The post Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm taught me 10 lessons in 45 minutes. Here they are appeared first on Golf.

The post Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm taught me 10 lessons in 45 minutes. Here they are appeared first on Golf.

Here are 10 things I learned.

1. Both start with their highest-degree wedges.

“I mainly start by trying to hit it anywhere from 50-60 yards and just get used to the club being in my hands again for the day,” Hatton said of his 60-degree. Any shot shape he has in mind? “I don’t think about that, I just hit it,” he said. “Golf’s complicated enough.”

2. But they’d already begun in the gym.

That wasn’t always the case, Hatton confessed. But at this point he needs to get his engine going before he hits the range.

“Definitely not,” he said. “But as I’ve gotten older and stiffer and fatter, I’ve needed to start doing a bit more in the gym to get the rig ready to try and rotate.”

3. Hatton has a “double grip-down” he uses to take off distance.

“I’ve always struggled to take distance off by slowing my swing down, it messes me up,” he said. “So I started gripping down and then with the 54[-degree] I have a double grip-down, so that goes even shorter. So I can still make my swing.”

He shows me the little “V” marks on his grip that he uses to monitor the extent of his grip-downs. How many yards does that strategy take off?

“From a full shot? The double-grip down would take off normally close to 12 yards,” he said. “So it’s quite a bit. It feels horrendous, but I’ve done it enough that you get comfortable with it.”

4. Rahm likes playing with other fiery competitors.

“One of the things that makes us get along is we tend to have some similar reactions on the golf course,” Rahm said of Hatton, who has been his Ryder Cup teammate and is now his LIV teammate on Legion XIII. How does that affect him, playing with another hothead?

“Whenever I play with somebody that might get a little bit more fired up on the golf course, not only just [Tyrrell], everybody, because I see myself in it, I laugh. So there’s a bit of a joy that comes with it. And a lot of times they’ll see me laughing and then they laugh. Because they fully understand where it’s coming from.”

5. Rahm’s a gentle giant.

Asking Hatton what Rahm’s like away from the course led to probably my favorite exchange of the day:

Hatton: “Well, he looks scary, doesn’t he? But he’s like a big teddy bear.”

Rahm: “Why do people say I look scary?”

Hatton: “It’s probably something to do with being a f—ing unit and being like six foot three. When you’re a five foot eight hobbit, it’s unnerving.”

6. Hatton’s just as funny as you’d think.

“Tyrrell is one of the funniest people you’ll ever meet,” Rahm said. “He doesn’t like to do it, but I think he should be mic’d up for one of our practice rounds. Because he just drops gems. Like, any compilation you’ve seen of him saying funny things is very mild compared to what we usually hear.”

7. But he’s not much for positive self-talk.

I asked Hatton when he feels like he first got so good. I thought this was pretty safe territory; depending who you ask he’s considered one of the 10 or 15 best golfers in the world at the moment. That is, unless you ask him.

“That’s a weird question. I don’t think I am [so good],” he said. “I tell myself I’m s—.”

Then he invoked a line from an English comedian.

“What Micky Flanagan says: Positivity drains you.”

8. Rahm, on the other hand, is more positive than he sounds.

“I am, like, irrationally positive in my mind,” he said. “Never lose hope, always hoping for the best on the next shot in any situation — even though my mouth may be saying other things, I firmly believe it. The amount of times I’ll say in Spanish, ‘if you’re going to play like this, go home, what are you doing wasting your time,’ internally I really know i’m just trying to fire myself up yeah because I know, okay, you can do this.”

In other words, he’s never short on self-belief.

“No, no, no.”

9. Hatton hits the ball outrageously straight.

Just during our session he hit several shots that registered at an unheard-of “0” in side spin — including on one drive that carried 318 yards.

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“For how complicated the game is and how much we try to simplify it, [Tyrrell’s] only thought is to hit a straight, which is arguably the impossible play,” Rahm said. “That’s the funniest part to me, but how good is he at it, right? I mean, you’re seeing it. To get zero side spin with so many clubs, he’s clearly good at it.”

Hatton confirmed that he doesn’t think specifically about chasing speed.

“I feel like I can hit it far enough to be able to compete,” he said. “Sure, there are guys out here that absolutely send it and you’ll never beat them in a long-drive competition, but hitting it a long way doesn’t mean you’re going to go win every week. There’s other ways to get around the course.”

10. Rahm’s been hitting more draws.

I asked Rahm if he hit 100 drives how many would be fades versus draws. That number, he said, has changed dramatically.

“If you asked me this five years ago, I would have said 99 fades and one accidental draw,” he said. “If we’re including 3-woods off the tee, I would say I’m maybe getting to 30 percent draws.”

Rahm showed what it looks like when he hits his stock fade — pick a reference point a few inches in front of the ball, line up to that, aligning slightly left of his target, and swing down the line of his aim, knowing the ball will fall to the right.

When he hits a draw, on the other hand, he’ll close his stance slightly but move the ball up further in his stance — all while leaving his club in the same spot.

“I’m just allowing an extra foot for the clubface to close,” he said. “I don’t change anything on my swing. And when I’m swinging well, worst case is it’s straight. If it draws, it draws a little bit.”

Good news: There’s much more where that came from! To hear Rahm’s favorite part of golf, whether or not Hatton “loves” the game and what he finds “disgusting,” watch the complete video on YouTube here or below.

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The post Nelly Korda remains repulsed by slow play. And has advice to manage it appeared first on Golf.

The post Nelly Korda remains repulsed by slow play. And has advice to manage it appeared first on Golf.

And she says you never get into a flow because of it. 

And that your body gets stiff because of it. 

Then there are those outside of the ropes who watch slow play unfolding. 

“For spectators,” Korda said Wednesday, “it’s no fun to stand around and watch us and see us sit near our tee box or golf ball and not do anything and baking in the sun or whatever weather we are playing in.”

So yes, the world’s top-ranked player remains repulsed by slow play, as evidenced by her answers to questions on the subject ahead of this week’s Amundi Evian Championship. Over the past few years, Korda’s been one of the more vocal critics of the act, and she plays as she preaches too, working as one of the game’s more rapid pros — but she’s also not naive. 

Players will seemingly continue to take their time over shots. Maybe a penalty situation will pop up. Whatever the case may be, slow play will live on, and Korda was asked how she keeps her focus, considering tilting could be an understandable option. 

Her answer was blunt. 

“At the end of the day,” Korda said, “you know you’re playing a round and you’re playing for — no matter what day it is, you’re playing for a championship, so you have to stay focused.

“I think the longer the rounds are, the more mentally draining sometimes they get. At the end of the day, I mean, you just have to kind of suck it up, build a bridge to get over it, and adjust to the circumstances at hand.”

Her solution to curb it, though, is penalty strokes, and this year, the LPGA has seemingly listened. In February, the tour announced that players exceeding 40 seconds to hit would be disciplined — under the new guidelines, if a player exceeds the time by 1-5 seconds, she will receive a fine; should a player take 6-15 seconds over the time to play a shot, she will be hit with a one-stroke penalty; and if a player takes 16 or more seconds than they are allowed, a two-stroke penalty will be charged.

“I think that’s improved on our tour a tremendous amount,” Korda said at the Evian, the year’s fourth of five women’s majors. “At the end of the day, I think that if you start giving penalties to girls taking too long, then they’re not going to want to get penalized a shot or two. That can make a really big difference in whatever they want, prize money, cut, whatever.

News

“So they’re going to speed up at the end of the day. So the harsher the circumstances, the more they’re going to change.”

Faster play would benefit families, too, she said. 

“It’s not fun for the little kids,” Korda said. “Their patience isn’t as good as an adult’s. 

“I feel like the more flow and action, the better it is for the crowd. When there is so much stalling and no movement in what we’re doing, that’s kind of no fun, right?”

Notably, the subject of slow play has cropped up at the Evian previously, after Carlota Ciganda appealed a two-stroke penalty for exceeding an allotted time, then, after her appeal was denied, she refused to take the strokes, leading to her disqualification. How this week’s Evian plays out under the new rules, then, promises to be monitored. 

Still, Korda is sympathetic to one group that’s known to slow play.    

Amateurs. 

She said she doesn’t mind lengthy pro-ams. 

“My first ever sponsor that I ever got as professional was through a pro-am,” Korda said, “and I met so many incredible people through pro-ams. 

“Getting in contact and getting to know these amazing individuals that at the end of the day are coming out and supporting us is a lot of fun for me.”

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The post At U.S. Adaptive Open, records fall (and Tiger Woods gets some company) appeared first on Golf.

The post At U.S. Adaptive Open, records fall (and Tiger Woods gets some company) appeared first on Golf.

He has taken a place alongside Tiger Woods.

With a seven-under 65 in Wednesday’s final round of the U.S. Adaptive Open here at Woodmont Country Club, Popert, a 26-year-old Englishman with cerebral palsy, capped a dominant week to win his third consecutive men’s overall title in the event and become one of just four male golfers to three-peat in a USGA championship. The last was Woods, who pulled off the feat twice, at the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur, during an historic stretch from 1991-96.

On his run to the trifecta, Popert shattered a slew of his own U.S. Adaptive Open scoring records, starting with a single-round mark of 11-under 61 in Monday’s opener. His three-day total of 24-under also blew away the 14-under record he set at last year’s championship in Kansas. His nearest competitors, Simon Lee of South Korea (intellectual impairment) and Lachland Wood of Australia (short stature) were 12 shots back.

Not that Popert was puffing his chest about it.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if he would compare himself to Woods. “I’m nowhere near that. I just want to keep trying to grow the sport as much as possible.”

In the women’s division, 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open champ Kim Moore of Battle Creek, Mich., who plays with a lower-limb impairment, reclaimed the title she won three years ago. Her 54-hole total of 16 over put her three shots clear of second-place finishers Bailey Bish of Tucson, Ariz., (coordination impairment) and Amanda Cunha (visual impairment) of Kaneohe, Hawaii.

“It feels just as good as the first time,” Moore said. “Definitely something I was really looking forward to and hoping, and it’s just nice to be able to be on top again.”

This was the fourth U.S. Adaptive Open, the youngest of the USGA’s championships, but the first to receive live final-round coverage on national TV. Viewers tuning in from home got to watch the top performers from a field that began with 96 players from 10 countries, the United States included, ranging in age from 16 to 75. After Tuesday’s second round, the field was cut to 28 men and 14 women. Along with men’s and women’s individual titles, the field was vying for trophies in eight categories of impairment, using swings that were as varied as they were effective.

With scant exceptions (such as, for instance, free drops in the sand for seated players whose balls wound up under bunker lips or other spots they couldn’t access with their carts), the official Rules of Golf applied. But as elite competitions go, this one was shot through with unusual camaraderie. Even in their most cutthroat moments, players’ open support for one other underscored the sense that something beyond titles was on the line. A community of golfers, keen to draw more eyeballs to the adaptive game, was in it together on the national stage.

“There is no doubt it’ll inspire,” Moore said. “I have no doubt that any disabled person out there will see these highlights and see this live coverage and just be motivated to do some things themselves. . . And not just disabled players but able-bodied people, mentally and physically. To be able to see players like myself go out there and have fun and do their best and play some great golf I think is very inspiring, and I’m hopeful people saw that today.”

Lifestyle

In adaptive golf, adjustments abound, and not just for players. In advance of this year’s event, the South Course at Woodmont CC, which will host the championship again in 2026, underwent design tweaks to better accommodate golfers with disabilities. Entrances to bunkers were lowered and flattened for easier access, and teeing grounds were joined to create continuous flow from one box to another.

With the championship still in its infancy, the USGA has been dialing in refinements, too, treating the early years of the event as a kind of “trial period,” said tournament director Stephanie Parel. Among other areas of focus, Parel said, the governing body has been looking closely at categories of impairment to ensure that competitions are as equitable as possible. Along with the eight categories, the USGA has implemented different teeing areas within some groupings to promote a level playing field. In the upper-limb impairment category, for example, golfers with two arms play from the back tees while competitors with one arm peg it from the next box up.

It is, Parel acknowledged, “an imperfect” science that she and her colleagues will continue to examine, drawing upon ongoing feedback.

On a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in Maryland, the early input was positive from one of the event’s participants. Andreas Brandenberger (upper limb impairment) had come from San Diego to compete in his first U.S. Adaptive Open. Though he missed the cut, he stuck around to watch the final round.

“It’s been an amazing event,” Brandenberger said. “Great field. Great hosts. Great organizers. I wouldn’t change anything, except maybe find some cooler weather next year.”

In an air-conditioned clubhouse, meanwhile, Kipp Popert was wrapping up his post-round interviews and eyeing his next USGA event: He has made it through to final qualifying for the U.S. Amateur at Whippoorwill Club in Armonk, N.Y., on Monday, where he has been granted an exemption to use a cart.

“The USGA have been incredible to help me navigate the buggy use and the travel because I can’t play straight away after getting off a plane, so I’m really appreciative of what they’ve done to give me the best chance to qualify,” Popert said. “I will go there and give it my absolute best. I think I can do it.”

If he does, he said, “that would top off a really good American trip.”

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The post Confessions of a Long Island private club caddie: 6 stories from the bag appeared first on Golf.

The post Confessions of a Long Island private club caddie: 6 stories from the bag appeared first on Golf.

“So,” JEFF CULLINAN said, an eyebrow raised. “Do you like golf?”

We were inside the pro shop at the Rockville Links Club, a small Long Island country club I hoped to earn summer employment after my freshman year at Syracuse. I’d heard about the caddie program at The Links (capital-T, capital-L) from a family friend who happened to be a member and was willing to pass along my name. I was 18 and breathtakingly naive; Cullinan was a wiry man in his fifties and armed with the kind of instantaneous people-reading skills that come from a lifetime plied in the hospitality business.

Because work as a caddie is gratuity-only, we’d each entered this job interview with much more to gain than to lose. If I could pass the minimum brain-activity threshold, Cullinan could win three ways: first, he could make my member-friend happy by giving me the job; second, he could add another body to a caddie roster that was, like most caddie rosters, dependent upon the shapeshifting whims of a group of social outcasts and bratty kids; and third, he could achieve those goals while promising me, a kid from out of town with few connections, strikingly little in return.

It was a mutually beneficial situation, which was a good thing, because we both knew I was full of it.

“I love golf,” I said, repeating my rehearsed line from the car. “I’m an 18-handicap.”

To an idiot teenager with a limited worldview and a still-developing frontal lobe, this answer seemed like a means to an end. To a caddiemaster responsible for keeping his yard bullshit-free and his caddie program functioning, the follow-up was too obvious.

“An 18-handicap … what do you usually shoot?”

That’s where I stumbled. I wasn’t an 18-handicap, I didn’t truthfully know what that even meant, and my house of cards came tumbling down. But Cullinan hired me anyway, handing me a green caddie bib from the storeroom and instructing me to return the following day at 6 a.m. for my first shift as a caddie. I returned the next morning and every summer morning for the next four years, skipping only the days when my indoorsy summer gig (an internship in sports media) demanded it, and slowly climbing from the bottom of the totem pole to somewhere slightly above the mushy middle.

I was not always a very good caddie; it took time to learn the craft and I succumbed too often to a nervous tendency to fill silence with conversation. But it did not matter. I was smitten. The outdoors, the exercise, the grass, the camaraderie, the competition, the cash — I couldn’t get enough.

I was in love for the first time, and I knew it almost immediately.

***

My first day on the bag came with KEVIN, one of the elder statesmen of the caddie yard. Kevin, an army vet, had taken well to his combat training, and now carried the same militant focus to the contours of life on the bag. A firm but gentle giant, he was one of three Kevins in the yard in the summer of 2016. It was a clear sign of his standing in the hierarchy that he emerged the only one without a nickname. He was just Kevin, and he was the perfect man to teach a teenager to loop.

He was patient and kind all afternoon as he showed me the finer points of caddie life. I’d like to think I absorbed a lot from his wisdom that day, but I know for certain I was listening when he cut me off halfway through one too-long anecdote.

“There are three commandments to life as a caddie,” he told me bluntly. “The first is show up. The second is keep up. And the third…?”

He paused for dramatic effect.

“Shut up.”

***

In a strange twist of fortune, my first loop at The Links led to my first regular, CHRIS HECKMAN.

Chris — or Uncle Chris, as I have called him for nearly my entire life — was my hook into caddie life, but he was never supposed to be a fixture of it. When he passed my name along to Jeff the caddiemaster, he specified nicely that he was happy to help me land a job, but I would be on my own to find loops.

I’m not sure what I did to change his mind, but I do not say lightly that he financed a significant portion of my college beer fund. I looped for him for four years at The Links’ high holiday, the member-guest, and spent no shortage of afternoons listening to his piercing analysis on any number of topics in the golf world.

Uncle Chris was a Wall Street honcho in a past life, but his enthusiasm for golf came straight from the earth. In many ways, he was the archetype of membership at The Links: A club that placed golf’s role as a community good much higher than its reputation for elitism. His closest friends at the club — like the steadiest, most Statler-and-Waldorf-adjacent golfers I have ever known, PAUL NASTRO and KEVIN BERRY — were the children of a blue-collar Long Island town named Valley Stream. Uncle Chris’s knowledge for golf was all passion, and completely contagious. I also do not say lightly that a portion of my own love for the sport comes from him.

I still remember the last conversation we had before I left The Links, when I told him I was thinking about trying to get a job as a golf writer. He laughed.

“Really?”

Four years later, when I played Augusta National as part of the Masters’ annual lottery for golf writers, Uncle Chris was one of the first people I talked to. It was a special day for me, but in a funny way, I felt it might have also been a special day for him.

***

My first real loop came two days after my interview, a Saturday morning on the bag of a woman we’ll call JANE.

I’d been in the yard for nearly eight hours by the time my name finally got called for Jane’s bag, leaving ample time for the steady churn of performance anxiety. When Jeff called me from the caddie yard, I practically jogged out to the bag to shake Jane’s hand.

As I’d been instructed the previous day, I pulled Jane’s driver and waited to hand it to her from the side of the first tee box. As she neared the bag, she asked me to remove her driver’s headcover. I complied as quickly as I could, whipping the driver around to pull the cover off just as Jane crouched over her bag to grab a golf ball.

The leather was nearly in my outstretched hand when I felt the butt-end of the driver make contact with something solid. I looked down in horror to see Jane sprawled out on the ground, clutching the side of her skull. I tried apologizing, but it was no use. She was furious — and she hadn’t hit a single shot of a round that would stretch 5 hours and well over 125 recorded strokes.

Her head was fine in the end, but my ego never recovered.

***

One morning, Jeff found me in the caddie yard and sent me for a loop with a man named JIM TOMLIN.

I knew Mr. Tomlin. He was one of the club’s friendliest faces, but he was important to me for another reason: He served on the board of the Long Island Caddie Scholarship Fund. I had three years left at Syracuse when I started at The Links, but the cost of tuition had already proven a significant burden to my family, which was still recovering from the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. The LICSF was a significant opportunity, promising $5,000 in tuition expenses to a handful of lucky recipients across Long Island’s caddie programs each year.

After our round ended, I learned that Mr. Tomlin would be happy to vouch for me to the LICSF, and within months, I was a proud caddie scholarship recipient. I spoke at the annual scholarship gala about how I’d come to learn a secret about golf from my rounds with Mr. Tomlin and many others: The sport was the great connector.

“In my career in sports, I hope to keep sharing that message,” I said then.

I still do.

***

STEVE DiMARE was mononymous at The Links. To those who knew him and those who did not, he was just DiMare — a phrase that, in the Long Island dialect, could appropriately be delivered as “Da Mayor.“

For the first six months I worked at The Links, I thought Steve’s nickname was The Mayor. Steve was the club president. He was also beloved by the members, the caddies, the wives, the kids, the clubhouse staff, his family, and everyone else with the good fortune of crossing paths with him.

Deeply tanned, quick to laugh, and usually found with a cigar tucked between his teeth, DiMare carried an easy warmth. He was a self-made man — part of a dying breed of New Yorkers who amassed impressive fortunes on the back of grit and sheer force of will — and he carried himself with the confidence of an individual who could fix most problems with a pair of phone calls. Late one August, I found myself carrying two bags in one of his foursomes and finally understood why.

I was fifty yards up the second fairway serving as a forecaddie for DiMare’s tee shots when the other caddie in our group, a nice guy nicknamed FISH, tripped. Then, somewhat suddenly, Fish gasped.

“Oh shit.”

I looked at Fish’s feet to find the soles of his shoes had vanished. In a manner never seen before or since, the soles had simply removed themselves from the footbed of his sneakers, leaving Fish to limp mostly barefoot down the second fairway. Without another pair of shoes handy, he was screwed, staring down a long, hard, painful walk or the unthinkable prospect of walking off.

“Only seventeen-and-a-half holes to go,” he said grimly.

By the time he reached us in the fairway, DiMare noticed something was wrong.

“Fish, what the hell is going on?”

Fish pointed to his shoes, and DiMare hardly broke stride.

“What size are you?” DiMare asked.

Fish paused.

“C’mon, man, I’ve got a few pairs of 11-and-a-halfs in the locker room. I’ll run for you right now, what size are you?”

The two continued like this for some time, until it became clear that DiMare would not accept no for an answer. Either Fish had better find some new shoes, or DiMare would find them for him. The exact manner of shoe acquisition has escaped me by now, but I know that Fish walked the rest of the round with us far more comfortably and that DiMare tipped generously. I also know that I never questioned DiMare’s reputation again.

I was sad to learn that Steve DiMare died suddenly — and young — earlier this year, leaving behind a loving family and a visitation line wrapped around the street.

Eventually we are all memories. May we hope ours are as righteous.

***

When people ask me about my experience as a caddie, DiMare’s is the first story I tell. In so many ways, he is the embodiment of life at Long Island’s friendliest country club, the Rockville Links.

But it doesn’t take me long to reach the rest of the stories listed above. They are equally instrumental to the job that birthed a life in golf.

You can watch GOLF.com’s video from Rockville Links set alongside Long Island’s other private golf gems, at the link below.

I would be remiss if I did not also thank the following:

The Links

NICKY and BRIAN are two lifelong buddies, and two longtime loopers. They were the first people who taught me that golf is a creative endeavor first and a sport second. I am indebted.

DONATO was a fellow teenage idiot in the caddie yard, and fellow LICSF recipient. He owned a Dodge Charger, paid for by his caddying funds, by our second summer. He remains the hardest-working person I have ever met.

STEVIE is another grinder, and a great friend. I am grateful to have remained in his orbit.

RICHIE, in charge of the bag room, is a voracious reader and sports media consumer. He never failed to connect me to people around the club with ties to sports media.

JASON SCHUIT was kind to me when I was a caddie who had absolutely no idea what I was doing. He was kind to me again, in much the same way, when I returned to the club last month to report on this story. You don’t forget people like that.

FRANK TROISE taught me you can be the smartest person in the room and also the kindest.

JOHN CULKIN and DON DIBRITA JR. indulged my goal to come back and loop at a place I hadn’t worked in half a decade. They, like so many others listed above, help make The Links special. JEFF CULLINAN gave me one last loop.

You can reach the author at james.colgan@golf.com or @jamescolgan26.

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The post PGA Tour’s $100m overhaul, shocking underdog, missing piece | Monday Finish appeared first on Golf.

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

An underdog winner.

What’s your favorite Brian Campbell underdog fun fact? That he’s the shortest hitter on the PGA Tour? That he has the lowest ball speed? That, entering Sunday, he had just one top-30 finish on Tour this season — and it was a victory? That he played just three events in 2022 and fell outside the top 1,500 in the world, part of a seven-year journey back to the game’s top level?

My favorite Brian Campbell underdog fun fact is that the final round of this week’s John Deere Classic fell exactly a decade — to the day — after his first-ever PGA Tour event, also the John Deere, which he played on a sponsor’s exemption while still a student-athlete at the nearby University of Illinois. Much has happened in those 10 years, which saw Campbell ascend to the PGA Tour but descend to the Korn Ferry Tour and stay there for much of that decade, good enough to stay but not to advance, stuck in professional limbo. Until this season, that is. Now, Campbell has two PGA Tour wins in just a few months. In a world where accomplished talents like of Tommy Fleetwood, Cameron Young and Denny McCarthy are still chasing their first Tour title, that’s a remarkable achievement.

Two top-30s this season — and two playoff wins? That’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Brian Campbell won the John Deere Classic over Emiliano Grillo on the first playoff hole.

“It’s easier said than done, but what worked for me a lot was trusting a lot of things I used to do when I was a kid,” Campbell said of his journey. “Getting back to enjoying the game and loving the game for what it is and just having fun with it.”

Lottie Woad, the top-ranked amateur on the women’s side, won the KPMG Women’s Irish Open on the Ladies European Tour by six shots, running away from a field packed with pros.

Daniel Brown won the BMW International Open in Munich, Germany, his second-career victory on the circuit; he’s now up to 15th in the Race to Dubai.

Scott Vincent won the International Series Morocco; it was his first pro win since 2022. He now leads the Asian Tour’s Order of Merit and is second in the International Series rankings; winning the latter would earn him a spot in LIV Golf for 2026.

NOT WINNERS

But agonizingly close…

Emiliano Grillo came the closest to taking down Campbell; his hopes were undone by a misfired tee shot in the playoff and a pitching wedge that carried 180 yards, airmailing the green.

David Lipsky came next-closest; he made a brilliant eagle at No. 17 to tie for the lead before missing the fairway at No. 18 en route to bogey. He finished T3 alongside Kevin Roy, who birdied No. 18 to make a crucial jump in the FedEx Cup (No. 88 to No. 71).

Things got crowded behind them; six players finished T5 including Max Homa, who improved from No. 122 to No. 98 in the FedEx Cup. Nick Dunlap finished one shot further back at T11 after nearly five months without a top 40. Rickie Fowler (T18) improved to No. 68 in the FedEx Cup as he hovers at the edge of the playoff picture. He finished alongside Davis Thompson, whose final-round 72 sent him from the lead to T18.

SHORT HITTERS

5 brief bits of golf news.

1. Collin Morikawa has enlisted the help of battle-tested caddie Billy Foster after a short stint with Joe Greiner came to an end last week. Foster most recently worked for Matt Fitzpatrick; the two teamed up for a 2022 U.S. Open victory. Foster will carry for Morikawa at the Genesis Scottish Open and the Open Championship. After that? We’ll see.

2. Jordan Spieth will be back in action at the Open Championship and fully healthy after a frustrating WD mid-round at the Travelers Championship, which he explained to Kay Adams was “just a weird neck spasm thing.” Spieth and his wife Annie are expecting their third child in the coming days; he’ll plan to head for Portrush after that.

3. Gary Woodland will round out Keegan Bradley’s Ryder Cup staff as an assistant captain, joining Jim Furyk, Kevin Kisner, Webb Simpson and Brandt Snedeker as the U.S. team transitions to a new generation of leadership.

4. Joe Hooks missed the cut in his PGA Tour debut in Detroit last week — but Michael Bamberger’s account of his week, and his story, is well worth your time.

5. The PGA Tour announced its revamped playoff payout system, distributing a total of $100 million across three installments instead of just one: After the regular season ($20 million), the BMW Championship ($22.925 mil) and the Tour Championship ($40 mil to the top 30, plus $17.08 million in deferrals split among players ranked 31-150).

After they eliminated staggered-start handicap strokes from the finale, this felt likely — otherwise the Tour Championship would just be a one-week shootout for $25 million — but we’ll see how it plays out in the coming weeks as pros vie for high finishes to get them into the playoffs and into better position for each respective payout. Also, remember the Comcast Business Top 10? That’s still a thing, dishing out $40 million at the end of the season.

That’s a long way of saying that, assuming Scottie Scheffler remains No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings, he’s about to get $18 million for his troubles. And then play for a whole bunch more.

RYDER CUP WATCH

Campbell time?!

Probably not. For the second consecutive week, neither top 12 saw any movement; even as a two-time winner this season Campbell is up to just No. 28. Lucas Glover made an interesting move from No. 20 up to No. 16, but mostly there wasn’t much movement on the American side.

On the European side, Jordan Smith elevated his position to No. 13 after a runner-up finish in Munich; while tournament winner Brown jumped 17 spots to No. 22. Here’s where we stand:

TEAM USA RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. Scheffler 2. Schauffele 3. Spaun 4. Henley 5. DeChambeau 6. Thomas 7. Morikawa 8. Griffin 9. Bradley 10. English 11. McNealy 12. Harman 13. Novak 14. Cantlay 15. Burns

TEAM EUROPE RYDER CUP RANKINGS

1. McIlroy 2. Fleetwood 3. Hatton 4. MacIntyre 5. Lowry 6. Straka 7. R. Hojgaard 8. Aberg 9. Rose 10. Hovland 11. Detry 12. Wallace 13. Smith 14. Norgaard 15. Neergaard-Petersen

Complete standings here.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

From Matt Kuchar.

One reporter asked Matt Kuchar to take them through what it’s like to be competitive when he’s twice the age of some of his competition. His response:

“I don’t know how to take you through it other than knowing you’ll get there. You’ll get there. Listen, I still feel like a kid. I still get excited to come to those tournaments.

“One of the unique things about the game of golf is every week we all start at even par, we all have a chance of doing something great.

“I think if you happen to be a professional baseball player and your team starts 10-40 it would be tough to keep going, but golf gives that you hope every week that you show up and you got a chance to do something great.

“So I show up here excited. I show up hoping to do something great this week.”

ONE BIG QUESTION

What’s pro golf’s summer missing?

I couldn’t be more fired up for the upcoming Scottish-Portrush 1-2 punch. And as a sicko I will watch plenty of 3M and Wyndham, just as I watched plenty of Rocket and John Deere. But it does feel like something is missing from this July-August stretch on the PGA Tour, where we’re left with just one major, none of the season’s Signature Events and a playoff structure constantly in limbo. So what is missing?

One answer would be “the PGA Championship” because there are plenty of people who would welcome its return to August. But let’s assume that’s stuck in May — I think the answer is “electric playoff venues.” I’d prefer to see East Lake and TPC Southwind earlier in the season and save August for a mix of courses that stir the soul. I’m originally from Massachusetts and I currently live in Seattle, so I’m biased, but a dose of northern golf in tournament-starved areas seems like a good place to start. The BMW Championship in Chicago was an incredible scene two years ago. We can do this, bit by bit.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Links golf szn.

No more scrolling, just settling in for a few minutes of Scottish goodness, via the DP World Tour:

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

Some folks here say that Seattle Summer doesn’t start until July 4th. In fairness, I have generally not found that to be true — this may be one of many things Seattleites say so that nobody else moves here — but good grief do we have a slate of good weather on tap. I’m off to a coffee shop or a golf course or just to wander around and feel alive. Wishing you some of the same.

We’ll see you next week.

Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.

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The post Augusta National-branded coffee? The club has something brewing appeared first on Golf.

The post Augusta National-branded coffee? The club has something brewing appeared first on Golf.

The world’s most famous golf club does not comment publicly on its business operations, but those boundaries get erased whenever ANGC looks to commercialize its offerings (i.e., earn more revenue during Masters week). To protect its exclusivity, Augusta National, Inc. files trademarks with the U.S. government, for anything from the green jacket to the phrase “A Tradition Unlike Any Other.” It’s in those filings that we get a tiny window into the club’s next frontier. Right now, that includes Augusta National coffee. 

In June 2023, the club filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for “Clubhouse Select” under the category of “Coffee, ground coffee, and coffee sold in single-serve containers for use in brewing machines.”

That sounds a lot like an Augusta National-brewed cup o’ joe — possibly one that slips into a Keurig — even if it hasn’t quite become a reality yet. First, the club needs trademark approval, which has proven difficult. 

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While two years may feel like a long time, trademark certification often takes many months, if not years. Ask Augusta National; the club only recently completed a six-year journey of trademarking its signature vodka-lemonade-and-grenadine cocktail, the Azalea. The process requires checking many clerical boxes, and, in particular, demonstrating that commercialization of a mark will not (1) lead to buyer confusion about the source of the good, nor (2) create adverse commercial impact for any other trademarks.

In other words, the Azaleas served at the Masters had to be unique. The same standard applies to ANGC’s java pursuits, and so far the USPTO has balked on grounds that “Clubhouse Select” has the potential to confuse buyers with “Clubhouse Coolers,” a flavored-drinks company headquartered in western Illinois. GOLF.com readers may not be confused, but the USPTO can be a tough crowd to convince, especially at first.

“I’m a little surprised at this refusal,” said Alexandra Roberts, a trademark law expert and professor at Northeastern University in Boston. “I’ve joked with my students a few times that [earning a trademark] is a bit like the ‘Wizard of Oz’ situation, where you have to knock a few times before the Wizard will appear.

“It’s not uncommon at all to get these initial refusals and these different bases cited for refusal. If you can satisfy them — which, frankly, the wealthiest and the biggest parties tend to be able to do. . .if you have the legal team and want it, then a lot of the time it’s doable.”

The club certainly has legal support. Trademark filings show that after a year of back and forth with the trademark office, ANGC’s representatives requested an extension to file a new response in early June. It was promptly granted, giving the club until early September to plead its case again. But part of the club’s argument thus far has been that, when you add that iconic Augusta National logo to the word “Clubhouse Select,” there’s no confusing who is behind this product.

Maybe you’re thinking, All this for a cup of coffee? Yep, Augusta National does all this for mostly everything. The restaurants in Berckman’s Place, the on-site hospitality center that only the luckiest patrons access? They’re all trademarked. The famous stretch of the course known as “Amen Corner.” That’s trademarked, too. The architectural design of the cupola atop the clubhouse, known as the Crow’s Nest? It’s trademarked as the logo for a specific branch of the club’s merchandise. (In total, ANGC holds 71 “live” trademarks, six of which — coffee included — are “pending.”)

A major, if figurative, part of Augusta National’s business hinges on uniqueness. The club doesn’t want to see anything similar to its trademarks popping up elsewhere, and to afford these protective services, ANGC files Intent to Use applications before they have even fully realized these goods or services. Ultimately, those ITU apps provide glimpses into what future Masters Tournaments (or their commercial branding) may look like. For example, ANGC applied for a “Map and Flag” trademark in December 2023 before debuting a lavish hospitality space, Map and Flag, just months later. The club applied for a “Road to the Masters” trademark in December 2021, more than a year before the announcement of the popular EA Sports video game of the same name. 

As for coffee, a more generic brew has been on the tournament concessions menu for at least the last 10 Masters — under the guise of “Masters Blend Fresh Brewed Coffee” — but it has never been trademarked. Could it be replaced? Or could Clubhouse Select be a brew only for those patrons with clubhouse access? The club quietly reserves plenty of its tournament-week offerings just for members and their guests. (Azaleas, for example, are not available at concession stands.) 

We’ll know soon enough. In the meantime, golf fans can salivate over the potential of Clubhouse Select joining the popular “Taste of the Masters” bundle that ANGC sells to the public every March.

That would be a seasonal blend of the highest order.

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The post He won on LIV, then criticized league. Now, he’s playing PGA Tour event appeared first on Golf.

The post He won on LIV, then criticized league. Now, he’s playing PGA Tour event appeared first on Golf.

This week at the co-sanctioned 2025 Genesis Scottish Open, the former LIV Golf player will make his first start at a PGA Tour event since the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship, where, as an amateur, he missed the cut. That was before LIV Golf. Before golf’s schism. Before Chacarra decided to join the breakaway league instead of pursuing a PGA Tour card.

Much has happened since then, both for Chacarra and the game at large.

The former Oklahoma State standout left Stillwater, Okla., to join the breakaway league in 2022. As a member of Fireballs GC, Chacarra won in Bangkok and was one of the most promising players on the Saudi-backed tour. But struggles came for him over the next two years, and he was dropped by LIV Golf after last season, making him a player without a home.

After leaving LIV Golf, Chacarra criticized the league for being about “only money.” He called out the league for failing to deliver on its promise to provide OWGR points and access to majors. Charcarra did say he was “thankful” to LIV for the financial security it has provided him, but his goal now was to find a way to earn a PGA Tour card.

“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes,” Chacarra told Flushing It in January. “How you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup.”

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Characarra relied on sponsor exemptions to get starts on the DP World Tour early in the season before winning at the Hero Indian Open. That win earned him DP World Tour status for the rest of the season. He currently sits at 19 in the DP World Tour’s Order of Merit, with the top 10 not already exempt earning PGA Tour cards.

“It means everything,” Chacarra said after winning the Hero Indian Open. “I decided when I was an amateur to go to another side of golf [LIV]. Coming out [of LIV], I didn’t know where I was going to play but I stayed patient.

“I know when I play my best, I am one of the best players in the world. I’ve already proved that. It’s just awesome. It needs to sink in, but I’m really proud, and I’m just happy.”

Before joining LIV, Chacarra made four starts on the PGA Tour, including a T45 at the 2021 Sanderson Farms Championship. Since joining LIV, he has made two major starts, missing the cut at the 2024 U.S. Open and the 2025 PGA Championship.

Due to his involvement with LIV Golf, Chacarra is suspended from the PGA Tour for one year. That ban lasts through Sept. 23 of this year. But with the 2025 Scottish Open being a co-sanctioned event with the DP World Tour, Chacarra got into the field via the Category 3 Criteria, which goes to “winners of Race to Dubai Ranking Tournaments with a prize fund equal to or above $2 million.”

Chacarra becomes the third former member of LIV Golf to play in a PGA Tour-sanctioned event this season.

Laurie Canter became the first former member of LIV to play at the Players Championship in March. James Piot received a sponsor’s invite to the 2025 Rocket Classic.

Chacarra will be the first winner of a LIV event to play on the PGA Tour since the schism, but he hopes his arrival in Scotland is the start of his journey to full-time status on the PGA Tour and not just another footnote in golf’s ongoing civil conflict.

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The post That picked-up ball in the John Deere playoff? Here’s what actually happened appeared first on Golf.

The post That picked-up ball in the John Deere playoff? Here’s what actually happened appeared first on Golf.

Perhaps it caught your ear on the CBS telecast after Emiliano Grillo, on the first playoff hole, drove his ball into the right rough. After Grillo had arrived at his ball, CBS broadcast an image of Grillo sticking a tee in the ground next to his ball and picking the ball up.

“Now, Colt, what’s going on with Grillo’s ball?” CBS announcer Andrew Catalon asked on-course reporter Colt Knost.

To which Knost said, “The marshal decided to pick it up, so [Grillo] had to go back and put in the closest possible spot.”

If your reaction was anything like that of many observers on social media, you were thinking, Say what?! Why would a trained PGA Tour marshal pick up a ball in such a crucial moment?

Well, turns out a marshal didn’t. Here’s what actually went down.

If you missed the exciting finish to the Deere, Grillo and Brian Campbell met in a sudden-death playoff after finishing regulation tied at 18 under. The first playoff hole was the par-4 18th, where Campbell, hitting first, laced a drive down the right-center of the fairway. Grillo followed with a tee shot that was about 20 yards longer than Campbell’s but right of the fairway and into a cluster of fans.

When the players arrived at their balls, Campbell didn’t waste much time. From 193 yards, he hit a flighted iron to 16 feet from the hole. Grillo’s second shot, though shorter, wasn’t quite so straightforward. He had trees just to the right of his line and also was dealing with an odd ruling. At some point after Grillo’s ball had settled in the rough, someone — seemingly a marshal, as reported by Knost — had picked up the ball and moved it.  

Fans at Tour events will occasionally pick up a ball before sheepishly dropping it after realizing the error of their ways, but a marshal doing so in such a consequential moment seemed implausible.

It made sense, then, to learn it wasn’t a marshal after all.

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On Monday morning, a PGA Tour media official told GOLF.com that a marshal was not at fault — in fact, a young fan had scooped up the ball before putting it back down.

Grillo then made a small goof of his own.

Under Rule 9.6, a ball moved by an outside influence must be replaced without penalty on the spot from where it was moved. Instead of placing his ball, Grillo dropped it. No harm, no foul, though. “He corrected that,” the official said, “and placed it on the estimated spot it was moved from.”  

After Grillo’s ball was officially back in play, he was left with what looked to be a clean lie. But from 169 yards out, he couldn’t match Campbell’s shotmaking, instead airmailing his approach over the green and leaving himself a tricky chip back up the slope from just more than 60 feet. When Grillo failed to get up and down from there, Campbell had two putts for his second Tour title.

After his round, Grillo wasn’t asked about the fan interference.

“It is what it is,” he said of losing in the playoff. “I got myself there. I gave myself a chance.”

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The post Tour Confidential: New FedEx payouts, LIV CEO speaks, dream major tweaks appeared first on Golf.

The post Tour Confidential: New FedEx payouts, LIV CEO speaks, dream major tweaks appeared first on Golf.

FedEx Cup payouts are changing. Whereas the playoff-capping Tour Championship used to determine players’ hauls from the $100 million overall FedEx Cup prize fund, the Tour will now dole out bonuses based on FedEx Cup points standings after the Wyndham Championship (the regular season’s final event) and also after the BMW Championship, the second FedEx Cup Playoffs event. (The top 10 after the Wyndham will split $20 million, with first place banking $10 million, and the top 30 after the BMW will share about $23 million, with the top-ranked player heading into the Tour Championship pocketing $5 million; the remaining money — about $57 million —will be paid out at the Tour Championship, with the champ winning $10 million.) The Tour’s said the payout were recalculated “to account for the increased volatility of the final event, reward season-long performance and recognize the significance of the FedEx Cup.” Sensible move?

Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier): Sensible seems like the right word for it. Sensible, fair, equitable. That doesn’t necessarily equal exciting, but it at least means there will be an added incentive for players to perform at each stage of the playoffs — and down the stretch in the regular season. We haven’t yet seen high monetary stakes move fan interest in pro golf, so perhaps ditching starting strokes was correctly made top priority.

Josh Schrock, news editor (@Schrock_And_Awe): Yeah, it all makes sense. It’s good to reward players for good regular seasons and not leave it all up to chance in the final three playoff events. It’s incredibly difficult to be consistent over an eight-month stretch, so I like that there’s a chunk to reward those who performed best throughout the season and then have the rest of the money go toward playoff performance.

Alan Bastable, executive editor (@alan_bastable): For sure. Remember when Jon Rahm got hosed a couple of years ago (monetarily, anyway) after having a monster season but a poor Tour Championship? Didn’t feel right. This system is a check against that kind of thing happening. OK, now that we’ve got the money sorted, can we please incorporate a match-play element in the playoffs?!

Does this rebalancing make the playoffs any more interesting for fans? Or is this really only consequential for players?

Dethier: Touched on this above but I think the good news is that it’s certainly not less interesting for fans. We should have more pros in the mix at the Tour Championship, and it’ll mean something special to get there. Is there room for improvement? I think so; August stops in Memphis and Atlanta have never been my bag. But this should be fun.

Schrock: I think Dylan hit the right note. Fans just don’t really care if Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy make $30 million or $1 million. They want to see consequential golf. Removing the starting strokes and tiering the payouts differently should at least make the Tour Championship easier to follow and add more drama, but this feels more like a way to appease the players. Over the past few years, Scheffler has repeatedly criticized the playoff format by calling it “silly” and noting that you “can’t call it a season-long race if it comes down to one tournament.” This feels like a way to assuage some grumbles from the membership.

Bastable: Yes, yes and yes, Dr. Schrock! Tough look when the best player on the planet doesn’t endorse the system. And yeah…I can’t fathom a more boring topic for fans than how hundreds of millions of dollars of prize money are being reallocated. When you start moving decimal points around — $2.5 million vs. $25 million vs. $250 million — it’s easy to lose interest quickly. But the Tour hasn’t seemed to grasp that reality in the LIV era. Way too much talk about purses and bonuses and not enough about fan benefits and engagement.    

In an interview with GOLF.com last week, LIV CEO Scott O’Neil was asked whether he feels LIV needs a deal with the PGA Tour. “The platforms that we have between what the PGA Tour is doing and what LIV is doing are very different,” O’Neil said. “The audiences are very different. We have a global platform, and we love this notion of taking this game to the world. I would say that almost everyone I’ve met in golf wants to do what’s best for the sport, and we’re all so early in this journey. We’re all going to figure out what’s best over time.” How do you interpret that response?

Dethier: I’d take it to mean that O’Neil is seeking coexistence with the PGA Tour rather than a straight-up merger. Negotiations have gone silent these last few months, but O’Neil and Brian Rolapp (on the Tour side) are outsiders to the sport and newcomers to this rivalry; perhaps they’ll be more inclined to work together as a result.

Schrock: It seems like another sign that the merger talks are iced over and might be DOA at this point. The reported schedule for LIV next season shows them taking even more of a global approach, with only five U.S.-based tournaments. It seems that O’Neil is tacitly acknowledging that the two tours are going their separate ways and no longer focused on coming together.

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Bastable: Right, Josh. Also, the longer this limbo period has gone, feels like maybe the tours have come to realize they don’t need one another after all. Job 1 for O’Neil should be locking up Bryson for another decade, whatever the cost. Job 2: Reignite convos with the Official World Golf Ranking, if that isn’t already happening. LIV players’ inability to collect rankings points still is arguably the most problematic element of the league when it comes to attracting new talent. Securing points for LIVers would be a boon.    

Beginning at the 2026 Open Championship, the R&A will hold a winner-take-all final qualifier — the “Last Chance Qualifier” — at the Open site (which is Royal Birkdale next year) on the Monday before the championship. The R&A said the event, which will be comprised of up to 12 players, was the byproduct of a survey that revealed fans want more live golf and opportunities to engage with the Open. Let’s take this exercise a step further: The golf powers have granted you permission to make one change or enhancement to any major. What’s your tweak?

Dethier: The PGA Championship goes back to August — and it goes international. But first, it goes to Chambers Bay…

Schrock: Let’s turn back the clock and make it so everyone except the defending champion has to qualify for one of the majors. Since the PGA Championship is still searching for an identity, I nominate it as the qualifying major. Next year, Scottie Scheffler is in, and everyone else has to earn their way into the fourth major. 

Bastable: I’d love to see the U.S. Junior Amateur champ get an invite to both the Masters and U.S. Open. Maybe that’d have a been a crazy thought a generation ago, but the gap between the youngs and the olds has never been narrower. The kids could hang.

Speaking of the Open, this year’s edition, which is bound for Royal Portrush, is only two weeks away. Who’s your early pick?

Dethier: Tommy Fleetwood jumps out, though I suspect he’ll be a popular choice. I’m saddened the final major is on our doorstep, but it should be a terrific addition.

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Schrock: How did we already get to the final major of the year? The long winter is upon us. I feel like Tommy Fleetwood will play well but I’m going to take Jon Rahm. He’s a terrific Open player and we’re due for an injection of spice back into the PGA Tour-LIV feud.

Bastable: Heart says Rory, head says Russ, as in Henley. A winner this year (at Bay Hill and nearly at Travelers), has been on a heater the last few weeks and finished 5th at the Open a year ago. Not a flashy pick but he’s primed for a big week.  

Happy belated 4th of July! In recognition of America’s birthday, what is the most quintessential American golf experience you’ve partaken in?

Dethier: Anytime I order a hot dog at the muni down the street I can hear the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background — what’s more American than that?! (This question also feels like an alley-oop to plug my book which is literally about golf in America. Very kind of the TC crew.)

Schrock: I’ll say my college golf trip with my buddies that saw us go across Oregon and playing everything from Bandon Dunes, to Pumpkin Ridge, to Tokatee, plus a number of fun munis in Eugene, Portland, Bend and southern Oregon. A week-plus of golf, hot dogs, beers and talk of how the Oregon Ducks always let us down. America! (Also, buy Dylan’s book!)

Bastable: There will be no shameless plugs for Dylan’s book in my response (even if it was the best piece of travel-writing since On the Road), but I will go to bat for golf courses as optimal venues for firework viewing. For the last two Fourths, I’ve watched ’works down the corridor of a golf hole, and both shows were spectacular, with the trees beautifully framing the colorful explosions in the sky. Also, fairway grass is really nice to sit on.

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The post ‘Don’t want them back:’ Major champion doesn’t want to play with LIV defectors appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Don’t want them back:’ Major champion doesn’t want to play with LIV defectors appeared first on Golf.

Players like Rory McIlroy see the long-term value of bringing the game together and putting hurt feelings aside for the good of the sport. Others on the PGA Tour still want returning LIV defectors to pay a price for leaving their tour and fracturing the sport. Some don’t want to play with those who left at all.

You can count 2009 U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover in the latter category.

Speaking on his SiriusXM PGA Tour radio show on Tuesday, Glover discussed his feelings on potentially welcoming back those who left the PGA Tour. Glover noted that there is his personal way of thinking about the situation and how the PGA Tour as a whole ought to think about the stalled negotiations.

His thoughts were clear.

“I don’t want to play with them, me personally,” Glover said. “I don’t think they should be back here. I don’t want them here. They made their decision. I don’t blame any of them. They made a decision, I don’t care, but they also went away from this tour and chose to. As a PGA Tour player and somebody that dreamed of playing on the PGA Tour, and have poured my heart and soul into this Tour and game for 21 seasons now, I don’t want somebody that chose another path and a path of less resistance. I don’t want them back here competing and taking part of my pie and these kids’ pie that are trying to make it now. I don’t want that.

“Now, we as a group. We as golf fans. We as golf everything. Yeah, the top four, five, six players over there, if they were playing on the PGA Tour, would benefit all of us because our TV deal in 2030 would be great, would be bigger, would be X, Y, Z. So that’s the big question right now in my opinion is: Does it behoove all of us as Tour members, who have equity now, to grow our sport by brining some of those guys back? I’m having a hard time with it.”

Glover noted that he has been told to take his emotions out of the equation. As we have discovered over the last three years, that is easier said than done.

“It’s still very hard for me,” Glover said about not letting his emotions play a role. “This is still my dream and I chose to stay, and after I chose to stay I had success. As far as the stalemate, we being the PGA Tour now, I don’t think we even care. I think we are focused on going forward. So they are not coming off the team thing, and that’s fine. Our focus now is forward, forward, forward. We’re going to grow our sport. We’re going to grow our sport. We’re going to grow golf through the PGA Tour, which is how it has always been and always should have been. All I’m saying is I don’t think we care anymore about this unification and I don’t think they do either.”

It has been over two years since the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced the Framework Agreement. There seemed to be positive momentum toward a deal in February after a meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, but tones changed in early March, and there has been no progress on the reunification front since.

That’s alright with Glover, who, like so many others on the PGA Tour, is ready to move forward with or without a deal.

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