Welcome again to the Monday End, the place after a prolonged offseason (4 months lengthy! Except you embrace the FedEx Fall, the Presidents Cup, the Hero, the Grant Thornton, the PNC Championship, the Showdown…) we’re lastly again, gang. PGA Tour season has arrived. To the information!
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GOLF STUFF I LIKE
Golf’s picture makeover.
As we’ve arrived on the finish of 2024 I’ve learn a lot about how, big-picture, this was a nasty yr for skilled golf. Whereas I don’t assume that’s true on a micro degree — there was a lot great things, like Scottie Scheffler‘s whole season, Xander Schauffele‘s main breakthrough, Lydia Ko‘s fairy story, Nelly Korda‘s dominance, Bryson DeChambeau‘s star rise — I perceive the purpose. Scores are stagnant at finest, golf followers are someplace between “aggravated by” and “apathetic to” the continuing division between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, and the divide continues to distract and detract from the on-course motion with no clear finish in sight. Not good.
However let’s set that apart for a second and contemplate a very completely different narrative, one largely faraway from the skilled golf sliver of the sport. Golf, on the entire, has fully remade its picture. Individuals like golf now. Earlier than, they didn’t. Critically.
New analysis from the Nationwide Golf Basis (NGF) sheds mild on this phenomenon because of a “Perceptions of Golf” examine (right here) it has carried out a number of instances over the previous decade. The findings? A transparent decline in Individuals describing golf negatively. In 2013 a whopping 57 p.c of respondents described golf negatively. The NGF’s analysis discovered frequent descriptors like boring, stale, pretentious, intimidating. Anyone who has hung out round golf is conversant in this country-club stigma and the sense that the sport is simply too unique and unwelcoming and, even should you do resolve to play, too sluggish.
However the NGF’s information exhibits that that notion was already altering earlier than the Covid golf growth. In 2019 47 p.c used damaging descriptors. By 2022? Simply 37 p.c. And in 2024 that quantity dipped to 31 p.c. That’s a large swing, chopping the negativity in half. That’s enormous for golf. It’s enormous for individuals who love golf. And it’s an indication that one thing has labored — even when it’s not clear precisely what that one thing is. It will possibly sound a bit like a USGA focus-group fever dream however the NGF highlights phrases like enjoyable, thrilling, partaking and cool.
The NGF says persons are feeling good about golf. That has me feeling good about golf.
NGF
Over that very same time interval, there was a “large” improve in golf participation, which suggests 15 p.c of Individuals now play on- or off-course golf (assume TopGolf, and many others. for “off-course”), up from 10 p.c. However that’s nonetheless a tiny sliver of the inhabitants, which signifies that non-golfers should be feeling significantly better in regards to the recreation, too. Particularly, that 26 p.c shift in negativity interprets to 70-80 million individuals feeling higher about golf. It could not remedy the PGA Tour-LIV divide. However as somebody who likes golf and needs different individuals to really feel the identical method? Extra individuals like golf now. That’s golf stuff I like.
In line with the OWGR, there have been no official occasions that befell final week. I’m very assured that is the one week of the yr that’s true. So there are not any event winners. However hopefully a few of you turned out winners because of new golf golf equipment below the tree and the promise of a brand new golf season on the horizon. Subsequent week we’ll get again to the true factor. Winners. Losers. All the things in between. For now? We’re all winners.
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NOT-WINNERS
Our final two FedEx Cup champions.
Loads of us sit up for the vacations as a time to relaxation up and recharge, able to hit the bottom working within the new yr. And loads of us hit the precise holidays and notice it doesn’t at all times work that method. Enter Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland. Whereas our two most up-to-date FedEx Cup champs might not emerge from the vacations overfed and overserved like the remainder of us, they’re hardly arriving at Kapalua in prime kind.
Scheffler, in actual fact, isn’t arriving in any respect. He suffered a glass-related damage whereas getting ready Christmas dinner that, in response to a press release from his agent Blake Smith, concerned “a puncture wound to the palm of his proper hand from a damaged glass.” There was nonetheless glass in his hand, which required surgical procedure. Smith mentioned he was anticipated to be again at 100% in 3-4 weeks and is scheduled to play the American Specific — however after a nine-win 2024 that is hardly the best way Scheffler needed to kick off the brand new yr.
Hovland, in the meantime, might be in Hawaii however could also be barely restricted. The Norwegian posted what seemed to be the X-ray of a damaged toe to Instagram with the caption studying, “Mattress body 1 – 0 me”. The 27-year-old is No. 8 on the earth and had been trying to 2025 as a bounce-back yr after a irritating 2024 and a four-month event layoff. This isn’t the beginning he’d envisioned; he advised Norsk Golf he’s going through a four-to-six week restoration.
SHORT HITTERS
5 issues that occurred finally yr’s Sentry.
Does a yr in the past really feel like ceaselessly — or simply yesterday? From Jan. 2024:
1. Viktor Hovland confirmed his cut up with swing coach Joe Mayo due roughly to artistic variations. Sure, this simply occurred once more (extra on that in a minute). Time is a flat circle.
2. Jason Day launched his new Malbon sponsorship. It could really feel like they’ve been collectively ceaselessly however Day x Malbon is just one yr previous. Identical with Xander Schauffele and Descente, for that matter. The Monday End hears we’ve bought some partnerships coming this week, too…
3. Tiger Woods left Nike, the primary domino to fall within the launch of Solar Day Crimson. Okay, this didn’t occur at the Sentry. However on Jan. 8, 2024, Woods confirmed the cut up with the Swoosh, the tip of arguably golf’s most well-known sponsorship.
4. Scottie Scheffler completed T5. It was his first top-five end of the season; he’d wind up with 15 of ’em in 21 occasions, together with 9 wins. Yowza.
5. Chris Kirk received. It was his solely top-five end of the season, although he threw down two different top-10s and made all of it the best way to the Tour Championship. Huge week forward — any individual’s gonna make it rely.
ONE SWING THOUGHT
From Xander Schauffele.
Don’t let a pre-round shank get you down.
So says Xander Schauffele, this week’s pre-tournament favourite, the World No. 2 and my newest visitor on Warming Up, a pleasant driving-range interview present that I encourage you to observe right here or under.
“I used to shank it loads. Warming up in faculty, for some motive,” Schauffele mentioned. “Not a lot, however like, there have been most likely 4 tournaments in a row the place I hoseled it, and it form of helped me perceive how insignificant a warm-up is. It was a giant studying lesson for me then.”
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ONE BIG QUESTION
The place will Hovland land subsequent?
If the reply was “on his ft,” properly, that simply bought just a little bit more durable. However the plot thickens for our Scandinavian hero, who was arguably the most well liked golfer on the earth on the finish of 2023 however recorded simply two prime 10s in 2024 as he shuffled swings and swing coaches. To some extent this was at all times the plan; we talked in 2023 about his accountability to be the CEO of Viktor Hovland the corporate and his need to make use of coaches as assets; he’s by no means needed to be overly dependent.
Hovland advised Norsk Golf that he and Joe Mayo cut up a few month in the past; I don’t belief my Norwegian sufficient to offer an actual translation nevertheless it’s clear they didn’t agree on the best way ahead for Hovland. Right here we’ll lean on Google Translate:
“I really feel like I’ve realized a lot now and have a lot experience, that I don’t want anybody holding my hand anymore. It’s at all times good to have somebody who can watch what I’m doing, take a look at the steps I’m taking. So I ship some movies to a different coach, however he’s extra of a marketing consultant.”
One lesson Hovland took from final season: he can compete even when he doesn’t have his finest stuff. Final yr he completed T3 on the PGA Championship, in any case, within the midst of a semi-slump. That bodes properly for his 2025, even when he’s getting off on the flawed foot. So despite the fact that he’s feeling sluggish from a Norwegian winter break, rusty off a four-month aggressive hiatus and now a damaged toe on the hardest stroll of the PGA Tour season?
“However golf is a wierd sport,” Hovland advised Norsk. “I might all of a sudden discover one thing that works.”
ONE THING TO WATCH
Joyful Gilmore 2.
Adam Sandler‘s again. Christopher McDonald‘s again. Julie Bowen‘s again. And now we now have a solid that features Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and… Travis Kelce? Right here comes Joyful Gilmore 2. In an period of hit-or-miss sequels, right here’s hoping we’re glad to reboot this one.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday End HQ.
Again within the Pacific Northwest feeling reflective and grateful. Lacking individuals and locations and experiences passed by. Looking forward to the great things but to come back. Generally each unexpectedly. Fortunate to do that job and stay this life and to consider golf on this area a pair instances every week. Glad to have you ever studying, listening, watching — none of it will work with out you.
So we’ll see you [smirks] subsequent yr!
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Dylan Dethier is a senior author for GOLF Journal/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams Faculty, the place he majored in English, and he’s the creator of 18 in America, which particulars the yr he spent as an 18-year-old residing from his automobile and enjoying a spherical of golf in each state.
