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10 golf stories of the week
I have a one handed putter. Cross hand chipper. Lambo. A man who quit LIV. Players participating in the PGA Tour. There are two more season finales left (scream). stewart zinc) and two more coming this week. There’s content, there’s controversy, there’s content controversy. Here are 10 popular golf topics this week.
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1. Two-handed blade putting has been abolished.
story: Now, that’s a dramatic headline. but Adam Schenk He won his first PGA Tour event, the always chaotic Butterfield Bermuda Open, in particularly noteworthy fashion.
The win was a big one for Schenck’s career. He overcame the conditions in variable and ferocious wind conditions and overcame all the gloriously eccentric challenges at Port Royal to win by one stroke. Schenck felt proud of his victory, but also relieved. Instead of planning Q-School, he could plan for the next two years as an exempt member of the PGA Tour. That’s all great.
But from the perspective of the golf world as a whole, the craziest thing about Schenk’s win was that he was developing his putting strategy every night in his hotel room, finding something new to play. When the wind wasn’t so strong, he puttted with one hand. He placed his left hand on the end of the shaft under the grip and hit the winning 5-footer. I found it all oddly inspirational and self-helping. When I asked him about his putt on the 72nd hole, he said it was because of his hotel room (“I putt into the window, so it was a little left to right”) and shared the process.
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“I was just practicing one-handed in my hotel room, and I was like, ‘One-handed won’t work because the Weather Channel app has a wind emblem on it.’ It’s already windy here, so I’m sure it will.” Really The wind is strong. ”
“So I tried to keep my left hand on top. All you can do is go with it, take it back smoothly, let go, and hit it off the center of the putter. Once it’s in, it’s in, great. It was windy on the last hole, so I did the same process…If you’re going to fail, fail right away, but don’t sit there and think about it forever.”
what it means: We’re not only in the era of mallet putters, but the era of broomstick putters, the era of any grip you can use, and the era of one-handed putters. The answers to the questions “Are you going to look silly” and “Are you going to make more putts” seem increasingly intertwined.
2. Rory has done everything.
story: Rory McIlroy Although he lost in the playoffs at this weekend’s DP World Tour Championship, his runner-up finish was enough to earn him the big prize of winning his seventh and fourth consecutive Race to Dubai title. This puts him in seventh place for his career, one place ahead of Seve Ballesteros and one place ahead of Colin Montgomerie.
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what it means: McIlroy won everything he wanted this year. Okay, that’s not it very It’s literally true. He would have wanted more than anything to win the British Open Championship at Royal Portrush. But McIlroy made it clear that what’s important at this point in his career is winning a major, winning at an iconic venue, winning a meaningful tournament and especially winning a Ryder Cup on foreign soil. He also says he wants to follow Montgomery in his quest to become the greatest European golfer in modern history.
So this year’s games, Ciggy at Pebble Beach, The Players Championship, a Grand Slam finish at the Masters, a home game at the Irish Open, an away game at the Ryder Cup, and this Race to Dubai, ticked so many boxes.
“It’s probably harmful to do too much because I’m still playing, but certainly there are times when I find myself thinking about my place in the game and where I’m going to end up,” he said after the round. “Again, as a 36-year-old, I have a lot of years left, so I try not to think about it too much. But yeah, I think you’ll appreciate that it’s been pretty good so far.”
3. Matt Fitzpatrick changed the game.
story: matt fitzpatrick He wasn’t exactly underperforming among the weekly men’s group, but earlier this year he was well below his high standards. He parted ways with his longtime caddy, fell out of the top 100 in the DataGolf rankings, and his ability to make the European Ryder Cup team was questionable. But by summer, so was Fitzpatrick. Since the last week of June, he has finished eighth or better eight times out of 12 races, capping it off with Sunday’s playoff victory.
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what it means: That means that for Fitzpatrick, who continues to pursue low numbers, his efforts continue to pay off no matter what. It was fitting that the same week that Schenk broke through, he rose and fell to victory in the playoffs with his signature cross-handed chipping. There are many things to do in golf, and for the most part, it’s about working hard until you find what really works.
“That was the worst performance I’ve ever had on a golf course, so obviously when that happens you feel like you have to change things up,” Fitzpatrick said. “Right now, it’s easy to say there’s only one way up from there, but it’s easier said than done.
“Winning this tournament to end the year is very special, so I want to enjoy it to the fullest.”
4. Lynn Grant was happy to win. It is unclear which comes first
story: Lynn Grant It’s especially cool considering that the Annika Award winner and host Sorenstam are both Swedish. This was her second win on the LPGA Tour and her first in what she called a “roller coaster” year.
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what it means: That means Grant has found at least a week’s worth of answers to the perplexing mysteries of life as a professional golfer. When I asked her how she bounced back from missing back-to-back cuts this season, she cited self-exploration and her own process, which I found very interesting.
“To be fair, I don’t know,” she said. “Golf and this lifestyle is like a roller coaster where you’re always trying to figure out how to get better. Sometimes you just have to take a step back and look at yourself and think, ‘Am I happy? Am I making decisions that make me happy?’
“Sometimes that makes golf easier. You have to have a certain strength and confidence to make a decision like, maybe I’m not going to play this week because I don’t feel well, maybe it’s not fun, or just change my plan or my approach to be true to myself.
“I think that was really big for me this year. As much as I had to change a lot of things in my routine, the things I thought I was supposed to do were things that were good because other people were doing them, instead of thinking, ‘What do I actually believe? What can I do that will make me a better person and a better player?’
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5. This LPGA pro hit the ace and won the Lambo. And even more.
story: Brooke Matthews The first ace of her career turned out to be really important. Her 9-iron, which she hit 143-12 at Pelican Golf Club, came with a two-year lease on a Lamborghini Urus and a $20,000 donation to charity. She also finished in the top 60 in the “Race to the CME Globe,” marking her first time qualifying for the season-ending championship.
what it means: Golf can mean inner contentment, or it can mean a shiny, expensive car, or it can mean both.
“It was wild. All week I was thinking, ‘I want to beat Lamborghini,'” Matthews said. “I still can’t believe it. I blacked out. I still don’t remember much, so I can’t wait to see it on film.”
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Come on, Brooke:
6. 10 new faces, including former drivers, join the PGA Tour
story: With the conclusion of this DP World Tour season, the 10 professionals who have earned their PGA Tour cards for the 2026 season have been confirmed. This is an interesting list that also includes the number 2 ranking. laurie cantorwon the DP World Tour two seasons in a row and found some success after LIV. He becomes the first former LIV golfer to earn full-time PGA Tour status. Sean Zack There’s more:
what it means: Starting with a clean slate will make it easier to transition back to the PGA Tour from LIV. Since Kanter wasn’t originally a member of the PGA Tour, he didn’t receive the same level of onerous suspension.
Also, many others seem to be very good as well. Rasmus Nergard-PetersenHe finished eagle-birdie-par-birdie-birdie to score T3 and take 9th place.
7. Henrik Stenson is back.
story: I’m back on the DP World Tour, that is. The Swedish major champion was demoted from LIV Golf and the Majestics team of which he was co-captain. A good report from bunkered says that he will be exempted from the “Legend” category because he has paid his outstanding fines (or LIV paid them on his behalf). In 2023, he plans to play on tour for the first time since leaving the team.
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what it means: In 2022, Stenson was scheduled to be captain of the European Ryder Cup. It’s jarring considering the sliding door moment that happened when he rejected the captaincy for a spot on the LIV. What happened next was Luke Donald took his place, leading the team to victories in Rome and New York, entering a new stratosphere of respectability in the golf world, and definitely making a lot of money in the process.
I’m not going to speculate on how Stenson feels about his decision to step down. I’m sure it was complicated back then, and it still is. But if we get to see and hear more of him at his old track in the coming months, it’ll be interesting to hear him reflect on the process.
8. One LPGA rookie announced his joining, and two others announced their departure.
story: This year is a time of endings and new beginnings. So even when I’m 24 years old Miyu Yamashita Won the LPGA Louise Suggs Rookie of the Year Award. Elizabeth Sokol and caroline inglis They announced their retirement at the ages of 30 and 31, respectively, and bid an emotional farewell to the tour.
what it means: Retirement appears to be coming sooner for some LPGA Tour pros. Beth Ann NicholsHe has covered the LPGA more deeply than anyone else on the planet, and he writes about this trend. It will be interesting to see if there are any other surprising announcements in the offseason.
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9. The Internet Invitational had a heartbreaking winner.
story: I’ve written about this at length here, but while The Internet Invitational was a fascinating piece of golf tournament storytelling, intriguing and emotional on several different levels, and seemed genuinely toxic, heartbreaking, and moving in various chapters, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
10. The NFL is primarily about golf.
story: Josh Allen and baker mayfield The chat before Sunday was all about golf.
“Baker wears two gloves when he plays golf, so he’s that type of guy,” Allen said at the outset.
“Listen, I respect you. Akshay Bhatia “I might have to tackle (Allen) before the game,” Mayfield clarified in a separate interview.
what it means: The NFL may be king, but NFL players are crazy about golf. We are in a wonderful place in this corner of the world.
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News from Seattle
Headquarters ends on Monday.
It’s official: As a Washington resident, my official handicap score is now over for the season. I don’t really have an offseason training plan to reverse years of steady decline, but I would like to have one. stay tuned.
See you next week!
Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
Former LIV Pro Finds New Home (9 More Stories!) | The post Monday Finish appeared first on Golf.
