Paulina Gretzky’s swing, pro golf birthdays and Keegan Bradley’s boys | Rogers Report
Get caught up on the week in golf
Paulina Gretzky, Scottie Scheffler, PGA Tour
Hello friends, and welcome to this week’s edition of the Rogers Report. It’s only Monday, but it already feels like a long week. After the U.S. Open, I headed straight to Baltusrol for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Now I’m finally back home and trying to catch up on sleep, but there’s simply too much to be excited about in the golf world right now to rest. Between Keegan Bradley‘s hometown win (using the term “hometown” lightly here) and 20-year-old Ruoning Yin’s major victory on Sunday, I’m feeling very good about all things golf right now.
This was my second week in a row getting outfitted by Adidas, which made packing for two weeks on the road a lot easier. Here are some of my favorite items I sported at Baltusrol.
PINTUCK PULL-ON PANTS
TOUR BADGE HAT
1/4-ZIP GOLF PULLOVER
Okay, let’s get to it.
KPMG PGA Championship
My first time at Baltusrol was at the 2016 PGA Championship. I arrived a young, scared intern with little to offer. I’ve been a few times since, but last week was the first time I felt like I really got to know the course. Speaking of the course, the way Baltusrol got its name is pretty interesting.
I got a handful of DMs after this tweet suggesting that I made up this fact! I invite you to simply google the club to find out more information, because it is a wild story.
Okay, on to the winner. I didn’t know much about Ruoning Yin prior to this week, so I decided to do an old-fashioned investigation (read: Instagram profile scroll) on her. I’m sure you can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that Yin’s profile has just nine posts.
And three of them are from her KPMG win! Luckily, we still learned a thing or two about Ruoning before play concluded on Sunday. My colleague (and pal) Zephyr Melton was on site to hear Yin talk about her love for Steph Curry.
Her first Instagram post is actually of Curry.
Yin has a great sense of humor, too. Her landlord, Xiyu Lin, was also competing at Baltusrol last week (yes, two LPGA pros live together in a tenant-landlord relationship). Lin shed some light on some issues they’ve been having at the house.
I’m going to be very honest here and admit that I’ve never even met my landlord. I just Venmo him once a month and that works for us.
After winning $1.5 million on Sunday, Yin had a great line about how things might change back home.
It’s so wild to think that 20-year-olds are winning major championships. I was home working at a summer camp and sleeping on the top bunk in the room I shared with my little sister at that age.
Rose Zhang
I spent a lot of time following Rose Zhang last week. Her press conference was great — she talked about going from winning the Mizuho Americas Open back to Stanford for finals, studying for a computer science exam, and how her practice schedule has changed a bit now that she has media obligations. Zhang is an absolute blast both to listen to and follow out on the course.
There were dozens of people following her practice round on Wednesday, and then at least 100 following her first round on Thursday morning. She seemed like a seasoned veteran, staying calm between shots and signing autographs.
I couldn’t help but notice that Zhang writes left-handed! She and Tom Kim have something in common other than being young golf superstars.
The Gretzky getaway
The Gretzky-Johnson clan headed to Gozzer ranch in Idaho following the U.S. Open for a little getaway to celebrate Dustin Johnson’s 39th (!) birthday.
It was in Paulina Gretzky’s birthday post for her husband that we got a glimpse of her swing in action out on the course!
Before you armchair golf instructors come after that swing path, I encourage you to do something else! I’m jealous that she has DJ to give her lessons — the same guy who gets lessons from Butch and Claude Harmon. The amount of golf swing knowledge trickling down to her is insane.
A huge thank-you to Paulina for sharing a handful of moments from the weekend on her Instagram stories.
I remain curious how they decided who got to ride shotgun here.
Big birthday celebrations
Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim celebrated their birthdays last Wednesday at the Travelers in the most Hartford, Conn. way possible: by going out for pizza. I spent my 17th birthday in Connecticut for an away basketball game in high school, where my team got crushed. Unfortunately, no pizza was involved. This looked like a superb way to ring in Kim’s 21st birthday and Scheffler’s 27th.
The two golfers then brought the celebration home for some cookies, and the video Kim shared is so, so wholesome. Kim described Scheffler as a “big bro” and “advice-giver” in the caption, which is so great.
Meredith Scheffler woke up extra early to make Scottie breakfast before his pro-am on his birthday, which is extremely kind. I cannot at this moment think of anyone, myself included, who I would wake up at that ungodly hour for.
Keegan Bradley!
Not only did Keegan Bradley have an emotional win at the Travelers on Sunday, he also had an emotional week in Connecticut. He said early on that he was thrilled to have his family in town.
He even took a moment during the first round to say hi to his son Logan and wife Jillian.
Congrats to Keegan, but I firmly believe his sons Logan and Cooper were the real winners of the week. They were given trophies of their own after their dad’s win, and they celebrated like they’ve been doing it for decades.
How good are those poses? This is exactly how I want every Tour winner to pose with the trophy from now on. Shout-out to the Travelers for thinking of the sweetest thing ever. I’m hoping for a lot more Keegan wins solely so we can see more of these two being hilarious in front of the camera.
Jokes aside, the Bradley boys appear as polite as they are funny. Logan referring to Chez Reavie as “Mr. Reavie” here is too good and brings me back to a question that I spend a lot of time on: what do the children in Tiger Woods’ life call him? Are his kids’ friends calling him Mr. Woods? Tiger? Something else? I will not be able to properly rest until I get an answer to that one.
Also, what will Sammy Spieth call JT? Mr. Thomas? Uncle Justin? JT? I’m begging for someone to let me know.
Keegan Bradley finished off the night in the most Boston-adjacent way possible: sipping on a Samuel Adams and listening to the Dropkick Murphys.
JT the hype man
We know two-time major champion Justin Thomas is a good golfer, but I’d like to take a moment to appreciate him as a pal, too. Not my pal (though I’m definitely willing to be friends). First, Justin Thomas went out of his way to congratulate fellow Baker’s Bay spring-break vacationer Rickie Fowler after his career-low round at the Travelers.
And on Sunday evening, JT made sure to give the Bradley family some love after Keegan’s win.
Good guy alert! Seeing the pros cheer on their competitors after a round is one of my very favorite things about golf.
A warning for celebrity golfers
I’ll leave you all with this photo of Steph Curry and Butch Harmon, which should leave other celebrity golfers (I’m looking at you, Tony Romo) very, very nervous. If these two are working together, Curry might win the 2024 Masters.
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