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It turns out there’s still a place for what amounts to the \u201csilly season\u201d in golf.
\nThe\u00a0Skins Game returned\u00a0under a slightly different format \u2014 held on Black Friday instead of the weekend after Thanksgiving, and a reverse purse that added to the stakes. It wasn’t as must-see as when it began in the 1980s, but it was a fun option before football started.
\nThe\u00a0Grant Thornton Invitational\u00a0is now mixed team, a big improvement.
\nNext up might be the most compelling of all. The \u201cGolf Channel Games\u201d makes its debut Wednesday night at Trump National in West Palm Beach, Florida, featuring teams led by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy, the two biggest names in golf.
\nThey will compete for points in five competitions, most of them where time is a factor, that include a driving grid, chipping and putting, and a 14-club challenge in which a club is out of the rotation once it has been used.
\n\u201cJust the opportunity to showcase our game in a different way,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cSort of lean into other sports in a way, like the NFL combine or the 3-pointer contest in basketball or the Home Run Derby in baseball. It’s just a chance to try something new.\u201d
\nMcIlroy’s team features his Ryder Cup captain, Luke Donald, best mate Shane Lowry and Haotong Li of China, who rarely lacks for entertainment. Scheffler has his Ryder Cup captain, Keegan Bradley, best mate Sam Burns and Luke Clanton.
\nThe time clock should keep it moving \u2014 two minutes for the driving challenge, three for the short game and one format of alternate shot with players positioned on the tee, fairway and two around the green. Lowest score in the shortest amount of time wins.
\n\u201cI think it’s going to be a fun way to compete at the end of the year for us, in a time where there’s not a ton of stuff on the golf calendar,” Scheffler said.
\nBoth team captains are geared for this. Scheffler is renowned for competing in all sorts of games with the older pros at Royal Oaks, whether it was a putting contest or trying to hit the pole on the driving range.
\nThe 14-club challenge has his attention, especially if a putter is all that’s left for a full shot.
\n\u201cI\u2019ll probably try and use a backup putter for the 14-club challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m definitely not going to be out on the range ripping full putters trying to figure out that shot. I’m just going to figure that one out as naturally as possible within the competition.\u201d
\nMcIlroy said he grew up playing two balls and kept the worst score and best score on each hole. And he recalled some fun games they did during commercial shoots, one in particular.
\n\u201cThey actually made me do a flop shot over Tiger, and I was probably as nervous as I’ve been in a long time,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cHis body is already banged up. I didn’t want to add to it.\u201d
\nTwo players are worth noting at the\u00a0Mauritius Open this week\u00a0with the Masters on their minds.
\nRyan Gerard is No. 57 in the world ranking and likely would need to finish fourth to move into the top 50 in the final ranking and earn a spot at Augusta National. Dan Brown of England is No. 72 and would have to win to have a chance.
\nOtherwise, Sam Stevens would hang on for a top-50 spot. That would give the Masters field five American professionals who have yet to win on the PGA Tour.
\nLaurie Canter played the inaugural season on LIV Golf when he didn\u2019t have full status on the European tour. When there was no room for him in the Saudi-funded league, he returned to the European tour, won enough to crack the top 50 in the world and this year earned one of the 10 PGA Tour cards through his finish on the Race to Dubai.
\nAnd then he\u00a0turned down the PGA Tour and joined LIV Golf, but not without plenty of thought into his future.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re weighing up all these things,\u201d Canter told The Times of London. \u201cWhere am I going to play my best golf and how do I feel I can do that and be compensated in the best way that I can? But it is also the lifestyle.\u201d
\nCanter said the PGA Tour is \u201cprobably the pinnacle of tour golf,\u201d but that he still enjoys playing in Europe and the Englishman is \u201cpassionate about playing events in the DP World Tour.\u201d
\n\u201cIf you\u2019re going out to play on the PGA Tour and you can live in America, that\u2019s obviously achievable,\u201d he told The Times. \u201cBut at this point, I don\u2019t want a life like that. My family is happy and settled where they are. I have two daughters (ages 3 and 1). Travelling back and forth to America 30 weeks of the year isn\u2019t sustainable.\u201d
\nKevin Hall has been chosen by his peers to receive the APGA Adrian Stills Award, which comes with a $25,000 award to support golf and $10,000 he gets for the charity of his choice.
\nStills co-founded the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour in 2010.
\nHall, a former Big 10 Conference champion at Ohio State, has stayed in the game despite being deaf since he was 2. The Cincinnati native has been part of the APGA Tour since the start. The circuit is dedicated to inspiring an inclusive future in golf.
\nHall, 43, won the APGA Daugherty Foundation Championship in St. Louis and had four other top 10s.
\n\u201cAPGA Tour has been such a big part of my professional golf career and opened so many doors not only for me, but for many other amazing golfers. None of it would have been possible without Adrian\u2019s vision and unwavering dedication over the past 15 years,\u201d Hall said.
\nHall has played seven times on the PGA Tour. He won the Butterfield Bermuda APGA Championship in 2024 to earn an exemption into the PGA Tour event in Bermuda. He turned it down to compete in the Deaflympics in Tokyo, where he won the silver medal in October.
\nThe PGA Tour of Australasia and Japan Golf Tour are getting together for the first time to create the ISPS Handa Japan-Australasia Championship on March 5-8 at Royal Auckland & Grange Golf Club.
\nIt\u2019s part of a three-week stretch of golf in New Zealand, with the new event preceded by the New Zealand PGA and New Zealand Open. And it will be the first big event in Auckland since 2004.
\nISPS Handa is a prominent sponsor of golf worldwide.
\n\u201cThe relationship between Japan and Australasia is vitally important, and we are very pleased to help foster it through this championship,\u201d said Haruhisa Handa, founder and chairman of ISPS Handa.
\nGavin Kirkman, the CEO of PGA of Australia, said the co-sanctioned event would strengthen the relationship between the tours and provide players an international stage.
\n\nOf the five players who earned PGA Tour cards through Q-school, medalist A.J. Ewart was the only one who had to go through the second stage of Q-school. … The Memorial generated $5.3 million for charities in central Ohio, the first time it surpassed the $5 million mark in a year. … Matt Kuchar and C.T. Pan of Taiwan have been selected to be captions of the Junior Presidents Cup teams at Medinah this September. … The Epson Tour has released a 19-tournament schedule for 2026 that will visit 14 states, with three tournaments in Florida and three in Michigan. The top 15 players earn LPGA Tour cards for the following season.
\nScottie Scheffler’s statistical ranking\u00a0improved or stayed level in nine out of 13 main categories compared with 2024. The exceptions were driving accuracy (23rd in 2024 to 59th), birdie average (1st to 2nd), greens in regulation (3rd to 11th) and sand saves (70th to 90th).
\n\u201cIt was probably the hardest par I’ve ever made in my life.\u201d \u2014 Marcelo Rozo of Colombia, who made par on the final hole of Q-school to avoid a playoff and secure a PGA Tour card for the first time.
The post McIlroy And Scheffler Lead Golf Channel Games As Golf Revives The Silly Season first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-16T20:46:50+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T13:04:20+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/RoryBMW25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 days", "excerpt": "It turns out there’s still a place for what amounts to the \u201csilly season\u201d in golf. The\u00a0Skins Game returned\u00a0under a slightly different format \u2014 held on Black Friday instead of the weekend after Thanksgiving, and a ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scottie-scheffler-winning-pga-tour-player-of-the-year-was-an-obvious-outcome/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scottie-scheffler-winning-pga-tour-player-of-the-year-was-an-obvious-outcome/", "title": "Scottie Scheffler Winning PGA Tour Player Of The Year Was An Obvious Outcome", "content_html": "\n
For the first time in three years, the PGA Tour did not release the voting percentage when Scottie Scheffler won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the tour’s best player. It brings to mind the catchphrase from\u00a0his famous soliloquy this summer at the British Open.
\nWhat’s the point?
\nThis outcome was as predictable as 10 of the 11 times Tiger Woods won the award. It had all the drama of Scheffler winning a major (\u00a0he’s led by at least four shots walking up to the 18th green in all four of his major wins\u00a0).
\nRory McIlroy produced the biggest moment, for him and for golf, when he\u00a0won the Masters for the career Grand Slam\u00a0in a final round that rivals any of the previous thrillers at Augusta National. It was the best year of his golfing life and he is wholly satisfied with that.
\nThe best golf? Numbers usually tell the most complete stories, and a few of them stand out in Scheffler’s astonishing season:
\n\u2014 The final 15 tournaments of the season without finishing worse than a tie for eighth
\n\u2014 21 consecutive rounds in the 60s
\n\u2014\u00a0Two majors
\nThe only time a double major winner was not voted PGA Tour player of the year was Nick Faldo in 1990, the year the award began with players doing the voting. There was a simple explanation for that and it was nothing personal: Faldo wasn’t on the ballot because he wasn’t a member.
\nScheffler won six times this year on tour, twice as many as McIlroy, who at least won the year on emotion and style points.
\nOf course, the most wins doesn’t guarantee the Jack Nicklaus Award. It was only two years ago when Jon Rahm won four times, including the Masters, and Scheffler won the award based on his staggering consistency. There also was that small matter of\u00a0Rahm defecting to Saudi-funded LIV Golf halfway through the two-week voting period.
\nThe tour said Scheffler won with 38% of the vote in 2023. It did not mention what percentage of the vote Rahm received.
\nThe reason votes were released in percentages was because the tour would rather not disclose how many players \u2014 or how few \u2014 actually voted.
\nOne snapshot of that was a particularly close race for rookie of the year between McIlroy and Rickie Fowler in 2010. Fowler won the award without having won a tournament. Asked for his reaction the day after the result was announced, Dustin Johnson said, \u201cMan, that’s a tough one. I’m not sure who I’m going to vote for.” Um, never mind.
\nThere is nothing terribly flashy about Scheffler except the numbers he compiles, whether it’s six victories, matching the PGA Tour’s 72-hole scoring record or leading in 17 of the 28 scoring categories the PGA Tour keeps. He finished in the top five in all but five of them.
\n\u201cOverall the thing that I\u2019m most proud of when I look at the last couple years is just consistency,\u201d Scheffler said Monday when he received the Jack Nicklaus Award for the fourth straight time. \u201cIt\u2019s not very easy to just show up and finish in the top 10 each week.\u201d
\nHe makes it look that way. The key to what happens Thursday through Saturday is the dedication to be ready during those days he’s not at a tournament.
\nScheffler doesn’t get too caught up in statistics. He said they confirm what he already feels in his game, what’s working and what needs polished. But if there was one he found particularly pleasing it would be leading the tour in scoring average in each of the four rounds.
\nThe last player to do that was Woods in 2000.
\nScheffler was paired with Woods in the final round of the 2020 Masters when both were miles out of contention. It was a\u00a0pivotal moment for him, watching Woods\u00a0\u2014 with nothing left to prove in his career \u2014 giving each shot his utmost attention.
\n\u201cI felt like early in my career I wasn\u2019t bringing the proper intensity to the first few rounds of the tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was almost like when the lights came on on the weekend I was better than I was earlier in the week when there almost was lower stakes. A lot of that has just been trying to bring that same intensity to each round and every shot, which is a lot easier said than done.\u201d
\nScheffler is constantly looking for improvement, and the putter was a big step this year. He ranked 22nd in the key putting statistic, down from 77th a year ago. Most pleasing was going from 139th in 2024 to 33rd this year in putting inside 10 feet.
\nHe led the tour in 16 main statistics, 11 of those involving scoring. That makes sense for someone who won the Byron Nelson Award for the lowest adjusted scoring average at 68.131. That was nearly three shots better than the tour average, and nearly a full shot lower than McIlroy.
\nAnd to think the year started with stitches in his right hand after slicing it open with a wine glass because that was all Scheffler could find to cut ravioli for Christmas dinner.
\n\n\u201cI think he made enough money to hire a chef,\u201d McIlroy jokingly said when Scheffler returned from his injury at Pebble Beach in February.
\nMaybe it’s a good thing Scheffler didn’t, and McIlroy suggested as much after the British Open when he said, \u201cI also had the three wins when Scottie wasn\u2019t quite on his game.\u201d
\nMcIlroy won at Pebble Beach and The Players Championship, two big stages. Throw in the Irish Open, another title as Europe’s No. 1 player and another road Ryder Cup victory. It was a big year, one McIlroy wouldn’t trade for any award.
\nThe best year? The answer was easy even without revealing the vote.
The post Scottie Scheffler Winning PGA Tour Player Of The Year Was An Obvious Outcome first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-16T20:43:59+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T13:04:40+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/ScottieTrophiesBMW25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 days", "excerpt": "For the first time in three years, the PGA Tour did not release the voting percentage when Scottie Scheffler won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the tour’s best player. It brings to mind the catchphrase from\u00a0his ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scottie-scheffler-joins-tiger-woods-by-winning-pga-tour-player-of-the-year-for-4th-straight-year/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scottie-scheffler-joins-tiger-woods-by-winning-pga-tour-player-of-the-year-for-4th-straight-year/", "title": "Scottie Scheffler Joins Tiger Woods By Winning PGA Tour Player Of The Year For 4th Straight Year", "content_html": "\n
Scottie Scheffler earned another comparison with Tiger Woods on Monday, joining him as the only players to win PGA Tour player of the year at least four times in a row.
\nScheffler made an easy case to pick up another Jack Nicklaus Award. His tour-leading six victories were twice as many as anyone else and included two majors, the\u00a0PGA Championship\u00a0and the\u00a0British Open, to leave him on the cusp of a career Grand Slam.
\nHe became the first player since Woods in 2000 to lead the PGA Tour with the lowest scoring average in each of the four rounds and had 15 consecutive tournaments in the top 10 to end his remarkable season.
\n\u201cI think overall the thing that I\u2019m most proud of when I look at the last couple years is just consistency,\u201d Scheffler said on a conference call. \u201cIt\u2019s not very easy to just show up and finish in the top 10 each week. I think that\u2019s something that\u2019s very difficult to do and something I\u2019m very proud of, bringing the intensity that I need to in these tournaments and being prepared as I need to in order to perform well week in and week out.\u201d
\nScheffler was on the ballot with Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Ben Griffin. The award is a vote of the players, though the PGA Tour did not release what percentage of the votes Scheffler received or how many players voted.
\nWoods is an 11-time winner of the award and won five straight times from 1999 through 2003.
\nMcIlroy had a big year in his own right, nothing grander than his\u00a0playoff victory in the Masters\u00a0for the final leg of the career Grand Slam and a green jacket he had been pursuing for 15 years. He also added titles at Pebble Beach and The Players Championship.
\nScheffler, however, has been putting on a master class of consistency since breaking through with his first PGA Tour title in 2022. Along with 19 victories in his last 80 events on the PGA Tour \u2014 that doesn’t include his\u00a0Olympic gold medal last year in Paris\u00a0\u2014 Scheffler has finished among the top three in just over 46% of his PGA Tour starts.
\nThis season alone, Scheffler led the PGA Tour in 17 statistical categories, ranging from his accuracy from tee-to-green, how often he followed a bogey with a birdie or better (36%) and official earnings, which this year topped $27 million.
\nAnd he effectively gave McIlroy and everyone else a head start. Scheffler\u00a0sliced his right hand during Christmas last year while using a wine glass to cut ravioli.\u00a0He missed nearly two months and didn’t really find his groove until a week before the Masters when he was runner-up in Houston.
\nThat began an astonishing stretch in which Scheffler didn’t finish worse than a tie for eighth the rest of the year. He played his final six PGA Tour events without a round over par, and he had a stretch of 21 consecutive rounds in the 60s.
\nHe also won his hometown CJ Cup Byron Nelson in the Dallas area by matching the PGA Tour record for 72 holes at 253, an eight-shot victory.
\n\u201cYeah, I definitely didn\u2019t start off the way I intended to start off,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI missed the first couple weeks of the season but did a good job of bouncing back from that. I started to play some pretty good golf in May.\u201d
\n\nNeither of his two major titles was particularly close. He won the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow by five shots and the British Open at Royal Portrush by four shots. In all four of his majors \u2014 he also won the Masters in 2022 and 2024 \u2014 he has had at least a four-shot lead going to the final hole. Missing is a tense finish to a major.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not really picky. If I\u2019m holding the trophy at the end, it doesn\u2019t really matter,\u201d Scheffler said with a laugh.
\nAldrich Potgieter was voted PGA Tour rookie of the year. He was among five rookies who won this year, but the South African was the only player to win a tournament that offered full FedEx Cup points and qualify for the postseason.
The post Scottie Scheffler Joins Tiger Woods By Winning PGA Tour Player Of The Year For 4th Straight Year first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-16T20:41:43+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T13:04:35+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScottieClaret25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 days", "excerpt": "Scottie Scheffler earned another comparison with Tiger Woods on Monday, joining him as the only players to win PGA Tour player of the year at least four times in a row. Scheffler made an easy case ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/cadillac-returns-as-title-sponsor-for-trumps-course-at-doral/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/cadillac-returns-as-title-sponsor-for-trumps-course-at-doral/", "title": "Cadillac Returns As Title Sponsor For Trump\u2019s Course At Doral", "content_html": "\n
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Cadillac is returning as the title sponsor of a lucrative PGA Tour event held at Trump National Doral, which will hold one of the $20 million signature events in 2026.
\nThe Cadillac Championship will be held the first weekend in May on the course once dubbed the \u201cBlue Monster.\u201d Doral first became part of the PGA Tour schedule in 1962, and it was held each year through 2016 until becoming a World Golf Championship under various names.
\nBrian Rolapp, the CEO of the PGA Tour, referred to Trump National Doral as a \u201clegacy venue on our schedule.\u201d
\n\u201cWe appreciate the support of Cadillac as we bring a new era of the PGA Tour to our fans in Miami,\u201d Rolapp said in a statement.
\nCadillac was the title sponsor of the WGC at Trump National Doral from 2011 through 2016. But the automaker chose not to renew its contract, the PGA Tour could not find a replacement sponsor for Doral in 2016 when President Donald Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee and the WGC event was moved to Mexico City.
\nDoral is among eight courses that has held a regular PGA Tour event for at least 50 years \u2014 the others are Riviera, Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines in California; Colonial (Texas), Waialae (Hawaii), Harbour Town (South Caroline) and Muirfield Village (Ohio).
\nIt returned to the golf landscape in 2022 by hosting a LIV Golf event each of the last four years until returning to the PGA Tour schedule for 2026. The tour designated Trump National Doral a signature event before it signed Cadillac as the title sponsor.
The post Cadillac Returns As Title Sponsor For Trump\u2019s Course At Doral first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-16T20:38:43+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-16T20:38:43+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DJCadillac2016.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 days", "excerpt": "PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Cadillac is returning as the title sponsor of a lucrative PGA Tour event held at Trump National Doral, which will hold one of the $20 million signature events in 2026. ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-31-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-31-2025/", "title": "Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 31, 2025", "content_html": "\n
A man who has been stranded on a desert island all alone for 10 years sees a speck on the horizon.
\n“It’s too small to be a ship,” he thinks to himself. As the speck gets closer, he rules out the possibility of it being a small boat, then a raft. Suddenly, a gorgeous blonde woman emerges from the surf wearing a wetsuit and scuba gear.
\nShe approaches the stunned man and asks, “How long has it been since you’ve had a cigarette?”
\n“Ten years!” he says. She unzips a waterproof pocket on her left sleeve and pulls out a pack of fresh cigarettes.
\nHe takes one, lights it, takes a long drag, and says, “Man, is that ever good!”
\nThen she asks him, “How long has it been since you’ve had a sip of bourbon?”
\nTrembling, he replies, “Ten years!”
\nShe unzips a waterproof pocket on her right sleeve, pulls out a flask, and gives it to him.
\nHe opens it, takes a long swig, and says, “That’s fantastic!”
\nThen she starts slowly unzipping the long zipper down the front of her suit, looks at him seductively, and asks, “And how long has it been since you’ve played around?”
\nThe man, with tears in his eyes, replies, “Don’t tell me you’ve got golf clubs in there!”
The post Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 31, 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-15T02:58:13+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T02:58:13+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/scott.jpg", "category": { "name": "Social", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/social" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "Joke Of The Day A man who has been stranded on a desert island all alone for 10 years sees a speck on the horizon. “It’s too small to be a ship,” he thinks to himself. ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-29-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-29-2025/", "title": "Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 29, 2025", "content_html": "\n
A golfer sliced a ball into a field of chickens, striking one of the hens and killing it instantly. He was understandably upset and sought out the farmer.
\n“I\u2019m sorry,” he said. “My terrible tee shot hit one of your hens and killed it. Can I replace the hen?”
\n“I don\u2019t know about that,” replied the farmer, mulling it over. \u201cHow many eggs a day do you lay?”
The post Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 29, 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-15T02:55:37+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T02:55:37+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/dj.jpg", "category": { "name": "Social", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/social" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "Joke Of The Day A golfer sliced a ball into a field of chickens, striking one of the hens and killing it instantly. He was understandably upset and sought out the farmer. “I\u2019m sorry,” he said. ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-26-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-26-2025/", "title": "Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 26, 2025", "content_html": "\n
A husband and wife died and went to Heaven together. They were met at the gates by an angel who was to show them the place.
\n“Right over here we have our very own golf course!” the angel said.
\n“Wow! It’s beautiful! Can we play it now?!” they exclaimed.
\n“Sure!” said the angel.
\nSo the couple began playing. It was the most beautiful course they had ever seen. Everything was perfect \u2014 the fairways, the greens, even the rough was well kept. The more they played, the more the woman beamed with happiness, but she noticed her husband was becoming disheartened and angry.
\nThe woman confronted her husband about what was wrong.
\n“I can’t understand why you’re not happy,” she said. “We’re in Heaven! We’re together! We’re playing on the most beautiful and perfect golf course ever! What’s wrong with you?” \u00a0
\n“That’s just it,” he fired back. “If you hadn’t fed us those damn bran muffins, we’d have been here years ago!”
The post Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 26, 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-15T02:52:36+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T02:52:36+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/as.jpg", "category": { "name": "Social", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/social" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "Joke Of The Day A husband and wife died and went to Heaven together. They were met at the gates by an angel who was to show them the place. “Right over here we have our ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-24-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-24-2025/", "title": "Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 24, 2025", "content_html": "\n
Arriving at the 18th hole, where a large pond separated the fairway from the green, a foursome was shocked to see a golfer so furious with his game that he threw his bag into the water and stormed off to the parking lot.
\nAs they approached the green, they noticed the man returning to the pond, removing his shoes, and fishing for his bag.
\n“Wow,” one of the men said, “it seems he has realized the error of his ways. No golfer can quit cold turkey.”
\nAt that moment, the errant golfer pulled his bag from the water, zipped open a side pocket, pulled out his car keys, and then threw the bag back into the water.
\n“I guess if you play like him,” another in the group said, “maybe you can.”
The post Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 24, 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-15T02:49:52+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T02:50:18+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/maxxs.jpg", "category": { "name": "Social", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/social" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "Joke Of The Day Arriving at the 18th hole, where a large pond separated the fairway from the green, a foursome was shocked to see a golfer so furious with his game that he threw his ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-22-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/social/todays-golf-joke-december-22-2025/", "title": "Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 22, 2025", "content_html": "\n
A notoriously poor-playing attorney stepped to the tee.\u00a0He set his bag down and looked wistfully down the first fairway.
\nOut of the corner of his eye, he saw his bag begin to move. A small child was attempting to lug the bag to the side of the tee box.
\nThe attorney spotted the caddie master, John, and whispered to him, questioning his choice of the looper.
\n“Johnny, that boy isn’t even eight years old; are you sure he can caddie for me?”
\n\u201cBetter that way, sir,” John said. “He probably can’t count past 10, either.”
The post Today\u2019s Golf Joke \u2013 December 22, 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-15T02:47:03+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T02:47:03+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/bk.jpg", "category": { "name": "Social", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/social" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "Joke Of The Day A notoriously poor-playing attorney stepped to the tee.\u00a0He set his bag down and looked wistfully down the first fairway. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his bag begin to ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/novak-teams-with-coughlin-to-win-grant-thornton-and-pick-up-another-team-title/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/novak-teams-with-coughlin-to-win-grant-thornton-and-pick-up-another-team-title/", "title": "Novak Teams With Coughlin To Win Grant Thornton And Pick Up Another Team Title", "content_html": "\n
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Andrew Novak made three straight birdies on the back nine and Lauren Coughlin finished off their 9-under 63 in modified fourballs for a three-shot victory Sunday in the Grant Thornton Invitational, the second team title this year for Novak.
\nThey were challenged primarily by Chris Gotterup and Jennifer Kupcho until the par-5 17th at Tiburon Golf Club.
\nGotterup and Kupcho both missed the green in tough spots and had to work hard for par. Novak and Coughlin were in the final group behind them, and Novak poured in a 6-foot birdie putt that gave them a a two-shot lead going to the final hole.
\nCoughlin’s birdie putt helped them set a tournament record at 28-under 188.
\nThey finished three ahead of Gotterup and Kupcho (63), Denny McCarthy and Nelly Korda (63), and Michael Brennan and Charley Hull (65).
\nNovak also won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Ben Griffin, the only team event on the PGA Tour. He jokingly said it would be the \u201cmodern day grand slam\u201d to get the mixed-team title that pairs PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players.
\nNovak said he didn’t get a sense of how close it was until seeing a leaderboard on the 13th green, and even then knew he and Coughlin had one advantage.
\n\u201cWe had more holes than anyone else,\u201d he said, referring to the number of birdie chances down the stretch. Novak holed a 7-foot birdie putt on the 13th, followed by a pair of 10-foot birdie putts on the 14th and 15th and what effectively was the clincher on the 17th.
\n\nIn modified fourballs, both players hit tee shots, then play the other’s golf ball the rest of the way with the low score counting on the card.
\nNovak and Coughlin each earned $500,000. It was the largest payoff for Coughlin, who won twice on the LPGA last year.
\nKorda missed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole that would have given her and McCarthy a little hope, and at worse put them alone in second. Korda gets one more chance at winning this year, teaming with her father next week in the PNC Championship.
The post Novak Teams With Coughlin To Win Grant Thornton And Pick Up Another Team Title first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-14T23:05:09+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T13:05:03+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AndrewNovakHero25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "4 days", "excerpt": "NAPLES, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Andrew Novak made three straight birdies on the back nine and Lauren Coughlin finished off their 9-under 63 in modified fourballs for a three-shot victory Sunday in the Grant Thornton Invitational, the ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/shots-from-every-club-in-the-bag-that-defined-golf-in-2025/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/shots-from-every-club-in-the-bag-that-defined-golf-in-2025/", "title": "Shots From Every Club In The Bag That Defined Golf In 2025", "content_html": "\n
Big moments call for big shots, and there were plenty of them in 2025 when Scottie Scheffler dominated, Rory McIlroy got the major that mattered to him and new major champions arrived when they least expected it.
\nWhat follows is a review of golf in 2025 based on memorable shots \u2014 not necessarily the greatest ones \u2014 struck with every club in the bag. They all told a story.
\nJ.J. Spaun was tied for the lead in the final round of the U.S. Open when he reached the 314-yard 17th hole at Oakmont.\u00a0He used his driver for a low fade\u00a0that hit the front of the green and rolled like a putt to about 18 feet behind the pin. That set up a two-putt birdie and a one-shot lead going to the final hole. And his best was yet to come.
\nScottie Scheffler hit 3-wood on the 304-yard 14th hole at Quail Hollow\u00a0and thought it might come up a little short with the wind gusting right-to-left against his fade. It was nearly perfect, settling 3 feet away for eagle in the third round that put him atop the leaderboard for good at the PGA Championship as he captured his third major.
\nAuburn junior Jackson Koivun went from leading the Americans to a Walker Cup victory at Cypress Point to competing against all but two members of the Ryder Cup team in the Procore Championship. In the second round at Silverado, he showed his game with a 3-iron to 30 inches on the par-5 12th for eagle. Koivun wound up playing in the final group and tied for fourth before heading back to college.
\nFour shots behind going into the final round of The Players Championship, Rory McIlroy hit 4-iron from 225 yards into 10 feet on the par-5 second hole for a birdie-eagle start that got him back into the game. He wound up winning a playoff over J.J. Spaun on Monday. But that 4-iron is what McIlroy called his best swing of the week. \u201cThat was pretty much perfect,\u201d he said.
\nRussell Henley prefers a draw. The tough par-3 14th at Bay Hill required a cut, especially with Henley trailing Collin Morikawa by three shots and running out of holes in the Arnold Palmer Invitational.\u00a0He hit a cut with his 5-iron to 10 feet for birdie\u00a0to start an unlikely comeback. The victory led to one of Henley\u2019s best seasons, rising to No. 4 in the world and landing a spot on his first Ryder Cup team.
\nWinless in more than two years, Justin Rose was three shots behind when\u00a0he hit 6-iron over the water to 15 feet on the par-3 14th, the toughest hole on the back nine of the TPC Southwind. That was the start of four straight birdies, and Rose won a playoff in the FedEx St. Jude Championship. At age 45, he again cracked the top 10 in the world and qualified for the Ryder Cup.
\nViktor Hovland missed three straight cuts, had little confidence in what he was doing and debated whether to play the Valspar Championship. Two shots behind in the final rough, on the hardest hole at Innisbrook,\u00a0Hovland delivered with a 7-iron over the water and a bunker to 6 feet for a birdie\u00a0that sparked a late comeback to win. Never count him out.
\nNote:\u00a0The greatest 7-iron hit was from McIlroy on the par-5 15th at the Masters, when he hooked it around a pine tree to 6 feet. It might have been the shot of the year but he missed the eagle putt.
\nScheffler made up a four-shot deficit in five holes in the final round of the BMW Championship, and it was a tight duel going to the back nine. He was in a fairway bunker, with Robert MacIntyre in prime position in the fairway.\u00a0Scheffler hit 8-iron to 6 feet for birdie and a two-shot lead\u00a0that sent him to his fifth win in his last 10 starts.
\nRyder Cup captain Keegan Bradley heard the \u201cUSA\u201d chants down the 18th fairway at the Travelers Championship,\u00a0and then hit a 9-iron to 6 feet for a birdie, giving him a New England win when Tommy Fleetwood made bogey. It was Bradley\u2019s second win in 10 months, and it sharpened debate the next two months whether he should pick himself as a playing captain. Ultimately, he decided not to pick himself for Bethpage Black.
\nWhile Koivun was first in class among college players, high school senior Mason Howell was equally impressive. He won the U.S. Amateur Championship, and he\u00a0closed out a foursomes match on the 17th hole at Cypress Point when he holed out with a pitching wedge\u00a0from 147 yards in a 2-and-1 victory. Howell went 2-0-1 in another U.S. victory at the Walker Cup.
\nMcIlroy twice lost the lead on the back nine of Augusta National and found himself in a playoff against Rose with nothing more than a Masters green jacket and the career Grand Slam on the line.\u00a0He hit gap wedge to 3 feet\u00a0on the 18th on the first extra hole, and after Rose missed from 15 feet, McIlroy rolled in the short birdie putt to finally win the Masters.
\nScores have been coming down in golf, and Hideki Matsuyama took that to a new level at The Sentry.\u00a0He holed out with a sand wedge\u00a0for eagle on the par-4 third hole at Kapalua and was on his way. The Japanese star set a PGA Tour record to par by finishing at 35 under to win by three.
\n\nThe wildest finish to a major this year should have ended on the first playoff hole. Grace Kim put her approach to the par-5 18th at the Evian Championship into a creek.\u00a0Kim pulled a lob wedge and chipped across the creek and into the cup for a birdie\u00a0that extended overtime. Kim, who had made eagle in regulation to force the playoff with Jeeno Thitikul, made eagle again on the second playoff hole to win her first major. Thitikul was the LPGA’s best but ended her year without a major.
\nSpaun had a one-shot lead going to the 18th hole at Oakmont, no sure thing in a U.S. Open. He hit the rain-soaked fairway. He hit the green, but he was 65 feet away and needed two putts to avoid a playoff with MacIntyre.\u00a0Spaun made the longest final putt by a U.S. Open champion with a shot now part of championship lore.\u00a0MacIntyre couldn\u2019t help but applaud.
The post Shots From Every Club In The Bag That Defined Golf In 2025 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-09T20:45:43+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-09T20:45:43+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SpaunUSOCelly25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "1 week", "excerpt": "Big moments call for big shots, and there were plenty of them in 2025 when Scottie Scheffler dominated, Rory McIlroy got the major that mattered to him and new major champions arrived when they least expected ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/masters-field-starting-to-take-shape-through-wins-and-world-ranking/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/masters-field-starting-to-take-shape-through-wins-and-world-ranking/", "title": "Masters Field Starting To Take Shape Through Wins And World Ranking", "content_html": "\n
Kristoffer Reitan of Norway and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark will be PGA Tour rookies next year having earned cards by being among the leading 10 players on the European tour not already exempt.
\nThey already have one edge over the other rookies. They\u2019re in the Masters.
\nBoth earned their spot in the growing field at Augusta National by winning last week. Neergaard-Petersen had an amazing par save on the 18th hole to win the Australian Open, which this year awarded a spot in the Masters.
\n\u201cAs soon as I watched that tournament, it was the first event that I was like, \u2018If I one day be a professional golfer, that\u2019s the event I want to play.\u2019 So it\u2019s a dream come true and I can\u2019t wait for April,\u201d said Neergaard-Petersen, who played his college golf at Oklahoma State.
\nReitan, who won the Soudal Open and had two runner-up finishes this year in Europe, held on for a wire-to-wire win in the Nedbank Golf Challenge. That moved him to No. 33 in the world and assured he will be among the top 50 who get Masters invitations at the end of the year.
\nOnly two weeks of official events remain this year, the Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa and the Mauritius Open.
\nAccording to an Official World Golf Ranking expert who goes by \u201cNosferatu\u201d on X, 10 other players not already in the Masters are assured of staying in the top 50. That includes two Americans who were not even on a main tour to start the year.
\nMichael Brennan was on the PGA Tour of Americas, earned a Korn Ferry Tour card and then received a sponsor exemption to the Bank of Utah Championship at Black Desert and won. Johnny Keefer was the Korn Ferry Tour player of the year who has two wins among his seven top 10s.
\nIncluding spots still to be awarded to the winners of the South African Open and Latin American Amateur early next year, that puts the field at 86 players who are exempt and expected to play.
\nTeam Europe won the Ryder Cup on American soil for the first time in 13 years, and it was the runner-up in voting by the Association of Golf Writers for its prestigious Golfer of the Year award.
\nThat\u2019s how special a year it was for Rory McIlroy.
\nHe was the overwhelming choice of British media for the award, which McIlroy won for the sixth time. He won the Masters to become the first European to capture the career Grand Slam, won a seventh Harry Vardon Trophy as Europe\u2019s top player, won the Irish Open before a home crowd, and picked up victories at The Players Championship and Pebble Beach.
\nThere also was that small matter of taking on the verbal abuse at Bethpage Black and going 3-1-1 in a European victory.
\nThe Ryder Cup team finished second, followed by FedEx Cup champion Tommy Fleetwood.
\nRyan Gerard was at No. 49 in the world when he missed the cut at Sea Island in the final PGA Tour event of the season. That was key because the top 50 in the world at the end of the year get invitations to the Masters. Gerard fell to No. 53.
\nNow he’s taking one more chance.
\nGerard is in the field for the Mauritius Open next week, co-sanctioned between the European tour and the Sunshine Tour. It’s the final tournament of the year that gets ranking points. Gerard is in the field as a winner of a European tour event with at least a $2 million purse. He won the Barracuda Championship opposite the British Open, co-sanctioned by the European tour.
\nIt’s a long flight to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean about 700 miles from Madagascar. But travel is nothing new for Gerard. In the last four months, he has played in Ireland, England, Japan and Abu Dhabi. The ultimate destination is Augusta National.
\nThe last chance for a full PGA Tour card starts this week at Q-school, where five cards are on offer for 176 players. For the first time, there will be a playoff to determine the final spot.
\nThe PGA Tour says the big difference this year is top-five players will have a greater certainty of schedule and \u201cequitable playing opportunities,\u201d a result of only the top 100 in the FedEx Cup \u2014 down from 125 players \u2014 keeping full status.
\nThen again, it\u2019s not like the six players (no playoff) who made it through Q-school last year were deprived. They averaged 26 tournaments in 2025, with three of them playing in 29 events.
\nTakumi Kanaya was the only player who finished in the top 100 in the FedEx Cup (No. 99).
\nEric Cole started the season by playing seven tournaments in a row. After missing the Masters, he played the next 10 straight tournaments.
\nWhen the season ended, Cole led the PGA Tour by playing in 32 tournaments. The four tournaments he missed for which he was eligible were the Mexico Open, Rocket Classic, Scottish Open and the Bank of Utah Championship.
\nBut he had only four top 10s, and despite playing in all eight of the signature events, Cole wound up at No. 76 in the FedEx Cup.
\nSeven players played in 31 tournaments. Sam Stevens was the only player from that group who finished among the top 50 in the FedEx Cup.
\nThe British Open is moving to Aug. 3-6 for 2028 to avoid a clash with the Los Angeles Olympics. It will be the latest start since 1893, and it will be the first time the claret jug is presented in August.
\nIt also will be the eighth month for the British Open, which has been in July every time since 1936.
\nThe earliest start was on April 8, 1879. The latest The Open was played was Nov. 16 in 1883. It also has been held in May, June, September and October.
\n\nMartin Couvra, who won the Turkish Airlines Open and had six top 10s, is the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year on the European tour. He’s the second French player to win the award. The other was Olivier Edmond in 1998. … Will Zalatoris opened with a 75 in the Nedbank Golf Challenge last week, his first tournament since back surgery in May. He was 10 under the rest of the way and finished in 15th place. … Kristoffer Reitan winning the Nedbank Golf Challenge gives Norway two players in the top 50 of the world ranking for the first time. The other is Viktor Hovland. … Colt Knost has been elevated to analyst for CBS Sports, joining the network\u2019s \u201csuper tower\u201d alongside host Jim Nantz, lead analyst Trevor Immelman and fellow analyst Frank Nobilo.
\nScottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele and Tommy Fleetwood were the only players to start and finish the year in the top 10 in the world.
\n\u201cNo, nothing.\u201d \u2014 Hideki Matsuyama when asked if there was something else he enjoyed as much as winning golf tournaments.
The post Masters Field Starting To Take Shape Through Wins And World Ranking first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-09T20:42:42+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T13:30:51+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/RasmusNeergaardPetersen25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "1 week", "excerpt": "Kristoffer Reitan of Norway and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen of Denmark will be PGA Tour rookies next year having earned cards by being among the leading 10 players on the European tour not already exempt. They already have ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/2028-los-angeles-olympics-push-british-open-to-latest-start-since-the-19th-century/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/2028-los-angeles-olympics-push-british-open-to-latest-start-since-the-19th-century/", "title": "2028 Los Angeles Olympics Push British Open To Latest Start Since The 19th Century", "content_html": "\n
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) \u2014 The British Open is moving back two weeks in 2028 to avoid a conflict with the Los Angeles Olympics, giving golf’s oldest championship its latest start since 1893.
\nThe British Open will be played Aug. 3-6 in 2028 at a links course still to be announced.
\nThe Olympics, which return to Los Angeles for the third time, will be held July 14-30. That’s right in the typical time frame of The Open. The most recent Olympic competition in Paris in 2024 was from July 26 through Aug. 11, allowing the Open to keep its traditional spot on the calendar.
\nThe Open has been in July every year it has been played since 1936. The last time it finished later than July was in 1893 at Prestwick, the year Harry Vardon made his debut in the British Open.
\nThe other three majors in men’s golf are not affected, though the PGA Tour likely will have to make adjustments for the end of its FedEx Cup season. The tour currently is looking at a new model for 2027 and beyond.
\nMeanwhile, the R&A also has moved the Women’s British Open to Aug. 17-20 in 2028 \u2014 it was held on Aug. 22-25 in 2024 because of the Paris Olympics. The Senior British Open will be Aug. 10-13, keeping its spot a week after the British Open.
The post 2028 Los Angeles Olympics Push British Open To Latest Start Since The 19th Century first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-09T20:37:04+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-17T13:05:29+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/ScottieBritishWin25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "1 week", "excerpt": "ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) \u2014 The British Open is moving back two weeks in 2028 to avoid a conflict with the Los Angeles Olympics, giving golf’s oldest championship its latest start since 1893. The British Open ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/matsuyama-rallies-in-the-bahamas-and-beats-noren-in-a-playoff-to-win-hero-world-challenge/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/matsuyama-rallies-in-the-bahamas-and-beats-noren-in-a-playoff-to-win-hero-world-challenge/", "title": "Matsuyama Rallies In The Bahamas And Beats Noren In A Playoff To Win Hero World Challenge", "content_html": "\n
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) \u2014 Hideki Matsuyama ended his season the way he started it, winning the Hero World Challenge on Sunday when he closed with an 8-under 64 and then\u00a0hit 9-iron to 2 feet for birdie\u00a0on the first playoff hole to defeat Alex Noren.
\nMatsuyama, who began the year by setting a PGA Tour record to par by winning at Kapalua,\u00a0holed out from 116 yards in the 10th fairway for eagle\u00a0that allowed him to catch Sepp Straka, move past Scottie Scheffler and seize control at Albany Golf Club.
\nNoren, unable to start his year until May because of a hamstring injury, charged along the back nine and\u00a0caught Matsuyama with an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole\u00a0for a 64 to join him at 22-under 266 and force a playoff.
\nThe overtime didn’t last long. Matsuyama, known for taking one hand off the club even when the shots work out fine, this time twirled the 9-iron in his hand as he watched it take aim at the flag and plop down a few feet away. Noren’s 20-foot birdie attempt slid by on the left.
\n\u201cIt was a perfect distance for me,\u201d Matsuyama said. \u201cEarly on the second shot (in regulation), I missed a little to the right. I was going right at it and was able to hit a great shot.\u201d
\nHe won the holiday event hosted by Tiger Woods for the second time, winning in 2016.
\nStraka, the 54-hole leader by one shot over Scheffler, birdied the final hole for a 68 to finish alone in third. Scheffler had a slow start and a two-hole stretch early on the back nine that ruined his bid for a third straight victory at Albany Golf Club. He shot 68 and tied for fourth with U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun (65).
\nMatsuyama went out in 31 and suddenly was tied with Straka when he holed out for eagle.
\nBut the tournament took shape behind him on the par-5 11th.
\nScheffler, two shots out of the lead, chose to hit driver off the fairway from 291 yards away with a speck of mud on the front of his ball. It went left under a small bush. He hacked that out to a sandy area, then hit his fourth shot over the green to back portion of a bunker. Only a superb bunker shot allowed him to escape with bogey.
\nBut then he found a bunker on the par-3 12th that led to bogey, and was five shots behind Matsuyama when the Japanese star holed a 30-foot birdie putt on the 13th hole.
\nScheffler ended his season by not finishing worse than a tie for eighth in his last 16 events dating to the Houston Open the last week in March.
\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s nice to come down here, kind of gauge where I\u2019m at,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI definitely felt like some of the stuff I\u2019ve been working on the last few weeks, I saw some progress here, and the stuff I was focused on in the offseason, definitely saw some progress here as well. Good place to be.\u201d
\nMatsuyama now has 21 wins worldwide, and he wore his tradition yellow shirt for the final round when he started three shots off the lead. He failed to capitalize on both par 5s on the back nine, but his bogey-free round and a brilliant 9-iron in the playoff was enough for his third time received a trophy from Woods. He also won the Genesis Invitational at Riviera in 2024, hosted by Woods.
\n\u201cTiger told me to shoot 10 under today,\u201d Matsuyama said. \u201cI didn’t shoot 10 under, but I’m very happy to win this week.\u201d
The post Matsuyama Rallies In The Bahamas And Beats Noren In A Playoff To Win Hero World Challenge first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-07T23:35:08+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-15T13:31:51+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/tigerhidekihero25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) \u2014 Hideki Matsuyama ended his season the way he started it, winning the Hero World Challenge on Sunday when he closed with an 8-under 64 and then\u00a0hit 9-iron to 2 feet for birdie\u00a0on ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/reitan-holds-on-to-win-in-south-africa-and-earn-his-first-trip-to-the-masters/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/reitan-holds-on-to-win-in-south-africa-and-earn-his-first-trip-to-the-masters/", "title": "Reitan Holds On To Win In South Africa And Earn His First Trip To The Masters", "content_html": "\n
SUN CITY, South Africa (AP) \u2014 Kristoffer Reitan held on over the back nine Sunday and closed with an even-par 72 to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, his second European tour title of the year that will send him to the\u00a0Masters\u00a0for the first time.
\nThe Norwegian began the final round with a five-shot lead, but he saw the lead shrink to a single stroke when he played the back nine without a birdie.
\nHe held his nerve against Jayden Schaper of South Africa (68) and Dan Bradbury of England (66) for a one-shot victory.
\nReitan, who earned a PGA Tour card for 2026 by finishing eighth in the Race to Dubai, also won the Soudal Open. His second victory moves him just outside the top 30 in the world rankings, assuring he will finish in the top 50 with one tournament left this year.
\nThe top 50 earn Masters invitations.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019m feeling right now. I had a lot of nerves today,\u201d Reitan said. \u201cBut to get it over the line in the end is a better feeling than I can describe.\u201d
\nReitan finished at 17-under 271.
\nReitan became the second European tour player Sunday who earned PGA Tour status through the Race to Dubai and won a tournament to get into the Masters.\u00a0Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen\u00a0won the Australian Open, which came with a spot at the Masters.
The post Reitan Holds On To Win In South Africa And Earn His First Trip To The Masters first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-07T22:08:52+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-09T15:53:34+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/KristofferReitan25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "SUN CITY, South Africa (AP) \u2014 Kristoffer Reitan held on over the back nine Sunday and closed with an even-par 72 to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge, his second European tour title ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/neergaard-petersen-claims-first-major-title-at-australian-open/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/neergaard-petersen-claims-first-major-title-at-australian-open/", "title": "Neergaard-Petersen Claims First Major Title At Australian Open", "content_html": "\n
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won the Australian Open for his first major professional title Sunday when his scrambled par on the final hole crushed the hopes of hometown favorite Cam Smith who was chasing his first win in more than two years.
\nSmith and Neergaard-Peterson came to the 72nd hole tied at 15-under after a thrilling contest over the last nine holes. Neergaard Petersen shanked his drive into difficult rough on the right with a bunker between his ball and the green.
\nSmith found the green with his second but with a long, sloping putt to the hole. Matter of fact as he has been throughout the week, Neergaard got up and down for par while Smith missed his difficult putt for birdie, then a 1.5 meter return putt to force a playoff.
\nThe 26-year-old Danish player won by a single shot at 15-under 269 after rounds of 67, 66, 66 and 70. Smith started the last round two shots behind the leader, drew level by the turn and led outright after sinking a three meter put for birdie on the 10th hole.
\nAfter a birdie at the 11th, Smith bogeyed the 12th and was level with Neergaard-Petersen at 13 under. The pair stayed locked together until the final hole when Smith’s missed par putt handled his opponent a career-changing victory.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard. I\u2019m really at a loss for words. It\u2019s been a battle all day,\u201d Neergaard said. \u201cEven from the outside, you can look calm but it was a storm inside (for me) all day.
\n\u201cBut I managed to keep battling and to get it up and down to make that putt on the last. I don\u2019t know what to say, to be honest.\u201d.
\nSmith, the 2022 British Open champion who ended his streak of\u00a0missing seven consecutive cuts\u00a0this year on Friday, shot 66 Saturday and was tied for second, two strokes off the lead.
\nAfter all his missed cuts, Smith, said that it was \u201cnice being in contention\u201d entering the final round.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a while since I\u2019ve had this feeling to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cI love that it\u2019s the Australian Open. I couldn\u2019t think of a better place to get back into form. It would shut a few people up.\u201d
\nSmith has won the Australian PGA twice but has yet to win the Stonehaven Cup as the champion of his national open.
\nHis last tournament victory came at the LIV tournament in Bedminster, England in August 2022 and his previous top-10 finish was in July.
\nRory McIlroy’s 11 bogeys over four days, including an unfortunate encounter with a\u00a0banana peel\u00a0on Saturday, kept him out of contention. On Sunday, the Northern Irishman had a final round 69, with five birdies and three bogeys, to finish in a tie for 10th.
\nMcIlroy,\u00a0the Race to Dubai winner\u00a0and who\u00a0completed his career Grand Slam\u00a0when he won the Masters this year, was naking his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2015. He won it in 2013.
\nSpeaking after his final round Sunday, the world No. 2 called for a more favorable schedule to attract more of the game’s top players.
\nWhile he thought the sandbelt courses held massive appeal, the scheduling didn\u2019t help the tournament attract the top overseas players.
\n\u201cI obviously would love to have a few more players come down and play, but it\u2019s hard with three tournaments going on in the schedule this week,\u201d said McIlroy referring to the schedule clash with Tiger Woods\u2019 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and the DP World Tour\u2019s Nedbank Challenge in South Africa.
\n\n“There need to be conversations had with people much more important than me that set the schedules, and hopefully the Australian Open can find a date that accommodates everyone and everyone can at least have the option to come down.\u201d
\n\u201cPeople seeing the scenes here on TV\u2026it\u2019ll definitely pique their interest,\u201d he said.
\nThe winner of the Australian Open, which is the second event on the European tour\u2019s new schedule of tournaments for late this year and 2026,\u00a0receives a Masters exemption\u00a0next year. And the\u00a0top three finishers\u00a0not already exempt \u2014 Michael Hollick, Adam Scott and Si Woo Kim \u2014 have qualified for the British Open in 2026 at Royal Birkdale.
The post Neergaard-Petersen Claims First Major Title At Australian Open first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-07T16:44:57+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-10T13:16:54+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/RasmusNeergaard-Petersen25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won the Australian Open for his first major professional title Sunday when his scrambled par on the final hole crushed the hopes of hometown favorite Cam Smith who was chasing ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/europe-opens-slight-lead-in-world-champions-cup/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/europe-opens-slight-lead-in-world-champions-cup/", "title": "Europe Opens Slight Lead In World Champions Cup", "content_html": "\n
CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn won the modified alternate-shot round as Europe took the lead over the Americans and Internationals after the first day of the Skechers World Champions Cup.
\nPoints are award for each hole in the nine-hole matches at Feather Sound Country Club, with better ball in the morning and the modified alternate shot (Scottish Sixsomes) in the afternoon.
\nSoren Kjeldsen and Alex Cejka each registered 20 points for Europe, which had 57 points.
\nThe U.S. and International teams were at 52.5 points each. Two more sessions follow on Friday, and then it concludes Sunday with singles.
\n\u201cWe got off to a nice start, but as you can all see, scoring is still really, really tight, really close,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of volatility in the matches to come.\u201d
\nKjeldsen is a vice captain for Europe, but he filled in for Bernhard Langer, who sat out with an illness. Langer is expected to play Friday.
The post Europe Opens Slight Lead In World Champions Cup first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-05T02:19:06+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-05T02:19:06+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DarrenClarke23.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Former Ryder Cup captains Darren Clarke and Thomas Bjorn won the modified alternate-shot round as Europe took the lead over the Americans and Internationals after the first day of the Skechers World ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scheffler-returns-from-2-months-away-and-shares-lead-at-the-hero-world-challenge/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/scheffler-returns-from-2-months-away-and-shares-lead-at-the-hero-world-challenge/", "title": "Scheffler Returns From 2 Months Away And Shares Lead At The Hero World Challenge", "content_html": "\n
NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler returned to competition Thursday for the first time in two months and very little changed. Even with a bogey on the final hole, he had a 6-under 66 and was part of a five-way tie for the lead in the Hero World Challenge.
\nScheffler was tied with U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun, Sepp Straka, Wyndham Clark and Akshay Bhatia on a warm, breezy afternoon at Albany Golf Club.
\nThe world’s No. 1 player wasn’t the only one who had taken plenty of time off. Straka also had not played since the Ryder Cup ended the last weekend in September.
\nThe Hero World Challenge has a 20-man field, an end-of-the-year holiday event that top players often use as the first step toward getting ready for next year. Scheffler is coming off a six-win season that included two majors and nothing worst than a tie for eighth in his last 15 tournaments.
\nHis only change was a new driver, and it performed to his standards. The rest of his game looked solid as ever. Scheffler had birdies on four of the six scoring holes \u2014 four par 5s and two reachable par 4s. His only lapse was a chip that ran across and over the 18th green.
\n\u201cI did some good stuff,\u201d Scheffler said. \u201cI felt like I could have shot a good amount lower. There’s always a little bit of a rust. Once you get into competition, I don’t really think about that stuff.\u201d
\nBhatia and Straka played bogey-free. Clark, Scheffler and Spaun each reached 7 under at one point until dropping a shot late in the round. Clark was at 7 under going to the par-5 15th, but a poor tee shot led to bogey. Spaun bogeyed the 18th from a fairway bunker.
\nClark and Bhatia each holed bunker shots for eagle on the reachable par-4 seventh.
\n\nAll but four players broke par in the opening round, with newcomer Chris Gotterup at 74 and Robert MacIntyre at 73.
\nJordan Spieth, who received a sponsor exemption, was playing for the first time since the FedEx St. Jude Championship to start the postseason and opened with a 72. He had been working on his game to rid of bad habits, but there was clear rust. Spieth ran off three straight birdies on the front nine, but none over the last 11 while struggling with his chipping and at times his putting.
\nAnd it probably didn’t help that he was alongside Scheffler, who is going after his third straight title in the Hero World Challenge. Dating to last year, Scheffler went 41 consecutive holes without a bogey until missing the 18th green and hitting his chip too hard.
The post Scheffler Returns From 2 Months Away And Shares Lead At The Hero World Challenge first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-05T02:15:06+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-05T02:15:06+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ScottieSpiethHero25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) \u2014 Scottie Scheffler returned to competition Thursday for the first time in two months and very little changed. Even with a bogey on the final hole, he had a 6-under 66 and was ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/reitan-leads-nedbank-golf-challenge-after-opening-with-a-63/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/reitan-leads-nedbank-golf-challenge-after-opening-with-a-63/", "title": "Reitan Leads Nedbank Golf Challenge After Opening With A 63", "content_html": "\nKristoffer Reitan made 10 birdies in a 9-under 63 to take a three-shot lead after the first round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the European tour on Thursday.
\nThe Norwegian golfer earned a first PGA Tour card at the end of last season but is beginning the 2026 season on the European tour.
\nReitan missed the season-opening event in Australia last week but hit the ground running in Sun City, making birdies in seven of his first 11 holes and two more at Nos. 14 and 15. He dropped a shot at the par-4 17th after driving into a fairway bunker but holed a shot from the fringe at No. 18 for his 10th birdie.
\n\u201cIt was a brilliant day \u2014 very, very happy the way I played,\u201d the 59th-ranked Reitan said.
\nJesper Svensson, Marcus Armitage and Adrien Saddier were tied for second place after rounds of 66.
\nViktor Hovland is the highest-ranked player in the field, at No. 13. He shot 69.
The post Reitan Leads Nedbank Golf Challenge After Opening With A 63 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-05T02:10:31+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-05T02:10:31+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/KristofferReitan25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "Kristoffer Reitan made 10 birdies in a 9-under 63 to take a three-shot lead after the first round of the Nedbank Golf Challenge on the European tour on Thursday. The Norwegian golfer earned a first PGA ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/rory-mcilroy-has-a-rollercoaster-1st-round-at-the-australian-open-shoots-1-over-72/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/rory-mcilroy-has-a-rollercoaster-1st-round-at-the-australian-open-shoots-1-over-72/", "title": "Rory McIlroy Has A \u2018Rollercoaster\u2019 1st Round At The Australian Open, Shoots 1-Over 72", "content_html": "\n
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Rory McIlroy had a self-described “rollercoaster” of a round Thursday at the Australian Open.
\nHe wasn’t exaggerating.
\nMcIlroy, whose pre-tournament news conference\u00a0included comments\u00a0that Royal Melbourne was not the best sandbelt course in the city, had a wild round of six bogeys and five birdies around the composite course and shot a 1-over 72 to trail the leaders by seven strokes after the first round.
\nA case of the famed sandbelt course, which has hosted three Presidents Cup tournaments, biting back? The swirling winds \u2014 including gusts of up to 60 kilometers an hour (38 mph) \u2014 were certainly a factor.
\n\u201cIt was a rollercoaster day,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cEvery time I got a birdie or two I got a bogey or two. It wasn’t terrible. I hit it in a couple of bad spots and had a couple of three-putts as well. I limited the damage. I hope the conditions are better tomorrow.\u201d
\nFor the record, the course McIlroy said was the best in Melbourne \u2014 nearby Kingston Heath \u2014 will host the Presidents Cup team event in 2028.
\nMcIlroy, the Race to Dubai winner, is making his first appearance at the Australian Open since 2015 \u2014 he won it in 2013. He started off his round on the back nine with a birdie on the 10th hole followed by two bogeys.
\nThat was just the start of his topsy-turvy round.
\nHis sixth bogey of the day came at the 135-meter (148-yard) par-3 seventh hole, his 16th, but at least he was in good company. His playing partners \u2014 Adam Scott and Min Woo Lee \u2014 also had 4s.
\nScott and Lee each shot 69 to trail by four strokes. The trio teed off at 7 a.m. and had thousands of fans following them.
\n\u201cIt was amazing, I couldn\u2019t believe how many people were there,\u201d McIlroy said of his early-morning entourage. \u201cThere are events in golf that means a little bit more. I think people in Australia take so much pride in this event.\u201d
\nScott felt the same.
\n\u201cI mean, playing with Rory and Min and fighting to get to the 10th tee this morning with the crowds was good fun,\u201d Scott said. \u201cBut the course held up well even in some of the most challenging wind I\u2019ve probably ever played out here. Testament to the course and it\u2019s great for the tournament.\u201d
\nElvis Smylie, the left-handed Australian who won last year’s Australian PGA tournament, New Zealander Ryan Fox and Carlos Ortiz of Mexico, who eagled his second-last hole, the 17th, led by two strokes after the first round with 65s.
\nCameron Smith,\u00a0trying to avoid missing his eighth consecutive cut, bogeyed two of his final three holes and had a 70.
\n\u201cI feel like I did pretty good today . . . made all the putts I was supposed to make and I probably left a couple out there, but it is what it is,” Smith said.
\nSmylie took advantage of a fortuitous bounce when he hit a spectator.
\nPlaying on the par-four 1st hole \u2014 his 10th \u2014 Smylie\u2019s wayward shot over the green hit a spectator before rolling back into position for him to make birdie.
\n\u201cThe wind was whipping off the left and I just kind of didn\u2019t cut it up enough and I think it hit his foot,\u201d said Smylie. \u201cI don\u2019t think it hit him hard fortunately, and then it ricocheted to about five foot and I was able to roll that in.
\n\n\u201cSo I think when things like that happen, you just know that the golf gods are on your side for the day.\u201d
\nDavid Puig,\u00a0who won\u00a0last week\u2019s Australian PGA at Royal Queensland in Brisbane, shot 74.
\nThe winner of the Australian Open, which is the second event on the European tour’s new schedule of tournaments for late this year and 2026,\u00a0receives a Masters exemption\u00a0next year. And the top three finishers not already exempt will qualify for the British Open in 2026 at Royal Birkdale.
The post Rory McIlroy Has A \u2018Rollercoaster\u2019 1st Round At The Australian Open, Shoots 1-Over 72 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-05T02:05:52+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-05T02:05:52+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/RoryAussieR125.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Rory McIlroy had a self-described “rollercoaster” of a round Thursday at the Australian Open. He wasn’t exaggerating. McIlroy, whose pre-tournament news conference\u00a0included comments\u00a0that Royal Melbourne was not the best sandbelt course in ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/cam-smith-at-australian-open-trying-to-make-first-36-hole-cut-of-the-year/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/cam-smith-at-australian-open-trying-to-make-first-36-hole-cut-of-the-year/", "title": "Cam Smith At Australian Open Trying To Make First 36-Hole Cut Of The Year", "content_html": "\n
More than two years without a win, Cameron Smith goes into the Australian Open this week at Royal Melbourne with another streak he is trying to end.
\nHe has yet to make a 36-hole cut in the seven tournaments he has played this year outside of the LIV Golf League, including the four majors. Smith also missed the cut at the Dunhill Links Championship, the Saudi International and the Australian PGA Championship last week.
\n\u201cGolf doesn\u2019t owe me anything,\u201d Smith said Tuesday at Royal Melbourne. \u201cI have to go out there and work and I think throughout the season it\u2019s been a case of hit one or two bad shots here and there and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, here we go again\u2019 type of thing.\u201d
\nLast week was one of those moments. He opened with a 69 and then finished with a double bogey at Royal Queensland for a 75 to miss the cut by four shots. That led Smith to say last Friday, \u201cI think it is in my head.\u201d
\nHe missed four of those seven cuts by three shots or more. It hasn’t been much better elsewhere. On the 54-hole, no-cut LIV Golf League, Smith had only five top 10s in the 13 individual tournaments, with his best finish a tie for fifth in Mexico City.
\n“I do know what the answer is and that\u2019s just to keep working hard and be patient,\u201d Smith said in Brisbane. \u201cI\u2019ve tried to be patient, I\u2019ve tried to do all the right stuff. It\u2019s just, for whatever reason, not coming together on the golf course. I don\u2019t think about golf often, but definitely in the last couple of months I have thought about it a lot. Yeah. I just want to get back to where I was.\u201d
\nThe world ranking is skewed because LIV does not get world ranking points. But the missed cuts have taken a toll. Smith ended last year at No. 79 in the world. He goes into his final tournament of the year at the Australian Open at No. 354.
\nRory McIlroy famously went from being the harshest critic of LIV Golf to supporting reunification. Now he sounds resigned that golf will have competing circuits, and he\u2019s comfortable with being in the right place.
\n\u201cI think for golf in general it would be better if there was unification,\u201d McIlroy said on the CNBC CEO Council Forum last week. \u201cBut I just think with what\u2019s happened over the last few years, it\u2019s just going to be very difficult to be able to do that.\u201d
\nThere was movement for some form of unity in February when President Trump met with both sides.
\nThat led McIlroy to say in February at Torrey Pines, \u201cI think everyone has just got to get over it and we all have to say, \u2018OK, this is the starting point and we move forward.\u2019 We don\u2019t look behind us, we don\u2019t look to the past.\u201d
\nHe said on the CNBC forum that he still believes unification is in golf\u2019s best interests. He just doesn\u2019t see that happening.
\n\u201cAs someone who supports the traditional structure of men\u2019s professional golf, we have to realize we were trying to deal with people that were acting, in some ways, irrationally, just in terms of the capital they were allocating and the money they were spending,\u201d McIlroy said.
\nLIV begins its fifth year in 2026, adding Victor Perez and Laurie Canter to various teams. McIlroy said LIV has not seen a return on the investment and would need to spend another $5 or $6 billion just to stay in the game.
\n\u201cI\u2019m way more comfortable being on the PGA Tour side than on their side,\u201d he said. \u201cBut who knows what\u2019ll happen?\u201d
\nThe British Open on Tuesday released details for what it calls the \u201cLast Chance Qualifier\u201d to be held on the Monday of the championship.
\nThe idea was to give players one last opportunity to get into the 156-man field next year, and to give fans competition to watch that Monday at Royal Birkdale.
\nThe 12-man field will compete for one spot over 18 holes. The field will be drawn from the leading two players in the world ranking not already exempt; the British Amateur runner-up (if still an amateur); players who missed out in a playoff at Final Qualifying or finished one spot behind in Final Qualifying; players who tied at Open Qualifying Series but had the lower world ranking.
\n\u201cEvery golfer who tees it up at Royal Birkdale will have earned the right to do so and we look forward to seeing which player emerges from the field,\u201d said Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, chief championships officer at the R&A.
\nKeegan Bradley won the Travelers Championship for the first time in his native New England. He had five other top 10s, reached No. 7 in the world and played well enough that he turned down a chance to become the first Ryder Cup playing captain since 1963.
\nWhat kind of grade would Bradley give himself for the year?
\n\u201cWell, that\u2019s a complicated question because I\u2019m really proud of the way I\u2019ve played,\u201d Bradley said Tuesday in the Bahamas. \u201cI think in a lot of ways it\u2019s the best year of my career.
\n\u201cBut when you factor in losing the Ryder Cup, I mean, it\u2019s an \u2018F,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to go and win that and this grade is different. It\u2019s really tough to grade. I was talking to my coach. He said, \u2018Remember, you won this year.\u2019 I was like, \u2018No, I don\u2019t remember that at all.\u2019\u201d
\nBradley said ultimately he was proud of how he played with so much on his plate.
\n\u201cBut the end of the year was difficult,\u201d he said.
\nPGA Tour Enterprises CEO Brian Rolapp wasn’t bothered to be taking over a sport that had been fractured by the Saudi money that lured away top names to LIV Golf.
\nRolapp took part in the CNBC CEO Council Forum last week in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
\n\u201cThe entire narrative around golf was that it’s fractured. It’s messy. There’s some truth to that,\u201d Rolapp said. “I look at that as opportunity. No sport \u2014 if you study history \u2014 has become strong without a good old fashioned crisis. The NFL had the AFL-NFL fight, they had labor issues.
\n\u201cGolf had theirs. It was just a little late.\u201d
\nGolf actually had won in the late 1960s when the tour players broke away from the PGA of America because they felt it did not have their best interests at heart. From that came the PGA Tour, and it has been thriving ever since.
\n\u201cIf you look at history, if you do things right, it’s only opportunity after those crises,\u201d Rolapp said.
\n\nThe Australian Open, played this year at Royal Melbourne for the first time since 1991, will return to Kingston Heath in 2026. Rory McIlroy has signed a two-year deal to play the Australian Open in 2025 and 2026. … Nelly Korda announced on Instagram the day after Thanksgiving that she is engaged. … Former NCAA champion Fred Biondi earned his European tour card through Q-school last month. Now he’s trying to get through the second stage and advance to the finals of the PGA Tour Q-school. … Will Zalatoris is playing the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa, his first time playing since the PGA Championship in May because of back surgery.
\nFormer PGA champion Jimmy Walker and Nick Watney are among 16 former PGA Tour winners in the second stage of Q-school this week.
\n\u201cI remember when I turned pro, and I looked at some of those guys who are my age now, and how old I thought they were. And that\u2019s me.” \u2014 Adam Scott, 44, who turned pro in June 2000.
The post Cam Smith At Australian Open Trying To Make First 36-Hole Cut Of The Year first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-03T00:01:41+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-03T00:01:41+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/smith.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "More than two years without a win, Cameron Smith goes into the Australian Open this week at Royal Melbourne with another streak he is trying to end. He has yet to make a 36-hole cut in ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/tiger-woods-dealing-with-uncertain-times-with-his-golf-the-ryder-cup-and-reshaping-the-pga-tour/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/tiger-woods-dealing-with-uncertain-times-with-his-golf-the-ryder-cup-and-reshaping-the-pga-tour/", "title": "Tiger Woods Dealing With Uncertain Times With His Golf, The Ryder Cup And Reshaping The PGA Tour", "content_html": "\n
So much about the future of Tiger Woods is uncertain.
\nWoods said Tuesday in the Bahamas he has just been cleared to chip and putt since\u00a0a seventh back surgery\u00a0on Oct. 10. He is not playing in his Hero World Challenge and said he won’t be playing in the PNC Championship in two weeks with his son. Even the indoor TGL League will have to wait.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, I’ve been through this rehab process before,\u201d Woods said. \u201cIt’s just step by step. Once I get a feel for practicing, exploding, playing, the recovery process, then I can assess where I’m going to play and how much I’ll play.\u201d
\nAs for the Ryder Cup,\u00a0he turned down the captaincy for this year\u00a0and was thought to be the logical choice for Adare Manor in Ireland in 2027.
\n\u201cNo one’s asked me about it,\u201d Woods said and then repeated it for effect.
\nThat’s not to say there hasn’t been plenty of discussions between the PGA of America and Woods’ manager. Woods can say a lot with few words. Translation: He’s not ready to talk about that yet.
\nWhat’s consuming his time is the one area that doesn’t involve birdies and bogeys, and it might be far more important than whether he tees it up at the Masters or joins the 50-and-older circuit on the PGA Tour Champions a few times next year.
\nWoods is chair of the Future Competitions Committee, which\u00a0new CEO Brian Rolapp commissioned\u00a0to make significant change to the PGA Tour. Woods said the committee has met three times and taken input from everyone from title sponsors to television to tournament directors.
\nWhat began as a blank sheet of paper now has a thousand ideas. The hope is to have a new model by the start of the 2027 season. What emerges is unclear except it will be uncomfortable. Change isn’t easily accepted.
\n\u201cYes, there’s going to be some eggs that are spilled and crushed and broken,\u201d Woods said. \u201cBut I think that in the end, we’re going to have a product that is far better than what we have now for everyone involved.\u201d
\nThe three principles driving Rolapp’s vision are parity, simplicity and scarcity.
\nIt’s the scarcity that has so many players nervous \u2014 fewer tournaments, shorter fields, slimmer odds for players who can’t just show up and expect to contend the way Woods once did, and the way Scottie Scheffler does now.
\n\u201cBut don\u2019t forget, the golfing year is long,\u201d Woods said. \u201cSo there\u2019s other opportunities and other places around the world or other places to play that can be created and have events. So there\u2019s a scarcity side of it that\u2019s not as scary as people might think.\u201d
\nRolapp also soothed some concerns about a star-driven tour when he said on the\u00a0CNBC \u201cCEO Council Forum\u201d last week, “Every sport has stars. What really makes sports work is the middle class. … You cannot build a lifelong sport that outlives the stars if you don’t build a system that works beyond your stars.\u201d
\nThere was nothing middle class about Woods.
\nHis legacy will be 82 titles on the PGA Tour, his 15 majors, the only player to hold all four major championships at the same time, the player who went more than seven years without missing a cut. And now, his leadership on a committee to reshape the PGA Tour could add to that.
\nWoods is motivated to play again because he simply loves golf. That chapter is not over.
\nThis will be the first year without competing in a PGA Tour-sanctioned tournament since he made his debut in 1992 at age 16 in the Los Angeles Open (he played the PNC Championship in 2021 after missing the entire season after his car crash in Los Angeles).
\nWoods lost his mother in February. He ruptured his Achilles tendon in March. And then came another back surgery in October. So when he was asked why he wanted to stage yet another comeback, Woods smiled and replied, \u201cCome back to what point?\u201d
\n\u201cI’d like to come back to just playing golf again,\u201d Woods said. His last documented round was Feb. 9 with President Donald Trump. \u201cI’ve had a lot of things happen on and off the golf course that’s been tough. And so my passion to just play, I haven’t done that in a long time. Just play.\u201d
\nAge and injuries have left him on the verge of being a ceremonial player when he is healthy.
\nWoods has played only 11 times in nearly five years since his 2021 car crash. The four tournaments where he completed 72 holes, the closest he has been to the winning score was 16 shots behind. He has played 29 rounds and broken par six times. His scoring average is 74.14.
\n\nCome back to what point?
\nAge and experience have put Woods in a unique role to modernize golf without ruining it. This is important to him, too. He thought back to his roots in public golf, to that first PGA Tour tee shot at Riviera at age 16, to winning the Masters at 21 and reaching No. 1 in the world longer than anyone.
\n\u201cThe PGA Tour gave me an opportunity to chase after a childhood dream,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a different opportunity to make an impact on the tour. I did it with my golf clubs. Now I am able to make an impact in a different way for generations to come \u2014 not just generations that I played against, but for future generations like a 16-year-old looking for a place to play and maybe in hopes of playing the PGA Tour.\u201d
\nAt the moment, that’s his biggest challenge.
The post Tiger Woods Dealing With Uncertain Times With His Golf, The Ryder Cup And Reshaping The PGA Tour first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-02T23:57:55+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-09T15:54:14+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/tigermasters23-1.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "So much about the future of Tiger Woods is uncertain. Woods said Tuesday in the Bahamas he has just been cleared to chip and putt since\u00a0a seventh back surgery\u00a0on Oct. 10. He is not playing in ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/golfers-smith-and-scott-say-australian-open-regains-status-after-returning-to-stand-alone-format/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/golfers-smith-and-scott-say-australian-open-regains-status-after-returning-to-stand-alone-format/", "title": "Golfers Smith And Scott Say Australian Open Regains Status After Returning To Stand-Alone Format", "content_html": "\n
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Golfers Cameron Smith and Adam Scott believe the Australian Open has regained its status as a prestigious tournament after returning to its traditional format without playing it concurrently with the Women’s Australian Open.
\nSmith had been\u00a0highly critical\u00a0of Australian golf\u2019s biggest event, which for the past three years had been played concurrently with the Women’s Australian Open, with male and female golfers playing off alternate tees.
\nSmith and Scott will join\u00a0Rory McIlroy\u00a0in this year’s Australian Open which starts on Thursday at Royal Melbourne.
\nWhile Golf Australia claimed it made the most sense commercially, the women, including top-ranked local Minjee Lee, mostly didn\u2019t benefit, arriving jet-lagged after the LPGA season-ending event in the U.S. and playing in a reduced field.
\nThe stand-alone\u00a0Women\u2019s Australian Open\u00a0returns to Adelaide in 2026 at Kooyonga Golf Club from March 12-15. That date follows a three-tournament Asian swing by the LPGA Tour in Thailand, Singapore and China, increasing opportunities for more of the world’s top golfers to play in Australia before they return to the U.S.
\nFormer British Open champion Smith said he had spoken with Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland about reverting to the traditional format, and was pleased with the outcome.
\n\u201cThere was a lot of back-and-forth throughout the last couple of years, and I think everyone\u2019s pretty happy with the result,\u201d said the LIV Golf player, who has struggled for form this year and has missed seven cuts in a row, including at last week’s\u00a0Australian PGA Championship\u00a0at Royal Queensland in Brisbane.
\n\u201cEveryone\u2019s talking about the Aussie Open again, which is what we wanted,” Smith said Tuesday. \u201cWe wanted it back at Royal Melbourne and we wanted it to be an event where international stars come down and compete and make it the event that it once was, so I think we\u2019re on the right track.\u201d
\nScott said the tournament, which also\u00a0offers the winner a Masters invite, had been a talking point among players this year.
\n\u201cIt probably is more appealing, certainly for international players, to come down to play,\u2033 Scott said. \u201cObviously Rory is on board and he\u2019s coming off the back of an incredible year, so that\u2019s very timely for the event, and coming to this venue is creating a lot of hype as well.
\n\u201cI think winning the Aussie Open at Royal Melbourne has one of those asterisks next to it, where it\u2019s just that little bit more meaningful,\u201d added Scott, who finished seventh at last week\u2019s PGA in Brisbane.
The post Golfers Smith And Scott Say Australian Open Regains Status After Returning To Stand-Alone Format first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-02T23:55:44+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-02T23:55:44+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/scottgenesisR125.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Golfers Cameron Smith and Adam Scott believe the Australian Open has regained its status as a prestigious tournament after returning to its traditional format without playing it concurrently with the Women’s Australian ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/laurie-canter-earned-a-pga-tour-card-hes-giving-it-up-to-play-liv-golf/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/laurie-canter-earned-a-pga-tour-card-hes-giving-it-up-to-play-liv-golf/", "title": "Laurie Canter Earned A PGA Tour Card. He\u2019s Giving It Up To Play LIV Golf", "content_html": "\n
Laurie Canter turned down a PGA Tour card and joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf for the second time. The league announced Monday he has joined the Majestiks for the 2026 season.
\nCanter finished at No. 7 in the Race to Dubai and was among 10 players on the European tour who earned a chance to join the PGA Tour. By joining LIV Golf, he is suspended from the PGA Tour and his card goes to Daniel Brown.
\n“Joining Majesticks GC is an incredible opportunity to be part of a team that has helped shape LIV Golf from day one,\u201d Canter said in a statement.
\nThe 36-year-old from England was an unusual case when LIV launched its league in 2022. He had limited status on the European tour and joined the Saudi-backed league to have a place to play. Canter played seven times in the inaugural year and finished 28th in the standings.
\nHe was a reserve in 2023, filling in for injured players and competed 11 times in LIV Golf. Canter began 2024 playing twice with LIV as a reserve until he was replaced by Anthony Kim.
\nHe returned to the European tour and won the European Open in Germany in 2024.\u00a0Winning again in early 2025 in Bahrain\u00a0led Canter to reaching No. 50 in the world ranking. That got him into The Players Championship, making him the first former LIV player in the tour’s premier tournament. He also made it into the Masters.
\nCanter joins Victor Perez of France in joining LIV Golf.
\nThe Majestiks is an English-based team that began with Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Henrik Stenson and Sam Horsfield. Stenson failed to finish in the top 48 this year and was relegated, opening a spot for Canter.
\n\u201cThe league\u2019s 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,” Canter said, referring to the corporate name of the European circuit. \u201cTo 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.\u201d
\nLast year, Tom McKibbin earned a PGA Tour card through the European tour and joined LIV in January. Because the season already had started, his PGA Tour card was not given to the next in line. Brown can accept it because Canter signed with LIV before the end of the year.
The post Laurie Canter Earned A PGA Tour Card. He\u2019s Giving It Up To Play LIV Golf first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-12-02T23:53:12+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-02T23:53:12+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/LaurieCanterdubai25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "2 weeks", "excerpt": "Laurie Canter turned down a PGA Tour card and joined Saudi-backed LIV Golf for the second time. The league announced Monday he has joined the Majestiks for the 2026 season. Canter finished at No. 7 in ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/fuzzy-zoeller-two-time-major-champion-haunted-by-racist-joke-about-tiger-woods-dies-at-74/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/fuzzy-zoeller-two-time-major-champion-haunted-by-racist-joke-about-tiger-woods-dies-at-74/", "title": "Fuzzy Zoeller, Two-Time Major Champion Haunted By Racist Joke About Tiger Woods, Dies At 74", "content_html": "\n
Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of golf’s most gregarious characters whose career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger Woods, has died, according to a longtime colleague. He was 74.
\nA cause of death was not immediately available. Brian Naugle, the tournament director of the Insperity Invitational in Houston, said Zoeller’s daughter called him Thursday with the news.
\nZoeller was the last player to win the Masters on his first attempt, a three-man playoff in 1979. He famously waved a white towel at Winged Foot in 1984 when he thought Greg Norman had beat him, only to defeat Norman in an 18-hole playoff the next day.
\nBut it was the 1997 Masters that changed his popularity.
\nWoods was on his way to a watershed moment in golf with the most dominant victory in Augusta National history. Zoeller had finished his round and had a drink in hand under the oak tree by the clubhouse when he was stopped by CNN and asked for his thoughts on the 21-year-old Woods on his way to the most dominant win ever at Augusta National.
\n\u201cThat little boy is driving well and he\u2019s putting well. He\u2019s doing everything it takes to win. So, you know what you guys do when he gets in here? You pat him on the back and say congratulations and enjoy it and tell him not serve fried chicken next year. Got it?,” Zoeller said.
\nHe smiled and snapped his fingers, and as he was walking away he turned and said, “Or collard greens or whatever the hell they serve.\u201d
\nThat moment haunted him the rest of his career.
\nZoeller apologized. Woods was traveling and it took two weeks for him to comment as the controversy festered. Zoeller later said he received death threats for years after that moment.
\nWriting for Golf Digest in 2008, he said it was \u201cthe worst thing I’ve gone through in my entire life.\u201d
\n\u201cIf people wanted me to feel the same hurt I projected on others, I\u2019m here to tell you they got their way,\u201d Zoeller wrote. “I\u2019ve cried many times. I\u2019ve apologized countless times for words said in jest that just aren\u2019t a reflection of who I am. I have hundreds of friends, including people of color, who will attest to that.
\n\u201cStill, I\u2019ve come to terms with the fact that this incident will never, ever go away.\u201d
\nIt marred a career filled with two famous major titles, eight other PGA Tour titles and a Senior PGA Championship among his two PGA Tour Champions titles.
\nMore than winning was how he went about it. Zoeller played fast and still had an easygoing nature to the way he approach the game, often whistling between shots.
\nHe made his Masters debut in 1979 and got into a three-way playoff when Ed Sneed bogeyed the last three holes. Zoeller defeated Sneed and Tom Watson with a birdie on the second playoff hole, flinging his putter high in the air.
\n“I\u2019ve never been to heaven, and thinking back on my life, I probably won\u2019t get a chance to go,\u201d Zoeller once said. \u201cI guess winning the Masters is as close as I\u2019m going to get.\u201d
\nZoeller was locked in a duel with Norman at Winged Foot in the 1984, playing in the group behind and watching Norman make putt after putt. So when he saw Norman make a 40-footer on the 18th, he assumed it was for birdie and began waving a white towel in a moment of sportsmanship.
\nOnly later did he realize it was for par, and Zoeller made par to force a playoff. Zoeller beat him by eight shots in the 18-hole playoff (67-75). Zoeller’s lone regret was giving the towel to a kid after he finished in regulation.
\n\n\u201cIf you happen to see a grungy white towel hanging around, get it for me, will you?\u201d he once said.
\nHe was born Frank Urban Zoeller Jr. in New Albany, Indiana. Zoeller said his father was known only as \u201cFuzzy\u201d and he was given the same name. He played at a junior college in Florida before joining the powerful Houston golf team before turning pro.
\nHis wife, Diane, died in 2021. Zoeller has three children, including daughter Gretchen, with whom he used to play in the PNC Championship. Zoeller was awarded the Bob Jones Award by the USGA in 1985, the organization’s highest honor given for distinguished sportsmanship.
The post Fuzzy Zoeller, Two-Time Major Champion Haunted By Racist Joke About Tiger Woods, Dies At 74 first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-30T17:33:27+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-01T14:14:26+00:00", "author": { "name": "Doug Ferguson, AP" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/FuzzyZoeller2006.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "Fuzzy Zoeller, a two-time major champion and one of golf’s most gregarious characters whose career was tainted by a racially insensitive joke about Tiger Woods, has died, according to a longtime colleague. He was 74. A ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/david-puig-joins-seve-ballesteros-in-history-with-australian-pga-win/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/david-puig-joins-seve-ballesteros-in-history-with-australian-pga-win/", "title": "David Puig Joins Seve Ballesteros In History With Australian PGA Win", "content_html": "\n
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Spain’s David Puig has claimed the biggest title of his professional career and joined countryman great Seve Ballesteros by winning the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland.
\nCo-leader coming into Sunday’s final round, Puig’s nerveless final round 5-under 66 was built on a flurry of early birdies to break free of a congested leaderboard, which saw 31 players within six shots of the lead at the start of the day.
\nPuig became only the ninth international winner of the event and just the second since 1998, joining compatriot Seve Ballesteros \u2014 a former world No. 1 and five-time major champion \u2014 who\u00a0won the tournament in 1981\u00a0as the only other Spanish player to claim the title.
\n\u201cIt feels amazing. I\u2019ve really had a lot of close calls in a few events throughout this year and last year and I kinda wasn\u2019t able to pull it through,\u201d the 23-year-old, who plays on the LIV Tour said. \u201cIt feels unbelievable especially to win here in Australia and I played some awesome golf so I\u2019m really excited and happy.
\nA simple two-putt for par on the par-4 18th was enough for a two shot victory over China\u2019s Wenyi Ding and his third professional title, but first on the DP World Tour.
\nDing finished at 16-under 268 and also had a final round 66.
\nLocal favorites Marc Leishman (15 under, tied third) and Min Woo Lee (14 under, tied fifth) were both in contention at the turn but couldn’t find the putts they needed to get back in contention.
\nNew Zealander Nick Voke (66) made three birdies on the back stretch to finish in a tie for third with Leishman.
\nFormer world No. 1 and 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott (69) finished seventh at 13 under 271 and will rue a number of birdie misses that would have had him right in the mix in his native Queensland state.
\nWhile other contenders slipped, Puig held his nerve and made birdie on the 13th and saved par at the 14th to keep Ding at arms length as the Chinese player birdied the 16th and 17th in a late charge.
\n\n\u201cI was definitely nervous but I think I kinda kept my composure pretty well and obviously that start (to the final round) helped a lot.\u201d said Puig, who only made two bogeys all week and none on championship Sunday.
\nThe Australian PGA is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australia and the European tour, which is starting its 2025-26 season just two weeks after\u00a0Rory McIlroy won\u00a0the Race to Dubai title.
\nMcIlroy will highlight the field in next week\u2019s Australian Open.
The post David Puig Joins Seve Ballesteros In History With Australian PGA Win first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-30T16:34:29+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-01T14:14:54+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DavidPuig25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "BRISBANE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Spain’s David Puig has claimed the biggest title of his professional career and joined countryman great Seve Ballesteros by winning the Australian PGA Championship at Royal Queensland. Co-leader coming into Sunday’s final ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/brown-grass-cost-a-famed-golf-course-a-big-tournament-and-highlighted-hawaii-water-problems/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/brown-grass-cost-a-famed-golf-course-a-big-tournament-and-highlighted-hawaii-water-problems/", "title": "Brown Grass Cost A Famed Golf Course A Big Tournament And Highlighted Hawaii Water Problems", "content_html": "\n
HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 High up on the slopes of the west Maui mountains, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort provides golfers with expansive ocean views. The course is so renowned that\u00a0The Sentry, a $20 million signature event for the PGA Tour, had been held there nearly every year for more than a quarter-century.
\n\u201cYou have to see it to believe it,” said Ann Miller, a former longtime Honolulu newspaper golf writer. \u201cYou’re looking at other islands, you’re looking at whales. … Every view is beautiful.\u201d
\nIts world-class status also depends on keeping the course green.
\nBut with water woes in west Maui \u2014 facing drought and still reeling from a\u00a0deadly 2023 wildfire\u00a0that ravaged the\u00a0historic town of Lahaina\u00a0\u2014 keeping the course green enough for The Sentry became difficult.
\nUltimately, as the Plantation’s fairways and greens grew brown, the PGA Tour canceled the season opener, a blow that cost what officials estimate to be $50 million economic impact on the area.
\nA two-month closure and some rain helped get the course in suitable condition to reopen 17 holes earlier this month to everyday golfers who pay upwards of $469 to play a round. The 18th hole is set to reopen Monday, but the debate is far from over about the source of the water used to keep the course green and what its future looks like amid climate change.
\nThere\u2019s concern that other high-profile tournaments will also bow out, taking with them economic benefits, such as money for charities, Miller said.
\n\u201cIt could literally change the face of it,\u201d she said, \u201cand it could change the popularity, obviously, too.\u201d
\nThe company that owns the courses, along with Kapalua homeowners and Hua Momona Farms, filed a lawsuit in August alleging Maui Land & Pineapple, which operates the century-old system of ditches that provides irrigation water to Kapalua and its residents, has not kept up repairs, affecting the amount of water getting down from the mountain.
\nMLP has countersued and the two sides have exchanged accusations since then.
\nAs the water-delivery dispute plays out in court, Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental legal group, is calling attention to a separate issue involving the use of drinking water for golf course irrigation, particularly irksome to residents contending with water restrictions amid drought, including Native Hawaiians who consider water a\u00a0sacred resource.
\n\u201cPotable ground drinking water needs to be used for potable use,\u201d Lauren Palakiko, a west Maui taro farmer, told the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management at a recent meeting. \u201cI can\u2019t stress enough that it should never be pumped, injuring our aquifer for the sake of golf grass or vacant mansion swimming pools.\u201d
\nKapalua’s Plantation and Bay courses, owned by TY Management Corp., have historically been irrigated with surface water delivered under an agreement with Maui Land & Pineapple, but since at least the summer have been using millions of gallons of potable groundwater, according to Earthjustice attorneys who point to correspondence from commission Chairperson Dawn Chang to MLP and Hawaii Water Service they say confirms it.
\nChang said her letter didn’t authorize anything, but merely acknowledged an \u201coral representation” that using groundwater is an an \u201cexisting use\u201d at times when there\u2019s not enough surface water. She is asking for supporting documentation from MLP and Hawaii Water Service to confirm that interpretation.
\nIn emails to The Associated Press, MLP said it did not believe groundwater could be used for golf course irrigation and Hawaii Water Service said it didn\u2019t communicate to the commission that using groundwater to irrigate the courses was an existing use.
\nMLP’s two wells that service the course provide potable water.
\n\u201cThis is water that we can drink. It\u2019s an even more precious resource within the sacred resource of wai,\u201d Dru Hara, an Earthjustice attorney said, using the Hawaiian word for water.
\n\nTY, owned by Japanese billionaire and apparel brand Uniqlo\u2019s founder Tadashi Yanai, doesn’t have control over what kind of water is in the reservoir they draw upon for irrigation, TY General Manager Kenji Yui said in a statement. They’re also researching ways to bring recycled water to Kapalua for irrigation.
\nKamanamaikalani Beamer, a former commissioner, said he’s troubled by Earthjustice’s allegations that proper procedures weren’t followed.
\nThe wrangling over water for golf shows that courses in Hawaii need to change their relationship with water, Beamer said: \u201cI think there needs to be a time very soon that all golf courses are utilizing at a minimum recycled water.\u201d
The post Brown Grass Cost A Famed Golf Course A Big Tournament And Highlighted Hawaii Water Problems first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-29T16:35:24+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-11-29T16:35:24+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/kapalua.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "HONOLULU (AP) \u2014 High up on the slopes of the west Maui mountains, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort provides golfers with expansive ocean views. The course is so renowned that\u00a0The Sentry, a $20 million signature ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/keegan-bradley-wins-11-skins-worth-2-1-million-in-the-return-of-the-skins-game/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/keegan-bradley-wins-11-skins-worth-2-1-million-in-the-return-of-the-skins-game/", "title": "Keegan Bradley Wins 11 Skins Worth $2.1 Million In The Return Of The Skins Game", "content_html": "\n
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley won 11 skins, nine of them on two holes, and won the Skins Game with $2.1 million in the return of the competition Friday after 17 years.
\nBradley made a 7-foot putt on No. 13 at Panther National to win $900,000 because money from the previous three holes had carried over. Bradley’s first win was worth five skins on the first hole when no one won the opening four holes.
\nTommy Fleetwood won the final hole that was worth three skins with carryovers. And because money increased toward the end of the 16-hole competition, Fleetwood picked up $1,125,000. That was the largest skin payoff, inevitable considering the entire purse was only $1 million when the Skins Game was last held in 2008.
\nFleetwood finished at $1.7 million to finish second. Shane Lowry, who filled in for the injured Justin Thomas, won one skin and finished with $200,000. Xander Schauffele was shut out.
\nThere were a few tweaks this time. It was held over 16 holes on Friday morning, instead of 18 holes over two days during Thanksgiving weekend. And while each player started with $1 million, they had money deducted when someone else won skins.
The post Keegan Bradley Wins 11 Skins Worth $2.1 Million In The Return Of The Skins Game first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-29T16:33:54+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-03T13:25:45+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/KeeganVrabelSkins25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (AP) \u2014 U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley won 11 skins, nine of them on two holes, and won the Skins Game with $2.1 million in the return of the competition Friday ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/lifestyle/golf-genius-2025-holiday-gift-guide/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/lifestyle/golf-genius-2025-holiday-gift-guide/", "title": "Golf Genius\u2019 2025 Holiday Gift Guide", "content_html": "\n
Finding the perfect gift for the golfer in your life has never been easier. Golf Genius’ 2025 Holiday Gift Guide curates the season’s top products across every category\u2014from innovative putting aids and premium golf bags to performance nutrition and stylish accessories.
\nWhether you’re shopping for someone serious about improving their game or looking to enhance their on-course experience, this guide features hand-picked selections featuring unbeatable holiday deals.
\nDiscover game-changing equipment from trusted brands like Callaway, Ghost Golf, and Sunday Golf, alongside wellness products created by golf legends. With exclusive discounts ranging from 15% to 90% off, you’ll find the ideal present at an exceptional value.
\nBrowse curated options designed by golfers, for golfers, and make this holiday season memorable with gifts that truly deliver.
\n
Every golfer knows that putting is where championships are won\u2014and where strokes are lost.
\nThe 360\u00b0 rotating alignment guide helps golfers of all skill levels master the art of reading greens and lining up putts with confidence. By providing a clear visual alignment system, this putting aid transforms pre-putt routines and helps eliminate costly misreads and off-line strokes.
\nGolfers will immediately notice improved accuracy and consistency in their game, making this a gift that delivers real, measurable results on the course.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-17_For-Wellness-GiftGuide.jpg\")
What if the same nutrition fueling championship victories could power your Tuesday morning? Created by legendary golfer Phil Mickelson and elite golf coach Dave Phillips, The Good Stuff is a superfood creamer formulated specifically for golfers.
\nJust one scoop turns your morning coffee into high-powered fuel for all-day focus and energy\u2013without the caffeine jitters. Made with a precision blend of premium, performance-boosting ingredients: L-theanine, theobromine, MCTs, grass-fed collagen, antioxidants and real cinnamon, The Good Stuff is as delicious as it is functional. Phil and Dave drink it every day, and it\u2019s made in the USA to make your favorite cup of coffee even healthier.
\nSubscribe to save 25% off for life, plus score a free Welcome Kit ($40 value) and free shipping on your first order.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-08_Particle-Dedicated-11-18-25.jpg\")
You’ve invested in the best clubs and perfected your swing. Now it’s time to complete the picture.
\nWhy Gravit\u00e9 Is A Game-Changer: From first tee to the clubhouse \u2013 one application keeps you fresh all day. No fade-away cologne here. The sophisticated blend of bergamot, grapefruit, papyrus, nutmeg, amber, and cedarwood creates a masculine scent people will remember and ask about. 99% of customers love it. If you don’t? Full refund, no questions asked.
\nGravit\u00e9 is confidence in a bottle \u2013 the edge that separates those who command attention from those who blend in. Don’t leave your impression to chance.
\n![\"\"](\"http://static.swingbyswing.com/clubhouse/Nexbelt-Dedicated-9-25-1.jpg\")
Nexbelt\u2019s Braided Belt Series redefines golf attire with unbeatable comfort and versatility.
\nEngineered for all-day performance, each belt features a no-hole, push-button buckle that allows for micro-adjustments, providing a secure, custom fit tailored to you.
\nFrom tee time to dinner time, these belts are your ideal companion, offering a polished look and lasting flexibility.
\n![\"\"](\"https://e.callawaygolf.com/assets/responsysimages/content/cgolf/BF-cgpo-11-24.gif\")
Callaway, the #1 selling driver brand in the U.S. in 2024, has pushed performance even further with the new Elyte family.
\nFeaturing drivers that are up to 8 yards longer, fairway woods that promote 57% less turf interaction, Callaway’s most adjustable hybrids ever, and irons with exceptional ball speeds for every type of player.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-25_Method-Golf-Gift-Guide-2025.jpeg\")
The Pro Pack is the ultimate value and the perfect way to join the Method Golf community. Start with your choice of one of our #1-rated Premium Phone Holders, designed for unmatched stability and style on the course.
\nSince every phone holder base is fully compatible with our MagStack accessory system, we\u2019re including three of our most popular stackable MagStack accessories for a great value!
\nThis is your perfect introduction to our modular ecosystem, designed to give you easy, organized access to your golfing essentials during every round.
\nOnce you experience the power and flexibility of Method Golf, we\u2019re confident you\u2019ll be a customer for life. And with exciting new MagStack accessories on the way, the journey is just beginning.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-25_Ghost-Golf-Gift-Guide-2025.png\")
Don’t miss out on Ghost Golf’s biggest sale of the year. Save an extra $10 for every $100 you spend\u2014no code needed.
\nWhether you’re upgrading your golf bag, investing in premium accessories, or refreshing your on-course wardrobe, now is the perfect time to gear up with game-changing equipment at incredible savings.
\nWith savings across every category\u2014from elite golf bags to premium accessories\u2014there’s never been a better time to join the Ghost Golf Club and play fearlessly.
\n![\"\"](\"https://i2.createsend1.com/ei/d/8E/D45/CC1/061650/csimport/2025-11-27_golf_genius_bf-newsletters_26-nov-25-3_1.jpg\")
Druids\u2019 Official Black Friday Sale has landed! Grab up to 90% off across the entire site on thousands of premium pieces, all reduced to the lowest prices you\u2019ll see in 2025.
\nWith absolutely everything discounted, there\u2019s never been a better time to upgrade your wardrobe with timeless, high-quality essentials built to last year after year. Hurry \u2013 this massive sale ends Sunday at midnight! Don\u2019t miss out!
\nNo additional taxes or tariffs for US customers, plus express worldwide delivery.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-28_Screenshot_2025-11-28_at_7_23_16___AM.png\")
This Black Friday, Sunday Golf is offering unbeatable savings on their entire collection of premium golf bags\u2014take 20% off sitewide or save up to 33% on exclusive bag bundles. Plus, enjoy free shipping on all orders with no minimum purchase required.
\nCreate your perfect golf setup with Sunday Golf’s Black Friday bag bundles, offering savings up to 33%. Pair your favorite bag with towels, headcovers, gloves, or accessories to build a complete kit at an unbeatable price.
\nWith 20% off sitewide and free shipping, there’s never been a better time to invest in quality equipment.
\n![\"\"](\"https://cdn.swingu.com/public/2025-11-28_PDP_3_copy.jpg\")
This Black Friday, bring professional-level putting practice home with PrimePutt’s exclusive sale\u2014save up to $235 on tour-grade putting mats trusted by PGA champions and top-ranked golfers.
\nPrimePutt’s revolutionary putting mats deliver authentic 9-11 Stimpmeter speeds that replicate real PGA greens. Unlike standard practice mats, PrimePutt’s tour-grade turf rolls true every time, giving you the precise feedback needed to build confidence and eliminate costly three-putts.
\nWhether you’re a weekend golfer or aspiring pro, this Black Friday sale makes it affordable to practice like the champions.
\nThe post Golf Genius\u2019 2025 Holiday Gift Guide first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-28T11:00:40+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-12-09T15:54:26+00:00", "author": { "name": "SwingU Staff" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/giftguidefeature.jpg", "category": { "name": "Lifestyle", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/lifestyle" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "Finding the perfect gift for the golfer in your life has never been easier. Golf Genius’ 2025 Holiday Gift Guide curates the season’s top products across every category\u2014from innovative putting aids and premium golf bags to ..." }, { "id": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/sebastian-garcia-is-7-under-after-15-holes-before-weather-suspension-at-the-australian-pga/", "url": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/tour/sebastian-garcia-is-7-under-after-15-holes-before-weather-suspension-at-the-australian-pga/", "title": "Sebastian Garcia Is 7-Under After 15 Holes Before Weather Suspension At The Australian PGA", "content_html": "\n
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Sebastian Garcia had a good round going Thursday at the Australian PGA Championship until bad weather got in the way.
\nThe Spanish golfer had completed 15 holes at the par-71 Royal Queensland course and was 7-under before a mid-afternoon thunderstorm delay. Spectators\u00a0were later ordered by tournament organizers to vacate the course.
\nThe weather delay and later suspension meant about half of the 156-player field will be forced to complete their first rounds on Friday morning. Round 2 tee times were to be delayed by 90 minutes.
\nEarlier, and fresh from an eight-week break after a season that included his first two tournament wins on the PGA Tour, Ryan Fox shot a 4-under 67 and was tied for the lead among those who had finished their rounds.
\nThe 38-year-old New Zealander bogeyed the par-4 second hole but had five birdies the rest of the way.
\nThe tournament is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour of Australia and the European tour, which is starting its 2025-26 season just two weeks after\u00a0Rory McIlroy won\u00a0the Race to Dubai title.
\nFox won this year’s\u00a0Myrtle Beach Classic\u00a0and\u00a0Canadian Open\u00a0on the PGA Tour.
\nFox was level with Australian Anthony Quayle and 2024 Asia-Pacific amateur champion Ding Wenyi in a group at 4-under. Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters champion, and fellow Australian Min Woo Lee each shot 68 and were a stroke behind the early leaders.
\nQuayle had a familiar name as caddie \u2014 Steve Williams. On the bag for 13 of Tiger Woods\u2019 major titles, Williams also caddied for Scott when he won the Masters in 2013.
\n\u201cI met him at the New Zealand Open earlier this year … got on fairly well and I said, \u2018Do you mind if we go grab a coffee afterwards, I\u2019d love to pick your brain?’\u201d Quayle said after his bogey-free round Thursday. \u201cHe said ‘I\u2019ll give you my number, I\u2019ll come caddie for you.\u2019\u201d
\nScott\u2019s five-birdie round ended with his second bogey of the day.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s tricky around the greens,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIf you\u2019re just a little bit outside the circle, it can get hard to make putts and you can\u2019t really force it because then you can make mistakes.”
\nFormer British Open champion and LIV Tour regular Cameron Smith, winless in more than two years, shot 69, as did the defending champion Elvis Smylie.
\nSmith, who has won the Australian PGA three times and was runner-up last year, had five top-10 finishes in 13 regular LIV Golf events this season. But he missed his sixth straight cut at last week\u2019s Saudi International in Riyadh.
\nHe was pleased to be back in his home state of Queensland.
\n“I think I just have a sense of just being at home, feel comfortable sleeping in my own bed,\u201d Smith said. \u201cLots of familiar faces around, so yeah, it\u2019s just always good to be back.\u201d
\nMarco Penge, who won three times on the European tour this year and is the tournament’s highest-ranked player at No. 30, shot 70.
\n\nOn Wednesday, the big-hitting Englishman withdrew from the pro-am and said he had been receiving physiotherapy treatment for a neck strain.
\n\u201cNo, it\u2019s not great,\u201d Penge, 27, said Wednesday at Royal Queensland. \u201cThe physios here are helping me out. I think I\u2019ve had five physio sessions in the last 24 hours, so we\u2019re doing everything I can to feel OK.”
\nThere were two aces on Thursday \u2014 Kazumu Kobori\u2019s wedge into the 17th party hole went for a hole in one before Daniel Gale won a sponsor’s car with his effort on the 11th. Gale was at 5-under after 12 holes when play was suspended.
\nMcIlroy will highlight the field in next week’s Australian Open at Royal Melbourne beginning Dec. 4.
The post Sebastian Garcia Is 7-Under After 15 Holes Before Weather Suspension At The Australian PGA first appeared on SwingU Clubhouse.
\n ", "date_published": "2025-11-27T17:27:46+00:00", "date_modified": "2025-11-27T17:27:46+00:00", "author": { "name": "Associated Press" }, "post_image": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/SebastianGarcia25.jpg", "category": { "name": "Tour", "slug": "https://clubhouse.swingu.com/category/tour" }, "time_ago": "3 weeks", "excerpt": "BRISBANE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Sebastian Garcia had a good round going Thursday at the Australian PGA Championship until bad weather got in the way. The Spanish golfer had completed 15 holes at the par-71 Royal Queensland ..." } ] }