This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Scottie Scheffler and Davis Riley were paired in the final group of the Charles Schwab Challenge on Sunday and, even though Riley held a four-stroke lead, the only real question was: How much would Scheffler win by?
In one of the bigger surprises in a golf season filled with surprises, Riley not only won, he won with ease.
Riley, ranked a mere 249 spots behind Scheffler in the world rankings and 150 spots behind him in the FedExCup Standings, cruised to a five-shot win at Colonial over the world No. 1 and Keegan Bradley.
Riley's first career solo PGA Tour victory brought to a close a grief-stricken weekend in the golf world following the shocking announcement that Grayson Murray had passed away after withdrawing from the tournament on Friday.
Riley had been amid a pretty terrible season. He had made the cut in only half of his 14 tournaments with just one top-25. His Strokes Gained stats were every bit as bad, as he ranked outside the top 150 in SG: Off-the-Tee, Approach and Tee-to-Green, and 100th in Putting.
He was a completely different golfer last week, at a course where he had finished top-5 before. Riley ranked sixth in Off-the-Tee, second in Approach and fourth in Putting. That's pretty much what you have to do to beat Scheffler.
"I just wasn't able to put as much pressure as I would have hoped to put on Davis early in the round and he just kind of cruised all day," Scheffler said. "He played great golf. He made that bogey on two and answered it really quick with a birdie on four and didn't really give us much of an opening today, just continued to cruise and play great golf. So it was a well-earned win for him."
This was Riley's second PGA Tour win, though the first was last year's Zurich Classic team event.
A couple years ago, it looked as if Riley would be far more accomplished at this point in his career.
A relative unknown ranked around 400th in the world, he tied for second at the 2022 Valspar. Within the next three months, Riley has finished fifth in Mexico, ninth at the Byron Nelson. 13th at the PGA Championship, fourth at the Charles Schwab and 13th at the Memorial. He reached as high as No. 61 in the world and then … nothing, really. It was just this brief window of excellence with nothing before or after.
Until this week.
There was little indication this was coming. Riley went off at about 200-1 in the betting markets. The only sliver of hope was that he had made four of his past five cuts (one of them the Zurich), plus the fact that he had played Colonial well once before two years ago (he missed the cut last year).
While Riley is now up to 78th in the world rankings and will get into the two remaining Signature Events at the Memorial in two weeks and the Travelers in four, and the Masters next year, it's hard to jump on a Riley bandwagon as if this was some sort of a turning point.
Two years of poor play will need more than one good week to change our opinion, even if that one week was a five-shot cakewalk over the best golfer on the planet.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler shot a 1-over 71, making this his first over-par final round since Bay Hill – Bay Hill in 2023. He clearly has not been the same since his arrest, though his pre-arrest pace was largely unsustainable. Scheffler will take this coming week off, then presumably play three in a row at the Memorial, U.S. Open and Travelers. Just before the Memorial, Scheffler has a scheduled court appearance in Louisville. Four weeks from now, after the Travelers, we should know a lot more about how much Scheffler's legal situation is affecting his game.
Keegan Bradley
This was Bradley's second runner-up of the season – the other coming to Murray at the Sony Open. He also finished top-25 at both majors so far. He's up to 14th in the world rankings and, even though he hasn't won this season, he's playing some of the best golf he ever has.
Collin Morikawa
Morikawa finished solo fourth and indications continue to show he is "close." He ranked eighth in the field in SG: Approach and we will likely view him very highly at the Memorial and probably the U.S. Open, too.
Sepp Straka
Straka continues to play well after a terrible start of the season. He had twin T16s at THE PLAYERS and Masters, and has three top-10s since then, including a tie for fifth at Colonial.
Mac Meissner
Meissner tied for fifth and is quietly becoming someone to keep an eye on. The 25-year-old former SMU Mustang has four top-25s in his past six starts, two of them top-10s. He's played only 17 career PGA Tour events, 13 of them this season.
Pierceson Coody
The rookie in on sponsor invite had by far his best showing on the PGA Tour, a tie for fifth. That moved him into fifth place in the Aon Swing 5, a position he would need to hold after this week's Canadian Open to get into the Memorial, a Signature Event, the following week. Pierceson's twin brother Parker Coody, also in on a sponsor invite, tied for 61st.
Hayden Buckley
Buckley tied for fifth, which was his first top-25 in more than a year, since he tied for fifth at the 2023 RBC Heritage. He had made only five of 14 cuts on the season coming in.
David Lipsky
Lipsky had been even worse than Buckley, making only four of 14 cuts on the season. He tied for ninth. Like Riley, Lipsky had played well before at Colonial, tying for 16th last year. So perhaps there is a stronger connection with course history at Colonial than some other tracks.
Sungjae Im
Im tied for fourth at the Wells Fargo, then missed the cut at the PGA and now tied for ninth at Colonial. His game is every bit as unpredictable these days as his past three tournaments sound.
Robby Shelton
Shelton hadn't been quite as bad as Buckley or Lipsky this season, but this tie for ninth was also out of nowhere. He's had only one other top-25 all season, and that was a T25 at Torrey Pines back in January.
Adam Scott
With the U.S. Open in three weeks, Scott's streak of playing in 91 consecutive majors, currently longest active streak, is in jeopardy. He entered the week No. 62 OWGR – the top-60 on June 10 get in – and he's now 58th after tying for 12th. He's playing this week in Canada. But with qualifying taking place before June 10, Scott might have to play it safe and head to one of the 36-hole qualifying venues.
Lucas Glover
Glover's brief foray into putting greatness came and went last summer when he won two straight tournaments. He entered Colonial ranked 169th in SG: Putting. Naturally, he ranked second in the field for the week at tied for 12th. Normally, his approach game is great, but he ranked only 47th.
J.T. Poston
Poston's very solid season continued with a tie for 12th, giving him a seventh top-25 in 14 starts this season.
Jordan Spieth
Spieth, who for years was an automatic top-10 at Colonial with a win at two runners-up through the years, is now a mere mortal and tied for 37th.
MISSED CUTS
Max Homa, Ryan Palmer, Michael Block. Homa had a stinker of a first round with an 8-over 78 and his second-round 69 was not close to getting him inside the cut line. It was just one off-week, nothing more. … Palmer is a Colonial member who helped the Greg Hanse team with the redesign. … Block, back on a sponsor invite for the second straight year, probably won't get a third.
GRAYSON MURRAY
Murray was 30 years old. He had won the Sony Open earlier this year, giving him in effect a three-year exemption on Tour. He was in all the Signature Events. He played well enough to make the cut in both majors this season. He had more than $6 million in career earnings. Sounds great, right? That's the thing with mental health issues -- they often aren't obvious or in the open.
Murray's battles with depression and alcoholism were well-documented, but there were indications he had been in a better place this season. And yet, he withdrew from the Charles Schwab with two holes to go on Friday and the next day we learned he had taken his own life.
A high-profile death such as Murray's could very well shine a bright light on things and perhaps help save someone else's life. That would be part of a wonderful legacy.
Otherwise, it was just an unspeakable tragedy.
