Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are flying high after a great early season round. It’s always nice to have a confidence booster at an easy course. Like Winged Foot.
Obviously, I kid, but it was a real treat to play the venue of six and counting (2028) U.S. Opens. With USGA CEO Mike Whan and CCO Jon Podany … NBD. And those guy can play. Anyway, let’s talk about some other golf while I still lick my wounds.
The Fitzpatrick brothers: One of the most obvious golf bets in recent memory, so, of course, I missed out. But congrats to Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick on winning the Zurich Classic and providing one of the coolest moments of the golf season. It didn’t come easy down the stretch in the Big Easy, but big bro bailed them out with this all-time bunker shot to set up the winning tap-in birdie by Alex:
How good is Matt Fitzpatrick right now? That’s three PGA Tour wins in four starts for the World No. 3. But it was Alex who carried the two most of the day as Matt looked more nervous than when he won the U.S. Open while playing for his little brother’s PGA Tour card.
Let’s just say Matt doesn’t need to buy Alex any Christmas gifts for the next few years. The only negative from this victory? The duo REFUSED to participate in the tradition of the winners singing karaoke. And I put REFUSED in all caps because as you can see in this cool behind-the-scenes video, both turned this down multiple times, even while on stage!
Lighten up, guys! No one is expecting you to be Noel and Liam Gallacher! Anyway, maybe work on that for next year, because these guys are going to be tough to beat. Who knows? Maybe they’ll wind up being a Ryder Cup pairing for captain Luke Donald in Ireland next year.
Nelly Korda: Only a pair of brothers winning together on the PGA Tour could knock Nelly from the top spot. After all, Korda produced the biggest win on Sunday—and certainly the biggest splash—with a five-shot victory at the Chevron Championship for a third career major, followed by her jump into that new, bizarre pond with a flawless cannonball:
What an athlete. I’m just glad no one got hurt with that kiddie pool being so shallow. But seriously, what a week for Korda, who dominated in wire-to-wire fashion. In fact, she’s the first golfer to win an LPGA major in which she led by at least two shots after each round in 35 years. It’s weeks like these when you start to wonder how she’s only won three majors. So far.
Jackson Koivun: I keep mentioning this guy, but how can I not? The Auburn junior won the SEC individual championship for a third consecutive year—this time by SEVEN shots—and has now won six of his last eight collegiate starts. Oh, and how about this stat?
What an absolute stud. I pondered last week who would have the better pro career between Jackson and Blades Brown, but I’m not sure how anyone could pick any sub-25 golfer over the next couple decades.
Being drafted on the golf course: Continuing with the college studs, how about Iowa WR Kaden Wetjen? Not only did he get selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round of the NFL Draft, but it happened while he was playing golf:
That certainly sounds a lot more enjoyable than sitting around waiting in the green room or at home. That’s not quite as crazy as getting traded during a round like Jeff McNeil last year, but that’s pretty wild. Even more impressive if Kaden posted a good score that day.
Alex Fitzpatrick haters: Believe it or not, there were some people pouring cold water over this feel-good tale of brotherly love, mainly because of the two-year PGA Tour exemption (really two-and-a-half year) that came with it for Alex. Is it a big reward for a mostly fun two-man event? Yes. But if you have a problem with it, take it up with the tour for offering the same benefit as it does for any winner.
And don’t treat this like some charity case. Alex Fitzpatrick entered the event at No. 140 in the Official World Golf Ranking, above many of the players in the field in New Orleans. And he won his maiden DP World Tour title last month at the India Open. In fact, Alex was already on track to earn his PGA Tour card for next season thanks to being No. 6 on the DP World Tour standings. So let the guy—and, yes, my fellow Wake Forest alum (Go Deacs!)—enjoy this victory. And all the spoils that come with it.
Jim Furyk haters: Admittedly, I got some good laughs from Golf Twitter’s reaction to Furyk being named the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for next year. For a team that has had a tough time in the event, it’s very on the mark to (re-)hire a guy who oversaw one of the biggest disasters ever for Team USA. But it’s always hard to separate the captain from that 2018 squad that went to Paris with Patrick Reed and the weird Bryson-Tiger pairing and the weirder Brooks-DJ drama would have probably been a bit of a train wreck no matter who was conducting.
I’ve always maintained winning captains get too much credit and losing captains take too much blame so I’m sticking to that here. Especially for a guy who has aptly served as vice captain on a couple of winning teams. And don’t golf fans always praise the consistency of Team Europe? Then you can’t knock the PGA of America turning back to a system guy like Furyk. Also, what surefire better options were out there? If you want to criticize anyone for this choice, you should probably start by knocking Tiger and Phil for not being around. In Jim we I trust. I think.
D’Angelo Russell’s ‘hole-in-one’: The NBA veteran has plenty of game on the course and I love the enthusiasm, but you just can’t call a mulligan make a hole-in-one. But that’s exactly what Russell does at 5:35 of this video from a gorgeous golf course in Banf Springs. After shanking one left, he strikes a perfect iron into the cup and goes crazy:
“If it goes in, it's a hole-in-one," Russell exclaims. "Shout-out to all the homies out there who ain't got one." Sorry, D’Angelo, but I’m going to agree to disagree on that one. And I’ll take it a step farther. Golfers should NEVER re-tee on a par 3 just in case this happens. It's actually a nightmare scenario because you don’t want to waste magic like that. Anyway, congrats on the (crazy) par, D’Angelo.
The golf season moves on with the … Cadillac Championship … at Doral?! Did I hop into a time machine and go back a decade? Funny enough I saw someone at the Costco food court on Saturday wearing a big DORAL hat. Guess he’s really pumped. And so are a bunch of big names (minus Rory McIlroy and Matt Fitzpatrick to name a few) to be playing for another big $20 million signature purse. Meanwhile, the LPGA is at Mayakoba here’s also the second major of the PGA Tour Champions season at the Regions Tradition.
Random tournament fact: Bubba Watson is a three-time runner-up at Doral, including losing by a stroke to Adam Scott the last time the PGA Tour went there in 2016. The purse that week way back when was “only” $9.5 million. Just a different era.