Good morning. Imagine buying a concert ticket and then finding out half the headliners are “managing their schedule.”
That’s basically the PGA TOUR’s problem right now.
Fans expect big weeks. But the best players are increasingly treating some of them like optional prep.
Now the TOUR has to answer the uncomfortable question: how do you make more tournaments feel important without forcing players to play more?
-Harry Carlisle
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER we’ll get into:
Russell Henley stealing one
The PGA TOUR’s schedule rethink
The north-south wedge tip
Scottie Scheffler’s trying to match Tiger at Muirfield
PGA Tour
Henley stole one at Colonial
Russell Henley won the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas, and he did it the painful way if you were Eric Cole.
Cole was chasing his first PGA TOUR win in start No. 120. Then Henley birdied the final three holes to catch him, made another birdie on the first playoff hole, and walked off with his sixth PGA TOUR title.
TOP STORY
The PGA TOUR’s schedule rewrite is getting real
Brian Rolapp & Rory McIlory
New CEO Brian Rolapp and the TOUR’s Future Competition Committee are studying a more serious rebuild:
fewer core events,
stronger fields,
more cuts,
and a clearer path for players to earn their way into the biggest weeks.
The current problem is sponsors want stars. TV wants stars. Fans want stars. But the best players still build their seasons around majors, rest, and whatever helps them peak at the right time.
A tighter model would try to fix that by grouping the best players together more often instead of spreading them across too many tournaments. Some changes could show up in 2027, but the bigger rebuild sounds more like a 2028 target.
Why it matters: The TOUR is basically admitting the product has become too hard to follow. Fans don’t just need more golf. They need a clearer answer to a basic question: which weeks deserve attention?
TOP TIP: Wedges
A recent study from Shot Scope looked at hundreds of thousands of rounds, and found that amateur golfers come up short on 100-yard shots 40% of the time.
It’s called the North-South problem: not missing left or right, but missing long or short.
From 80 to 130 yards, your first job is distance control. Get your misses closer to pin-high, and you’ll give yourself a much better chance to save strokes.
3 ways to do that:
Flight wedges lower: Play the ball slightly back, lean the shaft forward, and make a committed downward strike. A lower wedge usually handles wind better and gives you a more predictable first bounce.
Use backswing length for distance: Don’t swing harder or softer. Build stock lengths, like quarter, half, and three-quarter swings, with the same smooth acceleration through the ball.
Pick a safe lane: You don’t always need to aim at the pin. If the flag is tucked left, aim a little right. If it’s tucked right, aim a little left. But the bigger goal is still distance: choose the club and swing length that keep the ball closer to pin-high.
COMING UP: Memorial
Scottie on left, Tiger on right
The PGA TOUR now heads to Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, for the Memorial Tournament.
The headline is simple: Scottie Scheffler is trying to win the Memorial for the third straight year.
Tiger Woods is the only player to ever pull that off at Muirfield Village, winning three straight from 1999 to 2001. Scheffler now has a chance to join him.
The field also looks like the kind of week the TOUR wants more often: smaller, stronger, and headlined by Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, and Xander Schauffele.
One missing name: Viktor Hovland. The 2023 Memorial winner withdrew, which is notable because he hadn’t missed the event since turning pro.
LPGA
Riviera gets its women’s major moment
Celine Boutier
Celine Boutier rallied from four shots back to win the ShopRite LPGA Classic in New Jersey, closing with a 66 to beat Arpichaya Yubol by one.
Now the LPGA turns to something bigger: the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California.
Riviera is also set to host Olympic golf in 2028, so this week doubles as an early look at one of the next major stages in women’s golf.
LIV
LIV had a real finish, and a real business problem
Joaquín Niemann won LIV Golf Korea in a playoff over Talor Gooch after both finished at 12 under in Busan.
A few other notes from the week:
Bryson DeChambeau finished one shot back, while his Crushers GC team won the team title.
LIV recently cut several premium app streaming features for the rest of the season, including options that let fans follow specific groups or teams.
That matters because digital access was supposed to be one of LIV’s clearest advantages over traditional golf coverage.
WORLD
Japan had a record-setting week
Kota Kaneko
Kota Kaneko won the Austrian Alpine Open for his first DP World Tour title, becoming another Japanese winner on the European circuit.
Back home, Shaun Norris won the Mizuno Open at 24 under, the lowest score in tournament history, and secured a spot in The Open Championship. Ryutaro Nagano and Ren Yonezawa earned the other Open spots available through the event.
QUICK HITS
Firestone’s run is ending
Firestone Country Club
Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, is set to lose PGA TOUR Champions hosting duties after decades in pro golf. It’s a real end-of-an-era note, especially because Tiger Woods won there eight times.
Creator golf: Grant Horvat’s recent Major Cut video with the Bryan Bros passed 1 million views in just a few days. It’s another sign creator golf works best when it has a repeatable format, and “can they make the cut?” is a hook most golfers understand.
MINI CROSSWORD
Today’s Golf Mini is live.
It’s quick, golfy, and probably a better use of three minutes than refreshing a leaderboard for the seventh time. Give it a try and let us know how you do.
BOGEY OR BRAINS
Your approach shot misses the green and hits your friend’s golf bag sitting near the cart path.
The ball bounces sideways, and ends up in the rough.
What do you do?
A) Play it as it lies, no penalty
B) Replay the shot, no penalty
C) Take one penalty stroke and play it as it lies
D) Replace the ball where it hit the bag
ANSWER
A) Play it as it lies, no penalty
Under Rule 11.1, if your ball in motion accidentally hits a person, animal, equipment, or anything else on the course, there’s usually no penalty.
You normally play the ball from wherever it comes to rest.
