On Thursday, some of the biggest names in golf joined in on the Halloween festivities and showed off their awesome costumes. There were some notable ones, including Rory McIlroy as Super Mario and world No. 1 Nelly Korda as Master Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Some of the other players who posted photos of their Halloween costumes were Tony Finau, Gary Woodland, Sam Burns and Billy Horschel.
The most important number at the Wyndham is 70 – that’s how many players will advance into the first of the three playoffs events.
As the final tournament of the FedEx Cup regular season, the Wyndham Championship usually attracts a handful of big names looking for one last chance to salvage a season or secure a playoff run that will pave the way for future glory. The tournament landed none bigger to sign up for a week in Greensboro, North Carolina, this year than three-time major champ Jordan Spieth, who at No. 63 in the season-long FedEx Cup standings has work to do if he plans to make a deep playoff run and also needs to improve his world rank, which has dipped to No. 37. Spieth lost a playoff to Patrick Reed at tournament host Sedgefield Country Club in 2013.
Spieth may need to write for sponsor invites to play in some of his favorite events next season such as the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am if he doesn’t work his way into the top 50 and qualify for the second leg of the playoffs at the BMW Championship, which secures a berth in the signature events after next week’s playoff event in Memphis.
Spieth isn’t the only marquee name who signed up for the humidity and southern hospitality that this pocket of the Tarheel State is famous for – at least this time of year for the humidity.
Sungjae Im, who is ninth in the FedEx Cup, and Shane Lowry at 10th, are both looking to protect their status in the Comcast Business Top 10, which pays a hefty bonus to the top 10 in the season-long points race after the Wyndham Championship. Akshay Bhatia, who grew up just down the road in Wake Forest, North Carolina, is ranked 15th in the FedEx Cup, and Scot Robert MacIntyre at No. 17, still could sneak in and possibly bounce them — or someone else who decided to rest up for the playoffs — out.
Last year’s British Open champ Brian Harman, ranked 15th in the world and U.S Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley, No. 21 in the world, Wake Forest University grad Cameron Young, 24th in the world, as well as Billy Horschel, No. 33, in the world, are prominent figures who aren’t stressing about their playoff position but still angling to improve their chances of finishing in the top 30 and a spot in the Tour Championship at East Lake.
Finishing in the top 50 has never been a bigger deal and that has the likes of another Wake product, Will Zalatoris, No. 45 in the FedEx Cup, Harris English, No. 48, Austin Eckroat, No. 49, Nick Taylor, No. 50, Patrick Rodgers No. 51, and Justin Rose, who catapulted to No. 52 with his runner-up finish at the British Open a few weeks ago, all trying to scoot in or hang on for dear life to a spot in the top 50 – which will be determined next week in Memphis. But playing well at the Wyndham could go a long way to helping their chances and making the St. Jude (relatively) stress-free.
The most important number at the Wyndham is 70 – that’s how many players will advance into the first of the three playoffs events. Emiliano Grillo, who is representing Argentina in the Olympics this week, is No. 68, and France’s Olympian Victor Perez, No. 71, are coming all the way from Paris to battle the top-70 bubble. Brendon Todd is the current “Bubble Boy” at No. 70.
Lucas Glover lines up a putt on the first green during the final round of the John Deere Classic golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Cress-USA TODAY Sports
Lucas Glover, who is No. 76 in the FedEx Cup, is in much better shape than he was last year heading into the Wyndham Championship — he was No. 112 — before he won the title to back-door his way into the playoffs, but he’s still got work to do if he’s going to have a shot to defend the following week at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Matt Kuchar, who is the only player to qualify for all 17 editions of the playoffs, is coming off a T-3 at the 3M Open but still has a lot of ground to make up if he’s going to keep that streak alive. He enters the Wyndham Championship at 113th in the FedEx Cup standings. As the saying goes, you’ve got to be in it to win it.
There are others who not only have playoffs to consider but also Presidents Cup hopes. The biennial event between the U.S. and the International Team will be held in late September and the window for qualifying on points or to make a good impression for a captain’s pick is winding down. No matter who you are in the field of 156 at the Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield CC, there’s something to play for at the 35th and final regular season Tour stop.
Lowry knew immediately that he was in a world of trouble.
TROON, Scotland – Shane Lowry’s lead during the 152nd British Open took a hit due to a bad shot and a ruling that didn’t go his way on the 11th hole at Royal Troon Golf Club during the second round on Friday. It resulted in a double bogey but Lowry managed birdies on two of his final three holes to card 2-under 69 in breezy conditions and improve to 7-under 135.
Lowry, the 2019 Open champ who opened with 66 and added three birdies and a bogey in his first 10 holes to lead by two, yanked his second shot dead left from 176 yards at the 11th hole into a gorse bush.
“I did the hard part. I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I drew a nice lie in the (right) rough. I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You’re so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left,” he said.
According to the radio broadcast, Lowry blamed a photographer for distracting him. A hot mic caught him erupting at the photographer.
Lowry knew immediately that he was in a world of trouble and hit a great provisional to about 10 feet. It looked like he might escape without too much pain.
“The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it,” Lowry said.
However, a spectator found Lowry’s ball in the gorse bush, which meant that Lowry had no choice but to play his original ball. Lowry argued with the rules official. According to the radio reporter, he said, “Even though I told you I didn’t want to search for it.” The rules official said, “I am very sorry, but yes.”
Shane Lowry HOT Mic 🎙️ 🔥
🤬 "As I was over the ball I could just see you putting your f—kin' camera up. Just get outta the way. Just get back there. F—k sake!” @LowryTracker
According to the Rules of Golf, as soon as the original ball is found it is back in play and the second ball on the green is no longer an option to play.
“It’s one of those rules where common sense is thrown out,” said radio commentator Brendon de Jonge.
Lowry asked for a second opinion but the ruling stood.
“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes, it was whatever it was, of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing, and I felt like (caddie) Darren (Reynolds) did a great job too just kind of — he kept telling me, we have loads of time. We don’t need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here.”
Lowry elected to take an unplayable lie. He could’ve dropped within two club lengths but it wouldn’t have given him much of a shot so instead took the option of taking the ball back on line of sight leaving himself about 70 yards. After the penalty shot, he knocked his fourth to the fringe and took two putts for a double-bogey 6. Lowry led the championship by two when he teed off at No. 11, Railway, but after his Railway nightmare, he left tied for the lead with Englishman Daniel Brown.
“Is this really going to mess with the mind of Shane Lowry?” the radio host asked.
It did not. Lowry didn’t drop another shot and finished with birdies on two of his final three holes to retake the solo lead when he headed to the clubhouse.
“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6,” Lowry said. “It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
“They don’t see how hard Harry works and how good he is for Rory.”
After Rory McIlroy’s stunning defeat at the U.S. Open last month, several media members and hundreds of fans criticized Harry Diamond, McIlroy’s caddie, for a lack of communication down the stretch.
For example, Smylie Kaufman had this to say during an appearance on Golf’s Subpar Podcast: “I felt like (caddie) Harry Diamond really should have stepped in on the 15th hole. He did not have the right club in his hands. And I felt like Rory could have taken control of the championship on 15 if he just hits it in the middle of the green. And he hit a good shot. But it just was the wrong club.”
McIlroy came to his looper’s defense before last week’s Genesis Scottish Open, where he’d go on to finish T-4, and now it’s another Irishman sticking up for Diamond.
“It makes my blood boil, to be honest,” Lowry told BBC Sport NI at Royal Troon before the 152nd Open Championship. “They don’t see how hard Harry works and how good he is for Rory. Just because he’s not standing in the middle of the tee box like other caddies who want to be seen and heard doesn’t mean that his voice isn’t heard by Rory.”
It’d be tough to find another Tour player who spends more time with McIlroy and Diamond than Lowry. They have been friends for years, play practice rounds together before major championships, have been Ryder Cup teammates twice (2021, 2023) and represented Ireland at the 2021 Olympics. Plus, they won the Zurich Classic as a team earlier this season.
If anyone knows how well McIlroy and Diamond work together, it’s Lowry.
For the opening round of The Open, world No. 33 Lowry tees off Thursday at 9:59 a.m. ET alongside Cameron Smith and Matt Fitzpatrick. Rory McIlroy is grouped with Max Homa and Tyrrell Hatton at 5:09 a.m.
Close-up and in-hand images of golf equipment being used by players who are on the first page of the leaderboard at the 2024 PGA Championship.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The rain subsided and the sun eventually came out at Valhalla Golf Club, and as players went through their warmup routines and prepared to take on the course on Saturday and Sunday, Golfweek’s resident gearhead, senior writer David Dusek, was there. Along with his camera, David spent plenty of time in the practice area, observing what each player had in his bag.
The gallery of images below was created throughout the weekend and includes close-up shots of most of the golfers who were in contention to win the Wannamaker trophy and clinch the second major championship of the 2024 season, including the eventual winner, Xander Schauffele.
“Probably the most disappointed anyone can ever be shooting 62. I knew what was at stake.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Shane Lowry couldn’t get the honor.
He’d made birdie on four of the first five holes and yet his fellow playing competitor, Justin Rose, had matched him stroke for stroke. Walking off the fifth green, Lowry turned to Rose and said, “What am I going to have to do to get the honor off you today?”
It took a birdie at No. 9, his sixth of the day, to do so and spurred him to a record-tying Saturday at Valhalla Golf Club. Lowry birdied half his holes, making a career-best 161 feet, two inches of putts, and tied a record with the fifth 62 in major championship history. The 37-year-old Irishman narrowly missed an 11-foot birdie putt at 18, the easiest hole on course, to be the first to shoot 61.
“Probably the most disappointed anyone can ever be shooting 62,” he said. “I knew what was at stake.”
Lowry was part of the winning team at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans three weeks ago with Rory McIlroy, but conceded that McIlroy did the heavy-lifting. All year, Lowry has been striking the ball as well as ever but his putter has betrayed him. Finally, he became so fed up he switched to a TaylorMade Spider Tour Z putter in New Orleans, went back to some old putting drills and tried to putt more instinctively.
“I’ve sort of felt all season that if I could warm my putter up that I could be dangerous,” he said.
During the first two rounds of the PGA Championship, Lowry’s putter carried him into the weekend at 4-under 138, while he termed his tee-to-green game “probably the worst I’ve played in a long time.” So, on Friday afternoon, he headed to the range with his coach and sorted out his swing. It was simply an alignment issue.
“I was set up too far left and all sorts of bad things happen for me when I do that,” he explained.
Eight strokes behind 36-hole leader Xander Schauffele, Lowry figured getting into double digits and shooting 65 would be a good target score. He did even better than that. Four birdies in a row starting at the second, including a 20-footer at the fourth, lifted his confidence as he and Rose fed off each other.
“There was definitely that urgency to feel like you wanted to stay on track and keep up the momentum today to try to give yourself a shot going into tomorrow,” he said. “It was the classic moving day, and job well done.”
Soft greens and a warm, sun-soaked day made for ideal scoring conditions. “Gettable,” is how Lowry described the course and he and Rose were getting after it. Rose, who played with Rickie Fowler when he shot the second 62 in major championship history during the first round of the 2023 U.S. Open, noted that after the hot start through seven holes, he had “a weird feeling” he was going to shoot 61. “Kind of felt like it was on, and then I’m still super frustrated by going 5-5 at 9 and 10. Kind of felt like I lost my momentum there a little bit.”
Rose settled for 64.
Shane Lowry is congratulated by Justin Rose after hitting a 62 during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Valhalla Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
Out in 29 after the birdie at nine and Lowry already began thinking that he had a special round of his own in the making. But he poured in a 37-foot downhill birdie at No. 13, punching his right arm to the sky. When shown the replay during a post-round interview, he said, “I kept rolling them in…It’s been a long time since I’ve seen it.” Next, they flashed his 32-foot birdie at No. 14, where he clenched his right fist in celebration. “I did make a lot of putts, didn’t I,” he said.
And that’s when he started thinking about making history.
“Here we go,” he said he thought to himself. “It was in my mind from about 14 onwards.”
In Lowry’s gallery was his father, Brendan, clad in a green Augusta National member logo shirt, his manager, and several friends, including Brendan and Deirdre Donovan, who follow Lowry at all the majors and always can be found wearing the County Clare football jersey of Lowry’s hometown. Deirdre grew up there as well before marrying Brendan, who went to high school with PGA president John Lindert.
“It’s a small town. We all know everybody because we all go to church together,” Deirdre said.
They were there at Royal Portrush when Lowry shot 63, his previous low score in a major, in the third round of the 2019 British Open to take the 54-hole lead. This time, Lowry cooled off momentarily with pars at the difficult 15th and 16th, leaving a 30-foot birdie putt uncharacteristically short. But one hole later, he planted a short iron six feet from the hole and sank it for his ninth birdie.
At the par-5 18th, he pushed his drive into the right rough. He said he had 170 yards to clear the water if he went for the green from 240 yards. Decision time.
“The ball was kind of sitting up in the rough,” he explained. “I probably could have done it, but it felt like it was maybe a silly decision to go for it under the circumstances. I knew if I made five that I’m still in the tournament. If I made six, I’d be livid with myself. I felt like it was probably a bit too risky to take on.”
Lowry wedged to 11 feet. Of the putt, he said he wanted to make it “probably too much.” But he did take a moment to stand back and soak it all in.
“It was a pretty cool moment to have,” he said. “It would have been a pretty cool moment to kind of seal the deal and do it.”
He started the putt a little too much left and it never really had a chance. He settled for the second 62 of the week — Xander Schauffele shot the course record on Thursday — and a piece of major championship history. But just as importantly, he lifted himself into the thick of the trophy hunt at the 106th PGA Championship and a chance to claim a second major title.
“I knew even if I didn’t do it that I done what I needed to do today, and I’m pretty happy with that,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy this round.”
Shane Lowry might be the only golfer ever to feel disappointed after shooting a 62
On Thursday, Xander Schauffele took control of the leaderboard at the PGA Championship by tying a major championship record for the lowest 18-hole score with a round of 62.
Exactly 36 holes later, Shane Lowry had a chance to claim the record for himself. The Irishman entered Saturday’s third round at four-under par and well behind the contenders. Then he reeled off nine birdies in 17 holes, including six on the front nine alone.
By the time he got to the 18th green, Lowry had a 12-foot putt for a final birdie that would give him the all-time record for the lowest round at a major with a 61.
Lowry took his time, found his line and — pushed it just left. It was the most heartbreaking round of 62 you’ll ever see as it really looked like the 37-year-old was about to make history. Lowry could only look on in disbelief as the ball settled four inches from the cup.
Lowry admitted afterwards on the CBS broadcast that he was a little bit disappointed, but it’s hard to be too upset at moving to 13-under par on the tournament and in a tie for second place heading into Sunday.
After TGL’s stadium collapsed at the end of last year, its debut was pushed back to 2025. But as the date draws closer, we now have a significant information about the start-up technology-driven league started by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s TMRW Sports.
The first night of matches will take place on Jan. 7, 2025, in primetime on ESPN.
“As we plan the 2025 launch of TGL presented by SoFi, we now have the first three Tuesdays in January circled to introduce sports fans to this new form of team golf. January is a tremendous time of year for fans looking for prime time sports and TGL’s launch will complement the start of the PGA TOUR season and take advantage of ESPN’s promotional machine across their coverage of the NFL and college football playoffs,” said Mike McCarley, founder and CEO of TMRW Sports.
Countless PGA Tour stars are involved in the new circuit, including Woods, McIlroy, Max Homa, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler, among others.
Learn everything you need to know about the TGL below.
