Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Weekend Wrap - Dog Days of October Edition

Real life intruded yesterday, not that many would have noticed.  After all, the next important event to wrap is....checking notes, the second week in April.

Utah On My Mind - I is, but still a wee bit early and not that part of the State.  I did watch brief moments of the event, and the visuals were pretty stunning.

As we've ranted about for years, the Tour has effectively required all but the bluest-chip prospects to serve a year of indentured servitude on the Korn Ferry Tour, though this guy came up with a workaround:

After a dominant campaign on PGA Tour Americas, Michael Brennan earned a promotion to the PGA Tour’s top developmental circuit. But he can skip the Korn Ferry Tour and head straight to the
PGA Tour, just as his caddie predicted he would, after winning the Bank of Utah Championship on Sunday by four strokes over Rico Hoey.

"He told me ever since we played a great year, we’re not going to the Korn Ferry Tour," Brennan said of his caddie, Jeff Kirkpatrick. "I can’t believe he’s right."

Brennan, 23, shot a final-round 5-under 66 at Black Desert Resort Golf Course in Ivins, Utah, in his third PGA Tour start and first as a professional. In doing so, he became the seventh player since 1970 to win his first Tour title within his first three starts. Brennan won three times on PGA Tour Americas this season and finished No. 1 in the Fortinet Cup standings, the PGA Tour Americas season-long race, which is similar to the FedEx Cup. That earned him full- exempt status on the Korn Ferry Tour next season. In his six previous starts on the PGA Tour Americas, Brennan had won three times, registered five top-5 finishes and a score to par of 105 under.

Are you finished laughing yet?   Sure, the Fortinet Cup is just like the FedEx Cup, except, yanno, for the money.... 

A couple of bits worth covering.  Brennan comes from Leesburg, VA, a tiny hole-in-the wall where everyone wanted to share in the hometown boy's success:

So, not a country club kid.... Golf could use more scenes like this.

The other aspect worth highlighting is that this kids bombs is:

Michael Brennan made one of the fastest moves ever into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking with his win at the Bank of Utah Championship on Sunday. And it was in large part to him swinging fast with one club in particular.

Those watching saw Brennan bombing his way all around Black Desert Resort, averaging a stunning 351 yards per poke. But his accuracy was just as impressive.

At one point, Brennan hit 34 of 35 fairways during his four-shot victory in his first PGA Tour start as a pro. Granted, they were some wide fairways, but still, he had the Big Dog working as well as anyone on tour this year. In fact, it was actually the best driving performance of 2025.

The PGA Tour's Sean Martin noted that Brennan's 7.6 strokes gained off the tee was the highest on tour this season. And it wasn't particularly close.

Maybe the craziest entry there is Rico Hoey, only because Sawgrass would seem to be an odd place to rack up big SG Off-the-Tee numbers.... I mean, where can they even hit driver there?  In some cases, not even on the Par-5's.

Great call by Brennan's caddie.  I do hope he stays on the bag for a while and enjoys the ride.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes -  I had noted the revival of Big Break in my most recent post but, as per this week's Tour Confidential panel, Good Good is apparently good for more than just that:

YouTube stars Good Good Golf made two splashy announcements last week: it will serve as the title sponsor for a new PGA Tour event in Texas, and the group will also team with Golf Channel to produce a new edition of the longtime reality TV show, “The Big Break.” What bit of news piques your interest more?

Sens: Tough for me to get too excited over who is or isn’t sponsoring a tournament, though this news definitely underscores the broader ongoing cultural shift in golf. I’m more interested in checking out the reboot of “The Big Break.” Faster paced, I would think, given that attention spans haven’t gotten any longer. And probably crasser, given the drift of everything these days.

Colgan: The first. It costs a LOT of money to be the title-sponsor of a PGA Tour event (like $12-15 million, according to the latest reporting). The Fall series nature of the Good Good Championship might make that cost a little bit cheaper, but it’s still an outrageous amount of capital for a company of their size. I’m sure there’s a compelling business case, but I’m still fascinated.

Dethier: I’m mostly just fascinated by the identity shift that’s gone on here. We usually think of Good Good and its smaller-scale YouTube Golf peers as some sort of future of golf — an alternative to the PGA Tour and Golf Channel. Now they’re leaning into the PGA Tour AND Golf Channel, tapping into the past as they do. There’s power in being part of the establishment…

Melton: I’m fascinated by the entire spectacle. I knew Good Good was big, but I didn’t think they were sponsor-a-Tour-event big. If nothing else, I’m glad to see Big Break making a comeback. Was always one of my go-to watches as a kid and I’m pumped to see how the reboot turns out.

If they're paying $12-15 million large to sponsor a Silly Season event, then you deserve what you get.  Actually, anyone signing a sponsorship deal with the PGA Tour should know what to expect.

My guess is that Texas is a really good call, featuring a critical mass of Tour players that might just want a home game in September.  Depending on the schedule, every two years there could be a need for a place to have the Ryder Cup team stay sharp, although they'll fight with the folks in Napa for that privilege.

The aforementioned tournament (the Good Good Championship) will be played as a fall event beginning next year and take place in Austin, which not long ago hosted a regular PGA Tour stop. What does this move tell you about the future of the PGA Tour and how it plans to serve its audiences?

Sens: It’s no secret that the Tour, like golf itself, is bending over backwards to bring in a younger audience. This move is clearly in keeping with that effort. The September timing seems like a good (good) fit as well — during what used to be called the silly season, as opposed to the traditional heart of the season. It’s a smart, relatively low-risk way to try something new.

Colgan: It’s hard to make sense of the Maui event disappearance on the same week Austin returns to the schedule, but I’m glad to see one of the coolest towns in pro golf is back.

Dethier: The Tour has been telegraphing its plans for a smaller, more meaningful main schedule. But it’s also been extending some fall events and now incorporating another. Something has to give for these visions to mesh together — and soon.

Melton: Bringing on Good Good as a title sponsor certainly signals that the Tour is looking to cater to a younger audience, but does the sponsor of an event really matter all that much? I’m not sure that the name of the event will do much to drum up interest among the younger demographic.

I assume this will be huge, as long as they've arranged for the NFL to take the week off....

Joking aside, it seems to me that the big winner here is Golf Channel, which gets a reboot of one of its low-cost properties.  The Tour gets to hang with popular YouTube influencers, but not at a favorable moment on the calendar.   Net, net, it feels like a yawn.

As You Sow... - The only explanation for the TC panel burning a question here is the complete absence of anything else of import.  If only they had something to add:

Keegan Bradley, in his first comments since the U.S. team’s Ryder Cup loss, opened up
about the “brutal” experience at Bethpage and said he “really would enjoy playing in one more” before admitting: “I don’t know if I’ll get the chance.” Do you think Bradley has a better chance of being in Ireland in 2027 as a player or as a second stint as captain?

Sens: Neither. Maybe as an assistant captain to Tiger Woods? Bradley poured his heart into his captaincy, and I’m sure he’d do the same again, but passion for the event isn’t a qualification enough. He did a middling job. Why rehire him? Whatever happens, the fact that we are discussing this two years out is yet another example of the American gift for overthinking the Ryder Cup.

Colgan: I think he has a better chance of arriving as a player, but I don’t think his chances of either are very good. A vice captainship feels much more in line.

Dethier: Oh ye of little faith! In Keegan We Trust. One of the most passionate people in golf can channel another heaping dose of Ryder Cup frustration into a two-year triple-down and make this team. He’s never been much of a links golfer — but Adare Manor isn’t links. All good.

Melton: He can try to qualify for the team, but I think (hope) his days as a captain are behind him. Turns out that being obsessed with the Ryder Cup doesn’t automatically make someone a good captain.

I'm just grateful that we have that prestigious Ryder Cup Task Force™ to provide for a seamless transition from captain to captain.  How's that all going for us?

They have, to say the least, painted themselves into a corner.  Oh, that Tiger guy could take them off the hook and allow them all to pretend that this was always the plan, but that implies that losing the home game was part of the plan as well.  But if Tiger continues to channel his inner Garbo?  They might have to revert to Keegs because no one else wants to be the sacrificial lamb.

Udder Stuff - The TC gang had thoughts on Kapalua:

The PGA Tour canceled its season-opening Sentry at Kapalua in Hawaii, citing course conditions due to the water restrictions on Maui and infrastructure complications that come with hosting a tournament on a remote island. Our Dylan Dethier laid out why this might not be good news for pro golf’s future prospects in Hawaii. Do you agree? Should the Tour continue its two-week January run in the future?

Josh Sens: Humpbacks breaching in the backdrop have been a January golf signature for so long that it’s hard to imagine the Tour without them. I hope Kapalua remains in the rota. But I thought Dylan made a compelling case for concern. As difficult as it may be to bring tournament infrastructure to Maui, it has been even more difficult to bring Rory McIlroy there, which is just another permutation of the same old challenge: how to get all the best players competing against each other in an era of fragmentation and outsized individual player power? The fact that the event has such a dedicated sponsor in Sentry and such deep roots at a distinctive venue in Maui makes me think it will stick around. But a shakeup wouldn’t come as a total shock. How’s that for a hedge?

James Colgan: They should! If only because the PGA Tour’s ability to show great events at good golf courses in unique and beautiful places is a good pathway to its continued relevance. And right now, there aren’t that many places other than Hawaii that fit that bill.

Dylan Dethier: For the record, my understanding is that this is all very much up in the air — I don’t think it’s been decided for sure one way or the other. I personally find Kapalua such an epic locale and Hawaii such a special place that the idea of the Tour leaving bums me out. But if you were looking for [winces at word I’m about to type] efficiencies, or if you were chasing profit maximization, a relatively small local market with limited financial upside and countless logistical challenges would come under pretty intense scrutiny. But if the Tour leaves, they’ll lose some character in the process.

Zephyr Melton: I can’t claim to be an expert on the ins and outs of PGA Tour scheduling, but I would venture to guess that the Sentry taking a hiatus won’t be great long-term for the event. If the tourney dates come and go in January and the event isn’t really missed, who’s to say the change won’t become permanent? The future could be grim for the historic tourney.

Yanno, I was OK with the Tour's prior system where the guys simply pegged it when they wanted to....

But then a Tour éminence grise lectured us about the necessity of creating these Signature Events money grabs, because the only way the game can grow is to know when each alpha dog will be playing.  Hey, I totally got it, until that very same asshat decided to skip three of those eight events in 2025.   So, Rory talked the talk but wasn't any better than his friend Tiger in walking the walk.... So, perhaps it was about the money after all, Rors?

Kapalua isn't what it was, the course has been far too soft in recent years.  But opening the season there is a great show for the folks back home with the winter blues.  They tell us that they're all in on growing the game, but we can't help notice that it's all talk.... None more so, I hate to say, than from Rory.

Wither LIV - I know, it's cone of silence stuff, because they simply can't make us care.  But Dylan Dethier put in some effort and copying-and-pasting requires almost none:

LIV Golf faces 5 fascinating offseason questions | Monday Finish

I'll venture a guess that Dylan is more easily fascinated than your humble blogger....

SHORT HITTERS

5 unanswered questions LIV faces this offseason.

If you’re saying to yourself, hey Dylan, isn’t your job to answer these questions? I would say, y’know, that’s fair enough. Consider this an interesting list for you and a to-do list for me. Here are five questions surrounding LIV that affect the rest of the professional golf ecosystem, too:

1. Who will LIV sign?

Since LIV’s inception this has continually been the most intriguing question surrounding the league — who will they recruit from elsewhere in golf’s ecosystem? The first wave-and-a-half in 2022 was eye-popping, everybody from Phil Mickelson to Bryson DeChambeau to Brooks Koepka to Joaquin Niemann to Cam Smith and more. The 2023 signing of Jon Rahm was a shocker, too, particularly when accompanied by Tyrrell Hatton. So who will LIV claim this offseason? Which PGA Tour players will defect? Who will be the biggest name?

Is there any reason to think they'll sign anyone?  The rumor mill is quiet and, more importantly, do Rahm and Hatton seem happy there?  Put another way, haven't all the a******s gone already?

2. Who will LIV re-sign?

News came over the weekend via Flushing It that LIV had re-upped Dustin Johnson’s contract, which had been set to expire after the 2025 season. The 4 Aces captain will be back, which means LIV presumably made it worth his while to do so.

Some of LIV’s big names are now in an interesting position; on the one hand LIV needs them to stay on to keep any momentum going. On the other hand, their leverage in negotiating with LIV is hampered by the fact that they may have nowhere else to go.

The biggest negotiation by far won’t come this offseason and will involve Bryson DeChambeau, whose contract extends through 2026. He’s a full-time content creator and something of a media mogul in his own right, now — it’ll be interesting to see how his relationship with LIV and with his Crushers evolves as he thinks about re-upping while also balancing his side quests.

Heh, DJ?  Good to know he's still in the game....  But Bryson feels like the only one that matters.

3. Will LIV get OWGR points?

Included in a terrific and all-encompassing Global Golf Post profile by John Hopkins (which you should read here) of now-retired OWGR chairman Peter Dawson were two interesting nuggets:

-He’s unclear on why LIV is pressing on.

“I really don’t understand why the PIF [Public Investment Fund] and Saudi Arabia are persisting with it,” Dawson continued. “They are doing wonderful things for the women’s game with the PIF Global Series and they have terrific plans inside Saudi for expanding golf for their own people and for tourism. These initiatives deserve our applause but LIV seems to be the odd man out.”

-and he’s disappointed they didn’t reach an OWGR resolution.

“I was very disappointed that we could not do so with LIV,” he said. “It is self-evident that players on the LIV tour are good enough to be ranked because they were before. But OWGR has a duty to ensure that all of the thousands of players in the system are ranked equitably. Some aspects of the LIV format made that impossible. In my opinion OWGR made the only decision it could at the time.“

That OWGR failure was in part due to LIV taking its toys and going home, withdrawing its application rather than working with the powers-that-be on acceptable standards for points-getting. Now, though, with new leadership in place on each side of the relationship and a new application on the way, it’ll be interesting to see how the OWGR board and LIV find common ground — and potential points.

Yeah, this was bizarre.  And Dawson isn't wrong, at least to the extent that the Saudis can do more for the game and themselves by focusing on the ladies....  But that ignores that Yasir is in this for the Augusta National membership.

4. What will happen to Henrik Stenson?

Henrik Stenson is the most high-profile LIV golfer to finish in its “Drop Zone,” outside the top 48, which per LIV’s regulations meant he is automatically relegated. (This is true with Anthony Kim, too, plus Mito Pereira, among others.) But we haven’t really seen LIV abandon any of its stars to this point, never mind a co-captain of a team (the Majesticks) like Stenson.

The only relevance that Henrik has remaining, is that he put in motion the sequence of events that demonstrates the difference between the U.S. and Europe.   They win because they have a bench full of Luke Donalds.  The U.S. loses because they expect that Tiger will save them....

5. How will promotion and relegation look, exactly?

LIV has staged a Promotions event each of the last two offseasons. They’d be due for another this December, and presumably Stenson, Kim and Pereira could enter — but if it’s happening LIV has made no announcements on the subject as of yet. The answer to this question is intertwined with Nos. 3 and 4 (and, perhaps, 1 and 2, too) because questions of promotion and relegation are crucial to what makes this an open versus closed shop with new players earning their places. Perhaps they’re consulting with the OWGR on this very matter. Perhaps there’s another route they could build through the Asian Tour or its International Series. Again, we have mostly questions.

Time to work on the answers…

I'm for sure going to be up nights until I know what will become of....Mito Pereira.

Peter Dawson has it right.  They have nothing with LIV that's worth salvaging, they're just not used to admitting failure.   When in doubt, revert to the bonecutter....

That's it for today, kids.  And may well be it for the week, unless something of interest drops.  Have a great week.

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