Alright everyone - here is your quick-fire golf newsletter with the essential “must-knows” from the world of golf. Enjoy!!! ⛳💥

Also, don’t forget to download and listen to the Beyond The Tour podcast. You can find it on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.

🏆 The Open Championship Recap

The final men’s Major of the year, The Open Championship, played out at Royal Troon Golf Course and it was a ripping tournament. Here are your “must-knows” from the event:

• Xander Shauffele is your 2024 Champion Golfer of the Year, taking out this year’s Open after shooting a final round 65 (6-under) to win by 2 shots over Justin Rose and Billy Horschel. Xander produced a stunning display of precision golf on the back 9 where he shot 4-under (31) on arguably the toughest inward stretch in all of championship golf.

• X-man is now a 2-time Major Champion and this was his 2nd Major victory of the year. After being arguably the best player without a Major for so long, things have certainly swung around dramatically for Xander and now some are starting to contemplate whether he can win the grand slam given his strong prior performances at The Masters and the US Open. His win also completed a clean sweep for the USA at the Majors this year - the first time this has been done since 1982.

• The wind and weather were major factors at this year’s Open. The luck of the draw was a significant influence on the leaderboard as many players got boned by the changing weather conditions.

• We also saw one of the most savage cuts in recent memory - there were so many big names to miss playing the weekend including Tiger, Rory, Wyndam Clark (hasn’t he fallen from grace!), Hovland, Aberg, Bryson, Hatton, Akshay, Zalatoris, Fleetwood, and Aussies Cam Smith and Min Woo Lee.

• Troon’s signature hole, the Postage Stamp, reminded us how wonderful short par 3s can be (think back to LACC last year for the US Open where the Par 3 11th was 80 yards). The Postage Stamp was the scene of many a big score, and the Coffin bunker put Shane Lowry in a body bag on Saturday. Lowry, who was leading at 8-under at the time, tugged his tee shot into the Coffin Bunker and could not take direct aim at the pin for his second. He would take double bogey which derailed all his momentum and subsequently shoot 40 on the back 9 to surrender a significant lead. This was followed by a less than impressive press conference where he complained about the course set up. He would never recover and finished 5-back in 6th place.

• The tournament produced an excellent final round leaderboard with a great mix of talent and personalities. It included some of the world’s best (Scheffler, Xander), some journeymen (Rose, Scott, Lowry), some Major maidens (Horschel, Burns, Henley) and some unknows (Brown, Lawrence). Much of this can be attributed to the quality of the course and the set up. It provided the opportunity for different styles of golf to come to the fore, and it was a refreshing break from the soft dartboard conditions we see all too regularly on many pro Tour stops.

• As for LIV performances, there were 16 LIV players competing (17 if you count Laurie Canter) at this year’s Open. Jon Rahm was the only player to finish in the Top 10 (7th), with the next best being part-time Crusher John Catlin (T16) and Mean-Dean Burmester (T19). Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Joaquin Niemann bobbed their heads up on the leaderboard at times but were never serious contenders. 7 players missed the cut including the big names of Bryson Dechambeau and Cam Smith. Overall, probably a disappointing result for the LIV contingent.

• Some of the commentary team on the world feed engaged in blatant trolling of LIV. Laura Davies and Sam Torrance both at times made snide remarks directed at LIV Golf and it wasn’t a good look. As we’ve said repeatedly in this newsletter, we believe the Majors should be above the politics of the individual tours, and it was classless for these commentators to engage in such pettiness. Get over it!

• As for the Aussies, Adam Scott was the best finisher (T10) following on from his strong performance at the Scottish Open last week. This was not a course where we expected Scotty to perform well, so it was a refreshing and unexpected result for our guy. Jason Day was the next best Aussie at T13, whilst the remainder of the Australian contingent missed the cut (Smith, Min Woo, Stubbs and Smylie).

📅 Schedule for the Week

LIV Golf returns to the golfing calendar this week as we see their first event at JCB Golf and Country Club. After the crowds at Valdarama were somewhat below expectations, LIV will be hoping for a big turnout from the Brits to support this event.

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: The 3M Open - TPC Twin Cities (Minnesota), $8.1m purse, Friday 26/7 to Monday 29/7 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, Main Coverage starts 5.30am AEST Friday, Featured Groups from 9.30pm Thursday.

• LIV UK: JCB Golf and CC (England), $25m purse, Friday 26/7 to Sunday 28/7, Coverage on 7+ from 11.15pm AEST. 

• DPWT: No event

• LPGA: CPKC Women’s Open - Earl Grey Golf Club (Alberta, CA), $2.6m, Friday 26/7 to Monday 29/7, Coverage on Foxtel and Kayo, starts 8.30 AEST Friday.