May 28, 2025 

Welcome to the second edition of The Tee Sheet - your Wednesday read on what matters in golf right now.

If you’re new here - thanks for checking us out. We send out one issue per week with everything you need to stay on top of the sport you love.

Enjoy what you’re reading? Share it. The Tee Sheet grows through word of mouth, reader by reader. Every forward helps us keep building something that serves golf fans who want clean, concise coverage of the game every week.

Lets dive in… 

Official World Golf Ranking Tracker & Movers

• Big Movers Up: Breakthrough solo win for Ben Griffin at the Charles Schwab vaults him up 28 spots into the Top 25; Kristoffer Reitan has his first DP World Tour win at the Soudal Open

• Top 10: No changes to the OWGR Top 10 this week following the Charles Schwab

Note: Rising / Falling includes biggest movers in the OWGR Top 150

FedEx Cup Points Tracker

Introducing a weekly FedEx Cup Standings Tracker…

• Top 10 Movements: Ben Griffin propels 16 spots on the FedEx Cup points list following his win at the Charles Schwab, knocking Harris English out of the Top 10

PGA Tour Money List Tracker

Introducing a weekly PGA Tour Money List Tracker… 

• Top 10 Movements: No changes to the Official Money List Top 10 this week

Tourney Recap

2025 Charles Schwab Challenge Recap:

Griffin Gets it Done

Ben Griffin is officially a solo PGA Tour winner. The 29 year-old beat Matti Schmid (who chipped in on 18 to put a little pressure on Griffin) by one shot at Colonial, finishing at 12-under following an up-and-down Sunday 71. Griffin opened eagle-birdie, but played the final 16 holes at 4-over, hanging on for the win.

This victory comes just a month after Griffin’s team win with Andrew Novak at the Zurich Classic earlier in the season, and earns him a cool $1.7M, the 1992 Defender that was up for grabs, and a locked spot in the 2026 Masters, solidifying his rising status.

Other names on the leaderboard Sunday included Bud Cauley (3rd), Tommy Fleetwood - who now has 26 top-5 finishes without a win - (T4), Scottie Scheffler (T4), Ryo Hisatsune (T6) and Robert MacIntyre (T6) amongst others. Rickie Fowler was a part of the final grouping (coming into the day at 9-under), but didn’t have it on Sunday, firing a 74 that sent him back to T16.

More on Ben Griffin in this week’s Player Spotlight section…

Charles Schwab Challenge Quick Stats:

• Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green Leaders

  1. Scottie Scheffler (+2.53)

  2. Andrew Novak (+2.10)

  3. Ben Griffin (+1.71)

• Strokes Gained: Putting Leaders

  1. Matti Schmid (+2.16)

  2. Gary Woodland (+1.74)

  3. Ben Griffin (+1.62)

• Toughest Holes on Sunday

  • 17th (+0.44)

  • 13th (+0.27)

  • 5th (+0.22)

Tourney Preview

2025 Memorial Tournament Preview:

Muirfield Mayhem: Who Can Tame Jack’s Back Nine?

The PGA heads to Jack’s Place for the 50th edition of the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. This is the seventh of eight Signature Events this season, boasting a $20M purse and elite field.

Scottie Scheffler returns as the defending Memorial champion coming off of a T4 finish at the Charles Schwab, and notably absent this year is Rory McIlroy - who is skipping the event for the first time since 2017 to manage his schedule ahead of the US Open…

Muirfield now stretches 7,569 yards with small, bentgrass greens and a rough that could hide small dogs. Fairways often funnel into choke points exactly where pros want to land it. This is not a putting contest. It’s not a wedge fest. It’s a full examination of your game and patience.

What To Know This Week:

Jack’s Vision: Nicklaus dreamed up this tourney in his 20s. He bought the land (where he used to hunt rabbits with his dad) in 1966, and 50+ years later, he’s still out there tweaking angles and contours like a mad scientist. Latest overhaul? A full course renovation in 2020

Tough Finish, Guaranteed Chaos: Nicklaus wraps up the track with a true gauntlet - No. 14 dares you to drive the green (depending on the tee), with bunkers left and a creek flowing through. The closer? A 480-yard dogleg-right with a two-tiered green and bunkers that feast on desperation.

The Curse of Chief Leatherlips (Yes, Really): Every year at the Memorial, someone blames the weather. And every year, someone inevitably whispers: “It’s the curse.”

Here’s the legend:

Long before Nicklaus built Muirfield Village, the land belonged to the Wyandot people. One of the leaders, Chief Leatherlips, was executed nearby in the early 1800s - what is now close to the course’s property.

Between 1976 and the mid-90s, rain delays became a Memorial tradition. Locals started attributing the bad luck to Leatherlips himself, suggesting the Chief was displeased with the course’s intrusion.

It got weird enough that in 1993, Barbara Nicklaus actually drove out to the Leatherlips monument and left a glass of gin at the statue as a peace offering - at the suggestion of Winnie Palmer, no less.

Apparently, it worked (sort of). The rain held off for awhile… until it didn’t. Since then, weather delays have continued to pop up just often enough to keep the myth alive. Want to know the forecast this week? Better ask the statue, not me.

We’ve got a good one to look forward to this week. Enjoy. 

Memorial Tournament Quick Stats:

• Course: Muirfield Village Golf Club

• Par: 72

• Distance: 7,569  

• Purse: $20,000,000

• Recent Champs: Scottie Scheffler (2024), Viktor Hovland (2023), Billy Horschel (2022), Patrick Cantlay (2021)

Picks & Players to Watch

• Top 30: Andrew Novak (-115)

• Top 20: Corey Conners (-105) ; Shane Lowry (+120)

• Top 10: Patrick Cantlay (+200) 

Disclaimer: The picks and predictions in The Tee Sheet are for informational and entertainment purposes only.

Schedule Update

2025 Signature Events:

As a reminder, Signature Events are the PGA Tour’s elite, limited-field tournaments featuring the biggest stars and massive $20M purses. The Memorial is one of the Signatures with a 36-hole cutline to the Top 50, plus ties and any players within 10 shots of the lead.

Signature Events aim to give us must-watch action, and bring the biggest names on Tour together for four days of top-tier golf (unless you’re Rory… who’s skipping this one. Load management?)

Jokes aside, there has been much debate on whether the Tour should mandate play in Signature Events to increase viewership in response to player defections to LIV. There has been discourse around players pushing for schedule flexibility, and it remains to be seen if the Signature Events are doing enough to capture fan attention.

Feel strongly either way on the topic? Reply to this email with your thoughts & suggestions for the Tour to drive viewership in non-major tournaments. 

This Year’s Signature Event Winners:

• Sentry - Hideki Matsuyama

• AT&T Pebble Pro-Am - Rory McIlroy

• Genesis Invitational - Ludvig Aberg

• Arnold Palmer Invitational - Russell Henley

• RBC Heritage - Justin Thomas

• Truist Championship - Sepp Straka

Ryder Cup Watch

Let the Watch Begin

After a couple suggestions flowed in following last week’s newsletter, it was clear that moving forward we all want to keep a closer eye on the upcoming Ryder Cup - it’s time to start keeping track of who’s rising, who’s slipping, and who might be making a late charge to Bethpage Black in September. Bethpage is often known to be brutally demanding, loud, and long. This isn’t going to be a neutral venue. It’s a cauldron.

What’s at Stake?

Team USA: Can they bounce back after a lackluster showing in Rome with Keegan Bradley as captain (and is he back in the conversation to play in this thing)?

Team Europe: Can the returning new generation - looking at the Abergs and MacIntyres of the world - continue to keep the pressure on with Luke Donald at the helm once again?

Ryder Cup Refresh - Reminder of How it All Works

USA vs. Europe. Every two years. Alternating continents. Pride, pressure, and patriotism.

Format: 3 Days, 28 Matches

• Friday: 4 foursomes (alternate shot) + 4 fourballs (better ball)

• Saturday: Same as Friday

• Sunday: 12 singles matches

12 players per team. 6 automatic qualifiers and 6 captain’s picks. Head to head golf with flags, roars, and momentum swings. Teammates rallying, crowds heckling, and every shot dripping with pressure.

Ryder Cup Rankings Tracker

We will break out the Top 20 players on each team every week here based on the official Ryder Cup team rankings to highlight who is currently best-positioned for an auto-bid and who might be on the bubble.

Additionally, we have included Datagolf’s model probability of making the team for each player for a second data point here.

We will continue to provide news and updates around the event weekly, and consistently monitor who is in the conversation for Bethpage…

Team USA: 

Team Europe:

The Weekly Rundown

Stories to Know This Week

🎙️ Scottie on LIV: “Go ask those guys…”

• When asked about the future of PGA-LIV unification, Scottie Scheffler didn’t sidestep

• “I’ve said it a few times this year. If you want to figure out what’s going to happen in the game of golf, go to the other tour and ask those guys. I'm still here playing the PGA Tour. We had a tour where we all played together, and the guys that left—it's their responsibility, I think, to bring the tours back together. Go see where they're playing this week and ask them.”

• Scheffler’s message is crystal clear: the next move isn’t his to make. It’s on the LIV players to close the gap they created

🩺 Zalatoris Undergoes Second Back Surgery

• Will Zalatoris announced he will miss the remainder of the 2025 PGA Tour season after undergoing a second back surgery to repair two herniated discs

• The 28-year-old experienced increasing discomfort this Spring, which worsened after the PGA Championship

• An MRI confirmed the re-herniation, leading to surgery this past week. Despite the brutal blow, Zalatoris remains optimistic about returning to competition in the Fall

🏆 Ángel Cabrera Wins Second Consecutive Senior Major

• Ángel Cabrera secured his second straight senior major title by winning the 2025 Senior PGA Championship at Congressional Country Club

• The 55-year-old Argentine, who returned to competitive golf after serving a prison sentence, beat Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn by one stroke

• Cabrera's back-to-back victories mark a remarkable comeback on the PGA Tour Champions circuit (and let’s not forget he won the 2007 US Open at…Oakmont!)

🏆 NCAA Champion: Michael La Sasso Makes Ole Miss History

• Michael La Sasso of Ole Miss clinched the 2025 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Individual Championship at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California - making him the second winner in school history

The Thick Stuff

Tour Championship: Starting Strokes Are No More!

The PGA Tour announced a major shift this evening (and thank you to the couple of readers that flagged this before the newsletter got sent out): starting strokes at the Tour Championship are no longer. Beginning in 2025, all 30 players at East Lake will start at even par, regardless of FedEx Cup ranking.

That means no more 10-under head starts. No more math. Just four rounds of golf to decide the FedEx Cup—like an actual tournament.

The stakes? Still massive.

$25M to the FedEx Cup winner and a full 30-man field of the best on Tour.

The change follows consistent feedback from fans and players who felt the previous system was confusing and anticlimactic. The goal now: clarity, fairness, and real drama down the stretch.

We’ll keep track of how players react to this - and will keep an eye on the Top 30 as we head into the Summer.

Do you like the move?

Player Spotlight

Ben Griffin

Quick Bio

• Age: 29

• Hometown: Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• College: University of North Carolina (Tar Heel standout, turned pro in 2018)

• Notable Wins: Charles Schwab Challenge (This Week), Zurich Classic (2025 with Andrew Novak)

• OWGR Rank: 24th

The Story

Just a few years ago, Ben Griffin was seriously considering leaving pro golf - for good. The UNC standout briefly stepped away from competition to work as a mortgage loan officer due to burnout and other pressures. He came back with a fresh perspective and something to prove in 2022 - fast forward to today he has his first solo Tour win. Go watch his post-win presser - nothing not to like about this guy.

Why it Matters

Griffin’s win at the Schwab wasn’t flashy - it was resilient. He opened with an eagle, grinded throughout the rest, and held off the field. That kind of grit travels well to tough setups and major venues. Griffin isn’t just rising, he could be ready to take the next step.

Where He Goes Next

With exemptions locked in and confidence peaking, Griffin is now in the Signature Event mix for the remainder of the season, and officially a sneaky Ryder Cup contender. He’s no longer a feel-good story - he is a real contender.

Course of the Week

We are doing some slight maintenance to our “Course of the Week” structure and could use your help…

Want your favorite track featured? Have stories worth sharing that highlight a club’s character? Pictures from your weekend round?

Reply to this email with them - to get readers more involved, we want to make this section as interactive as possible.

Stay tuned for our first subscriber-supplied course spotlight next week…

Author’s Note

Thanks for reading.

We appreciate you making The Tee Sheet part of your weekly routine. Whether you’re here for tourney recaps, previews, or just to stay in touch with what’s happening in the game, we’re glad to have you along.

Got thoughts / takes? Hit reply - we read every note.

Liked it? Pass it on. Word of mouth keeps this thing moving. Oh, and we have some cool gifts for readers who refer this newsletter to others (more on that next week…)

See you next week. Same time, same tee.