Welcome to the Monday Finish, where we’re dressing up as the scariest person in golf: the 18-handicap at your club who just played you in a match and shot 78. Tough costume to pull off, though. To the news…
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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
In times like these (you can read “times like these” however you’d like: football season, the PGA Tour offseason, impending-cold-weather-so-not-really-golf season, pro golf’s current greed-and-lawyer-infused limbo season, etc.) some of the golf stuff I like is the simplest: someone falling in love with golf because it is, at its heart, a nearly perfect game.
Enter Caitlin Clark, who just won Rookie of the Year and supercharged a sports league in her day job and, now in her first WNBA offseason, is taking on a real challenge: fixing her slice.
I got a kick out of Beth Ann Nichols‘ Golfweek interview with Clark’s new coach (golf coach, that is, I can’t claim much inside intel on the Fever’s coaching search) Martha Foyer-Faulconer, the pro at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind.
Like the majority of amateur players, Clark battles a slice. And like most amateurs, when Clark hits the range she’s mostly interested in ripping driver.
“Oh, I just want to kill it,” she said.
But Clark herself said something earlier this year that stuck with me: “I think everybody just loves instant satisfaction in our world.” That’s true. Nowhere is instant satisfaction more sought and evasive than in golf, so, welcome to the pain house.
Still, thanks to athleticism and confidence and determination and work ethic and epic hand-eye coordination, Clark finds golf satisfaction quicker than most. An Instagram video of Clark and Foyer-Faulconer’s lesson shows some full-swing sends as well as a chipping tip — “hands forward, leaning left…” — that has Clark dialing in a bump-and-run in no time.
Clark is so popular right now that she could spend her time doing anything. Going to cool parties. Racking up endorsement dollars. Leaning into her celebrity. Instead? She’s working on her golf game. The stuff that money can’t buy?
That’s golf stuff I like.
WINNERS
Who won the week?
Nico Echavarria won the Zozo Championship by a single shot, earning the second — and biggest — PGA Tour victory of his career. The Colombian 30-year-old broke Tiger Woods‘ tournament scoring record in the process.
“I just need 80 more victories to catch him. I’m on my way, though,” he said.
Ruoning Yin won the Maybank Championship for her second victory in three starts and her third of the season; she outdueled good friend Jeeno Thitikul by a shot. The 22-year-old from China now has five LPGA wins, halfway to the all-time Chinese record of 10 held by Shanshan Feng.
Ben An won the Genesis Championship in a playoff over Tom Kim; both had elected to play the DP World Tour this week in their home country of South Korea. His celebration? It kicked off in inspiring fashion with a teary hug with his grandmother.
Lee Chieh-po won the International Series event in Thailand, securing his first Asian Tour win nearly a decade after his first season on tour.
And Padraig Harrington won the Simmons Bank Championship with a closing 5-under 67 for his third PGA Tour Champions win of the year.
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NOT-WINNERS
A few guys who didn’t win.
Max Greyserman is becoming an excellent almost-winner; he finished T2, one shot back of Echavarria, and has now logged three runner-up finishes this year.
“Feel like there’s a reason some of the top guys are so good,” he said. “Obviously their skill level’s very high, but they’re able to put themselves in contention a lot so they just get comfortable in those moments. I think I might have finally gotten there. I just didn’t quite get it done today, but happy with how I battled and how I fought with the game that I had.”
Justin Thomas, rolling with a new putter, made just one bogey all week and finished T2 alongside Greyserman. Thomas said he was “obviously bummed and disappointed” but, big-picture, felt encouraged in his first start since missing out on the Presidents Cup.
“I played so well. I played plenty well enough to win the tournament,” he said.
Rickie Fowler played his way into the mix and played well enough to stay there, finishing with a six-birdie, no-bogey final round. Fowler was typically even-keel in his description of the week — great being back in contention, he said, and he relishes trips to Japan to sample some sushi and sake — but his fourth-place finish was his third consecutive top 25 and his best result since winning in Detroit last year.
Jeeno Thitikul came up one shot short in Malaysia and had this to say about a few birdie putts that slid by on Sunday:
“You know, it’s just golf. Some holes you miss; some holes you make it. I think I’m really proud of what I did out there, especially like three holes towards the end.”
She’s up to No. 7 in the world and, alongside Yin, has cemented herself as among the world’s best players, period.
And while the Monday Finish does not condone locker-breaking (this is featured in our official code-of-conduct policies) I have to admit part of me appreciates Tom Kim‘s passion for damaging a locker after his playoff loss on Sunday. He hasn’t quite dialed it all in. He has maturing to do (his apology on Monday reflected efforts to those ends). But golf is facing an apathy crisis, and Kim is part of the solution. (f you want the full story, our Alan Bastable talked to Kim’s agent, Ben Harrison, too — seems like Kim broke a hinge on the door rather than, like, Hulk-ripping it out of the locker.)
SHORT HITTERS
Five things that aren’t happening in golf this week.
1. The PGA Tour is off for a week; they’ll resume play a week from now in Los Cabos for the World Wide Technology Championship. In the meantime you can study up on those at risk of losing their cards, like Joel Dahmen (No. 124), Alejandro Tosti (No. 128) or Daniel Berger (No. 129).
2. The DP World Tour has now completed its “regular season” and is off; they’ll return next week, too, for the “playoffs,” the final two weeks of the season, in Abu Dhabi and then Dubai, where we’ll see some of the circuit’s biggest names teeing it up for its biggest prizes. The top 70 have qualified for the playoffs, Rory McIlroy (yet again) leads the Race to Dubai and there’s a fierce chase for 10 PGA Tour cards for the 2025 season; Guido Migliozzi and Romain Langasque are currently the last two in while Tom McKibbin and Thorbjorn Oleson are the first two out.
3. The PGA Tour Champions is off before its season finale, next week’s Charles Schwab Cup Championship. The field consists of the top 36 players on the points list following last week’s event; that list will include Jason Caron, the 52-year-old club pro who played just nine events this season, jumped from No. 53 to No. 35 after a T3 this week and still plans to keep his day job.
4. The Shriners Childrens Open is not happening again — at least not under its current banner. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Shriners is ending its sponsorship of an event it has headlined since 2007. This seems like an inevitable growing pain for the Tour’s fall schedule, which has seen sponsors shift or drop as its place as golf’s “offseason” is further codified.
5. While we’re seeing some LIV Golf stars pop up elsewhere — Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton on the DP World Tour, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson on YouTube, etc. — we’re getting used to others all but disappearing in the league’s five-month offseason. Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson are among those with no public plans to play anything between the circuit’s team championship in September and its resumption next February in Saudi Arabia. This isn’t breaking news, and for those two it may well be the ideal schedule. It’s just a reminder that, until something changes, there are certain pros who we’ll see at those 14 LIV events plus the majors and very little else.
ONE SWING THOUGHT
There’s more to life than speed.
His latest win means we’ve found another excuse to include Padraig Harrington in this section? Hell yeah.
While Harrington has been among golf’s most eager proponents of gaining speed, he admitted that during Sunday’s final round he took the opposite approach.
“I’ve tried to keep my speed up to compete with the young guys, so it’s an advantage when I come out here, for sure,” Harrington said Sunday. “Unusual for me, but I was trying to swing easy at the end, just keeping it tidy. But that’s because when you’re in contention, you’ve got a little bit more adrenaline. Yeah, it’s nice to have that advantage, it’s nice, I know I can get at a few more pins than other guys, but you’ve still got to hole the putts and hit the shots.”
It’s okay to back off. It helps when you’re starting with his baseline speed, of course…
ONE INTRIGUING ADMISSION
Greg Norman on LIV’s future.
Greg Norman revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated‘s Bob Harig that his contract as LIV CEO is up next August, and while he expects a future with the league, he didn’t deny reports that they may be searching for a new leader. The article quotes Norman as largely bullish about LIV’s future and he praises their progress, three years in, but with one notable exception: the league’s TV deal.
“Where we’re falling short is due to the headwinds in not getting a network [TV] deal,” Norman told SI. “That creates uncertainty in the marketplace. (A lot of companies say) let’s see what happens. That rolls into sponsorship. We have an enormous number of big corporations who are talking to us and would be very keen to come on.
“Again, the question is what is going to happen with the deal? Whether it happens or it doesn’t is going to set the marketplace at ease. When we know what’ll do and the marketplace will know how to navigate the situation. But the headwinds continue from a scheduling and venue perspective as well.”
While LIV’s supporters have cited the league’s app and its streaming capabilities, Norman’s admission here backs the long-held idea that in sports, broadcast TV deals are still king, and without one LIV’s value is mostly theoretical. LIV launched on YouTube and on the league’s website in 2022, while in 2023 and 2024 its events played on the CW, though only on the weekends and often on tape delay (and LIV didn’t earn much from the arrangement). That’s at least part of the reason that LIV’s ratings have been minuscule when compared with the PGA Tour’s.
LIV’s deal with the CW reportedly expires at the end of 2024; it’ll be interesting to see where the league plays next.
ONE BIG QUESTION
Where’s the Ryder Cup headed next?
I’m glad you asked. We know about Bethpage next year, which has everyone fired up despite the $750 gate price. We know about Adare Manor in 2027, which has everyone fired up because it’s a surreal Irish golf resort and looks to be a spectacular spectator experience. And we know about Hazeltine National in 2029, which admittedly does not excite me as much as the others but the Midwest always brings it. We even know about the 2033 Cup at Olympic, in the Bay Area, which promises an epic site and hopefully a crowd to match.
As for 2031? Per Spanish site Ten Golf, that’ll be hosted by Camiral Golf and Wellness, the resort formerly known as PGA Catalunya, a dreamy spot about an hour from Barcelona. Our Sean Zak has further details here on the complexities that have led to this point, from funding to approval to more.
A two-part question, then: No. 1, how many scouting trips to Catalonia do you think I can justify between now and then? And No. 2, what’s the perfect site for 2035, Team Europe’s next open site, which will presumably return to somewhere in the UK, potentially Tommy Fleetwood’s theoretical option.
The next Ryder Cup host? A 10-year journey inches closer to reality
ONE THING TO WATCH
Vandy’s golf facility looks…nice.
Whatever you were doing in college, I’m guessing it wasn’t hanging out at a “golf house” like this one, an $11 million renovated facility at Vanderbilt Legends Club, home to the men’s and women’s teams.
College football’s outrageously-nice-facility recruiting wars have made their way to college golf.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish HQ.
Sort of a random aside, but Peter King — whose Monday morning football columns made this one look like a short, crude bit of chicken scratch — has been on a great American road trip and last week made it to the end of I-90, which happens to be very literally where the Seahawks play. Anyway, I’ve been enjoying his journey, which is properly wandering and feels like the best of Old Twitter, sharing entertaining musings about his explorations and experiences in the world.
Get out there, gang. But first: I’ll see you back here 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.
