Event Page for more information.

Miss me?

With this weekend’s HSBC Women’s World Championship, the LPGA Tour returned from a three-week break, and Jin Young Ko made her season debut. Ko picked up right where she left off in 2021. She birdied five of her final six holes at the HSBC to win by two over In Gee Chun and Minjee Lee.

The race between Ko and Nelly Korda for No. 1 player in the world has been the biggest storyline in women’s pro golf over the past several months. Lately, though, Ko has pulled comfortably ahead. In her past 10 LPGA Tour starts, she has won six times and finished T-6 or better nine times. She has shot in the 60s for 15 consecutive rounds and has broken par in 30 straight rounds.

It’s not like Korda has played poorly: she has notched four victories in her past 12 starts and hasn’t finished worse than T-20 in that span. But if she wants to match Jin Young Ko’s pace, she’ll have to find another gear.

Out of the weeds

This weekend’s Arnold Palmer Invitational was less a golf tournament than a last-man-standing competition. Scottie Scheffler hit just five fairways and nine greens en route to a 72 at Bay Hill on Sunday, but that was good enough for a one-shot win. Now No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking, Scheffler has won twice in his past three starts on the PGA Tour.

While Scheffler had a big week, the course overshadowed him—and not in a good way. Hack-out rough, extremely firm conditions, and difficult weekend pins put players on the defensive at Bay Hill, giving them few opportunities to play aggressively. Great shots were rare because the margin for error was so small. Those who like watching tour pros suffer probably enjoyed the coverage, but if you ask us, it wasn’t all that entertaining of an event.

The Latest from The Fried Egg

How Deep Is Your Bag? – The thick rough around the greens at Bay Hill encouraged players to reach for lob wedge time and time again. Andy Johnson discusses how this kind of setup  reduces the variety and excitement of around-the-green play.

The Shotgun Start – Andy and Brendan chat about Scheffler’s dialed-in lag putting, Bay Hill’s gimmicky difficulty, and Jin Young Ko’s dominance. Listen on iTunes and Spotify.

Results

Tyrrell Hatton, Viktor Hovland, and Billy Horschel all finished one shot back of Scheffler at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

Hannah Green (T-6), Brooke Henderson (T-6), and Danielle Kang (T-9) made their way into the top 10 at the HSBC Women’s World Championship.

The feel-good story of the weekend came at the Puerto Rico Open, where Ryan Brehm, playing on the final start of a minor medical extension, won by six shots and regained full status on the PGA Tour.

Ashun Wu shot a weekend 131 to win the Magical Kenya Open on the DP World Tour.

Retief Goosen outlasted K.J. Choi to win the Hoag Classic on the PGA Tour Champions.

Quick Hooks

University of Oklahoma senior Chris Gotterup finished T-7 at the Puerto Rico Open, becoming the first amateur to place in the top 10 of a PGA Tour event in more than five years.

Ryan Lavner has reported that Bryson DeChambeau will not play in next week’s Players Championship. DeChambeau continues to recover from a wrist injury that has kept him out for more than a month.

After recording back-to-back 76s at the Arnold Palmer Invitational this past weekend, McIlroy had some choice words for the setup at Bay Hill: “The weekend, it’s like crazy golf. You just don’t get rewarded for good shots…. Three years in a row it’s sort of been start off, lead the golf tournament, then you just sort of regress and come back to the field each and every day.”

Do aces help your PIP score? Max Homa wants to know.