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Shane Lowry bounces back from a career lull and holds steady as rain and high winds all but blow his closest competitors off the course, while Jim Herman refuses to believe he’s washed up at 41. Both register surprise victories at The Open Championship and Barbasol Championship, respectively, to rejuvenate their careers. Welcome to the Monday Finish, where Lowry jumped from 68th to 18th in the FedExCup and got Irish eyes smiling, while former club pro Herman reasserted his PGA TOUR status after what had been a shaky season and a dispiriting last few years. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. Lowry has known rough weather The last time he was in this situation, staked to a four-shot lead with one round to go in a major championship, Shane Lowry shot a final-round 76 to finish T2 at the 2016 U.S. Open. In his last Open Championship start, in 2018, Lowry had missed the cut and cried in his car. And yet, a caddie change gave him a new lease on life, and he began to finally see results with a victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in January. Despite an opening-round 75, he finished T8 at the PGA Championship at Bethpage. He finished T2 at the RBC Canadian Open. Finally, and just in the nick of time as the Open returned to Ireland for the first time in 68 years, Ireland’s Lowry put it all together at Royal Portrush. He avoided another bad start (78 on the way to a MC at the Masters, 75 en route to a T28 at the U.S. Open) and opened up another four-shot lead with rounds of 67-67-63 at Portrush, breaking the 54-hole Open Championship scoring record in the process. This time, he held steady on Sunday, his 72 good enough for a six-shot win over Tommy Fleetwood (74).   “Golf is a weird sport, and you never know what’s around the corner,” Lowry said. For more on Lowry’s career-changing win, click here.  2. This was a popular victory It may take a while for Lowry to make his way to this week’s World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, as he is likely still working his way through the receiving line. The process began just off the 18th green at the Dunluce Links, with his caddie, parents, brother, wife, 2-year-old daughter and, finally, a long line of fellow players that included Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka (among others). But nowhere did this victory resonate louder than the place where Lowry learned the game, Esker Hills Golf Club. Click here to join the party. 3. Sunday was brutal J.B. Holmes shot 87 to fall 64 places down the leaderboard and into a T67 finish, but he wasn’t alone. Justin Rose (79) fell 16 spots to finish T20. Dylan Frittelli and Andrew Putnam each began the day at T12 (6 under), only to each shoot 78 to finish 1 over. The conditions were so horrendous that staying within shouting distance of par, like Lowry (1-over 72), qualified as a huge victory. And the under-par scores were so rare they looked like a misprint. The most outrageous of these was Francesco Molinari’s 5-under 66, which shot him up the board 43 spots and earned him a T11 finish. Molinari and Bernd Wiesberger (70) shot the only bogey-free final rounds, fewest of the week. For more on the struggles of the contenders, click here.  4. It meant the world to some You almost can’t overstate how much it meant for Royal Portrush to host The Open. “It hit me like a ton of bricks,â€� said Rory McIlroy, who was so overwhelmed to be playing so close to his boyhood home that he hit his opening tee shot out of bounds and shot 79. His wild second-round 65 was almost good enough to see him through to the weekend rounds, as he missed the cut by one and was on the verge of tears afterward. Darren Clarke, a Royal Portrush member who hit the opening tee shot, reported feeling more emotional than he expected, as did Graeme McDowell. Amid such heartfelt emotion, it was more than appropriate the tournament was won by one of their own, Lowry. For more on what this meant for Ireland and Irish golfers, click here.  5. Herman’s win was a shocker Sure, he’d won the 2016 Houston Open, but Jim Herman had made only three cuts in 19 starts this season. In one of those three, he’d missed the 54-hole cut. He hadn’t had a top-10 finish in over two years. Then the 41-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio, went out and won the Barbasol Championship with a tournament-record, 26-under 262. “In golf, you don’t know what to expect,” Herman said. You can say that again. For more on Herman’s victory, click here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Lowry’s dominance (by six shots) represented the biggest margin of victory at The Open since Louis Oosthuizen won by seven at St. Andrews in 2010. Of the other major victories by six or more shots since 2000, Tiger Woods’ 15-shot romp at the 2000 U.S. Open remains the gold standard. Woods (2000 Open Championship), Rory McIlroy (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship) and Martin Kaymer (2014 U.S. Open) all registered eight-shot wins. 2. The winner not only led the field in birdies, his 23 were five more than the next best player. Lowry’s 54-hole total of 197 set The Open Championship record and tied Ernie Els (1995 Open Championship) for the second-lowest opening 54 holes in a major. David Toms still holds the record of 196, set at the 2001 PGA Championship. 3. Runner-up Tommy Fleetwood had made just two bogeys through 54 holes, the fewest in the field, but made four in the final round for a 3-over 74 and his second runner-up finish in 18 major starts. He also finished second at the 2018 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills. 4. Brooks Koepka (74, T4) became just the fifth player to finish in the top five in all four majors (Jordan Spieth – 2015, Rickie Fowler – 2014, Tiger Woods – 2000 & 2005, Jack Nicklaus – 1971 & 1973) and claimed the top spot in the FedExCup standings for the first time. 5. Jim Herman led the field in scrambling (8 of 9) at the Barbasol, and collected his second TOUR title in his 175th TOUR start. He registered his first top-10 finish since the 2017 Valspar Championship (T3) and moved up 98 spots to 134th in the FedExCup. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. There was a change at the top after the Open Championship and Barbasol Championship. With his T4 finish at the Open, Brooks Koepka inched past Matt Kuchar into the No. 1 spot. Other big changes in the Top 10: Rickie Fowler, with his T6 at the Open, moved up a spot to No. 9, and Jon Rahm (T11 at the Open) moved up to No. 10.

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He’s known about the induction for nearly 18 months. He even visited the World Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, to get ideas for his exhibit and the locker that will be there in perpetuity. But Monday night, the magnitude of what he’s accomplished really hit home for Davis Love III. There he was, with fellow inductees Lorena Ochoa Reyes, Meg Mallon and Ian Woosnam, at a dinner at One World Observatory, a stunning venue with sweeping views of New York City that is nestled atop the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. A host of other Hall of Famers were there to welcome them into the exclusive club. “It was like the ultimate class reunion,â€� Love said. His son Drew got to talk fitness with Gary Player, who toasted the incoming Hall of Famers, while Chi Chi Rodriguez gave the 23-year-old advice on his swing. Many pictures – the cell phone variety and other more official ones – were taken during the convivial evening of good cheer. “My wife, Robin, said, ‘You know, we’re going to get to do this every year,’â€� Love said. “To have that kind of setting that we’re going to be part of this class, this group, this club, for the rest of our lives. “It was an incredible night.â€� Tuesday night’s induction at the Cipriani Wall Street provided a more formal recognition of the class of five that also includes the late British journalist and broadcaster, Henry Longhurst. During the morning’s teleconference, Love, Mallon, Ochoa and Woosnam reflected on some of the highlights of their careers. Love first saw the World Golf Hall of Fame when it was housed in a building behind the fourth green at Pinehurst No. 2. He noticed it while he was playing the course as a kid but he never went in until recently in St. Augustine, where the Hall relocated and reopened in 1998.  And even as he was compiling a resume that includes 21 PGA TOUR victories, among them the 1997 PGA Championship and two PLAYERS Championships, Love didn’t get ahead of himself. It wasn’t until his good friend Fred Couples was inducted in 2013 that Love started thinking he might be Hall of Fame material, too.  “I guess I really thought I might get in, or it was actually a goal after Freddie Couples’ induction ceremony,â€� Love said. “I always looked up to Freddie and tried to hit it as far as him and be as cool as him but it never worked. “To think when he got in and he gave his speech and he mentioned me a few times — we’re basically the same year and did the same things in the game, and that’s when I realized I might actually get in.â€� Love has been a mainstay of the U.S. in international team competition – playing on six Presidents Cup and six Ryder Cup teams. He will spend the rest of the week at nearby Liberty National working as an assistant to Steve Stricker for the U.S. Presidents Cup team, his second such stint, and has captained two of the last three American Ryder Cup squads. A year ago, Love made the difficult decision to leave Bubba Watson, then ranked seventh in the world but not playing his best golf at the time, off his victorious U.S. squad at Hazeltine National. Watson was disappointed by wanted to contribute, asking if he could be an assistant, and Love gladly accepted. “He said, ‘(I) want to be in the Hall of Fame and I want to be a Ryder Cup captain. They are really the same thing,’â€� Love recalled. “And to think that I have done that over the last few years is just an incredible blessing. I just hope this class can carry forward what the classes behind us have done and grow the Hall of Fame.â€� Ochoa Reyes, who started playing golf at the age of 5 in Guadalajara, Mexico, accomplished a great deal in an abbreviated career. She won 27 times, including two majors, in seven years before retiring in 2010 to start a family and continue her charitable works at the age of 28.  She spent 158 weeks as No. 1 in the world, including the week she retired. “It’s great to see the change in the game,â€� Ochoa Ryes said. “Today in my country, there are many, many boys and girls playing. More than a hundred players are playing in the different schools. They have a scholarship in the States. I think we are going in the right direction, and so it’s great to be able to help in that way and make a change and have more golfers representing México in the different tours.â€� Woosnam, who won the 1991 Masters and played on eight European Ryder Cup teams, has been in New York City since Friday, doing a little sightseeing before the festivities began. He won 42 times around the world and twice on the PGA TOUR. The Welshman was part of a stellar group of five European golfers all born within 12 months of each other – joining Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros. Now they are all in the World Golf Hall of Fame. “(I am) very excited and very emotional the closer we get to being inducted into the Hall of Game with the greatest players ever,â€� the diminutive Welshman said. “It’s a big deal.â€� Mallon retired the same year as Ochoa Reyes but had played the LPGA Tour for 23 years. She won 18 times, including four major championships, two of which were U.S. Opens captured 13 years apart. She played on eight Solheim Cups and captained the team in 2013. Among Mallon’s favorite memories is the birdie putt she made on the 72nd hole of the 1991 LPGA Championship. It was her first major title, two weeks before she won her second, and Mallon converted when Pat Bradley and Ayako Oakamoto, who joined her in the final group that day, couldn’t. “It was the storybook where all three of us had a chance to win a major and I was the last one to putt,â€� Mallon recalled. “… It was a 10-footer to win a major, and you know, when you make the putt like that and you get to jump into your caddie’s arms and have that moment, it was really cool.â€� Monday’s dinner and Tuesday’s induction were, too.

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How it works: Each week, our experts from PGATOUR.COM will make their selections in PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf. Each lineup consists of four starters and two bench players that can be rotated after each round. Adding to the challenge is that every golfer can be used only three times per each of four Segments. The first fantasy golf game to utilize live ShotLink data, PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf allows you to see scores update live during competition. Aside from the experts below, Fantasy Insider Rob Bolton breaks down the field at this year’s The American Express in his edition of the Power Rankings. For more fantasy, check out Sleepers, Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers and Reshuffle. THINK YOU’RE BETTER THAN OUR EXPERTS? The PGA TOUR Experts league is once again open to the public. You can play our free fantasy game and see how you measure up against our experts below. Joining the league is simple. Just click here to sign up or log in. Once you create your team, click the “Leagues” tab and search for “PGA TOUR Experts.” After that? Pick your players and start talking smack. Want to represent the fans against our experts? SEASON SEGMENT

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