GOLF NOTES

The World No. 1 met with reporters at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota, after playing in Wednesday morning's pro-am with Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell.

Scheffler, who is coming off a T4 finish at The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, said he added the 3M Open to his calendar this year because he didn't want to take time off with the PGA Tour playoffs starting next month.

"This was a tournament that I had heard a lot of good things about and so far everything seems true," he said. "The people have been tremendous, the fans have been really nice to me so far and the tournament seems to do a really good job just taking care of everybody."

Even though he's a football fan, Scheffler said he tried not to pump McConnell for information.

"I love the NFL," Scheffler said. "I wasn't going to just start hammering him with questions about football. He's about to start the season so he's going to be thinking about football for quite a long period of time, but we did a little bit.

"Yeah, he seemed like a really nice guy. You can tell why he's such a good coach, seemed very smart. I got to ask him a few questions and he told me some stuff. It was definitely very fun for me to be able to spend some time with him."

Scheffler, 30, is looking for his first win since The American Express in January.

He said the golf course "has a decent amount of length to it" and the biggest challenge will be keeping the ball in play off the tee.

"There's some pretty long par 4s and a good amount of water, and so when the rough is up like that there's going to be a premium I think on hitting fairways," he said. "When you're in play, you're going to get some scorable clubs on some certain holes. And the green are fairly big, so if you're in the fairway, things are going to be a lot easier for you. Once you start hitting in the rough it could be tough to get on the greens in two."

Charlie Woods' US Junior run ends with bogey in playoff

Charlie Woods' run at the 2026 U.S. Junior Amateur ended early Wednesday with a bogey on the first playoff hole.

The 17-year-old son of Tiger Woods fell shy of advancing to match play at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Charlie Woods was one of 14 golfers in the playoff, competing for two spots in match play. The Florida State commit went 76-70 in stroke play, topping his previous performances of 80-74 in 2025 and 82-80 in 2024.

Woods was 6-over-par through five holes in Monday's round before rebounding strong and playing his next 31 holes in 1-under par.

In Wednesday's playoff, Woods' tee shot at the par-5 first hole found the middle of the fairway, about 270 yards from the hole. With two players ahead of him having already carded birdies, he went for the green in two but found thick rough. His pitch ended up on the fringe and his birdie chip slid past the hole, ending his day.

Eli Wessel, Hudson Kutchma and Leo Gao birdied to advance to the second playoff hole, where Wessel and Kutchma made pars to move on to match play.

Woods is heading into his senior season of high school and is expected to sign with the Seminoles.

Mazzoli accepts PGA Tour membership

Stefano Mazzoli officially accepted his PGA Tour membership on Wednesday, one day before he was set to compete in the 3M Open in Blaine, Minnesota.

Mazzoli was added to the field at TPC Twin Cities on Monday after winning the Corales Puntacana Championship in just his third start on the PGA Tour. The 29-year-old Italian drained a 24-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday to win by one stroke in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Since he was not a member of the PGA Tour at the time of his victory, he received a one-year exemption on the Tour. He also is eligible to compete in the 2027 Players Championship and 2027 PGA Championship.

A rookie on the DP World Tour, Mazzoli earned his promotion from the HotelPlanner Tour just last year.

South Africa's Casey Jarvis also accepted Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour and is eligible for unlimited sponsor exemptions for the remainder of the season. Jarvis, 22, has two wins on the DP World Tour this season and reached the threshold for the Special Temporary Membership with his tie for sixth at The Open Championship.

Jason Day withdraws from 3M Open

Australia's Jason Day withdrew from the 3M Open on Wednesday due to a back injury.

Day, 38, missed the cut at The Open Championship last week and withdrew during the first round of the U.S. Open on June 18, also with a back injury.

The former World No. 1 is a 13-time winner on the PGA Tour, including his lone major title at the PGA Championship in 2015.

Charley Hoffman, 49, replaced Day in the field for the 3M Open, which begins Thursday at TPC Twin Cities in Blaine, Minnesota. He has missed the cut in 13 of his 14 PGA Tour events this season.

LIV Golf settles $1M trademark lawsuit

The LIV has agreed to pay $1 million to Stinger Golf to settle a trademark infringement lawsuit with the Ohio-based golf tee manufacturer.

The Stinger Golf Club, one of LIV's original four-man teams when the league debuted in 2022, rebranded to Southern Guards GC in January ahead of the tumultuous 2026 LIV campaign.

That change did not precede Stinger Golf's move to sue LIV for $100 million in June 2025.

The company ended up accepting $1 million from LIV, per a July 6 filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

"Obviously $1 million doesn't represent all the damages that our client suffered," Brian Barakat, a partner at Barakat + Bossa, the firm that represented Stinger Golf, told Front Office Sports.

"It's a settlement. Settlements are necessarily a compromise. What LIV did in this circumstance was pretty gross. We know that they knew long before they set up the Stinger Golf Club team that they were aware of our trademark, and they just decided that they didn't care."

The rebranded Southern Guards GC consists of South African players Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Dean Burmeister.

Stinger Golf, which sells its tees in golf retail locations throughout the U.S. as well as online, was motivated to accept the compromise due to concern over LIV entering bankruptcy proceedings.

"They bowed to the realities of this situation and made a compromise that made business sense for them," Barakat said. "We were very confident to go to trial. It wasn't a compromise based on any fear of loss in the case. It was a compromise based on what we viewed as an imminent bankruptcy."

LIV, World Wide Golf Brands, a former apparel partner of LIV, and the Stinger GC golf team were listed as defendants in the case. Only LIV will be making payments to the company.

Spieth to play in Rocket Classic for first time

Rocket Classic officials were crossing their fingers for one more big splash with the field for next week's tournament. And on Wednesday night, they sure got one.

Jordan Spieth will play in Detroit's PGA Tour tournament for the first time, tournament officials confirmed to The Detroit News.

Spieth, a three-time major champion who has won on the PGA Tour 13 times, pulled out of this week's 3M Open in Minnesota, leading to speculation he could make the Rocket Classic a late addition to his schedule with the PGA Tour playoffs looming. Spieth is 55th in the FedEx Cup standings, and while he's in good shape to make the first playoff event (top 70), the top 50 make the second playoff event and the top 30 make the huge-money Tour Championship.

The Rocket Classic, set for July 30-Aug. 2 at Detroit Golf Club, is the second-to-last regular-season tournament before the start of the PGA Tour playoffs.

Spieth, 32, hasn't won on the PGA Tour since 2022, but he remains a star and a big draw for fans. He joins headliners like Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka among the 145-player field for the eighth and final Rocket Classic. Like Spieth, Schauffele and Koepka are playing in the Rocket Classic for the first time.

Most of the Rocket field has been finalized, with the player commitment deadline Friday night.