Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where we turned down our invitation to the Seminole Pro-Member to bring you this news from the week…
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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
Cuts that mean something.
I thought that the title of “most meaningful made cut of the week” was locked up on Friday afternoon when Luke Clanton, Florida State junior and mega-talent, surged to the weekend with a second-round 66, earning his PGA Tour card in the process. I was at home watching on TV and thought it was especially meaningful that Tour veterans Joel Dahmen and Keith Mitchell were on the broadcast (via Smylie Kaufman‘s “Happy Hour” segment) as Clanton headed for the finish line; they’ve each had high enough highs and low enough lows to appreciate the best and worst of a career on Tour. They know what it means to have a Tour card. And they’re Clanton admirers, too.
“I’m a nine-year veteran out here and I want to play like Luke Clanton,” Dahmen said. He emphasized that he hoped Clanton would take a chance to enjoy the moment. Just a short while later Clanton punctuated his made cut with a birdie putt, a fist pump and some tears. Appreciation didn’t seem to be an issue.
“It’s so much work from so many people, from your family to your coaches to your friends; you’re carrying a village with you. And he’s feeling that right now,” Mitchell added.
“Yeah, I mean, dad and mom, what they’ve done for me, I can’t even put it into words, really, and it was amazing to see them on 18,” Clanton said post-round. “I know dad is right there and I’m trying not to look at him because he’s going to make me cry.”
That was a moment.
But on Friday there was another made cut that received less attention at the time: Joe Highsmith faced a pressure-packed putt for par.
“I kind of had a rollercoaster day on Friday with two doubles and two bogeys, and found myself with a five-footer on 18 just to play the weekend,” Highsmith said on Sunday. “I was like, man, am I really going to miss the cut?”
That five-footer, he said, was “the worst putt you’d ever want.” Baked-out greens. Bumpy by that point in the day. And a right-to-lefter for a left-hander? Nightmare. “I had already been kind of crumbling under the cut pressure. I think I had bogeyed two of the last five or something, made a couple pars, and of course I ended up with this five-footer just to make the cut,” Highsmith said.
He rolled in that putt. He made the weekend. And then he shot 64-64 to win the golf tournament.
It was the fifth time in the last 20 seasons, per Justin Ray, that a player had made the cut on the number and gone on to win a PGA Tour event. (It was also the first PGA Tour victory for Highsmith’s caddie, Joe LaCava Jr., who you’ll remember from his stints on Charlie Woods’ bag at the PNC Championship and whose dad you’ll know from his stints with Fred Couples or Dustin Johnson or Tiger Woods or Patrick Cantlay. More on that in a moment.) Now? Everything changes for Highsmith. He’s into the Signature Events. He’s inside the top 60 in the world. And he’s into, well…
“Did you say the Masters? Yeah, I don’t want to break any protocol. I’m not sure if I’ve officially received an invite. But that’s the one,” Highsmith said; he’s been there a couple times but never for the biggest tournament in golf. “I mean, it is just like the most incredible place on earth.”
Making cuts that mean more — that’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who won the week?
This was a sneaky-cool week for worldwide golf.
One note on Highsmith’s win: with the victory he’s up to No. 59 in the world, which means there are now five lefties inside the top 60 in the OWGR: Bob MacIntyre (No. 19), Akshay Bhatia (No. 30), Brian Harman (No. 37), Matt McCarty (No. 57) and Joe Highsmith (No. 59). Based on a cursory scan of OWGR reports from most of the last 20 years this hasn’t happened in…a while.
Lydia Ko threw down a dominant performance at the LPGA’s HSCB Women’s World Championship, “Asia’s Major,” en route to a four-stroke victory at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore. The win marks her first since a ridiculous run of three victories in four starts at the end of last summer; Ko now has four wins in her last 11 starts.
“You have such an incredible year, you kind of think, is it going to be another good year, the following one?” So far, so good.
Ryan Peake won the New Zealand Open, completing a comeback from [double-checks notes] prison to big-time professional golf. Peake was a talented Aussie amateur; he and Cameron Smith teamed up to win a big-time junior event as 17-year-olds back in 2010. But per Evin Priest’s report, Peake became a member of the Rebels motorcycle gang and in 2014 was handed a five-year prison sentence for his role in an assault.
“I’ve just changed my life,” Peake said after canning a pressure-packed par putt from eight feet for the win. “This is what I do. I want to be here and just play golf.”
Now he has a tee time at Royal Portrush for this summer’s Open Championship. He has Asian Tour status and is eying a full-time DP World Tour card. Things are looking up.
Dylan Naidoo won his first DP World Tour event under unconventional circumstances; the final round at the South African Open was rained out and so he and 54-hole co-leader Laurie Canter played off for the title. Naidoo, an analytical 27-year-old South African who said Saturday’s crowds had him feeling “like I was Tiger Woods,” made birdie on the first playoff hole. The win gets him into the Open and, nearly as important, leapfrogs him to No. 2 in the world in “golfers named Dylan”. (I am well down the list.) Canter’s consolation prize is a berth at the Players Championship via top-50 OWGR — a first for an ex-LIV pro.
Justin Suh won the Argentina Open on the Korn Ferry Tour, completing our list of national opens. He earned a berth at Portrush, too — but big-picture it got him a step closer to a return to the PGA Tour, where he has made 89 starts.
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NOT-WINNERS
Two costly triple-bogeys.
Sometimes Tour pros set up to hit a shot and you, from your couch, think wow that seems like a horrible idea and then they pull it off with ease because they are operating on an entirely different plane than you could ever conceive of. And other times you, from your couch, think wow that seems like a horrible idea and, in fact, it probably is. Enter Jake Knapp, who shot 59 on Thursday and held a share of the lead as he entered the slop just short of the 11th green on Sunday and walked away several slops later with a triple-bogey 7 and no chance left to win the tournament.
“Even now I don’t take it back. It’s just one of those shots you just have to end up hitting a little bit harder than I did,” Knapp said post-round. Ride on, sir.
While there was something sort of punk rock about Knapp’s implosion there was nothing to cheer for when it came to Taylor Montgomery‘s 16th-hole 7. That’s because Montgomery entered the week on a medical extension and in need of a top-13 finish to retain his PGA Tour status and on Sunday made six birdies (and four bogeys) in the first 11 holes to get well inside that number. Then came a bogey at 14 (no problem) and then a water ball on his approach into No. 16 (big problem) that led to triple bogey. Two shots lower and Montgomery would have finished T11; instead he slid to T25. Ouch.
SHORT HITTERS
5 intriguing players at the Seminole Pro-Member.
In fairness basically everybody in this field is intriguing, but for our purposes here let’s steer clear of big-money businessmen and stick to a few golfers (plus Tom Brady).
1. Tom Brady
Brady’s presence is a reminder of just how embedded the greatest football player in history is in the South Florida golf scene; he appears to be paired with Seminole’s head pro Matt Cahill in the first tee time of the day.
2. Tiger Woods
The last time Tiger Woods teed it up in a 72-hole stroke play event was in an MC at last year’s Open Championship; since then we’ve seen him at the PNC Championship and a series of TGL matches. We won’t see anything from this Woods round, but it’s odd that he will tee it up Monday (at Seminole) and Tuesday (at the TGL SoFi Center) the week of Bay Hill but won’t be in that tournament. Sign of the times.
3. The Korda sisters
World No. 1 Nelly Korda has only made two starts in 2025. Jessica Korda hasn’t made a start on the LPGA Tour since mid-2023; she had her first child in early 2024. They’ll both tee it up in the same group alongside John Waldron and Mike Troy, reprising past pairings from this event.
4. Rory McIlroy + Shane Lowry
McIlroy didn’t play this week but thanks to the almighty algorithm he leapfrogged Xander Schauffele to regain the title of World No. 2. He’ll play alongside his father Gerry, who’s a Seminole member, and in the same group as Lowry and Ed Herlihy, a lawyer and the former chairman of the PGA Tour’s policy board. McIlroy and Lowry will each be pulling double duty; they’re each playing in a TGL match later on Monday. That’s true of Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Keegan Bradley and Adam Scott, too, as well as:
5. Cameron Young
Who is playing with Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball. If you’ve ever wondered why Young sports that MLB logo, here’s your connection: Young grew up the son of the head pro at Sleepy Hollow Country Club just outside of New York City. Manfred is a member at Sleepy Hollow, too, and their families have been friends for most of his life. Manfred offered Young an MLB sponsorship when Young turned pro and before he had any status on golf’s top Tour; the rest is history. Now they’ll be swinging for the fences at Seminole on Monday.
ONE SWING THOUGHT
Jordan Spieth after another top 10.
Spieth sounded miffed at his lack of Bay Hill tee time, lamenting not playing better “injured golf” last season. In other words, he feels like he’s playing well enough to deserve a berth, particularly after his Sunday 68 secured him a T9 finish, his second top 10 in his last three starts. Where is he in his journey back from wrist surgery?
“Right now I’m on the right track back. I’m progressing, and I know that I’m on the right track. I’m not searching for answers. That’s a big difference.
“That just means it’ll come. But the problem is I’ve been so far off for so many years that if that’s 10,000 reps, it might take 20,000 to be where I want to be. But I’m already 15,000 in. So hopefully it just continues to get better. No limitations on the wrist. Being able to hold the club in the right place going back is a big deal, too.
“I have way more knowledge about what I do well and why I did it well and how to get back to doing that than I did back then. I feel like I can do stuff like this every week, and back then it was like a crapshoot.”
ONE BIG QUESTION
When will Bryson DeChambeau play Bay Hill next?
It was just four years ago that the Big Golfer took an all-time aggressive line on the par-5 6th at Bay Hill. That was pre-LIV and, well, pre- a lot of things in the golf world. But it’s a clip that resurfaces every year this time and will again this week, particularly as DeChambeau’s stature continues to grow.
There has been plenty of speculation surrounding a LIV-PGA Tour truce and there has been speculation about DeChambeau’s LIV deal and at some point it feels as though these top pros will be playing in the same fields more often. The question, then: when will DeChambeau tee it up at the Arnold Palmer Invitational again?
ONE THING TO WATCH
TGL Tuesday.
This is sort of a category for me, by me, to say this: I’m attending TGL on Tuesday in person for the first time. So my “one thing to watch” is simply “TGL”. I hope you’ll watch with me and we can talk about it here next week.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.
It’s not just that Joe Highsmith is from Lakewood, just down the road from Seattle. It’s that he got his caddie, Joe LaCava, Jr., thanks to a rec from Fred Couples, who won the Masters with Joe LaCava on his bag and has had junior fill in here and there on the PGA Tour Champions. LaCava Jr. hasn’t been doing this for long but already has carried for Couples, Charlie Woods and in victories on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. That’s a one-of-a-kind resume.
Couples had business of his own this week, too: he received a lifetime achievement award from the Seattle Sports Commission — and dodged a “speech” by bringing in college golf teammate Jim Nantz for a conversation instead. Big things happening for Washington golf, gang. I’m excited to get swept up in that momentum.
We’ll see you next week!
Before you go, a quick request: If you like the Monday Finish, subscribe for free HERE to get it in your email inbox!
Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
