Welcome to The Loop, where we bring you up to speed on what happened the past week in golf, from the whacky to the weird and everything in between – even Lucas Herbert winning his maiden PGA Tour event.
WE’RE BUYING
Lucas Herbert: The Aussie authored an impressive final round in Bermuda to rally from four strokes back to win his maiden PGA Tour title in his 20th career start. And he was dropping jokes after. “There’s a sizable triangle that seems to capture a lot of ships and planes,” he told reporters after, “that’s kind of the extent of my knowledge on Bermuda, I think.”
While that triangle seemed to grab a few others around him, Herbert’s Sunday 69 was enough for the one-shot victory over Patrick Reed and Danny Lee. And with a PGA Tour win to go with two European Tour titles, suddenly, he’s got a pretty impressive résumé for a 25-year-old.
Jim Knous: The most clutch performance of the week may have come from a guy who finished tied for 57th place. Making his final start on a major medical extension and needing a T-67, Knous eagled his second-to-last hole on Friday to make the cut on the number and birdied his final hole on Sunday to keep conditional PGA Tour status and full status on the Korn Ferry Tour. After, he called it, “the greatest top-60 of all time.”
Josh Allen: There’s been a lot of “grow the game” talk (more on that in a bit), but having one of the NFL’s biggest stars show up to a game dressed as one of golf’s legends certainly helps draw eyeballs. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has a bromance with Phil Mickelson, who is a huge American football fan. Allen is way up in our book after wearing a Mickelson costume to a game recently that included a golf shirt and shoes, a tumbler of coffee, a Kiawah PGA Championship visor and, of course, plenty of thumbs-up:
Mickelson loved it:
WE’RE SELLING
The Bermuda Championship field last week: To the victor goes the … 24 Official World Golf Ranking points. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, that’s because it’s not. In fact, it’s the lowest awarded at any full-field PGA Tour event (with the WGC-HSBC Champions canceled, this event was elevated in status) in 2021. But we’re guessing Herbert couldn’t care less, because that $1.17 million along with a Masters invite he earned is still worth just as much.
This Vare Trophy requirement: There’s an interesting situation developing on the LPGA in which a bunch of the top players aren’t eligible to win the Vare Trophy for the season’s lowest scoring average. The top two on that list, Nelly Korda and Jin Young Ko—one of which will certainly win the tour’s player-of-the-year award—will not meet the minimum 70 rounds required. Normally, we’d say it’s their fault for not playing enough, but with seven events canceled this season due to COVID, there were fewer opportunities. And considering the award comes with a point towards qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame, it’s actually a bigger deal than just taking home another trophy. So, yeah, the LPGA should probably do something about this …
This PGL/SGL situation: The PGA Tour’s two emerging threats/partners(?) continue to flex their muscles. Greg Norman was named the CEO of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Investments and our Dan Rapaport had an interesting conversation with him about the new venture with the Asian Tour. Geoff Shackelford attempted to sum up that situation as well as where the Premier Golf League now stands, and ooo boy, is it confusing.
ON TAP
The PGA Tour heads to Mexico for the Mayakoba Golf Classic, AKA the one where Matt Kuchar got a little tight with his wallet after winning. A hearty welcome to World Wide Technology for coming on as the new title sponsor. Often, we have no clue what these title sponsors do, so we appreciate World Wide Technology making it pretty clear.
Random tournament fact: Viktor Hovland won last year in what was the last official PGA Tour event of 2020. He’s back to defend his title this year. And Kuchar, the infamous 2018 winner, is back as well as part of a surprisingly solid field.
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK: This went to Australian golfer Wendy Powick, whose video from Arudnel Hills CC went viral internationally in golf media.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“I hope I inspire people, a lot of people, because it’s such a rough journey, man. This is the hardest thing. And I’m not talking about golf, I’m talking about this battle. You know, it’s the hardest thing ever. To be able to do this is amazing.” —53-year-old teaching pro Brian Morris, diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, after shooting 89-92 in his PGA Tour debut. Something to keep in mind the next time we have a “tough” day on the golf course. All the best, Brian.
THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION
Yankees part-time outfielder and full-time celebrity golfer Aaron Hicks proposed to Cheyenne Woods, who is the niece of 15-time major winner Tiger. Hicks, a Californian, is a scratch golfer himself and actually spent his childhood attempting to break Woods’ southern California junior golf records before turning his attention full-time to baseball:
