Mark Schlabach
With the golf world nonetheless buzzing about Rory McIlroy’s historic victory on the Masters practically three weeks in the past, it is onerous to consider the PGA Tour has reached the midway level of its 2025 FedEx Cup season.
The tour hits the second half at this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which tees off Thursday at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas.
Whereas accidents slowed down Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele, the perfect two golfers on the planet, there have been loads of surprises and first-time winners within the first half — together with two ultimately week’s Zurich Traditional of New Orleans.
The excellent news is there are nonetheless three main championships to play within the last 17 tournaments, adopted by what figures to be a memorable Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black Course in Farmingdale, New York, on Sept. 26-28.
This is a glance again on the first half of the 2025 season:
Midseason Participant of the Yr
How may or not it’s anybody apart from Rory? Together with turning into the sixth golfer within the Masters period to finish the profession Grand Slam by capturing a inexperienced jacket at Augusta Nationwide Golf Membership, he additionally collected wins towards stacked fields on the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am on Feb. 2 and the Gamers on April 13.
McIlroy leads the tour in scoring common (69.2) and is sort of a half-stroke higher than anybody else in strokes gained: whole (2.319). With 2,463 factors, McIlroy has an almost 800-point benefit within the FedEx Cup standings.
The five-time main champion would possibly simply be getting began, given his success at Quail Hole Membership in Charlotte, North Carolina, which can host the PGA Championship on Might 15-18. He has received the Wells Fargo Championship on the similar course 4 instances and set course information with 61 and 62. He’ll even be heading dwelling to Northern Eire for the Open Championship at Royal Portrush on July 17-20.
“Going again to Portrush goes to be unimaginable,” mentioned Shane Lowry, who received the 2019 Open Championship there. “Rory going again because the Masters champion now’s going to take slightly bit of warmth off me once more, so I am fairly proud of that. It’ll be an incredible match.”
Others thought of: Justin Thomas, Scheffler, Russell Henley, Ludvig Åberg
Midseason Rookie of the Yr
Karl Vilips, who moved to the U.S. at age 11, received the Puerto Rico Open by three strokes on March 9 in his fourth PGA Tour begin. The previous Stanford star set the 72-hole scoring document at 26-under 262 at Grand Reserve Golf Membership in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. He opened with a 6-under 66 and closed with an 8-under 64.
“Dream come true for me and my dad,” Vilips mentioned. “Going at it for a very long time. That is what we dreamed of once I was a child. It is fairly surreal.
Due to a bulging disc in his again, Vilips acquired a late begin this season however did not want lengthy to carry a trophy. After three straight missed cuts and a tie for 54th within the RBC Heritage, Vilips teamed with Michael Thorbjornsen to tie for fourth in final week’s Zurich Traditional of New Orleans.
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Vilips, 23, turned the primary ambassador of Tiger Woods’ Solar Day Pink attire line in February. The 2024 Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Yr idolized Woods as a younger golfer in Australia.
“He is who acquired me into this sport, who motivated me to be who I’m as we speak,” Vilips mentioned. “The mentality he delivered to all the things that he does.”
Others thought of: Aldrich Potgieter, Rasmus Højgaard, Isaiah Salinda, Danny Walker
Midseason Comeback Participant of the Yr
Bud Cauley returned to the PGA Tour in February 2024 after he was sidelined for greater than three years due to accidents suffered in a severe automobile wreck. Cauley suffered six damaged ribs, a collapsed proper lung and fractured left leg within the single-car crash by which he was a passenger on the 2018 Memorial Match in Dublin, Ohio.
Cauley returned to the tour for 2 years following the wreck however battled by way of ache in his ribs brought on by a plate that had been positioned in his chest. Further surgical procedures and infections quickly adopted, sidelining him for 3 seasons.
Cauley returned to the tour in 2024 and missed seven cuts in 17 begins. The intense spot got here in a tie for fifth on the Sanderson Farms Championship final fall.
This yr, Cauley has regained his type with 4 top-25s and three top-10s in 9 begins. He tied for sixth on the Gamers, after Justin Thomas, his former Alabama teammate and good good friend, admitted he would do some “actually, actually bizarre issues for Bud to win as we speak.” That end helped Cauley maintain his PGA Tour card.
Cauley, who’s thirty seventh within the FedEx Cup standings with 553 factors, additionally tied for fourth on the Valspar Championship and for fifth on the Valero Texas Open.
“After I’m on the market, I am not desirous about something that is occurred in my previous, simply attempting to play in addition to I can,” Cauley mentioned on the Valspar Championship. “Yeah, once I’m on the market it is like nothing ever occurred.”
Others thought of: Michael Kim, Daniel Berger, Viktor Hovland
Midseason breakout participant of the yr
Andrew Novak has skilled a gentle however irritating climb by way of the PGA Tour. He completed 156th within the FedEx Cup standings in 2021-22, relegating him again to the Korn Ferry Tour Championship to reclaim his card. He was a hundred and fifth within the FedEx Cup standings the subsequent yr and 86th in 2024.
This season, the 30-year-old is taking part in the perfect golf of his profession. He was solo third on the Farmers Insurance coverage Open in January and tied for thirteenth in two signature occasions, the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am and Genesis Invitational.
After not doing a lot throughout the Florida swing, Novak tied for third on the Valero Texas Open and misplaced in a playoff to Justin Thomas on the RBC Heritage. Then final week, Novak and Ben Griffin collected their first PGA Tour victories within the Zurich Traditional of New Orleans staff occasion. It was Novak’s one centesimal begin on tour.
Novak is sixth within the FedEx Cup standings with 1,380 factors and he is ninth within the U.S. Ryder Cup staff standings with 5,587.6 factors.
“I feel I’ve accomplished a reasonably good job not getting overly annoyed with the shut shaves,” Novak mentioned. “I have been attempting to take as many positives from every as I can as a result of the thought is I can put myself in that place as many instances as I can. I wish to get higher every time I am in that place. I wish to be extra comfy. I wish to have issues that I can look again on and enhance on.
“Yeah, it is irritating, however it’s additionally good going right into a match figuring out you are taking part in properly.”
Others thought of: Michael Kim, Ben Griffin, Joe Highsmith, Jacob Bridgeman, Brian Campbell, Ryan Gerard
Most stunning stat
Zero. That is the variety of victories in eight begins on tour for Scheffler, who received 9 instances all over the world in 2024.
It isn’t that Scheffler has performed poorly since returning to motion in early February after recovering from a proper hand harm he suffered whereas cooking on Christmas Day. He completed within the prime 25 in every of his begins and tied for third on the Genesis Invitational and for second on the Texas Youngsters’s Houston Open. He was solo fourth on the Masters in his try to win inexperienced jackets in back-to-back years.
However even Scheffler admits his sport has been just a bit bit off and he hasn’t made the putts that helped him win so usually in 2024. He is nonetheless second on the PGA Tour in strokes gained: whole (1.911) and tee to inexperienced (1.627) and fourth on method (.942). That is not terrible by any stretch of the creativeness.
Finest victory
The Masters, the primary main championship of the season, supplied golf followers with all the things they may presumably need: Rory McIlroy vs. Bryson DeChambeau within the last spherical. Excessive drama on the second 9 at Augusta Nationwide in Sunday’s last spherical, due to McIlroy’s near-collapse and Justin Rose’s gorgeous comeback effort.
Rose, who carded a 6-under 66 within the last spherical, sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the 72nd gap to place much more strain on McIlroy, who had squandered a four-stroke lead. McIlroy missed a 5-footer for par on No. 18 to drive a playoff with Rose.
On the primary playoff gap, Rose hit his method shot to fifteen ft of the opening on the No. 18 inexperienced. McIlroy hit his second to 4 ft. Rose missed his birdie putt, after which McIlroy sank his to seize his first inexperienced jacket in his eleventh strive.
“That is my seventeenth time right here, and I began to marvel if it will ever be my time,” McIlroy mentioned. “I feel the final 10 years coming right here with the burden of the Grand Slam on my shoulders and attempting to realize that, yeah, I am kind of questioning what we’re all going to speak about going into subsequent yr’s Masters.”
It was Rory McIlroy’s time to shine. #themasters pic.twitter.com/0FFotJPqNd
— The Masters (@TheMasters) April 14, 2025
Finest spherical
Jake Knapp carded the fifteenth sub-60 spherical in PGA Tour historical past with a bogey-free 59 with 12 birdies and 6 pars within the opening spherical of the Cognizant Traditional in The Palm Seashores.
Jake Knapp faucets in for a 59 in Spherical 1 of the Cognizant Traditional.
It is the fifteenth sub-60 spherical in PGA Tour historical past‼️ pic.twitter.com/AFbp0tXFed
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 27, 2025
Finest shot
After carding a double-bogey on the 14th gap within the last spherical of the Masters, McIlroy hit the “shot of a lifetime” en path to a birdie on the fifteenth.
Finest putt
It was a protracted street again to the highest of the leaderboard for two-time main championship winner Justin Thomas, who lastly ended an almost three-year drought and not using a victory with a 20-foot birdie to win a playoff on the RBC Heritage on April 20.
Finest drive
Rookie Aldrich Potgieter leads the tour with a 324.1-yard common off the tee, together with this 374-yarder on the Mexico Open.
374-yard drive.252-yard method.
Aldrich Potgieter makes mild work of the 642-yard par 5 @MexicoOpenGolf 🚀 pic.twitter.com/8m1UBE8Ob9
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 22, 2025
Worst drive
On the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Potgieter, a 20-year-old from South Africa, confirmed he is able to topping one like the remainder of us.
Nothing reminds us extra that golf is difficult then when a professional duffs it. 😂
Aldrich Potgieter straight tops a drive into the water at Bayhill. Like legit may have whiffed. Off a tee, so no variables.
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!!!pic.twitter.com/QCQEFf69vG
— Rick Golfs (@Top100Rick) March 6, 2025
Finest angle
Joel Dahmen had the correct of mindset after ending with three straight bogeys and lacking a 2-footer on the seventeenth gap to lose to Garrick Higgo by one within the Corales Puntacana Championship in Puerto Rico on April 20.
If anybody is questioning what it looks like to provide away a golf match, it sucks. I am studying from it and may have one other likelihood. The quantity of assist and properly needs I’ve obtained has been wonderful. I wish to thank everybody for that. Onward and upward!
— Joel Dahmen (@Joel_Dahmen) April 23, 2025
Finest punt
Patton Kizzire wasn’t comfortable after lacking a 5-footer for par within the first spherical of the Valspar Championship.
A putter punt from Patton Kizzire 🏈🏌️♂️
He went on to WD from the Valspar because of a again harm 😲 pic.twitter.com/WaO7qTiQb5
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) March 20, 2025
Finest save
Chandler Phillips practically waded into alligator-infested waters to hit among the best saves of the season in New Orleans.
