Golf’s shocking trend, LIV’s next question

Welcome back to the Monday Finish, where this week brings the remarkable transfer of power from a controversial administration. That’s right, folks — LIV Golf has named a new CEO. To the news…

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GOLF STUFF I LIKE

I spent some time this week reading about the ban (and un-ban) of TikTok, which led me down a rabbit hole of how we as a people spend our time. A quick summary: young TikTok users in the U.S. spend more than an hour per day on the app, which is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much time we as a people are spending on social media; by one study, American kids and teenagers spend more than 30 percent of their waking hours on their phones. This comes at a time when we are spending more time alone than ever before, making fewer friends, seeing our friends less frequently. It’s a fascinating and bleak outlook on the future of humanity, where we can connect instantly and constantly and so we never really do.

It’s some small comfort, then, to see a trend from our little world that flies in the face of that data. The National Golf Foundation released its State of the Industry report (worth your time) over the weekend, which included some eye-popping numbers. More than 28 million Americans played traditional “green-grass” golf in 2024, marking the seventh-consecutive annual increase. When you include off-course golf (think TopGolf, they define this as “with a real ball, real club and full swing) that number jumps to over 47 million, a 38-percent leap from 2019.

There’s more golf course development happening than anytime since 2011. There are the fewest course closings in 20 years. People see golf in a far more positive light. The game is expanding to new places and new people. Taken all together, we’re in something of a golden age for golf.

Why’s that so exciting? Because golf takes a long time. It requires you to be outside. It’s generally played with other people. It involves physical exercise. It tests your patience — and your attention span. It’s hard. And if you’re playing golf you’re much less likely to be on your phone. At some point in the near future I’ll dive deeper into this subject and how golf may be an antidote to the things we do but wish we didn’t, how it relates to happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction and the ways we spend our time. But for now I’ll just say that the more people that play golf, the better.

That’s golf stuff I like.

(But yeah, when this leads to six-hour public-course rounds on weekends, I’m less excited about the trend. Let’s keep working on that, too.)

(Also, my take? Ban it all! Except, of course, for the Monday Finish. The only ethical internet consumption. Back to the column.)

WINNERS

Who won the week?

Sepp Straka won the American Express in Palm Springs, jumping inside the top 20 in the world with his third victory on the PGA Tour.

“I love Kirby Smart‘s quote about being the hunter and not the hunted regardless of where you are in the game, in the tournament,” said Straka, who entered Sunday with a four-shot lead. “I kind of felt that way, I was kind of just trying to stay aggressive to my spots, my targets were pretty conservative, but I was trying to make aggressive swings to [them].”

Tyrrell Hatton won the Dubai Desert Classic, the latest in a remarkable stretch of DP World Tour golf; he’s finished T10-win-2-6-win in his five starts since the end of LIV’s 2024 season. He was thoughtful in his winner’s press conference about his jump to LIV and his desire to keep playing DP World Tour events as well as qualifying for the Ryder Cup; as he and fellow LIV pros sit in appeal limbo they’re banned from the PGA Tour but essentially able to have their cake and eat it on the European circuit.

“Making that decision to move over to LIV was really difficult and one that I didn’t take lightly. It was a week off after being here, and I honestly hated that week to be honest,” Hatton said. “It’s been a [long pause] well, from watching the event as a kid, it just makes these events that much more special and to be a part of them, and I love playing on the DP World Tour, and I feel like although I have moved over to LIV that I have still shown the commitment that I want to play.”

Ernie Els won the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai Golf Course on Hawaii, his seventh PGA Tour Champions victory, in what he called “basically a week’s holiday with a golf tournament.” Not a bad way to live.

And Justin Hastings of the Cayman Islands won the Latin America Amateur Championship on Saturday night after a marathon 36-hole day at Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  

With the win, the 21-year-old will become the first player from the Cayman Islands to compete in the U.S. Open and the second to compete in the Masters and the Open after Aaron Jarvis — who also won the LAAC — competed at Augusta National and the Old Course in 2022.

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NOT-WINNERS

These guys are good, too.

Justin Thomas may not have won in a couple years but he’s certainly rounding into form; he finished solo second at the AmEx and now has three podium finishes in his last four starts, including the Hero.

“I played well. I mean, I had a chance, it wasn’t obviously a great one on the back nine, but I was proud of myself, I did what I needed to do on the front nine today and at least be making some noise and kind of moving up the leaderboard,” Thomas said.

Jason Day finished T3, his first step onto the podium since finishing T2 at the 2023 Open.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in contention like that, so it’s nice to be able to stand there and hit some of the shots that I did knowing that, okay, under the pump you still got some really good stuff in there, let’s just kind of build on that going forward.”

Shoutouts, too, to Justin Lower (T3), Patrick Cantlay (T5), Charley Hoffman (T5) as well as Camilo Villegas (T7). And even though 17-year-old newly minted pro Blades Brown stumbled down the stretch to miss the 54-hole cut, his Friday 64 had the golf world rightfully on notice.

“It was a blast competing on the PGA Tour. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to convert coming down the stretch, but, I mean, a lot of practice,” Brown said. “I’m glad I’m doing it right now, that way I can learn. My dad always says, ‘You win or you learn,’ and I’m definitely going to learn from this experience.”

SHORT HITTERS

5 bits of golf news.

“I think, unfortunately, there’s been a little bit, possibly a little too much bad blood between Greg [Norman] and maybe the governing bodies, and to have somebody outside of that might help the situation,” said LIV leading man Jon Rahm of the new LIV CEO hire.

2. The Genesis Invitational will not be held at Riviera this year; given the devastation of fires that came within blocks of the golf course, the PGA Tour announced it would be held on the same schedule but in a different location. Rick Gehman of CBS Sports reported that Torrey Pines — which also hosts this week’s Farmers Insurance Open — is expected to be announced as the replacement site.

3. A few notable WDs have been stacking up on the PGA Tour: World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler didn’t play this week’s AmEx and is now questionable for next week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am while World No. 2 Xander Schauffele withdrew from the AmEx and didn’t sign up for the Farmers, either. World No. 5 Collin Morikawa also withdrew from the Farmers, as did Akshay Bhatia (plus Nicolai Hojgaard and Mackenzie Hughes, if we really want to go deep). We’re still hoping to see Scheffler, Schauffele and World No. 3 Rory McIlroy at Pebble, which the Monday Finish is now denoting the beginning of the PGA Tour season.

4. Tiger Woods is extending his golf-ball deal with Bridgestone. Woods first signed with Bridgestone in December 2016 after Nike left the hard-goods business — but Woods later confirmed that Bridgestone had been manufacturing his golf balls for decades. Rickie Fowler is changing golf balls, too; his deal with TaylorMade ran out and he’s currently playing Titleist. (Plus a prototype Cobra 2-wood.)

5. Tom McKibbin finished T6 in Dubai — one shot behind McIlroy — as rumors continue to swirl connecting him with an open LIV spot. McKibbin is a terrific young talent who had earned his PGA Tour card for 2025 after finishing inside the top 20 on the DP World Tour in 2024. He’s also a friend of McIlroy’s and grew up playing at Holywood, McIlroy’s home club. Should his signing become finalized it would mark LIV’s most notable free-agent pickup of a relatively quiet offseason.

“Yeah, look, I have known Tom since he was 10 years old, 11 years old, and as soon as he got the offer, he rang me,” McIlroy said. The two spoke multiple times in the days and weeks that followed.

“I really like Tom as a person, as a player. I think he’s got a ton of potential. Look, I said to him, if I were in your shoes, I would make a different choice than the one you’re thinking of making … but I’m not him. I’m not in his shoes. He’s a grown man at this point and can make his own decisions. All I can do is try to give him my perspective.”

ONE DUMB GRAPHIC

This one’s extra dumb but I’m proud of it anyway.

The question, then: With a big-time broadcast deal, who’s gonna watch?

ONE THING TO WATCH

William Mouw makes a 13.

We feel, of course, for William Mouw, who entered the bunker at No. 16 and emerged a changed man. But “cinema” sums up this baker’s-dozen pretty well.