The 2025 Open Championship is done, and Scottie Scheffler won his fourth career major, and his second this year, by winning one of the most difficult tests in golf at Royal Portrush. After the roller coaster tournament concluded, there are a lot of thoughts running through my head, and it is time to get them down on digital paper.

There are 18 holes on a golf course, so here are 18 thoughts after the 2025 Open Championship has concluded, in no particular order:

1 – Shane Lowry’s bogus penalty

The game of golf has some outdated rules, to say the least, and there are times when they can come up and haunt specific players. That’s exactly what happened to Shane Lowry in the 1st Round of the Open Championship. After video showed his golf ball might have moved slightly, he was slapped with a two stroke penalty.

Did the ball move? Check the video:

I’m not a Shane Lowry fan for a lot of reasons, but I think officials did him dirty with this penalty. I’ve watched this 100x and STILL not sure if it moved. And if it did, how do you know he CAUSED it to move when it’s windy & raining? You don’t lol.
pic.twitter.com/oClTBcAB9T

— Pro Golf Critic (@ProGolfCritic) July 18, 2025

I’ve watched it a ton, and still don’t see the ball move. But as my wife said when I asked what she thought, “If there was no telecast, would there be a penalty?” The answer is no, and that’s why I think Lowry got screwed with the two shot penalty. It derailed his entire tournament.

2 – Bryson DeChambeau on pace of play

Bryson isn’t one to shy away from controversial topics, and that was absolutely the case when he was asked about the pace of play on Thursday and Friday of the Open. While Bryson wasn’t the only player complaining about it, he also was one who had a potential answer to the situation. His idea? Time individual players and penalize those who are slowing up the round for not just their playing partners, but the entire field.

Not a bad idea, although the tour would never do it…

3 – Rory’s surprise ball in play

We’ve seen some crazy things on the PGA Tour over the years, but I can’t say I’ve ever seen something as crazy as this embedded golf ball popping up after Rory hit his approach out of the 11th rough this weekend. Just wild…

Rory with the double ball on 11th..? Hell yeah#TheOpenChampionship
pic.twitter.com/sNnBNjuCqe

— RGF (@rgfray1) July 19, 2025

4 – Haotong Li’s impressive tournament

There were many, myself included, who thought Haotong Li was going to fold like a cheap lawn chair over the weekend. We’ve seen this story a million times. Player from out of nowhere climbs the leaderboard, only to fade when the pressure gets ratcheted up. Li never did that, and was in the final pairing with Scottie Scheffler on Sunday. It was an impressive performance from Li, and one which he’ll gain valuable wisdom on what it takes to win a big-time tournament from watching the game’s best.

5 – Notable Cuts

The list of names who did not make the weekend was lengthy, and surprising. Here are some of the names who failed to make the weekend at Royal Portrush:

• Ryan Fox
• Ben Griffin
• Jason Day
• Nick Taylor
• Patrick Cantlay
• Collin Morikawa
• Tom Kim
• Patrick Reed
• Min Woo Lee
• Brooks Koepka
• Sahith Theegala
• Adam Scott

The list of players who were expected to make a play for the Open Championship, but failed to make the cut remains shocking to me.

6 – Justin Leonard turning back the clock

How about Justin Leonard making the cut at Royal Portrush?! His 70-73-70-73 tournament was a lot of fun to see. That is the beauty of this tournament, it allows even some of the game’s greatest, and aging, players contend. We saw it with Tom Watson before he lost to Stewart Cink, and seeing Leonard back on the course in a major was fun.

7 – Bryson’s bounce back

Was there a bounce back greater than DeChambeau’s this past weekend? His 78 in Round 1 had people thinking he’d miss his second straight Open Championship; however, he followed it up with a 65-68-64 to finish T-10. DeChambeau is now targeting the Ryder Cup as his next main event, but he continues to be a wrecking ball during majors who can never truly be counted out.

8 – Open Championship fans give Ryder Cup feel

If you watched the Open Championship, there was a chance you heard some interesting things from the fans. No, I’m not referring to the guy behind the tee yelling, “Mashed Potatoes!” like a moron. I’m talking about the fans who cheered when Scottie Scheffler’s bogey putt on No. 8 missed and he carded a double bogey. There was a Ryder Cup vibe to the crowd, and that’s okay with me. I expect them to root for their own…as long as they do it in good taste.

9 – Chris Gotterup proving plenty

The New Jersey native was coming off the Scottish Open victory a week prior to the Open Championship, and that win got his ticket punched into the final major of the year. He turned that special invitation into a 3rd place finish. That finish will punch his ticket to all majors in 2026, including The Masters. Gotterup might not do enough to make this year’s Ryder Cup team, but he absolutely should have gotten captain Keegan Bradley’s attention the past two weeks.

10 – Scottie’s pre-tournament comments

Before the first round on Wednesday Scottie Scheffler spoke about how golf is not truly fulfilling to him as a man. This was met with gasps and moans, and other players were forced to give their thoughts as the tournament began. But if you listen to the entire quote from Scheffler, which was over 5 minutes in length, he talked about how he doesn’t want to be defined as a golfer. He wants to be defined as a good human being, a good husband and a great father. When you listen to the quotes in their entirety, you hear a man who is being a completely open book with how he’s thinking at that very moment. It would be a shame if this being blown out of proportion causes not just him, but other athletes, to not be as forthcoming in the future.

11 – NBC Coverage continues to struggle, but improving

I’ve spoken about my disdain for NBC’s golf coverage before, and I want to say they are improving. Is it good? No, but it’s getting better. One area that frustrates me is how they don’t run the leaderboard bast the Top 10 players. This past weekend there was a log jam at both -10 and at one point -11, but what about the players who could have been making a push around -9? No clue. Never showed them on the leaderboard.

Also, they just don’t show enough shots down the stretch. I expect to see everyone of Scottie’s shots, but what about Xanders Schauffele, Russell Henley and others who were having great days? I don’t care if it is on delay, show more shots!

12 – Scottie Scheffler’s putting was amazing, even for par

What was the difference for Scottie Scheffler this weekend? Was it is driving accuracy? No, it was his putting. Sunday was the perfect example as he was draining putts over 15 feet for par to keep him atop the leaderboard. When Scheffler is even putting above average, not necessarily great, he is tough to beat when the rest of his game is so solid.

13 – The Bounce Back is real for Scottie

Sunday looked as if it was going to be another boring final round of a major. Similar to the PGA Championship when it looked like Scheffler was going to run away with it, trouble crept in and made things more interesting than most would have thought. That trouble was on No. 8 when Scheffler decided to take an aggressive line out of a fairway bunker and caught the lip. The ball returned near his feet, and he then played the ball out of the bunker as he should have played it initially. It equated in a double bogey and made things interesting…for a time.

What did he do on No. 9?

Birdie.

Scheffler leads the PGA Tour in “bounce back” and that was the perfect example of how he can put a bad hole behind him and make the necessary shots to win.

14 – 1,197 days

The number of days, exactly, for Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler between their first major and their fourth.

An amazing coincidence.

This isn’t a “He’s the next Tiger” message, because there will only be one Tiger Woods, but just a crazy statistical coincidence.

15 – 2025 Open Championship emblematic of the current PGA Tour

The way the Open Championship finished is exactly what the current PGA Tour is comprised of. Scottie Scheffler and everyone else playing for 2nd place. Scottie hasn’t won every tournament, but he’s winning more than anyone else. When Scottie is on, good luck, and it was the same feeling when Tiger Woods was in his prime. Barring them not playing well, coming from behind is nearly impossible.

16 – Scottie surpasses Spieth’s entire career in 16 months

Want to know wild statistic? In the last 16 months Scottie Scheffler has surpassed Jordan Spieth’s entire career in terms of wins, and has tied his number of majors. His entire career, in 16 months. Incredible.

17 – United States domination

This was a great performance by the United States players at Royal Portrush. How great was it? How about 9 out of the top 15 players were American players. This marks another long string of American dominance, especially in the majors. The last two years, eight total major tournaments, the only win from a non-American was Rory McIlroy’s Masters championship this spring. Other than that? A clean sweep from American players.

18 – What’s Next?

At the beginning of August the FedEx Cup Championship will begin at the St. Jude Classic and wrap up three weeks later at East Lake for the Tour Championship. But who am I kidding, the next big event on the schedule is the Ryder Cup on September 26th. The majors might be over, but some great golf remains on the docket for the golf sickos out there like me.

Jeff Hartman is the host of the Fairways & Dreams podcast, and the latest show can be heard in the player below: