HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. >> A Masters green jacket wasn’t enough for Scottie Scheffler.

Scheffler was running on emotional fumes fresh off his four-shot victory at Augusta National, but full of purpose that more than made up for his lack of preparation for the RBC Heritage. The result not only was similar, it has come to be expected.

He rarely missed a shot. He gave little hope to those chasing him. And he walked away from Harbour Town on Monday morning with another victory that extended a dominance not seen since the peak years of Tiger Woods.

“I didn’t show up here just to have some sort of ceremony and have people tell me congratulations. I came here with a purpose,” Scheffler said after polishing off a 3-under 68 for a three-shot victory.

Victory was inevitable — Scheffler had a five-shot lead with three holes to play when the final round, delayed 2 1/2 hours because of storms Sunday afternoon, was suspended by darkness. It’s starting to feel that way whenever he plays.

Scheffler now has won four of his last five starts, the exception a runner-up finish in the Houston Open when he misread a 5-foot birdie putt that would have forced a playoff.

He considered this one of the tougher wins because it followed the Masters.

“Coming off the high last week to going into here, not really with a ton of energy, not really with a ton of prep work,” Scheffler said. “I think it’s underrated how difficult it is to do the stuff that Tiger was doing, and win like every single week. It takes a lot out of you emotionally and physically, especially major championships.”

Turns out he had plenty left in the tank.

Scheffler now has 40 consecutive rounds at par or better, a streak that began at East Lake in the Tour Championship last August. His position at No. 1 in the world is so great that he became the first player since Woods to crack the 15-point average mark.

“It’s very impressive,” Patrick Cantlay said. “He’s played great for a while now — a number of years — and it seems like he is playing the best golf of his life right now.”

The only competition Monday morning was for second place.

The storms brought cold weather and a strong wind. Scheffler missed the 18th green to the right, chipped safely to 18 feet and two-putted for bogey. That ended his streak of 68 consecutive holes with no worse than a par.

“I hit driver, 3-wood into there,” Scheffler said. “So I’m going to count that as a par for myself.”

Sahith Theegala birdied the 16th hole, saved par from a bunker on the par-3 17th and closed with a par for a 68 to finish alone in second, a difference of $666,667 than if he had finished in a three-way tie for second.

“Even though I finished second, I felt like I was never really in it to win there. Scottie was just so far ahead,” Theegala said.

Cantlay (68) and U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, who finished his 65 on Sunday before the storms, tied for third.

Scheffler finished at 19-under 265 and earned $3.2 million. That brings his season total to nearly $18.7 million in just 10 tournaments.

The good news for the rest of the PGA Tour: Scheffler won’t show up again until the PGA Championship the third week in May. He headed back home to Dallas, where his wife his expecting their first child sometime next week.

Scheffler was staked to a one-shot lead starting the final round and chipped in for eagle on the second hole. Before long, he had a four-shot lead and never showed any signs of coming back.

“I got off to a good start yesterday and kind of just kept it going from there,” he said.

The week wasn’t the smoothest start for Scheffler, who was six shots behind after an opening round that included a shank from the bunker on the third hole for a double bogey. He didn’t drop another shot the rest of the week until it no longer mattered.

About the only thing that went wrong for Scheffler was the celebration. His caddie, Ted Scott, went for an elevated chest pump and Scheffler just laughed at him without moving.

About 400 spectators waiting along the 18th fairway were allowed to fill a corner of the grandstands as Scheffler approached. He turned and waved his cap toward them after tapping in his final stroke of another masterpiece.

Such is Scheffler’s dominance that his last seven victories have come against fields that had at least eight of the top 10 players in the world.

The last player to run off a stretch like this — four wins and a runner-up — was Woods at the end of 2007. Woods then won his first three PGA Tour starts (and one on the European Tour) to start 2008.

Scheffler now has 10 titles on the PGA Tour in a span of 51 tournaments dating to his first victory in the 2022 Phoenix Open.

“It does not get boring,” Scheffler said. “I think hitting a really well-struck golf shot close to the pin is like an addicting feeling.”

Ernest Hemingway once wrote that “Paris is a moveable feast.” I think he might have meant “transportable,” because a moveable feast changes dates but not location, whereas a transportable feast goes wherever you do. But what do I know?

Holidays, like Easter or Passover, that move around the calendar are known as “moveable feasts.” But I would argue that any occasion that kicks off brunch season — whether it’s Mother’s Day or the first sunny Sunday after months of rain — is the ultimate moveable feast.

Adding a whole egg adds richness to a Ramos Fizz. (Ross Taylor/The Virginian-Pilot)

And brunch is really just a fancy way of saying, “I want an alcoholic drink with my breakfast.” (We are not here to judge!) So with that idea in mind, we’re offering up the trinity of brunch cocktails — the Bloody Mary, the Mimosa and the Ramos Fizz — all localized and elevated by the addition of one or two new-ish ingredients.

It is the beginning of spring after all, and spring is all about new beginnings and new things. Hemingway also wrote: “When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.”

If that doesn’t scream Northern California — this year in particular — I don’t know what does.

Recipes

A Fizz for Spring

2 ounces Alamere Spirits London Dry Gin
2 ounces unsweetened organic coconut cream (not Coco Lopez)
½ ounce Cointreau or other good-quality clear triple sec
½ ounce fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1 whole egg
1 orange zest
Fresh grated nutmeg

Directions: Combine the gin, cream, Cointreau, lemon juice and whole egg in a shaker glass with ice. Shake until foamy. Strain into a chilled coupe glass, being sure to pile up foam on top. Garnish with orange zest and top with grated nutmeg.

Note: Eggs are not a new idea (see Golden Fizz) but the richness of the yolk adds a great weight to this fluffy drink. Swapping out the milk cream for coconut cream also adds richness and eliminates any possible curdling, which can happen when combining citrus and milk. Orange flower water (another classic ingredient) is neither very tasty nor readily available. Triple sec, with its high sugar content, not only adds sweetness but also a delicate orangey flavor.

A Rosy Mimosa

4 ounces Schug Winery 2019 sparkling rosé
2 ounces fresh-squeezed tangerine juice
¼ ounce Hanson of Sonoma organic mandarin vodka
1 strip tangerine zest

Directions: Combine the first three ingredients in a mixing glass and stir once to combine. Allow foam to subside and transfer to a chilled champagne flute. Garnish with zest. By combining ingredients in a separate glass first, you can eliminate the explosive citrus juice foam that happens when you combine sparkling wine with fresh citrus juice.

Note: Mimosas are named for the color of mimosa blossoms. Tangerine juice adds a wonderful tartness to this drink, and the mandarin vodka complements that nicely. This version does have a slightly different color, but its tart, fresh flavor more than makes up for the color variation.

Umami Snapper

2 ounces Sausalito Liquor Co. Marin Coastal Gin
3 ounces organic tomato juice
1 dash Worcestershire sauce (about 1/8 teaspoon)
1 dash hoisin sauce
1 dash Sol Food Pique hot sauce
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 dash good-quality Thai/Vietnamese fish sauce
King Floyd’s Black Lava salt for rimming

Directions: Partially rim a pint glass with the black lava salt by wetting the rim with the fleshy side of a piece of citrus and then dabbing the glass into salt before filling with ice. In a separate mixing glass, combine the first seven ingredients and stir. When thoroughly combined pour mixture into rimmed glass.

Note: The Red Snapper is a later gin version of the Bloody Mary. The Bloody Caesar is a Bloody Mary made with Clamato juice. This take combines the best elements of those two: the aromatics of the gin and the umami of the fish sauce (fish sauce doesn’t actually taste like fish, just like Clamato doesn’t actually taste like clam). The result is a testament to that elusive fifth taste: umami, which is really more of a sensation than a taste.

Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes and an award-winning bartender. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com.

A surprising thing is happening to some women on weight-loss drugs who’ve struggled with fertility issues: They’re getting pregnant. That’s leading to questions about the safety of medications from Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. during pregnancy.

“I thought I couldn’t have any more kids,” said Torria Leggett, 40, who had been trying for another after her first child was born in 2018. In 2022, the social worker from Whiteville, North Carolina, began taking Novo’s Ozempic to treat obesity, then switched to Lilly’s Mounjaro. As the pounds melted off, there was soon another reason to celebrate. She was expecting.

“The weight loss, that’s likely what jump-started it,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Stories like these are encouraging doctors to use GLP-1 drugs to treat polycystic ovary syndrome, one of the leading causes of infertility in U.S. women. Yet they’re doing so without much data on the drugs’ impact on pregnancy.

“The ‘oops’ babies on Ozempic and Wegovy are happening all over the place,” said Melanie Cree, director of the PCOS clinic at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora. “It’s very exciting, but it’s a bit scary because we’re moving forward without all the data.”

The need for treatments is severe. Despite its prevalence, no drugs are approved for PCOS, and experts are divided on whether commonly recommended diet programs work. Some doctors and patients are willing to try almost anything, and the successes are tantalizing.

GLP-1 drugs have been marketed for nearly 20 years to treat diabetes, and their use in obesity is fueling a new market that’s expected to hit $100 billion in 2030. The problem is, companies haven’t systematically studied GLP-1’s use in PCOS – and don’t plan to anytime soon. In the absence of data, researchers are doing studies of their own to figure out if the drugs work for PCOS, and U.S. regulators have asked the companies to collect any information they can about their use during pregnancy.

Limited Information

So far, the safety data look promising. A recent study of the health records of 50,000 women with type 2 diabetes found no increase in birth defects among those who used the drugs in very early pregnancy compared with those who took insulin.

Still, the study’s authors said additional confirmation is needed, especially in women without diabetes. Researchers from Copenhagen concurred last year in a review of GLP-1 drugs, saying that there’s “limited information on their long-term safety, particularly concerning pregnancy outcomes.”

Reasons for concern come mostly from animal experiments. The active ingredient in Novo’s drugs, semaglutide, has been linked to increased birth defects in animals. Similar studies of Lilly’s drugs have shown there “may be risks to the fetus” from exposure during pregnancy, the company said.

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No one is exactly sure how — or even whether — the drugs contribute to women becoming pregnant. Weight loss is known to boost fertility in women with PCOS, and studies have shown that Saxenda, an older obesity drug, also raised pregnancy rates in women with the disorder who were overweight. GLP-1s may also have hormonal effects that promote fertility, and may blunt the impact of oral contraceptives. Some experts think the drugs might even have a role in male infertility.

Rekha Kumar, a reproductive endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, says GLP-1 drugs “wake up the ovaries,” resetting the reproductive environment for normal function. After treating patients with infertility and obesity for more than 15 years, one thing is clear, Kumar said: “These patients are becoming very fertile.”

Pregnant people and those planning to get pregnant were excluded from trials of GLP-1s. Trial participants have been required to use contraception, and treatment was discontinued for those who became pregnant during clinical trials of Mounjaro and Zepbound, Lilly said.

Experts Split

Experts are split on how soon patients should stop taking the medications before a planned pregnancy. Some doctors are telling patients that up to four weeks is safe; others say it’s fine to keep using them up until the time of pregnancy. Wegovy’s label says people should stop taking the drug at least two months before trying to get pregnant, while Zepbound’s recommends that people who become pregnant stop the drug.

In Colorado, Cree is running a study to find out how Novo’s Wegovy affects ovulation in women with PCOS, but ongoing supply problems with the popular drug present a challenge. Novo won’t provide free supplies because the patients won’t be on birth control, she said, a decision she called “very disappointing.”

Meanwhile, a study found that the number of women exposed to GLP-1 drugs during early pregnancy appears to be increasing, as more turn to them for diabetes and other conditions. The Facebook group “I got Pregnant on Ozempic” has 597 members; on TikTok, dozens have said they’ve become pregnant while taking a GLP-1 drug.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Novo to set up a registry to collect data on those who got pregnant while taking Wegovy, but the company has yet to share any results. It’s also required to do an additional pregnancy study using insurance claims or electronic medical records, the FDA said. Lilly is planning to set up a similar registry, but declined to say when. Meanwhile, Cree and a handful of researchers are scrambling to set up their own databases to track pregnancy outcomes in GLP-1 patients.

Not A Cure

PCOS is a somewhat mysterious condition that typically involves irregular ovulation and high levels of male hormones called androgens. It’s the most common hormonal disorder in women, putting them at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and mental health issues.

Those with the condition frequently make too much testosterone, leading to effects like extra hair growth, acne and weight gain, and blocking ovulation. They also don’t respond properly to insulin, and the weight-loss effects of GLP-1s may improve sensitivity to the hormone.

The new drugs “are not going to cure you, but it’s going to improve the symptoms significantly,” said Ricardo Azziz, a PCOS expert and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and SUNY Albany in New York. Still, he thinks more data is needed before doctors recommend the drugs for fertility.

People like Leggett, who got pregnant on a weight-loss drug, also have some questions. She sometimes wonders why her daughter is smaller than other kids the same age.

“She’s teeny-tiny,” Leggett said. “I’d like to know more about that.”

With assistance from Jessica Nix and Naomi Kresge.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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