Memorial and LPGA US Open: A Day of Nail-Biting Golf

The conclusion of the Memorial and the LPGA US Open provided thrilling golf action. The author reflected on his preference for PGA events, particularly rooting for Ben Griffin. Meanwhile, the LPGA event showcased prominent players like Nelly Korda and Julia Lopez-Ramirez. Both courses were described as challenging, delivering exciting finishes.

morgdotmac

June 2, 2025

2–3 minutes

Bets, Golf, lpga, pga, pga-tour, sports, travel, usopen

The Memorial, at Murfield Village, and the LPGA’s USOpen, at Erin Hills, concluded yesterday I wanted to catalog some thoughts. I can’t be the only one, but I found myself rapid channel flipping between CBS and NBC most of the afternoon. And, if you weren’t you missed two wins that appeared out of reach for the field finishers but just weren’t.

Let’s get this out of the way: I am biased toward the PGA and men’s golf, so I started tuning in there Sunday and planned my afternoon around the Memorial tournament in specific because earlier in the week I took a $5 money line flier on Ben Griffin to win. I think I locked in the wager at +450. And I knew full well Scottie would ultimately prevail – but what a great story it could be for Ben to win his third of the year, from out of no where PGA-wise, at Jack’s shop climbing back to beat Scottie in his quest for his 3rd of the year as well.

The bit about Ben’s on-course glasses was interesting to me as someone who is on-again off-again with sunglasses in-round. To quickly dip into why it was fascinating to me – the internet broadly and my golf buddies text thread were absolutely destroying Ben’s aviator glasses look but upon hearing the why behind why he wears the glasses in tournament play I just couldn’t help but root for the guy. Plus, Frankie Borelli of Barstool’s ForePlay podcast looks exactly like the guy.

I’m not a deep-dive recap guy, so you won’t get that here. But instead I was riveted by Master griffin when he clearly went Terminator T-2000 unit down the stretch on holes 15 & 16 (eagle & birdie). I couldn’t help but think what if he could have parred 1, 4, 12, 13, and eventually 17? Brutal to look at that card’s front, but game-on for the eagle and bird down the stretch. And that course looked absolutely diabolical.

Anyway, flipping over to the Erin Hill’s LPGA USOpen throughout that day was a sneaky hidden surprise. The players I was out of the closet on were:

Nelly Korda (obvs) T2, lurking up ahead on the course, didn’t hit a single bunker all tourney and there are 138 of them out there!
Julia Lopez-Ramirez T19, at just 22 sending it 290+ off the tee, come on!
Charlie Hull (obvs) T12, going 4-under thru 14 before going 3-over on the last 4.
And, Linn Grant T9, having a topsy-turvy bonkers front but also from a far may be my next LPGA “it girl” – sorry, not sorry, Charlie and Nelly.

Having played Erin Hills way back when in 2016, I jump at the chance to watch tournaments played on that course. And, it delivered. The greens were described as a serving plate upside down. And that doesn’t give that course design enough credit. See Nelly’s approach on 18. Diabolical.

Two diabolical courses, two nail-biter finisher despite the scores not appearing to be such. Great day of golf TV.