Sunday’s conclusion of the Open Championship also brought about the end of this golf season’s major tournaments. It was a nice showing for the Red and Black, considering Scottie Scheffler practically wrapped up the Gold Medal by lunch Friday.
Brian Harman didn’t pick up any ground over the weekend but held steady and made a bomb on the 18th to secure a tie for 10th. Russell Henley picked up steam seemingly each day, carding a final round 65 and also tied for 10th.
Harris English started fast, weathered the Friday, and shot 68-66 in the final rounds to jump into 2nd place. He was playing in the group immediately in front of Scheffler, battled Chris Gotterup for 2nd the entire round, but eclipsed him with some timely putting the last couple of holes.
For the past few decades, the PGA Championship was held in August, proudly declaring itself as “Glory’s Last Shot” and the last chance to win a major in the calendar year. But with autumn eyeballs sliding into football, the governing bodies of golf made a few changes: move the season-ending Playoffs to August, move the PGA Championship back to the May slot held by the Players Championship, and bump the Players to March. By doing this, the golf world felt comfortable holding at least one premier event in each month March through August, and acquiescing September and Fall to pigskin.
This means the conclusion of the golf season (well, mostly) is only a month away. We have the 3M Open this weekend in Minnesota, the Wyndham Championship in North Cackalacky next week, then the playoffs start with St. Jude in Memphis, the BMW (in Maryland this year), and ending in Atlanta with the Tour Championship August 21-24.
So let’s do a quick review of how the former Bulldogs fared in the four major championships in 2025, and the “unofficial 5th major”:
Players Championship (9 entered):
T10 – Davis Thompson
T14 – Sepp Straka
T30 – Harris English
T30 – Russell Henley
T42 – Chris Kirk
T61 – Will Chandler
MC – Keith Mitchell, Greyson Sigg, Brian Harman
Masters (7 entered):
T12 – Harris English
T36 – Brian Harman
T46 – Davis Thompson
MC – Russell Henley, Chris Kirk, Sepp Straka
PGA Championship (7 entered):
T2 – Harris English
T55 – Chris Kirk
T60 – Brian Harman
MC – Sepp Straka, Keith Mitchell, Davis Thompson, Russell Henley
US Open (7 entered):
T10 – Russell Henley
T12 – Chris Kirk
T59 – Harris English
T59 – Brian Harman
MC – Davis Thompson, Sepp Straka, Will Chandler
Open Championship (6 entered):
2 – Harris English
T10 – Brian Harman
T10 – Russell Henley
T52 – Sepp Straka
MC – Chris Kirk, Davis Thompson
Harris English has decided to have himself a year. Don’t call this a surprise, but you can call it a comeback. Remember that in 2020-21, English won twice and had 12 top 25s in 26 entries. He suffered an injury in 2022 that shut down his season. His next year showed a little promise with 22 of 30 cuts and 5 top 10s including a runner-up.
The momentum continued last season with 21 of 26 cuts and 11 of those were top 25. And this season is even better, winning at the Farmers in January and making 16 of 18 cuts. Plus his tie for 2nd at the PGA Championship and the solo 2nd last weekend at Royal Portrush.
So not only is he now 6th in the FedEx Cup Playoffs points standings, he’s also up to 6th in the US Ryder Cup team standings (the top 6 are automatic qualifiers for the team). He joins Russell Henley who is 4th in Ryder Cup standings, and Brian Harman who is 12th. If you add in Sepp Straka currently 6th on the European side, the University of Georgia might produce 4 of the 24 players at Bethpage come September. And that is a Bulldog point of pride.
As always…
GO ‘DAWGS!!!