⛳Monster Finish

Good morning.
Golf has a funny way of turning one week into a résumé. A few days ago, Alex Fitzpatrick was still mostly known as Matt Fitzpatrick’s younger brother. Now he has a PGA TOUR win, a TOUR card, and a tee time at a $20 million Signature Event.

That’s a pretty efficient career update

-Harry Carlisle

The PGA TOUR returns to Trump National Doral’s Blue Monster course in Miami this week for the new Cadillac Championship, a $20 million Signature Event. It’s the PGA TOUR’s first event at Doral since 2016.

Course snapshot: Long, watery, and uncomfortable. The Blue Monster is close to 7,800 yards, has water all over the closing stretch, and finishes with one of the most famous 18th holes in American tournament golf.

Why it matters: This is a different test than last week’s team event. Zurich rewarded chemistry. Doral is more about survival, ball-striking, and avoiding the one swing that turns a decent round into a wet scorecard.

Player to watch: Jordan Spieth. At the Masters, his ball-striking looked far sharper than his finish suggested. The issue was the putter, which never really gave him enough momentum to turn good tee-to-green golf into a serious run.

That’s usually the part of Spieth’s game that can flip quickly. If the putting catches up this week, the rest of the game already looks close enough for him to be dangerous.

The 18th at the Blue Monster is a long par 4 with water running hard down the left side. It’s not complicated in theory. Hit the fairway, hit the green, move on.

The problem is that the hole doesn’t really allow “kind of fine.” A slight pull can find water. A bailout can leave a brutal angle. And under tournament pressure, it’s exactly the kind of finishing hole that turns one loose swing into a leaderboard rewrite.

The Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund just announced it’s expected to end its financial backing of LIV Golf after the 2026 season

So what now?

The stars, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith, and Tyrrell Hatton, would likely have the most leverage in any return conversation with the PGA TOUR. They have major interest and sponsor value.

The catch: a return probably wouldn’t be automatic. The PGA TOUR already created a narrow Returning Member Program earlier this year, and Brooks Koepka’s return included a $5 million charitable contribution. That suggests any future pathway could be handled case by case, with conditions attached.

The under discussed path: Asia could become a landing spot for some players. LIV already has ties to the Asian Tour through the International Series, and that route could give players tournaments, appearance opportunities, and a way to keep competing while PGA TOUR or DP World Tour access gets sorted out.

The quieter possibility is some players may simply play less golf. A lot of LIV’s roster is older, already wealthy, and not necessarily eager to grind for status again. Players with major exemptions can build lighter schedules around the Majors like the Masters, PGA Championship, and U.S. Open. Others may drift toward business projects or eventually the Champions Tour.

Nelly Korda won the Chevron Championship by five shots on Sunday, reclaimed world No. 1, and is listed for this week’s Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Why it matters: A lot of stars skip the week after a major. Korda isn’t. That gives the LPGA a clean follow-up storyline: can the hottest player in women’s golf keep rolling on a resort course that rewards control more than pure power?

The Japan Golf Tour is at The Crowns this week in Aichi Prefecture, roughly between Tokyo and Osaka.

Why it matters: The Crowns is a long-running Japan Golf Tour event with recognizable Japanese players in the field. Ryo Ishikawa was once Japan’s teenage golf phenomenon, winning on the Japan Golf Tour as a 15-year-old amateur, while Shugo Imahira is a two-time Japan Tour money-list winner. For readers outside Japan, it’s a useful snapshot of a golf scene that rarely gets much English-language attention.

The DP World Tour is in Türkiye this week for the Turkish Airlines Open, the final event of its Asian Swing.

Why it matters: There’s more on the line than one trophy. The Asian Swing race can shape Race to Dubai positioning, and major-championship spots are still in play.

Worth knowing: Alex Fitzpatrick also won earlier this season at the Hero Indian Open, which means his last month has been a strange blend of DP World Tour breakthrough and PGA TOUR arrival.

The Asian Tour moves to South Korea this week for the GS Caltex Maekyung Open. It comes right after South Korea’s Jeongwoo Ham won the Singapore Open and earned a spot in The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Memorable angle: Ham was ranked No. 735 in the world before winning wire-to-wire in Singapore.

Grant Horvat, the Bryan Bros, and Play Golf Myrtle Beach launched a creator-golf competition with an actual PGA TOUR start on the line.

The setup is simple: eight golf creators compete across two rounds. Round 1 uses match play to cut the field from eight to four, then the finalists move into a stroke-play finish. The winner gets an unrestricted sponsor exemption into the ONEflight Myrtle Beach Classic, a PGA TOUR event played May 7 to 10 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Why it works: You don’t need to understand creator golf to get the stakes. Win the video, play on the PGA TOUR.

Watch next: The finale drops today on the Bryan Bros channel.

Small problem: it’s the wrong green.

Your ball is sitting perfectly on a nearby putting green from another hole. What do you do?

A) Play it as it lies, since the ball is playable
B) Take free relief, but only if your stance is also on the wrong green
C) Take free relief, because you’re not allowed to play from a wrong green
D) Take one penalty stroke and drop near the green

C) Take free relief

Under Rule 13.1f, if your ball is on a wrong green, or the wrong green interferes with your stance or swing, you must take free relief. You don’t get the option to play it as it lies, even if the shot looks harmless.

Why it matters: This actually comes up on courses where greens sit close together. The surprising part is that relief isn’t just allowed. It’s required, because the Rules protect putting surfaces from full swings and divots.