Sorting through a shag bag of subjects with a pair of U.S. Opens being played over the next three weeks:
Ángel Cabrera
We can debate the historical significance of senior major championships but the fact remains that Cabrera just knocked down two of them in seven days, a genuine golf rarity.
Two years ago, Cabrera was in the midst of serving a 30-month prison sentence as a result of domestic violence charges against two ex-girlfriends. Cabrera was released from prison in August 2023 in Argentina and returned to the PGA Tour Champions last year.
He won the James Hardie Pro Football Hall of Fame Invitational in April then added the Regions Tradition (which had a Monday finish) and the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday.
“I feel very emotional. Maybe you cannot see but I’m very, very emotional inside, especially after all the things that I went through. I can’t believe that I made it but I’m here and very happy of myself,” Cabrera, 55, said Sunday at Congressional Country Club.
“I thought that I was going to fail, especially after sitting without touching a club for a while. But I’ve been working very, very hard and I feel that all the hard work pays off and this is what I’m having right now, like winning this tournament.”
With a Masters and U.S. Open title (at Oakmont where the U.S. Open will be played next month), Cabrera in his prime was one of the game’s most powerful players both in his style and his personality. What he’s done recently adds another layer to an unique story, not to mention that he’s doing with it an Odyssey Ai-One Jailbird Cruiser putter.
Ben Griffin
At roughly the same time Cabrera was going to prison, Griffin was stepping away from professional golf, making a life reset that included working as a mortgage loan officer in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Four years later, Griffin has two PGA Tour victories in the past five weeks, has climbed to 24th in the world ranking, fifth in the FedEx Cup race and 13th in what feels like a wide-open U.S. Ryder Cup race.
Until he finished T8 at the PGA Championship, Griffin had not made the cut in a major.
“It’s crazy how fast things can change in this game. Even going back to when I didn’t have any status on any sort of tours, getting onto the Korn Ferry Tour. I mean, it’s a bunch of stepping stones that kind of gets you to the next part of your career,” Griffin said.
“Now I’m at the point where I feel like I’m starting to show that I am an elite golfer. I can compete against the best.”
Asked if winning felt more like redemption or validation, Griffin didn’t hesitate.
“I didn’t redeem myself for anything, but definitely validation. It’s really nice to get the validation,” Griffin said.
“Some weeks you get validation with a top-10. Some weeks it’s the top five. Some weeks maybe it’s a made cut if you are grinding through something and it’s a challenging course, but winning is an incredible feeling.”
Rory McIlroy
After all of the noise and celebration surrounding McIlroy’s Masters victory, the narrative has changed to both his silence and his absence from the Memorial Tournament this week.
It seems as simple as McIlroy wanting a break. The PGA Championship at Quail Hollow didn’t go the way he wanted starting with the nonconforming driver issue early in the week. It was out of character for McIlroy to stonewall the media entirely once play began and it landed flat after all the goodwill generated by his victory.
Golfers get off easy when it comes to dealing with the media – they can just say no without any consequences, unlike athletes in many other sports who are required to speak with the media. The tour should mandate players speak with the media after their rounds but it won’t happen because the players and their managers control the narrative.
As for passing on the Memorial, McIlroy has become a fan of the RBC Canadian Open and his start there next week is expected to be the first of three straight, followed by the U.S. Open and the Travelers Championship.
McIlroy has talked openly about his intention to scale back or adjust his schedule and by skipping a second signature event (he did not play the RBC Heritage after winning the Masters) he signaled he is intent on going his own way.
U.S. Women’s Open
Erin Hills gets another turn in the spotlight this week, offering its broad-shouldered layout as host of another national championship.
It’s a big, rolling course that will play more than 6,800 yards for the women and scoring will likely be dependent on the conditions. When Brooks Koepka won the 2017 U.S. Open there, he shot a championship record 16-under par in relatively benign conditions but it’s unlikely scores will be so low this time with cooler, breezy conditions expected.
Is this the year Nelly Korda captures the Women’s Open? She has missed the cut three times in her past five starts, including a year ago when she made a 10 on the par-3 12th hole in the opening round at Lancaster Country Club on her way to an 80.
It’s exactly the kind of attention-grabbing storyline women’s golf would love to have, and the majors feel even bigger when the best players win.