The post He went to prison a decade ago. Now he’s going to the Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post He went to prison a decade ago. Now he’s going to the Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

When he was 21, his life was very different. Then, Peake was part of the outlawed motorcycle gang the Rebels, and he wound up being sentenced to five years in prison for his role in a serious assault.

Now 31, Peake has worked his way back into competitive golf, and on Sunday, starting the day four shots off the lead at the New Zealand Open, he fired a final-round five-under 66 at Millbrook Resort to win the tournament by one stroke for his first professional victory.

As the New Zealand Open is part of the Open Qualifying Series, Peake’s win earns him a spot in the Open Championship this summer at Royal Portrush.

“I’ve just changed my life,” Peake said. “This is what I do. I want to be here and just play golf. The story is what it is, but I’m just out here playing golf.

Peake nearly missed the tournament this week when his travel was held up by New Zealand immigration officials because of his criminal record. He didn’t arrive at Millbrook, not far from Queenstown, until Tuesday.

He will also need special clearance to travel to Northern Ireland for the Open in July.

Peake was a promising junior player in Western Australia growing up. He played against 2022 Open Championship winner Cameron Smith during his youth, but his career was derailed by the 2014 assault conviction.

While in prison, coach Ritchie Smith reached out to him and asked if he had any interest in reviving his golf career upon his release. He had given up the game completely in his late teens.

Luckily, Peake said yes, and the two got to work when he was released in 2019. Peake earned his Australasian Tour card for the first time this season.

This week, he played the final 55 holes bogey-free and nailed an eight-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to close out the one-shot win over Jack Thompson, Kazuki Higa and Ian Snyman.

“I always knew I could do it. It was just a matter of time of when I was going to do it,” Peake said. “[DP World Tour player] Elvis Smylie was in the same predicament not too long ago and our coach, Ritchie Smith, said it was going to switch and that you’ve just got to commit to it.

“He had the same chat with me when I missed the cut at the Aussie Open and the Aussie PGA.

“We set out some goals of how we wanted to finish off the rest of the year and along with my family, my team, everyone believed. But most of all I believed as well.”

The win also earns Peake Asian Tour membership.

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The post Open Championship creates new LIV Golf exemption for 2025 appeared first on Golf.

The post Open Championship creates new LIV Golf exemption for 2025 appeared first on Golf.

The R&A has created a new category in its Open exemptions exclusively for LIV, wherein the top-ranked player not already exempt, but within the top five of LIV’s individual standings at the end of June, will be granted a spot in the Open. This follow’s the USGA’s decision last week, where the top-ranked player on LIV not already exempt and in the top three spots (as of May 19) will be granted entry to the U.S. Open at Oakmont. 

The decision is one of the first substantial move of incoming R&A CEO Mark Darbon’s tenure as the head of the international governing body. Darbon took over the position from Martin Slumbers at the beginning of 2025 and offered a similar explanation to what Slumbers has said in previous years, saying the R&A reviews its exemption categories annually and makes changes to them as necessary. 

“We acknowledge that players competing in LIV Golf should also have the opportunity to secure places in The Open through its individual season standings as well as existing pathways,” he said.

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By existing pathways, he means qualifying, which has been the dominant (if only) way non-exempt LIV players have had to gain entry in previous years. The R&A allows exemptions into Final Qualifying for past major champions and any player who is ranked in the top 1,000 of the Official World Golf Ranking, which means most every LIV golfer should at least advance to Final Qualifying, from which a successful 36-hole day will get them to Royal Portrush in July. 

Naturally, this move and the similar USGA decision has new LIV CEO Scott O’Neill pleased. 

“The acknowledgement that competitors from the LIV Golf League and The International Series will have the opportunity to play in golf’s original major is a true testament to the strength of fields and the R&A’s commitment to golf fans around the world,” O’Neill said in a statement. 

Though the move is an important step for relations among the leading organizations in the game, how it plays out in reality may not lead to a new playing opportunity for a non-exempt player. To use last season as an example, the top five finishers on LIV — Jon Rahm, Joaquin Niemann, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton and Brooks Koepka — features four players already qualified. Only Garcia would have earned this LIV exemption, and it’s possible he wouldn’t have pushed himself into the top 5 until later in the season after his victory at LIV’s event in Spain. 

In other words, if LIV’s best players play their best — and are already exempt into the Open and U.S. Open — these exemptions won’t leave room for anyone else to gain entry. Let that be an early thought for Adrian Meronk to work through. The Polish pro is not exempt into either of the season’s final two major championships, and is currently the leader of LIV’s Individual Standings following his victory at the season-opening event in Saudi Arabia. Now he just has to keep himself near that position for the next three months. 

Despite the formality of these major championship exemptions, LIV has been given consideration from the two other major championships in recent years. Joaquin Niemann has received invitations to both the Masters and the PGA Championship while Garcia received an invite to the latter (having already qualified for the former as a result of his 2017 victory). Talor Gooch, Paul Casey and Patrick Reed all accepted invitations to the PGA Championship in recent years. Louis Oosthuizen also received an invite to the 2024 PGA Championship but declined it due to personal commitments. 

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The post St. Andrews to host 2027 Open Championship, celebrate significant anniversary appeared first on Golf.

The post St. Andrews to host 2027 Open Championship, celebrate significant anniversary appeared first on Golf.

The R&A announced Thursday that the 155th Open Championship will be played on St. Andrews’ Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, on July 15-18, 2027. That year will also mark a significant anniversary for golf’s oldest major, as it will be 100 years since amateur Bobby Jones won the 1927 Open at St. Andrews, winning by six and defending his title from the previous year at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

2027 will be the 31st playing of The Open at St. Andrews and first since 2022, when Cameron Smith started the day four back of co-leaders Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland but shot a final-round 64 to win by one over Cameron Young.

Thursday’s news was also the first announcement made from Mark Darbon, the new chief executive of The R&A.

“I’m looking forward to The Open’s return to St. Andrews every bit as much as the fans and the players,” Darbon said in the release. “There is something incredibly special about The Open being played on the Old Course and so many of the great champions have walked these fairways since the first staging here in 1873. St. Andrews is the home of golf and it generates a unique atmosphere for the fans and the players as well as providing an amazing spectacle on television and digitally for millions of viewers around the world. It promises to be another milestone occasion at one of sport’s greatest and most historic venues and we will be doing everything we can to make it a memorable experience for everyone involved.”

The announcement also means Tiger Woods might get another chance at St. Andrews. When he played there in 2022 — and received an emotional farewell en route to a missed cut — Woods assumed it was likely his last Open at a place he’s long called his favorite golf course in the world.

Woods, who has won three Opens — including two at St. Andrews — will be 51 when the 2027 Open arrives.

“It’s very emotional for me,” Woods said after his round in 2022. “I’ve been coming here since 1995, and I think the next one comes around in what, 2030? I don’t know if I will be physically able to play by then. So to me it felt like this might have been my last British Open here at St. Andrews. And the fans, the ovation and the warmth, it was an unbelievable feeling.”

While many U.S. Open and PGA Championship venues are mapped out years ahead of time, The R&A only announces the next couple of Open venues in advance.

This year’s Open will be at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Portrush, Northern Ireland, while 2026 is scheduled for Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England. Shane Lowry won at Portrush in 2019, and Jordan Spieth won the last Open at Birkdale, when he outlasted Matt Kuchar down the stretch to win the claret jug in 2017.

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The post Turnberry’s famed Ailsa course closed for additional renovations appeared first on Golf.

The post Turnberry’s famed Ailsa course closed for additional renovations appeared first on Golf.

A four-time host of the Open Championship, the famous course shut down last month for renovations by Martin Ebert of Mackenzie & Ebert design. Ebert is intimately familiar with the grounds, having carried out extensive changes to the Ailsa in 2015. That widely praised project, which brought the coast more prominently into play on several stretches of the course, included the transformation of the par-4 9th hole into a stunning cliff-side par-3. In 2023, the Ailsa was listed 18th on GOLF’s ranking of Top 100 Courses in the World. 

This time around, the most significant changes will take place on two front-side holes. On the par-5 7th, the green will be moved some 50 yards so that it perches on the coastline, above the Firth of Clyde. The par-4 8th, meanwhile, will see its tee shifted to the right of the new 7th green, a modification that will straighten the hole while enhancing views of Turnberry’s photogenic lighthouse at the turn.

Few golf-course projects come to fruition without robust exchanges between the architect and the course owner. Those conversations can be by turns collaborative and combative. In the case of Ebert and Turnberry’s owner, Donald Trump, the dynamic has featured a bit of both.

According to Ebert, Trump has called him the “most stubborn man” he has ever met.

The two have come to loggerheads on several occasions. During the 2015 renovations, for instance, the location of the 14th green became a subject of debate. Trump “wanted the green to be located on the peak of the old, crowned fairway where there was an old cairn stone,” Ebert told GOLF.com in an email last week. Ebert, for his part, favored creating a more sheltered green in a shallow valley. The architect stood his ground and eventually, Trump relented, though Ebert concedes that he might not have won the argument on design merits alone.

“It could have been the mention of a superstition that anyone who moves one of the old cairn stones would come to a sticky end that produced the desired result,” Ebert said. 

More recently, the two locked horns over the location of the par-3 6th green, which Trump wanted to have shifted to the left, closer to the coast. Ebert was dismayed by that idea, as the 6th was one of his favorite short holes on the course. But he realized he would likely have to do the owner’s bidding. 

“I was left looking at the options (for moving the green), and when the course manager Allan Patterson returned to see how I was getting on, he found me lying down on the green surface, kissing it goodbye,” Ebert said. 

Patterson, in turn, told Trump about the smooch. A few days later, Trump called Ebert to say that he hadn’t realized the depth of the architect’s attachment to the hole. The green, Trump told Ebert, could stay where it was. 

In other cases, it was Ebert who gave ground, the most notable example being the 9th hole, which Ebert had originally wanted to turn into a dangerous short par-4. Trump pushed for a long par-3 along the coast. 

“His argument was that iconic long par-3s leave much stronger impression on golfers,” Ebert said. “We had a lot of debate over that but, in the end, I have to agree.”

None of these changes have been put to the test in a major championship. The Open was last held at Turnberry in 2009, when Stewart Cink beat 59-year-old Tom Watson in a playoff, and the Ailsa course has since been removed from the championship rota by the R&A. In announcing that decision, in 2021, just days after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. capitol, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said the governing body would not return the Open to Turnberry “until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.” 

Turnberry’s status as a championship host is far from the only fraught topic in professional golf these days. The pro ranks are divided, with top talent split between rival circuits. TV viewership is down. And the increasingly lavish sums of money on the table — and the apparent need among players and organizations alike for more of it — have done little to bolster goodwill among fans.

In stark counterpoint, though, recreational golf is more popular than ever, with tee sheets at top courses booked solid months and, in some cases, years in advance. To get a crack at the Ailsa, recreational players will have to wait until April, when the days are longer and the course reopens to public play.

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The post Xander Schauffele explains how he was quickly humbled after Open Championship win appeared first on Golf.

The post Xander Schauffele explains how he was quickly humbled after Open Championship win appeared first on Golf.

Just days removed from his second major championship win, the 30-year-old is taking a short breather before defending his Olympic gold medal in Paris next week.

What has it been like for Schauffele in the aftermath of his incredible achievement at Royal Troon?

“What a ride it’s been these past couple months,” Schauffele told ESPN’s Matt Barrie on “SportsCenter Wednesday.

What a ride indeed. After posting 12 top 10s in the majors since 2017, Schauffele has won two of his past three, with a T7 at the U.S. Open in between for good measure.

It was the performance at the PGA Championship at Valhalla in May that opened the floodgates for Schauffele. His final-round 65 was enough to clip Bryson DeChambeau by one shot. The self-belief he manifested at Valhalla ultimately gave him an edge down the stretch at Royal Troon over the weekend.

“The momentum people talk about in golf is all self belief, it’s all confidence,” Schauffele told Barrie. “Earlier in the week, I talked about winning that first major, didn’t really do anything for me walking into the major. But if I was ever in a place to win the tournament, I felt like it was gonna give me an edge. And I feel like that’s exactly kind of what happened.

Balls

“I either spoke it into existence or that’s sort of what happened. Because coming down on that back nine, I was right there in the hunt, and I did it a few months ago and I told myself, you can take control of this tournament, knowing you won one just prior, and knowing how hard it is, if you can sneak a few birdies in when no one else is, you’re gonna walk away with this thing.”

With the Olympics looming, Barrie asked Schauffele what it would be like for him to add another golf medal to his hardware haul.

“I may never come down to earth,” Schauffele said with a smile.

He did admit, however, to being quickly grounded by his U.S. Olympic teammates.

“I played golf for the first time today against, you know, I got Wyndham [Clark] and Colin [Morikawa] out here,” he said. “We’re out getting ready for the Olympics and I lost to both of them today. So, quickly humbled and quickly feeling the need to get back to work.”

The first round of the Paris Olympics begins on Aug. 1. You can watch Schauffele’s full interview on “SportsCenter” here.

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The post This unique driver nearly won the Open. Can it change your game? appeared first on Golf.

The post This unique driver nearly won the Open. Can it change your game? appeared first on Golf.

For four days, Thriston Lawrence threw caution to the wind and went full send on nearly every hole, regardless of the situation. What made the aggressive gameplan even more impressive was how often Lawrence found the fairway, even as the weather conditions deteriorated.

Look at the stats from last week and you’ll notice the South African led the field in SG: Off-the-tee (plus-6.30) while ranking a modest 99th in driving distance (299 yards). Those two numbers alone highlight Lawrence’s incredible efficiency with the big stick. Putting yourself in a position to score was absolutely essential to succeed at the Open.

Raw distance remains the best route to gain an edge over your peers, provided you know where the ball is going. In some cases, sacrificing distance for accuracy can unlock a level of consistency that otherwise seemed unattainable. Which brings us back to Lawrence’s impressive performance off the tee.

The Ping G430 Max driver he wielded is already considered one of the most forgiving and consistent drivers in the marketplace. But did you know it’s fast as well? During our last round of robotic testing with Golf Laboratories, G430 Max was a mere 0.3 mph behind the fastest driver in our 95 mph robot test — a difference that’s within the noise. It should also be noted the driver had an impressive single-digit carry distance loss of 8.3 yards across all 9 points tested.

Having a driver that’s forgiving and fast can give you a leg up on the competition. Of course, there’s another aspect of Lawrence’s driver build that’s worth analyzing: the shaft length.

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It’s difficult to give an exact number, but the average driver shaft length on Tour is roughly 44.75 inches, give or take a half-inch in either direction depending on preference. Take a look at Lawrence’s club specs and you’ll notice his Ping driver checks in at 43.75 inches, somewhere between a Mini Driver and 3-wood.

We’ve done stories on what happens when you put a 3-wood shaft in a driver head in the past if you want a deeper dive. If you prefer the condensed version, just know that going shorter in length can lead to a decrease in ball speed. But don’t let that deter you from considering the idea of going shorter to cure an erratic driver.

There’s also a strong possibility you could get longer off the tee by going shorter. Yes, longer. Back in 2019, Tony Finau conducted head-to-head testing with a shorter Ping driver (44.75 inches) against his usual build (45.25 inches) that saw his ball speed increase 2-3 mph due to more center face contact.

In nearly every case, a more consistent driver that gets you closer to reaching the magical 1.5 “smash factor” is going to be the best option for your game. Maybe a driver with a longer shaft gets you there, but it’s more likely you’ll see efficiency go up in a meaningful way by going shorter, especially for mid-to-high handicappers with a misbehaving driver.

And if you do go to something shorter than 44 inches, make sure to take swingweight, feel and flight into the equation before making the final call. There’s no guarantee you’ll turn into Thriston Lawrence off the tee overnight, but there’s a very good chance you’ll see a meaningful improvement in center-face contact.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2024? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

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The post Why this $2 million Open Championship bet wasn’t as gutsy as it seemed appeared first on Golf.

The post Why this $2 million Open Championship bet wasn’t as gutsy as it seemed appeared first on Golf.

It did, anyway, on Monday morning, when word spread on social media that a sports bettor named Rufus Peabody had placed a total of nearly $2 million on eight golfers, including Woods, not to win the Open Championship for a payout of just over $35,000.

Spoiler alert: None of the golfers Peabody wagered against was Xander Schauffele, so Peabody cashed in.

Even so, the average fan, reading of such a wager, might reasonably ask: What kind of gambler would risk so much money for such a relatively small return?

The short answer is that Peabody is not your garden-variety gambler. The slightly longer answer is that the risk he was taking was nowhere near as great as those numbers suggest.

First, about Peabody. A Yale-educated quant with a background in economics and sports analytics, he bets on golf for a living. Among the research tools he uses is an algorithm he co-developed that helps give him a statistical edge.

So, that’s the bettor.

Now, about his bet, which Peabody broke down for GOLF.com.

As the Open Championship approached, Peabody did what he always does before a tournament. He crunched a ton numbers, looking for good-value plays. One of the plays that jumped out at him involved Woods. The odds on Woods were 330-to-1 to win, which made him a long shot and yet, according to Peabody’s calculations, not nearly as big a long shot as he actually was. In the computer simulations Peabody ran, Woods won the tournament just eight times in 200,000 tries. The true odds of him hoisting the Claret Jug were closer to 25,000-to-1. 

In short, it made great mathematical sense to bet against him, which Peabody did, placing $330,000 to win $1,000 on Woods not to win. Similar computations suggested it made sense to bet against seven other players, too: Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood, Brooks Koepka, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Ashkay Bhatia and Robert MacIntrye. You can check out Peabody’s betting ticket below.

If you add up all the liabilities ($330,000 on Woods, $221,600 on DeChambeau, and so on), they do indeed total close to $2 million. But that’s not what Peabody was actually risking. His maximum exposure was far less than that. Because only one player can win a tournament, Peabody was guaranteed to win at least seven of those bets. If Woods had won, for instance, Peabody would have been out $330,000 on Tiger but he would have won $34,175.91 on the seven others for a total loss of just under $296,000. Even in the worst case scenario for Peabody (a win by Bhatia), his losses would have totaled around $360,000, far shy of $2 million.

That’s still a lot of money, more than most of us could stomach putting on the line, which helps explain why not-to-win bets of this kind aren’t especially popular among recreational players. There’s not much of a market for them.

“People typically want the opposite risk/reward profile,” Peabody said. “You wager a little to win a lot.”

Not-to-win bets of the kind Peabody often places are also not the type of wagers you can make on DraftKings or at a Vegas sports book. You need an account with a betting exchange, which operate like options brokers, matching sellers to buyers and taking a commission on each transaction.

Given the odds and logistics involved, not-to-win bets — also known as “no” bets — are more commonly placed by professional bettors.

Of course, no wager is a guarantee. Even the most statistically sensible plays can come back to bite you. Peabody is not immune. In June, to cite one sour outcome, he and his brother, Tom, had $360,000 to win $15,000 on DeChambeau not to win the U.S. Open. Most golf fans know how that turned out.

Peabody tweeted about that setback. He tends to speak more openly about his losses than he does about his wins. Many professional bettors lean that way, partly so as not to come across as boastful but also because they don’t want to give away an edge.

“Winning gamblers in general are very unassuming,” says Martin De Knijff, a former professional bridge player who runs Metric Gaming, a Las Vegas-based technology company that serves the betting industry. “It’s also not in your best interest for the whole world to know you’re winning, either.”

In the age of social media and increasingly widespread legalized gambling, word of high-stakes wagers often gets passed around quickly — and not always by the bettors themselves. The betting exchange Sporttrade, for instance, has a service it calls “Whale Tracker,” which makes public all bets of $3,000 or more that are made on its site. After last week’s Scottish Open, Whale Tracker reported a whopper of a losing wager: someone had risked $73,800 to win $1,176 on Robert MacIntyre not to win the Scottish Open.

As it happens, Peabody was also on the wrong side of that bet, losing around $69,000.

Open Championship week brought happier results. The first report of Peabody’s winning not-to-win bets came from Peabody himself, who posted a picture of his betting ticket on X, along with the message: “Was a better week in outright ‘no’ land.” His tweet was reposted by others who referenced the $2 million risk.

Going public about a win was rare for Peabody. His intention, he said, was to offer a counterbalance to his DeChambeau loss but also to spark conversation and help people better understand how certain wagers work.

“I am not trying to convince anyone of anything,” he said. “But there are a lot of misunderstandings out there and tweets that I think can give a distorted picture of the gambling industry, so I think there’s an educational opportunity. Or sometimes I’m just trying to give people a chance to laugh at me.” 

It was Peabody who got the last laugh this week. No one mentioned this on social media, but he also had money on Schauffele to win.

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The post Xander, Tiger and smooth Tennent’s beer: 50 observations on Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post Xander, Tiger and smooth Tennent’s beer: 50 observations on Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

What would I shoot? 

What would I shoot at Augusta? What would I shoot at Pinehurst? Shoot, what would I shoot at any of these pro ballparks? The answer, of course, is “many” — but the conversation among my gang usually meanders to where we’d play the worst. Maybe it would be ANGC. I’ve gotten votes for Harbour Town due to its claustrophobic corridors. I’ve heard thoughts on Kapalua because of its unevenness. 

But Royal Troon might just be at the top. 

How many shots would I rack up from the coffin bunker? Would I just pick up? 

Where would my ball go on 11? The gorse? The hay? Into a commuter-train seat? 

How the hell would I survive a day like Saturday afternoon at Troon, with the winds slapping down hopes and the clouds unleashing tears? I mean, listen to those who strapped on their golf shoes that day:

Said Dustin Johnson: “I mean, the back nine, that’s the hardest nine holes I think you could ever play in golf right now, into the wind and rain — I mean, it’s so long I could barely reach — the par-4s, I had to smash 2 to get there, same with Brooks [Koepka]. That’s how long it was playing.”

Said Matthew Jordan: “I don’t quite know how to summarize it just yet. That back nine was just so tough. I was hitting clubs into there from yardages that I probably did when I was like 13, 14. It was just a complete grind.”

Said Mackenzie Hughes: “Yeah, it’s really tough. Very difficult because every single shot requires attention, focus. Even the little basic ones. Yeah, you’re just fighting for every single shot. It’s a long, grueling day, and happy to be done.”

That all being said, this is kinda why … we play golf, though. The challenge. The survival. If we can play it here, we can play it anywhere. 

And we sure do like watching the best occasionally approach some of our scores.

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As we look back at the Open Championship week that was, we’ll make that observation No. 1 then. Let’s try for 49 more as we post up at the home office. There is motivation to finish, too. I’ve discovered the Vale Public House, in the Hamilton Heights area of NYC. It’s a Scottish-flavored pub. 

With Tennent’s Lager on tap. 

The thought is to publish this piece with one hand on the keyboard — and the other holding a pint. 

2. Here’s another word, though, from Hughes on Saturday:

Asked a reporter: “How about the spectators sitting through this out there. On 18, did you hear some people yelling your name and there were some Canadian flags?”

Answered Hughes: “Yeah, it was funny because on 18 — maybe it was 16, I was talking to my caddie, [and] I said, it’s amazing how many people are out here on a day like today when it’s just absolutely piss weather. They’re all here. They want to see the golf. It’s tough to watch golf in this kind of weather, I’m sure, when you’re under your umbrella.

“But they were out there. They were a pretty cheerful bunch for the most part, given the weather.”

Cheers to that. 

3. Here’s another word on Tennent’s. 

According to this story here written by Bunkered’s Michael McEwan, the brew was nowhere to be found at Troon. 

No cheers to that. 

4. I was rooting for the Justin Rose and Billy Horschel storyline. For the vets. For Rose getting a crack at major No. 2. For Horschel getting a crack at his first. For another shot. For not letting go as you get older. 

This hit me:

Asked a reporter: “You just said one key word there about dreaming, the ability to dream. At this stage in your career to be here in the Open, the greatest tournament, to be able to go to bed tonight thinking of the dream still alive …”

Said Rose: “It’s still my dream. In a few years, it’ll be someone else’s dream. But yeah, still my dream right now. Great opportunity to go live it out tomorrow.”

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5. All of that made me wonder: When did I start cheering more for the olds? When did that flip? 

Hmm, let’s keep this about the golf — and not about my 40-something mental state. 

6. This is a nice segue to Tiger Woods, though. 

I think I have two thoughts here, after the 15-time major winner missed the Open cut, his third MC in four major starts this year. 

I think he contends again. Maybe as soon as next April, at the Masters. He’ll refuel. He’ll recalculate. He’ll play more next year. Making a run is not impossible. Who’s better mentally than him, after all? He can manage a couple under-par rounds, and there you go. 

7. But I wonder if Woods thinks he’s bullet-proof. The alphas always do. 

This could get ugly. 

Twenty-two years later, the moment below is still in my head. 

8. Let’s talk about the winner. Was Xander Schauffele’s weekend one of the best ever? He fired a 69 on Saturday, when the likes of DJ, Hughes and Jordan all suffered, as noted above. Schauffele then closed with a 65 — Sunday’s low round by two strokes. 

Killer. 

9. Speaking of that, there was this exchange:

Asked a reporter: “Your California mellowness, do people mistake that maybe there’s more fire inside than we can see?”

Answered Schauffele: “Yeah, I like — I mean, everyone in my family knows how competitive I am. I may not be the guy running around fist-pumping, but that’s just who I am. I kind of know how I need to be to perform at a high level.

“The same way I don’t get really angry, I also don’t let myself get too over the moon because to me, it’s the same thing. If I’m sitting there snapping a club, that would be the same as me running around fist-pumping. It would take too long for me to adjust before my next shot to hit a good one. I’ve kind of embraced this sort of SoCal, laid-back kid, but there’s obviously a fire burning deep within, or you wouldn’t have a couple majors sitting by your side.”

10. So how high does the Schauffele major tally reach? Three? Six? 

Or just the two?

One person close to the situation had a thought here:

“He’s only halfway there,” Schauffele’s dad, Stefan, told GOLF’s James Colgan. “I would say the one with the greatest potential for the career grand slam.

“How about that?”

Let’s put the over-under total at 3.5. 

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11. Does Jordan Spieth win another major?

Let’s put his over-under number for future majors at 0.5. 

(You can also give that same number to Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Sam Burns and Cameron Young.) 

12. Does Justin Thomas win another major?

Let’s put his over-under number for future majors at 1.5.

(You can also give that same number to Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland.)

13. Ludvig Aberg might win like eight majors. Or zero. 

There’s also a crop of Aberg-like machines coming. 

14. I love the idea of Schauffele re-evaluating the process. He thought he needed more speed — so he hit the gym. He thought he needed another voice in the room — so he brought on Chris Como. Some players don’t do that. Some stick with the same methods, hoping for different results, which, yes, is the definition of insanity. 

15. Let’s talk Rory McIlroy. 

In this case, there’s no need to change much. Maybe a tweak here. Maybe a change to the team there. But majors are hard. Golf is difficult. He’s as good as they come.  

16. GOLF’s Sean Zak wrote a lovely examination here.

17. There’s also the real possibility he never gets past Pinehurst. 

18. But here says he wins the PGA next year at Quail Hollow. He wins there seemingly every year. It’s a lay-up. 

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Right?

19. This exchange was notable: 

Asked a reporter on Friday, after McIlroy missed the cut: “There’s a lot of players out there really toiling, some of the best names in golf like yourself. Was there a point where you became quite philosophical about what was happening and looked at it in the bigger picture?”

Answered McIlroy: “Yeah, I think once I made the eight on the 4th hole, that was it. Twenty-two holes into the event, and I’m thinking about where I’m going to go on vacation next week.

“Yeah, that was basically it. I mean, I knew from then I’d sort of resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to shoot, whatever it is, four- or five-under from there on in to make the cut.”

20. This exchange was also notable:

Asked a reporter on Friday, after Robert MacIntyre played his first four holes during the second round at eight-over — then played his final 12 holes at four-under: “Did you think you had any chance of being here for the weekend?”

Answered MacIntyre: “When I made that eight on 4, my head was completely gone. Then you’re standing on 5 going between a 4-iron and a rescue, and you’re honestly trying to just — trying to make bogeys instead of doubles and triples that I was making.

“I didn’t think I was going to make the weekend, but Mike said, look, fans are here to watch. Just give them what they want, a severe dig and fight, and that’s what I done. I just tried my best and managed to turn it around.”

21. Loved watching Thriston Lawrence pumping driver all over the yard on Sunday. 

22. Can Marlboro please sponsor Dan Brown so he can be … the Marlboro Dan?

Sorry. 

23. Is Jon Rahm on the way back, after a tie for seventh? Was his major season — tied for 45th at the Masters; missed cut at the PGA; WD at the U.S. Open — a blip? 

24. Is Dustin Johnson on the way back, after a tie for 31st? Was this major season — missed cut at the Masters; tied for 45th at the PGA; missed cut at the U.S. Open — a blip?

25. How do we evaluate Cam Smith this major season (tied for sixth at the Masters; tied for 63rd at the PGA; tied for 32nd at the U.S. Open; missed cut at the Open Championship)? Or the campaign of Koepka, the one-time king of golf’s biggest events (tied for 45th at the Masters; tied for 26th at the PGA; tied for 26th at the U.S. Open; tied for 43rd at the Open Championship)?  

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26. If you’re blaming LIV Golf for the above results, go ahead. Of course, there’s also Bryson DeChambeau, who was close to winning three majors this year. 

I think the point is, none of us know how LIV is affecting play quite yet. Is the looser atmosphere messing with competitive juices? Maybe. Is that same vibe unlocking something? DeChambeau would agree there. 

27. Is Scottie Scheffler the PGA Tour player of the year? Or Schauffele?

Schauffele. Two majors > one major. 

But if — if — Scheffler’s putter is on, he’s the best player in the game. By a lot. 

28. Whom do we talk to get Tony Johnstone on U.S. broadcasts? 

GOLF’s Alan Bastable, meanwhile, is a Sam Torrance fan. 

29. Let’s dive into some of the sights. 

Troon, Golfweek’s Eamon Lynch saw, has this bunker-rake setup:

30. All the feels here, from Koepka:

Here, too: 

31. Yes, Prestwick Airport is close to Troon, as Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy saw here:

32. This was classy:

33. This was wild:

34. This was great:

35. How many times do we think the train is actually hit?

36. Let’s listen to some of the best quotes. 

Here’s this exchange between Shane Lowry and a reporter, started by the reporter:

“Are you a good front-runner?”

“I wouldn’t say I’m a good runner,” said Lowry, laughing.  

“I don’t know. I put myself there in a few big tournaments, and I’ve managed to knock them off. So I’ve done it a few times. I don’t know. It’s hard to win tournaments. We’ll see. I’ll tell you Sunday evening.”

37. Here’s this, from Ewen Ferguson, on the highs and lows of the game: 

“So hard, so hard, because that’s this game. That’s mental. That’s why my psychologist is here with me somewhere. I just talk to him and just keep myself in a decent kind of mind because I think I’m quite an excitable guy, and when I’m doing well, I’m happy and everything is great, but then when things aren’t, I’m like, slow down, but the margins are so bloody small in this game. You never know when it’s going to go your way.”

38. Here’s this exchange between McIlroy and a reporter, started by the reporter:

“You mentioned earlier that you met Tiger for the first time when you were 15. Do you ever sort of sit home and think like how surreal it is that that 15-year-old lad has now become fairly close mates with Tiger Woods? And like it was said earlier, like a global superstar?”

“Yeah, I get reminded of it or I remind myself of it every day,” McIlroy said. “I always say this, and it sounds cliche, but I don’t take it for granted that I can wake up every day and try to live out my childhood dream. And one of my childhood dreams was to meet Tiger Woods, but not only that, to compete against him and to befriend him and become close to him.

“Yeah, not in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d end up in the position that I’m in, but I’m very grateful for it. I still have to remind myself a lot that this is my life.”

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39. Here’s this exchange between Schauffele and a reporter, started by the reporter:

“Before winning the PGA, did the idea of winning a major feel more daunting than maybe a normal Tour event?”

“You put more emphasis on it,” Schauffele said, “but daunting is not really how I would view it. We’re playing golf out here, you know what I mean. It’s not like anyone’s dying after they don’t shoot the round of their life.”

40. Here’s Schauffele, on playing through Saturday’s rough conditions: 

“I’m lucky. I love playing golf, and I love my job, and I love playing over here. For me, it’s all fun, and I just try to have as much fun as possible even on a day like today.”

41. Here are a few wonderful reads from my colleagues on the Troon grounds. 

Here’s Zak again, on Rose. 

42. Here’s Colgan, on the Schauffeles.  

43. Here’s Michael Bamberger, on the week’s real winner.

44. And below is about a half-hour of video from Scotland, via Zak and Colgan, through the “Seen and Heard” franchise:

Monday and Tuesday, please click here 

Wednesday, please click here 

Friday: please click here 

Sunday, please click here 

45. Was the Open the year’s best major?

Here’s my ranking of the four:

1. Open Championship (links, drama, Sunday funday) 

2. U.S. Open (one of the best final rounds you’ll see) 

3. Masters (another good final round, DeChambeau lifted a sign) 

4. PGA Championship (good final round, too many birdies, unfortunate news off the course)

46. So who wins next year? Let’s give this a go:

Masters: Aberg 

PGA Championship: McIlroy

U.S. Open: Joaquin Niemann, if he qualifies 

Open Championship: Aaron Rai

Rai? A sentimental pick, and you can read why here.

47. So how did the predictions go this year?

You can be the judge. After each of the majors, I wrote similar “observation” stories, and I made picks in each. Here’s what I had:

After the Masters: PGA Championship, Scheffler; U.S. Open, Will Zalatoris; Open Championship, Koepka 

After the PGA Championship: U.S. Open, Scheffler; Open Championship, Koepka 

48. Major season isn’t over, though. 

Gimme Gemma Dryburgh at the Women’s Open. She’s a Scot. And they’re playing at none other than St Andrews. 

Dryburgh? A sentimental pick, and you can read why here.

49. Then there are these bets:

50. I got my Tennent’s, as you can see in the pic below. 

Cheers!

Editor’s note: I also wrote observations from the Masters, the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. You can read the Masters story here, the PGA Championship story here and the U.S. Open story here.

The post Xander, Tiger and smooth Tennent’s beer: 50 observations on Open Championship appeared first on Golf.

The post How this ‘no-brainer’ Xander Schauffele gear swap gave him more control appeared first on Golf.

The post How this ‘no-brainer’ Xander Schauffele gear swap gave him more control appeared first on Golf.

When the difficulty was cranked up to expert level, only Xander Schauffele managed to find another gear down the stretch and prevail. It’s easy to look at Schauffele’s final round performance and chalk it up to mental fortitude. But that’s only one part of the equation. The tools have to perform under the gun as well.

In Schauffele’s case, every tool in the bag came up clutch in the big moments, especially the Callaway Chrome Tour golf ball.

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Of all the gear changes Schauffele made at the beginning of the season, switching from a prototype version of Callaway’s Chrome Soft X into Chrome Tour appeared to be uncomplicated.

“The golf ball is identical,” Schauffele said of the swap at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “I think they just stamped a new logo on it.”

If the balls were “identical,” then why switch at all? According to Callaway Tour rep Kellen Watson, it was more about the subtle performance improvements seen during testing. More specifically, how the ball managed to hold its own in blustery conditions.

“With the improved aerodynamics, it was a no-brainer for him to switch balls,” Callaway Tour rep Kellen Watson told GOLF.com. “It’s one of those aspects pros notice when they’re testing on their own. For Xander, he was able to keep getting better in an area that didn’t require any major adjustments to his equipment. It was a compelling reason to make the switch.”

While the area package on a golf ball rarely garners the attention it deserves, Callaway invested heavily in the design of a new Seamless Tour Aero package found on Chrome Tour.

Gear

“Each ball will have a uniquely designed aerodynamic pattern, and it’s completely different from anything we’ve ever done, bringing our aerodynamics into a completely different zone,” said Eric Loper, Callaway’s senior director, golf ball R&D.

Callaway’s hexagonal dimple design remains a key part of the aero package, along with something else that won’t immediately stand out: a strategically placed spherical dimple adding consistency throughout the flight.

“By managing each dimple, it enables us to focus on the ball flight from start to finish, where the ball starts off fast but as it approaches the ground the speed has significantly decreased,” Loper said. “This has led us down this path of developing an industry first, it’s a combination of Callaway’s hexagonal surface geometry with strategically placed spherical dimples that provide stability through the entire ball flight. We’ve ended up with model-specific patterns that maximize distance and improve stability over the entire ball flight, which the player will see in a variety of conditions.”

Schauffele began ball testing in mid-October and immediately noticed how much easier it was to execute shots without doing the usual mental math to account for the wind direction. But ball testing at home doesn’t pay the bills. It wasn’t until he put it to the test in competition that he saw the same results under pressure.

“That’s when you know you made the right decision,” Schauffele told GOLF.com. “When you start to see the ball handling [the windy] conditions, it allows you to be more aggressive and trust that [the ball is] going to execute the shots.”

Since the switch, Schauffele has won the Open Championship and PGA Championship. Not bad for a guy who didn’t have a major to his name at the start of the season.

Schauffele’s trust in his Chrome Tour ball was on full display during the final round as he attacked Royal Troon with surgical precision. Even the tough shots didn’t seem to bother the 30-year-old — like a 173-yard flyer on the par-4 11th. With the wind blowing off the left at 17 mph, Schauffele extracted the ball from the tall grass and watched as it cut through the wind and landed softly on the front edge before settling within a few feet of the hole for an improbable birdie.

It’s the kind of shot that only reaffirmed his decision to switch balls in January. Shaking up a successful setup is never easy, but it makes all the hours spent testing behind the scenes worth it when the eventual outcome is major championship hardware.

Want to overhaul your bag for 2024? Find a fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

The post How this ‘no-brainer’ Xander Schauffele gear swap gave him more control appeared first on Golf.

The post This step drill is 1 key to Xander Schauffele’s improved driving stats appeared first on Golf.

The post This step drill is 1 key to Xander Schauffele’s improved driving stats appeared first on Golf.

In previous years, the Monday after a major would often lead to criticism about Schauffele’s inability to get over the hump, with the 30-year-old answering questions about what he didn’t do right rather than what he did to win the tournament.

But 2024 is different.

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While everyone talks about Scottie Scheffler’s dominance (and rightfully so), it’s Schauffele who has two majors on his resume this season, proving to be the most consistent player during the biggest moments.

There are plenty of reasons why Schauffele is a two-time major champ, but one obvious one is his driving stats.

This year, he currently ranks 12th in strokes gained: off the tee, 11th in total driving, 38th in driving distance at 305.7, and sits 71st in driving accuracy. In those same categories last year, he was 47th, 101st, 68th, and 131st, respectively.

Could an improved driver really be the secret to his magical season? Possibly, and one key could be a simple step drill that helps generate more power off the tee — which you can check out below to try for yourself.

Try Xander Schauffele’s driver drill

In the video above (courtesy of DP World Tour’s YouTube channel), Schauffele walks through an easy driver drill that can help every golfer generate more swing speed. Naturally, more speed leads to more power and farther drives — which everyone enjoys.

“The easiest way for me to gain a few yards is this little step out drill,” he says.

To execute the drill, simply stand one step behind the teed up ball. Next, at the same time as starting your backswing, take one step forward and swing through impact — which is the feeling of a baseball swing meeting the Happy Gilmore swing.

Instruction

Schauffele demonstrates how the drill works in the video, showing how transferring his weight more towards the lead side as he steps up to the ball gives him added power.

“Even doing this right now, I can sort of feel a lot of load in my right side. Once I step, I can feel a lot of weight transfer from right to left [back to front for a right-handed player], sort of drastically,” he adds. “This helps the clubhead speed.”

Since that’s not a natural golf swing, Schauffele understands how it could feel a bit funky for most players. If that’s the case, he then offers up a simple alternative to experience the same feeling and increased power — simply lifting the back heel.

“If you don’t feel comfortable doing that, you can do a left heel lift [in your backswing] — and you can sort of feel the same motion,” Schauffele says. “You lift the heel, you load onto the right side, and you press hard down on the left. You’ll sort of feel this chain reaction through your body of one to release the club.”

By using your momentum and some ground force, you’ll slowly begin to see longer drives.

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The post This step drill is 1 key to Xander Schauffele’s improved driving stats appeared first on Golf.