There was a moment on that hot July day in 1977 when Tom Watson turned to Jack Nicklaus and asked, “This is what it’s all about, isn’t it?”
And Nicklaus responded, “you bet it is.”
The simple, but famous exchange summed up what became known as the “Duel in the Sun,” two all-time greats, in the primes of their careers, bringing out the best in each other as they fought for The Open championship at Turnberry. There have been other great duels, before and since, but that still stands out for many as the greatest.
The Travelers Championship is not The Open, the TPC River Highlands is not Turnberry and few, if any, of today’s top players on the PGA Tour can yet be compared to Nicklaus, 37 at the time, and Watson, 28.
But the elevated or designated status has given the Travelers, with its big crowds, its great setting and its history for going overtime, the chance to be the stage for a memorable Sunday duel on June 25.
Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm and Rory McIlroy, the top three players in the world, have been dueling for the top spot all year, and wouldn’t it be something if they were locked in combat on the final day, approaching the 18th green on June 25?
Hey, pro golf is in a controversial time with the PGA-LIV Golf merger, so let’s allow ourselves to savor this possibility. What could make for a more exciting day in sports?
“A lot of that is just good, healthy competition, and hopefully we’ll continue to elevate ourselves through that competition,” Scheffler said during The Masters. “And then the guys behind us will be nothing but motivated to get to where we are.”
Nearly all of the top players in the world have committed to The Travelers, so it will be the best against the best this year, and maybe only this year, if the merger forces a re-imagining of the schedule in the future. The Travelers last drew the top two golfers in the world, Rahm and McIroy, in 2020, but McIlroy finished in a tie for 11th, Rahm tied for 37th. No fans allowed during the pandemic, and it was like an anticipated pitchers’ duel gone bad by the third inning.
This June 22, Scheffler, who regained top-of-the-heap status from McIlroy in mid-March, and Rahm, who was No.1 for 60 weeks, will tee off at the TPC, as the last two Masters champs.
They’re different people, different players who win in different ways and, with McIroy they have separated themselves from the rest.
Scheffler, 26, born in New Jersey and raised in Texas, is 6 feet 3, a big swinger and big hitter, but he has learned to harness his emotions.
“As he has gotten older, the anger, and the energy that used to go into the anger because of his competitiveness, has kind of redirected,” John Fields, Scheffler’s coach at the University of Texas, said a couple of years ago.
Rahm, 28, is 6-2, from Barrika, Spain, can be more demonstrative on the course, like his idol, Seve Ballestros. He won the Masters on the 40th anniversary of Ballestros’ victory at Augusta, as fans chanted “Do it for Seve.”
“It was a Seve par,” Rahm said afterward. “In a not purposeful way, it was a testament to him. I know he was pulling for me today. It was a great Sunday.”
In 2021, he became the first from Spain to win the U.S. Open. At The Masters, it was Scheffler’s final task as defending champ to help Rahm put on the green jacket.
“Sometimes you play a lot of good golf and unfortunately the guy next to you plays better and he beats you,” Rahm told reporters at The Memorial in early June. “That’s just how it is. Sometimes, maybe not with your best game, you can get the few lucky breaks and sometimes you need to win and put yourself in position and just get it done.”
McIlroy, 34, from Northern Ireland, is the gray beard of the threesome, looking for his first major since 2014, but still dangerous on any course, his scoring average at 69.77, as long as he hangs around.
The elevated tournaments have made for a major atmosphere, with the three top golfers in the world getting together. Now, if all of them can get to the top of their game in one week – and it seems bound to happen – it would be a duel to remember, with or without the sun, at River Highlands.
“I think you’ve seen just a pretty high level of consistency from us so far this year,” Scheffler told reporters during The Masters. “I think if you look at a lot of the leaderboards, we’ve been pretty close to winning most of the elevated events. I just think that the consistency; you had Jon beating up on everybody starting the year, and I had a little run there with The Players in Phoenix, and Rory is up on a bunch of leaderboards like he seemingly always is. A lot of that is just good, healthy competition, and hopefully we’ll continue to elevate ourselves through that competition.”
Is it making the best even better?
“We are definitely not making each other worse,” Scheffler said. “that’s for sure.”
