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New York Times
a day ago
- Sport
- New York Times
The Scheffler paradox: How sportspeople cope when winning is not enough
There are certain things we've become accustomed to hearing from sportspeople on the eve of a major competition. Most are nebulous, designed to give away as little as possible. 'I'm in a good place,' for example, or 'I'm ready to give my all.' So when the world's top-ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, arrived in Northern Ireland ahead of the 153rd Open Championship earlier this month and told the world's media that he sometimes wonders what the point of it all is, it made headlines. Advertisement Most of what Scheffler said was not controversial. The 29-year-old American spoke about the importance of faith and family and about how, 14 months after the birth of his son, Bennett, the sport that is his job is not the be-all and end-all of his existence. 'I'm blessed to be able to play golf,' he said, 'but if my golf ever started affecting my home life or the relationship with my wife or son, that's going to be the last day that I play out here for a living.' In a press conference answer lasting around five minutes, Scheffler also spoke about the fleeting euphoria that accompanies success. There is a sense of accomplishment in winning big tournaments, he said, but not one that is 'fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.' 'You get to number one in the world, and… what's the point?' he added. 'Why do I want to win this tournament so bad?' Five days later, Scheffler had won yet another tournament, his fourth major in just over three years, and was naturally asked to reflect on those pre-Open comments. 'I've worked my entire life to become good at this game and play for a living,' he said. 'It's one of the great joys of my life. But having success is not what fulfils the deepest desires of your heart.' Scheffler did acknowledge he was 'pretty excited to celebrate this one', but the week was a rare insight into the mind of a champion athlete that seemed to contradict so much of what is written and spoken about elite sportspeople; that they 'want it' more than their opponents. That they are selfish. That they never switch off. That winning isn't everything to them; it's the only thing. What, then, can we learn from Scheffler? And how did his comments land with contemporaries in other sports who have also reached the pinnacle? Though the timing of his remarks, just before one of his sport's most prestigious tournaments and in the middle of a career-high purple patch, was rare, Scheffler isn't the only athlete to have found more questions than answers in success. In Aaron Rodgers' Netflix documentary series Enigma, the NFL quarterback reflected on his 2011 Super Bowl win with the Green Bay Packers and how accomplishing the one thing he'd always wanted in life at age 27 left him feeling lost. Advertisement 'Now what?,' he asked. 'I was like, 'Did I aim at the wrong thing? Did I spend too much time thinking about stuff that ultimately doesn't give you true happiness?'.' When British boxer Tyson Fury ended the nine-year reign of Wladimir Klitschko to become world heavyweight champion in 2015, it was the realisation of a childhood dream. But in his subsequent book, Behind the Mask, Fury writes that though he had 'finally got to the end of the rainbow, the pot of gold seemed to be missing… The world tells of success as such a wonderful story, the pinnacle of happiness. But my experience was that there was just a void, and it felt like everyone was trying to get something from me.' A number of Olympic athletes have spoken openly about the emotional comedown that can follow triumph at the Games. American swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with 23 gold medals, talked to NBC News last year about how he would sink into depression after the conclusion of each four-yearly Games, starting in 2004 when he won six events in the Athens edition. 'You get to like the edge of the cliff and you're like, 'Cool… Now what?,' he said. While these are all individual cases, experiencing a down period after such a high is a familiar scenario among elite sportspeople. 'I worked with an Olympic athlete who won gold in Paris (last year) and there is a well-known psychological phenomenon about depression after this, because if your life reaches its crescendo in your early twenties, what's left?,' says Gary Bloom, the first psychotherapist to work at an English football club (Oxford United) and who has also assisted a range of top-level athletes. 'How do you motivate yourself to go beyond that? 'That's really an ego-driven concept, based on the idea that somehow your personality and your success are one and the same. Many sportspeople become synonymous with what they do, rather than who they are.' Advertisement Scheffler, though, seems to be the antithesis of the ego-driven athlete. Bloom says the golfer's assertion that winning is 'fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart' indicates he has 'stepped outside the euphoria of winning in sport and asked himself the existential question of, 'What's all this for?' If it's about winning a cup or a gold medal, I think that says a lot about the ego of the individual which needs feeding. 'Succeeding is very ego-driven. But something that's spirituality-driven is much harder to achieve. Also, for his age, it's pretty unusual. For someone so young, I would strongly suspect there's an element of religious observance going on.' Scheffler is, indeed, a devout Christian who, after putting on his first champion's green jacket at The Masters in 2022, told reporters that his identity was 'not a golf score. All I'm trying to do is glorify God, and that's why I'm here.' Performance psychologist Jamil Qureshi says that finding the sweet spot where an athlete's sport doesn't define them – where they can also be a partner, parent, sibling, businessperson or something else entirely – can lead to both happiness and success. 'Happiness is when you lose yourself to something which is bigger than you,' says Qureshi. 'This is why those people whose vocation turns into their vacation, who chase their passion more than their pension, are the ones who are happily successful.' Qureshi draws a distinction between having a purpose and having a goal. A sportsperson who has a target of winning three tournaments in a year or shooting in the 60s on all four days of a golf tournament might believe that's their purpose, but it's actually a goal. 'It's why Tiger Woods keeps working,' says Qureshi. 'Why Richard Branson keeps working. Why Cristiano Ronaldo keeps working. Because purpose is never achieved, it's fulfilled on a daily basis.' Advertisement That is something Britain's two-time Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover discovered as she went through a career that saw her return from five years in retirement and after having three children to reach another two finals at the Games — finishing fourth in the coxless pairs with team-mate Polly Swann in Tokyo, then winning a silver medal in the coxless fours in Paris last year at age 38. Initially though, Glover believed that achieving her goal of Olympic gold was all she needed to be happy. She recalls going for a walk in the weeks before her first Games, London 2012, and being confronted by a 'really clear thought that if I can just win the Olympics, I will never be sad again.' Speaking to The Athletic now, she says, 'winning in London was a great moment, but not for the reasons I thought it would be. When I was 12, I thought you cross the finish line, punch the air and feel this rush of success and excitement. But I crossed the line and felt nothing but relief for the fact that we had not mucked up. I felt a total dissociation with the moment. It was too big for me.' Glover knew very quickly after those Olympics that she wanted to do it again four years later at the next Games in Rio de Janeiro — not just the winning part, but the whole process. The motivation, she says, was waking up every day and training alongside coxless-pairs partner Heather Stanning and their coach Robin Williams to find out the answer to one question: How good can we be? 'It was just us versus us,' she says. 'They say you race how you train, and we trained every day with that mentality of, 'How good can we be?', not just, 'Can we win?'.' Part of the problem, says Qureshi, is that sport is judged on outcomes. That, he adds, is 'why people feel euphoria and happiness if they've achieved something, but it's almost like it's a monkey off their back more than an achievement.' There is also a kind of mismatch, says Qureshi, between the time, dedication and sacrifice it has taken to reach that moment of glory and the fact it is, by nature, fleeting. Advertisement 'When a boxer wins in the first round and people say it's £10million for two minutes' work, it's not. They've been training all their lives. Everything goes towards being good enough to win, so you almost want there to be a proportionate reward to effort. You want to achieve something and feel as though it's been worth it.' That's certainly a feeling that resonates with British double Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee. He believes Scheffler's comments cut to the heart of why the best athletes are motivated to do what they do. 'It's obvious to me,' he tells The Athletic, 'that when something means so much to you, when you've trained for 50 weeks a year, 35 hours a week, put in all that hard work and had sleepless nights with injuries over many years, standing on the podium for five minutes is never going to provide the satisfaction you need to make up for all of that.' Brownlee, who took Olympic gold in 2012 and 2016, then went on to race in Ironman events before retiring from professional sport last year, says that if trying to win at the Olympics had been his only motivation, it wouldn't have been enough. 'I had to have other forms of motivation and inspiration. It sounds clichéd, but it's very true; I found you really do have to find satisfaction and real joy in the everyday journey of getting better. 'The vast majority of athletes who are successful at anything start as young kids, doing it for fun — for some kind of intrinsic motivation. But sometimes the reasons why you do it can get lost along the way.' Brownlee's realisation of his 'why' came one morning in the period after London 2012, when he got up one morning and had no real reason to go to training. Regardless, he went along, got into the pool and started swimming up and down. 'After 20 minutes of swimming as hard as I could for no reason at all, it hit me — 'This is just what I do. It's who I am. I'm not here to train for races or for any particular reason, this is just fundamentally who I am'. Even now, I'm out cycling and running pretty much every day. It's very much part of my DNA.' For Qureshi, 'consistency of mind gives consistency of play', and athletes whose mood does not fluctuate wildly depending on their results may get better ones. Former England cricketer Ian Bell identifies with the sentiment. 'I felt that as a young player, sometimes my mood or how I could act would be determined by my outcome, and that shouldn't really be the case,' he tells The Athletic. 'As you mature and come through things, you realise that, actually, even though in sport we live in an outcome-focused world, as a person and as an athlete you can't live in that.' Advertisement Bell, who played in 118 Test matches between 2004 and 2015, says that as he went through his career, becoming a husband and father, he came to understand the importance of consistent behaviour and understanding that having a good day on the field 'doesn't necessarily mean you're the best guy in the world. It's trying to stay in that level emotional state where you're consistent in how you are with people around you and how you train.' When he heard Scheffler's comments before The Open, Bell says they resonated with the part of him that remembers how quickly life moves on. He looks back on multiple victories — particularly those against Australia, the arch-enemy for an English cricketer — as amazing experiences he would love to re-live but also recalls how 'everyone talks about it for 48 hours, then life carries on. All that work you put in as a young sportsperson to get there and you have this feeling that life will be so different or a certain way, and sometimes it doesn't feel like that.' For Bell, it means Scheffler has the perfect mindset to succeed. 'He wasn't putting any pressure on himself or on an outcome, even though he still got that outcome,' he says. 'It's a nice place to be as an athlete when you're not living or dying on your results and realise there's a bigger picture.' It all seems so contradictory to the rhetoric we often hear about success requiring an 'all-in' attitude. In reality, says Qureshi, 'it's about finding the right state. Some people (in professional golf) perform much better when they have an intensity which goes from Tuesday (when they arrive for a tournament) to Sunday (the final round). Others perform better when they do a small amount on the range, then come back and play with their kids. You find what works for you. 'Intensity really is in the impact moment; when you find yourself in the rough, when you're deciding on your course management, that's when we need to react with intensity, commitment and execution.' Advertisement Glover had success with both approaches during her rowing career. In her twenties, the sport was her everything. Later, after getting married and starting a family, that changed. While she maintained her aggression in her racing and training, she also came to realise 'there are aspects of life which I would drop rowing for in a heartbeat'. She would look at her team-mates, who were largely still in their twenties, and recognise that they felt differently. 'And that was cool, because it had been the same for me,' Glover says. 'Our definition of success will change. It's exciting that you'll find different things in your life that give you a massive sense of satisfaction. It doesn't always have to be finishing first.' Even taking this individual approach into account, Scheffler's closing sentiment in his pre-Open press conference was perhaps the one that raised most eyebrows: 'I love to put in the work. I love getting to practice. I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don't understand the point.' This sentiment is all about perspective, says Qureshi, and recognising that where you are in your life will create a new way of seeing what you do, how you do it and why. And the impact of that is hard to predict. 'If Scheffler is now seeing golf in a different manner to 10 years ago, he might be questioning it in a way that takes him away from performance or towards better performance,' says Qureshi. 'Would you be surprised if, in the next few years, he says, 'I'm giving up the game, I've achieved what I want to'? Or would you be surprised if he goes on and does even more and plays longer because he's found a state of mind and compartmentalised it in regard to the other elements of his life?'. It could be either. For Qureshi, what's most important is to understand that for athletes who do reach the very top of their sport, the outcome is often not the only thing that matters. He was working with another golfer, Paul McGinley, in 2005 when the Irishman was in contention to win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational tournament in the United States going into its fourth and final day. 'Tiger Woods had barely hit a fairway for three days but ended up winning,' recalls Qureshi. 'In his interview afterwards, you could see that his excitement and exhilaration had come from the manner in which he'd played golf, not necessarily from the outcome. Advertisement 'He was pleased with how he responded and reacted to the mistakes he made. He was robust, resilient, committed. Players at this level get a lot out of understanding how they're playing the game as much as what they're achieving.' Ultimately, Scheffler is showing that there is more than one route to success. And his words have clearly resonated with athletes from a variety of sports. Before Formula One's Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, McLaren driver Lando Norris — a huge golf fan who plays off an eight handicap — said he related to the American's words. But his main takeaway is a pertinent one: 'Just let the person be whatever they want to be. They don't have to live the exact life that you think they should, or say what you think they should. 'He lives very much his own way, and I think it's quite cool to see someone like that achieving what he is. You have to respect that.' Additional reporting: Luke Smith
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Scottie Scheffler v everybody: The Open champion is making his case among the greats
US golfer Scottie Scheffler with the Claret Jug after his victory in the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush on July 20. NEW YORK – As Tiger Woods wrapped up his eight-shot British Open victory at St. Andrews in 2000, his second consecutive blowout at a major, exasperation swept through pro golf. 'He's the best who ever played,' Mark Calcavecchia said that Sunday, 'and he's 24.' 'He is the best player in the world by a long, long way, and we have got to raise our standards to join his,' Colin Montgomerie said. 'He's got to leave a few for his friends, doesn't he?' Jean van de Velde said. 'He can't have them all.' Ernie Els said: 'The guy is unbelievable, man. I'm running out of words. Give me a break.' Oh, how eerily similar those sentiments sound after Scottie Scheffler's four-shot domination last Sunday at Royal Portrush Golf Club for his fourth major championship in four years and third in eight starts. 'Scottie Scheffler is – it's inevitable,' Rory McIlroy said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Thirty dead, over 80,000 evacuated, following heavy rain in Beijing Asia Thai army accuses Cambodia of violating truce Singapore NDP 2025: Enhanced security measures to be put in place around the Padang Business SIA shares tumble 6.8% after first-quarter profit slide Sport World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro among list of top names for Singapore football coach World Trump says many are starving in Gaza, vows to set up food centres Business BYD tops Singapore car sales in first half of 2025 with almost one-fifth of the market Singapore ST Explains: What we know about the Tanjong Katong sinkhole so far 'Four shots behind, kind of like playing for second,' Li Haotong said. It is time to have that conversation about where Scheffler belongs in golf history. First, it was only that he was the best ball striker since Woods. Then it was that his season was the best individual one since Woods'. But this is no longer simply a nice run or a great peak. We are now at four, steady, undeniable years of golf so much better than any peer. Scheffler is not only the best of his era; he is among the greatest to play the sport. With his fourth major championship, Scheffler earned the third leg of the career Grand Slam. But he is just the fourth golfer to win the Masters, the PGA Championship and British Open all before age 30. His company? Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Scheffler is one of three players since 1934, the year of the first Masters, to win four or more major titles by at least three strokes. The others are Woods (seven wins) and Nicklaus (six). DataGolf created a metric called DG Points that interweaves advanced statistics with tangible accomplishments to rank the best golf seasons since 1983. Scheffler's last four all rank in the top 20. Of the past 42 years in golf, 12 of the 20 best seasons are owned by Woods or Scheffler. Nobody else has more than two. Scheffler's career in totality cannot be properly judged until it is over. His current run may be far greater than any peak in Phil Mickelson's career, but we cannot argue against six majors, 45 PGA Tour wins and 21 1/2 Ryder Cup points. At least not yet. The pain and beauty of golf reside in the understood vulnerability that it could all end at any moment. Woods' career is primarily divided into two all-time three-year runs with relative lulls in between. McIlroy won four majors in four years. Brooks Koepka won four in three. Jordan Spieth won three in three. All of them experienced dramatic dips shortly after. Look at the timeline comparing McIlroy's and Scheffler's pace to winning four majors. McIlroy was four years younger, but the pace is identical in terms of major starts. It is a reminder that what feels inevitable rarely is. It took another 39 major starts for McIlroy to win his fifth. With that said, there is zero indication that Scheffler's pace will slow. He has won four of his last eight tournaments, including two majors, and has not been worse than eighth since March. He is no longer competing with the greats of this era. He is competing with the greatest in history. It can be unfortunate when we reduce golf greatness to major championships. It is the most important test of that greatness, absolutely, but it does not paint the entire picture. McIlroy's peak came the closest, winning four majors from 2011-14. He won 12 times worldwide, and his 2012 and 2014 seasons rank in the DG Points top 20. At the height of his 2014 peak, though, he was gaining 2.40 strokes on the field per round. Impressive, but Adam Scott, Jim Furyk and Justin Rose were right behind him at 2.23, 2.23 and 2.05. Scheffler is gaining 3.10 strokes on the field. Next best is McIlroy at 2.10, followed by Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. That is an average, with recency weighed heavier, across the last 150 rounds, so nearly the past two years of golf. These four years, Scheffler has won 20 times worldwide, and counting. McIlroy finished top five 37 times in those four years. Scheffler has finished there 48 times (and it is just July). Mickelson's longevity is his superpower, but he never had a single season rank in the DG top 30. His career peak was averaging 2.41 strokes gained on the field in 2000. Scheffler has been above that for three years straight. No, the actual comparisons for Scheffler's four-year transcendence are the names you are never supposed to compare anyone to. Tom Watson won five majors from 1980-83, easily the best run of anyone between Nicklaus and Woods. Watson finished in the top 10 an absurd 11 times in those 16 starts. Since the start of 2022, Scheffler has four wins with 12 top 10s. If we avoid going too deep into the quality of competition argument, those are remarkably similar runs. Watson finished with eight majors across nine years. Lee Trevino won four majors in four years from 1971-74 (despite skipping two Masters), but he had only seven top-10 finishes and plenty where he missed the cut or was outside the top 30. What will be interesting to follow, though, is Watson's best four-year run came right in the middle of an overall nine-year prime. He won majors before and after that run. This Scheffler four-year run is just the beginning. We do not even know if these will be his best four years. That's the thing about Scheffler. He has continued to get better. His 2023 season was the greatest strokes gained approach season since Woods. The next two years have been far better. For much of his rise, he was a below-average putter. He is now top 10 in the world on the greens. His 2024 season was rightfully called one of the four or five best seasons in golf history; he won nine times worldwide. But the point of this is all to say: Scheffler is no longer just comparing himself to his peers. His greatness has only the absolute pantheon left to chase. NYTIMES
Newsweek
7 days ago
- Sport
- Newsweek
Tiger Woods' Ex-Coach Calls Scottie Scheffler 'More of Jack' Nicklaus
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Scottie Scheffler is in the thick of his golden era, and he doesn't seem to be blinking. Scheffler has now won 12 times since March 2024, including three of the four majors and an Olympic gold. His latest triumph came last week at Royal Portrush, where the World No.1 raised the Claret Jug after a commanding four-shot victory at the 153rd Open Championship. It marked the third leg of the career Grand Slam, leaving only the U.S. Open to complete the set. Woods' ex-coach Butch Harmon compares Scottie Scheffler to Jack Nicklaus Soon after his win, the golf world erupted with comparisons of Scheffler and 15-time major winner, Tiger Woods. Scheffler's dominance, especially his ability to stay focused, has drawn parallels to Woods' from quite some time. Even Xander Schauffele stated, "He's doing some Tiger-like stuff," per the PGA Tour. But amid all the comparisons with the Big Cat, one voice close to Woods offered a different take. Image Collage of Tiger Woods and his former coach Butch Harmon during the 1999 British Open and Scottie Scheffler with the Claret Jug at the 2025 Open Championship. (Image Credits: Getty Images) Image Collage of Tiger Woods and his former coach Butch Harmon during the 1999 British Open and Scottie Scheffler with the Claret Jug at the 2025 Open Championship. (Image Credits: Getty Images) Getty Images Butch Harmon, who coached Woods from 1993 to 2004, dialed into SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio on Monday to share his views. "In all the comparisons and stuff to Tiger and this and that, I think his greatest attribute that he has is he's the closest thing to Jack Nicklaus I've ever seen mentally," Harmon stated per video posted on X. "He makes no mental mistakes. He dumps the ball in the middle of the green when he has to. His iron control is beautiful. He reminds me more of Jack than he does of Tiger — Tiger in the winning ways, but Jack in the way he plays golf. I've never quite seen a guy that can mimic Nicklaus the way he does". Harmon's praise wasn't just about the stats but the similarity in their styles as well. Scheffler's strategic, mistake-free approach mirrors Nicklaus' famed course management. And Harmon, who's seen both legends up close, believes Scheffler's mental game is what sets him apart. Facts prove Scottie Scheffler's resemblance to Jack Nicklaus Back in May, after Scheffler won the Memorial Tournament, Nicklaus told reporters, "He plays a lot like I did." The Golden Bear emphasized Scheffler's ability to play smart with a lead, something Nicklaus mastered over decades. Not only that, but after clinching the Open, Scheffler's 15-month-old son Bennett crawled toward him on the 18th green. The toddler tripped, face-planted, and was scooped up by Scheffler as he balanced the Claret Jug in one hand, son in the other. Image Collage of Scottie Scheffler with son Bennett after his 2025 Open Championship win Vs Jack Nicklaus with son Gary after the 1973 PGA Championship victory. (Image Credits: Getty Images) Image Collage of Scottie Scheffler with son Bennett after his 2025 Open Championship win Vs Jack Nicklaus with son Gary after the 1973 PGA Championship victory. (Image Credits: Getty Images) Getty Images It was a scene reminiscent of Nicklaus at the 1973 PGA Championship, when his 4-year-old son Gary ran to him. The 18-time major winner also carried off Gary, per The Associated Press. Nicklaus later called that photo his "favorite photo in golf," later taking it to Facebook, captioning it, "Family first, golf second." Scheffler echoed that sentiment after winning the Claret Jug. "I would say my greatest priorities are my faith and my family," Scheffler said, per the AP. "Those come first for me. Golf is third, in that order." So while the Tiger comparisons with the World No.1 may be inevitable, Wood's former coach Harmon, and perhaps Nicklaus himself, see something deeper. What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below! More Golf: Phil Mickelson's Attitude Toward Scottie Scheffler Evolves After The Open
Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Inside incredible five-star hotel Rory McIlroy stayed in for The Open Championship
Rory McIlroy was given a hero's welcome at Royal Portrush during The Open Championship, where he stayed at a brand new five-star hotel overlooking the famous course Rory McIlroy and his family enjoyed the luxury of a five-star hotel during this year's Open Championship at Royal Portrush. The golfing superstar, originally from Holywood just outside Belfast, opted to stay near the course rather than commute from home, which is roughly an hour away from the renowned Dunluce Links. McIlroy, the recipient of a career grand slam in April of this year, chose the Dunluce Lodge for its proximity to the action. Perched with views over the fourth fairway of Portrush, the Lodge opened its doors in time for the 153rd Open Championship - which was won by Scottie Scheffler. The lavish establishment, owned by a US investment group, boasts 35 suites, a cutting-edge spa, and even its own nine-hole putting green among other top-class facilities, reports Belfast Live. Room rates at the retreat range from £350 to £955 per night, varying with room selection and demand. The hotel also offers an exclusive private lodge with eight suites, believed to be where McIlroy and his family resided as he made an emotional return to his home. Constructed at a cost exceeding £14million, Dunluce Lodge is set to benefit from the recent boom in golf tourism spurred by the Open Championship. The Lodge shared a moment on social media, posting a picture of McIlroy with their staff that said: "What an unforgettable week. It was an incredible honour to host Rory McIlroy and his family at Dunluce Lodge during The Open." They added: "Welcoming one of golf's all-time greats, just steps from Royal Portrush Golf Club was truly special for our entire team. Thank you, Rory, for choosing to stay with us. We hope it felt like home." McIlroy was greeted with rapturous applause at Royal Portrush as he became the centre of attention, with massive crowds trailing him throughout the tournament. The Holywood-born star looked set to make a run for the Claret Jug once more, but despite his best efforts, he couldn't quite catch up to Scottie Scheffler, who led the major championship from the outset. Reflecting on the event, McIlroy, who finished tied for seventh, said: "It's been an awesome week. I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug, and that's just because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us. "It's been an amazing week. I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd. Hopefully I'll have one or two Opens left here, if the RandA decide to keep coming back, probably one while I'm still competitive and another one while I'm more grey than I already am. "It's just been incredible to come back here and to play and at least feel like I had a chance today going out there. Just an awesome week."
USA Today
23-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
2025 3M Open odds, picks: Is this the week Tony Finau turns it around?
Following the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, the PGA Tour heads back to the U.S. for the 2025 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities. The first round from Minnesota begins Thursday morning as players make one last push for the FedExCup Playoffs in the coming weeks. Below we look at 3M Open odds from BetMGM Sportsbook's odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions. Many of the game's top players are taking the next 2 weeks off ahead of the playoffs, resting and recovering from the trip to Europe for the Open. As such, Sam Burns (+1600), Maverick McNealy (+1800) and Chris Gotterup (+2500) are all among the favorites this week, with former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark (2500) and the always-popular Rickie Fowler (+4000) also teeing it up. Defending champ Jhonattan Vegas, who won at 17-under 267, opens at +6600. TPC Twin Cities (par 71) is 7,431 yards long and originally opened in 2000 but it underwent a slight renovation in 2024 when five tees were expanded and bunkers were rebuilt, according to the PGA Tour. It only features 3 par-5s so scoring opportunities will be a little bit limited, but players still tend to go low here; the winner has been 15-under or better each year since 2019. 3M Open – Expert picks Odds provided by BetMGM Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated Monday at 2:25 p.m. ET. Thompson missed the cut at the Open, but a few weeks ago he tied for 18th at the John Deere Classic and finished 34th at the Rocket Classic. Although he missed the cut here in 2023 in his tournament debut, he's a good fit for this course with his accuracy off the tee. He just needs to get the putter going before the playoffs. This is a short number for Burns, who's the tournament favorite, but he's the top player in the field and in excellent form. Since tying for 13th at the RBC Heritage, he hasn't finished worse than T-30 in a start in the U.S. This is a golden opportunity for him to nab his sixth career win after finishing 12th, 32nd and seventh here in his last 3 starts. Greyserman tied for second here in his debut last year and if not for a couple of missed cuts in the Scottish and British Opens, his odds would probably be shorter than this. But that just means this is a good time to buy some stock in a guy who's finished top 25 in 9 of his 22 starts this season, including a runner-up at the Rocket Classic in his last start in the States. 3M Open picks – Contenders Hoey tied for eighth at the Barracuda Championship last week, which was his third straight made cut and second top-11 finish in his last 3 starts. He made the cut and finished 67th in his tournament debut last year and will look to improve upon that this week. It's been a seriously disappointing year for Finau, who has just 5 top-25 finishes in 17 starts, but he showed signs of life at the Open Championship where he was in contention before fading on the weekend with rounds of 72 and 75. He won this event in 2022, finished third in 2020, seventh in 2023 and 12th last year, so he certainly knows his way around TPC Twin Cities. His worst finish here in 6 starts is a T-28 in 2021. Grillo was the runner up in 2022 after also finishing third in 2020, notching a T-10 in 2023 and T-24 in 2024. He appears to enjoy playing TPC Twin Cities, given his success here, and his game has been in good form for a while. He finished second at the John Deere Classic, losing in a playoff to Brian Campbell. Grillo also impressed with a T-19 at the U.S. Open in June. WATCH: Get ESPN+ 3M Open picks – Long shot Davis has missed 4 cuts and finished no better than T-57 in his last 6 starts, which makes it hard to feel very confident in him. But with such long odds at a course where he's come in 19th, 10th, 16th and 12th in 4 of the last 5 years, he's worth taking a shot on. Play our free daily Pick'em Challenge and win! Play now! For more sports betting picks and tips, check out and BetFTW. Golfweek: Follow @camdasilva on Twitter/X. Follow SportsbookWire on Twitter/X and like us on Facebook.
