'We are beggars. This is true.' - Martin Luther. Husband of Abby. Father of John, Matthew and David. Former Cal Poly golfer. Lead, Editorial at PGA TOUR.
Wayne Gretzky was watching Nick Taylor win the
@RBCCanadianOpen
. So was a farmer in Saskatchewan. He almost crashed his tractor when the last putt went in. It took us months, but we found the guy. It led to one of my favorite stories ever.
@ntaylorgolf59
David Duval’s 59 at the 1999 edition of The American Express is one of golf’s great ballstriking displays.
The longest putt he made all day was 10 feet. Four times he hit a 5- or 6-iron within 6 feet of the hole.
He gained just 2 strokes on the greens.
Rory, who started the week 6 back of Scheffler, was asked why he excels as a chaser.
"Because out of everyone in the field, I care the least about the money."
🏆🏆🏆
George Bryan IV making the cut in his PGA TOUR debut at age 35 isn't cool because he has a YouTube channel.
It's awesome because he's a guy utterly enraptured with the game -- from a family who based their entire lives around this silly sport -- whose love has often been
Camilo Villegas' late daugher, Mia, loved rainbows. Camilo saw a rainbow while warming up this morning. Then he shot 64 today to lead The RSM Classic.
"I got on the range and see a little rainbow out there. I start thinking about Mia and said hey, let's have a good one."
Sandy Lyle is 64. He's played in
@TheOpen
more than 40 times.
His exemption into The Open ended when he turned 60, so what is he doing?
He's entered into Final Qualifying for St. Andrews.
What a testament to him and the importance of an Open at the Old Course.
Bryson is using two launch monitors. Hitting brand-new balls straight out of the box. Someone scrubs his clubface before every shot, then spritzes the ball with water to simulate morning dew.
Amazing.
Cameron Smith said he didn't regret his tee shot at Augusta National's 12th hole, which he hit into the water to end his chances at winning.
"There are shots that you have to hit to win golf tournaments, and sometimes they just don't work out."
That's a winner's mindset.
Ludvig Åberg’s rankings in the driving statistics at The RSM Classic, which he leads by one.
Driving Distance: 2nd
Driving Accuracy: 3rd
That will play.
Tiger Woods announces that he will return to Torrey Pines, where he lost a five-stroke lead to Gilberto Morales in the final round of the 1992 Junior World Championship.
Tiger's ranking in Strokes Gained: Approach since 2006.
2018: 1
2017: NR
2016: NR
2015: NR
2014: NR
2013: 1
2012: 1
2011: NR
2010: NR
2009: 1
2008: NR
2007: 1
2006: 1
It takes 50 rounds to be included in the TOUR's statistical rankings.
Xander Schauffele started his college career at Long Beach State. When LBSU got paired with UCLA at a tournament, Xander's coach put him in the same group as Patrick Cantlay so he could see what the No. 1 amateur in the world looked like.
Xander shot 78 to Cantlay's 63.
What
Today, Ludvig surpassed the 50 rounds needed to be included in the PGA TOUR’s statistical rankings.
Here’s where he ranks:
SG: OTT: 2nd
Total Driving: 1st
Driving Distance: 6th
Greens hit %: 3rd
Average approach-shot proximity to hole: 2nd
For his birthday, here's two of my favorite Tiger nuggets:
He shot 61-65 to take a 14-SHOT(!!) lead after the first day of the 1996 Pac-10s. No one else shot lower than 68. The course record was 66.
Then he shot 80 in the final round of the NCAA Championship. He still won by 4.
Billy Horschel watched Tiger hit balls Sunday, and estimates Tiger carried his driver 290.
"He looked like the Tiger we saw before the accident, the way the swing looked and the speed.
"For him to hopefully be playing – which I think he is – I think we’re all giddy about it."
Tiger Woods famously hit just one driver in the 2006 Open at Royal Liverpool. He could do it because he was in the midst of the best SG: Approach season in ShotLink history.
He averaged + 2.07 per round. No one not named Tiger has been higher than +1.5.
"I've got blades in his hands so he learns how to play golf instead of learning with all those forgiving golf clubs." - Tiger Woods on teaching his son Charlie, according to Jack Nicklaus
What Tiger did to Ernie in 2000 is obscene.
Els was 2nd to Tiger four times that year.
Tiger eagled the 72nd hole at Kapalua, then holed a 40-footer to win their playoff.
Tiger beat Ernie by 5 at Memorial.
By 15 at the U.S. Open.
And 8 at The Open.
Matthew Wolff just won the NCAA Championship by five, the largest winning margin in 15 years.
He beat the field average by a measly 26 strokes.
He was -10. Only five players broke par.
Arnold Palmer Invitational
THE PLAYERS
The Masters
RBC Heritage
A major, the TOUR's flagship event and two longtime invitationals held on four disparate venues that ask different questions. No one had won at all 4 in their career until Scottie just did so in a span of 44 days.
Last year, Miles Russell joined Tiger Woods as the only boys to win the AJGA’s Player of the Year award before turning 16.
Today, he became the youngest player to ever make a Korn Ferry Tour cut. The 15-year-old is T26 entering the weekend.
Incredible.
Tiger's Hall of Fame speech was about 15 minutes. None of the stories he told took place after 1999, and even that one involved a childhood friend.
He focused on his childhood, his parents and his kids.
It says a lot about what matters more to him right now than 15 majors.
The reason for hatless Rory:
“My head is so small that I have to get Nike to make me custom hats, so whenever I’m in a team event and the hats aren’t custom, they’re all too big.”
Viktor Hovland striping tee shots while fans within earshot sing “Tommy Fleetwood, you’re the love of my life. Tommy Fleetwood, I’ll let you shag my wife,” may be the apex of focus.
Nick Dunlap shot 59 when he was 12.
He shot a 60 this season as an Alabama sophomore.
And he just made the turn in 30 at a PGA TOUR event. He’s T2 at The American Express.
How has college golf changed?
Tiger Woods had a 70.61 scoring average in his 8-win sophomore season at Stanford.
That would rank 51st in the nation this season.
Scottie Scheffler said he was "slapping it around" this week while he was hampered by his neck injury. These were his statistical rankings this week:
SG: Tee-to-Green: 1st
SG: Off-the-Tee: 1st
Driving Accuracy: 1st
Greens hit: 3rd
SG: Approach: 7th
Incredible.
Justin Rose in 1998: 17 years old. $0 in career earnings. Contends at The Open after going through 36 holes of Final Qualifying.
Justin Rose in 2024: 43 years old. More than $100 million in career earnings. Contending at The Open after going through 36 holes of Final Qualifying.
Jhonattan Vegas’ win at the 3M Open is a good opportunity to recall his incredible route to the PGA TOUR, one that involved sacrifice, risk and an indomitable optimism.
Jhonattan was 17 when he moved to the United States from Venezuela, arriving with just his clubs, a bag of
The last time The Open teed off at Royal St. George's, this group teed off 20 minutes ahead of the leaders.
Imagine correctly guessing 10 years ago which of these players would be retired by 2021 and which one would win a major that year.
A (real) conversation between two TOUR winners at Starbucks this morning:
Player 1: “There is no world where we’d be able to beat Ludvig on a consistent basis.”
Player 2: “I didn’t really know who he was. After playing 6 holes with him, I thought he was the next f—ing Tiger
Brooks has said he learned a valuable lesson at Augusta. He would not elaborate, though.
My guess? He seems intent on controlling the group’s pace today. He’s walking verrry slow. Slow play in the groups ahead at Augusta irked him. Phil intentionally slow-played him at Kiawah.
I love the simplicity of Scottie Scheffler range sessions. No launch monitor. Not even an alignment stick. His swing coach Randy Smith never lays hands on him or pantomimes positions. I feel like the only time I see Smith, Scheffler and Ted Scott talk, it's because they're
Ludvig Åberg’s worst finish in his last 8 worldwide events? T14, including two wins. Wild stuff.
His finishes:
T14
T4
1st
T10
T2 (lost playoff)
T13
T10
1st
I love the first tee at Riviera. The idea that everyone from Ben Hogan to Tiger Woods has teed off on that tiny piece of turf means something. There's a sense of continuity when Tiger Woods tees off from the same turf today that he did for his PGA TOUR debut in 1992.
That
On his birthday, I like to relive the most underrated performance of Tiger’s career.
He shot 61-65 on the first day of the 1996 Pac-10 Championship. He broke the course record by 5 in the first round and broke it again in the afternoon. He had a 14-shot lead after 36 holes.
Sam Bennett will start the final round of the Masters at 2:05 p.m. today. He's playing alongside two-time major winner Collin Morikawa at Augusta National.
Tomorrow? He's scheduled to tee off at 8:30 a.m. in the opening round of the Aggie Invitational. 36 holes. No caddies.
Jim Furyk was a PGA TOUR rookie in 1994. His average driving distance that year was 254.3 yards.
Today, he shot 62 on the PGA TOUR. His longevity in golf’s power era truly is incredible.
"Legacy, reputation, at the end of the day that's all you have. You strip everything away, and you're left with how you made people feel and what people thought of you. That is important to me." - Rory McIlroy
Today is a legacy-defining day.
Jose Maria Olazabal and Tiger Woods were paired together in the first round of the 1995 Masters. Jose Maria was the defending champ. Tiger was the reigning U.S. Amateur champion.
That was 29 years ago. Today they will both make the cut.
Tiger Woods has won 82 times in 23 years. That’s 3.6 wins per year for almost a quarter-century.
This year’s PGA TOUR Player of the Year had three wins.
Two moments in this video reveal a lot about Scottie:
1. He starts tearing up when he talks about Meredith.
2. He doesn’t take practice strokes on putts.
I’ll let you decide which you find more insightful.
Max Homa is one of five players in the last decade to earn less than $20,000 in a season while making 15+ starts on the PGA TOUR.
The other four are all off the TOUR. None have made more than 4 starts in a season since.
Homa won.
You'll hear Tain Lee referred to a lot as No. 1,822 in the world ranking.
That's because there are 1,821 players currently in the world ranking. He has 0 world ranking points.
Which means that you are No. 1,822 in the world ranking, as well. So you have that going for you.
Love this from Charlie Woods.
"For Dad as a caddie, his reads are hook-bias, and I don't hook as much as he does. So all of my putts, I miss right."
Translation: "You're one of the best putters of all time? Cool. Can you give me better reads then?"
Kids!
Akshay Bhatia hit all 18 greens today at Pebble Beach.
Since 1983, PGA TOUR players have hit all 18 greens in 0.07% of rounds -- or 1 in every 1,472 rounds -- at Pebble Beach.
Russell Knox shot 75 yesterday Q-School. His is the sort of career path that I find fascinating, and, frankly, admirable. Let me explain.
The players we focus the most on are the stars. They're the best players because they succeed often (obviously). But they're the minority.
Miles Russell, 15, makes his PGA TOUR debut this week.
Supplanted Tiger as the AJGA’s youngest PoY and finished T20 in a Korn Ferry Tour event.
Impressive that he isn’t dominating his age because of an early growth spurt. He’s just really good.
Eric Cole is 35 years old. He’s never played the Masters.
His T3 on Sunday at The RSM Classic — his fourth top-5 in his last five starts — moved him to 41st in the world ranking.
The top 50 at year’s end earn Masters invitations.
Abraham Ancer started his college career at a junior college.
He missed 13 of 19 cuts in his first PGA TOUR season.
He ranks 160th in driving distance.
He’s the winner of a World Golf Championship.
Golf is great.
Collin Morikawa's stats and where they'd rank on the PGA TOUR:
Scoring average: 67.9 (1st)
Greens hit: 74.1% (1st)
Birdies per round: 4.9 (1st)
SG: Approach: +1.42 (1st)
SG: Total: +2.29 (2nd)
SG: Putting: +0.19 (100th)
The kid's not even riding a hot putter!
The person who invented the the miniature batting helmet to serve ice cream in deserves a spot in Cooperstown.
It has revolutionized ballpark concessions for generations. Buying my 5-year-old his first one felt like a rite of passage.
Matthew Wolff shot 65-66-68 to win the Valspar Collegiate yesterday. It's his 5th win in 7 stroke-play starts this season. He's broken 200 three times.
Rounds: 21
Sub-70: 16 (76%)
66 or lower: 9 (43%)
Scoring average: 67.7
Strokes Gained: +5.5 per round
Andrew Alligood made a 10 today on PGA TOUR Latinoamerica.
He still shot 72 and is the tournament's 54-hole leader.
The birdie-birdie-par-birdie-birdie-10-birdie stretch really is a sight to behold.
Kevin Kisner in 2013: “I was ready to retire. I was hitting shanks from the middle of the fairway.”
Kevin Kisner in 2019: World Golf Championship winner.