In this Issue

1. 📢 Big news for The Shank Show!

2. 🏆 Results Recap

   • LIV: Ancer prevails in Hong Kong

   • PGAT: Scheffler back in the winner’s circle

3.  🍴Quick Bites

   • The PGAT’s celebrity investors

   • LIV withdraws its application for OWGR status

   • Weir says “No” to LIV for President’s Cup

   • Full Swing Season 2 is live

4.  📅 Schedule for the Week

📢 Big news for The Shank Show!

In our opening issue of the year, we promised there would be big things in store for The Shank Show in 2024. So, we are extremely excited to announce that we have partnered with up-and-coming golf professional Josh Taylor to take The Shank Show’s content and coverage to new levels. Josh will be providing expert insight and takes on all the big golfing issues along with sharing his perspective into life on Tour as a young aspiring professional. So, let us tell you a little more about Josh…

Josh has been passionate about the game of golf since he was 2 years old. After some early success as a junior and an amateur, Josh embarked on his professional career in 2020. He ventured off to Europe and gained his tour card on the Euro Pro Tour in 2020. After playing 2 seasons, COVID restrictions saw Josh return to Australia for some down-time and to recharge. Now Josh is ready to gain his playing card for the PGA Tour of Australasia and will be headed to Q School at the end of March. In the meantime, Josh is based out of Virginia Golf Club in Brisbane where he is practising hard and sharpening his game.

To help you get to know Josh better, here’s a quick little Q&A:

1. Favourite golfing memory - Winning the Gary Player Classic which my Dad also won.

2. Lowest ever score - 59 at Pine Rivers 🤯.

3. Number of hole-in-ones - 1 on a Par 4!!! Still searching for the Par 3.

4. Favourite golf course - Metropolitan GC or Virginia Golf Club.

5. Most famous player you have played with - Thorbjorn Olesen, Min Woo Lee and Scott Hend.

6. Dream 4-ball - Rory, Tiger, Bryson and Adam Scott.

7. Most embarrassing golf moment - Teeing off the wrong hole midway through a One Day mini tour event and the whole group got 2 shot penalties.

8. Favourite golf movie - Happy Gilmore.

9. Best tip you’ve been given - counting to 3 in my backswing to maintain smooth tempo.

We are pumped to have Josh on board at The Shank Show and we’ve got big plans. So stay tuned!!! In the meantime, click below and give Josh a follow on Instagram.

🏆 Results Recap

LIV: Ancer prevails in Hong Kong

Abraham Ancer has prevailed in a three-man playoff to win LIV Golf’s first event in Hong Kong. In a thrilling showdown, the Mexican held his nerve against Cameron Smith and Paul Casey to clinch victory with a birdie on the first playoff hole. He secured his first individual LIV title which included impressive rounds of 7-under 63 and 8-under 62 on Friday and Saturday, respectively, giving him a 5-shot lead going to the final round. However, Sunday proved challenging as he battled to a 2-over 72, allowing Casey (64) and Smith (66) to square things up and force a playoff.

Smithy started six back on Sunday, and it was great to see the intensity back in Cam’s eyes. He was dialled on Sunday and it was clear he really wanted the win (having copped increasing criticism lately for being unfit and lacking his usual sharpness). However, a poor 2nd shot in the playoff effectively ended his chances. After Casey found trouble off the tee, Ancer stepped up and delivered with a clutch approach to 4-feet which shut the door on the playoff and gave him his first win since the 2023 Saudi International.

The other talking point on Sunday was the red hot 65 from Anthony Kim. In only his 4th round since returning to professional golf, Kim bagged 7 birdies and stunned many critics with the low round of the day. He finished ahead of Phil Mickelson, Jason Kokrak and Hudson Swafford. Let’s hope there is more of this to come from AK.

On the team front, Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers GC continued their dominance. They secured their second consecutive team trophy, overcoming a 7-shot deficit to win by 2 over Torque GC and Ripper GC. The Aussies looked to have a win in the bag, enjoying a 3-shot lead with only a few holes to play. But some late bogies dashed their chances relegating them to 3rd (but still their first podium finish of the year). The Crushers now hold a massive lead in the overall season standings, almost double the points of Torque (2nd) and Smash (3rd).

PGAT: Scheffler back in the winner’s circle

World #1 Scottie Scheffler delivered a dominant performance at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, held at Bay Hill Club & Lodge as he carded a 15-under 273 to win by 5 shots over Wyndham Clark and Shane Lowry. Starting the final round tied for the lead with Lowry, Scheffler pulled away with a closing 6-under 66. Whilst Scheffler has struggled this year, his ball striking has not been the problem - rather, his putting has been his Achilles heel. That all changed this week as Scottie switched to the mallet putter and saw immediate results. He gained 3.5 shots on the field in putting ranking him 5th overall for SG: Putting (a significant improvement from his previous ranking of 144th). The runaway win marks Scheffler’s seventh PGAT title and his first win in 51 weeks. It also propels him to the top of the season-long FedEx Cup standings.

This week saw a much stronger leaderboard on the PGAT (which should be expected for a Signature Event). A number of big names made their way up the leaderboard including Hideki Matsuyama, Will Zalatoris, Max Homa and Sahith Thegala. At one stage Zalatoris held a 4-shot lead late in the 3rd round but stumbled hard, finishing with a bogey, a birdie and two doubles in his final 5 holes. As for the Aussies, there wasn’t much to write home about. Cam Davis was the best placed Australian finishing T18 while Jason Day (T36) and Min Woo Lee (T44) never really got going. Adam Scott, after receiving another sponsor’s exemption to get into the field, missed the cut.

🍴 Quick Bites

Here are some golf quick bites for you to snack on:

• The PGAT’s celebrity investors - LeBron James, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chris Pratt and rapper Drake have been confirmed as additional individual investors in the PGA Tour Enterprises entity which has been established as part of the PGAT’s deal with SSG.

• LIV withdraws its application for OWGR status - Greg Norman has confirmed to LIV players that the League has abandoned its pursuit OWGR points. "It is now clear that the best way forward for LIV as a league and you as LIV golfers is not through the current ranking system" Norman wrote in a letter to players.

• Weir says “No” to LIV for President’s Cup - it should come as no surprise that LIV players will not be invited to be part of the President’s Cup to be held later this year in Canada. Captain Mike Weir confirmed this last week at a press conference, which means the International Team will miss key talent such as Cam Smith, Joaquin Niemann and Louis Oosthuizen.

• Full Swing Season 2 is live - The Netflix docuseries has returned for its second season which is now available for you to binge on.

📅 Schedule for the Week

A big golf week ahead with arguably the most important event outside of the Majors - The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. This is always a great tournament to watch - we all know the holes (probably from playing the Tiger Woods game on PlayStation!) and Sawgrass has possibly the best finishing stretch of holes in golf with 16, 17 and 18 all providing lots of drama through the risk-reward genius of course designer Pete Dye.

The defending champ is Scottie Scheffler and this year’s event will see 5 Aussies competing - Jason Day, Adam Scott, Cam Davis, Min Woo Lee and Aaron Baddeley (with Day and Scott as former winners). Interestingly, Tiger is not part of the field.

Even though there is no LIV event this week, you can still see a bunch of LIV players in action on the Asian Tour as the International Series makes its way to Macau. The likes of Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Herbert and Anthony Kim will all be teeing it up from Thursday.

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

• PGAT: The Players - TPC Sawgrass (Ponte Vedra, Florida), $25m purse, Friday 15/3 to Monday 18/3 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, Main Coverage starts 3am AEST Friday, Featured Groups from 3am also.

• Asian Tour - International Series Macau (Macau, China), $2m purse, Thursday 14/3 to Sunday 17/3 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 3.30pm AEST Thursday.

• LIV: no event

• DPWT: no event

• LPGA: no event

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Thanks again for your support and readership. We’ll be back next week and leave you with our Shank of the Week…