In this Issue

1. 🏆 The Players Championship Recap

2. 🍴 Quick Bites

   • Big Jay provides an update on PIF negotiations

   • Catlin wins Asian Tour International Series

   • Cameron John triumphs at The National

   • Mark Wahlberg’s hiccup at exclusive Sydney course

3.  📅 Schedule for the Week

🏆 The Players Championship Recap

Scheffler goes back-to-back

Scottie Scheffler has become the first player in history to successfully defend The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. In green and soft conditions, Scheffler produced another ball striking masterclass to win back-to-back titles, despite a neck injury which threatened to see him withdraw from the tournament over the weekend. He managed to survive a late charge from Wyndham Clark, Xander Shauffele and Brian Harman, with Clark suffering a cruel lip out on 18 for birdie which would have seen him force a playoff with Scheffler, who had posted the clubhouse lead and was waiting on the practice range as the final groups finished.

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The tournament got off to a fast start with world number 2 Rory McIlroy grabbing the first-round lead. But it was not without controversy with Rory being accused of a bad drop after he sprayed a tee shot into the water. Playing partners Viktor Hovland and Jordan Speith seemed puzzled (to put it mildly) with where McIlroy claimed the ball crossed. Shankers might recall Hovland has previously called out players for attempting to take overly advantageous drops when he called foul on Daniel Berger at the same tournament in 2022. In any event, Rory would go on to hit 5 balls into the water for the week (tied for the most), which put an end to his chances of winning.

Wyndham Clark was also fast out of the gates, posting 65-65 for the first 2 rounds and leading by 4 after 36 holes. Clark had equaled the second lowest 36-hole score at The Players, and any other player historically who had shot -14 or better over the first 2 days went on to win the tournament. So the US Open champ was in the box seat, until a chunked tee shot on the famous 17th hole on Saturday handed the lead to Xander going into Sunday’s final round.

The PGA Tour would have been delighted with Sunday’s leaderboard which saw 5 Major winners within the Top 10 to commence the final round. Xander’s short game had been sublime through the first 3 rounds and he looked primed to have his breakthrough win in a big tournament (with many believing Schauffele is the best current player to have not won a major). Despite Scottie surging with a -5 front 9 of 31, Xander had the outright lead on the 12th. But a bogey shortly thereafter on 14 handed the lead to Scheffler after he made an incredible 2-putt a few holes ahead on 17 from the far side of the green.

From there, Scottie would post the clubhouse leading score of -20, with Xander, Clark and Harman all in hot pursuit. All 3 players gave themselves chances of forcing a playoff, particularly Clark and Xander who hit incredibly aggressive shots into 17-green leaving them both with putts of less than 7ft for birdie. Xander missed his putt, but Clark made his, meaning he needed birdie on the last to tie Scheffler. But it was not to be, with Clark suffering one of the worst lip outs ever seen in tournament golf. Clark was ready to fist pump after seeing half of the ball below the cup, before it took an aggressive right-hand turn to shoot back out of the cup and secure the title for Scheffler.

Other things from The Players that grabbed our interest:

• Kiwi, Ryan Fox, made an ace on 17 in round 1.

• Matthew Fitzpatrick, who’s form has been off lately, discovered his driver had some additional weights in place which shouldn’t have been there. Following removal of the weights, his driving stats improved remarkably.

• Brian Harman’s hat tan is truly shocking! So are his waggles.

• The Australians failed to really get going. Jason Day showed some early form but couldn’t keep pace and finished the best of the Aussies at T35. Adam Scott (T45) and Min Woo Lee (T54) were the only other Aussie boys to make the cut, with both Aaron Baddeley and Cam Davis not playing the weekend.

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🍴 Quick Bites

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

• Big Jay provides an update on PIF negotiations - in his usual annual address to media at The Players Championship, Jay did a fantastic job of saying a lot, but saying nothing at the same time. Effectively he said he and the PIF have a shared goal of unifying the game and capitalising on the global opportunities that exist, but there was no substantive information on the current state of the negotiations or an indicative timeline. Speculation hot off the press is that Yasir played golf with Tiger in the Bahamas on Monday 🤔.

• Catlin wins Asian Tour International Series - After shooting 59 earlier in the week, John Catlin held off a charge from LIV Golf’s David Puig to win in a playoff in Macau.

• Cameron John triumphs at The National - in the last tournament of the PGA Tour of Australasia season, John staved off Daniel Gale to win The National Tournament on the Mornington Peninsula.

• Mark Wahlberg’s hiccup at exclusive Sydney course - Marky Mark, as he was once known, is in Australia currently to shoot a new movie. In his downtime, he has been hitting the local private courses, but ran into some dress code issues at Elanora Country Club, where apparently black socks are frowned upon. Wahlberg also played the Packer family’s private course, Ellerston.

📅 Schedule for the Week

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

• PGAT: Valspar Championship - Innisbrook Resort, Copperhead Course

  (Florida), $8.4m purse, Friday 22/3 to Monday 25/3 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, Main Coverage starts 4am AEST Friday, Featured Groups from 1am.

• LIV: no event

• DPWT: Porsche Singapore Classic - Laguna National Golf Resort Club (Singapore), $2.5m purse, Thursday 21/3 to Sunday 24/3 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 3pm AEST Thursday.

• LPGA: Fir Hills Championship - Palos Verdes Golf Club (California), $2m purse, Friday 22/3 to Monday 25/3 - Coverage on Foxtel & Kayo, starts 8am AEST Friday.

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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 - Max Homa spraying an errant iron shot which almost collected the gallery at full speed…