One pro’s 40-yard drive, ex-LIV star’s objections, Tour pros swap coaches | Monday Finish

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where it’s officially too late in the calendar to say “Happy New Year” so we recommend “Happy TGL Week 2” instead. To the news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Shortcuts and 40-yard drives.

From a visuals perspective, my favorite hole on the PGA Tour calendar might just be No. 18 at Waialae Country Club. The Sony Open finisher is a dogleg-left par-5 that’s listed at 551 yards on the card. But if you take a more direct route? It suddenly plays much shorter.

Enter Charley Hoffman, who aimed so far left all week you could [make your own political joke here, I’m staying out of it], playing down the 10th hole instead. His reward? Some ridiculously short second-shot yardages in. While a nice drive played in the traditional direction left pros hitting approaches from 190-250 yards, Hoffman’s shortcut left him with wedge. His second shot on Thursday came from just 120 yards, while Friday came from 118 and Saturday just 116. Sunday he laid slightly further back — but still had just 185 left. He made three birdies in four days in the process.

So how’d he do it? Tom Hoge — who bombed one 326 yards down No. 10 on Friday, had less than 150 left and made eagle — posted a photo to Twitter explaining the line.

“Hole 10,” he wrote in a subsequent reply. “Fairway. Perfect.”

Other success stories involved taking the left-most line, like Camilo Villegas making easy birdie from 150.

But there were also nightmares.

Part of the hole’s beauty — and we’re referring to delightful chaos here rather than some terrific architectural ethos — is in just how bad things can get if you don’t pull off the tee shot.

By my count, four drives failed to clear the 160-yard mark — extremely rare for a PGA Tour par-5 — each presumably clipping a tree near the tee box. (We’re trusting ShotLink here, and guessing on the tree trouble.)

Ryan Gerard aimed left in the fourth round and drove it just 158 yards down the left side, leaving himself with a 330-yard approach from the wrong hole. He wound up making bogey and slipping to T37 — while birdie would have landed him T21.

Sahith Theegala hit just a 107-yard tee shot in the third round, leaving himself with nearly 370 yards for his second. He’d make par and ultimately finish T37, too.

Stephan Jaeger hit the shortest drive of the second round, traveling just 119 yards and leaving himself 360. No worries — he made birdie! The German pro wound up T3, just a shot outside the playoff.

And then there was Patton Kizzire, a past champion at the Sony, who was playing No. 18 in his first round of the week and hit one that finished just 40 yards from where it started — barely past the end of the tee box.

Kizzire actually escaped trouble and hit his third shot to just seven feet, which set up a terrific look at birdie. But he missed it and settled for par and an opening-round one-under 69. He followed that with another 69 and wound up missing the cut by a single shot. We don’t like that — here at the Monday Finish we’d like to see just about everybody make just about every cut — but it was a reminder of the roulette-wheel final tee shot and a humbling golf hole. Shortcuts and 40-yard drives? That’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Nick Taylor finished in ridiculous fashion, holing a chip for eagle on his 72nd hole and then making birdie on the first two playoff holes to outlast Nico Echavarria. Taylor now has five PGA Tour wins, including the 2023 RBC Canadian Open, the 2024 WM Phoenix Open and now the 2025 Sony. He’s also a damn impressive 3-0 in playoffs.

On the DP World Tour, Team Great Britain and Ireland won the Team Cup in dominant fashion over Continental Europe, with captain Justin Rose‘s squad triumphing over Francesco Molinari in a Ryder Cup training ground. Tommy Fleetwood won four points in four tries, building on his team-record legend.

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NOT-WINNERS

Other guys playing well.

Nico Echavarria’s runner-up finish was his third top-two finish in six starts — a run that began in the fall with a win at the Zozo Championship, continued with a T2 at the RSM Classic and now appears to be carrying over into the new year.

Keegan Bradley finished T6, adding a small amount of ammo to the way-too-early-but-still-tantalizing Ryder Cup playing captain hypothetical.

And Gary Woodland finished T16, his third top-20 finish in five starts in a week he described as extremely encouraging as he continues to recover from a brain tumor.

“It was Saturday of 3M [in July 2024] I hit rock bottom,” he said. “Friday I started not feeling good. It was the third week in a row. A major championship, the British was the week before. Every time I played three in a row last year, it set me back a little bit, and Saturday of 3M I left the golf course in tears, called my wife and I said, ‘I think I’m dying again; it’s all back.’

“We went home, I was on the internet all night. I reached out to my doctors. We sat down and started realizing that the scans are stable, this thing hasn’t grown, it hasn’t changed.

“We need ways to slow the brain down, and that’s when the breath work started. I’ve done twice-a-day breath work since that day, the yoga, the meditation, and everything to slow down my amygdala, to slow down where this thing is. I guess that was over 150 days ago, and I’m starting to see signs, and it’s been exciting.”

We’re rooting for you, Gary.

SHORT HITTERS

5 more player moves, in brief.

1. Viktor Hovland was spotted working with swing coach TJ Yeaton at the Dubai Desert Classic after confirming a split with Joe Mayo.

2. While Hovland isn’t working with Mayo, another pro is: Webb Simpson! The longtime Tour pro admitted this week that he doesn’t “know how long” he wants to “struggle” after a run of poor form. He’s been consulting Mayo and continues to work with longtime caddie Paul Tesori, too. (Tesori is now Tom Kim’s caddie.)

3. Harry Hall is working with legendary swing coach Butch Harmon, which he says has made him more confident delivering a square club face. We can only take guys at their word, but that tends to happen with visits to Butch — things simplify.

“I approached him [last year], and he reached out to me a few months after and said it would be great to see you. I started working with him, and since then I’ve played really nice,” Hall said. He finished T10 in Hawaii.

4. Rickie Fowler won’t be playing TaylorMade’s golf ball in 2025 after his contract ran out; thus far he playing a Titleist golf ball as a free agent.

5. LIV announced several signings for the 2025 season including Bubba Watson and Branden Grace, who were brought back on “business cases” despite being relegated after last season. Watson’s team also signed Ben Campbell, who finished third in the International Series. Arguably the most intriguing potential signing involves Tom McKibbin, a talented 21-year-old who hails from Rory McIlroy‘s club in Holywood, Northern Ireland. McKibbin earned his PGA Tour card through his play on the DP World Tour in 2024, so choosing LIV over a chance on the PGA Tour would represent a notable decision as lines continue to blur between eligibility on LIV and the DPWT.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Golf’s best putter switches putters.

Denny McCarthy is widely considered the PGA Tour’s best putter. Why, then, did he switch putters this week?

“I’ve just kind of been struggling looking down at my putter,” he said. “It just hasn’t felt right lately. I don’t know what’s been going on, but it just hasn’t looked great to my eye the last couple months. I’ve been fighting it.”

Guess what? It worked. McCarthy finished T16 at the Sony thanks in part to 5.5 strokes gained putting, good for eighth in the field. We suspect it’s the wizard, not the wand.

ONE BIG QUESTION

Can LIV create its own young stars?

Eugenio Lopez-Chacarra caused a stir over the weekend as he announced his intention to pursue a PGA Tour card after leaving LIV.

In comments to Flushing It Golf, Chacarra said he was grateful for his experience on LIV (and his renumeration as a member) but described the experience as unfulfilling.

“I see what it’s like to win on the PGA Tour and how your life changes. How you get major access and ranking points. On LIV, nothing changes, there is only money. It doesn’t matter if you finish 30th or first, only money. I’m not a guy who wants more money. What will change my life is playing in Hawaii and qualifying for the majors, qualifying for the Masters, the Ryder Cup,” Chacarra said.

“When I joined LIV, they promised OWGR and majors. But it didn’t happen. I trusted them. I was the first young guy, then the others came after I made the decision. But OWGR and majors still hasn’t happened.

“It’s frustrating, but I’m excited for the new opportunity and to see where my game takes me.”

It’s worth considering the source and taking Chacarra’s comments with a grain of salt, considering his split from LIV may have been mutual. Still, the sentiment behind those comments? Pretty jarring. While we’re used to hearing PGA Tour players critique their league, commissioner, policies etc., that practice is essentially forbidden on LIV. From the outside, plenty of people have lobbed plenty of shade in LIV’s direction about the meaninglessness of it all, but we’ve rarely heard a player express what sounds an awful lot like regret.

The question then becomes whether LIV has a fix to Chacarra’s objections. Can the tour develop its own young stars? Chacarra compared his early success to Ludvig Aberg on the PGA Tour. The two were competitors in college and have each won since turning pro, but Aberg’s stature has soared while Chacarra feels LIV’s focus is still on its established figures like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, Koepka and more. While there’s no doubt LIV already has talented youngsters (like David Puig and Caleb Surratt) and continues to acquire more (including 22-year-old Korean Tour player of the year Yubin Jang), what’s less clear is whether it has the clout to turn them into famous sportsmen. Will a new season (and a new TV deal on the horizon) change that?

ONE THING TO WATCH

Seen and Heard from TGL.

Our Sean Zak was in the building for the TGL’s launch — as was our Claire Rogers, who’s serving as digital correspondent for the new league. We’ve done a bunch of these behind-the-scenes style Seen and Heard videos the last couple years and this is our first of 2025. (I say “our” even though I had nothing to do with this one.)

See what they found on Night 1 in SoFi.

NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday Finish HQ.

I lost my first golf match of 2025, a nine-holer at Interbay Golf Center that ended when my buddy Russell drilled a 30-footer for birdie at the last. I dream of revenge. And of temperatures above 44.

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.