Every Wednesday, SI Golf will rank nine newsmakers from the golf world. Sometimes we'll cast a wide net. Tell us what you think on the SI Golf X account.
1. Cameron Young: It finally happened. After seven career runner-ups, the most by any player on Tour without a win since 1983, Young won the Wyndham Championship by six strokes for his maiden victory. And being the 1,000th unique winner in Tour history was the cherry on top of his triumph. Now, he’s a likely selection for the U.S. Ryder Cup team.
2. Miyu Yamashita: A day after her 24th birthday, the LPGA rookie captured her first major and LPGA win at the AIG Women’s Open, finishing two strokes ahead of runners-up Charley Hull and Minami Katsu. Four of the last nine major champions have been from Japan, and none are repeats. Speaking of duplicates, all five of women’s golf’s annual majors are now completed, and the LPGA has no two-time winners this season through 20 tournaments.
3. Rory McIlroy: He’s one of the few players who can spark a controversy by not playing. The FedEx St. Jude, the first of three playoff events, will be without the world’s second-ranked player. Already safely in next week’s BMW Championship, McIlroy will begin the end of his season there. It raises the question: Is the Tour Championship’s new stroke play format going to yield more players skipping the playoff opener? Now with the staggered strokes format gone at East Lake, everyone begins the week on equal footing. Therefore, accumulating points for a strong standing after the BMW Championship is vital to a player’s hopes of becoming the FedExCup champion. Not having all the top players to begin the postseason isn’t ideal for the Tour or NBC’s ratings, but think of it like a first-round bye. Changes might be coming, though.
4. Chris Kirk: The PGA Tour’s regular season is now over, and the top 70 in the FedExCup standings have advanced to the playoff opener in Memphis. Kirk made the most notable move to extend his season. At the Wyndham, he finished T5 to leap from 73rd in points to 61st, knocking out Ben An. After missing the cut at the Memorial, Kirk was ranked 130th in the FedExCup. But since then, he’s posted results of: T12-P2-64-MC-T14-T5 to make the postseason.
5. Charley Hull: The Englishwoman nearly broke through for a major, just a few weeks after collapsing and withdrawing from the Evian Championship. She was one stroke back with four holes left at Royal Porthcawl but bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 in the final round. It’s her second runner-up in that championship in the last three years.
6. Nelly Korda: Should Korda, or Jeeno Thitikul, be in this spot? Thitikul overtook Korda for the world No. 1 throne, which Korda has held for over a year. But is Korda falling, after seven wins last season, or Thitikul rising a bigger story? The former.
7. Mimi Rhodes: In the final round of the Women’s Open, the Englishwoman had one of the wildest aces ever. Her tee shot struck the ball of Steph Kyriacou, Rhodes’s playing partner, which was inches from the hole, and ricocheted into the cup. Ironically, Kyriacou had the tournament’s only other hole-in-one. An ace and an assist.
8. Adam Scott: In his pre-tournament press conference at the Wyndham, Scott, a member of the PGA Tour’s policy board as a player director, disclosed there’s “not much happening” between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. More than two years since shaking hands, a deal coming to fruition continues to look bleak. On Feb. 20, Scott, Tiger Woods, Jay Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan met at the White House to discuss terms. Scott, however, said more visits to D.C. might not be “necessary.”
9. Jackson Koivun: The 20-year-old rising junior at Auburn, who earned a PGA Tour card in the spring but decided to stay in school, finished T5 at the Wyndham as an amateur and earned a spot in the Procore Championship, which opens the PGA Tour fall in September. Koivun, the world’s top-ranked amateur, has made three Tour starts in the last month and finished T11-T6-T5. Is this golf’s next star?
Also considered: Jeeno Thitikul, Steph Kyriacou, Joel Dahmen, Charlie Woods, Matti Schmid, Davis Thompson, Lottie Woad, Bo Van Pelt, Yani Tseng
Dropped out from last week: Lottie Woad, Kurt Kitayama, Scottie Scheffler, Joaquin Niemann, Padraig Harrington, Adam Sandler, Mia Hammond, Victor Dubuisson, Lydia Ko.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Power Nine: Triumphant Cameron Young, Idle Rory and Charley Hull’s Major Rebound.