‘ello. The week after a major always feels a little strange.
Aaron Rai won the PGA Championship, then withdrew from this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson less than 24 hours later. Scottie Scheffler is back in Texas. Jordan Spieth is there too. And TPC Craig Ranch just got a renovation after Scottie made the place look almost too easy last year.
-Harry Carlisle
IN TODAY’S NEWSLETTER we’ll get into:
Scottie Scheffler returning to a course he destroyed last year
A LIV money wrinkle at the Korea Open
The player stepping away to recover
PGA Tour
Rai gets the most reasonable withdrawal of the year
Aaron Rai
Aaron Rai won the PGA Championship at Aronimink, then withdrew from this week’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson less than 24 hours later. He was replaced in the field by S.Y. Noh.
Rai’s win came with a five-year PGA TOUR exemption, lifetime entry into the PGA Championship, and a new intro every time he walks onto a tee: “major champion, Aaron Rai!”
Scottie is back where he went nuclear
The PGA TOUR is at TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, for the CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Scottie Scheffler returns as the defending champion after winning by eight shots last year and tying the PGA TOUR’s all-time 72-hole scoring record at 31 under.
TPC Craig Ranch 2019 vs 2026
The course also comes back slightly different. TPC Craig Ranch completed a $22 million renovation led by Lanny Wadkins after last year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson. The project included new turf, a revamped design, and a broader attempt to give the course more resistance after years of extremely low scoring.
The hope is that the course has a little more resistance than it did when Scottie turned it into a target-practice week.
WORLD
Korea Open gets LIV names, then a LIV money twist
Bubba Watson
The Kolon Korea Open returns to Woo Jeong Hills Country Club this week, and the Asian Tour has a headline-friendly field note: Bubba Watson and Abraham Ancer are playing. The event is one of Korea’s biggest national opens, and this is Watson’s first Korea Open appearance in two decades.
But the more interesting part is the money.
The Asian Tour reportedly cut a planned prize-money increase for the Korea Open after initially announcing a $500,000 boost connected to LIV Golf.
That comes as Bloomberg reported LIV has been laying groundwork for a possible U.S. bankruptcy filing if it can’t secure new funding. The league hasn’t announced a filing, so the key word is possible.
DP World Tour: the old Ryder Cup hero is back for one more
Nicolas Colsaerts
The DP World Tour is in Belgium for the Soudal Open this week, and the best storyline isn’t really about a favorite.
It’s Nicolas Colsaerts.
Colsaerts retired last year after more than 500 DP World Tour starts, moved into a LIV Golf broadcasting role, then accepted an invitation to play this week’s Soudal Open in his home country. The appearance extends his streak to 28 straight seasons on the European Tour.
CREATOR GOLF
Creator golf got noisy again
A YouTube channel called Topbird made a satirical video titled “Rick & Topbird: The LIV Golf ROAST.” The video was framed as a fake interview, with a made-up version of Rick Shiels roasting LIV Golf, Bryson DeChambeau, and the league’s chaos. Rick pushed back saying even if it’s meant as satire, using someone’s name, face, voice, or style can make viewers think he actually said those things.
Bryson added his own weird internet moment too. On a recent podcast, he said he believes the moon landing happened, but thinks the footage may be fake.
QUICK HITS
Marco Penge
Marco Penge is taking a break: Marco Penge is stepping away from golf because of ongoing health issues tied to a viral infection, sinus problems, vertigo, and nervous-system symptoms. He said the return timeline could be two weeks or two months, depending on recovery. It’s another strange turn in a career that already had a dramatic reset: he served a DP World Tour betting suspension in 2024, though the tour said he did not bet on himself or on events he was playing in.
TaylorMade is slowing down the driver treadmill: TaylorMade announced it’s moving away from annual metalwood launches and into a two-year product cycle. That brings it closer to brands like Titleist, Ping, and Srixon, which already operate on slower release schedules. For normal golfers, it means a new driver may not feel “old” quite so fast.
GOLF MINI
Try today's new Golf Mini Crossword
This week’s Morning Tee Golf Mini is live and it’s a good one
BOGEY OR BRAINS
Your approach shot plugs in the fairway after a rainstorm.
The ball is sitting in its own pitch mark, and part of the ball is below the level of the ground.
What do you do?
A) Play it as it lies
B) Take free relief, drop within one club length, no closer to the hole
C) Take one penalty stroke and drop nearby
D) Lift, clean, and place it anywhere in the fairway
ANSWER
B) Take free relief
Under Rule 16.3, if your ball is embedded in its own pitch mark in the general area, you usually get free relief. You can lift it, clean it, and drop within one club length of the spot right behind where it was embedded, no closer to the hole.
