Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we never thought golf’s next Tiger Woods would be a … woman basketball player. OK, so Caitlin Clark isn’t actually becoming a “professional golfer” like she joked after her WNBA season ended, but she is certainly getting the Tiger treatment this week when it comes to golf coverage. Like with the 15-time major champ during his prime, Golf Channel is altering its schedule to show Clark as she plays in the LPGA Tour’s Annika event. The pro-am of the Annika, that is.

The @LPGA and @GolfChannel are expanding coverage of @CaitlinClark22‘s pro-am round next week in Florida.

Her range warmup will be live streamed, with a walk-and-talk interview and live look-ins also expected. https://t.co/FB1525QF2q

— Josh Carpenter (@JoshACarpenter) November 8, 2024

Amazing. I mean, I’m getting press releases right and left from NBC Sports about this. And, again, it’s a pro-am! People have long said that Tiger doesn’t move the needle, he IS the needle. And now you can say the same thing about Clark, who I profiled for Golf Digest last year and has proved to be the Tiger of her sport after a record-breaking rookie campaign, both in terms of production and eyeballs drawn. So hit ‘em straight, Caitlin, and enjoy competing in an event where there won’t be any jealous players taking cheap shots at you! In the meantime, let’s try to avoid any cheap shots as well as we talk about everything else going on in golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Bernhard Langer: What else can we say about this guy? Long known as golf’s ageless wonder, he proved to be a medical marvel as well this year after coming back from a torn achilles tendon in three months. And now he’s a winner again on the PGA Tour Champions just nine months after suffering that “training exercises” pickleball (Yeah, training exercises sounds like a cooler way to get hurt) injury:

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

Bernhard Langer claims the season finale in style @SchwabCupFinale 🔥

Win No. 47 for the 67-year-old!! pic.twitter.com/HcBxU6QJ8g

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) November 10, 2024

Simply amazing. As is the fact that by winning the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship (Not to be confused with Steven Alker winning the season-long Charles Schwab Cup. Congrats, Steven!) Langer has now won a tournament for 18 consecutive years on the senior tour. EIGHTEEN years in a row with a W. After turning 50! Just look at this PGA Tour Champions resume:

Bernhard Langer’s PGA TOUR Champions career:

47 wins (most all-time)
18 straight seasons with a win
12 majors
9-time Player of the Year
6-time Charles Schwab Cup Winner
Only Senior Grand Slam Champion
$37.3 million earned

A true legend of the game 👏 pic.twitter.com/wdY0Qevx1i

— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour) November 11, 2024

Langer plans to play the Masters for a final time in April. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t plan to play any pickleball before then.

Austin Eckroat: Quick, name a 20-something Oklahoma State product with multiple PGA Tour titles in 2024. OK, so you probably know where I’m going with this based on the header, but, yeah, it’s Austin Eckroat. And not Viktor Hovland, who is winless this year after winning the FedEx Cup last year. Pretty wild. After winning the Cognizant Classic in March, Eckroat won the World Wide Technology Championship thanks to a Sunday 63 that included 11(!) birdies.

Hector Vivas

“I think it kind of validates the season that I had, just a great way to cap off and end the year,” Eckroat said. “Yeah, it was really special to do it at an event where the title sponsors, I’m an ambassador of their company. A cool week.” Wait, did anyone ask him what World Wide Technology is/does? Kidding. Sort of.

Paul Waring: Congrats to this guy on winning for a second time on a major tour as well with his victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. And how about the four names following him on the leaderboard? Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Matt Wallace and Thorbjorn Olesen. Impressive stuff for the 39-year-old Brit, who looks like he’ll be a PGA Tour rookie in 2025.

Richard Heathcote

“It just means so much to so many other things that come with that win … I’m a bit taken aback right now,” Waring said afterward. Paul, if you do come to the U.S. next year, let me know if you need any (fast-)food recommendations.

WE’RE SELLING

John Daly’s claret jug: As in, he’s actually selling it. JD’s replica trophy from his stunning 1995 win at the Old Course is up for sale at the Golden Age Premier Auction. And at the time of this post, the bid is up to $86K with five days remaining:

R&A Championships

That’s impressive, but isn’t it sad when athletes sell coveted awards like that? Does Daly really need the extra money? Doesn’t he have all that Hooters money? Anyway, that jug has definitely seen some stuff. What an item. I’d love to get in the action, but it’s slightly out of my price range.

Vandals: Speaking of prized golf displays, the brand new Old Tom Morris statue has already been vandalized. Have a look at what some lowlife did to this golf giant’s tribute:

Gutted to say that the Tom Morris statue in St Andrews was vandalised last night. They snapped the clubbed off. See pics. Needless to say we are looking at all CCTV cameras including the R&A to see if the perpetrators have been caught in the act.
If anyone has any information or… pic.twitter.com/EsU7ELB2Jy

— roger mcstravick (@R_McStravick) November 9, 2024

Truly disgusting stuff. Although, at least the vandals didn’t touch Old Tom’s legendary beard.

Getting robbed of an ace: But this might be even tougher to stomach. The LPGA’s Peiyun Chien had a hole-in-one stolen from her by the golf gods as her ball landed directly in the cup on the fly before bouncing out at the Lotte Championship:

Peiyun Chien hits it IN THE CUP and off the flagstick on the par 3 15th. 🤯🎯

📺 Golf Channel | @LPGALOTTE pic.twitter.com/qKyiqVyM3K

— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) November 7, 2024

Ouch. Hopefully, Peiyun has made an ace before or that’s even more brutal.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads out into the Atlantic for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, AKA that one they play in Bermuda. But that’s just the beginning of what’s a surprisingly busy week. You’ve got the DP World Tour wrapping up its season-long Race To Dubai in, you guessed it, Dubai, and on the LPGA side, you have The Annika, formerly known as the Pelican Women’s Championship in Florida. Although, again, that event is getting more attention for its pro-am, which will feature WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark.

Michael Reaves

Clarksanity continues!

Random tournament fact: Camilio Villegas broke a nine-year-plus winless drought on the PGA Tour at last year’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship, winning as a 150-to-1 longshot. And, no, I did not have any money on him.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Camilo Villegas will win in Bermuda this year: 350-1 odds (Actual odds)

—2022 champ Seamus Power will win in Bermuda: 16-to-1 odds (Actual odds, favorite!)

—Cailtlin Clark will have bigger crowds following her in Florida than both: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

It’s definitely harder to pee in the ocean than you think
At least that’s what I felt

— Byeong Hun An (@ByeongHunAn) November 9, 2024

OK then … 

VIRAL VIDEO(S) OF THE WEEK (PRO DIVISION)

What a wild week for Bryson DeChambeau. First, he got called up to the stage by Donald Trump during the President-elect’s victory speech:

The newly elected president Donald Trump shouting out Bryson DeChambeau at his victory party is as surreal as it gets! pic.twitter.com/31xutjzrT1

— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) November 6, 2024

And then, in a completely different universe, he played a game of golf roulette with the Good Good guys … and his back paid the price:

Bryson DeChambeau played roulette with the Good Good guys and took an absolute whopper to the back from a cold egg. That bruise though! 😳😂@b_dechambeau @goodgood_golf pic.twitter.com/07QZV9pkYB

— Flushing It (@flushingitgolf) November 7, 2024

Like pickleball, I will not be playing any golf roulette anytime soon. But I do respect the lengths that Bryson will go to create content.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (AMATEUR DIVISION)

Duke men’s golf coach Jamie Green has come up with a way to have his players practice playing in “windy” conditions:

It was a very windy day in Durham pic.twitter.com/ISBGOGAigc

— Duke Men’s Golf (@DukeMGOLF) November 4, 2024

Even as a Wake Forest guy, I have to admit that’s pretty genius.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Like we saw a few months ago when Sergio Garcia went to a Justin Timberlake concert, Lexi Thompson got a special shout-out from JT:

Justin Timberlake had Lexi Thompson check his golf swing mid-concert. 😂

(📹: @Lexi) pic.twitter.com/fzaUMnzOnw

— Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) November 10, 2024

Honestly, that might be cooler than winning a U.S. Open.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Looks like Jordan and Annie got away from the kids for a bit!

Good for them. And good to see Jordan without that big brace on his left arm after undergoing wrist surgery in August.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Whatever he says I say yes, let’s go and do it because I really trust him. I know he isn’t going to say anything that I don’t need to do so I really trust what he says.” —Joseba Torres on his caddie at DP World Tour Q School and uncle, Jose Maria Olazabal. Joseba didn’t earn his card, but, yeah, tough to argue with a two-time Masters champ.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to A Lim Kim on finally getting LPGA win No. 2 at the Lotte Championship, 99 starts after breaking through at the 2020 U.S. Women’s Open. So now she’s a major champ and a regular champ as well. … Shout-out to my man Mike Miller for making the cut at DP World Tour Q School and doing it in dramatic fashion with a club-breaking birdie:

.@Michael_cMiller knew he needed a birdie to make the cut at @DPWTQSchool when his ball found the base of a tree off the tee on the par-five 16th.
He told a friend walking with him he was going for it. I’ll let him tell the rest.

(you are welcome for amazing camera work) pic.twitter.com/csX0ZpIpD0

— Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) November 11, 2024

Someone send this guy a new 8-iron pronto! … Golfweek reported Paul Azinger will be headed back to the NBC Sports booth part-time in 2025 for PGA Tour Champions events. As someone who was perhaps too hard on Paul, let me say I’m glad he’s getting another shot. … With a reported Augusta National membership, Eli Manning is now a member at Augusta, Pine Valley, Somerset Hills, Liberty National, and probably others. Long live Eli The Great! … And, finally, a second Focus Group of One—my newest column—is out and it deals with a certain training aid you see all over your Instagram feeds:

Have a read, and let me know if you have ideas for other golf-related things to try. Or, if you have any interior decorating thoughts for my living room.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

What cabinet position would Trump offer Bryson?

Which celebrity golfer has the most golf club memberships?

Does Eli Manning need a fourth? Anywhere?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com