Goood morning. This week’s tournament at Muirfield Village is like walking into a pristine living room with white carpet.
It looks calm. It looks polished. Then you take one wrong step, spill grape juice everywhere, and suddenly everyone knows.
That’s the course. It waits for one miss on the wrong side of the green or for someone to get greedy. This week, Scottie Scheffler gets that test with a piece of Tiger Woods history attached: a chance to win the Memorial for the third straight year. Will he do it?
-Harry Carlisle
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER we’ll get into:
How Muirfield tricks pros
Michelle Wie West gets one more U.S. Women’s Open start
A simple Google Maps tip that can save you strokes
PGA TOUR
How Muirfield tricks pros
Muirfield Village gets pros in trouble by making aggressive shots look safer than they are.
Hole No.14
The 14th is only 360 yards, which sounds like the kind of par 4 modern pros should bully. But driver brings water, bunkers, and a messy recovery into play.
The 15th is a par 5 that has historically played as the easiest hole at the Memorial. That creates pressure because players expect to make birdie.
Then comes the closing test: the 17th is a long par 4 where par is fine. The 18th has historically played as the hardest hole at the Memorial. It’s 484 yards, bends around trouble, and makes players earn the last walk up the hill.
Hidden Detail: Viktor Hovland found one of Muirfield’s strangest shortcuts on No. 3.
Hole No.3
When the pin was tucked back-right, Hovland drove the ball way left toward the fourth tee instead of aiming near the fairway. From there, he had a cleaner angle over the water into the green.
He used the route in 2022, then went back to it during the final round in 2023. That time, he hit his approach to nine feet, made birdie, tied the lead, and eventually won in a playoff.
The move did not go unnoticed. Jack Nicklaus saw players using the route, and Justin Thomas later joked that Jack responded by growing “some of the longest rough in Ohio” in that area.
Hovland is not in this year’s Memorial. The 2023 champion withdrew, and no reason has been announced.
In case you missed it: Scottie Scheffler is trying to win the Memorial Tournament for the third straight year. Tiger Woods is the only player to do that at Muirfield Village, winning three straight from 1999 to 2001.
TOP TIP: PLAYING A NEW COURSE
Use Google Maps before you tee off
One of the easiest ways to play better on a new course is to make fewer decisions once you get there.
Before the round, open the course on Google Maps or Google Earth and look at the first few holes from above.
Then ask: Where does my normal shot pattern actually finish?
Hole 7 at Hidden Lakes Golf Club with the new dispersion overlay added.
If your driver usually spreads about 60 yards wide, don’t aim at the center of the fairway just because it feels normal. Pick the target where your whole pattern still leaves you playable.
That might mean aiming for your fade, taking 3-wood to avoid bunkers, or knowing which side you absolutely cannot miss on.
Overview: Before playing a new course, use Google Maps to pick your club, overlay your dispersion on the toughest holes, figure out your aim point, and bailout on the first three tee shots.
LPGA
Michelle Wie West gets one more
Michelle Wie West
The U.S. Women’s Open heads to Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, and Michelle Wie West is in the field for one very specific reason.
Her 2014 U.S. Women’s Open win gave her one final year of eligibility.
Wie West has stepped away from full-time competition, but Riviera was worth using it for. It’s one more major start at one of the most famous courses in American golf.
And this isn’t just another U.S. Women’s Open venue. Riviera is hosting the championship for the first time, and it’s also set to host Olympic golf in 2028. So this week is both a farewell-style start for Wie West and an early look at a course we’ll be talking about again soon.
LIV
LIV heads to Valderrama
LIV Golf goes to Real Club Valderrama in Spain this week, which gives Jon Rahm a home-country start and gives LIV one of its best venues of the season.
Valderrama is not a bomber’s playground. it's narrow, tree-lined, and usually rewards players who can keep the ball in position. That makes it a useful test before the U.S. Open because it asks for control, not just speed.
Rahm also enters the week as LIV’s season money leader, while Bryson DeChambeau is coming off a third-place finish in Korea after saying he used Google Gemini to help find a swing fix.
What to watch: Rahm trying to win in Spain, Bryson testing whether the AI grip fix actually holds, and Valderrama forcing LIV’s biggest hitters to play a more controlled style.
WORLD
South Africa gets another Open qualifier
Dylan Naidoo
South Africa’s Dylan Naidoo secured a place in The Open Championship through the Open Qualifying Series, continuing a strong run for South African golf on the international stage.
The Mizuno Open in Japan also awarded three Open Championship spots:
Shaun Norris (winner, 24 under)
Ryutaro Nagano (T-2, 19 under)
Ren Yonezawa (T-2, 19 under)
With major spots now being earned across multiple tours and regions, Open qualifying has become one of the easiest ways to spot emerging names before they reach a bigger audience.
QUICK HITS
Jack Nicklaus
Nicklaus says the rollback may not be enough: Jack Nicklaus said the coming golf-ball rollback probably won’t change much for most pros, but could pull Rory McIlroy back roughly 12 yards. He also called the change a “deck chair off the Titanic” fix, meaning he thinks golf’s distance problem is still bigger than the rule change.
Good Good gets a TOUR start: Brad Delke from Good Good Golf received a sponsor exemption into the Good Good Championship, the new PGA TOUR Fall event in Austin. Delke was the runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Amateur, so this a creator with real competitive history getting a TOUR start.
Bryson asked AI for swing help: Bryson DeChambeau said he used Google Gemini while searching for a swing fix after struggling at LIV Golf Korea. The answer he landed on was simple: relax the grip.
MINI CROSSWORD
This week’s Golf Mini is called The 19th Hole.
Think you know your way around a scorecard? This one is a quick test of your golf brain before your next round.
WHAT’S THE RULING?
You hit a tee shot toward the trees.
Before you lift a ball to identify it, what are you required to do under the Rules of Golf?
A) Nothing, just pick it up and check it
B) Mark the spot and tell your playing partner or marker
C) Clean the ball first
D) Declare it unplayable
ANSWER
B) Mark the spot and tell your playing partner or marker
Same brand and number is not always enough. If another golfer could be playing the same ball, you need a way to prove it's yours.
