The post Man goes to Bryson DeChambeau home — and makes hole in one after 5 swings appeared first on Golf.

The post Man goes to Bryson DeChambeau home — and makes hole in one after 5 swings appeared first on Golf.

What would happen if he broke a window?

Bryson DeChambeau, though, had things covered. Literally. Should Jimmy thin one into DeChambeau’s home as he tried to drop a ball over it and into a backyard hole, nets set up near the makeshift tee box would catch the stray. 

Perplexed? That’s part of the attraction here. What went down in a video released Thursday by DeChambeau, the two-time major winner, wasn’t conventional, tee-shot-to-second-shot-to-putt golf, and DeChambeau’s become a bit of a star in that space, doing so on the booming YouTube medium. There, he’s attempted to break 50 from the forward tees. He’s offered lessons. He’s tried challenges — including one recently that captured both curiosity and clicks.

Could he make a hole in one over his home? The shot was about 100 yards. The height to clear his roof was 33 feet. DeChambeau told himself he could take one swing on day one, then, if he failed, take two on day two, three on day three and so on — and on day 16, he succeeded. Millions watched. 

Millions likely also wondered: How would Joe or Jane Schmo fare, though?

Or Jimmy?

How about for 100 grand?

DeChambeau let him try. On Thursday’s video, DeChambeau was handing out cash through a sponsor for various challenges, and the last brought a man named Jimmy to his house for the attempt at the six-figure payday. He could take as many swings as he’d like — from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and DeChambeau thought he’d do it, though it’d be a marathon.  

His guess was Jimmy would need 5 hours and 43 minutes.

“I think there’s going to be some ups and downs in this challenge for him,” DeChambeau said on the video. “He’s really going to struggle right off the rip. He’s not going to be comfortable. He’s not going to know how far to hit. What’s a 95-yard shot? As we tell him where the balls are landing, where they’re going, I think he’s going to start getting into the flow of it. And then about three hours in, he’s going to start struggling. It’s going to be so much. His back is going to be hurting, everything’s going to be hurting, and I think at the 5-hour, 43-minute mark or something like that, he’ll finally get it done.”

Shot one? Off a 54-degree wedge, his ball was long. “Hey, I got it over the net,” Jimmy said. “I was pretty happy about that.” 

Shot two? Long.  

Shot three? Off a 58-degree this time, his was long again. 

Shot four? Pin high and to the right. 

News

How long is this going to go on for?

One more swing. 

Shot five? In. Jimmy’s ball dropped short of the flag and to the left of it, and it rolled in from there for the ace. 

A producer shouted. Bryson and Jimmy hugged. They pushed each other away. They hugged again. They pushed each other away again. Jimmy walked around. He threw his hat down. He ran to the backyard. Yup, he made it. DeChambeau did some math. He pulled out his phone and showed that the time was 10:06. 

Jimmy needed just six minutes. 

“Took me 134 freaking balls.” DeChambeau said on the video — then threw down his phone.

Jimmy then called his wife, Kaydee.

Said Jimmy: “Uh, we just won $100,000.” 

Said Kaydee: “What?”

Another good question. 

Editor’s note: To watch the entire video, please click here or scroll immediately below. To watch other videos on DeChambeau’s channel, please click here. 

The post Man goes to Bryson DeChambeau home — and makes hole in one after 5 swings appeared first on Golf.

The post Top-ranked college star can earn Tour card at Sony Open — here’s how appeared first on Golf.

The post Top-ranked college star can earn Tour card at Sony Open — here’s how appeared first on Golf.

The 21-year-old picked up 17 PGA Tour University Accelerated points last summer thanks to four top-10 finishes, including two second-place finishes — and the 20-point mark guarantees him a PGA Tour card whenever he decides to turn pro. Clanton, who is playing the Sony Open on a sponsor exemption, can pick up those three critical points with a top-five finish in Hawaii. He will get two points for a top-10 finish and one point if he makes the cut but finishes outside the top 10.

The Florida State junior had a 2024 to remember.

Clanton led the Seminoles to the 2024 NCAA Championship, where they fell to Auburn 3-2. Clanton then took his talents to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. He finished T-41 and nearly tracked down Neil Shipley for low amateur honors.

Sponsorship exemptions followed in the summer as Clanton finished T-10 at the Rocket Mortage, T-2 at the John Deere, fifth at the Wyndham Championship, and T-2 at the RSM Classic.

Clanton is currently ranked 87th in the world. That’s the second-highest rank ever by an amateur, behind only Nick Dunlap, who leaped to No. 68 just before turning pro.

After his impressive summer and fall, Clanton could have elected to turn pro. However, he returned to Florida State to add a national title to his growing resume.

Vanderbilt’s Gordon Sargent earned his PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated, but he elected to return to Nashville for his senior season. Clanton could also defer his Tour card for another year and return to Florida State for his senior season.

Even if Clanton doesn’t secure it this week, there’s little doubt he’ll have it soon. He’s in line to gain another point on Feb. 5, when he’ll reach 26 weeks as the world’s top amateur. He’s also the front-runner for the Hogan Award, which is given to the best college golfer in America. The award takes into account performance on all levels, not just college, and if Clanton wins that, he will earn three more points and get his card.

Clanton’s PGA Tour destiny is on the horizon. Four good days at Waialae Country Club are all he needs to secure it.

The post Top-ranked college star can earn Tour card at Sony Open — here’s how appeared first on Golf.

The post What the TGL’s opening night TV ratings actually mean, how they compare appeared first on Golf.

The post What the TGL’s opening night TV ratings actually mean, how they compare appeared first on Golf.

Golf’s brand-new simulator league aired to 919,000 average viewers on ESPN on Tuesday night, a robust but not earth-shattering total for its first-ever telecast, according to SBJ’s Austin Karp and first reported by the X (formerly Twitter) handle @YeahClickClack. Notably, the TGL telecast was up by 200,000 average viewers over the same time slot a year ago and attracted a larger audience than its lead-in, the Pitt-Duke basketball game, indicating golf fans tuned to ESPN specifically to watch the new league.

If you’re a TV-savvy golf fan feeling somewhat surprised by those numbers — in either direction — we don’t blame you. The TGL’s numbers placed them almost perfectly between the rough averages for LIV telecasts on the CW and PGA Tour telecasts on CBS and NBC. Does that tell us something concrete about the new league relative to its tour counterparts?

The answer is no. TV ratings are inherently subjective, and it’s much too early to compare the TGL to its tour counterparts. The best way to know a league’s success is to compare it against itself, and to control for as many variables as possible. Is the audience growing or shrinking over time? And if so, by how much? Can the audience change be attributed to airing on cable vs. streaming vs. broadcast TV? Of course, change over time is the one data point we don’t have for the TGL, which is part of what will make the next several weeks of ratings reports so critical to its sustained success.

Still, there are things to learn from week 1’s ratings, and I’ll attempt to distill a few of the key takeaways below.

First off, I’d say these ratings qualify as slightly better than expected. On a scale from “smash-hit” to “utter failure,” I’d put the TGL week 1 audience almost squarely in the middle, perhaps trending a few ticks in the positive direction. A few days ago, I predicted in the neighborhood of 700,000 average viewers for the TGL as a solid baseline for week 1, basing that prediction off ESPN’s monthly averages, which hover around 800,000 at this time of year. The TGL benefits from airing in primetime, when the audience size should be much larger. I figured the beneficial timeslot would be canceled out by the league’s novelty and the absence of the league’s most critical stars from week 1, and I felt bearish about the overall number after the first match ended in a blowout. (Ratings are the average number of viewers watching in any one minute of a telecast, and those numbers can be harmed when viewers tune out en masse early because of a blowout, or when viewers lose attention because of a heavy sequence of commercials — two things could have happened in the final hour on Tuesday.)

NEWSLETTER

Sign up for GOLF’s Hot Mic Newsletter!

Want exclusive golf media news in your inbox? Sign up for the Hot Mic Newsletter with James Colgan!

SIGN UP

If you’re a TGL optimist, you’re likely pointing to the lack of week 1 star power and the blowout as reasons why we can expect the numbers to jump from here, particularly with Tiger Woods competing in week 2 on the day after ESPN hosts its biggest telecast of the year, the NFL Wild Card game. To that I’d agree. We are likely to get a larger week 2 audience, and in the bigger picture, there are reasons to be excited: the telecast moved quickly, the players contributed gamely, and the general feedback for the league was supportive. It’s also impressive that the league managed to wrangle those week 1 numbers without a strong lead-in from the basketball game.

But it’s important to clarify that optimism is not the same thing as certainty — and we’re still many ratings reports away from certifying the TGL’s success. The league still has to prove that it can generate TV audiences when its novelty has worn off, and it needs to show that it can turn the Tiger/Wild Card tailwinds into viewership for, say, the Atlanta Drive vs. The Bay on Feb 17. That’s a big ask, and the jury will remain out until the ratings have showed us otherwise.

For now, the news is good. We can say confidently after week 1 that the TGL is not an immediate flop. We can agree that the first batch of numbers is good, and they might get better still. But we should temper that optimism with a dose of reality: long-term TV ratings growth is still the single-largest challenge for the league, and we know nothing about how these numbers will look in a few weeks.

In other words, keep your eyes peeled. The answers are coming soon. Just not today.

The post What the TGL’s opening night TV ratings actually mean, how they compare appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I think I’m dying again’: U.S. Open champion opens up on difficult year appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘I think I’m dying again’: U.S. Open champion opens up on difficult year appeared first on Golf.

But then he answers. 

“That’s a lot of stimulation, for sure,” he said, “but I’ll be prepared for that if that call comes.”

Prepared. Woodland’s used that word plenty, it feels like. 

This week, the 2019 U.S. Open winner is playing the PGA Tour’s Sony Open, and it’s a milestone of sorts. One year back. Last January, he returned at the Sony, about four months after he underwent surgery on a brain lesion that he was diagnosed with in the spring of 2023. He hadn’t been prepared for the period before the procedure. How could he be? At times, as the lesion prowled on the part of his brain that controls fear, he said he suffered from thoughts of death. 

Nor was he prepared for last year. 

How could he be? 

Most everything was different during his comeback, he said. Other things were reminders. 

“Last year was one of the hardest years of my life from the standpoint everything was new,” Woodland said Wednesday. “I was very thankful to be back in this seat last year less than four months from surgery, but everything was new. It was like I was a rookie again. I didn’t know what to expect. There were days waking up I didn’t know if I was going to feel good. 

“I didn’t know how I was going to be, going back to places where the year before — talk about PTSD, I’m driving through places where, yeah, I pulled over there and had to call my wife crying because I thought I was going to die. I come back to a hotel, I’m like, I had multiple seizures in this bed. Everything was new, and it was hard.”

On the course, the results were fair. To begin the season, he missed seven cuts in his first 11 events, then missed out on the weekend just four times the rest of the way, out of 13 starts. In October, he posted two of his three top 25s. Physically, Woodland was trying to cope. He was trying to develop processes. Surgery had done only some work; part of the lesion still remains. Early on, he said, he had trouble being around his kids. He’d have to go to another room. “My brain couldn’t keep up. My poor wife has to explain to my kids why Dad has to go to the room because too much energy and excitement — my kids are full of life and Daddy can’t handle that. So I couldn’t be the father I wanted to be.”

News

“Rock bottom,” he said, came at the end of July at the 3M Open. He’d played three-straight weeks, including overseas, to Scotland for the Open Championship. Friday at the 3M, he started not to feel well. Saturday, he sank. 

“I left the golf course in tears, called my wife and I said, I think I’m dying again; it’s all back,” Woodland said. “We went home, I was on the internet all night. I reached out to my doctors. We sat down and started realizing that the scans are stable, this thing hasn’t grown, it hasn’t changed. 

“We need ways to slow the brain down.”

More processes were employed. “We’ve came up with some stuff,” he said. Medication. Knowing when to shut down. Breathing exercises — once in the morning, once at night, for about an hour total. He had to rewire himself to understand fully that it was the lesion causing him the feelings of fear and anxiety. “Now the days of me getting up in the morning and getting out of bed and just going about my life, those are over. The days of me just jumping in bed and going to sleep, that’s not how it works anymore. I have to do breath work every morning before I get out of bed. I have to do it again at night because it slows my brain down. I know if I’m playing multiple weeks in a row now, I’m going to have to do more of it to give myself the stamina in my brain to be prepared for the stimulation. When I got overstimulated is when I shut down. I didn’t understand that last year. I was blaming a lot of it on the medicine. Well, I’m on the medicine indefinitely now I’ve found out.”

Woodland said he believes he’s progressing. 

Interestingly, he said, the breathing work has made him a better player; it’s slowed his heart rate down. He’s been able to be around his family more, too. “Over the last couple months, I’m starting to see signs,” Woodland said. He said he feels better. He said he feels more in control. 

Notably, he said he also feels proud of himself. 

“I told myself that week [of the 3M], which I don’t think I’ve ever told myself — I won the U.S. Open and I had fun and celebrated — but I told myself I was proud of myself that week,” Woodland said, “because it would have been very easy for me not to play last year, to show up, to take a year, to take a medical, and from a results standpoint, that was probably the thing to do. But I wouldn’t be sitting here today as optimistic because I know what it takes now for me to feel well. I know what I have to do if I’m going to play multiple weeks in a row. I know the work I have to put in to get myself in that situation. 

News

“I wouldn’t have known that if I didn’t go through what I went through last year. It stinks to come out here and play and not really have a chance, and that’s not what I signed up for. That’s not what my sponsors and everybody has signed up for.”

He said he now feels more prepared. 

There’s that word again.  

“I’m as optimistic about my golf game,” Woodland said, “as I’ve been since I won the U.S. Open in 2019.”

Why?

“One, I’m starting to feel better,” he said. “Two, I understand what I need to do, slowing my brain down, slowing my heart rate down. Being back with Randy [Smith, his coach], I’m starting to see signs that I haven’t seen in the golf game for a long time.

“I think from a golf standpoint I’m in a better position now than I was in 2019, I just had a lot of confidence then. I had played well for 10 years straight. The confidence is coming. But I know my game is in a better spot, and that’s exciting.”

The post ‘I think I’m dying again’: U.S. Open champion opens up on difficult year appeared first on Golf.

The post 2025 Sony Open Friday tee times: Round 2 groupings appeared first on Golf.

The post 2025 Sony Open Friday tee times: Round 2 groupings appeared first on Golf.

Featured tee time for Round 2

Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama was already the featured star in this year’s Sony Open field, but then he went out and won the season-opening Sentry, topping the best players on Tour in the process.

News

Now he’s hoping for a Hawaii Swing-sweep to make it two-in-a-row to start the 2025 season.

After starting the opening round late on Thursday, Matsuyama will get his second round started on the earlier side, teeing off Friday afternoon at 12:50 p.m. ET, and he’ll once again be grouped with Sahith Theegala and Russell Henley.

You can watch Friday’s second round of the 2025 Sony Open from 7-10:30 p.m. ET on Golf Channel. You can also stream featured group coverage via PGA Tour Live on ESPN+ starting at 12 p.m. ET.

You can check out the complete Round 2 tee times for the 2025 Sony Open in Hawaii below.

Get ESPN+

$11.99/month

With an ESPN+ subscription, you gain access to PGA Tour Live, where you can stream the best PGA Tour events live from wherever you want.

SIGN UP NOW

2025 Sony Open tee times for Friday: Round 2 (ET)

Tee No. 1

12:10 p.m. – C.T. Pan, Justin Lower, Vince Whaley
12:20 p.m. – Sam Ryder, Harry Higgs, Greyson Sigg
12:30 p.m. – Brendon Todd, Aaron Baddeley, Chan Kim
12:40 p.m. – Rafael Campos, Lucas Glover, Gary Woodland
12:50 p.m. – Patton Kizzire, Davis Thompson, Cam Davis
1:00 p.m. – Emiliano Grillo, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson
1:10 p.m. – Lee Hodges, Kurt Kitayama, Adam Svensson
1:20 p.m. – Chad Ramey, Ryan Palmer, Matti Schmid
1:30 p.m. – Frankie Capan III, Aldrich Potgieter, Luke Clanton (a)
1:40 p.m. – Kevin Roy, Kevin Velo, RJ Manke
1:50 p.m. – Trevor Cone, Ricky Castillo, Gavin Cohen
2:00 p.m. – Noah Goodwin, Steven Fisk, Kensei Hirata
4:50 p.m. – Harris English, Keith Mitchell, Adam Hadwin
5:00 p.m. – James Hahn, Andrew Novak, Sam Stevens
5:10 p.m. – Kevin Streelman, Patrick Rodgers, Mark Hubbard
5:20 p.m. – Austin Eckroat, Nick Dunlap, Robert MacIntyre
5:30 p.m. – Keegan Bradley, Tom Kim, Brian Harman
5:40 p.m. – Taylor Pendrith, Chris Kirk, Byeong Hun An
5:50 p.m. – Nico Echavarria, J.T. Poston, Si Woo Kim
6:00 p.m. – Bud Cauley, Eric Cole, Jacob Bridgeman
6:10 p.m. – Charley Hoffman, Denny McCarthy, Alex Smalley
6:20 p.m. – Max McGreevy, Quade Cummins, Thomas Rosenmueller
6:30 p.m. – Alejandro Tosti, Braden Thornberry, Mason Andersen
6:40 p.m. – Ryan Gerard, Danny Walker, Kelly Welsh

Tee No. 10

12:10 p.m. – Nate Lashley, David Lipsky, Mac Meissner
12:20 p.m. – K.H. Lee, Joel Dahmen, Ben Martin
12:30 p.m. – Ben Kohles, Will Gordon, Chandler Phillips
12:40 p.m. – Maverick McNealy, Matt McCarty, Billy Horschel
12:50 p.m. – Hideki Matsuyama, Sahith Theegala, Russell Henley
1:00 p.m. – Nick Taylor, Sepp Straka, Corey Conners
1:10 p.m. – Brice Garnett, Jake Knapp, Tom Hoge
1:20 p.m. – Michael Kim, Ben Silverman, Joe Highsmith
1:30 p.m. – Taylor Montgomery, Takumi Kanaya, Jesper Svensson
1:40 p.m. – Tim Widing, Kaito Onishi, Yuta Sugiura
1:50 p.m. – William Mouw, Cristobal Del Solar, Tyler Loree (a)
2:00 p.m. – Isaiah Salinda, John Pak, Mao Matsuyama (a)
4:50 p.m. – Henrik Norlander, Rico Hoey, David Skinns
5:00 p.m. – Andrew Putnam, Doug Ghim, Carson Young
5:10 p.m. – Thomas Detry, Ben Griffin, Patrick Fishburn
5:20 p.m. – Taylor Moore, Mackenzie Hughes, Webb Simpson
5:30 p.m. – Harry Hall, Seamus Power, Brandt Snedeker
5:40 p.m. – Stephan Jaeger, Luke List, Adam Schenk
5:50 p.m. – Chris Gotterup, Peter Malnati, Camilo Villegas
6:00 p.m. – Erik van Rooyen, Vincent Norrman, Nick Hardy
6:10 p.m. – J.J. Spaun, Daniel Berger, Ryo Hisatsune
6:20 p.m. – Brian Campbell, Taylor Dickson, Jeremy Paul
6:30 p.m. – Michael Thorbjornsen, Rikuya Hoshino, Jackson Suber
6:40 p.m. – Kris Ventura, Paul Peterson, Ben Polland

The post 2025 Sony Open Friday tee times: Round 2 groupings appeared first on Golf.

The post The best advice for breaking 90, according to low handicappers appeared first on Golf.

The post The best advice for breaking 90, according to low handicappers appeared first on Golf.

Those who have broken through that barrier likely remember the euphoria of accomplishing that goal. It may not be the same as slipping on the green jacket, but it’s still something worth celebrating.

For those who haven’t quite summited that mountain, the dream of breaking 90 endures. And here at GOLF.com, we want to help you accomplish that feat. Below, you’ll find the best advice for breaking 90 from a handful of our single-digit handicappers on staff.

Nail your fundamentals, play mind games

Breaking 90 for the first time is a huge milestone in any golfer’s career. Don’t get too frustrated if you haven’t crossed that threshold yet. Your time is coming. That being said, you can do a couple things to grease the wheels a bit. First and foremost, you need to practice your setup. You’d be surprised how easy it is to forget the fundamentals when nerves are running high. With a solid setup, that’s one less thing to worry about and you reduce the chances of making an avoidable error.

The second piece of advice is to play to an adjusted par. Many golfers’ egos and expectations are what end up ruining their rounds. Instead of putting pressure on yourself to make par on a long par-4, attack it like you would a par-five. This adjustment gives you a little extra breathing room and increases your chances of making bogey or better. And, on a par-72 course, you only have to make par or better on one hole to break 90, which seems a lot more doable, in my opinion. My final nugget of wisdom is to distract yourself by playing short matches, seeing if you can beat three-over-par for those particular holes. —Maddi MacClurg (6 handicap)

Keep the driver in play

I know what you’re thinking. What does this arrogant plus-handicap know about breaking 90?! But these days the guys I play the most golf with are satisfied with keeping things double-digits and ecstatic to sneak under 90. And the biggest key I’ve noticed as they’ve started to shave some strokes: When they find a way to keep the ball in play off the tee, it makes all the difference. I implore you to find a way to stop losing tee shots. Golf is tough enough from the fairway; there’s just no way to succeed when you’re playing from the trees, dropping from the water or re-teeing hitting 3. Can’t do it!

Now look, I’m not one of those old-school “hit 3-iron off the tee” advice-givers. The driver is the biggest club and flies the farthest. Find a way to hit it in play. Take a lesson. (Seriously, take a lesson. Maybe a few lessons.) Hit the range. And then get on the course to learn your tendencies and learn where the driver goes when you’re nervous, tense, tired, under pressure, into the wind, etc. Don’t get too caught up with hitting bombs — we’ll get there later. And be kind to yourself. This is a hard game. May as well get started in the right direction. —Dylan Dethier (+2.6 handicap)

Get comfortable with your nerves

Back when I was a teenager trying to break 90 for the first time, the biggest challenge I faced was breaking through the mental barrier of the feat. I knew I had the ability to break that magic number, but my mind always got in the way. I can’t tell you how many times I came down the stretch on the back nine with a chance to post a score in the 80s, only to make a big mistake and mess it up.

When I finally did break 90, I remember feeling totally comfortable with the situation. I’d been there so many times before I wasn’t even really nervous. You’ll find yourself getting nervous when approaching any major milestone in golf. The only way to combat those nerves is to get comfortable with them.

If you’re trying to break 90 for the first time, the best advice I can give is to put yourself in that position as many times as possible. You likely won’t accomplish your goal the first (or second or third) time you’re in position to do so — but that’s ok! Every time you get in that spot, you learn to handle the nerves a little bit better. Keep knocking on the door and eventually you’ll break through. Then, it’s time to focus on breaking 80. —Zephyr Melton (4.6 handicap)

Avoid blowups

I played a lot of golf with my mom this year, and she is right in this scoring zone. She averages rounds in the low-to-mid-90s but I know a high-80s day is definitely possible for her! Whenever she has a good round, or even a good side of nine holes, we discuss the difference-maker. For her, it tends to be the same thing each time: avoiding blowups. She hits it straight and keeps it in play consistently, so the most frequent derailments generally occur around the green, something like bunker trouble or a wayward chip that gets compounded by a three or four-putt. It’s really, really hard to break 90 if you have a couple of 8s on the card, so avoiding those momentum-killers is key.

Distance is also an important factor, so I would suggest making sure you play the appropriate tees. Even from the forward tees, my mom can’t always reach every par 4 in regulation. So, the goal becomes to make those holes into par 5s. And some par 5s become par 6s. Being realistic about your distance capability helps a lot with the mental challenge of breaking 90. Make it a goal to get to the green in as few shots as you can, hitting your most confident club each time. It can also help to think about each hole in a round as a par 5. Two sides of “even par” gets you to 90. A par on the par 3s and bogeys on the par 4s and par 5s on a par-72 course gets you to … 86! Doesn’t that seem downright feasible? There’s also a nice mental lift that comes from being “two-under” after a par on a par 3. —Jessica Marksbury (9.8 handicap)

The post The best advice for breaking 90, according to low handicappers appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Limousine’ golf carts? Yep, in South Korea golfers ride in style appeared first on Golf.

The post ‘Limousine’ golf carts? Yep, in South Korea golfers ride in style appeared first on Golf.

Like many aspects of the game in this golf-mad country — clubhouse design, course maintenance, cuisine and more — caddie culture goes above and beyond.

For starters, hiring a looper isn’t optional. Wherever you play in South Korea, caddies are required. And passive pack mules they are not. Club selection? Sure. They help with that. Ditto divot and ball-mark repair. But they also double as bartenders, pouring drinks at their clients’ request; vocal cheerleaders, crying “Nice shot!” almost every time they see one; scorekeepers; and — get this — chauffeurs. In South Korea, walking the course is pretty much unheard of. Everyone takes carts, including caddies, who pilot foursomes around in a five-person buggies, with all the bags strapped to the back.

Almost without exception, these loopers are women, part of an increasingly professionalized workforce that has steadily expanded since the 1990s, when golf in South Korea began to boom. There are now upward of 500 courses in the country, nearly double the number from 20 years ago. And while certain caddie customs hold steady from one club to the next, not all looper programs are created equal. Some are more upscale and detail-oriented than others. 

Take Haesley Nine Bridges as a case in point.

Situated on the outskirts of Seoul, Heasley ranks among the most prestigious courses in the country and boasts amenities to match. Overlooking its pristinely manicured championship course is a 170,000-square-foot modernist clubhouse, a three-story architectural marvel of glass walls, timber columns and traditional stone masonry.

In keeping with the resplendent infrastructure, the caddie program is as dialed-in as it gets. So is the on-course transport. Haesley loopers don’t drive ordinary golf carts. They drive what are known as “limousine” carts, which the club spent years designing. These first-of-their kind carts look and act like mini-luxury vehicles, with streamlined curves and a spate of refined features, including a sophisticated heating and cooling system (golfers in South Korea experience all four seasons) individualized cushioned seats and a wide, curved windshield for better viewing.

Never mind a good walk, spoiled. Golf at Haesley is a leisurely ride, improved.

To see these specialized carts in action — and learn more about South Korean caddie culture — check out this video.

The post ‘Limousine’ golf carts? Yep, in South Korea golfers ride in style appeared first on Golf.

The post Will PGA Tour-LIV Golf battle be resolved in 2025? | Kostis & McCord appeared first on Golf.

The post Will PGA Tour-LIV Golf battle be resolved in 2025? | Kostis & McCord appeared first on Golf.

The PGA Tour and LIV Golf have been working to iron out a deal to bring the game back together for over 18 months. But there hasn’t been much movement on the merger front in some time.

Adam Scott, who is part of the PGA Tour Enterprises transaction subcommittee with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, which is negotiating with LIV’s Saudi backers, says there’s a reason things have ground to a halt.

“Same as always. It sucks,” Scott told the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson this week at the Sony Open. “It’s not worth talking about. Obviously, it’s so complex and when the [U.S Department of Justice] is involved, I think we sit and just wait for them.”

Scott told Ferguson there should be some movement “soon.” But what that will look like is still anyone’s guess.

The potential end of the PGA Tour-LIV battle was a topic on the latest episode of “Kostis & McCord: Off Their Rockers,” a GOLF production, with both co-hosts giving their crystal ball prediction for the state of golf in 2025.

“I predict there will be a resolution to the LIV-PGA Tour conflict in 2025,” Kostis said. “It will not go on any longer past 2025. What that solution is going to be remains open.”

Kostis went on to speculate that the PGA Tour will have to give up its desire to be the lone home for elite men’s professional golf in 2025.

“There’s a bunch of reasons why we are where we are in professional golf,” Kostis said. “Not the least of which is the PGA Tour’s desire to have a monopoly on professional golf. They want to be the end-all and be-all for professional golf. That’s going to go away in 2025. They are going to have to learn to exist in an ecosystem that includes more worldwide golf whether that’s LIV or the DP World Tour or whatever the case may be.”

McCord believes the two tours will end up not merging in 2025, and that LIV’s rumored interest to buy the DP World Tour will play a role.

“The whole thing is LIV vs. PGA Tour. That’s it. Everything else resides around that. Are they going to get together? Or are they going to exist apart? I think they will exist apart,” McCord said. “From what we are hearing, [LIV] are going to go buy the DP World Tour. It’s already there. They already get [Official World Golf Ranking] points. They can go get their 20 events that they are going to play there. Now these guys get world rankings points, so they can literally go and play in the majors and do what they want to do. [They can] be in these big tournaments now that they get world-rankings points.”

McCord added that having two tours might not necessarily be a negative for golf.

“Now, you got two tours. Is that bad?” McCord said. “I don’t know if that’s bad. Because as I see it, if you’re trying to market this and get your T.V. ratings up, there’s nothing better than to have two distinct entities that hate each other. I mean hate each other. Look at the Ryder Cup, those guys don’t necessarily hate each other. They are neighbors in Florida. But that particular week they get pissed off at each other and go on tirades. What if we had that as a constant? And you would have these guys playing against each other. There’s benefits to it.”

For more on the topic, or to watch the entire episode, click on the video below.

The post Will PGA Tour-LIV Golf battle be resolved in 2025? | Kostis & McCord appeared first on Golf.

The post Can’t stop hitting the ball thin? Try focusing on this appeared first on Golf.

The post Can’t stop hitting the ball thin? Try focusing on this appeared first on Golf.

Unless you’re a club-testing robot, you’ll always hit your fair share of mishits. The key to improvement is understanding why these misses happen and how you can fix them.

Today, we’ll be talking about thin shots. For more, we turn to GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood.

Why you hit it thin

Hitting it thin essentially means you are making no contact with the ground as you hit the ball. As we all know, the key to solid ball striking with irons is making contact with the ball and then the turf. But when you’re hitting it thin, the contact with the turf is lacking.

Why does this happen? It all has to do with where the low point of your swing is.

“Your low point is behind the ball,” Yarwood says. “The club and the angle of attack are raising up as you hit it. What we see from the elite players is the angle of attack is going down.”

How to fix thin shots

As Yarwood notes, the key for hitting solid irons is getting the angle of attack to work down as you make impact with the ball. To do this properly, you need to focus on shifting your mass and pressure correctly.

From the top of the swing, you want your mass and pressure shifting to your lead side. Focus on feeling like your lead side is moving two to three inches closer to the target as your swing goes from the top to arms parallel on the downswing.

“That’s how you get the hands ahead and how you get that lean in the handle and the angle of attack down,” he says.

Try this drill

If you want to ingrain this feeling on the range, try this simple drill. Take your normal setup and backswing, but then as you start the downswing, take a tiny step with your lead foot.

“You do that, the angle of attack is going down, the path is going left, the mass is shifting like it should,” Yarwood says. “You will crunch it.”

The post Can’t stop hitting the ball thin? Try focusing on this appeared first on Golf.

The post Rogers Report: On-site at TGL, the (early) breakout star and more appeared first on Golf.

The post Rogers Report: On-site at TGL, the (early) breakout star and more appeared first on Golf.

It’s been a great week of golf and I’m here to tell you all about it.

My TGL gig

I’ll be working as a digital host for TGL alongside NESN’s Jahmai Webster this season. We can be found on the TGL Golf app as well as their website on “Matchup Live” breaking down shots, interviewing people and chatting with players after the match. But worry not, my friends. I’ll be right here at GOLF as well. The Scoop, Rogers Reports and Drop Zone podcast will continue all season long.

I’ve already learned a lot through this TGL role, though, including the fact that live broadcasts are no joke! I got to see Matt Barrie and Marty Smith work their magic. I learned to always check that my microphone is on, and I’m continuing to learn to remain calm out there. I’m also trying to discover the best iced latte and sandwich in Palm Beach Gardens, so if you’ve got any recommendations, please let me know.

This week, I interviewed the Pointer Brothers, Tisha Alyn and the Bay Golf Club after their win.

Also, shoutout to TGL and Boston Common for giving me not one but two birthday cakes during rehearsals on Monday. I am so lucky!

Ludvigmania

Wow, it’s been a while since I typed the word “mania” without putting the name “Tiger” before it. One of my biggest takeaways from Tuesday night was just how much of a star Ludvig Aberg is (and is continuing to become). I took a look at Twitter halfway through the match, and my timeline was filled with tweets about the 25-year-old pro.

Even Tiger couldn’t help but stop and stare at Aberg’s swing.

When Adam Scott (the owner of perhaps the most stunning swing in golf) joined me on The Scoop last fall, I asked him whose swings he liked. His first answer? Ludvig Aberg. I’m all in on 2025 being the year of Ludvig.

My favorite social post of the week (funny edition)

Michelle Money took to Instagram to post a compilation video of her husband, Masters champion Mike Weir, doing what every man on the planet does: practicing their golf swing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a weekend hack (a term I am using with nothing but love) or a major winner.

While I was at my dad’s house over Christmas, I took a mental note of when and where I saw my younger brother Brendan practice his golf swing. His No. 1 spot is in front of the front hall mirror right before he leaves the house. This seems to be his personal way of checking out how he looks? Instead of just taking a good look at himself in the mirror, he does this through a golf swing. Interesting! He also took some air swings in the kitchen while waiting for his Mac N’ Cheese noodles to finish boiling, during football commercial breaks and even in line at Target. So thank you, Michelle Money, for showing us that no one faces the air swing epidemic alone.

My favorite social post of the week (really sweet edition)

Layna Finau posted a TikTok of her husband at the Sentry in Hawaii earlier this week. He was walking toward the clubhouse and “Going to look for the Polynesian security guard who liked his custom AJ1 golf shoes he was wearing during play to give them to him.” It was such a thoughtful act of kindness on Finau’s part and got me thinking about how even the smallest interactions with the pros can mean so much to golf fans.

More of this in 2025, please!

The post Rogers Report: On-site at TGL, the (early) breakout star and more appeared first on Golf.