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Good Monday morning, golf fans, as Scottie Scheffler captured the Hero World Challenge over the weekend.

1. Scheffler wins Hero

AP report…”Scottie Scheffler has made great gains in his putting. Add that to the rest of his top-ranked game, and he made it look easy Sunday. He closed with a 4-under 68 for a 3-shot victory in the Hero World Challenge.”

• “Scheffler, a runner-up in the Bahamas the previous two years, played bogey-free at Albany and didn’t let anyone get closer than 2 shots on the back nine as he ended the year with his fifth victory worldwide.”

• “The Hero World Challenge is an unofficial event, though its 20-man field receives world ranking points, and Scheffler only solidified his spot at No. 1.”

2. Tiger in good spirits following comeback

AP report…”The week wasn’t a total loss for Tiger Woods, the tournament host playing for the first time since surgery to fuse his right ankle a few weeks after the Masters in April.”

• “Woods finished 72 holes for only the third time in the last two years. He has played six tournaments following the recovery from his February 2021 car crash in Los Angeles that badly injured his right leg.”

• “Just like I said to you guys on Tuesday, I’m curious … what this is going to look like,” Woods said. “I haven’t done it in a while — I haven’t done it with my ankle the way it is now and I was excited each and every day to kind of get through it and kind of start piecing rounds together again. I haven’t done this in a long time so it was fun to feel that again.”

• “Woods closed with a 72 and finished 18th.”

3. Niemann wins Aus. Open with playoff eagle

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…”Joaquin Niemann closed in 5-under 66 and then took down Rikuya Hoshino in a playoff with a clutch eagle to win the ISPS Handa Australian Open on Sunday in Sydney.”

• “The victory marks the 25-year-old Niemann’s first worldwide title since he joined LIV Golf two summers ago. The Chilean star owned two PGA Tour wins and seven Chilean Tour victories prior to Sunday’s triumph at The Australian Golf Club. He now is the first South American winner of the Stonehaven Cup.”

4. Rollback cometh?

Golf Digest’s Mike Stachura…”The USGA and R&A are expected to announce early next week that they will be changing the rules to roll back distance in golf—and not just for elite players. The expected decision likely would make nearly every popular golf ball played both professionally and recreationally non-conforming. The news comes from multiple industry sources with direct knowledge of the plans of golf’s governing bodies, speaking on background.”

• “The change involves a revision to the way golf balls are tested to see if they conform to the rules. Specifically, it is expected to be announced that the test for the Overall Distance Standard would increase the swing speed at which golf balls are tested from the current standard of 120 mph to 125 mph. While increasing the swing speed, the test would not change the distance limit of 317 yards.”

• “In simple terms, if a golf ball is currently close to the Overall Distance Standard, as a high majority of golf balls used in elite competition (and popular in the marketplace) are, then raising the speed by 5 mph would make them fly 15 yards farther, or well past the current distance limit. Balls would then have to be made to stay within that 317-yard standard”

5. Players react…

Golf Digest’s Dave Shedloski…”One of the things Keegan Bradley has done during the offseason is test golf balls. Srixon made him a special set of balls. They were of the potential rollback variety.”

• “So the six-time PGA Tour winner already has some practical experience with what the USGA and R&A might be getting ready to do…”

• “It is expected that a new standard for testing the conformity of golf balls would be introduced for elite players and competitions in 2028 and then for recreational players in 2030.”

• “Srixon made whatever the USGA was saying, and it was 40, 50 yards [shorter] with my driver,” Bradley, 37, said Saturday at the Hero World Challenge. “I was a club or two shorter. I think that the USGA … everything that they do is reactionary. They don’t think of a solution. They just think we’re going to affect a hundred percent of the population that plays golf. For the amateur world to hit the ball shorter is monstrous. I can’t think of anything more stupid than that. I don’t think it’s very smart at all, especially when golf’s growing in popularity literally coming out of COVID.”

6. …McIlroy

Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…“McIlroy argued on X, formerly Twitter, that the rollback would make “no difference” to the average golfer while heightening the importance of other skills in the game, likely long-iron play, which McIlroy has talked about in the past.”

Here’s McIlroy’s full response:

• “I don’t understand the anger about the golf ball rollback,” McIlroy wrote. “It will make no difference whatsoever to the average golfer and puts golf back on a path of sustainability. It will also help bring back certain skills in the pro game that have been eradicated over the past two decades.

• “The people who are upset about this decision shouldn’t be mad at the governing bodies, they should be mad at elite pros and club/ball manufacturers because they didn’t want bifurcation. The governing bodies presented us with that option earlier this year. Elite pros and ball manufacturers think bifurcation would negatively affect their bottom lines, when in reality, the game is already bifurcated. You think we play the same stuff you do? They put pressure on the governing bodies to roll it back to a lesser degree for everyone.

• “Bifurcation was the logical answer for everyone, but yet again in this game, money talks.”

7. …Tiger

Golf Channel’s Rex Hoggard…”Tiger Woods has been an outspoken proponent of a rollback and has long been in favor of bifurcation — different rules for elite and recreational players. According to the Golf Digest report, there would be a period of bifurcation, starting in 2028, and by 2030 all golfers would be competing under the same ball rules.”

• “We’ve been hammering, the ball needs to slow down, but it has kept speeding up my entire career and here we are,” Woods said following his third round at the Hero World Challenge. “I told you guys, I’ve always been for bifurcation. I’ve always said that. Just like wood bats and metal bats.”

8. From vomiting to victorious

Golf Digest’s Ryan Herrington…”The South African native shot rounds of 65 and 68 at Blair Atholl Golf & Equestrian Estate to go from making the cut on the number at the South African Open to winning the title by three shots over Renato Paratore with an 11-under 277 total.”

• “The performance comes on the heels of Burmester winning a week earlier at the Joburg Open. Winning back-to-back titles is a career first for the 34-year-old…”

• “Making Burmester’s performance even more impressive was his physical state during Friday’s second round. Burmester says he woke up feeling sick.”

• “I woke up Friday and some 24-hour tummy bug or virus or something [hit me],” Burmester said. “I was throwing up on the golf course.”

9. Scheffler’s winning WITB

Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X

3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)

Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 8 X

Irons: Srixon ZU85 (3-4), TaylorMade P7TW (5-PW)

Shafts: Nippon N.S. Pro Modus 3 Hybrid Prototype 10 X (3), True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (50-12F, 56-14F), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks Proto (60-06K)

Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Logan Olson prototype

Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Titleist Pro V1