Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com
U.S. Women’s Open week approaches. Let’s do another 9 for the 9, where we look at nine players who I’m interested in because I think you’ll be interested in them. Typically ahead of majors, I like to look up every participant to see what’s being written about them, along with learning biographical nuggets. Some of the research turns into a story. Some of the findings don’t.
Some of it I’m going to include in this spot. Here we go.
— When Abbey Daniel was in high school, doctors believed she would never play sports again after she fell 10 feet and broke her arm in four places.
— Lindy Duncan, after a runner-up finish last month at the Chevron Championship, shared a note on Instagram in which she talked about understanding her sister’s message of “struggle less.” You can read that story here.
— How will Ariya Jutanugarn respond after her whiffed chip at the Chevron? GOLF’s Dylan Dethier wrote about the final round here.
— Nataliya Guseva is the first Russian to earn an LPGA card. Last fall, she also watched her boyfriend, Egor Eroshenko, become the first Russian to make a PGA Tour cut. Here, you can read that story, written by Golf Channel.
— Aline Krauter was one of nine players to be penalized for slow play at her USWO qualifying event, and she failed to advance after coming up short in a seven-for-one playoff. She was eventually awarded a spot in the field, though. Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols wrote about it all here.
— Earlier this month, Chisato Iwai missed the cut at the Black Desert Championship after being penalized two strokes for slow play. Matt Craddock of Golf Monthly wrote about that here.
— The story of Megan Khang’s family is worth your time. Steve Eubanks, for the LPGA, shared it here.
— The story of Lilia Vu’s family is also worth your time. The Athletic’s Brendan Quinn wrote shared it here.
— Lydia Ko could win a Career Grand Slam with a win at the USWO. (Though the LPGA plays five majors, it defines a Career Grand Slam as winning four of the events. If a player wins all five majors, they will have won what is called the Super Career Grand Slam.)
Actually, let’s do 18 for the 9. Here are nine more items.
— Ilhee Lee will be well-received in Wisconsin — she said she’s a Green Bay Packers fan. Golf Digest’s Jill Painter Lopez wrote about that here.
“And I think if you’re shooting a gun and every time you pull the trigger it’s missing the target left, it’s the easiest thing to do is just aim right, rather than try to fix the gun. Scottie’s such a simple golfer and simple technique the way that he thinks about the game, so I just noticed he made really confident swings a couple holes in a row and everything was pured but just starting left so when he asked me, I was like, dude, I don’t think you need to think about anything, just aim right. And for sure enough, it started working. So I don’t know if that’s what it was or if he liked the way the tee shots looked. Maybe some of the tee shots on the back nine he might liked better, who knows?”
Best non-GOLF.com read for your weekend
4. What am I reading (besides the thoughtful prose of my colleagues)? This article is worth your click.
Here, Chris Wood contributed to a player blog for the DP World Tour, opening up on his struggles and comeback. This, in particular, was good:
“When I first started trying to get back onto the golf course in 2023, my coach decided we should just start with a 6-iron and a putter and go and play nine holes. That was my first time back on the course and that was brilliant because there isn’t really any trauma for me with a 6-iron. I started there and we worked our way up and it’s progressed over the last couple of years when I’ve been able to handle it and I’m now at a point where I’m pushing the coaches a bit more. I’m OK to fail now, which is great, so we’re trying to make that practice a bit harder because I can take a little fall now, whereas a year or so ago, any more damage was really traumatic.”
A golf story that may interest only me
5. Here, MotorTrend’s Miguel Cortina wrote about the best cars and SUVs for golfers.
Another golf story that may interest only me
6. Over two of his more recent press conferences, Scheffler has mentioned his play in other sports. At the PGA Championship, after noting that you can’t play defense against other players in golf, he talked about basketball.
“I was a good defensive basketball player in high school,” Scheffler said. “I was the lockdown guy. I was the hustle guy. That’s what happens when you don’t have a lot of talent, you’ve got to hustle.”
This week, at the Charles Schwab Challenge, after a question about his hat ‘spike’ after winning the PGA, he talked about football.
“When I played football,” Scheffler said, “I didn’t score very many touchdowns, so I wasn’t too experienced in that.”
