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Rory McIlroy’s crazy club membership reveal, Jessica Alba’s impressive golf montage and a touching caddie tip – Australian Golf Digest

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  • November 19, 2024
Rory McIlroy’s crazy club membership reveal, Jessica Alba’s impressive golf montage and a touching caddie tip – Australian Golf Digest

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we have reached a particularly sad point in the year. If you’re a golfer in the Northeast, you know what I’m talking about. It’s this annual email from the Metropolitan Golf Association:

Sigh. It was a particularly great golf season up here, but it’s over. At least, officially. I’m not sure why they don’t let you keep posting scores. Regardless, if you live in one of those year-round golf states, consider yourself lucky. But while I’m probably done playing golf in 2024, I’m not done talking about others playing golf. Let’s get to it.

WE’RE BUYING

Rory McIlroy’s finish: If you’re Rory or a Rory fan, you can finally breathe a sigh of relief. It’s been a rollercoaster year for the four-time major champ, but he went out on top with a victory at the DP World Tour Championship. That also gave him a sixth Race to Dubai title, tying him with the late great Seve Ballesteros and leaving him two behind the record held by Colin Montgomerie, set in the days when it was known as the European Tour Order of Merit. McIlroy has been previously dubbed the Prince of Ponte Vedra, but The King of Dubai seems more fitting after he won for a seventh time in that country, including bookend wins there in 2024.

Sometimes we—myself included—focus too much on McIlroy’s close calls in majors and forget about all the amazing things he has accomplished. Even during a year in which, yes, he failed to close out the U.S. Open and his major championship drought stretched to a decade, McIlroy still won four times around the world. And the 35-year-old’s consistency over nearly two decades and counting has been nothing short of remarkable. Speaking of remarkable …

Rory McIlroy’s memberships: Kudos to the DP World Tour content team for posing this question to McIlroy earlier in the week: How many golf clubs do you have memberships at? Because it produced this candid response from McIlroy:

That’s right, 18(!) golf club memberships all around the world. Amazing. Especially to someone like myself whose only membership comes with a Costco card. And love the little dig at his dad: “Can I include Seminole? Because I pay for that for my dad.” Good for Gerry. Talk about living the dream.

Rafael Campos: This guy felt like he was living a dream as well after winning his maiden PGA Tour title at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship. And the victory couldn’t have come at a better time with Campos coming in off 13 missed cuts in 14 starts and needing the win to keep his tour card for next year. Look at this fantastic reaction to learning what else comes with that win:

Sports! It’s like those original PGA Championship/Michael Block videos all over again. “Stop talking to me because I’ll start crying.” Great stuff. Even better? Campos became a father just six days before and barely even made it to the tournament in time. So now he’s a dad AND a PGA Tour winner. What a week, and, again, what timing. Babies are freaking expensive.

Nelly Korda: After winning five straights starts earlier this year and six events in seven starts, Korda went cold for a few months. (To be fair, she finished runner-up at the AIG Women’s Open and T-5 in her last start, but that’s cold for her, OK?!) But after a two-month layoff due to injury, she returned to the winner’s circle at the Annika, giving her an incredible seven LPGA Tour wins heading into this week’s season-ending CME Group Championship.

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Cliff Hawkins

It’s the first time that someone has won seven LPGA events in a season since Yani Tseng (Remember her? Now she, sadly, really went cold.) in 2011 and the first time an American has pulled off the feat since Beth Daniel in 1990. That was eight years before Nelly was even born. Anyway, between this and the SI Swimsuit stuff, 2024 has truly been the Year of Nelly.

WE’RE SELLING

The PGA Tour’s big changes: From a fan perspective, that is. All year long we’ve heard about how the Strategic Sports Group is going to shake things up and make the PGA Tour a better fan experience, but cutting down fields, limiting tour cards and seemingly enforcing slow play even less doesn’t seem to be accomplishing that. It’s good for the product to not have as many rounds having to be completed the next day, but to the fans, especially those watching at home in a TV window that’s over by then already, what does that really change? Anyway, let’s hope there’s more to come.

These Brits’ bad behavior: First, it was Tyrrell Hatton snapping a club in Dubai:

And then it was Matt Wallace taking a huge chunk out of the fairway there—and not bothering to try fixing it:

If those were Americans, you would never hear the end of it from European golf writers! Hatton at least attempted to soothe his situation over by writing this message on his glove:

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Richard Heathcote

It might be time for another round of those DP World Tour anger-management classes.

Unwanted nicknames: Such is the position Steven Alker finds himself in after buying a converted church in Scotland. The PGA Tour Champions star is now being called “Reverend” on the regular and he’s not sure he wants that to “stick.”

That’s going to be tough to get out of that one, Steven. Hmm. Maybe threatening golfers with bad nicknames could be a way to help with slow play.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour heads to Georgia for the RSM Classic, AKA that one they play to end the season. It’s a big week for everyone trying to earn their tour card—and for everyone in the Sea Island Mafia. Will we see another Rafael Campos-like clutch win? Will we see another giant boat shipwrecked? You never know at this tournament! Also, the LPGA season wraps up with the CME Group Championship and an $11 million purse with a staggering $4 million going to the winner. And, finally, The Match returns for a 10th edition and with its biggest group yet, an eightsome of celebrities: Wayne Gretzky, Michael Phelps, Charles Barkley, Bill Murray, Mark Wahlberg, Ken Griffey Jr., Nate Bargatze and Blake Griffin. Hence, the title of the event being The Match: Superstars.

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You can watch the two-night primetime special this Thursday and Friday on TNT Sports and MAX. (Yes, that’s a company plug, but c’mon, that’s a great group of golfers!)

Random tournament fact: Ludvig Aberg will make his return at the RSM after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus after the Tour Championship in August. Hopefully, he followed the guide I recently wrote about how to recover from that injury. That being said, given the fact that he’s much younger than me and has a lot more athletic ability, I’m guessing he’ll be OK without my advice.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Ludvig Aberg will win the RSM Classic: 9-1 odds (Actual odds, favorite!)

—Charles Barkley will win The Match: Superstars: 100-to-1 odds

—Charles Barkley will be the most entertaining player there: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Agree, Matt. Something drastic needs to be done. Although, not as drastic as what Charley Hull suggests …

Man, she’s tough.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (PRO DIVISION)

Loved this video of Sahith Theegala giving his caddie the watch of his dreams:

What a gesture and what a reaction. And, Carl, if you don’t need that Timex anymore, let me know.

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

Caitlin Clark’s presence at the Annika was terrific for the LPGA and golf in general. It just nearly ended with a couple fans being taken out. First, this yanked tee shot seen ’round the world:

It’s amazing no one got hit there. And it’s also amazing that people stand that close to non-professional golfers. We also learned that Caitlin plays a Titleist 22 (her jersey number):

Baller. Anyway, don’t be discouraged, Caitlin, it happen to the best of them. Keep shooting your shot—both on and off the course.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NON-CAITLIN CLARK DIVISION)

Apparently, Jessica Alba is a big golfer. And she really gets around to some nice courses! Check out this video that our pal Chris Powers ripped and ran with:

Great montage, Jessica. And, yes, great turn. Wonder how many golf club memberships she has.

THIS WEEK IN BRYSON BEING BRYSON

Bryson DeChambeau, the King of Golf Content, is up to his old tricks with a fun daily challenge in which he attempts to make a hole-in-one by hitting a shot over his house mansion and to his backyard green.

As if making a hole-in-one on any hole—no matter how many tries—isn’t tough enough, though, he’s left himself almost no landing area by bringing those rocks into play. And keep in mind, Bryson made the first hole-in-one of his life at the 2019 Masters so it’s not like he’s been racking these things up. Anyway, it’s an amazing idea, but I think that after a couple weeks he might regret not using a more gettable middle pin position.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’ve been through a lot this year, professionally and personally. It feels like the fitting end to 2024. I’ve persevered this year a lot.” —Rory McIlroy. Enjoy the offseason, Rory. You deserve some time off.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

That McIlroy quote was obviously referring to the divorce he filed for in May that wound up not happening. And so it was great to see Rory, Erica and Poppy all smiling together on Sunday:

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Richard Heathcote

My daughters will definitely be jealous of that shiny new scepter Poppy will be playing Princess with.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Brittany Lincicome on wrapping up a great (full-time) LPGA career spanning two decades. Bam Bam got to walk off into the sunset with her dad and kids by her side:

Aww, you love to see it. … Congrats to the man who made an ace using a Kirkland Signature golf ball and got a nice note—and more golf balls—from Costco:

Update on what Costco sent me for making a Hole In One with a Kirkland Signature Golf Ball byu/realethanbradberry ingolf

Not surprising, of course, because Costco is the best. … John Daly’s replica claret jug from his Open Championship win in 1995 wound up nearly fetching $400K at auction:

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The person selling the artifact had bought it directly from Daly in 2015. Something tells us JD is regretting that decision now. … And, finally, for a much, much smaller sum I made a brilliant purchase at CVS when I discovered just how cheap Halloween candy is AFTER Halloween:

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That big bag of little KitKats was 75 percent off and cost me $2.50. Which is what it would have cost me to buy two regular KitKat bars. So I got about 7x the KitKats for that price! What a steal! The more you know.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Is Rory McIlroy a member at any club near me?

Why does the MGA end Active Posting Season?

Why do I live somewhere with a long winter?

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com

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