Code Red at Caves Valley

Writing from Owings Mills, Maryland

Friday, August 15, 2025

Hideki Matsuyama had to feel like the opening act for Taylor Swift on Friday.

He scored a sparkling, bogey-free 6-under-par 64 at Caves Valley Golf Club, but next to nobody was there to see golf’s version of Sabrina Carpenter. Gallery members were all trekking up and down the hills of this picturesque property to see his playing partner, Robert MacIntyre.

The Scottish left-hander also scored 64, also went 'round the circuit with nary a bogey. The difference between MacIntyre and Matsuyama? Bashing Bob opened with a jaw-dropping 62, and thus extended his lead over the field in the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the 122nd Western Open – to a healthy five strokes over no less than world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler by the time the shouting stopped.

Scheffler concocted a bogey-free 5-under 65, including a 75-foot two-putt par at the last down a canted slope that was harder than trigonometry.

A first-grader can tell you MacIntyre’s 62 and 64 adds up to 126, which is two strokes lower than the 36-hole aggregate posted by Bryson DeChambeau here four years ago, before golf’s civil war commenced, before DeChambeau went off to LIV elsewhere, and before Caves Valley decided to tweak the course to make it more testing.

How’s that working out, Cavers?

At the time, DeChambeau’s opening 68-60 was considered heretical by the membership, and the swooning continued when the final tab – 27-under 261 co-authored by DeChambeau and playoff winner Patrick Cantlay – was turned in. This happens at country clubs, even clubs with a U.S. Amateur champion like George “Buddy” Marucci on the roster. There are fits of apoplexy followed by pledges to toughen the course, protect par, save the joint’s sainted reputation, and so yawn. At Caves Valley, checks totaling around $10 million were written, with one of the major expenses PrecisionAire systems to keep the greens firm.

So far from 2021 to now, the biggest difference turns out to be the scorecard. It reads 70 as par this week instead of 72. That part of the change probably cost a couple hundred bucks in printing costs, ink being expensive these days.

While .70 of rain in Thursday’s storm softened the greens, there’s more to the continuing assault than that. MacIntyre, who collected 12 birdies in a span of 22 holes, revealed part of it after Friday’s excursion.

“You've just got to be on the right (correct) side of the holes,” MacIntyre said. “If you're on the wrong side of the holes it's going to be carnage out here. I feel like this week I've really done a good job of getting it underneath the hole to be able to be aggressive with an uphill putt.

“The hardest putts are the ones probably five, six, seven, eight feet down the hill where you're just breathing on it, touching it to get it going and you just stand there and watch it bob and weave its way down the hill and fearing where it's going to end. But yeah, I don't mind quick greens.”

That’s been the strategy in golf since Old Tom Morris first set the pin positions at the Old Course. Keep the ball below the hole, keep it in play, and you defeat the bulldozer brigade.

The same thing goes for tee shots. It’s just not a matter of bombing it down the middle.

“The target we’re picking probably isn't the middle of the fairway,” MacIntyre said. “The targets we're picking might be right half of the fairway, knowing if I'm going to miss it, hit it short, it's going to miss on the right side.”

MacIntyre, while five laps in front of Scheffler, is not alone in his ability to make the scoreboard turn red. Along with Matsuyama, Ludvig Aberg and Maverick McNealy also fired 64s on Friday. Michael Kim, John Deere Classic champion of yore, tooled about with a 66. So did Jacob Bridgeman and Cameron Young, along with a guy by the name of Rory McIlroy.

As for Scheffler, he knew from his later start that MacIntyre would set a target score.

“I knew kind of going into today that I was going to be fighting a little bit of an uphill battle, and did a good job of hanging in there and staying in the tournament,” Scheffler said. “Bogey-free is always nice. I would have liked to get to have gotten a couple better looks down the stretch, but didn't hit as many fairways the last few holes, and out here with the way the holes are shaped, you've got to be in play, and did a good job of saving pars when I needed to on the back.”

You get the idea. Smart golf yielded smart scores. There were blow-ups to be sure – Ryan Gerard took 76 blows, Sam Stevens 77 punctuated by a triple-bogey on the par-4 12th – but by and large, the 49 players in this elite field have figured Caves Valley out. The second-round field average of 69.510 surpasses the 69.913 in the second round – when the ball was played up after downpours as opposed to Friday’s proper golf – four years ago.

It begs the question, then. Can MacIntyre or an even faster-closing player beat 261? 

Maybe the question should be, by how many?

Around Caves Valley

Illinois alum Brian Campbell, who vaulted in the rankings thanks to his victory in the John Deere Classic, atto a 1-over 71 to his opening 77 and has climbed from last to a tie for 45th at 8-over 148. … Defending champion Keegan Bradley is at 2-over 142 after an even par 70. … Twelve holes played under par, including the 18th.

– Tim Cronin