⛳That's Not One

Happy Monday. With the World Cup starting, I’m once again asking why golf celebrations are so polite.

A soccer player scores and hits a knee slide. A golfer makes birdie and gives a small nod like he just approved a tax form.

IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER we’ll get into golf’s own drama:

J.T. Poston had a short putt to win in regulation, missed it, then won the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in a playoff.

It was Poston’s fourth PGA TOUR win, and it came out of nowhere compared with his recent form. He entered the week without a top-20 finish this season.

Friday showed how tough Muirfield was. Poston shot 65 in brutal wind, a round that was nine shots better than the field average.

Justin Thomas later called Friday “probably the most difficult round” he had played on TOUR. Afterward, Thomas and Rory McIlroy skipped the usual handshake and hugged because of how difficult the day had been.

Ben Hogan famously said golf is a game of misses.

Most golfers aim like their best swing is coming next. Better players plan for the swing they actually bring most often.

If your normal miss is right, don’t aim straight at a right-side pin. If water guards the left side of a fairway, don’t aim down the middle and hope your pull doesn’t show up.

Your goal is simple: aim so your bad shot still has somewhere decent to go.

Know your normal miss: If your 7-iron usually leaks right, aim far enough left that a normal miss still finds the green or the safe side.

Use the fat side: When the flag is tucked near trouble, aim toward the middle of the green. A 35-foot putt beats a short-sided chip or penalty drop.

Stop chasing perfect: Your best shot might not finish closest to the hole, and that’s okay. The goal is to make your bad shots better.

Tyrrell Hatton won LIV Golf Andalucía at Real Club Valderrama, finishing two shots ahead of teammate Jon Rahm.

It was Hatton’s second LIV win and his first start since becoming a father. Legion XIII also won the team title, which gave Rahm a home-country runner-up finish and a team win in Spain.

Small detail: Hatton closed with three decisive birdies, the kind of finish Valderrama does not usually hand out for free.

Nelly Korda won the U.S. Women’s Open at Riviera, and even the final putt made everyone wait.

Her short putt on 18 caught the edge, looked like it might slide out, then dropped.

That gave Korda her second major of the season after winning the Chevron Championship earlier this year.

Hidden Detail: Korda is the first player since Mickey Wright in 1964 to win the first two women’s majors of the season.

The U.S. Open is coming to Shinnecock Hills from June 18 to 21, and Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler have already been out to scout it.

Their early read: the fairways are more generous than they were in 2018, but the rough still punishes quickly.

Rory put it simply: if you miss the fairway by even a few feet, “you deserve a bad lie.”

He also said Shinnecock takes driver out of his hands a lot. Scheffler said it’s “more about placing the ball in the right spots.”

The KLM Open took a strange turn late Sunday when protesters entered the water near the closing stretch at The International near Amsterdam.

The protest was from Extinction Rebellion, which has targeted the tournament because of KLM’s role as title sponsor. The group argues KLM’s sponsorship helps normalize flying despite aviation’s climate impact.

On the broadcast, staff appeared to line up near the 18th green, which viewers online speculated was an attempt to block the protest from view.

The golf part: Eugenio Chacarra still won the KLM Open, but the final hole briefly looked less like a golf tournament and more like a security drill.

You’re standing on the first tee, ready to start your round.

You take one last practice swing and accidentally clip the ball off the tee. It rolls a few feet forward, and someone in your group immediately says, “That’s one.”

True or false: You have to count that as your first stroke.

Bryson’s wedge snapped mid-round: Bryson DeChambeau said his wedge “just snapped” when he used it like a cane while walking down the 12th fairway at LIV Valderrama. He called it “a weird one” and said it cost him a shot.

Slow-play debate returns: Matt Fitzpatrick was criticized for taking a long time over a birdie putt at the Memorial, and Sky Sports’ Jay Townsend suggested a simple fix: once a player replaces the ball on the green, they should not be allowed to mark it again.

Tiger’s GOAT thought: Tiger Woods called Jack Nicklaus “the greatest leader,” but the old GOAT debate still comes down to two different arguments: Jack has the major record, while Tiger has the peak-dominance case.

Today’s Golf Mini is 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.

Play the mini crossword →

False.

On the teeing area, your ball is not in play until you actually make a stroke at it.

A practice swing is not a stroke because you were not trying to hit the ball. So if you accidentally knock the ball off the tee before your opening shot, there is no penalty. You can put the same ball, or another ball, back on the tee and start again.

Key takeaway: Luckily, on the tee, accidental practice-swing contact is a little embarrassing, but it’s not a stroke.