Signature Scroll: What’s the best story at the TOUR Championship?

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We’ve got a traffic jam at East Lake …

What’s the best story?

ATLANTA – A frequent misconception of writers is that we root for certain players to succeed or fail. I’m sure those people exist. But, broadly, we root for stories. At least I do. If we aren’t compelled by what we’re writing about, nobody will be compelled to read. That begins a cycle that enriches nobody.

There’s also a frequent game among golf writers from event to event. This has never been given a name, to my knowledge, but it’s likely best described as the “second paragraph story.” As a tournament unfolds, we look down a leaderboard and try to decide what the second paragraph of any given story would be for each potential winner. The idea is that, for some, there’s an endless amount to dig into. These are the best stories. But for others, you could end the story after one paragraph. If we root for anything, it’s to not have to write one of those.

As we sit at the halfway point, I found myself playing this game in my head. What would be the best story this weekend at East Lake Golf Club? Here are the five that stuck out to me. Ironically, I wrote just one paragraph for each.

• Scottie Scheffler (8 under): The best golfer in the world, who has put together the most consistent season, winning the TOUR Championship is the fitting conclusion to the season. It also adds to the back-and-forth between him and Wyndham Clark for Player of the Year.

• Gary Woodland (6 under): It would be an incredible cap to an inspired season and one of the cooler, emotional wins in tournament history. It would also lead to a fun question: Should Woodland play the Presidents Cup? Sign me up.
• Collin Morikawa (9 under): The perfectionist who was forced to accept less-than-ideal circumstances as a nagging back injury kept him from utilizing his full arsenal for most of the year. This is the most impressed I’ve been with Morikawa since his major winning seasons. He’s been gritty, which isn't how I would have described him up to this point. It’s been fun to see that side of him. A win would set us up for a juicy 2027, when a healthier version of Morikawa could build from the lessons he learned this year.
• Ryan Gerard (10 under): Sitting among a leaderboard of major winners and perennial top-10 players, Gerard sticks out. But I’m not sure he should. He doesn’t have the accolades, but he has emerged as one of the players I’m most impressed with this year. You don’t have to do much convincing for me to believe he should be a Presidents Cup pick. That was true before this week, and it will certainly be true if he pulls through. More than anything, I love his mindset. “I've played a lot of golf tournaments in my life,” he said Friday. “I've won a few golf tournaments in my life. I feel comfortable that I'm doing the right things, we're executing the right shots, we have the right mentality to go out and kind of close it and kind of be the dog under pressure.” Seeing another young talent break through would be very cool.
• Viktor Hovland (10 under): Back to the “reporters root for stories” talk, there are few better to get rolling in an interview than Hovland. He’s a character and a willing sharer. It would be compelling to watch him square the very real disappointment from his major year with his two wins. I’d also be fascinated to see if he can sustain that play in a way he couldn’t when he won this event in 2023.

Playing through

• 🔄 After an ‘unacceptable’ month, Cameron Young changes putters and shoots 62 ...
• 📺 Catch up on Round 2 highlights here ...
• 🔥 A slow start by Scheffler can't keep him out of contention for the FedExCup ...
• 🎥 Gerard holds a share of the 36-hole lead. He was mic’d up throughout the BMW Championship for "Chasing Sunday."

Lonely walk

I’ll keep this quick, mostly because the two subjects of this section did, too.

When J.J. Spaun withdrew early in the first round, it left an odd number in the field. That meant, for the rest of Thursday and the ensuing three rounds, one player would have the distinction or burden (depending on who you talk to) of playing alone.

Funnily enough, those two players each carded the rounds of the tournament. Min Woo Lee shot 62 on Thursday, playing 12 holes solo after Spaun departed. Then Cameron Young, in last place after 18 holes, played solo on Friday and matched Lee’s round, firing his own 62.

Young undoubtedly had the better circumstances. For one, he knew it was coming and could prepare (he did say that only hearing one name called on the tee box was weird). It also allowed him every weekend golfer’s dream: the course to themselves. Young has no groups to wait on in front of him and perfect, untouched greens to putt across. Maybe that helps explain how he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Young played in just over three hours. It took Lee closer to four (no fault of his own).

There’s no enlightening takeaway, at least not one that I can conjure late on this Friday night. I just found it serendipitous. I also found it funny that both Lee and Young did the same thing on the 18th green, pretending to shake the hand of their non-existent playing partners.

Robert MacIntyre, time for you to up the ante on Saturday.

Parting shots

• ❓An incredibly weird start for Rory McIlroy. Add up his SG: Off-the-Tee and Approach totals, and he’s second-best in the field behind only Gary Woodland. Yet McIlroy is tied for 23rd while Woodland is tied for 11th. McIlroy has been very poor around and on the greens, and he might be out of time to turn that around. If he lags this weekend, it will also have been a very weird Playoffs for the three-time FedExCup champion.
• 3️⃣ Add another unrelatable golfing accomplishment for Scottie Scheffler. He made six straight threes, from the seventh to the 12th hole. I don’t think I’ve ever even done that on a par-3 course. Maybe on a mini golf course.
• 🗣️ Cameron Young continues to be a great interview. He’s blunt but thoughtful and transparent. Asked a boilerplate question about the possibility of shooting 59 on Friday, the question ended with “You're a pro. You don't think about 59,” and Young answered, “We all think about everything. That's false.” Young is one of the few who will say those thoughts in front of a microphone. He took that question and expanded on it, answering thoughtfully about the thoughts that come into every player’s mind and what he was thinking. Just good stuff all around.
• 😬 MacIntyre is in last by three. He lost more than four and a half strokes on approach. Add him to the list of confounding results after he played beautifully last week just to make it to East Lake.
• 🇺🇲 We are in overanalysis mode, so forgive me. Is Patrick Cantlay a lock to make the U.S. Presidents Cup team regardless of the result this week? It’s certainly possible, but if it’s not, he hasn’t had the best start. He’s tied for 25th. Only three players have been worse through 36 holes.