Viktor Hovland wins Travelers in Monday playoff when Scheffler misses short birdie putt

CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Viktor Hovland got all the validation he needed Monday that his game was on track again, and a whole lot more.

He beat Scottie Scheffler in a playoff at the Travelers Championship, had both parents from Norway watch him win for the first time and even did the “row” with the Norwegian soccer fans who cheered him all the way to the surprising end.

Hovland capped off a gritty rally when he made a 7-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole and won the Travelers when Scheffler missed a 4-foot birdie putt.

“Winning in the playoff against Scottie — best player in the world — that was pretty satisfying,” said Hovland, who won for the first time since the Valspar Championship in March 2025.

The surprise was Scheffler going from a big advantage — an 8-iron to 4 feet on the 18th on the first playoff hole — to missing a hard-sliding putt on the high side that made Hovland a winner.

“Maybe I hit it a little firmer than I intended to,” said Scheffler, whose putt caught the left edge and rolled out some 7 feet by the hole. “It looked like it got pretty far by the hole and I was playing it outside the hole, so I hit it down my line, just maybe the speed was a touch off.”

It was a big disappointment for Scheffler, who made Monday possible by making an 8-foot par putt on the 72nd hole in near darkness to force the playoff.

He was first to hit from the 18th fairway and some 3,000 fans on the hillside around the green erupted in cheers. Hovland responded, just like the 28-year-old Norwegian had done on the back nine Sunday when he rallied from a two-shot deficit.

Hovland's birdie putt was snapping off to the right when it curled in the right side and he let out a big fist pump.

“It’s one of those putts that if I make mine, his gets significantly tougher, and if I miss, he probably will make his,” Hovland said. “Yeah, it was definitely no gimmies there, so to put the pressure on him was awesome.”

It was the first Monday finish on the PGA Tour since The Players Championship in 2025, which involved a three-hole aggregate playoff won by Rory McIlroy. This turned out to be one hole and 15 minutes, but it did not lack for drama, or atmosphere.

There was lively banter for the playoff. A group of Norwegian fans, who had been in Boston for the World Cup, wore their soccer jerseys and chanted, “Hov-land!” as he approached his golf ball in the fairway. The Americans began the “Scot-tie Scheff-ler!” chants to drown them out.

The Norwegians also brought the “row,” which has gone viral in the stadium and subway stations and wherever they go. They sit shoulder to shoulder, arms out and then forcefully pull them in. Hovland had never seen it in person until Saturday.

When it was over, he sat with his people and they showed him how it's done.

“You definitely get adrenaline from it,” he said.

Hovland had plenty of that Sunday afternoon when he returned from a 90-minute rain delay and made three straight birdies to catch up to Scheffler and eventually get into the playoff. He closed with a 69, while Scheffler had a 68. They finished at 21-under 259.

Hovland is rarely satisfied with a swing that has given him a reputation for making solid contact. He felt it gaining momentum with a third-place finish in Canada, and even in the U.S. Open despite missing the cut. There was always one bad swing that allowed doubts to creep in.

Those were gone at the TPC River Highlands, particularly at the end. He was first to hit in the playoff and drilled it down the middle, just as he had done all week.

“I’ve been playing golf with Viktor for a long time. We’ve had some good battles in college and out here as a pro," Scheffler said. “He’s a guy that has a lot of talent and works really hard. So those are the types of guys you like to see have success.”

For Scheffler, it was his fourth runner-up finish this year after opening his season with a victory at The American Express in the California desert. But he felt a little momentum, even in a playoff loss, as he gets ready a three-week stretch that includes the British Open, the final major of the year.

“Ball striking is definitely in a good spot. That was some of the best I hit it all season,” Scheffler said. “Obviously I think just a little disappointed with the results of today. But, yeah, I did a good job of keeping myself in the tournament last night, made the nice putt to close out last night, and so trying to remember that one.”

Hovland headed home for Norway with his parents. As for his throng of flag-waving, rowing supporters? Norway plays Ivory Coast on Tuesday in Dallas, the hometown of Scheffler.

“That was probably more coincidental,” Hovland said with a laugh. “That should be a good game.”

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Viktor Hovland celebrates his victory with fellow Norwegians as they do the Viking Row on the 18th green after winning a playoff at the 2026 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., Monday, June 29, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant via AP)

Viktor Hovland celebrates his victory with fellow Norwegians as they do the Viking Row on the 18th green after winning a playoff at the 2026 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., Monday, June 29, 2026. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant via AP)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts after making a birdie on the first playoff hole of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Monday, June 29, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, right, hugs his caddie Shay Knight as Scottie Scheffler, left, walks off the green on the first playoff hole of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Monday, June 29, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)r

Fans reacts to Viktor Hovland, of Norway, winning the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Monday, June 29, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts after winning the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Monday, June 29, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, holds the Travelers Championship golf tournament trophy at TPC River Highlands, Monday, June 29, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, center, of Norway, moves his ball due to standing water without penalty on the 18th fairway during the final round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, hits his second shot on the fourth hole during the final round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Viktor Hovland, of Norway, reacts to his shot at the fifth hole during the final round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Scottie Scheffler, left, shakes hands with Viktor Hovland, right, of Norway, after finishing tied in the final round of the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

President Donald Trump has won and lost some as the Supreme Court wraps its final week of a term focused on executive power.

The justices said Monday that Trump can fire leaders of independent agencies with one exception, ruling that central banker Lisa Cook can keep her job at the Federal Reserve for now.

The court said states can count late-arriving mailed ballots, rejecting a Trump-led challenge. It declined to consider Trump’s push to toss a $5 million jury verdict that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll. And it turned away Trump defender Alan Dershowitz ’s effort to rewrite the U.S. libel law standards.

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RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said the court’s decision upholding state practices of accepting all ballots postmarked by Election Day is a reason to pass the president’s proposed elections bill that is stalled on Capitol Hill.

“If we want fair and secure elections, Election Day should mean exactly what it says, which is why this decision makes it even more imperative that Congress pass the SAVE America Act,” Gruters said.

RNC aides distributed the statement after Trump made the same argument Monday morning. Trump’s proposal would virtually eliminate absentee voting nationally, require voters to provide citizenship documentation to register and then present certain photo identification at polling places.

Gruters said Democrats “are inviting chaos at the ballot box by allowing elections to drag on.” He did not offer any examples of such chaos, and it was the original plaintiffs who wanted the court to overturn long-established rules months before November’s elections.

Federal law enforcement is preparing for one of the capital’s largest and most complex security operations as hundreds of thousands of people visit Washington for the 250th anniversary of the nation’s freedom.

The security challenge comes amid rising political violence, including recent incidents near the White House, and a president who enjoys being at the center of public pomp yet has repeatedly faced attempts on his life.

The nation’s capital “is a target-rich environment” on a normal day, said Darren B. Cox, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “We are prepared for any threats.”

The throngs will be joined by thousands of law enforcement officers and agents and 5,000 National Guard troops, along with military-style vehicles and other hardware not often seen on American streets.

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The president said in a social media post that it was “a Fake Case” brought against him by a woman he claims he never met.

“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength,” Trump wrote.

He also said the case, in which a jury found that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll in New York City in the 1990s and and later defamed her, is “really against the United States of America, and all it stands for.”

In a statement Monday, Carroll said the decision affirms the jury’s verdict will stand. “His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” she said.

Trump said he lost his effort to remove the Federal Reserve’s Lisa Cook “on a strictly procedural basis” and would still seek to remove the central bank governor.

The court ruled 5-4 that the Federal Reserve’s Lisa Cook can remain on the Fed board as she challenges the administration’s attempts to fire her over claims of mortgage fraud, which she has denied.

Trump said in a social media post that “we will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!”

Trump called a Supreme Court ruling that ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted days after an election a “tremendous loss.”

Trump posted on social media that the decision makes it more important for his SAVE America Act to pass. The measure would require proof of citizenship and include a ban on mail-in ballots unless that person is sick, disabled, traveling or deployed by the military, Trump noted.

“There is only one reason to oppose — CHEATING!” Trump said.

The president then called out Republican senators who have objected to the measure: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The firing attempt “was never about mortgage documents signed years ago” but rather “was an attempt to remove me on a manufactured pretext because I refused to bow to political pressure” from Trump, who has long sought lower interest rates from the central bank, Cook said in a written statement reacting to the court’s ruling.

Trump fired Cook last August, citing allegations that she had committed fraud in mortgage documents she signed in June and July of 2021. The Biden appointee sued to keep her job, and lower courts ruled she could remain while the case is litigated. The Supreme Court Monday upheld those rulings.

“Today’s ruling affirms a principle that has underpinned sound economic stewardship for generations: that the Federal Reserve must make all its policy decisions guided by evidence and independent judgment, free from political interference,” Cook’s statement said.

A majority of the justices ruled presidents have free rein to fire agency heads at will, despite federal laws that require a cause for such dismissals and a previous court ruling from 91 years ago.

“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers,” Trump posted on social media.

The justices ruled in the case of former Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Slaughter. The decision’s logic extends to National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Trump did not acknowledge that the court recognized some limits on his authorities by also ruling 5-4 that Lisa Cook can remain a central bank governor while challenging unproven mortgage fraud allegations, which she has denied.

The Supreme Court on Monday dramatically expanded presidential power, upholding Trump’s firings of the heads of independent federal agencies with one important exception, the Federal Reserve.

The justices allowed Fed governor Lisa Cook to stay in her job while she fights the Republican president’s effort to fire her over allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied.

But other than at the nation’s central bank, with its role of setting interest rates, the court held that presidents have free rein to fire agency heads at will, despite federal laws that require a cause for such dismissals and a 91-year-old decision that had limited executive authority. That decision, Humphrey’s Executor, was overturned.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday that Steve Witkoff, who is the special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, are flying to Qatar to meet with the Iranians.

Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that those talks would be “high level” and that technical negotiations would occur on the sidelines. Iran has denied that the talks are happening.

Trump accused Iran of violating the ceasefire by attacking a ship last week in Strait of Hormuz, but so far the interim deal for negotiations to take place appears to have held.

The Court said states can count ballots that arrive after Election Day, a persistent target of Trump.

The decision Monday rejects a Republican-led attack on laws in more than half the states and the District of Columbia that permit mailed ballots to arrive and be counted some number of days after the election, provided they are postmarked by Election Day. The outcome spares officials the headache of changing their ballot rules just a few months before the 2026 midterm congressional elections.

In just over half those states, the more forgiving deadlines apply only to ballots cast by military and overseas voters.

Trump has claimed most mail balloting breeds fraud despite strong evidence to the contrary and years of experience. He keeps repeating that fraud caused his loss to Joe Biden in 2020 even though more than 60 court decisions and his own attorney general said that argument had no merit.

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The Supreme Court refused Monday to revive the prominent attorney’s defamation lawsuit against CNN over its coverage of remarks he made while defending Trump during his 2020 impeachment.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority decision, saying legal standards for public figures who claim defamation should be reconsidered.

Alan Dershowitz said the news network aired only part of a comment he made, distorting his meaning to make him look like he’d “lost his mind,” according to court documents.

The network said that multiple outlets had interpreted his remarks in a similar way, and Dershowitz couldn’t show CNN was trying to mischaracterize what he said.

Dershowitz had urged the justices to reconsider New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the landmark First Amendment case that made it harder for public figures to win libel lawsuits by requiring proof that an outlet either knowingly published something false, or showed a reckless disregard for the truth.

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider a Republican push to enforce strict Arizona voting laws passed in the swing state after the 2020 election.

The high court has allowed some similar rules to take effect temporarily before, including Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement for state and local elections and a Virginia purge of voter rolls that the state said was aimed at keeping noncitizens from voting.

President Donald Trump’s Republican administration joined the appeal after lower courts found the measures violated federal voting laws.

The high court is expected to hear arguments in the fall and hand down an opinion after the midterm elections.

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Trump wanted the justices to throw out a jury’s finding that he sexually abused the writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. The high court, in a typically brief and unexplained order, declined to take up the case.

Trump’s lawyers had argued that allegations leading to the verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including those that allowed the testimony of two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago. Trump has denied all three women’s allegations.

Trump’s attorneys also framed the case as a distraction from Trump’s unique duties as president, though the verdict came before his return to the White House. A jury also awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million after a second defamation trial. Trump also appealed that ruling, which is not yet before the Supreme Court.

Oil prices have inched up amid escalating tensions, with Tehran launching fresh drone and missile attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait in response to new U.S. airstrikes over the weekend.

Brent crude, the international standard, was up 58 cents to $73.18 a barrel early Monday, up from about $72 before the war. Benchmark U.S. crude gained 73 cents to $69.96 a barrel.

But there’s still plenty of risk regarding ship safety in the Strait of Hormuz following the latest attacks on vessels. ING commodities strategists Warren Patterson and Ewa Manthey said in a commentary Monday that oil traders have been “too optimistic” about the timeline for a recovery in Persian Gulf supplies.

“This complacency is odd and clearly leaves significant upside risk if the supply recovery proves slow — or if we see significant re-escalation,” the commentary said.

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Most Black Americans — 73% — say their race or ethnicity is “extremely” or “very” important to how they see themselves, according to the new AP-NORC poll. Only about half of Black adults say that being an American is highly important to their personal identity.

About half of Hispanic Americans say their race or ethnicity is highly important to them, compared to 22% of white Americans.

Vincent Harris, a 60-year-old in California who participated in the poll, says his identity as a Black man rises above other attributes for him because of how Black men are treated in America.

“A lot of people are scared of Black men just because we are Black and we are male. And that’s crazy,” Harris said. “People don’t even take you for who you are as a person; they just look at your race.”

With a social media assist from President Donald Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking this week to ease the divisions in his Republican ranks and make progress on key legislative priorities before this fall’s elections.

Johnson sent lawmakers home early last week and went to the White House after GOP tumult prevented the House from voting on two spending bills and a measure dealing with veterans’ benefits. Meanwhile, the list of legislative priorities only grew with Trump requesting another $87.6 billion, mostly to cover the war with Iran.

Johnson emerged from his White House visit with a coveted Trump social media post telling Republicans to quit voting down procedural rules that allow for final votes on their legislative priorities. “No more grandstanding, please!” Trump wrote.

Before Trump’s message, Republican and Democratic lawmakers were openly doubting whether the House would even return this week.

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The former House Speaker and the University of California, Berkeley, are partnering to form a new nonpartisan academic institute they say will be dedicated to strengthening democracy.

Pelosi says she wants to “strengthen our democratic institutions and forge a future that serves the public good.” The Democrat is leaving Congress after representing San Francisco for nearly 40 years and is planning a busy retirement. She’ll co-teach a course on Congress at the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy, which will launch in January and has already received more than $35 million in philanthropic commitments.

The university says the institute aims to strengthen America’s democratic institutions; overcome challenges to society, the economy and the planet; promote human and civil rights; and ensure political leadership that represents the full spectrum of perspectives and backgrounds.

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Kara Swisher is expanding her influence from tech journalism to politics. She’s known for her fearless interviews with tech leaders including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Now her podcasts including “On with Kara Swisher” and “Pivot” are gaining traction as political platforms, reflecting the growing importance of digital media.

Swisher is hardly the only podcaster talking politics. Conservatives like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson and some liberals like the former Barack Obama aides who host “Pod Save America” have larger audiences. They’re all dwarfed by Joe Rogan. But Swisher has few rivals who can match her technology expertise and connect those observations to the broader political debate.

Swisher told The Associated Press from her Washington home that she gets called by all the presidential candidates and she’s “going to get to all of them.”

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The new AP-NORC poll also finds that Republicans are much likelier than Democrats or independents to say being an American is “extremely” or “very” important to their personal identity.

At the same time, young adults are less likely than older people to say this is important to their identity. Matt Stafford, a 39-year-old centrist in Massachusetts who participated in the poll, said he is proud to be American, even if U.S. politics frustrate him. He has a bald eagle tattooed on his back to represent the U.S. and “all the things we’re supposed to stand for.”

Despite that pride, he’s frustrated: “I love America, but our biggest problem is how we’re pushing both sides — like the left and the right — to the extremes.”

Trump said Monday on social media that Iran had requested a meeting with U.S. counterparts, to be held Tuesday in Doha, Qatar. Iranian officials said no such meeting was scheduled.

The U.S. president has tried to preserve an increasingly fragile interim deal as hostilities have mounted in the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, which could cause oil prices to rise and undermine Trump’s claims to voters that inflation in America was easing.

Trump on Monday celebrated that U.S. oil futures were trading at roughly $69 a barrel, a decrease that he credited to the interim deal with Iran.

Even though the president has previously said oil prices and domestic political concerns were not influencing his approach to Iran, Trump has repeatedly focused on lower oil prices with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz as a key victory.

The president falsely claimed that oil prices at $69 a barrel are lower than they were before the war. “This is less than it was prior to the start of the Denuclearization of Iran!” Trump said on social media.

Oil futures in the U.S. were trading at a range of roughly $65 to $66 before the war began in late February.

Americans have grown less proud of the country’s history and the way its democracy works over the last decade, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

The poll found Americans’ pride in the U.S. on several key attributes has dropped since 2017, including the nation’s military and its political influence around the globe.

The findings point to a broad decline in patriotic sentiment over a period that included most of President Donald Trump’s first term, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation and Trump’s return to the White House.

Much of the falling positivity comes from Democrats, who have become increasingly disenchanted with the country since Trump’s first term.

FILE - E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court, Jan. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

President Donald Trump, from right, White House aide Natalie Harp and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum walk during a tour of the East Potomac Park golf course, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

A small motorboat passes anchored vessels in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, June 17, 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

FILE - Hannah Liu, 26, of Washington, holds up a sign in support of birthright citizenship, May 15, 2025, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

President Donald Trump walks carrying an umbrella alongside Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, right, at East Potomac Park golf course, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

FILE - A demonstrator carries an American flag upside-down near the White House during a protest taking place on the day of a military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary, coinciding with President Donald Trump's 79th birthday, June 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)