Monday Leaderboard: Scottie Scheffler resumes his reign of terror with another victory

Welcome to the Monday Leaderboard, where we run down the weekend’s top stories in the wonderful world of golf. Grab an Arnold Palmer, pull up a chair, and beware the 18th green …

1. Scottie Scheffler is back to his unstoppable ways

Well, if you were hoping that Scottie Scheffler’s reign of terror was over after he finished T41 at the U.S. Open, guess again. Scheffler won the Travelers Championship, the latest (and final) signature event this season, and banked yet another monstrous check. He’s now earned nearly $30 million on Tour this season, more than Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus earned in their entire careers, put together and doubled. (Golf has changed a bit.) Scheffler already ranks No. 5 on the PGA Tour career money leaders list, and could be as high as No. 3 by the end of the season, passing Jim Furyk and Vijay Singh. (Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson would rank ahead of him if they were still part of the PGA Tour.)

Scheffler won despite a late-round protest that briefly disrupted the tournament — and also ended in the disruption of some faces:

This isn’t common in the United States, but given that the Tour is about to decamp for Europe for the Open Championship and assorted other tournaments, the world of golf and the world of climate change protests are likely to overlap more soon.

2. Jon Rahm has had it with drones

Look, it hasn’t been a great LIV run for Jon Rahm yet. He hasn’t won yet on a tour he was supposed to dominate, he’s been sidelined from the mainstream of golf, and he’s gone T45-MC-WD at the three majors to date. So you can imagine he’d be a little frustrated with, well, pretty much everything at this point. This weekend, drones were his target:

He’s not the first player to complain about drones being too close, and — given how prevalent drones are now — he won’t be the last.

3. Amy Yang claims her first major, at last

Golf is a brutal grind if you’re not winning on a consistent basis, and Amy Yang, now 34 years old, has spent most of her career not winning on a consistent basis. She had teed it up in 74 majors before this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, and was 0-for-74. But this week, everything came together for Yang to craft a three-stroke victory on a vicious Sahalee Country Club course. Not only that, she qualified for the Olympics on the final possible day. Not a bad afternoon, and the celebration around Yang on the 18th green was one of the most jubilant of the season.

4. Cam Young gets low, low, low

TPC River Highlands in Connecticut, home of the Travelers Championship, isn’t exactly a tough course to begin with, and after rains softened up the course early in this year’s tournament, the conditions were perfect for some deep-dive scoring. Cam Young lit up the scoreboard early on Saturday, going five-under through the first four holes, and from there it was on. Young became the 12th player in PGA Tour history to record a 59, and it was his own best-ever round by three strokes. Young was able to finish out the 59 with a five-foot putt, and would go on to finish the tournament at T9, five strokes behind Scheffler.

5. Nelly’s struggles continue

Normally, missed cuts don’t really constitute “news.” It happens to everyone once in a while. But when you’ve missed three cuts in a row, after winning five tournaments in a row earlier in the year, well, we start to pay attention. Nelly Korda shot a career-worst-tying 81 on Friday at the KPMG, plummeting from one stroke off the lead to out of the tournament. The three-MC streak is also tied for the longest in Korda’s career, and nothing seems to be working right now. “It’s just golf recently for me,” Korda said after her round. “No words for how I’m playing right now. A lot went my way at the beginning part of the year and just giving it back.” Stupid game.

Mulligan of the Week: The longest putt you’ll ever see

Stunt golf! We’re in the golden days of Golf Content, and the Bryan Bros. — old-school YouTube golf content creators — are getting back in the game, even as they continue to try to make their way in the actual professional game. This week’s entry: Wesley Bryan draining a putt, with a full over-the-shoulder swing, from 144 yards out:

That putt traveled 432 feet — or, put another way, 144 Rory McIlroy Pinehurst Misses. It’s not an official world record, since there wasn’t a Guinness World Record rep on site — the current record is apparently 401 feet — but it was impressive as hell nonetheless.

Swing away and roll ‘em true this week, friends, and we’ll see you back here next Monday!