Welcome to another year of The Grind, where we somehow managed to become even more sedentary over the holiday break. The one run I went for was to CVS. To buy on-sale Christmas candy. I also got a bunch of great gifts—in particular a lovely Knicks hoodie from my even lovelier wife—but the thing that has me most jazzed up heading into the New Year is this new tray. For my couch.

Great invention! Costco comes through again, especially considering how many cups of stuff my girls knock over on a weekly basis. But it’s especially nice when I’ve got a soda and a snack at night. Anyway, I’ll put my treats down for a few as we get caught up on everything happening in the world of golf. Let’s get to it.

WE’RE BUYING

Hideki Matsuyama: There are countless GOAT debates, but one thing is clear: Hideki is the Asian male golf GOAT, AKA the AMGGOAT. OK, so that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it was the Japanese star who was rolling in birdies all week at Kapalua, breaking the PGA Tour 72-hole scoring record with a 35(!)-under-par total to win the season-opening Sentry:

THIRTY-FIVE UNDER PAR! Insane stuff as the 32-year-old picked up his 11th PGA Tour title in what is quickly shaping into a Hall-of-Fame career. The scary part? Hideki might be better than ever with the new Scotty Cameron putter he put in the bag after Christmas.

Maddie Meyer

“I saw somebody else using it and I thought, ‘Oh, this looks good,’ so I had them make one, and I’m using it this week,” Matsuyama said on Thursday. OK then. And just like that, bam, 35 under. And a $3.6 million payday. Now that’s a great Christmas gift.

Collin Morikawa: Look, he didn’t win, but he still shot 32 under par. That’s averaging eight under per round. I don’t care where you’re playing, that’s damn good. (More on his funny reaction to Hideki’s hot play later.) And it’s more of what we saw from this ball-striking machine all last year.

Sarah Stier

Unfortunately, not winning also continued a trend. Incredibly, this two-time major champ hasn’t hoisted a trophy in more than 14 months. Keep shooting eight-under rounds, though, and that’s going to change quickly.

This guy’s love of the game: This incredible video made the rounds over the break and I wanted to make sure to salute this golf nut. Sadly, this “uncle” passed away, but as his niece shared, no one has ever kept better golf stats over the past half century:

@ardizzlefoshizzle 45 years of golf – 3264 rounds of golf, average score of 83.705, 5 hole in ones #golf #golftiktok #data #obsessed ♬ original sound – Ardizzlefoshizzle

Unreal. Our HGGA commissioner has an “archive” of more than three decades worth of golf trips, but let’s just say it’s not quite as organized. Even stats guru Justin Ray has to be impressed by this guy. Also, shout-out to anyone my age or older who knows how to do spreadsheets. This was an amazing man—and a pretty darn good golfer!

WE’RE SELLING

Freak household accidents: These golfers finally get a couple weeks off and all hell breaks loose. First, Scottie Scheffler suffers puncture wounds to his hand while helping to prepare Christmas dinner?! And now the World No. 1 is out until at least the end of January. Guess I should have waited until Jan. 1 to write “55 Things That Happened to Scottie Scheffler in 2024”! Then Viktor Hovland breaks a toe walking around his bedroom in the dark?

You guys aren’t really helping the “Golfers are athletes” cause here! Although, Hovland still played in Hawaii and finished T-36. And Scottie is helping my case to stay out of the kitchen and not help with dinner prep. Anyway, I certainly can’t talk because I slipped and fell down 10 steps on Christmas Eve, luckily only sustaining a big bruise to my butt and ego. And if that sounds familiar, that’s because I did the same thing on a different staircase in my house a few weeks back. That puts me halfway to the career Grand Slam of falling down staircases in my house. Hopefully, like Phil Mickelson, I won’t ever complete it.

Hitting the wrong golf ball: Will Zalatoris AND Cam Davis did this during Sunday’s final round in Kapalua as they both managed to hit each other’s golf balls.

First rules faux pas of 2025 is a doozy. pic.twitter.com/fj0wHbq7ST

— Skratch (@Skratch) January 6, 2025

And, yes, the two-stroke penalties were quite costly. In particular, to Davis, who finished T-14 instead of T-5 and earned $490,000 less. Ouch. Not doing that again will be a New Year’s resolution we’re pretty sure both guys will be able to keep after that.

Charley Hull’s holiday workout: Good for the British golfer, but this routine just looks ridiculously hard:

⛳️🎄🏋🏼‍♀️ Could you finish Charley Hull’s Xmas workout? @CharleyLegion pic.twitter.com/AwuHSkvWHF

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) December 25, 2024

Could I finish this workout? Maybe if you gave me all of 2025? That’s a longer list than the ones my kids had for Santa!

ON TAP

The PGA Tour continues its Hawaii Swing with the Sony Open, AKA that other one they play in Hawaii, AKA that course with the big “W”. But before that gets underway, the inaugural TGL match will (finally) take place between New York Golf Club and Bay Golf Club. Now I know there’s no cheering from the press box, but as a New Yorker and big Knicks fan . . . Go New York (Golf Club), go New York (Golf Club), go!

Tonight. @nygolfclub 🆚 @TheBayGolf at 9pm ET on @espn pic.twitter.com/E8KobFgJqI

— TGL (@TGL) January 7, 2025

Random tournament fact: Just a reminder that Grayson Murray is the defending champ at the Sony Open. Tragically, he committed suicide just four months after achieving the biggest win of his young career. And this week, his family launched a foundation in his honor. If you missed Joel Beall’s story on Murray’s battles, do yourself a favor. And as always, check in on those in your life who are struggling.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Hideki Matsuyama will shoot 35 under par again this week: 1 MILLION-to-1

—Hideki Matsuyama will win again this week: 9-1 odds (Actual odds, favorite.)

—Hideki Matsuyama will keep that new putter in his bag this week: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Max Homa perfectly summed up the record-low scoring in Hawaii:

The year is 2025 and 67’s are officially not good #golf

— max homa (@Maxhoma) January 5, 2025

Homa shot 19 under … and finished T-26(!), a full SIXTEEN shots behind Hideki. That’s tough.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (ON-COURSE DIVISION)

Justin Thomas made a funny—but fair!—request during this walk-and-talk interview:

JT has some feedback for the walk-and-talks 😂 pic.twitter.com/aeCfkQKZnp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 3, 2025

Here’s to these being conducted on downhill holes going forward.

VIRAL VIDEO(S) OF THE WEEK (OFF-COURSE DIVISION)

Here’s John Daly driving a golf ball over a street:

Rang in the new year the best way possible byu/chicubsramzing ingolf

New Year, same old JD. And here’s Mike Weir practicing his golf swing, well, everywhere.

Men 🤝 Practicing their swing anywhere

(Via Michelle Money/IG, Mike Weir) pic.twitter.com/BQCHUzWQOg

— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) January 4, 2025

Sometimes, tour pros really are just like us.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Unfortunately the golf world lost part of our family today, beloved golf writer Steve DiMeglio. I was always very close to Steve and we texted and talked about how he needed to keep fighting to get better so we could see each other in the Bahamas last month. And we did. I am so…

— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) January 1, 2025

Really sad news in the golf industry as long-time writer Steve DiMeglio passed away after a two-and-a-half year battle with cancer. Steve was an all-time character in the media center and a dogged reporter. This was well said by Tiger. And check out fellow writer and friend Bob Harig’s tribute to him. RIP DiMegs.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Excuse my language, but, f—, 35 under is really low.” —Collin Morikawa on not being able to catch Hideki Matsuyama despite going really low himself.

“Excuse my language, but …”@Collin_Morikawa kept it real when giving praise for @HidekiOfficial_’s record-breaking Sunday @TheSentry. pic.twitter.com/bsrjvsvk5q

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) January 6, 2025

You are excused, Collin! That’s a tough beat!

THIS AND THAT

Tiger Woods won the PGA Tour’s (final) PIP program and its $10 million bonus despite playing in 11 official rounds in 2024. As Ron Burgundy would say, “I’m not even mad, that’s amazing.” … Speaking of impressive, Taylor Pendrith made the first albatross in the history of The Sentry, but it’s the EIGHTH of his life. His 8-to-3 albatross-to-ace ratio has to be unprecedented as well. … A Maryland man witnessed a hole-in-one on Dec. 21, then played numbers inspired by the special round and won a $150K Powerball lottery prize that night. Hopefully, he wound up buying the guy who made the ace drinks. A LOT of drinks. … And, finally, I randomly had a Cup Noodles for the first time in probably a dozen years:

And it was even better than I remember. My New Year’s resolution is to NOT get hooked on these. Again.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Should I put some carpet on my stairs?

Why didn’t I buy a lottery ticket after my hole-in-one?

Why didn’t I buy a couch tray sooner?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com