When Bad Luck Meets Bad Timing: What the Phoenix Open Chair Incident Really Tells Us About Professional Golf I’ve been covering professional golf for 35 years, and I’ve seen just about every way a tournament can be decided—the dramatic putt, the clutch iron shot, the opponent’s collapse. But I’ll be honest: I’ve never quite seen anything like what happened at TPC Scottsdale last week. And what strikes me most isn’t the mishap itself—it’s what it reveals about where we are as a sport. For those who missed it, Hideki Matsuyama’s playoff loss to Chris Gotterup at the WM Phoenix Open…

Scottsdale’s Hidden Championship Gem: Why The Stadium Course’s Real Defense Isn’t What You See on TV When I walked onto the practice grounds at TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course last November, three months before the 2026 WM Phoenix Open, I expected to find the usual suspects: those dramatic desert washes that bisect fairways like geographic fault lines, the water hazards that lurk menacingly on the back nine, and—at this time of year—the early skeleton structures of grandstands being erected for tournament week. What I didn’t expect was the rough. But there it was: tall, lush, and absolutely punitive. This wasn’t the…

The Art of Selection: Why the Vokey SM11 Teaches Us About Golf’s Most Critical Skill When I step onto the practice range at any PGA Tour Superstore, I’m reminded of something fundamental that both golf architecture and equipment design share in common: the power of choice. Standing before me might be a dozen different wedge options, each subtly different in sole design, bounce angle, and center of gravity positioning. It mirrors what I experience when I first arrive at a new course—there’s rarely one obvious path to success. Instead, there are options, nuances, and personal preferences that separate a mediocre…

Brooks Koepka’s Florida Return: A Make-or-Break Moment for Golf’s Prodigal Son I’ve been covering professional golf since before Brooks Koepka was born, and I’ve seen enough comebacks, reinventions, and second acts to know that timing is everything. So when I heard that Koepka had committed to playing the Cognizant Classic, The Players, and the Valspar Championship in consecutive weeks this February and March, my first instinct wasn’t skepticism—it was recognition. This is a player desperate to matter again, and he’s putting his cards on the table in front of his home crowd. That takes guts. What strikes me most about…

Virtual Golf’s Real Impact: Why Simulators Are the Game’s Most Important Evolution Since the Metal Driver After 35 years of covering professional golf—including 15 Masters and more PGA Tour events than I care to count—I’ve watched this game transform in ways both obvious and subtle. We’ve seen equipment evolve, conditioning standards skyrocket, and the talent pool deepen dramatically. But I’ll tell you what strikes me most about the current moment: virtual golf simulators aren’t just a neat piece of technology. They’re quietly reshaping who gets to play this game and why. Look, I’m not naïve about technology trends in golf.…

One of the most rewarding parts of my 15 years teaching golfers is watching that moment when something clicks. A student walks up to the range with tension in their shoulders, a vague sense that something’s “off” with their swing. Then, after we isolate the right fundamental and they understand not just the what, but the why behind it, their entire posture changes. Their confidence returns. This happens more often than you’d think, and it tells me something important: most golfers aren’t far from playing their best golf. You’re probably closer than you realize too. The Power of Understanding Your…

The LIV Individual Title Race: A Tale of Brilliance, Potential, and Redemption After thirty-five years covering professional golf—including more than a few awkward moments watching the tour landscape shift beneath our feet—I’ve learned to appreciate when the sport gives us a genuinely compelling story. The race for the 2026 LIV Golf Individual Championship is exactly that. Jon Rahm enters as the defending champion with credentials that would make most of us shake our heads in disbelief. The Spanish captain of Legion XIII has posted finishes outside the top 11 exactly once in 25 completed starts on the circuit. That’s not…

The Chris Gotterup Phoenix Open Win: What His Equipment Tells Us About Modern Driver Technology Chris Gotterup just won the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and like any equipment editor worth his salt, my first instinct wasn’t to celebrate the victory—it was to pull his bag specs and dig into what actually delivered those wins. Because here’s the thing: you don’t birdie six of your last seven holes on hope and prayer. You do it with equipment that’s dialed in for your swing. “Relying on his trademark driver play, Gotterup proved he deserved to be in a playoff. He shot a…

When the Game’s Best Stumble, Hungry Youngsters Thrive: What Thursday’s Phoenix Open Really Tells Us I’ve been around this tour long enough to know that one scorching round in the Arizona heat doesn’t make or break anybody’s season. But what happened Thursday at TPC Scottsdale? That’s worth paying attention to. Not because Chris Gotterup shot 63—though that’s plenty impressive—but because of what his meteoric rise tells us about where professional golf is heading, and what it means when a generational talent like Scottie Scheffler suddenly looks mortal. Let me be straight with you: I’ve caddied in majors, covered 15 Masters,…

Scheffler’s Stranglehold on Pebble Beach: Why the Favorites Keep Getting Longer After 35 years of watching the West Coast swing unfold—and I do mean watching, from the gallery ropes, the press tent, and yes, even from the caddie shack back when I was looping for Tom Lehman—I’ve learned that betting odds tell a story the scoreboard doesn’t always capture. This week at Pebble Beach, that story is becoming increasingly familiar: Scottie Scheffler is so dominant that everyone else’s odds are basically retreating into the ocean. Let’s start with the obvious. Scheffler arrives at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am as the…