Check in every week for the unfiltered opinions of our writers and editors as they break down the hottest topics in the sport, and join the conversation by tweeting us at @golf_com. This week, we discuss Scottie Scheffler’s FedEx Cup win, captain’s picks galore and the Good Good-Callaway fallout
Scottie Scheffler came from three strokes back after 54 holes to win the season-ending Tour Championship on Sunday at East Lake, claim the $10 million first-place check and pick up his third win of the season. Was this his best win of 2026? And did these last few weeks salvage his first major-less season in three years?
Sean Zak, senior writer: No, the best win of his season was two weeks ago… when he won by eight. I maintain stunned by how quickly we moved on from an 8-shot victory. If ANY other golfer on earth did that, we’d pause and talk about it for an entire week. I do think, in a way, this helps his major-free season feel a lot better. He was so good all year, but the pro golf world cares about dubs. He needed a couple dubs.
Josh Schrock, associate news editor (@schrock_and_awe): Agree with Sean. I thought the domination in Memphis was his best win of the season, especially with the chatter surrounding all his near-misses. I don’t think it makes up for coming up short at the four tournaments that will define his legacy, but three wins sounds a lot better than one.
Josh Sens, senior writer (@joshsens): Agreed about Memphis being the bigger win. As for the season, the man had three top 5s in the majors and finished inside the top 15 in all of them. Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods both had multiple seasons without majors. Scheffler’s so-called “disappointing” season is a fiction perpetuated by social media chatter and assorted golf outlets trying to perpetuate a story that isn’t one.
Dylan Dethier, senior writer: Memphis was more dominant, sure — but East Lake had a real door-slamming quality to it thanks to its position on the schedule. Schaffer “only” won three times this year, but he won his first start and his last. Picked up a few extra bucks, too.
Who won the FedEx Cup Playoffs without winning the FedEx Cup Playoffs?
Zak: Good Q. I think the answer is Ryan Gerard, who is a helluva player and has his eyes set on a late charge into the American Presidents Cup team. I’m not sure he did enough to make the squad, but he did a lot of it in the last month or two. Brandt Snedeker would be wise to give him a long look.
Schrock: Gerard played great golf and will play on the DP World Tour next week as he looks to stay fresh in case he gets the P-Cup call. I’ll go with Viktor Hovland, who had a chance to win the FedEx Cup despite still fighting his swing. He seems close to being back.
Sens: Good calls above. To add a third name to the list, how about the continued run of Matt Fitzpatrick’s brother, Alex. A player on no fan’s radar last year, now with good footing in the firmament. And another good finish this week.
Dethier: Wyndham Clark’s BMW victory added another layer of legitimacy to an elite season. Scheffler dominated Clark in every season-long statistical category — but if we’re just talking wins, there’s no beating a U.S. Open, a playoff dub and three in all.
The Tour announced its new postseason format that will go into place come 2028, and it includes one 90-player, 72-hole stroke-play event named the “Championship Series Finale,” with 32 players advancing to two weeks of match-play competition to name a “Tour Champion.” Do you like it? An improvement?
Zak: I think it’ll grade out as an 8 outta 10. Which is about three or four notches above where the current Tour playoffs sits. Anyone picking it apart is trying really hard to misunderstand commercial value, the share of golf attention across the governing bodies, and the desire among basically everyone for a serious match play event on the schedule. Now, the only real match play among individuals at the elite level of pro golf happens in August on the PGA Tour. That’s a huge win.
Schrock: Massive win. The PGA Tour’s postseason greatly needed a shakeup and I think having something that is easy for fans to understand and brings commercial appeal is much needed. Getting two weeks of match play at venues we don’t normally see will be a massive boost for golf’s postseason.
Sens: I think Sean is being a bit generous as to where the current playoffs sit. They’re a cash grab and a snooze. Always have been. The new format is a huge improvement and not just because the bar for getting better was so low. Match play is a great format. Can’t imagine a better change. Will it make the playoffs riveting? I’m skeptical. But it will make them miles better, for sure.
Dethier: The format change is fun — but I think the venue shift is, too. As is the potential reduction in outrageously sweaty golfers. We just spent August in Memphis, St. Louis and Atlanta, after all…
U.S. Presidents Cup captain Brandt Snedeker will finalize his team with six captain’s picks he’ll announce on Tuesday. If you are Sneds, who are you selecting? And who will be the biggest snub?
Zak: If I’m Snedeker, I’m taking the following as absolute LOCKS: Chris Gotterup, Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay.
I’m feeling great taking Maverick McNealy as a team event rookie, but then comes the hard selection, ONE of the following: Jackson Koivun, Akshay Bhatia, Ben Griffin, J.J. Spaun and Ryan Gerard. I think Sneds goes Koivun, making Gerard the biggest snub. All the others haven’t done enough lately.
Schrock: I would take Chris Gotterup, Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas to start. Patrick Cantlay showed life in the playoffs but for me, it’s not enough. I’d like to see the final three spots go to Jackson Koivun, Ryan Gerard and Maverick McNealy to give some guys who haven’t played in team events some exposure before we start talking Ryder Cup.
Sens: The more fresh faces, the better. Along with Gotterup, give me McNealy, Gerard, Koivun, Griffin, and Spaun. We’ve seen plenty of the others. This is supposed to be an exhibition. Give us some new exhibits.
Dethier: Xander, Cantlay, Gotterup, Gerard, Thomas. The remaining spot is a complete wild card, especially after JJ Spaun’s WD in East Lake. It’ll let Snedeker show off his creative side, if he so chooses. Tie goes to the highest ceiling — gimme Koivun.
In other team-event news, U.S. Solheim Cup captain Angela Stanford rounded out her team with three captain’s picks she made last week, although two of them (Rose Zhang and Megan Khang) have struggled lately but excelled in the Solheim Cup. Like the move? Or dislike it?
Schrock: I liked going with Rose, who finished T4 this week and is showing signs of life. I would’ve gone with Kiara Romero as my final pick and left Khang off. The U.S. hasn’t won on away soil since 2015 so I’d roll the dice on the young budding star.
Zak: Khang has been a Solheim Cup killer in her career. No qualms with that pick. Zhang, on the other hand, is probably just a veteran play. She’s been in a few of these now — even one on the road. The experience never hurts.
Sens: No quibbles with the Zhang pick and can get behind the Khang pick for personal reasons. I went to high school with her dad (makes me feel old), who was a killer in every sport he picked up and was especially merciless in one-on-one competitions. I see where his daughter gets it.
Dethier: Zhang made Stanford look smart (all sorts of unintended wordplay there) with a T4 this week, and Khang’s T27 was her best result in months. Romero would have been fun, but the entire picks cycle was a reminder that this time around the U.S. bench isn’t as deep as some years past. The biggest question going forward is what happens with Angel Yin, who was an auto-qualifier but has missed significant time with an illness and shot 81-76 in her first event back. So we may have one pick ahead still…?
Last week’s news cycle was dominated by YouTube giants Good Good Golf and the fallout stemming from their controversial driver ad. Since the ad circulated they were dropped by Callaway Golf, had their merchandise removed from certain stores, are no longer partnering with the PGA Tour for a November event and had their “Big Break” show on Golf Channel canceled before it even aired. While we’ve already discussed this topic in great detail over the last week, what’s your takeaway from it all? What did you learn?
Zak: My biggest takeaway was that it felt so very of this generation. A traditional brand going out of its way to use content creators/influencers to sell product. (We’ve seen a lot of that in this sport.) Good Good, made up of Gen Z’ers, are the company founders, its most recognizable faces and are, much like podcasters, right there in the advert selling an item. Then, the marketing team — which is catching all the late blame, it seems — is trying to spoof off a summer movie, as though it’s a TikTok trend you just have to get in on. It all was extremely this era, this generation, etc., inclusive of the sequence of apologies that followed.
Schrock: I think Sean nailed it. As brands try to connect with and sell to a younger audience, they are going to have to decide how they can do so without letting the creators drive the car unchecked. It was a traditional brand trying to do a traditional ad with an untraditional marketing force in an attempt to reach an audience it covets. I’m interested to see how this dance evolves or if this is the start of a backlash where traditional big companies fall back on tried and true methods and decide not to venture into the creator lane.
Sens: Mostly, the whole thing just made me want to take up residence in a shack in the woods without an internet connection. If social media went away tomorrow, we’d lose some occasionally funny content but the world would be much better off. This week was a reminder of how these platforms bring out the worst in everyone. But no doubt Sean and Schrock are also right about the way it underscores the cultural/economic divides in golf and how the industry’s efforts to “grow the game” have a way of blowing up into controversy.
Dethier: I yearn for a world where every event doesn’t get jammed directly into the Great Culture War Machine. Unfortunately, here we are.
But, yeah. The ad was bad, the response was slow and underwhelming and by that point Good Good’s brand damage had been done; the story had broken contain. When you have non-golfers on TikTok deep-diving Good Good’s brand strategy, something has gone gravely wrong. Anyway, I’ll be looking for space in the woods near Sens.
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