Rory’s tearful finale, Nelly’s shock, a ‘ridiculous’ slow-play repair

Welcome again to the Monday End, the place Caitlin Clark simply moved inside the highest 20 within the PIP — and we’re intrigued to see how she handles her LIV provide. To the information…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

A significant highway journey.

Nelly Korda‘s week at The Annika started with a star-studded pro-am pairing. This Caitlin Clark crossover occasion wasn’t only a publicity stunt — it was a win-win-win alternative for the largest celebrity in girls’s golf, the largest celebrity in girls’s basketball and the best sport on the earth. It was a win for the LPGA, which drew what might have been its largest pro-am crowd ever. It was a win for Clark, who admitted she’d had the spherical in thoughts for months and spent the day geeking out round Korda. And it was cool for Korda, who not often performs with somebody approaching her athletic equal and was impressed with Clark’s composure in entrance of massive crowds in her secondary sport.

“Simply chitchatting on the golf course, asking her questions, her asking me,” Korda mentioned. “We simply felt like two mates hanging out.”

Korda’s week proceeded like a dream. Despite the fact that she was coming off an harm, she and one of many sport’s different largest stars, Charley Hull, rose to the highest of the leaderboard by the weekend, little question thrilling match organizers within the course of. The 2 performed within the final group off on Sunday; Hull started the ultimate spherical with a one-shot lead over Korda.

“I all the time get pleasure from taking part in with Charley. She’s all the time a enjoyable time. Hopefully we give a superb present,” Korda mentioned.

Korda’s week concluded in epic vogue; it proved a “good present” certainly. After three bogeys in her first eight holes, Korda flipped a swap on the flip and ripped off birdies on 11-12-13-14-15. 5 in a row took her from chaser to chased; she seized the lead and by no means appeared again. By the point she two-putted No. 18 for par she’d clinched a three-shot win, the seventh of her unimaginable season.

“There’s nothing like being within the hunt, the adrenaline feeling on the again 9, and being in rivalry. I find it irresistible a lot,” she mentioned.

However the second that basically caught out got here on the finish of her winner’s interview. “We frequently see your mother and pop out strolling,” Golf Channel’s Karen Stupples mentioned. “However we see your brother is right here.”

Nelly’s brother Sebastian Korda is among the many greatest American skilled tennis gamers; he reached a peak of World No. 15 this summer season. As a result of he and his sisters are every consistently on the highway they don’t typically see one another in motion, so this was a particular afternoon; Seb had pushed a pair hours to catch his sister’s closing three holes.

“I didn’t know that,” Nelly mentioned to Stupples, catching her brother’s eye in actual time. “I simply noticed him.”

Stupples double-checked. “That is your first time seeing him?”

And with that, as we neared the conclusion of a yr that had already included a half-dozen wins, a serious, a horrifying 10, a sequence of surprising missed cuts, a Solheim Cup signature second, a neck harm and even a literal canine chew, we noticed a facet of Korda we hadn’t.

“Yeah, and that is my first time successful in entrance of him,” Korda mentioned, and now she was barely holding again tears. “I haven’t seen him in a pair months — so it’s good to see him.”

And off she went to offer her child brother a champagne-soaked hug. Profitable in entrance of the individuals who matter probably the most? That’s golf stuff I like.

However Campos arrived in Bermuda on Wednesday and embraced all the pieces the occasion needed to provide, particularly the island’s famously wild situations and the challenges that include it. He fired a Saturday 62, bounced again from a missed one-footer on Sunday and held regular down the stretch en path to a three-shot win.

“I simply can’t imagine that is really occurring to me after such a yr,” Campos mentioned. “I’m simply grateful to have the ability to name myself a PGA Tour champion. It’s one thing I’ve dreamt about all my life — I simply wish to name my household.”

–Max McGreevy gained the Dunlop Phoenix Match on the Japan Golf Tour, holding off a proficient subject that included Akshay Bhatia and Hideki Matsuyama, who completed T2.

-And two members of LIV Golf gained in returns to their dwelling excursions; Dean Burmester gained on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa whereas Lucas Herbert held off fellow LIV star Cameron Smith on the PGA Tour Australasia’s NSW Open.

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NOT-WINNERS

A number of guys who didn’t win however nonetheless kinda gained.

-On the PGA Tour, Andrew Novak threw down the perfect results of his profession with a runner-up end in Bermuda. Sam Ryder completed T5 to go from outdoors the magic quantity (No. 135 within the FedEx Cup) to inside (No. 122). Vince Whaley completed T5 in Bermuda, too, to maneuver from the bubble (No. 123) to security (No. 113). Wesley Bryan had a turbulent 61-74 weekend to complete T17; he’s up from No. 128 to No. 125 and can enter the RSM Traditional immediately on the bubble.

Adrien Dumont de Chassert didn’t end higher than T30 in a full-field PGA Tour occasion all yr however confirmed out in a T3 end in Bermuda. And Kevin Kisner completed T29, his greatest end result since Nov. 2022.

-On the LPGA Tour, Charley Hull backed up her the LET win she’d earned in her most up-to-date begin along with her fourth top-10 of the LPGA season. Weiwei Zhang completed T2 alongside her to safe her card for the 2025 season. And Rose Zhang completed T5, her greatest end result since successful the Cognizant Founders Cup again in Might.

SHORT HITTERS

10 execs who earned PGA Tour playing cards.

With the DP World Tour’s closing occasion of the yr got here the ultimate listing of fellows who earned PGA Tour standing for subsequent season. For the second consecutive season, the DPWT’s 10 greatest gamers earned twin membership — let’s buzz by means of ’em.

10. Tom McKibbin is a 21-year-old Northern Irishman who grew up in Belfast and performed Holywood Golf Membership — sure, Rory McIlroy‘s dwelling course — rising up. He snagged the tenth and closing spot due to a T11 end in Dubai.

“He’s finished amazingly properly, and I believe his sport goes to be fitted to America,” McIlroy mentioned post-win.

9. Rikuya Hoshino is a 28-year-old from Japan who gained his first DPWT title this season; he’s additionally a six-time winner on the Japan Golf Tour.

8. Antoine Rozner is a 31-year-old Frenchman who has gained thrice on the DPWT; he’ll hope to observe within the footsteps of countryman Matthieu Pavon, who rode this identical exemption right into a PGA Tour win earlier this yr.

7. Thorbjorn Olesen is a 34-year-old Dane who’s, unusually, incomes his PGA Tour standing by means of this class for the second consecutive season. Sitting in 157th within the FedEx Cup, Olesen selected to play the DPWT’s fall schedule as a substitute of the FedEx Fall on the PGA Tour. It proved a clever selection: He completed T12-T2-T7-T3 to safe his spot.

6. Matteo Manassero is a 31-year-old Italian and onetime prodigy who’s taking part in his greatest golf in a decade. You’ll bear in mind Manassero as a 16-year-old taking part in alongside Tom Watson on the 2009 Open; you’ll additionally bear in mind him as a teenage winner on the DPWT. Now he’ll get to make new PGA Tour reminiscences.

5. Niklas Norgaard is a 32-year-old Dane whose greatest season but included his first DPWT victory; he’s by no means performed a stateside full-field PGA Tour occasion and has by no means been in a serious championship, both.

4. Jesper Svensson is a 28-year-old Swede who gained the Porsche Singapore Traditional for his first DPWT victory and, at No. 96, at the moment slots in because the world’s third-ranked Swede behind Ludvig Aberg (No. 5) and Alex Noren (No. 53).

3. Paul Waring is a 39-year-old Englishman who has barely performed within the U.S. as a professional however punched his ticket due to a gutsy win in Abu Dhabi final week. He and McKibbin are, apparently, the one execs on this listing from conventional {golfing} hotbeds within the U.Okay. and Eire.

2. Thriston Lawrence is a 27-year-old South African who put collectively arguably probably the most constant season on the DPWT in 2024; he began the season with a runner-up end in Dubai and added 4 extra second-place outcomes over the course of the season. In need of successful, he did about in addition to he might have and he must be an element on Tour subsequent yr.

1. Rasmus Hojgaard is a 23-year-old Dane whose brother Nicolai earned his PGA Tour card by means of this pathway a yr in the past; Rasmus barely missed out and was relegated to Ryder Cup cart driver whereas his brother made his Crew Europe debut. Now the title of greatest Hojgaard is again in query — Rasmus’ second-place end in Dubai secured him the highest exemption spot to the PGA Tour and he’s as much as No. 45 on the earth, the perfect variety of his profession. (Nicolai is at the moment No. 58.) Now we’ll be seeing double on the PGA Tour — and maybe even at Bethpage subsequent fall.

ONE SWING THOUGHT

Nelly Korda on worry.

“The center of the season [golf] felt like the toughest factor on the earth,” Nelly Korda mentioned on Contained in the LPGA this week, talking about her rollercoaster summer season. “And there’s all of the criticism that you just hear however you don’t wish to take a look at — it’s powerful to cope with.

“After which I used to be afraid to make errors, however to the purpose the place, once I was afraid to make errors, I began making extra errors, as a result of I used to be so afraid of them. And I simply needed to inform myself look, I’m a human being, I’m going to have good days and I’m going to have actually dangerous days and people doesn’t outline me. I can’t be afraid of constructing errors as a result of it’s simply going to eat me alive.

Korda added that she’s “nonetheless head over heels in love” with golf. That could be her largest asset of all.

ONE BIG QUESTION

What to do about sluggish play?

Charley Hull ripped the LPGA’s woeful tempo of play after Saturday’s spherical had her ending within the darkness regardless of no important delays.

“It was loopy,” Hull mentioned of the third spherical, which she mentioned took 5 hours, 40 minutes to finish. “I’m fairly ruthless however I mentioned pay attention, should you get three dangerous timings, each time it’s a two-shot penalty [and] if in case you have three of them you lose your tour card immediately. I’m positive that might hurry lots of people up and so they gained’t wish to lose their tour card.

“That might kill the sluggish play, however they might by no means do this.”

Hull’s proper — they by no means would. However sluggish play is one factor professional golf can’t proceed to screw up. Sure, it’s all the time going to be a fragile steadiness. Sure, execs are taking part in for higher and higher prizes. Sure, greens are solely getting quicker and tricker because the years go on. However as each different sport doubles down on protecting the motion going and protecting eyeballs on the display, golf can’t get slower. Per Beth Ann Nichols of Golfweek, the Annika’s sponsor, Gainbridge, has requested they shrink the sector from its present 120-player dimension. That’s in all probability a superb name, nevertheless it’s treating the symptom moderately than the basis trigger.

Is Hull’s answer the proper one? No, in all probability not. I’ll add one other half-baked thought to the pile, although: after a sure period of time (30 or 40 seconds, say), gamers shall be zapped with some gentle doses of electrical shock, simply sufficient to screw ’em up on a full swing. Loads of incentive to hit the ball within the allotted period of time. Let’s strive some stuff. That query, then: What stuff?

ONE MERGER UPDATE

Trump, Yasir and Jay.

On Friday, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan accepted an invite to play golf with President-Elect Donald Trump at Trump Worldwide in West Palm Seashore, Fla.

On Saturday night time, Trump was noticed ringside at Madison Sq. Backyard, the place he was flanked by…Yasir Al-Rumayyan! The PIF governor and LIV chairman sat immediately subsequent to Trump all through the night.

What do these conferences, which have been first reported by the Washington Submit, really imply? That is still to be seen, and maybe not a complete lot. However it’s a reminder that the subsequent U.S. president is on the heart of a number of Venn Diagrams involving skilled golf, Saudi Arabia and U.S. politics.

ONE THING TO WATCH

Caitlin Clark performs 18.

How’d the 22-year-old look with a membership in hand? Right here’s her full pro-am spherical: