NFL
By: Maya-Reyes Brooks
The men’s major season closes out this week, and it should end the way it started. How’s that, you ask? With everybody circling Scottie Scheffler and wondering if anybody’s actually going to stop him.
The Favorite With a Wobble
Scheffler enters as the world No. 1 and the odds favorite. A win would make him the first back-to-back Open champion since Tiger Woods did so in 2005-06. His metrics are still just silly. He’s leading the Tour in strokes gained: total, scoring average, and birdie average. However, there’s a crack in the armor. He missed the cut at the Genesis Scottish Open for the first time in nearly four years. Analysts are pointing to shaky opening rounds as the reason. Is that true?
He’s dropped to 34th in Round 1 scoring after leading the Tour in that category the last three seasons. Translation: the guy who usually builds his cushion early is starting tournaments in a hole this year. How much longer can he climb out of the ditch and to the top of the leaderboards? Better yet, if he starts strong, will anyone step up to give him a fight?
The Rest of the Field
Rory McIlroy remains the sentimental and statistical co-favorite, bringing links-course instincts and a career built for exactly this kind of test. Justin Rose and Matt Fitzpatrick, the latter with three wins and zero missed cuts across all majors this year, are being treated as the real threats.
Then there’s the redemption arc: Jordan Spieth returns to the site of his unforgettable 2017 win, where he made bogey from the driving range on 13 and answered with birdie-eagle-birdie to close it out. Nine years later, his recent form has been shaky, but Birkdale clearly owes him nothing, having already cashed in there once.
And keep an eye on Bryson DeChambeau, but not for good reasons. His 2026 has been a disappointment across the board, and if he misses the cut this week, it’ll be his first time missing all four majors in a season. Birkdale’s flatter layout should, in theory, help him, but he’s never finished better than T-8 here, and links golf keeps exposing the same iron-play issues.
Why This One Matters
Royal Birkdale is one of the shortest courses on this year’s rotation. Still, it’s carrying over 100 bunkers. So, this week, rewards precision over power, a real leveler in a sport currently obsessed with distance. Seeing who got that memo and follows it is one of the keys. That’s exactly the kind of week where a guy like Fitzpatrick, or even an amateur making a run like it’s 2017 again, can crash the party.
Scheffler’s the number, but the story of the week might be whoever finally finds a way to beat him when it matters. Claret jug week always delivers a plot twist. Birkdale’s just waiting to write the next one.
Maya out, see you at the turn.
