Browsing: Golf

The luck of the Irish has deserted golfing superstar Rory McIlroy, with Royal Melbourne tossing up a banana peel in the latest obstacle to his second Australian Open title.

The world No 2 was hoping to maintain the momentum of three birdies late in his second round when he arrived on course for an early tee time on Saturday, seven shots off the pace.

After an embarrassing airswing in round two when his backswing clipped a tree, the Northern Irishman’s ball on the second hole missed the fairway and nestled under a grassy clump.

The lie was worse than first thought with a discarded banana skin draping the ball, with McIlroy unable to remove it for fear of the ball moving, which would mean a one-stroke penalty.

The grand slam winner was almost bemused by the challenges the sandbelt course had provided him over three rounds, calling the latest a “double whammyâ€.

“I feel like this is a week of firsts and in a lot of ways,†McIlroy said. “It’s a loose impediment and it was resting on the ball so if I moved the banana peel, the ball would have moved so I just didn’t even didn’t even try.

“I mean, I shouldn’t have been there in the first place, but yeah, I wasn’t the best to start.â€

Showing his class, golf’s newest grand slam winner immediately shook off Saturday’s early blow to birdie the par-four third.

The sell-out crowd of 25,000 roared their approval through his back nine, with McIlroy adding another four birdies for a three-under 68, sitting at five-under for the tournament.

“I played well after that [second hole], sort of got a feel for it a little bit and especially I feel like I played the back nine well,†the 2025 Masters champion said. “I just need to figure out how to how to make a few more birdies on the front.â€

He said he had struggled to build any momentum, with a number of putts failing to drop with the greens proving tricky with intermittent rain in Melbourne.

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“I feel like I haven’t really got a lot of momentum at all over the past three days. When the putts hang on the lip … it just feels a bit like the story of the week in a way.

“If I think back over the last three days, just like anyone else in this tournament, they’ll tell you that they should be, you know, a lot better or a lot lower than they are.

“But, you know, maybe turned it around with the last few holes there coming in, and all you need is that little bit of momentum to go your way, then you’re off and running.â€

He felt if the leaders didn’t get further than five or six shots ahead he still had a hope of adding to his 2013 Australian Open crown, won at Royal Sydney with a late blitz overhauling Adam Scott.

“If they stay around that 10, 11 [under] mark, then I feel like I would have a chance from there,†McIlroy said. “If everything comes together for me, I can shoot a pretty good one out there but whether that’s good enough or not, I’m not sure.

“I’ll go out there and try my best tomorrow and try to shoot a low one and see where it leaves me.â€

On Sundays in the pro shop at Santa Teresa Golf Club, an hour south of San Francisco, you can buy a sleeve of balls, grab a bag of tees and pose for a selfie with the “Glove Father.”

That’s what a customer recently dubbed Tyler Nguyen, which made him laugh.

At 26, Nguyen isn’t a father to anyone. Nor is he a powerful industry figure. He’s the founder of a bootstrapped golf-glove startup, Forelinksgolf, that he runs from his bedroom in his parents’ house. Sales are picking up. But Nguyen still works three jobs, including a weekend shift at the public facility where he first learned the game, his green fees subsidized by Youth on Course — the same junior-golf program his company now supports.

“Aside from a quality product, I’ve realized that my biggest asset is my story,” Nguyen says. “And a big part of that story is giving back.”

The narrative starts when Nguyen was 13, the older of two boys born to Vietnamese immigrants. His father worked construction and swung a golf club the way a lot of busy parents do, in stolen hours between work and family time. Nguyen tagged along. Before long, his parents were dropping him at Santa Teresa at dawn and collecting him at dusk. By industry standards, the course was not expensive. But $40 a day still added up.

“There were days when I could only hit balls on the range instead of playing,” Nguyen says. “It was just too much money for us at the time.”

The financial strains ended a few months later, when Nguyen heard other kids talking about Youth on Course, the nonprofit that lets juniors play rounds at thousands of courses in the U.S., Canada and Australia for $5 or less. The calculus changed.

“[Youth on Course] gave me a chance to keep showing up without financial barriers,” Nguyen says. “Without it, I don’t know if I would’ve stayed in the game.”

He stuck with it enough to play on his high school team alongside Justin Suh, who went on to the PGA Tour. Nguyen could golf his ball as well, but he had no illusions. He would have to find a different path into the game.

At San Jose State, he studied economics while indulging an entrepreneurial streak, orchestrating drop-sales of cat beds, alarm clocks, hoodies — anything he thought might sell. Only some things did.

After college, he landed a job in marketing and launched a side hustle: an online golf-apparel shop called Forelinksgolf. Like a rough day on the course, the business taught hard lessons. Chief among them: cutting corners on quality was a great way to get stuck with a stash of ugly shirts.

Through contacts he’d maintained at Santa Teresa, Nguyen also had a part-time gig working the pro-shop counter. It came with perks (free golf) and something else: a front-row view of how merchandise moved. After golf balls, nothing moved faster than gloves, which, like balls, golfers blew through, just in a different way.

Around that time, Nguyen was reading Phil Knight’s memoir, “Shoe Dog,” absorbing its message about brand-building and risk-taking. He tried having gloves made overseas. The first run, manufactured in China, wasn’t up to snuff. It made him think of something else he’d noticed in the pro shop. Most high-quality golf gloves were made in Indonesia.

Nguyen cold-called manufacturers there. A few replied. One invited him to visit. Nguyen booked his first international flight, heading to Jakarta with a notebook, samples and a camera to document the trip — partly for posterity, mostly to show customers that he wasn’t slapping his name on a generic import. He wanted people to see the craft.

In July 2024, Forelinksgolf morphed into a different enterprise, focused only on gloves. Sales trickled in. Then came a buoyant review from a golf website. Orders surged. Inventory vanished.

The product itself was a point of pride: full-grain cabretta leather with a slightly thicker cut — around .50 mm — than the industry standard of .40 to .45 mm.

Forelinks gloves are designed to combine feel and durability.

Courtesy

“On paper, that probably doesn’t sound like a big difference,” Nguyen says.

On a hand, though, he says it translates into durable glove still fine enough to feel “like a second skin.” Nguyen won’t promise a specific lifespan, but he expects his gloves to last longer than leading brands. They retail for $27.99.

Nguyen thinks a lot about his business. He also thinks a lot about the boost he got when he was a kid first falling for the game. About a year ago, he reached out to Youth on Course, pitching a partnership through which he’d donate $2 from every sale to the organization. As Youth on Course has grown, so has the volume of such inquiries. Most don’t pan out.

“But Tyler’s was different,” says Michael Lowe, Youth on Course’s head of impact. “We serve so many young people, and we hope it has a positive impact on all of them. But his journey is truly remarkable. What’s better than an alumni starting his own brand? And donating so early in the company’s life. That’s not an easy thing to do.”

For Nguyen, it feels like a debt paid forward. And there’s more in his coffers than there once was to fund it. In 2024, Forelinksgolf did $10,000 in revenue. This year, Nguyen says, the company is on track for $150,000.

“We’re not trying to outpace the giants in this space,” Nguyen says. “We’re just trying to carve out our own lane, building on our story of community and trust.”

By “we,” he means himself. Though his parents sometimes pitch in with boxing and shipping, Nguyen is Forelinksgolf lone employee.

For now, he’s holding on to his other gigs as well, keeping a firm foothold in reality even as he pursues his dream. The company’s gloves are sold online and in three brick-and-mortar shops, including Santa Teresa. But Forelinksgolf’s logo — an infinity symbol — reflects the outlook of its founder, who sees golf as a game of endless possibility.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are or how big or strong you are,” he says. “You can make it a game for your life.”

You might even turn it into a business, one robust enough to outgrow a bedroom, replace the side gigs and inspire a nickname that isn’t meant entirely in jest.

Someday, Glove Father might actually fit.

Dan Brown was the bubble golfer. A month ago, 10 pros had earned 2026 PGA Tour cards via the DP World Tour’s points standings — and he was No. 11. He knew it, too. In an Instagram post, he wrote about his standing, also noting other near-misses.

He remembered something, though.

Not too long ago, he would’ve taken No. 12. Or 50.

Or whatever.

“When all is said and done,” he wrote, “I never actually thought ever in my life that I would reach this level.”

And now he’s No. 10.

This week, the PGA Tour confirmed that Laurie Canter, the previous 10th pro, had “declined” his membership, and that Brown had replaced him. The update came after Canter instead signed with the Majesticks team of LIV Golf, where he had played in events from 2022 to ’24.

“Joining Majesticks GC is an incredible opportunity to be part of a team that has helped shape LIV Golf from day one,” Canter said in a press release. “The league’s growth has been remarkable and my experience in the league has led me to become a more complete player and a multiple winner on the DP World Tour. To return to the league with Majesticks GC is a huge honor, and they bring a standard of excellence, ambition and identity that really resonates with me. I can’t wait to get started and contribute to what this team is building.”

The move then sends Brown to the PGA Tour.

This season, Brown posted six top 10s on the DP World Tour, and In July, he won the BMW International Open for his second career DP World Tour title. He’s also ranked 75th in the world. Last year, Brown memorably entered the final round of the Open Championship in a six-way tie for second before finishing tied for 10th. The run sparked a series of stories on the now-31-year-old Englishman, and you can read a few by clicking here and here.

Some takeaways from those? Brown’s father was in the pig business, and his mom was a mortgage advisor. Ping reps were among Brown’s fans, and Brown had forever been an Open Championship fan. And he smoked. After hitting his tee shot on the 18th hole during the third round of the 2024 Open, Brown lit up a cigarette, then took a selfie with some fans.

He also knows where he’s playing next year. On Instagram, Brown shared a few stories noting his move to 10th.

A dream update.

I didn’t go to Sicily in September to play golf. No one does.

I went to celebrate my wife’s birthday. A big one. Which meant food (don’t miss the arancini!) and romance and shopping and gazing at the beautiful hills and mountains. Sicily is a throwback. No strip malls. Very little fast food. Think The Godfather,which was shot there in 1971 (and which we’ll get to later), and Michael Corleone, hiding out on the cobblestone streets with his bodyguards until it was safe for him to return to America.

And yet despite the island’s bounty of riches, I still found myself unable to fully resist the siren call of one of Sicily’s lesser-known offerings: its golf courses.

There are only three regulation courses in Sicily but they’re diverse and scenic enough to seize any golfer’s attention. The golf part of my trip began at the magnificent Verdura Resort, on the southern coast about three hours from Palermo. The property has two top-shelf Kyle Phillips courses: the West and East, as well as a nine-hole par-3; Phillips is known for, among other designs, his work at Kingsbarns Golf Links in St. Andrews and Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, site of an annual DP World Tour event.

Verdura Resort sits hard on the coast.

getty images

I started on the West Course and quickly discovered that I didn’t bring my A game — or even my B or C game. Perhaps I was thinking too much about how abysmally my fellow Americans had performed the day before in the opening matches of the Ryder Cup. I so desperately wanted to show my playing partners, both congenial Italians, what Uncle Sam is capable of. Instead, I showed them niente. Nothing.

I could have easily blamed the conditions. It seemingly has not rained in this section of Sicily since Vito Corleone arrived at Ellis Island, so the fairways were thirsty.

Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the West Course, especially the closing three holes along the Mediterranean, where the biggest challenge was focusing on my game instead of staring at the sea, and the world beyond.

The East Course, which I played the following day, also is long on views. It is impossible to go wrong . . . no matter how much your game may let you down.

The starter told me I would be blown away by the par-3 13th.

The starter was right.

The hole is short, a little over 100 meters (about 109 yards) — but every step from tee to green is breathtaking.

With the sea to the left, I thought immediately of the par-3 7th at Pebble Beach, a hole so close to my heart that I’ve mulled having my ashes spread there. A great spot to rest in peace, don’t you think?

Behind the tee on No. 13 stood a rock with a plaque:

This is a magical place. Sit down and look as far away as possible. You will see things in your life and you will be able to understand them.

I didn’t have time to park and ponder. I had a par to make. (Which — spoiler alert! — I didn’t.)

Two days later, I returned to the same spot without my clubs. I sat on a bench next to the rock for half an hour, maybe more. I hoped for a deeper understanding of life, its trials and triumphs, and it soon occurred to me how little time any of us ever really have to pause and reflect; the world moves too fast.

The next par to make.

The next project to finish.

The next photo to post.

From Verdura, I made a three-hour trek through the Sicilian countryside to the lovely Ill Piccolo Etna Golf Resort. Nestled in the hills close to Mt. Etna — I had never played close to an active volcano (excluding a couple friends of mine) — the course required extreme accuracy. Not my forte.

Ill Piccolo Etna winds its way through the Sicilian countryside.

Michael Arkush

Yet, similar to Verdura, there are several memorable spots that encourage you to pause and soak it all in. Like No. 17, a narrow par-4 with Mt. Etna in the distance and little room for error. Think Harbour Town without the lighthouse.

Speaking of demanding precision, that sums up the drive I took the next day to the small town of Savoca, site of several Godfather scenes. The road was narrow and windy with more switchbacks than Lombard Street. The Italian drivers seemed unfazed, zipping down the hill at 40 or 50 miles an hour.

I was freaked out, going half that speed. My wife, too … happy birthday, dear!

Once we made it to town, I wondered if this was the understanding I had been seeking, something to do with the fragility of life and the adventures along the way, good and bad, you don’t see coming.

In Savoca, “Godfather” reminders are everywhere.

Michael Arkush

My wife I sat in Bar Vitelli, the café where Michael Corleone met the proud father of Apollonia, whom he would later marry. Photographs from the film were everywhere. So were tourists well versed in the setting’s place in cinematic history. We walked up the hill to the Church of San Nicolo, where Corleone’s wedding took place. The church felt more like a shrine to the movie that put this town on the map.

After a few days on the island, we headed to the mainland, to Venice and later Rome for more romance and museums.

At my wife’s urging, I left my clubs in Sicily (figuratively, anyway) and, yep, took the cannoli.

So many things in life seem easy to the uninitiated. Juggling. Unicycling. Giving a toast. Playing golf. And, yes, to some golfers even, building a golf course.

A nice piece of land with pretty views, a bulldozer, 18 flags — what’s so complicated? World Top 100 here we come! Thankfully, your accountant, spouse, employer and so on will quash such Keiser-esque visions, because creating any course, never mind a great one, is hugely complex and fraught with danger — not unlike juggling chain saws on a unicycle while giving a toast.

A world-class course can easily run into the tens of millions of dollars. Here’s a quick primer on the process.

SITE SELECTION

Finding an enticing piece of land for golf with sufficient acreage (120 minimum for 18 holes) is tough enough — but that’s just the starting point and likely involves real estate brokers and lawyers, who don’t work pro bono. The question then becomes: Is it feasible? The answer comes down to the golden rule of real estate: location, location, location. Meaning, firstly, is there a market for your would-be course? Is there sufficient demand locally, regionally, nationally or internationally? Research and possibly specialist consultants can determine if you’re answering a need beyond your ego or building a snowball for hell.

Then there’s location as it bears on the physical qualities of the land as well as growing conditions. Rolling hills are nice, but suitability involves more than topography. Soils, water availability, drainage, geology and vegetation must be considered. Oh, and then there’s potential environmental and legal restrictions, the local infrastructure and service provider situation, never mind safety issues and other possible hurdles and conflicts.

DUE DILIGENCE

Think you’ve found a winning site? Great. You’ll likely either acquire an option to purchase the land or make an agreement to do so with a specified due diligence period. That means going through title insurance, figuring out if there are any deeds or liens and such on the land. Also, site surveys to make sure there aren’t ancient burial grounds or endangered salamanders to consider. Due diligence is an expensive proposition, involving several experts and often hundreds of thousands of dollars just to figure out if you want to make this long-term commitment.

“Development costs can be insane,” says renowned architect David McLay Kidd of Bandon Dunes (Top 100 World No. 85), Nanea (Top 100 U.S. No. 83) and Gamble Sands (Top 100 U.S. No. 100) fame. “Pre-construction/development costs are very location dependent and in no way associated with the quality of the site. You could have a great site that costs the earth to get a permit, or a terrible site that’s supercheap, or vice versa. But the construction costs are somewhat linear. The better the site, the lower the cost.”

The surprising thing is the attention to detail needed,” says 8AM Golf ’s Trey Marucci. “You’re dealing with a couple hundred acres and sitting there measuring: Are we 100 feet or 103 on the green complex for the PrecisionAire [system]? Those little details matter for something so big.

PERMITTING

Presumably, you’ve checked with the zoning board already, so it knows your plan, but you’ll still need an official sign-off on it. There will be a number of permitting hurdles to clear — related to streams, wetlands, wildlife and trees, just to name a few — at both the state and federal level. Without sign-off from multiple agencies, you will be DOA. Welcome to your new reality. For our developer, Trey Marucci, hard at work on Bounty Club, a nascent private club in Nashville, it took almost two years to go through the permitting process, which can be patience-testing and expensive too, given the costs of a civil engineer on the payroll as well as specialists to support the engineer.

“Making sure you’re doing everything by the book is one of the biggest challenges in the process,” says Marucci, who is overseeing the project for 8AM Golf. “There are a lot of books out there, and you must read them all. One regulatory authority wants X, the other regulatory authority wants Y, and sometimes those two things might be in conflict.”

golf

PICKING AN ARCHITECT

Unless you’re a DIY lunatic, you’ll require a course architect. How many you solicit plans from is up to you. The top names might well be busy, and they’ll for sure be pricey — anywhere from the high six figures to the low(ish) seven figures. Anyone you do contact will likely ask for a pin so they can first check the site on Google Earth.

“Back in the days of Donald Ross, they’d stick him on a train, and it would be the first he’d seen of it,” says Brian Curley, veteran designer of layouts from Palm Springs (The Plantation Course) to China (Mission Hills). “Nowadays, between the topo and Google Earth and drone images, I’ve already kind of got it figured out before I set foot on a property.”

Assuming no red flags like, say, not enough acreage or it’s in a FEMA floodplain, some architects will go put boots on the ground.

“If I know the developer is real, then they’re not paying for me to go look — I am,” says McLay Kidd. “It’s hard to get someone to pay and then tell them no. That feels really bad, so I generally don’t charge to go see a site.”

… AND PICKING A PLAN

Architects will eventually give you a (probably rudimentary) development idea, a (ditto) budget and a proposal that includes their design fee. Eventually, you’ll choose the one you prefer and sign a contract. At this point, the designer starts putting more flesh on the bone in all the different components of course construction — earth-clearing, demolition, earth-moving, materials needed, irrigation and so on. From this, the budget gets refined. Going from preliminary design to detailed design will likely take a few months.

“Courses can cost wildly different amounts,” says McLay Kidd. “In only the last three years we’ve built courses for under $10 million and well over $20 million. The main difference is the suitability of the site when you start.

“Including all fees and the grow-in costs,” he adds, “$1 million per hole is a reasonable ballpark figure.”

What drives up the cost? Features, mainly. “Bunkering, water features and landscaping,” says Curley. “Those are the three line items where an owner might say, ‘Oh, no, I just need a basic thing.’ Otherwise, irrigation is irrigation, cart paths are cart paths, grass is grass.”

PICKING A BUILDER

While there are some design-build firms that handle both jobs, more often you’ll bid out the job to a few of the specialist golf course construction firms like Heritage Links, LaBar Golf Renovations or Landscapes Golf Management.

You’ll pick one based on schedule, the architect’s relationships and experience with them and price, although they’re unlikely to vary much. Things generally cost what they cost.

At the King-Collins–designed Bounty Club, a ground crew sprigs the 14th green.

DJ Lantz

BUILDING THE THING

Hands on? Hands off? Some degree of collaboration between the developer and the architect is always there. No plan perfectly mirrors the end product, and issues and changes are inevitable. Communication structures vary; some owners employ project managers for day-to-day contact, others are involved hour by hour themselves.

Sometimes it’s a committee. And some — well, maybe one or two — are essentially hands-off.

CONSTRUCTION

The architect oversees the construction crew and will spend time on-site — how much varies, and associates will be there otherwise, but they’re all there to read the plans and interpret them because, as McLay Kidd notes, “there’s a lot of interpretation. Some architects follow the plans quite closely, some barely follow them at all. So, the contractor is working hand in glove with the architect to realize the course and hopefully follow the budget and bring it together inside the original estimates.”

WATER, POWER

“Where you start the process is at your irrigation lake,” Curley says. “Number one is: Where are we going to have water available so we can start irrigation as soon as possible? And you’ve got to get power to your irrigation lake. The building process doesn’t go in a binary, yes/no fashion — it’s overlapping and interconnected. The construction schedule might have to do with just how you get the equipment around. A lot of factors determine the construction sequence. But one thing is inviolable: Drainage always comes before irrigation. Because drainage is gravity flow. You have to keep a constant flow going. Irrigation can be laid on top of drainage because irrigation is pressurized.”

golf

SEQUENCING

That sequence starts with “rough grading” — moving dirt around with big equipment — then shifts to feature shaping. Which gets done twice: pre-irrigation and post-irrigation, because after irrigation the features need to be put back together and cleaned up.

“Once irrigation’s in, it’s a full-court press,” Curley says. Depending on planting windows to grow grass — Montana’s, say, is a lot tighter than Malaysia’s — and the time frame, the tension can ramp up considerably.

PRAY FOR GOOD WEATHER

Weather delays inevitably mean an increase in cost; people’s time is money, and so are resources like bulldozers sitting idle. A good architect and builder will do what they can to mitigate such expenses, but there are limits to fighting Mother Nature’s budget busters.

THE GROW-IN

Going from something in the shape of a golf course to an actual golf course means growing grass. That’s not on the contractor or the architect (who may stay involved, keeping an eye on mowing lines and other bits of fine-tuning). That’s the superintendent’s job, responsible to the developer. It might take six months to a year for the grow-in to be completed. And if you think growing grass is as simple as watching grass grow, well, you haven’t been paying very close attention.

Golf is ringing in the holiday season on a gifting spree — and what’s beneath the tree? Ah, yes: sweet, sweet made-for-TV competition. The latest offering, the return of the Skins Game, aired for audiences on Amazon Prime on Black Friday.

The Skins Game had some strong moments following the footsteps of its predecessors, including The Match and last year’s The Showdown. But like many things in the golf world, the event also drew criticism from fans who found the format stale and competition uninspiring.

The book was closed on the Skins Game by 1 p.m. or so ET, but the genre of made-for-TV events is here to stay. So what would theGOLF.com team do to spruce up the fun? We dive in below.

James Colgan, news and features editor (@jamescolgan26): Well, Sean, we finally did it: We’re fixing television by bringing back the written word.

Sean Zak, senior writer (@sean_zak):Hahaha, yeah…

James:In all seriousness, I assembled us here because I wanted a chance to talk about the Skins Game. I thought the broadcast was … solid! And that’s certainly better than nothing for Black Friday morning. But I don’t think it’s offensive to say the experience didn’t exactly blow my socks off. Before we set our chainsaws to anything, let’s practice a little holiday cheer: What was something you likedabout Amazon’s golf debut?

Sean:I liked that we gave up on using AirPods. All four players were mic’d up but not one of them knew what the broadcast booth was saying. They were just playing, with Xander electing to be the foil to Tommy Fleetwood’s easy cool, to egg on Shane Lowry against Keegan Bradley, to grab the mic from Colt Knost at times. As much as it’s nice to have broadcasters occasionally communicating back and forth with players, I think letting the players just be the players simplified it a lot … so long as you have a Xander pulling some strings himself.

James:And I’ll say this: I enjoyed the broadcast team. Andrew Catalon is preposterously underrated as a golf broadcaster, and Colt Knost earned his Thanksgiving leftovers after handling an enormous load as the telecast’s on-course analyst (and hoofing it for all 18 holes!).

Sean:To me, that’s what a lot of made-for-TV golf productions have been. Some good actors! Some half-relevant golf. A lot of internal hype about what’s different this time around. But count ‘em up. We’ve seen a lot of iterations in recent memory.

James: Yeah, I think it’s important to remember that made-for-TV golf did recently reinvent the wheel for golf on television. A lot of people forget that drone tracers and mic’d players and on-course interviews were pipe dreamsin the golf world when The Match arrived on the scene seven years ago. Now, in no small part thanks to made-for-TV golf, they are a part of our everyday experience.

Sean:True and accurate as that reminder is … I do think the form hasn’t exactly leapt forward as much as it has inched forward. Which, I guess, is why we’re chatting right now.

James:Yes! So I’ve tasked us each with bringing three innovations YOU would enact that’d launch us forward in golf TV. I’ll let you start.

Sean:I wouldn’t call it an innovation by any means, but simply getting and staying on brand with what the event is or at least want to be feels so crucial to gathering meaningful attention. By that I mean, do not let Peter Jacobsen tell me that Keegan Bradley is treating putts in this event like he treats putts at the Masters; there isn’t a golf fan on the planet who is ready to walk down that path of belief, so make sure the message stays on message. Knost’s interviews were friendly and light-hearted, which matched the mood of the players. But then there also was the competing notion, which was shared at times, that these pros will do anything to beat each other. I mean, Tommy Fleetwood ripped into town from Dubai and raced back home, without enough time for a practice round. This ain’t cuttin’ teeth!

So, in short, please make it about one thing and keep it about that one thing. That just might be enough to bring some focused meaning to those five hours we’ll spend together.

James:I always think about golf TV in terms of three buckets: The diehard fan, the median fan and the casual fan. I think made-for-TV golf has figured out the casual fan. In made-for-TV golf’s mind, the casual golf fan is a facsimile of the average American: They want funny jokes and cool visuals and players competing for lots of dough. That’s how you get the Skins Game.

I’m less sure that made-for-TV golf has figured out the diehard or even the median golf fan. How does tuning in make you smarter? How do you learn something about playing the game from the pros? How does it take you DEEPER into the lives of pro golfers?

In some ways, this should be the easiest place for made-for-TV golf to experiment: There is OODLES of time between the tee and green on every hole and only a handful of players. Why not throw in a swing instructor? Or bring back some version of Ken Brown’s “Brownie Points” segment? Or source swing tips from the players watching at home? These are just three top-of-mind ideas, but I think anything catering to the diehards will catch on. Sean, what’s your second fix?

Sean:I was going to suggest something like that! The roving nature of Knost felt ever-present, which is good, but I also felt myself wanting to learn more. When Keegan Bradley is talking about trying to hit this long-iron fade, and Xander Schauffele is chiding him for trying to hit a long-iron fade, it would be great to see a broadcast force Keegan to explain that for the viewer in with as much detail as possible. I’ve had Xander and Tommy give me instruction tips before — this is their expertise! Forcing them to share it, in the moment, as they size up a shot, feels perfectly fair given the amount of money they’re receiving.

James:My second shift is simple: Why does this video have to be live? I know we’re prisoners of the moment here, and there are some intrinsic advantages to live competition, but why not follow in the footsteps of the Internet Invitational and hire editors who can craft a story that moves? I heard Knost loud and clear when he pointed out on X that the Black Friday air date made it hard for the broadcast to lure interesting guests — so why not experiment with a different filming date that is polished for TV to air on Black Friday?

Sean:That would cure one of the things that ailed this broadcast: how frequently producers had to dump the audio for five seconds because they brought in a Grade-A cusser like Shane Lowry. I think my final innovation is also a hat-tip to YouTube Golf: get two-man teams to band together and take on the world — i.e., get Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas to say “We’re in” for win-or-go-home matches, as many as you want to do, against other notable duos. JT and Spieth vs. Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler. Winner takes on Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa. Winner of that takes on Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood, or — gasp! — Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton. These events are often organized via interest from a sponsor, the desires of one or two TV execs, and involve whichever pros are around, vaguely interested and available. If two players showed some genuine zest for trying to hold (and retain) the championship belt, I could start to envision a longer runway. (Footnote: This stems entirely from JT and Spieth being endlessly entertaining against Tiger Woods and McIlroy a couple years back.)

James:My third fix is also pretty simple: Better venues. Truly great golf courses are what elevate the U.S. Open every year, but there are dozens of truly great golf courses that don’t possess the infrastructure to host a major event (and dozens more with truly crazy visuals that also add to the fun). Make thosecourses the centerpiece of the experience in the same way as the pros. Star power can’t only be found on the OWGR!

Zak:I’m with you there. Panther National is a rollicking time, but it’s just not that relatable (yet) because it’s not known. I can’t go play it. You can’t, either. But that’s a completely different can of worms that complicates things. Panther National’s private, wide-open nature is exactly what helped it host this enterprise. I’m not sure what Southern course is the perfect setting for future Black Friday matches, but it needs to have plenty of space to make this dream-like production come to fruition.

The PGA Tour’s 2025 season just ended. So did the DP World Tour’s 2025 season. So how is there a PGA Tour event this week — and two DP World Tour events? Why are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland each headlining different events? And what does it mean, like, big picture?

Welcome to the strangest week of the professional golf schedule.

(I think. There’s plenty of competition.)

I’m writing to you from the Bahamas, where I’ve bravely ventured to spend a few days covering the Hero World Challenge and scouting local tiki bars. But you could argue I should have flown the other direction instead. Let’s take a quick peek at this week’s three events — and what makes each one intriguing.

1. Tiger’s Tournament (ft. Scottie Scheffler)

The Hero World Challenge is Tiger Woods’ tournament; he has served as enthusiastic host for a quarter-century and every year top pros have flocked to join him and try (in vain, for a bunch of those years) to beat him, too. Woods isn’t playing but this year’s event boasts another strong field, headlined by World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and backed up by Ryder Cuppers like J.J. Spaun, Bob MacIntyre, Cameron Young, Sam Burns, Justin Rose — you get the idea.

There’s plenty of reason to pay attention to the Hero, particularly if your NFL team has already careened from playoff contention. The action really began Tuesday morning, when Woods held a press conference and took questions from on-site media, addressing (and softly sidestepping) hot-button topics like his potential participation on the PGA Tour Champions, his work on the Tour’s Future Competitions Committee, his looming 50th birthday and more.

On the course it’ll be fun to see if Scottie Scheffler can three-peat at Albany, if Keegan Bradley can continue his silly-season superiority, if Spaun can put a cap on a dream season, how Jordan Spieth looks in his first start in almost four months.

Still, with Scheffler the only top-five talent in attendance it’s fair to describe this as a slightly lower-wattage playing of the Hero than we’re used to. That’s partly a result of natural turnover at the top of the game — but it’s something else, too.

So who’s missing?

The big names who aren’t playing despite teeing it up here in years past include LIV pros (think Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Tyrrell Hatton), PGA Tour pros taking a break (think Tommy Fleetwood, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Ludvig Aberg), others whose rankings have slipped outside qualification (Max Homa, Will Zalatoris, Adam Scott) and even Woods’ pal Justin Thomas, who’s recovering from back surgery. But there are also notable pros playing elsewhere, like Rory McIlroy, Joaquin Niemann and Scott in Australia as well as Viktor Hovland and Zalatoris in South Africa.

Speaking of which…

2. Africa’s Major (ft. Viktor Hovland)

In recent years we’ve seen pros like Max Homa and Justin Thomas venture to South Africa; you can guess at the appearance fee structure of the Nedbank Golf Challenge but they seem to snag a couple top-tier pros every year.

This week that includes Viktor Hovland, who enters as the tournament favorite and whose quest for global domination rolls on after a stop in India in October.

South Africa has been a golf hub for generations, the birthplace of major champions from Gary Player and Bobby Locke through Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Louis Oosthuizen on down. There’s a reason LIV has been leaning into its South African contingent and will host its first event there next year — this feels like a place with untapped potential.

So although this week’s event includes some of the DP World Tour’s top talent (the likes of Marco Penge, Thorbjorn Olesen, Kristoffer Reitan) and some of South Africa’s current best (Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Garrick Higgo, Thriston Lawrence, Christo Lamprecht) and some strong Tour players (Hovland, Zalatoris, Nick Taylor) plus LIV pros (Tom McKibbin, Laurie Canter, Aldrich Potgieter) it’s easy to wonder, if it stood alone on the calendar, what that might look like.

Instead it’s a co-sanctioned event between the Sunshine Tour and the DP World Tour, and it’s competing directly with…

3. Australian Open (ft. Rory McIlroy)

This is a big one because it’s at Royal Melbourne, one of the best golf courses in the entire world and a terrific watch. It’s a big one because it’s the return of the Aussie Open’s original format. It’s a big one because for the first time there’s a Masters invite on the line. And it’s a big one because Rory McIlroy’s in town, the reigning Masters champ making his return Down Under for the first time in a decade.

The Aussie contingent is out in full force, too, from PGA Tour players Adam Scott, Min Woo Lee and Cam Davis to LIV guys Cameron Smith, Marc Leishman and Lucas Herbert. Other top LIV pros are here, too, chasing that Masters invite: Niemann, David Puig, Carlos Ortiz, Abraham Ancer and more. Other PGA Tour players have made the trek, too, from Si Woo Kim to Matt McCarty to Charley Hoffman.

But there’s no denying the multiplier effect of McIlroy coming to town. Front Office Sports detailed his world travels; this week will mark his 22nd start in nine different countries. And Aussie Open tournament director Antonia Beggs said interest from fans and sponsors alike is through the roof as they expect 100,000 fans for the week ahead.

“Everything that was last year has probably multiplied by about 5 or 10 times,” Beggs told FOS.

This is a DP World Tour event, too, co-sanctioned with the Australasian Tour; while the PGA Tour has gone away from a wraparound schedule, the DPWT has a handful of 2026 events before the 2026 even begins.

Golf’s global reminder

What does all of this mean? Mostly it’s a reminder that there are more competing interests than ever from across the globe for these guys’ time and talents. Sure, we’re in a PGA Tour offseason lull, but there’s more of everything else than ever. There are other ways to compete (and make money) beyond the boundaries of 72-hole stroke play, too: Xander Schauffele played last week’s Skins Game, Shane Lowry will play the Optum Golf Channel Games in a couple weeks, Jon Rahm is filming some sort of Krispy Kreme Challenge YouTube video. Would more pros be playing the Hero if TGL’s second season wasn’t right around the corner?

This all comes in the context of Harris English’s comments last week about the potential for a reduced-size 20-event PGA Tour schedule. New Tour CEO Brian Rolapp addressed those comments, confirming it’s something they’re considering as they steer clear of the NFL schedule. But it’s also a reminder that even outside the bounds of a busy PGA Tour schedule players will continue adding events.

A reduced schedule would have one potential benefit: it could allow golf’s non-PGA Tour schedule to make a little more sense. Australia’s biggest event shouldn’t run the same week as South Africa’s biggest event, especially when Tiger Woods’ exclusive event is that very same week, too.

But the safer short-term bet is that things will only continue to get more complex. From shifting schedules to additional golf-adjacent events to LIV golfers and DPWT fines, they’re continuing to build the plane as they fly it.

In the meantime, sit back and enjoy the golf. There should be something from every time zone.

Pretty good for the offseason.

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

The golfer Fuzzy Zoeller, who has died aged 74, won two majors – the US Masters in 1979 and the US Open in 1984, both by virtue of a playoff. His Masters success was especially notable for the fact that it was Zoeller’s debut in the competition, making him the first golfer since 1935 (and still only the third) to win on his first appearance. He won the sudden-death playoff against Tom Watson and Ed Sneed with a par and a birdie, sinking a six-foot putt on the second extra hole and hurling his putter high into the airas the ball disappeared into the cup.

Zoeller’s US Open victory at Winged Foot five years later was remembered for his light-hearted interaction with his play-off rival, Greg Norman. When Norman holed a lengthy putt on the last of the 72 holes, Zoeller, who was behind him on the fairway, mistakenly thought the Australian had gone into the lead, and waved a white towel in mock surrender. But Norman’s putt had only drawn him level, and Zoeller was able to secure a par on the last to maintain parity. During the subsequent 18-hole playoff, which Zoeller won by eight strokes, Norman returned the gesture by flapping his own white towel at the 18th.

As well as those two big wins, Zoeller picked up eight other PGA tour victories in the US. He was also runner-up at the 1981 USPGA tournament in Duluth, Georgia, third in the 1994 Open championship at Turnberry, and played in three Ryder Cups, in 1979, 1983 and 1985, although he had a terrible record in that competition, losing eight of his 10 matches, with just one win and one draw.

Born Frank Urban Zoeller in New Albany, Indiana, to Frank Sr, an executive at a wood veneer business, and his wife, Alma (nee Cummings), he was known as Fuzzy from an early age, on account of his initials. He started playing golf at the age of three, and shone in the sport at New Albany high school, Edison Junior College in Florida, and Houston University in Texas, before turning professional in 1973.

He earned his USPGA tour card the following year and after a modest first season improved vastly in his second with four top 10 finishes, two of which were in the runner-up slot. A quick player, he was easygoing on the fairways and could often be seen whistling and cracking jokes with the crowd.

Considered long off the tee in those days, Zoeller subsequently put himself into a number of good positions to win, but had begun to gain a reputation as something of a choker until his first win came in 1979, at the San Diego Open. Ten weeks later he won the Masters at the age of 27, taking advantage of a collapse by Sneed, who had looked to be the winner before bogeying the last three holes. “I’ve never been to heaven, and, thinking back on my life, I probably won’t get a chance to go,†Zoeller joked. “But I guess winning the Masters is as close as I’m going to get.â€

At the 1984 US Open, Zoeller had a three-stroke lead after nine holes of the final round, but Norman had drawn level by the 17th. On the 18th, Norman hit his approach shot into the stands, but after receiving relief without penalty chipped to 45ft from the flag and holed the par putt. It was then that Zoeller, standing in the group behind and believing Norman had just registered a birdie, waved his white towel. The playoff on the following day turned out to be heavily one-sided, with Zoeller leading by five shots after nine holes, and stretching the distance by a further three on the back half. The following year Zoeller was given the USPGA’s 1985 Bob Jones award for distinguished sportsmanship.

After that second major there were expectations of more to come. But Zoeller’s momentum slowed, and his next tournament victory, at the Anheuser-Busch golf classic in Virginia in 1986, proved to be his last on the main US tour, at the age of 34 – although he did have five top 10 finishes in the majors between 1986 and 1994.

In 1997, in the twilight of his career, Zoeller’s fondness for wisecracking embroiled him in controversy as Tiger Woods became the first black player to win a major – at the Masters. Relaxing with a drink in the Augusta clubhouse, Zoeller was collared by a CNN journalist looking for some off-the-cuff thoughts about Woods’ imminent victory. While he praised Woods’ performance, he also jokingly referred to the 21-year-old as “a little boy†and said he hoped that he would not be choosing fried chicken and collard greens for the celebratory champions dinner.

Although he swiftly apologised for the racial stereotyping – and Woods later brushed aside the incident – Zoeller found it difficult to repair the damage to his reputation, which led to the loss of lucrative sponsorship deals and caused him anguish for years.

In 2002 he joined the over-50s Champions Tour in the US, winning the Senior PGA Championship in Ohio in 2002 and the Mastercard Championship in Hawaii in 2004 before playing his last event in 2017. He also designed golf courses, and enjoyed hunting and fishing.

Zoeller’s wife, Diane (nee Thornton), whom he married in 1976, died in 2021. He is survived by their children, Sunnye, Heidi, Gretchen and Miles.

Frank (Fuzzy) Urban Zoeller, golfer, born 11 November 1951; died 27 November 2025

If you’re anything like me, you struggled to find space on your plate Thursday, between the bird and the mashed and the green bean casserole. Thanksgiving dinner (and the ensuing seconds or thirds) is best when the meal just becomes a mess of everything, touching every corner of the plate.

But perhaps you also struggled to find space at the table. Maybe you were elbowed out of the way by Uncle Pete. Or maybe there was just a bit more room at the Kids Table, so you went there instead. Thanksgiving often serves that reminder — that there are more hungry people than there are placemats. Some people get relegated to the TV trays in the living room. It’s exactly what’s happening in pro golf, too.

The subdued, but no less important, news of the week came from a non-Thanksgiving part of the world — London — where the DP World Tour clarified it will be cutting the number of full status memberships on offer for 2027, following a very similar path recently charted by the PGA Tour. The European version of the Korn Ferry Tour, known as the Hotel Planner Tour, will also have fewer spots offered to graduates for the next step up in pro golf.

These moves mimic the same treatment made, quite controversially, by the PGA Tour, which cut its number of full cards from 125 to 100 this season. You probably have heard about all of that, so why should you care about this DP World Tour news? What does it tell us?

The move reiterates that, just two or three years ago, there were too many open seats at the dinner table. That there were too many spots on offer in the game’s biggest tours, and for tournament operations to be streamlined, and for the stakes to increase, and for the best players to benefit even more, a few placemats needed removing.

For many years, the DP World Tour has offered full status membership to 110 players from the previous year’s Race to Dubai standings, its equivalent to the FedEx Cup. But moving forward, that number will now be just 100. The feeder tour beneath it will decrease its number of graduates from 20 to 15. All of it serves as a cinching of access to ensure anyone who has earned full status absolutely gets into every tournament they want to for the upcoming season.

The biggest pro golf fans will have remembered that, in 2024, players will full PGA Tour status who had graduated from the DP World Tour or the Korn Ferry Tour were largely left on the outside looking in on popular spring events like the WM Phoenix Open. The unintentional message sent to these graduates was Congrats on joining the PGA Tour, now wait your turn for a tee time. DP World Tour CEO Guy Kinnings found his tour running into the same issue.

“We’ve had little working groups working on it all year,” Kinnings told Martin Dempster of The Scotsman, “and, if you can give those players who have earned their playing privilege through whatever different route it may be, that greater level of scheduling certainty and more balanced opportunities, that’s what we are aspiring to.”

When the PGA Tour dropped from 125 to 100, and the DP World Tour from 110 to 100, pro golfers on the margins were bound to dislike it, and Tour executives know it. Kinnings himself said the move, noted the “nothing we do will please everyone.” But there is a hidden purpose to these moves that those executives won’t often discuss: it further striates the ranks of the game in simple a way that raises the stakes. When there is an obvious hierarchy among the tours worldwide, with sharper edges than ever before, the golf played by individuals on those margins increases in entertainment value.

Players on the PGA Tour saw that just last week when those top 100 card-carrying members were finalized at the RSM Classic. Those on the outside looking in won’t find it difficult to earn their way into events, but they have surrendered full autonomy of setting their schedule. They’ll need to assess how many players ranked higher than them want to play, say, the Valspar Championship, before they know they can add it to their schedule. The same now goes for the DP World Tour and its popular events, like the Irish Open.

The main problem to some isn’t so much a problem to everyone. With less guaranteed to the players on the margins, some will entertain other options. Victor Perez, who played his way off the PGA Tour in 2025, recently committed to LIV Golf for his 2026 season. That’s no issue for the DP World Tour, particularly as Perez will retain his membership there, but Perez noted how he felt the goalposts were shifting on the PGA Tour. And to some extent, he’s absolutely correct. Pro golf at large has certainly shrunk the size of its dinner tables, all while the amount food on each continues to increase. All of which means is you better play well enough to guarantee yourself a seat.

Take a look at your email inbox — it’s that buying time of year. When it seems every brand in the world discounts their gear to encourage you into flashing that plastic. And you know what? It often works. On behalf of GOLF.com’s editorial staff, I’ll be doing much the same thing. But these are just my absolute favorites — the items that have entered or defined my golf gear in 2025 … and will be difficult to replace in 2026.

Titleist T150 4-iron, $215

Mid-summer I was fitted into T100 Titleist irons, which comfortably replaced a set of 10-year-old Mizuno blades. The one thing I’ve never really been able to do? Lift and launch the longest iron in the bag. The 4-iron. But I got fitted into a T150 4-iron — a higher-launching step up from the bladey T100s — to just really help get that ball up into the air, and the results are delightful. I feel that club will be in the bag for a very long time. And the good thing for you? It’s at the end of the bag, so you can easily add it to your full set of other irons and feel good about it complementing your current set.

Titleist 2025 T150 Custom Irons

T150 Irons are crafted for added distance with unwavering accuracy. Forged into a player’s shape with progressive blade lengths, T150 offers a precise blend of speed, stability, and consistency—providing the confidence to hit and hold greens from anywhere.  
Confidence-Inspiring Forged Design 
Forged into a player’s shape with a slightly larger head size for pure feel with extra stability.
Elevated Ball Speed
1° stronger lofts (vs. T100) combine with an improved muscle channel through 7-iron and lower long-iron CG to help improve speed, launch, and carry.
Superior Flight and Stability 
Split high-density tungsten produces optimal CG with remarkable stability for precise shotmaking.
Consistent Speed & Spin  
New VFT technology and progressive groove design provide consistent spin and speed across the face in variable conditions.

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Reebok Men’s Club C Shoes, $100

As a golf writer, one of the most important elements of my job is trudging one yard inside the ropes, skirting around bunkers, walking through fescue and heavy rough, all in search of an angle to the action that people aren’t getting at home. All of which means, I often suit up with spikeless golf shoes at tournaments, and if I find a pair that are particularly comfy, I’m sticking with them for years at a time. These Reebok classic-styled golf shoes were on my feet all year long, from Augusta to Portrush and Bethpage. I probably played golf with them maybe 5% of the time, but used them on 90% of my days. At just $100, they’re extremely affordable, too.

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Reebok Club C

These men’s Reebok shoes transform court heritage into a course-ready design. The water-resistant leather upper is super-soft and premium, and a golf-specific spikeless outsole grips tight from the fairway to the green.

Jones Player Bag, discounted to $93

I’ve probably shouted out this set of golf bag half a dozen times, but I don’t regret it. It’s far more affordable and nimble than any other bag I’ve come around. Sure, it lacks the stand that a lot of people look for, but it takes up next to no space in the trunk. It encourages minimalism while still having plenty of storage space. No, you don’t need to carry a dozen golf balls. No, you don’t need pockets for all kinds of outerwear. But if you are playing in a breezy Irish wind, you can pack it as tightly as you’d like and still save plenty of room for tees.

Players Series – Charcoal

Simplify and golf. The Players Series bag embodies the Jones motto by naturally appealing to those who prefer to experience the course on foot. With minimal and understated aesthetics, it equips you with everything you need in a golf bag. Three pockets provide ample storage for enough necessities to keep you covered for a round or two. The enhanced mesh sleeve will now accommodate larger water bottles to keep you hydrated, and the re-enforced inner liner will withstand the abuse from the walking golfer. Step up your style by simplifying your bag with Jones Players Series.
The new R-series features a recycled, ripstop material, woven from 100% PET single-use plastic bottles. The most innovative, durable, and water-resistant fabric to date, the R-series supports Jones’ commitment towards a more sustainable future. Tested and proven in the ever-changing climate of the Pacific Northwest.

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