Tied for second

Viktor Hovland beat Scottie Scheffler in a playoff at the Travelers Championship this week. Winning it on the first extra hole after Scheffler missed a three-footer that would have kept it going.

One putt. One inch of break misjudged. That's the margin at the very top of the game.

I bring it up because I had my own version of "one shot, completely different outcome" this week. Two of them, actually. Stick with me.

Welcome back to The Scorecard.

As part of my commitment to getting more into golf, I’m venturing into the world of competitions and over the last week I’ve played in two.

Here they are. Two stories from my last week of competitve golf. Bear with me, they end up in the same place.

Competition one: the midweek stableford. Nine points after the front nine. Nine!!! (Not a typo.) Nine points in nine holes is the kind of score that makes you start thinking about your life choices, not just your swing. I won't bore you with the detail, it doesn't matter, bad golf rarely needs explaining, it just needs surviving.

Then the back nine happened. Sixteen points. Much better. No fireworks, no eagles, just solid, present golf. The kind of golf you play when you've already accepted the round's not going to mean anything, so you may as well enjoy hitting the ball properly. Funny how that happens so often when you take the pressure off yourself. Twenty-five points by the end. No prize. Didn't matter.

Competition Two: Monday, Festival of Golf week at my home course (Carlyon Bay, St Austell), Texas Scramble, three-ball and a team thrown together so I could enter. We gelled pretty much from the start, the way golf sometimes lets strangers click, and we played some great team golf. In fact better than great for most of the round. We birdied the 17th. Walked to the 18th tee with a feeling we had a chance of setting a good score, being the first group out.

Then, the only bogey of the day, on the hole that mattered most. Finished tied for second. Fourth on countback. One shot back.

If you'd asked me standing on the 18th green, I may have told you the day was a disappointment. A birdie on 17 could have been the winning moment, undone by the one hole we didn't need to drop a shot on.

Here's what I'm remembering though.

The story I could tell about that scramble is "we lost it on the last." The story I'm choosing to tell is "three Dads met on a Monday morning, gelled almost instantly, had a great time over four hours, and played well enough to finish one shot off the win." That's not consolation. That's a win. The leaderboard position is just a detail attached to it.

Same with the stableford. The story isn't "shot nine points on the front." The story is "found a way to play nine decent ones on the back, with nothing left to play for, just because that's what showing up properly looks like."

Golf gives you the scorecard, but it doesn't tell you which numbers matter. You decide that part. Most of us default to the worst version, the dropped shot, the bad front nine, the one that got away because that's the version that's easiest to reach for. It takes a bit more effort to reach past it for the version that's actually true: that you showed up, you found your feet, you played well with people you'd just met, you didn't fold when the front nine went badly.

That's not really a golf lesson. You already know where else it applies.

Find the ball. Play on.

Ask one question before the first tee shot, not after.

Something simple: "what's everyone's handicap" or "where do you usually play" breaks the ice before the round, not three holes in once the silence has already set the tone. A round of golf is great for conversation. With people you know, with people you’ve just met. Side-by-side walking with a common interest already established.

Small plug while we're here: my own 2026 challenge is to play with as many new people as I can over the year. The stableford and the scramble took me to 14. Set yourself a similar challenge. It's amazing how much more you're willing to step out of your comfort zone when meeting new people becomes the mission.

A big week across the men's and women's game.

PGA Tour — Viktor Hovland beat Scottie Scheffler in a playoff to win the Travelers Championship, holing a six-foot birdie on the first extra hole after Scheffler missed a three-footer that would have extended it.

DP World Tour — Eugenio Chacarra made it back-to-back wins, taking the Italian Open by five shots with a bogey-free final round, including a 35-foot eagle at the 15th.

LPGA — The story of the week. Haeran Ryu won the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for her first major, having trailed by ten shots after round one — the largest first-round deficit ever overcome to win this Championship, and the biggest in any women's major since 1964.

PGA Tour Champions — Padraig Harrington was denied a fourth Dick's Open title, losing in a playoff to Dicky Pride after the pair tied at 18 under.

And closer to home: Final Qualifying for The Open took place this week, with 288 players chasing 20 places up for grabs at Royal Birkdale. I've got tickets for the final day and I can't wait.

Front 9 Dads — Tip: pack one extra snack in the bag this week. Not for you. For the round you get cut short because someone needs collecting.

Back 9 Dads — Question to sit with: when did you last play with someone you'd never met before? If the honest answer is "ages ago," that's this week's nudge.

Clubhouse Dads — Challenge: tell one person on the course this week about a good course you remember playing. You'll enjoy telling it more than you think.

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See you on the fairway

Matt

18 Hole Dads