The new golfer brings the bottom of the new-to-her object close to her face and tilts it at a 2 o’clock angle, examining it curiously, before extending it toward a nearby onlooker. 

“Is this one right?”

It’s a 4-hybrid club, which the new golfer discovers after being shown its marking. That’s good to know, and it seems correct, but that also depends, especially when you’re a new golfer. 

I’d hit whatever feels best. 

“OK, thanks,” says Jenna Smith, who goes with the club, and her ball wanders off to the right, dodging a few trees along the way. 

The college golfer then does it all over again. 

And again. 

Her scores are out there, but keep scrolling down the leaderboard. Two weeks after the hybrid session, at her school’s most important meet of the year, the NAIA-level Appalachian Athletic Conference conference tournament, there were 12s, a 13, some 14s and a 21. After three rounds, Smith finished with a 511, 295-over-par at Governors Towne Club in northern Georgia, and 289 strokes behind the winner. How she got there isn’t complicated. Her school, Reinhardt University, also in northern Georgia, had been down to three women’s golfers, four are needed to field a team, a note went out to Reinhardt’s other teams, and Smith and a few of her volleyball teammates were in. What’s the worst that could happen?      

How about finishing worst?   

Was she ready to put herself out there like that? Was she prepared to be embarrassed? She’s really, really good at volleyball, and really, really competitive in just about everything she does, so could she handle being really, really bad at golf? 

What if a golf website heard about her story and chose to put her score in the big, bold words that everyone can see? 295-over par at a college event? 

But look at the second part of that headline above. 

Here’s the uplifting story behind it. 

But maybe not initially. Samantha Roper, Isabella Mobley and Addy Anderson would’ve concurred to that, after their women’s golf coach, Evans Nichols, first told them they’d be joined by volleyballers. He could’ve entered the trio as individuals in events, foregoing a team score, but Nichols said the NAIA sours on that, though his solution wasn’t welcomed, either. His players seemed, well … 

“To be frank,” Nichols said, “they seemed pissed.” 

Addy?

“My first thought was: This isn’t good,” she said. 

“This is not embarrassing for our program that we’re bringing in somebody that doesn’t know how to play golf and we’re playing the college sport, but just like, could we not find somebody else?” 

Smith had played once before, just nine holes, and she thinks she shot 200. Maja Brodzinska, a volleyball teammate, had previously played for an hour, then played two days for Reinhardt in early March. The weeks leading up to that felt like a midterm cram session, only in this case, you never went to class all semester and the material was written in something akin to Martian. The instruction? Buffet style, as in here’s everything, but eventually you may get stuffed. During one practice round, Brodzinska worked on basics on the practice green with assistant Debbie Blount — in between nines. No one believes in Reinhardt and its women’s golf team like Blount, who, five years ago, joined the team — as a 62-year-old freshman. “She asked me the first time, she said, ‘What is the thing that you put the ball on?’” Blount said. “I said, ‘The tee?’ She said, ‘Oh, tee, tee.’ She said, ‘I don’t have any of those.’” Or anything. Blount gave Brodzinska her clubs; Smith was given a set that had been donated to the school a couple of years ago. 

Brodzinska’s tournament came. 

She shot a 204, 132-over par. 

The next day, she shot a 172, 100-over. Progress. She took photos. 

But a few weeks later, she needed to go back home, to Poland. Smith was called on, for conference of all places. On the first tee, she said a prayer. Smith does that. Back in late December, she did, and it had to have been heard. How else can you explain her asking to feel a little more unpredictability, and the golfer upstairs gives her tee times? “I want to be in uncomfortable situations as I’m getting older,” Smith said. “I crave uncomfortable situations because I know that’s going to push me to think about things, talk to different people. Think about how I’m going to get through it. And so it is very nerve-wracking, and it is uncomfortable, but it’s very exciting, and it’s something that every day I’m like, ‘Ooh, I don’t know how the next day is going to go.’” 

Or her tee shots. Why the prayer on the first hole?

On the range at conference, her driver had been going right.  

“No one knew why,” Smith said. “Coach was like, ‘I don’t know why. The swing looks great. The head face is turning the right way. I don’t know what’s going on.’ And so I was like, ‘Dear Lord, please don’t let this ball go to the right.’ I was literally sitting there thinking that the whole time.

“And I swung and it went to the right. And that just made me so angry.”

On the first hole, she made an 8. Then a 12. Then a five; hey, that’s a double bogey. Then a 21; that’s a septendecuple bogey. Or a lot. Whatever, she thought. She finished. It became a game. Finish holes, then better them in the next round and the round after that, especially that fourth hole. “I knew that I was going to have to do the same thing tomorrow,” Smith said. “And if I wanted to get better at tomorrow, then I had to finish it today at least. 

“And then I ended up — I remember I counted specifically because this hole was so annoying. I got it in 11 strokes the next day. And then the last day, I got it in seven. So I was so happy about that.”

This, too. 

Afterward, she learned her teammates tried to guess what she’d shoot. The number was 185. 

Smith shot 184. 

Then 167 in round two.

Then 160 in round three. 

“And so I was like, ‘Hmph.’ So we got the scores in,” Smith said. 

“And I got 184. Boom, boom. I beat everyone’s bets.”

She laughed. The question is, could her teammates have done what she did?

Thought of another way, could the golfers have, say, played volleyball, if the Reinhardt volleyball team had been in a similar bind?

Maybe now, following Smith and following Brodzinska. Maybe there’s beauty in 295-over par. It’s better than a zero. You started, you finished and then you returned wanting to shoot 294-over, which is what golf is all about, ain’t it?

If not more than golf. 

295-over par at a college event? 

Here’s the uplifting story behind it. 

“One of the things that I’ve tried to take out of this whole experience for volleyball is the sport is not you. You are so much more than the sport,” Smith said. “And after this is all over, it’s not going to matter. 

“I’ve talked to one of the girls on the team about that. She was beating herself up and I was like, you know, your score is not who you are. You’re more than that. You have so many qualities that just aren’t bound by golf. And I have to tell a lot of the girls on the volleyball team that as well, because it’s the same thing. It’s the same mindset. 

“Even I have to remind myself at the end of the day, if I have a bad game. I am so much more than this sport. And this sport doesn’t last forever.”

Neither did Smith’s driver, the club she kept hitting right. She ditched it after the first hole. A few other clubs, too. She finished with a putter, a wedge, a 7-iron.

And that 4-hybrid.  

They felt best. 

They’re also getting new grips soon. Smith’s just a junior, after all. 

Spring golf is only a year away. 

The swirl around LIV Golf’s tenuous state reached the White House on Thursday.

In an Oval Office press conference, President Trump was asked to reflect — against the backdrop of the Saudi Public Investment Fund announcing that it is pulling its LIV funding at the end of the 2026 season — on whether he believed the PGA Tour should welcome “the defectors back with open arms”?

Trump, seated at his desk, said that, yes, he would like to see LIV’s top players reintegrated. “I want to see Rory [McIlroy] playing Bryson DeChambeau,” he said. “I want to see big Jon Rahm playing Scottie [Scheffler], who is so great.”

But as for what the future holds for LIV, the president, whose Northern Virginia golf property will play host to a LIV event next week, sounded like he is as uncertain as the rest of us.

“I’m not sure what’s happening with LIV,” he said.  

What we do know is that the PIF is out, by way of a larger strategic pivot from the Kingdom’s coffer keepers and oil-revenue stresses caused by the war in the Middle East. The beginnings of a new LIV board also are in place, led by corporate restructuring veterans Gene Davis and Jon Zinman, who LIV said in a statement have been charged with “institutionalizing the league and evaluating the range of strategic opportunities that have emerged with the league’s rise.”

Read: sell it or unwind it.   

Selling LIV will, of course, not be easy, at least not in its current form. The league, according to published estimates, has lost anywhere from $5 to $8 billion since its 2021 inception and spends more than $100 million per month. Its own CEO, Scott O’Neil, has said any hope of profitability could be a decade away. You don’t need an accounting degree to understand that the math, at least in the short term and quite possibly in the long term, too, just doesn’t work. So now it’s Davis, Zinman and Co.’s job to put together an offer that will entice an investor or investors. If the board is unsuccessful in that quest, it’ll shift into disassemble mode.

With financial questions suddenly lingering over LIV, I consulted two mergers-and-acquisitions executives to get a better sense for what the league’s next steps might look like; both experts requested anonymity for professional concerns.

“What happens is people come in, they’re independent and they are looking to maximize value,” a corporate restructuring expert with experience in the sports world told me in a phone interview Thursday. “They will identify all the options that there are, and they’ll pursue all those options to a point that what makes the most sense. And then at the end of the day, they prepare a plan for the worst options, whatever that is. That includes a going-out-of-business option, which is the floor value.”

LIV’s floor-value figure is anybody’s guess, but the league does have significant assets that include contracted players, 13 team franchises and hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorships. The “LIV Golf” name also is worth something.  

“There’s brand equity there,” a second executive, who oversees transactions for a global professional services firm, said on Friday. “You also could argue whether there’s value in the way they run the organization. It’s very different than golf as we know it.” The same executive added that as part of the commercial due-diligence process, a prospective buyer would likely analyze LIV’s fan base. “If it’s 10 percent more people that wouldn’t normally watch the Masters or Players or something like that, then maybe there’s value there.”

That LIV is a sports property also could benefit it, both executives said. A deep-pocketed “vanity buyer” could emerge, drawn by the appeal of having entrée to the golf world and brand-name golfers. The first executive, who has experience in buying and selling teams, said sports sales typically aren’t driven by traditional economics.

“[Teams] are not based on what their actual cash flow value is,” he said. “It’s based upon somebody wanting to own a sports team. And there’s only so many of them.”

The second executive posited that another “completely outside-of-the-box” suitor also could come along, like, say, a casino or sportsbook. As with any sale, it’s hard to predict who might show interest.    

Trouble is, despite LIV’s push to market team golf, the league still is largely known for and powered by its stars, like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm, who were drawn away from the PGA Tour by nine-figure deals. If a new investor can’t see a path to turning a profit with that kind of recurring outlay, the buyer(s) would be left either trying to convince LIV’s shiniest players to take pay cuts or reimagine the league with a less heralded roster of players. Either route would be challenging. “I’m usually a creative guy,” the first executive told me. “But I’m hard-pressed to come up with a rationale as to why someone would buy something that is hemorrhaging billions with no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Said the transactions executive, “This could be one of those situations where the purchase price is a dollar, and someone just takes the liabilities off your hands.”

Sports law and business professor Andrew Brandt was wowed when LIV came along. He said he could never have imagined that one of the established U.S. sports leagues could have its stars wooed away by an upstart competitor, but he also could never have imagined that a wooer could have the financial might of the PIF.    

“It was just such an extraordinary time in sports,” said Brandt, a former sports agent and NFL executive who is now executive director of the Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law at Villanova Law. “You have these leagues, you have these tours, you have these elite properties and there’s never any challenges. But the one thing that could make it a challenge, of course, is unlimited funding. That’s what made LIV so different than any other sports league rival. It appeared that there was unlimited funding.”

Until there wasn’t.   

“It’s something I never contemplated,” Brandt said of the PIF’s pivot. “I just thought, OK, unlimited funding, throw a few billion at the LIV tour, have your billions for whatever else you want to do. But there’s a change of heart from the PIF and that to me is the most surprising part of all this.”

LIV has seven events left on its 2026 schedule. That number was eight before the Louisiana event, slated for June, was unexpectedly postponed earlier this week. LIV Virginia, at Trump’s course, begins Thursday. Then comes a three-event run overseas (Korea, Spain and England) followed by the season’s final three-event finale back in the U.S. (New Jersey, Indiana and Michigan).

And then? That’s a question to which we might not have an answer for months. If a sale or some kind of merger is unsuccessful, LIV could be no more. In that scenario, one of the executives said, “You would take each of the liabilities and try to negotiate with each of the parties to an end.” If any parties are still owed money, they could potentially file lawsuits, the executive said, “but who wants to get involved with suing a Saudi sovereign fund? That could take a while.”

For right-handed players who favor a fade, Augusta National presents several uncomfortable tee shots. That means the opposite is true for left-handed players, seemingly baking in an inherent advantage for those able to deliver the shot shape that’s most frequently asked of them every other week on Tour.

Start with the first nine, where holes 2, 5 and 9 each move significantly right to left. On the second nine, 10 and 13 move in the same direction. Both par-3s on that side — 12 and 16 — also lend themselves to a left-handed fade.

All of this, one might presume, would help explain why, since 2003, left-handed players have won the Masters six times (Mike Weir, 2003; Phil Mickelson, 2004, ’06 and ’10; Bubba Watson, 2012 and ’14). In that same period, lefties have combined for only four wins at the other three men’s majors.

But what does a deeper data dive say? On what parts of the course are the advantages most significant for left-handers? Or, conversely, does the math not back up the long-standing theory?

We analyzed shot-by-shot strokes-gained data from every Masters from 2015 to present — including more than 3,200 rounds and 234,000 strokes — in search of meaningful answers to our question.

The data set

The left-handed rounds we analyzed come from an eclectic mix of players at different points in their respective careers, including past champions (Weir, Mickelson, Watson); major contenders and winners (Robert MacIntyre, Brian Harman); emerging stars (Akshay Bhatia); and journeymen (Ted Potter, Jr.).

While lefties account for six Masters victories in the last 23 years, they make up a relatively small percentage of the fields. Since 2015, just 4.6% of Masters rounds have been played by left-handers.

When it comes to elite players, that share is even smaller. Since 2015, less than 3.5% of left-handed entrants have been ranked in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. And just three lefties in that span have been ranked in the top 10 in the world, accounting for only 2.7% of field makeups in the selected time span. It’s important to factor in those numbers when considering that right-handed players in our study window outscored left-handed players by an average of 72.92 to 73.25.

Overall trends

Because most elite players are right-handed, it’s difficult to make broad assessments comparing the average performance of lefties vs. righties.

Off the tee, the numbers are a wash. The two groups produce almost identical overall fairway hit percentages (69.2% to 69.1%). In terms of strokes gained, left-handed players since 2015 have gained an average of 0.03 strokes per round compared to right-handed players.

What about overall approach play? Since 2015, left-handed players have had positive strokes gained approach in 52.7% of their rounds played vs. 51.3% for righties. When looking at elite-level approach performances, though, the numbers drift in favor of the bigger group of high-level righties: while 22.0% of rounds from “elite” lefties result in a full stroke gained or more with approach play, 28.6% of right-handed rounds check that box.

The more interesting data reveals itself when looking at individual holes.

Hole analysis

Statistically, some holes produce surprising results.

You’d think that the par-5 2nd hole, which features the familiar right-to-left dogleg, would favor lefties. But left-handed players make birdie or eagle about 10% less frequently than righties there since 2015. By that statistic, it’s the largest negative differential lefties experience at Augusta.

The par-4 5th hole, which also works right to left off the tee, ranks in the middle of the pack in terms of approach shot difficulty for right-handed players, with the 9th-toughest green in regulation rate since 2015. For lefties, it ranks 5th-toughest, yielding a GIR rate 4.1% lower than their right-handed counterparts.

The par-4 10th hole produces the largest green in regulation rate advantage for left-handed players. Since 2015, lefties have hit the green about 6% more often than righties.

On the famed par-3 12th, left-handed players make birdie 4% more often than righties, and the left-handed scoring average is 0.13 strokes lower than it is for righties (the second-largest advantage on the course).

No single hole has generated a larger statistical advantage for lefties than the hard dogleg-left par-5 13th. Since 2015, left-handed players have hit the 13th fairway 82% of the time, or 11.4% more than the field average. That has led to a birdie or better rate 11.5% higher for lefties than the rest of the field. The memories match the math: think of some of the incredible shots Mickelson and Watson have hit at 13.

The par-3 16th generates the largest disparity of green in regulation rate on the course. Since 2015, right-handed players hit the green in regulation at Redbud about 75% of the time. For lefties, that rate is 11% lower. A stock right-handed fade at 16 requires moving the ball over the water that sits left of the green. This wide differential suggests that righties are more prone to a conservative approach there (find the middle of the green) while lefties take on more risk (attacking the pin).

While Augusta National’s par-4 18th moves slightly left to right, lefties have a slightly higher fairway hit rate (+2.3%), green in regulation rate (+2.8%) and birdie or better rate (+0.9%) than right-handed players. Hole shape isn’t the only determining factor in these statistical differences, but it is inarguably the biggest one.

Conclusion

In broad strokes, the stats indicate that left-handed players in the Masters do not have a meaningful advantage over righties. But the course does ask different questions of the players depending on what side of the ball they stand — and in several key spots, the numbers tell you, it’s much more comfortable to be on the left side.

Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

I’ve become pretty militant about my practice routine this winter. In the past, I’ve gone to the simulator maybe once a week to get some hacks in, but this year, I decided to up the intensity. Each week since November, I’ve made it my goal to hit balls at least three days a week. That may not sound like a ton, but when you’re in NYC, it’s quite the commitment.

This has been great for learning about my golf swing. Whereas I once relied entirely on feel to build my swing, I now have a much better grasp of technique — and how certain movements impact my ball striking.

One of the most important things I’ve learned is that the way I start the swing is fairly flawed. As I begin my takeaway, I typically rotate my trail hip back too quickly. Instructor Justin Kraft posted a great video illustrating this flaw recently, which you can see below.

This is a flaw that afflicts lots of golfers and can lead to all sorts of issues. When I do this, the club has a tendency to get sucked a bit inside, and then once I get to P3 (lead arm parallel to the ground) I can’t turn back with my hips any more. To compensate, I have to lift my hands to the top of the swing. From there, I have a hard time delivering the clubhead with the correct attack angle and have an inconsistent low point, both of which are crucial for consistent ball striking.

So, what’s the fix? It all starts with the sequence in which you turn to the top of the backswing.

As Justin explains in the video above, you need to focus on rotating the chest away from the target first and then turn the hips back. If you do that, you’ll start your swing with the correct sequence and be in a much better position to deliver a solid strike on the ball.

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Many observers of the life and times of Tiger Woods would know he has won 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour events. But here are two other numbers at the core of the Tiger Woods Numerology Experience: 9 and 8, and that’s not a reference to a Stephen Ames match-play result. (But, since we’re there: check out this golden oldie, from the Match Play Championship, 20 years ago.) The main reference here is to the eight times Woods won Arnold Palmer’s tournament, and to the nine occasions he won USGA national championships. That is, his three USGA junior titles, his three U.S. Ams, plus his three U.S. Open wins at a holy trinity of public courses: Pebble Beach (2000), Bethpage Black (’02) and Torrey Pines (’09).

You know who has won more USGA titles? Nobody.

Also: Woods eight victories at Bay Hill? They came in a 14-year span, all full-field(ish) events. Astonishing.

If Woods had done nothing else in the game, that monumental run alone would put him in the pantheon.

Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club & Lodge (its full name), where the fellas are playing this week dreaming about the $4 million winner’s payday, is a living tribute to Arnold Palmer his own self. Maybe someday Tiger will get a bridge at Bay Hill named for him or something. For now, you can see his name eight times on metal plaques underfoot at the club’s Champions Walk. In 2022, the R&A made Woods a member of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club, which gives him preferred tee times at the Old Course, among other privileges. He has a lifetime honorary membership at Augusta National, care of his first win there, in 1997. (He’s had four more Masters wins since then.) There’s a Tiger Woods Villa at Trump Doral, where Woods has won seven times. But the biggest thing is the most recent thing, straight out of Pinehurst, N.C., and the USGA HQ.

What the USGA did last week, at least when viewed through the prism of eternity, will top the other honors cited here: Golf’s most influential and tradition-minded organizing body (or at least right up there with the R&A), announced that from here on out the winner of the U.S. Amateur will receive the Tiger Woods Medal, and the winner of the USGA junior title for boys will receive the Tiger Woods Trophy. As for the phrase here on out, let’s get it down to one word: forever.

But wait — there’s more.

The subtext here that might not seem obvious but it’s hiding in plain sight. If there was ever any question about whether Tiger Woods was ever going to go LIV, the USGA answered that question with this news of naming rights of the freebie kind. Hang close here: The USGA, by political temperament and mission statement, is not going to align itself with LIV Golf or a LIV player in meaningful way. The two groups are just too . . . different. Along those same lines, nobody with a LIV Golf association is likely to ever receive the Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s most celebrated honor. At the annual pro-member event at Seminole Golf Club, a USGA winter hangout if ever there was one, you never see LIV players in the field. Similar logic, really.

Nobody from the inside would say this out loud, but there really is a USGA-LIV Golf divide. That’s because LIV Golf is a for-profit business, and its business model is rooted in selling star-driven golf. The USGA is golf’s equivalent of a great university, with a teaching-research hospital in its backyard. A core value of the USGA, if not the core value, is merit. Shoot the scores (while playing by the rules), get the prizes, no matter your life story. J.J. Spaun’s win at the U.S. Open last year at Oakmont was out of the merit tradition. When Spaun was a walk-on golfer at San Diego State in 2008, nobody was predicting he would win the Open. He got better at golf. That is, he made himself better. It takes your breath away, because the odds are hugely against you. 

The byword of Tiger’s life in golf is merit. The presenting sponsor of the numbers being dropped here (82, 15, 9, 8) is . . . Merit Inc. The PGA Tour on which Tiger was born and raised, the same. Merit, merit, merit. Woods’s origin story — raised by a Black father who grew up in tough circumstances in a segregated America and by an immigrant mother from Thailand — cannot be overstated. What the USGA is saying here, by naming these great pieces of hardware for Tiger Woods, is that the doors of golf are open to all. This naming business is low-cost, but a big deal.

The PGA Tour, in a naked attempt to make sure it does not lose more star players to LIV Golf, has done a number of things that come right out of the LIV Golf playbook. The whole model for the PGA Tour’s Signature events, including this week’s API, is borrowed from LIV Golf. The creation of the PGA Tour’s for-profit division — PGA Tour Enterprises, with its private-equity investors — is another nod to LIV. (Woods is the vice chairman of E.) The field this week at Bay Hill comprises only 72 players — so LIV. (That number would leave Arnold Palmer ill.) There’s a goofy 36-hole cut for the top-50 and ties, or any player within 10 shots of the lead. That bit of bookkeeping is really a nod to Arnold’s belief in the sanctity of the cut as an elemental part of tournament golf, and that’s really all it is.

And let’s not get all high-and-mighty about the role of the USGA in the game. In negotiating TV rights and choosing venues for U.S. Opens, the USGA can take its leads right from the Gordon Gekko (“greed is good”) playbook.

But we’re here today to put a trophy on a pedestal. These new USGA prizes, the Tiger Woods Trophy and the Tiger Woods Medal, they tell a great deal. That every player managed by Mark Steinberg, Tiger’s longtime agent, is not a LIV Golf golfer, the same — it’s telling. And this is what’s being said. In theory and really in practice, anybody can grow up to win a USGA championship. When you get right down to it, that’s everything. Arnold did it. (He was 24 when he won the U.S. Amateur.) Spaun did it. Bob Jones (nine USGA titles) did it. Ben Hogan did it. And so did, most spectacularly, Tiger. The Tiger Woods Trophy. The Tiger Woods Medal. How fitting. 

There’s a battle brewing between Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed.

Another battle, that is.

These guys have history. Complex history. Feel-good history and feel-weird history. And they’re about to add to it.

Before we look forward, let’s go back.

There was the wild back-and-forth match at the Hazeltine Ryder Cup, the match that launched the shush and the I-can’t-hear-you and helped elevate the biennial event into the stratosphere.

There was the final group in the 2018 Masters, where McIlroy faltered and Reed prevailed, one man’s best chance at the career grand slam vanishing while the defining moment of his opponent’s career unfolded beside him.

These were good times. Relations seemed great. Game respected game. When Reed found himself at the center of a rules controversy, McIlroy said he’d only ever had “great interactions” with Reed.

“I don’t think it would be a big deal if it wasn’t Patrick Reed. A lot of people within the game, it’s almost like a hobby to sort of kick him when he’s down,” McIlroy said at the time.

It was years later that things went sideways.

Reed left the PGA Tour for LIV in 2022. Later that year he enlisted the services of (now-suspended) lawyer Larry Klayman and sued various media members for the better part of a billions dollars. In a separate lawsuit Klayman also sued the PGA Tour — and in the process served McIlroy with subpoena papers at his home on Christmas Eve. What’s a lawsuit amongst friends, right?!

As it turns out, McIlroy didn’t see things that way. When Reed came over to say hello on a Dubai driving range several weeks later, he received something less than a warm welcome. McIlroy did not say hello back, Reed walked away and tossed a 4Aces tee back in his direction.

A couple charged quotes followed. First this one, from McIlroy:

“I’m living in reality, I don’t know where he’s living. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t expect a hello or a handshake.”

And then this, from Reed:

“He saw me and he decided not to react. It’s unfortunate. But it is one of those things: if you’re going to act like an immature little child then you might as well be treated like one.”

The incident also included one of the most incredulous expressions in the history of incredulous expressions:

But Reed hasn’t been immediately reinstated for PGA Tour play; he’ll have to sit until the fall season, once his one-year ban expires. As a result, he’s in a funny limbo between LIV and the PGA Tour, which puts him into a third league: the battleground territory of the DP World Tour.

Once the calendar flipped to 2026, Reed found some special form. He won in Dubai. He lost in a playoff in Bahrain. And just last weekend he won in Qatar. That win-T2-win catapulted him to No. 17 in the world and, interestingly, a clear No. 1 in the DPWT’s Race to Dubai.

That’s important for two reasons. The first is that Reed was only guaranteed partial status on the PGA Tour for upcoming seasons; he was a Past Champion but needed to finish among the DPWT’s top 10 to earn full status for 2027. Now, based on historical data, he’s almost certain to accomplish that.

Which brings us back to the entire point of this preamble.

Reed’s recent play is also important because of what it means for McIlroy. The World No. 2 has won four consecutive Races to Dubai and seven in total — one shy of Colin Montgomerie’s all-time record. Surpassing that record is high on McIlroy’s list of remaining goals, and despite a limited international schedule, he’s made it look relatively breezy.

But Reed’s quarantine season is throwing an extra variable into this year’s equation. While McIlroy is at Pebble Beach this week, beginning his PGA Tour season, Reed will play wherever and whenever he wants on the DPWT. He could stack up points for months without McIlroy in fields alongside him. It’s unclear how much he’ll play — but it’s clear the title is on his mind.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to be an American who wins the Race to Dubai and we’re off to a fast start,” Reed said after his latest win, flashing a characteristic grin.

It’s early yet, of course. The biggest points hauls come at the four major championships, where McIlroy and Reed will go head-to-head. McIlroy will also play the co-sanctioned Genesis Scottish Open, where Reed, too, will be eligible to compete. McIlroy won last year’s Race to Dubai with 5,975 points; Reed currently leads with 2,260. He has a long way to go. But he also has a healthy head start — especially given McIlroy has just 269.

McIlroy won’t need extra motivation when he returns to Augusta National as defending champion. Nor will Reed, whose fire always burns bright. But it’ll be an intriguing subplot as these two tangle at their sport’s biggest events, a decade after their Hazeltine showdown.

It’s only February, but one thing seems certain: In mid-November these two will each be back in Dubai teeing it up at the DP World Tour Championship. There’s no guarantee that either of them will leave with the season-long title, of course.

But there is a guarantee that one of them won’t.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Brooks Koepka just wanted to get the ball in the hole, and that’s led to one of the most notable gear switches in the five-time major champion’s career.

After more than a decade playing a Scotty Cameron Teryllium blade, Koepka made a last-minute switch to a new TaylorMade Spider Tour X L-neck this week at the WM Phoenix Open.

Koepka, playing his second event this week since coming back to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf, was searching on the greens at Torrey Pines a week ago. He was last in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting among those who made the cut. He lost more than seven strokes on the greens in the three rounds with Shot Link Data.

To help, Koepka actually made a weekend visit to the Scotty Cameron Gallery in nearby Encinitas for a practice session with Scotty Cameron’s director of Player Fitting and Development, Paul Vizanko.

Koepka and Vizanko were at it again on Monday at TPC Scottsdale, working for hours on Koepka’s putting.

“Trying to get the ball in the hole,” Koepka said candidly on Wednesday of the Monday session. “Yeah, like, just really never felt comfortable over the ball. You’ve got to have everything squared up to the target. Just working on things like that. Real simple stuff, setup. Shoulders were open. My feet are always a little bit open, but just trying to minimize the lines crossing so much.

“I’ve been putting pretty poorly for the good side of two years. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve got to figure it out.”

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What wasn’t apparent on Monday or even during Wednesday’s pro-am was that a change was imminent. Koepka had four putters with him on Monday: his gamer Scotty Cameron T22 Teryllium Newport 2, an identical backup and two TaylorMade Spider Tour X mallets. One Spider had a short slant hosel while the other had an L-neck like his Camerons.

Koepka has used the T22 for the better part of the past five years, since 2020, shortly after the model was released in late 2019 as an homage to Scotty Cameron’s first Teryllium putters. It replaced a T10 Newport 2 dating to Koepka’s college days at Florida State that featured a button-back design, as opposed to the silicone dots to hold the insert in place.

He’s toyed around with blades before, most notably gaming a Scotty Cameron Phantom X T5.5 at the 2024 Masters, but the Newport 2 blade always seems to return to the bag.

Even on Wednesday, Koepka used the Cameron during his pro-am, and the gamer was the only putter in his bag afterward when he was back on the putting green.

But later that afternoon, Koepka told Golfweek‘s Eamon Lynch he was switching this week to the Spider Tour X. Not only does the Spider Tour X mark a departure to a more forgiving mallet from his blade, but it’s also the first putter Koepka has used in his career without a milled face.

Koepka went with the L-neck Spider Tour X, the same model Scottie Scheffler switched to in 2024 and has since won 14 PGA Tour titles and 16 events worldwide, including the American Express two weeks ago. The Spider was also the winningest putter family on the PGA Tour last season, racking up 13 victories during the FedEx Cup season by seven players.

Through 12 holes on Thursday, Koepka didn’t exactly seem like he’s found the same magic as Scheffler as he was four over for the day and losing two strokes on the greens, 119th in the 123-player field.

Want to find the best putter for your bag in 2026? Find a club-fitting location near you at True Spec Golf.

PGA Tour golf is coming back to the worldwide leader’s main channel.

On Monday morning, the PGA Tour announced that first and second round coverage from this week’s Farmers Insurance Open will be aired on ESPN’s linear cable network in addition to the Tour’s typical broadcasts on ESPN+, Golf Channel and CBS.

The announcement makes the Farmers Insurance Open the first golf tournament to air on ESPN in nearly two decades and opens the door for the Tour to expand its televised hours on one of America’s largest and most influential cable networks. It also juices the audience and reach for one of the most highly anticipated PGA Tour appearances in some time: five-time major champion Brooks Koepka’s return after nearly four seasons with LIV Golf.

According to a person with knowledge of the Tour/ESPN agreement, the broadcast “expansion” to ESPN’s cable channels is not a new agreement between the two parties, and will not reap the Tour an additional rights fee. Rather, the move is a one-week “test” in addition to the Tour’s outstanding ESPN+ agreement. The ESPN broadcast will be a simulcast of the ESPN+ feed, will go off the air before Golf Channel’s broadcast kicks in each evening, and is currently scheduled only to cover this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, though both sides could work to find a pathway to make the relationship a more permanent arrangement, should all go according to plan.

In other words, the money will stay the same, but the audience reach will dramatically increase for the Tour — a strategy that fits in line with new Tour CEO Brian Rolapp’s grander views about live sports. In his previous job at the NFL, Rolapp spearheaded an NFL media strategy that obsessed over reach and consequence, sometimes at the expense of money — an approach rooted in the theory that a large, captive audience was the key to world dominance.

Historically, the Tour has taken a slightly more restrictive view of its media rights, reaping as much value as possible for every second of live action sold. The ESPN tryout flies in the face of that belief, though it does present a win-win upside for the Tour and ESPN: The Tour can claim better ratings and a larger share of viewership during an early-week window when it otherwise wouldn’t be on TV; and ESPN can claim some free programming to fill its airwaves … with the added benefit of showcasing Brooks Koepka’s return to the PGA Tour exclusively.

Officially, the event is the first for the Tour on ESPN since the network ended its relationship with the Tour after the WGC-Barbados World Cup in 2006. Golf Channel has covered the majority of the PGA Tour’s early-week coverage in recent years, though ESPN reentered the pool of Tour broadcast partners at the turn of the decade when it signed an agreement to carry early-day streaming coverage on ESPN+.

The Tour’s current round of TV rights agreements runs through the end of the decade, and its partners at CBS, ESPN and NBC pay the Tour an estimated $750 million per year. ESPN pays the Tour around $100 million per year for the right to air PGA Tour Live on ESPN+, but also holds deals to air early week coverage of the Masters and PGA Championship, and is the exclusive broadcaster of the TGL.