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Dak Prescott’s on-course proposal, Matt Fitzpatrick’s off-course wedding and Donald Trump’s stinging golf insult – Australian Golf Digest

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  • October 22, 2024
Dak Prescott’s on-course proposal, Matt Fitzpatrick’s off-course wedding and Donald Trump’s stinging golf insult – Australian Golf Digest

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we were just in our first year at Golf Digest the last time the Yankees went to the World Series in 2009. (Heck, The Grind hadn’t even been conceived of yet 15 years ago!) And now, after a stunning upset Thursday at lovely Knickerbocker Country Club, I’m a Seitz Cup winning co-captain of Golf Digest’s Old Team along with Joel Beall.

Time flies, huh. And a major difference now is that staying up for these baseball games is actually killing me. Here were my Whoop stats the morning after the Yankees won that clinching Game 5 in 10 innings:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241022-grind-whoop.jpg

Those red recovery days are brutal. Old Team, indeed. Anyway, congrats to the Yankees—and to my fellow old teammates at Golf Digest. Let’s hope it’s not another 15 years before either of those things happen again. In the meantime, let me grab a heating pad and a couple Advil and tell you what else in golf has us talking.

WE’RE BUYING

J.T. Poston: The Postman—that is, the American version—delivered on a Sunday for the third time in his PGA Tour career, winning the Shriners Children’s Open in a battle of great nicknames. Shout-out to Doug Ghim, AKA the Ghim Reaper, for nearly jarring that approach shot on the 72nd hole. But in the end, it was J.T. getting the job done.

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Orlando Ramirez

And as Poston’s caddie, Aaron Flener, points out, the location of their latest victory sets it apart:

It’s also a dangerous place to win a golf tournament. As Poston and Flener’s friend, country music singer Dustin Lynch, said in the aftermath: “We’re about to burn Sin City down tonight.”

If Vegas could survive peak Dennis Rodman, I’m pretty sure it can survive that trio. Still, hope you guys had fun.

Hannah Green: The Aussie won the BMW Ladies Championship by a shot over Celine Boutier for her sixth career LPGA Tour title. She also joined Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko as the only golfers with three or more LPGA wins in 2024.

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Chung Sung-Jun

So what’s been the big difference fueling her breakout year? Getting married! “I just felt really different this off-season,” said Green, who tied the knot with Jarryd Felton in January. “I felt much more motivated. I got married in January. So this has been a very special year.” Awww.

Julien Guerrier: After two decades as a pro, what was another nine holes for this Frenchman, who finally won his maiden DP World Tour title at the Andalucia Masters? (By the way, we’re selling losing a NINE-hole playoff. Sorry, Jorge Campillo, that’s rough.)

“I can’t believe it,” Guerrier said. “I was thinking of my wife and children over that last putt. They gave me the strength to hole it. It’s been a long wait, but I’m really happy.” More “Awww”s. Good for you, Julien. Speaking of waiting a long time for a big win …

Tim O’Neal: This journeyman earned the biggest victory of his career more than three decades after turning pro, claiming the Dominion Energy Charity Classic on the PGA Tour Champions. And this instantly became one of the feel-good stories of the year in golf for a guy who was probably most famous for just missing out on his PGA Tour card a quarter century ago.

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Scott Taetsch

It’s also a reminder to all the “When I turn 50, I’m going to make a run at the senior tour” dreamers of how deep the talent pool in golf is. Not only do you have to go through all the big names, but there are plenty of amazing golfers out there who never even played on the PGA Tour. So, yeah, keep dreaming.

WE’RE SELLING

Playing in the late-early wave: There’s the luck of the draw and then there’s what happened over the first two rounds in Las Vegas.Those who played late-early got crushed by windier conditions that caused a crazy 3.76-stroke difference between the two waves at TPC Summerlin.

Then again, finding success in Vegas is usually about having good luck.

FIVE-putting: From 10 feet, no less! We’d like to blame the wind for this, but this is just … bad putting.

Sorry, Joseph. It was also reminiscent of Golf Digest’s staff trying to putt greens running at 14 to 15 on the stimpmeter at the Seitz Cup. But, again, go Team Old!

Ryder Cup ticket volunteer prices: Last week we talked about the ridiculous $750 ticket prices for the Ryder Cup, but as Golf.com’s James Colgan pointed out, even the volunteers will be paying $350 to work that week at Bethpage Black. Yep, paying. And, after a credit-card fee that actually comes out to $392. But at least they get a commemorative pin and a drawstring bag. To be clear, volunteers usually pay to work PGA Tour events and majors, but the $350 is double what they paid at this year’s PGA Championship. Suddenly, players asking to be paid to play doesn’t seem so crazy.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Japan for the Zozo Championship, AKA that one that Tiger Woods won in 2019, AKA that one that could go down as Tiger’s (gulp) final PGA Tour title. It’s even more likely it’s the last time Tiger will ever win in Japan. Hey, that’s a long flight for a dude with a bad back among other ailments.

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Chung Sung-Jun

Meanwhile, the DP World Tour heads to South Korea for the Genesis Championship and the LPGA remains in Asia as well for the Maybank Championship. Tour pros racking up frequent flyer miles everywhere!

Random tournament fact: When Tiger won the Zozo five years ago by beating Hideki Matsuyama, it was probably the only time in his career the (home) crowd was disappointed that he won.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—I will ever play on the PGA Tour Champions: 1 MILLION BILLION-1 odds

—Hideki will win this week: 8-to-1 odds

—J.T. and Aaron had to pop a few Advil on Monday morning: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK (WELL-PLAYED DIVISION)

These guys becoming even normal friends is one of the most stunning reversals in human history.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

We’re glad to see someone make a hole-in-one and NOT have to buy the drinks.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (WELL-PLAYED DIVISION)

I’m not sure what kind of sorcery this Landon Ashworth possesses, but this is pretty sick:

What a video. And what a résumé! I’ve never thought of taking a virtual golf lesson before, but this dude seems legit.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (PLAYING DIVISION)

How about Boston Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei turning a total duff into an amazing trick shot?

The Bryan Bros might steal that one.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (RANDOM DAGGERS DIVISION)

Donald Trump’s comments about Arnold Palmer’s, um, you know got the most attention, but I’m focused on his dig at Mark Cuban’s golf game. And apparently, other golfers found it funny as well because this tweet of mine went viral:

Does Mark Cuban even play golf? Regardless, politics aside, “Really low clubhead speed” is hilarious. And it stings. Even if you’re a billionaire. I’m definitely going to steal that one.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (PROPOSAL DIVISION)

Congrats to Dak Prescott for getting engaged … on a golf course!

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241022-grind-dak.png

Unfortunately for Dak and the Cowboys, that’s the highlight of the season thus far.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

And speaking of hearing wedding bells, Matt Fitzpatrick, a man who definitely doesn’t have really low clubhead speed, and Katherine Gaal got married:

Congrats, guys! Katherine, if we’ve learned anything from Netflix’s “Full Swing,” you’re in for a long life of speed-training and pouring over golf notes. All the best!

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (FAN DIVISION)

The SEC has long used the slogan, “It just means more,” and it’s hard to argue with that after seeing this.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Not to bring anything personal into this with Louisville, great city, love the people, but I think Miami is gonna smoke them.” —Scottie Scheffler during his stint as the guest picker last Saturday on ESPN’s “College GameDay.” Perfection. Even on a day where his Longhorns sputtered, the Year of Scottie rolls on.

THIS AND THAT

TGL released the schedule for its inaugural season and there will be no Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy on opening night when New York Golf Club takes on The Bay Golf Club. Interesting choice. Go NY go NY go, I guess. … Ian Gilligan, a senior at the University of Florida, finished T-16 at the Shriners. Unfortunately, due to his amateur status, that didn’t come with any beer money. … And speaking of beverages, I finally tried the Oreo Coke Zero I’ve been hearing about:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241022-grind-coke-oreo.jpg

I love Coke Zero. I love Oreos. I don’t love this collab. Let’s just say two rights can make a wrong. So let’s not leave with a bad taste in our mouths. In a much more exciting development, I took Julia to her first Broadway show, which just happened to be my all-time favorite Broadway show, Wicked:

https://www.golfdigest.com/content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/2021/241022-grind-wicked.jpg

And she loved it as much as I did, so it was one of the best nights of my life. Minus battling traffic into NYC, of course.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

What’s the best Broadway musical ever (other than Wicked)?

Who can I knock for having really low clubhead speed?

Can they start the World Series games earlier?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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