Fitzpatrick bros fulfill their dreams, Furyk captaincy sends a message, and the Scheffler-Korda comps grow

For a week in the golf world that felt destined to be a forgettable one, we managed to have ourselves quite a run of developments. Huge Ryder Cup news, Nelly Korda wins the first major of the year on the women’s side, and the Fitzpatrick brothers extend their magical run for another week at the Zurich Classic.

In peak Friday news dump fashion, reports broke about Jim Furyk being tapped again as U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2027, understandably breaking the brains of most (including my own) to begin the weekend. The dust has settled, and while the decision to go with Furyk still feels asinine, there are multiple angles to look at with this, and we'll get to that below.

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Nelly was Nelly in Houston as she won the second Chevron Championship of her career. Now with three majors to her name — and back to being ranked the No. 1 in the world — the Scottie Scheffler comparisons have grown even scarier.

Then the Fitzpatrick brothers managed to not only add drama to the final round of the Zurich Classic, which they should earn some sort of medal for, but they also delivered the storybook ending of all storybook endings.

This is Par Talk, a weekly read to get you caught up on all the happenings that took place in professional golf over the week that you need to know. You can follow Mark on X @itismarkharris and email him at mark.harris@outkick.com

The Fitzpatrick brothers, Matt, a U.S. Open champion and the No. 3 player in the world, and Alex, who plays in Europe and is ranked 141st in the world, have been fulfilling their dreams at an unprecedented rate. Here’s a quick rundown of their last five weeks:

March 22: Matt wins the Valspar Championship, his first win on U.S. soil since April 2023

March 29: Alex wins the Hero Indian Open on the DP World Tour

March 31: Matt and his wife, Katherine, announce they’re expecting their first child

April 19: Matt wins the RBC Heritage in a playoff over World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler

April 26: The brothers pair up for the Zurich Classic, and win it with a finish straight out of Hollywood

The PGA Tour handing out two-year exemptions to the winners of the Zurich goes against all things holy and right within professional golf, but Sunday’s finish made things feel far less slimy.

Tied with two other teams at 30-under playing the 72nd hole, Matt hit a perfect drive on the reachable par 5. Alex didn’t appear to get all of his 9-wood from 230 yards out, with his shot finding a bunker short of the green. This set the stage for older brother Matt to do something incredibly special for his kid brother, and did he ever.

Facing an awkward bunker shot from 35 yards to a back pin where a miss long is death, Matt proceeded to knock it to 14 inches. Alex tapped in the birdie, and his life officially changed right then and there: a two-year PGA Tour exemption, a share of $2.75 million, and a spot in next month’s PGA Championship. And all of it set up by his own brother with a bunker shot that the two will be talking about for the rest of their time on Earth; it can’t get much better than that.

"I'm incredibly appreciative of him, everything that he does for me. There's just so many little things that I'm sure that he does that I don't know about that he does for me as well," Alex said of Matt following the victory. "Yeah, I'm obviously incredibly lucky to have him as my brother.

"I don't think there's many people that can say, you know, one of the best players in the world is your brother, but also, just what he does for me. Yeah, just love him to bits. There's not much more to say."

Any golfer out there who has a great relationship with a sibling on and off the course couldn’t watch the Fitzpatrick’s embrace on the 18th green, or read Alex’s comments, without feeling something deep in the soul.

Tiger Woods was not going to fix the many flaws of the U.S. Ryder Cup team and flip the downward trajectory it has been on for years by simply taking on the role of captain. The situation he put himself in is unfortunate, and it put the PGA of America in a difficult spot (again), but his presence alone in the role wasn’t going to suddenly make the Americans the force so many in the golf world have expected them to become. 

That’s especially true for a Ryder Cup across the pond, an occasion that the U.S. team hasn’t come out of on the right side of things since 1993.

Having said that, there may not have been more of a ‘sacrificial lamb’ selection for the 2027 U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy than Jim Furyk. Optics-wise, it’s hard to come up with a less motivating choice to lead the Americans into battle at Adare Manor than Furyk.

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The PGA of America tapping the same man who captained the 2018 U.S. Ryder Cup team that was embarrassed in France, 17.5-10.5, is a bit mind-numbing, yet on brand.

The Europeans have long been operating at an entirely different level than the Americans at the Ryder Cup, winning 11 of the last 15. Furyk getting another go at things after already failing miserably signals the PGA has no idea how to even begin trying to turn things around.

It also presents the glaring thought that the U.S. will arrive at Adare Manor with the expectation and preconceived notion that it is going to lose. That thought is already in the mind of everyone in the golf world living in reality, but it can’t be one that also lives within the minds of the actual players and staffers inside the U.S. team room.

Now, while it’s easy and largely justified to ask questions and point out the negatives associated with the Furyk selection, he does deserve credit for even taking on the challenge.

Nobody is more aware of how badly things went in France in 2018 than Furyk. He has also been a vice captain on U.S. staffs four times, including in 2025 when the Americans fell to the Europeans at Bethpage Black. We also can’t gloss over the fact that he was 10-20-4 as a player in the Ryder Cup as well.

Furyk has accrued multiple scars from this event, and for him to raise his hand to give it one more go in a year where the Europeans will be significantly heavy favorites is admirable. For all we know, other candidates with far fewer Ryder Cup wounds may have passed on the challenge. For Furyk, 2027 won’t only be a challenge, but an opportunity in a low-risk, yet extremely high-reward situation.

Personally, I thought Stewart Cink could have been a nice fit to captain the Americans in ‘27. If not him, Brandt Snedeker getting the nod, presuming he leads the U.S. to a win in the Presidents Cup later this year, would have been a totally acceptable direction to go as well.

Korda went wire-to-wire at Memorial Park to win the Chevron by a resounding five shots, and having now won twice in 2026, she’s back to being the top-ranked player in the world. 

Her dominance in Houston felt as close to what we saw out of her in 2024 when she won seven total times, including a stretch of six wins in less than five months. We may not see a run like that exactly, but Korda was in a class of her own for four days at the Chevron and certainly looks capable of putting together yet another memorable campaign.

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Comparing the No. 1 players on the men’s and women’s side isn’t some new exercise, but when you put the resumes of Korda and Scheffler side by side, the resemblances are striking.

Scheffler at age 29: 4 major championships, 20 PGA Tour wins, 81 career Top 10 finishes, 19 career missed cuts

Korda at age 27: 3 major championships, 17 LPGA Tour wins, 80 career Top 10 finishes, 19 career missed cuts

The two are also Nike and TaylorMade athletes.

Scheffler and Korda will spend their entire careers being linked and compared to one another — it’s the natural thing to do with their similar ages and being ranked first in the world — but the fact that they’re so close to being exactly on pace with one another is something. 

Now, it’s just a race to see who gets the next major title. A U.S. Open win for Scheffler this year would give him the career grand slam.