In this Issue

1. 🎁 November Giveaway

2. 📈 Villegas Breaks 9-year Drought

3. 📉 Smithy stumbles late in HK

4. 🏆 Other Results

   • Homa takes out the Nedbank

   • Lilia Vu wins (again!)

5. 📃 5 things you need to know about LIV’s Free Agency Window

6. 📅 Schedule for the Week

🎁November Giveaway

Before we get into this week’s newsletter, we want to take this opportunity to remind you about our November giveaway. We are running a competition to give away a double-pass to the Australian PGA Championships at Royal Queensland Golf Club from 23 to 26 November. All you have to do is:

1.  Subscribe to The Shank Show newsletter.

2. Follow us on Instagram.

For Shankers who have already done both these things, you can earn extra entries by referring others to The Shank Show. Just send them this newsletter and get them to use the button below and link above to subscribe and follow.

We will be drawing the winner on 20 November 2023, so make sure you are in it to win it!!!

📈 Villegas Breaks 9-year Drought

Camilo Villegas ended a nine-year drought on the PGA Tour by winning the Butterfield Championship at Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda over the weekend. After a solid performance in Mexico last week, he backed up to seal his fifth tour victory and his first win since 2014. There were emotional scenes on the 18th green as the significance of the win kicked in for Villegas who tragically lost his daughter Mia to cancer in 2020. As he received the winner’s trophy he looked up to the heavens in honour and tribute to his little daughter who passed away too soon.

You would go a long way to find a nicer guy on tour and his post-round press conference demonstrated that - no stale cliches or platitudes as we’ve become so used to hearing from robotic tour players. Instead, sincere, thoughtful and appreciative comments from a man who’s clearly got great perspective on life and here’s hoping he has a few more wins left in his career. Aussie Adam Scott showed some good form to finish T5 as he now heads home to Australia for a summer of golf down under.

📉 Smithy stumbles late in HK

Cam Smith has failed to close out a 54-hole lead at the Hong Kong Open over the weekend. Smith, who led or co-led through each of the first three rounds, held a one-shot lead with two holes to play but was unable to close out the victory. A wayward tee shot on the 18th hole required him to lay up for his second shot into the Par 4 final hole. This opened the door for Kiwi Ben Campbell to steal a victory by birdieing the last two holes to win by one shot and secure himself an invitation to the LIV Golf Promotion event in December 2023.

Both Smith and Campbell were aghast at scenes on the 16th hole where fellow player Phachara Khongwatmai had sprayed his tee shot into the thick bushes. What ensued from there was nothing more than high farce with Phachara taking close to 15 minutes to play his next shot, and in the process, moved all manner of tree branches and foliage (allegedly breaking branches in order to get to his ball and make a swing). Both Campbell and Smith were incredulous at what they were seeing and even more so at the fact that the rules official allowed it to happen with no penalty imposed upon Phachara. Thankfully, in the end, it made no difference because Phachara three putted the last hole to make bogey and finish in a tie for 3rd.

The win was Campbell’s first on the Asian Tour and it will be interesting to see if he takes up the offer to attempt to qualify for LIV. As for Smithy, he was disappointed after the round saying that he didn’t play the golf on Sunday that he had hoped to and there are a few things for him to work on over the next week when he arrives in Brisbane for the Australian PGA Championships at RQ.

🏆 Other Results

Homa takes out the Nedbank

Max Homa claimed his first international victory at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa. The American golfer shot a final round 6-under 66 to finish on 19-under par, four strokes ahead of Denmark's Nicolai Hojgaard. Homa, who also has six PGA Tour wins, was the only player to shoot four rounds in the 60s at the Gary Player Country Club. Homa earned €961,124.05 from the €6.5m prize purse and moved up to fourth place in the Race to Dubai rankings. He also became the first US player to win the Nedbank Golf Challenge since Jim Furyk in 2006. Jason Scrivner, the only Aussie in the field, finished T39 at 2-over for the tournament.

Lilia Vu wins (again!)

Lilia Vu won her fourth LPGA Tour title of the year at The Annika, a three-shot victory over Alison Lee and Azahara Munoz. Vu started the final round three strokes behind Emily Kristine Pedersen, but birdied three of the first six holes and two more on the back nine to pull away with a 66. The win also put Vu in the lead for the LPGA Player of the Year award, 27 points ahead of Celine Boutier, who surprisingly missed the cut. Vu had already won two majors this season, the Chevron Championship and the Women's British Open. She is set to return to world No. 1 after this impressive performance. The top placed Australians were Stephanie Kyriacou (T5), Grace Kim (T23) and Gabby Ruffels (T38).

📃 5 things you need to know about LIV’s Free Agency Window

LIV’s Free Agency Window is underway and here are the 5 things you need to know about how it works:

1. The top 24 players in the 2023 individual standings have already been offered contracts for 2024.

2. For those players outside the top 24, but still have an existing contract, they will continue to play under those current terms.

3. For players that finished ranked 25-44 and are off contract, they are now in free agency and any team can negotiate a possible transfer with these players. Currently, there are 5 players without contracts for 2024:

   • Pat Perez from the 4 Aces

   • David Puig from Torque

   • Matt Jones from Ripper GC

   • Bernd Wiesberger from the Cleeks

   • Graeme McDowell from the Cleeks

4. That leaves 4 spots (45-48) open for promotion/relegation of players. These spots will be awarded to:

   • Asian Tour International Series Winner: American Andy Ogletree already has secured this spot for next year.

   • The Top 3 finishers from LIV Golf’s Promotion Event held in December 2023.

5. LIV’s Promotion Event will take place at Abu Dabi Golf Club from 8 to 10 December 2023. 72 holes of stroke play will be played over 3 days (36 holes on final day) with the Top 3 not only earning their spot on the LIV tour, but also taking home $450k in prize money. Aussie Jed Morgan will be fighting for his LIV survival at this event after he finished 46th for the year.

📅 Schedule for the Week

Your golfing schedule for the week, and how to watch is below:

• PGAT: The RSM Classic - Sea Island Golf Club (Georgia), $8.4m purse, Friday 17/11 to Monday 20/11 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 3am Friday.

• DPWT: Tour Championship - Jumeirah Golf Estates, Earth Course, (Dubai), $20m purse, Thursday 16/11 to Sunday 19/11 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 6pm Thursday.

• LPGA: CME Group Tour Championship - Tiburón Golf Club, Gold Course (Florida), $7m purse, Friday 17/11 to Monday 20/11 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 5am Friday.

• Asian Tour: Indonesian Masters - Royale Jakarta Golf Club (Indonesia). $1.5m purse, Thursday 16/11 to Sunday 19/11 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 6pm Thursday.

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Thanks again for your support and readership. We’ll be back next week and leave you with some footage of professional golfers that is sure to make your day. Nothing like seeing a pro “cold top” a golf ball 😂😂😂