25 revelations from the PGA Tour’s first week

Welcome again to the Monday End, the place we’ve lastly settled on a New Yr’s Decision: Play extra golf! Achievable objectives are essential. To the information…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

Little adjustments.

As soon as LIV arrived in 2022, professional golf’s “free company” went from zero to 60. Gamers’ choices to depart for the breakaway league have been massively consequential for themselves and for others, collectively sending the game careening down an unsure path.

However golfers’ offseason choices weren’t all the time so momentous and their return to competitors used to imply one thing less complicated. We’d arrive at Kapalua the primary week of January and discover out about little offseason tweaks prime execs had made: teaching adjustments, gear adjustments, attire adjustments. Much less consequential, much less thrilling and fewer earth-quaking than LIV departures. However kinda enjoyable.

With a comparatively quiet LIV hot-stove season (so far, at the very least) this week’s information cycle felt like one thing of a throwback. And whereas golf most likely might use a bit extra juice — I’m undecided NFL followers have been pondering a lot concerning the Sentry — we nonetheless discovered loads popping out of golf’s offseason. Some good. Some unhealthy. Some sartorial.

Let’s buzz by means of 25 issues we discovered in Week 1.

We’d higher begin with World No. 1, which additionally means beginning with the unhealthy information: Scottie Scheffler missed the Sentry and introduced on Monday that he’ll miss the American Categorical, too (let’s name this Studying No. 1), shifting his comeback timeline again to, at finest, the AT&T Pebble Seaside Professional-Am. No matter occurred with Scheffler’s Christmas dinner-prep damage was clearly pretty critical and/or extraordinarily unfortunate; let’s hope he’s taking additional outing of an abundance of warning and this isn’t one thing that’ll linger.

Max Homa most likely made the most important offseason adjustments. He returned with Cobra golf equipment in his arms (2). With Puma footwear on his toes (3). With Lululemon garments, head to toe (4). And with a brand new coach on name, John Scott Rattan, director of instruction at Congressional, who has been serving to Homa battle an inclination to get caught. (5). Homa even made waves by hiring Jordan Spieth‘s longtime caddie Michael Greller for the week (6); the time period of their association wasn’t instantly clear however it gave the impression of a possible one-off as a result of Homa’s standard caddie Joe Greiner was at house coping with a household scenario. Homa shot at the very least 4 underneath par every day and 19 underneath par for the week, which in some way left him simply T26 in a 59-player area. These guys are good.

Viktor Hovland was the following largest newsmaker. For the second consecutive season Hovland arrived in Hawaii with information about his swing coach, Joe Mayo; he confirmed the pair have gone their separate methods (7) after reuniting halfway by means of final season. That wasn’t the one fracture Hovland reported, although — he additionally broke his pinkie toe (8) after what he described as a jet-lagged kick of his hotel-room bedframe. He soldiered his approach to a 15-under-par week that in some way left him T36. Misplaced amidst different attire shuffling was the information that Hovland and controversial clothing store J Lindeberg have agreed to a three-year extension (9); let’s hope they proceed to brighten fields of in any other case same-y dressers.

“I simply felt just like the development is you get your card, you retain your card, you begin making a bunch of cuts, and you then begin ending within the prime 10, begin taking part in within the closing group, couple probabilities to win, and you then win,” Mav mentioned. Scout desires him to skip to step 7 or 8. “He says, ‘There’s no motive why you may’t win any given week.’ I are inclined to assume fairly linearly, and he’s similar to, ‘simply go set your sights excessive.’”

Collin Morikawa, who would go on to complete runner-up at a preposterous 32 underneath par, is engaged on his psychological recreation, too. He’s working laborious on what he calls a “leave-it-all-out-there” mindset (18).

“If I checked out it proper now, it’s, like, yeah, we’ve received 20 extra occasions for the remainder of the season, you may be ho-hum about it,” Morikawa mentioned. “However that’s not the mindset, proper? It’s, ‘I’m going to give attention to each shot and I’m going to place in as a lot as I can into each shot.’ And also you look again on the greats, like, they did that. You look again at Tiger, like, he did that each single week.”

Let’s be taught one thing from Tiger Woods, then. Let’s return to an excerpt from a Time interview on his focus (19).

“I get so worn out mentally as a result of I’m grinding that onerous,” Woods advised Time a number of years in the past. “Golf is, what, 5 hours? You’re making an attempt to inform me that I can’t go on the market and focus that onerous for 5 hours, after I’ve received 19 different hours to recuperate? That’s how I have a look at it. So I’m going to offer it completely all the things I can, all the things I’ve, for this five-hour window. Let’s go. After that, hey, we’re executed.”

Will Zalatoris is trying to make tweaks in three key areas. There’s his physique, which he acknowledged has let him down lately, particularly when he’s needed to play a number of weeks in a row. He gained 19 kilos over the past a number of months, he mentioned (20), and feels pretty much as good as he ever has.

There’s his thoughts, too; Zalatoris is chasing an elusive, minimalist feeling (21) from a number of years in the past that includes taking part in over tinkering or perfecting.

“I wish to simply get again to taking part in the sport,” he mentioned. “I’m going again to COVID, when issues have been shut down, and the one factor we might do is simply go play and carry our bag, and that was actually, actually useful for me transferring up off of Korn Ferry Tour after which ultimately nearly successful the Masters. In order that’s the recipe. I don’t have to be sitting on the vary hitting 300 balls looking for it, I want to return on the market and play the sport.”

And there his flat stick, the broomstick-style lengthy putter he adopted final season and has been trying to get comfier with. He cited one drill particularly (22) that he hopes will get him within the mindset of constructing extra putts.

“Thirty putts,” he mentioned. “5 10-footers, 5 12-footers, 5 [from] 15, 5 [from] 17, 5 [from] 20 and I received to make 9 out of 30, and do it till you full it.”

We discovered that Tom Hoge, who blitzed out to a gap 9-under 64 and completed T8, is a brand new father (23) as of December.

We discovered that Justin Thomas goes coach-free this yr, able to play “pissed-off golf” after final yr’s season wasn’t sufficient to make the Presidents Cup group (24).

And we discovered one thing fascinating from defending champion Chris Kirk, who described the most important change on Tour (25) throughout his tenure.

“The PGA Tour agronomy is simply insane as of late,” he mentioned. “From my first couple years on Tour I keep in mind there have been a pair locations the place the greens would possibly be slightly skinny or fairways have been slightly skinny or possibly someplace misplaced the greens or one thing. Like, we present up each single week and the golf course is completely immaculate each single week. So I don’t know what’s totally different with PGA Tour agronomy, however they’ve made some large advances.”

Little adjustments that make big-time variations — that’s golf stuff I like.

WINNERS

Who received the week?

Hideki Matsuyama received the Sentry at a PGA Tour-record 35 underneath par. There was just one OWGR occasion this week and, excluding Davis Riley’s WD, the complete area completed at 3 underneath par or higher. Meaning each prime professional on the planet is at even par or higher for 2025. Actually dwelling underneath par.

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NOT-WINNERS

Birdie-makers, although.

Ludvig Aberg appears wholesome; he completed T5. That’s good.

Sungjae Im looks as if he’s flushing; he completed third. Additionally good.

And Collin Morikawa appears primed for a big-time yr after ending runner up at Kapalua; he performed high-level golf all of 2024 regardless of going winless and picked up proper the place he left off. That’s good, too.

On the backside of the leaderboard, it wasn’t a superb week for Davis Riley, who withdrew after 9 holes on Sunday (earlier than his WD he’d gone 73-80-74 after which had a weird five-bogey, four-birdie entrance 9 within the closing spherical). It’s been a tough stretch for Riley, who hasn’t completed higher than T38 since his win final Could.

SHORT HITTERS

5 intriguing golf tales, briefly.

1. Our Michael Bamberger wrote concerning the lifetime of Steve DiMeglio, the longtime USA Right this moment author who died final week after bringing an inspiring battle to his most cancers battle.

2. Our James Colgan wrote about visiting the TGL enviornment forward of Tuesday’s league debut and explored what success may appear to be — or failure.

3. Tiger Woods received the Participant Influence Program (PIP) in what’s anticipated to be its closing version. That’s a nifty $10 million payday for Woods, who performed simply 5 occasions in 2024 and made only one reduce however, nicely, he’s nonetheless Tiger Woods. Scottie Scheffler completed second.

4. Phil Mickelson has huge plans for his new YouTube channel, together with a match collection with Grant Horvat, a yard instruction collection, conversations and extra.

5. Listed below are 9 new or renovated public programs that belong in your bucket record come 2025.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Justin Thomas on his placing woes.

“I believe I’ve turn out to be too reliant on assist the final handful of years and, yeah, I’m solo proper now,” Thomas mentioned forward of the Sentry. “I simply wish to — I’m an excellent putter. I do know I’m. I’ve made numerous extraordinarily clutch putts and massive putts in my profession, and expertise doesn’t depart your physique, it doesn’t simply go away. It’s simply getting the arrogance again and doing the suitable issues to the place the arrogance is there after I’m out taking part in tournaments, and that’s what I’ve been engaged on to get to that place.”

ONE BIG QUESTION

How will TGL’s debut go?

It’s straightforward to be skeptical of the TGL and it’s straightforward to make jokes about its legitimacy. I’ll proceed to do each. However I’m additionally intrigued by simply how totally different this might be, and if I’m placing on my optimist’s hat it’s for one motive: the extra time gamers spend within the enviornment the extra they appear to consider within the idea. The tech and the tempo and the competitors. From Brody Miller at The Athletic:

“I wasn’t positive about it, however now I believe it’s freaking superior,” Max Homa mentioned.

“Getting into made me extra excited,” Schauffele mentioned. “I didn’t know what to anticipate, however there’s numerous wow issue. I don’t really feel like I’m simply impressed, however moving into I might see how they assume that is going to be actually particular.”

The query, then: What is going to Tuesday’s first match even appear to be?

ONE THING TO WATCH

Go inside a dramatic Curtis Cup on the R&A’s YouTube channel.

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NEWS FROM SEATTLE

Monday End HQ.

We on the Monday End now have a rooting curiosity on this week’s PGA Tour occasion.

This Monday’s Sony Open qualifier had explicit significance; given upcoming Tour adjustments there received’t be any open qualifying at this occasion going ahead. So who have been the 4 closing qualifiers? Argentinian professional Alejandro Tosti made it by means of as medalist with a 64. Veteran Tour professional Kevin Streelman shot 65 to earn his 463rd PGA Tour begin. Korn Ferry Tour rookie Gavin Cohen shot 65, too; he’ll make his first begin. And the ultimate spot went to RJ Manke, a Washingtonian who performed at Pepperdine (alongside Tour execs like Sahith Theegala, Joe Highsmith and William Mouw) earlier than spending his closing yr on the College of Washington. He’s stayed in Washington post-graduation and infrequently beats up on me in some house rounds. Hopefully that’s prep sufficient.

Hit ’em straight, RJ! And the remainder of you, too. In 2025 we’re conserving the ball in entrance of us.

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Dylan Dethier welcomes your feedback at dylan_dethier@golf.com.