Articles by Shane Ryan

October 10th, 2024

In Augusta, home to the Masters, residents talk about fright and damage of Hurricane Helene

Editor’s Note: In the aftermath of the damage left by Hurricane Helene, Augusta National Golf Club, the famed course that annually hosts the Masters, sustained significant damage and is working to repair the course while also committing $5 million to the recovery of the community. This story highlights the city of Augusta, Ga., and the Read more…

October 7th, 2024

Kevin Yu bags his first PGA Tour win in wild finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship

Yu, a 26-year-old from Taiwan, became just the third player from his nation (after T.C. Chen and C.T. Pan) to win on the PGA Tour.

October 4th, 2024

If you can enjoy playing golf alone, you have achieved nirvana

Golfpocalypse is a weekly collection of words about (mostly) professional golf with very little in the way of a point, and the Surgeon General says it will make you a worse person. Reach out to The Golfpocalypse with your questions or comments on absolutely anything at [email protected]. I’m no hero. I am no role model. Read more…

October 2nd, 2024

Fundraising efforts underway for golf superintendents affected by Hurricane Helene

In the aftermath of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in the southeast United States, with the death toll now 130 and likely to rise as untold thousands are displaced from their homes, rescue and relief efforts are underway to help the victims. Those efforts will come from a wide variety of sources, including the Read more…

September 30th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Despite score, Internationals played the US close, and Mike Weir’s curious line-up calls contributed to loss

I know what you’re going to say – I can hear it already: The final score was 18½-11½. The Americans were consistently placed higher in the world rankings. The Internationals were outmatched and outmuscled. Nothing that captain Mike Weir or anyone else did strategically could ever have made a difference. This is wrong, and I’ll explain Read more…

September 30th, 2024

A way too early look at who makes the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team

MONTREAL — For fans of team match-play golf, it’s always a little sad when an event like the Presidents Cup comes to an end. What better way, then, to stifle that sadness—or pretend it doesn’t exist—than turning our attention immediately to the next one? With that in mind, before the body of the 2024 Presidents Read more…

September 30th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Everything we know about the incident between Scottie Scheffler’s dad, caddie and a fan

MONTREAL — One of the more bizarre incidents in a thrilling afternoon session Saturday at Royal Montreal Golf Club came in the last match on the course, with Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley taking on Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im in foursomes. Scheffler and Henley would eventually win that match, 3 and 2, but on Read more…

September 29th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Our grades for all 24 players so far, from an A+ for Patty Ice to an D- for Hideki

MONTREAL — Judging the performance of a player at an event like the Presidents Cup can be slightly tricky, in part because it’s such a small sample size, and in part because results often depend so much on both playing partners and opponents. Still, in the era of strokes gained, we can isolate personal performance Read more…

September 29th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Breaking down the Sunday singles matchups at Royal Montreal

A wild first three days at Royal Montreal leaves the U.S. with a 11-7 lead over the International team entering Sunday singles at the Presidents Cup. It’s a lead that would seem to be insurmountable, but given the crazy swings in play during each session so far, it’s hard to say the matches are over. Read more…

September 29th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Russell Henley, the new ‘Scheffler Whisperer,’ is a big winner at Royal Montreal

MONTREAL — Heading into this week’s Presidents Cup, the Americans had a Scottie Scheffler problem. In 2023 at the Ryder Cup, and a year earlier at the 2022 Presidents Cup, Scheffler was the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world and, in theory, the greatest weapon on either team. Nevertheless, he went 0-4-2 in the Read more…

September 29th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Fired-up Tom Kim fumes over Americans not giving him short putt

MONTREAL — Tom Kim has been the lifeblood of the Presidents Cup for the International team this week, and as his team tried to claw back from an 8-6 deficit Saturday afternoon, he was engaged in a tough alternate-shot battle with Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. On the seventh hole of that match, a par Read more…

September 29th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: In perfect Tom Kim moment, he celebrates fantastic shot with club twirl and fist pump

MONTREAL — There is nobody like Tom Kim at the Presidents Cup. Nobody. Is he a hero? Villain? All of the above? Whatever your view, this man has brought the heat ever since he first came on the scene at Charlotte in 2022, split his pants twice, and then lit up the International team with Read more…

September 28th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Previewing each morning four-ball match on Day 3 at Royal Montreal

MONTREAL — We’re back! The fear and loathing and dread of an 0-5 International deficit—and the lack of weekend drama it portended—has been vaporized by an incredible Friday comeback that’s still very difficult to believe. Is this real life? Do we really have an even score heading into Saturday at Royal Montreal. Yes, we do! Read more…

September 28th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Every golf nerd will love Jason Day’s description of this spectacular chip

MONTREAL — The greatest shot of the 2024 Presidents Cup thus far came on the 18th hole in the third match of Friday’s foursomes session. Jason Day faced an ungodly difficult chip from behind the green—wet, ugly lie, and the dreaded “uphill to the green, then straight downhill to the hole” combo—to try to preserve Read more…

September 28th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: A disastrous day for Americans was pure salvation for the weekend

MONTREAL — If the headline to this story looks vaguely familiar, it’s a mirror image of the story we ran on Thursday following the American whitewash that left the visitors up 5-0 and seemed to murder any intrigue at the Presidents Cup. The rout seemed to give credence to the vocal detractors who demand a Read more…

September 27th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Previewing each foursomes match on Day 2 at Royal Montreal

MONTREAL — You can be forgiven for thinking—not to sound overly nihilistic here—that nothing really matters. Not after that 5-0 start, and not with a loaded American team now fully loaded for bear and smelling blood. Things can’t get worse, necessarily, but they can still get bad as the U.S. boa constrictor tightens. Still, the Read more…

September 27th, 2024

A great day for the Americans was a miserable one for the Presidents Cup

To answer an obvious question with an even more obvious answer, yes, this thing is over.

September 26th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: 5 extremely superficial reasons why the Americans and the Internationals will win at Royal Montreal

Five extremely superficial reasons why the Americans will win the Presidents Cup, and five for the Internationals too MONTREAL — Together, Golf Digest’s Joel Beall and I have spent the last two days at Royal Montreal with our ears to the ground, keen to pick up any vibes that point us one way or another Read more…

September 26th, 2024

Presidents Cup 2024: Previewing each four-ball match on Day 1 at Royal Montreal

It says something that International captain Mike Weir is getting all three of his Aussies out in the first two matches.

September 26th, 2024

$10,000 to ‘win’ a practice round? Big-money friend to Internationals has made preparation interesting – and profitable – this week

Mark Smith is a member at Royal Montreal, a friend of International captain Mike Weir and someone who was clearly interested in giving the International squad some competitive stakes ahead of the Presidents Cup.

September 25th, 2024

How many shots can a tour caddie save you? 

Veteran Tour Caddie Paul Tesori looped for me, and I’ll never see the game the same

September 25th, 2024

Presidents Cup golfers ponder the most Canadian things about Canada. Their answers were both cliché and hilarious

The concept was a simple game of word association: outside golf, name two or three things you think about when we say the word “Canada”.