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 get ready for the playoffs … unless you’re the defending Masters champion, that is.
Rory McIlroy creates his own playoff bye
Imagine if an NFL team could decide it just felt like skipping ahead to the next round of the playoffs. Or if a past Masters champion decided he’d rather not play on Thursday and jump straight to Friday. Seems a little absurd, right? Sure, playoff byes do exist in other sports, but you generally don’t get to make that call once the playoffs actually begin. But that’s exactly what Rory McIlroy is doing this year at the FedEx Cup playoffs, skipping the first round at TPC Southwind in Memphis to prepare for next week’s BMW Championship.
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To be clear: from a competitive perspective, this is entirely the right move for McIlroy. He’s ranked second in the FedEx Cup standings, more than 800 points ahead of third-place Sepp Straka, and he hasn’t performed well in Memphis in the past. So there’s not much to play for, making a self-declared bye not just understandable, but a wise decision. McIlroy is a three-time FedEx Cup champion, most recently in 2022, so he knows what he’s doing here.
The real issue is the playoff format that permits such a possibility. As long as there’s been a FedEx Cup playoff, there’s been tinkering with the format; a multi-tournament playoff system that rewards season-long excellence while providing opportunity for postseason charges is a tough challenge to create from both mathematical and competitive perspectives. This isn’t quite as bad as, say, 2008, where Vijay Singh had locked up the title before the Tour Championship even began, but still … having a marquee player be able to nope his way out of an entire tournament and still stay in the hunt seems rather contrary to the aim of the entire enterprise.
Nelly’s reign ends
For much of 2024, Nelly Korda owned women’s golf, winning seven times and standing toe-to-toe with fellow world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. But 2025 hasn’t gone quite so well for Korda, with exactly zero wins to date. As a result, she’s projected to lose the No. 1 status she’s held for the last 17 months after a T36 finish at the AIG Women’s British Open. Jeeno Thitikul, who held the No. 1 slot for two weeks in 2022, will retake the top spot. At least Korda has her cameo as a parole officer in “Happy Gilmore 2” to lean on this year. Small steps.
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Bank-shot ace!
Check this out: Mimi Rhodes pulled off a nifty bank-shot ace over the weekend at the AIG …
Rhodes banked her ball off that of her playing partner Steph Kyriacou, who had dropped her tee shot on the par-3 5th within two inches of the cup. Rhodes would go on to finish T19 after a final round of 74, but she’ll always have that ace to remember.
Cam Young: Mr. 1,000
Somehow, Cam Young — 2021-22 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, author of top-10 finishes in all four majors, top-15 player on the planet — had not yet won a PGA Tour event … until Sunday. Young absolutely annihilated the Wyndham Championship, winning by six strokes and potentially playing himself into Ryder Cup contention. He’s also the 1,000th different winner on the PGA Tour, which is a strange stat but notable nonetheless.
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Charley Hull’s near-masterpiece
Speaking of “Happy Gilmore 2” cameo stars, Charley Hull nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages in the AIG. Miyu Yamashita captured the lead on Friday and never surrendered it, but Hull almost pulled off a magnificent 11-shot comeback. A long birdie at 14 pulled Hull to within one of Yamashita, but then Hull bogeyed 16 and 17 to end her comeback bid. Still, she’s clearly rebounded from injury and illness of recent weeks. Light ‘em up!
Coming up this week: PGA Tour: FedEx St. Jude Championship (Memphis, FedEx Cup Playoffs); LPGA: hiatus; LIV Golf: Chicago; PGA Tour Champions: Boeing Classic (Washington).
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