It is built on sandy soil, has links-like characteristics and has always produced remarkable US Opens.

Let’s take a look at them.

1896

In the 19th century the US Amateur Championship ranked higher than the US Open. In fact, Shinnecock’s first championship had just 35 starters and only 28 completed the 36 holes.

The tournament also began Shinnecock’s tradition for controversy with many players signed a petition saying they would not play if John Shippen, an African American, and Oscar Bunn, a native American started.

The dissenters were repelled, Shippen contended, and the winner was Scotland James Foulis who carded 78-74 to win by three and claim the $150 first prize.

1986

After nearly a century, the US Open returned to Shinnecock in 1986 and it was a year of veteran winners.

Jack Nicklaus had just won the Masters, his 18th major victory, aged 46.

And Raymond Floyd won the US Open aged 43, becoming the then-oldest winner of the championship. 1986 was also the year of Greg Norman’s many near-misses – he led after 54 holes but carded a final round 75 to Floyd’s 66.

1995

Another near miss for Norman. He led by two at halfway, was tied for the lead after 54 holes, and finished alone in second.

Only one man beat him and that was Corey Pavin whose 4-wood was his secret weapon.

Pavin was the archetypal ‘shorter but straight’ US Open winner and ended the week the only man not over-par.

2004

The course could be attacked in the first two rounds but on Saturday only three men beat par. Shinnecock is renowned for testing the tournament favourites and it will be interesting to see how much the characteristic rub of the green affects the title odds on sportsline.com/sportsbooks/betmgm.

It got worse on the final day: the field average was 78.7 and no-one beat par. The USGA even had to water some of the greens mid round which was nothing short of a humiliation.

Retief Goosen ended the week champion on 4-under, with Phil Mickelson the only other golfer under-par.

2018

Gusting wind meant only four golfers beat par in the first round and at halfway Dustin Johnson was 4-under, four clear of the field.

The Saturday golf was brutal, however. By the end of it four golfers were tied for the lead on 3-over – and Phil Mickelson famously picked his ball up as it rolled off the green incurring a two-shot penalty.

Brooks Koepka triumphed with a final round 68, holding off a charging Tommy Fleetwood who thrashed a Sunday 63. Koepka won $2.1 million.

Read next: What the PGA Championship told us about golf’s biggest stars

There is little doubt the event on JP McManus’s parkland masterpiece marks a major milestone in Ireland’s sporting history and it also places the Munster counties of Limerick and Clare firmly in the golfing spotlight.

Perfectly positioned in the heart of the Mid-West region and just 25 minutes from Shannon International Airport, Limerick offers quick and scenic access to several world-renowned golfing destinations.

Next door in Clare, are two of Ireland’s top-rated links courses, Lahinch and Trump International Doonbeg, the latter host to this year’s Irish Open in September when Grand Slam hero Rory McIlroy will be defending his national title.

But away from those trophy courses, the region has long been a hidden gem with several challenging and affordable parkland tracks. And with a seven-club regional golf pass about to be launched, it’s the ideal time to pack your bags for the Emerald Isle.

Limerick has six other golf courses and last month, as part of a group press trip, I had the pleasure of playing two of these, Ballyneety GC and Limerick GC, along with the highly-rated Dromoland Castle GC in Clare.

Written by Patrick Mooney

After a 70-minute early morning Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow, we arrived in Shannon airport in Clare and headed to Dromoland Castle in glorious sunshine – no waterproofs needed.

Dromoland Castle is just 12 km over the Shannon and one of Ireland’s leading parkland courses. It hosted the women’s Irish Open in 2022 and 2023. You can bet on the women’s Irish Open with a DraftKings promo code.

The par-72 Championship course is set on the magnificent 450-acre estate of Dromoland Castle and combines gentle hills, ancient trees and unexpected water hazards. It also offers several risk-and-reward holes, especially over water.

The course was completely revamped and redesigned in 2003 by architects Ron Kirby and JB Carr, at a cost of over 5 million euros, with a further 3 million euros spent over the past three years.

The golf club has been in existence since 1962 with players walking the pristine fairways for over 60 years navigating the tree-lined landscape that drains into the Dromoland Lough with the magnificent castle as a backdrop. Dromoland Castle is also a five-star hotel – one of Ireland’s finest castle hotels – and can trace its ownership back through history to Gaelic Irish families of royal heritage.

The opening hole plays uphill and, surprisingly has no bunkers, but the fairway slopes sharply to the right and the large hill-top green is receptive to run-up or high-lofted shots. The par-3 seventh is a scenic downhill gem – water to the left, a large green-side bunker to the right and a sloping green, all with with the majestic castle towering in the distance.

The short par-4 ninth is Dromoland’s Belfry No 10 equivalent. You are faced with two options – as a two-shotter down the left which leaves a sharp dog-leg second hit over a large pond. Or, take the Seve gamble – a 300-yard carry over water to a small but holding green.

More water comes into play as you head into the back nine with a short but intimidating par-4 – and look out for the Dromoland Ducks crossing the road to the lake’s edge!

The par-5 11th is a real risk-and-reward decision. Bite off too much carry over a marshy area will see you reloading but bravery is rewarded with much shorter second and third shots to a green with even more water at the back.

The final three holes – known as Kirby’s Corner – again all feature water hazards and none more so than the majestic home hole with the Castle catching your eye with water in front and to the right.

The recent investment has seen the creation of a new 18th fairway that offers golfers a choice – and- challenge tee shot – bale out to the left and protect your score or nibble off more water and perhaps par or better is a realistic target.

From the large sycamore tree, players have100 yards left to a contoured green, protected by two well-placed bunkers on the left and, of course water on the right. A par here is well-earned and well-remembered over a pint or two in the club’s cosy 19th hole – the Fig Tree bar restaurant.

Dromoland has, as you would expect, superb practice facilities. The club’s Academy, includes the latest in Trackman technology. And the clubhouse and pro shop have both been recently renovated to an excellent standard.

Limerick GC was our next stop on day two and is just minutes from the city centre. It is one of Ireland’s oldest clubs, being founded in 1891, the same year as the Golfing Union of Ireland. The course and clubhouse are located on the original site of Roxboro Castle and grounds in the suburb of Ballyclough.

Limerick is a mature, tree-lined par-72 course with a number of holes designed by Alister McKenzie, architect of Lahinch and most notably Augusta National, and some other holes crafted by John D Harris.

The course record is held by one Tiger Woods, who shot 64 in winning the JB McManus Pro-AM Tournament 26 years ago. But for us mere mortals, this classic parkland course offers a fighting chance to enjoy a rewarding round. There’s a mix of demanding holes, strategically-placed bunkers and water hazards, but interspersed with good birdie chances, notably on the par-4 10th and the even shorter par-4 15th. The long par-5 eighth is an outstanding hole, with a stream meandering all the way towards a severely sloping green. The uphill par-4 18th hole provides a fitting finish in front of the recently refurbished clubhouse.

Limerick offers good practice facilities, including a driving range, short-game area, putting greens. Whether you’re a seasoned golfer seeking a challenging round or a casual visitor looking to enjoy a good value for money, Limerick ticks all the boxes.

Ballyneety was our final day destination, and like Adare Manor, is also gearing up for the Ryder Cup next year – they host the Junior version in the same week.

The par-71 Championship course, co-designed by Irish Ryder Cup vice-captain Des Smyth and Irish amateur international Declan Branigan, opened in 1994. It features a scenic layout, set on 183 acres of rolling Irish countryside on the historical Croker Estate.

The course has sand-based greens and tees built to USPGA standards. After the completion of extensive bunker and drainage programmes last year, the focus is now firmly on extending the length of the course to 7,000 yards with new tees being built on seven holes to test the very best junior golfers on both sides of the Atlantic. Renovations to the locker rooms and clubhouse facilities will also be completed in time for the start of 2027.

The course sets out with a brisk par-4 towards the village of Ballyneety before dramatically changing direction into the countryside. The track then rises on the fourth and fifth holes to offer stunning views of Limerick city, the Clare hills and the Shannon estuary.

The back nine provides a contrasting route with water coming into play on six holes, notably the par-4 12th and par-3 13th, before the par-4 18th sweeps back up to the impressive clubhouse. After golf, the Vines Grill and Wine Bar/Restaurant, located in an unusual glass enclosed clubhouse, offers panoramic views of the home hole.

The McSweeney Golf Academy provides a full range of services, including a state-of-the-art covered Trackman Range with 15 bays and is situated next to the clubhouse. There are also 16 outdoor bays and two swing studios for those looking to fine tune their swing.

Limerick city is the perfect base for your golfing adventures – It straddles the River Shannon – the longest in the British Isles – with the historic core of the city located on King’s Island. The city is at the head of the Shannon Estuary, where the river widens and flows into the Atlantic Ocean.

Limerick is sometimes known as The Treaty City, after the Treaty of Limerick which ended the Williamite War in Ireland in the 17th Century. Hurling and rugby are the region’s two most popular sports – the hurlers recently won four-in-a-row All Ireland titles while Munster Rugby legend Paul O’Connell’s towering line-out bronze statue dominates the entrance to Shannon airport.

Limerick, which has a population of over 102,000, is also a cultural and historical hub – from the commanding 13th century King John’s Castle, to the collections of the Hunt Museum, which house one of Ireland’s greatest private art and antiquities collections.
You’ll never go thirsty in Limerick either – pubs galore and the two we visited, The Locke Bar and The Old Quarter Bar/Restaurant, both provide a tasty choice of locally-sourced meals.

No visit to the city would be complete without a stroll to the Treaty City Brewery, located in the heart of the medieval quarter. The Brewery crafts exceptional beers that celebrate local flavours and traditions. Visitors can experience the brewing process first-hand, enjoy tastings, and explore the history behind each pint. The artisan craft brewery emerged in 2014 from a love of craft beer intertwined with Limerick’s historical significance.

The Limerick Strand Hotel is an ideal and affordable base for all of the surrounding golf clubs. It has 184 guest rooms, centrally located, with great views of the mighty Shannon and within walking distance of Arthur’s Quay Park and The Treaty Stone monument. Many of Limerick attractions are easily walkable from the hotel.

Shannon airport, meanwhile is just 20km west of the city and has direct flights from all major UK airports. So, whether you are teeing off for the first time or chasing your lowest scorecard, Limerick’s Ryder Cup region invites you to play, stay, explore – and possibly be inspired in the footsteps of Rory and Tiger.

Useful websites:

Tourism Ireland
Dromoland GC
Limerick GC
Ballyneety GC
The Limerick Strand hotel
The Treaty City Brewery
The Locke Bar
The Old Quarter Bar/Restaurant

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy successfully defended the Masters in April and then England’s Aaron Rai won the PGA Championship.

With the US Open next up, can the Brits and Irish maintain their stranglehold on the majors?

Here are the five most like to join McIlroy and Rai in glory.

Tommy Fleetwood

After winning the PGA Tour’s end-of-season Tour Championship, starring in the Ryder Cup and winning the DP World Tour’s India Championship in 2025, Fleetwood’s 2026 has never quite taken off.

But he got himself into contention at the Memorial at the start of the month, and will be hopeful that result heralds better form.

If he does find it, no gallery will cheer louder than the one north of the border.

Fleetwood built a loyal Canadian fanbase during his RBC Canadian Open appearances, where the Toronto crowds embraced him even after his agonising 2023 playoff defeat to home hero Nick Taylor – support the Englishman himself has gone out of his way to praise.

Those fans following him at Shinnecock can compare his odds via the latest Canadian sportsbook promos before the championship gets underway.

And where better for him to contest a US Open than Shinnecock Hills – the scene of his final round 63 in 2018 that earned him second place?

Matt Fitzpatrick

The Sheffield man is not only the winner of the Valspar Championship, Zurich Classic and RBC Heritage this year, he is also a former US Open champion.

His triumph came in 2022 at The Country Club in Brookline and was prefaced by two major championship top 20s earlier in the season.

Guess what? This year he was T18 at the Masters and T14 in the PGA Championship. Game on.

Tyrrell Hatton

Deep into his third season of LIV Golf, the Englishman finally landed a second win last week in Spain and that ought to make him bullish about his chances at Shinnecock.

He played the course well when finishing T6 in the 2018 US Open and, what’s more, he’s in a good run of form in the majors.

He’s finished top 15 in the last three Masters, was T4 in last year’s US Open and was T16 in last year’s Open.

Justin Rose

The Englishman is a veteran who just doesn’t know how to stop competing in the majors.

He’s only won one of them – the 2013 US Open at Merion – but in recent years he’s become a constant on the top page at the big events: T2 in the 2024 Open, second and T3 in the last two Masters, and T10 in last month’s PGA Championship.

The bad news? Since he was T3 in the 2019 US Open he’s only 1-for-5 at making the cut in this championship.

Shane Lowry

The 2019 Open champion has broken a run of strong major form in recent times.

From the start of 2021 through the end of 2024 he was 12-for-16 at finishing top 25. But his last six majors have failed to reap anything better than T30.

Don’t discount him, however. He dearly wants to win another major, is inspired by his pal McIlroy, and he was T2 in the 2016 US Open.

Read next: How Aaron Rai became a Major champion at the PGA Championship

There are courses that are ideal for club golf – you want to play them again and again and again. You’ll never get bored.

There are courses that are great – but you know playing them once will do for you. They’re too tough.

There are courses that are great – and might forever be out of your grasp. They cost too much.

And then there are courses that just represent a fantastic day out. A day that leaves you with a smile on your face. A day that revives the golfing soul.

Here are five of the best in the UK.

North Berwick

If St Andrews is the home of golf, North Berwick is the second home.

East of Edinburgh the town has two golf courses and the most famous is named after the town (and it is the 13th oldest club in the world).

Like the Old Course it starts bang in town and your first and last biffs will be watched by dog walkers, strollers and holiday makers (hopefully your second shot won’t be watched by sunbathers on the beach).

The course is both a classic links test and also one with unique features such as the 13th green hidden behind a wall, the par-3 15th that has been copied around the world, and the 16th green – not only raised but with a gully running through the middle of it.

Classically original.

Elie

Also known as The Golf House Club this is a Kingdom of Fife course with a difference.

It’s not in St Andrews, but it is situated in the town of Elie so shares that unusual Old Course vibe.

On the first tee the starter will peer through an old submarine periscope to check the first fairway is free.

That’s fun and it sets the trend because this James Braid track is all about having fun.

The course winds towards the sea, wanders along the beach and then makes it way back to the clubhouse.

Pure Scottish escapism.

The Machrie

The idea of flying to and from a remote Scottish golf course in a day seems ridiculous to most golfers – and yet it is a possibility (and for a price that is very competitive set against most top quality courses).

For £285 you can fly from Glasgow to Islay, get a private transfer from the airport to The Machrie, have a breakfast roll and lunch in the hotel (Another Place) and enjoy 18 holes on a course that is high quality and fun.

A links track that you’ll first spot from the sky (how cool is that?), it twists between the dunes next to Laggan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.

Guaranteed to make you smile and feel a million dollars.

Painswick

The best fun golf should feel like a childhood adventure- and childhood adventures tend to include hills, forts, castles and ruins.

Painswick is a golf course on top of a hill, that features fort and castle ruins.

How cool is that?

Very cool.

The holes are quirky, those ruins an integral part of the design, and there are outstanding views of the Malvern Hills, Cotswolds and Welsh mountains.

Aberdovey

What about a railway adventure to complete the five?

Aberdovey on the Welsh coast can be reached by direct train from Birmingham New Street.

The journey takes you through the rolling border country, through the Welsh mountains, and emerges on the dramatic Dovey estuary.

Shortly after pulling through the beautiful down of Aberdovey, which overlooks the estuary and the dunes beyond, there is a stop for the golf club.

You alight and are a gap wedge from the first tee.

The golf club was first built because of the railways, and the Midlands businessmen who financed and played it.

It remains a popular trip by train and the course is fantastic, featuring links beauty and championship level challenge.

It also has, in the 16th hole, what is arguably the finest short par-4 in British golf.

Just don’t hit a wild tee shot when the train goes past – or your ball might end up back in Birmingham.

Read next: Why England’s Golf Coast offers the best golf in England

She has made eight starts claiming four wins and a trio of second placed finishes. More importantly, two of those victories were the year’s first two major championships.

The year had started with her having something of an underwhelming major record.

Karrie Webb and Inbee Park, for example, won their seven majors in their first 40 starts – and Annika Sorenstam won her 10th major in her 48th appearance.

Korda, in contrast, had started this year with two win in 47 starts. Having won the Chevron Championship and the US Women’s Open she is now on four in 49 which looks a lot better.

There is also an excellent chance of her adding to her tally in the three majors to come. But where does Korda already rank among the greatest women golfers of all time?

Here is our top 10 in reverse order.

10. Nelly Korda

Yes, here she is, just sneaking into the top 15. Korda has not only won four majors, she has also landed an Olympic gold.

With three major championships still to come, golf fans around the world will be eager to follow her pursuit of more major titles. If you’re travelling during the remaining majors and your usual sports streaming platform isn’t available in the country you’re visiting, check out ExpressVPN – it can help you access the services you normally use at home.

9. Se Ri Pak

The Korean won five majors and did so when Annika Sorenstam and Karrie Webb were at their best. She also fuelled the great rise of Korean golf.

8. Inbee Park

Her swing was not a thing of beauty but her putting stroke was – in fact she was the greatest putter in both the men’s and women’s game.

7. Karrie Webb

Australia’s greatest golfer and how many more majors would she have won had she not played in Sorenstam’s era? As it was she won seven of them.

6. Babe Zaharias

Not just a 10-time major winner, Zaharias won two Olympic gold medals in track and field, and excelled in baseball and basketball.

5. Patty Berg

You can’t argue with raw numbers. No-one has won more majors than Berg who landed 15 of them, but only one was the US Open. The Tom Morris of the women’s game – triumphant in its early years.

4. Betsy Rawls

A four-time champion of the US Women’s Open and eight-time major winner. A relentless winner at the very top of the game.

3. Louise Suggs

Third in the all-time major winners list with two US Women’s Opens. The mother of the LPGA.

2. Annika Sorenstam

The modern game’s greatest. She won 72 times on the LPGA (third of all time) with 10 major victories (fourth best of all time). But she faced deeper fields than those who won more than her.

1. Mickey Wright

Wright was astounding. She won 82 times on the LPGA and is second to Berg with 13 major wins including four US Women’s Opens. Widely viewed as the greatest of them all.

Read next: The greatest golfers to never win a major – ranked

America’s national championship is, of course, traditionally the toughest of all the majors.

McIlroy has won it once and has a superb recent record. In fact, six of his last seven starts have reaped top 10 finishes.

But how do his efforts rank? Let’s find out.

1. 2011 – victory

2011 had been a strange year for the Northern Irishman.

He’d led the Dubai Desert Classic through 54 holes and finished T10. He’d led the Malaysian Open through 36 holes and finished third. He’d grabbed the first round lead in the Memorial and finished fifth.

Most famously of all he’d led the Masters by four through 54 holes – and he still led when stood on the 10th tee in the final round.

Then he hooked his drive into cabins no-one actually knew existed before then, collapsed thereafter and there were worries he was a scarred man.

Cue the US Open at Congressional, his very next start in the majors. He led by three shots after 18 holes. By six after 36 holes. And by eight after 54 holes.

He couldn’t screw this one up, could he? No. A first major championship win and he was away.

2. 2024 – final hole agony

2024 was peak McIlroy-trying-to-end-the-major-drought.

Because he was playing good golf at Pinehurst. He tied the first round lead. He drifted on Friday. He rebounded to T2 on Saturday. And then he closed in on the long time leader Bryson DeChambeau during Sunday’s round.

Three shots behind at the start of play, he led by the middle of the back nine, but both he and DeChambeau struggled at the close.

However, DeChambeau stood tall on the tough 18th and McIlroy wilted, missing a tiddler to force a play off.

3. 2023 – pipped at the post

LA Country Club was a quirky venue in 2023 but McIlroy took to it.

He prowled the long time leaders Wyndham Clark and Rickie Fowler and when he opened the final round with a birdie he was only one stroke back of them.

Fowler then wilted, Clark stood tall, and McIlroy just couldn’t find the birdies to apply pressure.

He finished second, two shots clear of Scottie Scheffler in third, but Clark beat him by one.

4. 2022 – wilting at the weekend

At The Country Club in Brookline in 2022 McIlroy opened with a 67 to sit one back of the leaders, and he added a 69 to remain one stroke off top spot.

A 73 on Saturday wasn’t catastrophic – he slipped three shots back – and a birdie at the first had him within two.

But Matt Fitzpatrick stood tall and McIlroy could only finish T5.

5. 2020 – Mr Inconsistency

Bryson DeChambeau has toppled McIlroy twice at a US Open.

At Winged Foot in 2020, McIlroy opened with a 67 to sit two shots off the pace. But then a Friday 76 saw him tumble backwards while DeChambeau eased into second place.

McIlroy climbed to seventh after 54 holes with a Saturday 68 but a Sunday 75 ruined his week’s efforts.

DeChambeau closed 70-67 to win his first major by six strokes. McIlroy’s wild rounds hurt him.

Read next: Revealed: The simple putting drills that can transform your game

Given putting makes up something like 45 per cent of our shots, many of our practice regimes don’t get anywhere near this. While we all quite happily bash driver after driver at the range, the putting green is relatively empty and certainly not busy with many golfers putting in any purposeful practice.

Duncan McCarthy is a performance coach who has helped golfers win on every main tour, including Ashleigh Buhai’s win at the Women’s Open at Muirfield in 2022. Here he outlines five ways to put a spark back into your putting.

Re-engage yourself

I think with putting it’s about captivating someone and getting them engaged with the session because when you hit a driver at the other end of the game there is a bit of anticipation. Whereas a putt could go anything from three foot away to 50 foot and you know it’s just a putt.

That’s why I always come back to performance sessions which create a consequence because people overthink this part of the game and that builds up the anxiety levels.

You don’t need to complicate this and you don’t even need tee pegs. Just putting three balls around a hole from six foot away and you’ve got to hole all three back to back is a good start. And if you don’t do it, you just put them all back and you go again.

Equally you could do that with the same three balls and hit putts from 5, 10 and 15 foot and you have to hole two out of the three. So all of a sudden you will be looking to hole 66 per cent of your putts from 15 foot and in. You’d like to think that you’ll hole the five-footer, then there’s some consequence on the next two.

With your mid-range putting hit three putts from 30 feet and look to get them all inside three feet. Then 40 feet and four feet so you are always looking to finish inside that 10 per cent distance.

So there’s a putting session where you could do 10 minutes on holing out, 10 minutes mid-range and 10 minutes distance and you have 30 minutes which will be more purpose than most people have in a season of putting.

The process

What does your pre-shot routine look like and do you even have one? Number one is reading the putt and there’s lots of different ways to do that so find your way.

Number two is to create a picture that you want the ball to roll and then the third one is roll the ball down that line. It’s so important to train this over and over so go on a putting green with one ball and just hit random putts but your goal is not to hole the putt but to run steps one, two and three.

When we need to put in a good score or we deem a round important, this creates anxiety and then basically what happens when you feel anxiety is you become results focused. So it’s about staying calm enough to be process focused and go through what you’ve practised time and time again.

You can create your own little mental scorecard and just put a little tick at the end of the hole if you’ve managed it.

Shut the door

When Ashleigh Buhai won her Major she had four steps in her putting routine all week at Muirfield – read the putt, plumb the putts, line the ball up and then hit it. There would be occasions when she would second-guess herself in between the stages so we came up with the idea of closing the door after each stage.

So read it. Close the door. Plumb it, trust it and close the door. Line it up. Close the door. And hit it. That was her routine and her only focus on the greens. So she would hit every putt having done everything that she wanted to do.

You can create your own stages and this is a fantastic way to instal a new process.

A positive mindset

It’s great to be think about picturing the ball go in but I would always be on the side of creating pictures, especially with the short game. When you’re operating from a place of imagination it is like having a kid’s mentality and pretending that the ball’s gone in already and you’re not in thought because thought can lead to unhelpful thinking.

It doesn’t even have to be the entire putt, it might just be the last roll of the putt and then rolling it down there. Some people see the entire putt, some see bits and some see the last roll but I think that that’s a great place to get to because how many shots have you hit around a golf course where you’ve already created a picture? As in stood there and not rushed into the shot but just pictured what does this look like behind the ball and painted a proper picture? Probably not many.

Love your putter

I think it’s really important to look down at something that could be bruised and battered and chipped but you love it because it’s yours and you’ve got history with it. As opposed to having the latest putter with the latest technology as opposed to having something where there’s a trust there.

People are too fast to just move on to the next latest thing, especially with a putter, and you don’t see great putters changing their putters a lot. That’s easy to say as they’re the best putters but maybe it’s not the putter’s fault maybe and maybe you just need to look at yourself.

Read next: Rory McIlroy’s short game secrets: the underrated key to his success

If I said on Sunday it would be red, golf fans may start to solve the riddle. Tiger Woods famously wore red on Sundays, an idea passed to him by his Thai mother Kultida. In Thai culture each day is associated with a lucky colour and today (Monday) it’s yellow.

My wristband certainly brings me some good luck on the par-4 5th when a leaked drive to the right stops within inches of the water. But it can’t work miracles and I do find the wet stuff on another couple of holes.

My caddie for the day is Ning – all the pink-clad caddies are female, which is common in Asia – and although English isn’t her native tongue she speaks the language of golf perfectly. Unfortunately for me that often involves “water water” or “bunker bunker” but she seems to accurately assess how far I hit each club after just one drive and iron to the par-4 opener. Beyond that she’s like all the Thai people I come across – happy, super polite and helpful. She has a great chuckle too.

I play the front nine in warm sunshine but Ning’s warning of “rain come” after a glance to the darking skies in the distance manifests at the 13th. Unfortunately 13 is considered unlucky in Thai culture too so the heavens open. That makes the already more difficult and longer back nine play harder but it doesn’t dampen the mood.

Overall, Laguna Phuket is a very enjoyable, scenic test. Fairway bunkers are strategically placed and a sharp short game is needed. The greens are on the slow side for my round due to the rains which is just as well as the combination of quick surfaces and slopes would really make it a challenge.

I spoke with general golf manager Stephen Chick for more insight.

Tell me about the course. What are its key attributes?

I will list a few key attributes here: integrated resort destination, PGA-branded Academy, Championship standards, scenic tropical setting, accessibility, hospitality, international membership community, lifestyle location within Phuket and event capability.

How challenging is it for a low handicapper?

The course is challenging for all levels of players, but it is very pretty on the eye during your round so that helps you forgot some of the challenges. The biggest challenge would be around the greens, although position off some tees is crucial. Once you’ve managed that then chipping and putting requires skill to navigate some of the slopes around the greens.

How would an 18-handicapper or higher get on at Laguna Phuket?

The beauty of an 18 handicap is you know you have one shot to spare on each hole so if you’re off the tee smoothly then you can relax around the greens but there is water waiting around the fairways in case you are not accurate off the tee.

Does it handle the rains well?

Yes, very well. As all greens are raised they naturally drain well.

What is the course record – both for men and ladies?

The current course record is held by a 16-year-old female, who scored 58 in May 2026 at the recently hosted Annika Invitational. Her name is Marisa Tojai.

What tournaments has it held?

Laguna Golf Phuket has been the host venue for the Singha Laguna Phuket Open for 10 years which is an event on the All Thailand Golf Tour which has sometimes been co-sanctioned with the Asian Development Tour and Asian Tour. Recently, it hosted the Annika Sorenstam Foundation as well as the Sir Nick Faldo foundation and World Amateur.

Have you had any famous people playing the course – either golfers or celebs?

Legends such as Sir Nick Faldo and Gary Player have been to Laguna Golf Phuket and celebs such as Maroon 5 have played too.

Any other things about the course you’d like to tell us about?

Laguna Golf Phuket also has the only PGA branded Golf Academy in south-east Asia and we have four PGA professionals available for golf lessons.

The beauty of Laguna Phuket is that the experience goes way beyond golf.

I’m here with my girlfriend and the resort is perfectly set up to cater for and entertain couples, families and golfers too.

While waiting to tee off I chat to an English guy who is here with three other mates and their families. Some are here to play golf; others to sample the beautiful hotels and on-site attractions.

Angsana

We stay at two of the property’s six hotels. First up is Angsana where we enjoy the luxury accommodation of a Loft – a two-floor apartment that overlooks a lagoon. It’s a perfect place to unwind.

On arrival, we’re greeted with a gong and given wrist bracelets with our names on! What a wonderful welcome!

Then it’s a champagne lunch at the Rava Beach Club where our glasses are topped up by a man in a white suit on stilts while a girl in a sequin red dress plays a saxophone. For a moment I think I’m still on the plane from Manchester having an odd dream but, no, this is real!

Later that day we attend a Thai Inhaler Workshop, a peaceful aperitif for the rather excellent his and hers, side-by-side, Thai massage that follows at the award-winning Angsana Spa.

Muscles and joints loosened up – very welcome after a long flight – we enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail on the beachfront at Xana before tucking into some superb local fish dishes at Bodega & Grill.

Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket

For the final two nights we switch to the Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket which has more of an authentic Thai feel and a strong beach vibe. Our room looks out to the beautiful Andaman sea and sitting on the balcony watching the waves is an absolute treat.

Better still is to wander outside to the newly-refurbished Casuarina Beach Club where the sea is a greenside chip away. Mediterranean food and cocktails at primetime sunset as the ocean laps. A fire starter show on one night. Take it all in.

We also enjoy sushi there on our final day, fresh from the indulgence of a second Thai massage – this one outside in the garden. It takes relaxation levels off the scale as the sounds of the sea and tweeting birds provide a blissful soundtrack.

As well as tucking into a hearty breakfast – local and international offerings – at Laguna Cafe we also enjoy dinner at La Trattoria – seafood pizza for me, steak for Jane – and, most memorable of all, authentic Thai cuisine at Benjarong where we sample the signature dish: Flambeed Phuket lobster served with sweet red curry sauce (this one has Michelin Plate recognition no less!).

On day three we’re back to the Laguna Cafe for lunch before heading further afield.

Beyond Laguna Phuket

While more golf and further unwinding around the pool are tempting options, we also want to see a little more of Phuket.

The ideal option is to book an air-conditioned van. Our driver takes us on a round trip to see the street art and bustle of Phuket Old Town, the beautiful temples at Wat Chalong and, after a slow, steep and winding hillside climb, the giant and spectacular Big Buddha. It’s a must-see and a definite personal highlight. We’re lucky as Big Buddha only recently opened again after landslides.

Driving home we view the sights and sounds of Phuket’s west coast including Karon Beach and Patong Beach.

Conclusions

This really was a wow experience from start to finish. I took it in as part of a couple – on booking.com couples rate Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket at 9.2 out of 10 for a two-person trip – but families and groups of golfers would enjoy it just as much.

How did someone shoot 58 on Laguna Phuket?! Hats off to Thai teenager Marisa Tojai. Remember the name.
After a great chat about golf in Asia with Samir Wildemann, the General Manager at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket, one thought is that golfers looking for a bigger, longer trip could base themselves at Laguna Phuket, play some other courses (Red Mountain, Blue Canyon) in Phuket too and then even travel on to Vietnam, something of a hidden gem for golfers.

The real acid test of a holiday destination is a) would you recommend it to others? b) would you go back? For Laguna Phuket, the answers are easy: yes and yes. The Thai people are an absolute delight and all the staff just can’t do enough.

May is considered the low season but although we had bursts of rain at points, sunshine more often than not won the battle of the skies. Don’t presume that the rain symbol on your phone means it chucks it down constantly. It doesn’t.
Guaranteed sunshine at other times of the year obviously push prices up in peak season but here are the costs for our trip in late May.

Some prices

Our rather grand two-storey suite (One-Bedroom Loft) at Angsana costs under £200. A more standard Laguna Room – King is around £110 in late May.

Our Premier Ocean Front Room (King Bed) at Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket costs £160 per night. Members get it for just £135 and that includes breakfast.

More details can be found here:

Websites

Lagunagolfphuket
Laguna Golf Rates and Memberships

Instagram

Lagunagolfphuket

Final thought…

This was my first trip to Thailand and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

After posting a photo of my round at Laguna Golf Phuket and asking if anyone has stayed here, one friend on X, Mike Miller, replied: “Hell of a complex; massive. I quickly worked out you need to tee-off early. Afternoon/evening was pretty much exclusively for: alcohol, utterly superb fresh seafood and massages. Happy days!”

Mike, a Kiwi, has travelled far and wide so his view is respected.

If Laguna Golf Phuket hadn’t appeared on your radar before… well, it needs to. Wonderful people, wonderful resort and a golf course that will want you coming back for more.

Website: Laguna Phuket, Thailand – Asia’s premier integrated destination
Instagram: Laguna Phuket (@laguna.phuket) • Instagram photos and videos

Read next: England’s hidden golf gem? The five best courses in the West Midlands

This stretch of dunes and sand hills between St Annes, in the north, and Hoylake, in the south, is a 35 mile stretch of coast that boasts some of the greatest seaside golf anywhere in the world.

The Open takes place in mid-July at Royal Birkdale and the AIG Women’s Open is at Royal Lytham & St Annes at the end of the month.

Both courses have had recent changes but they have been completed in sensational style, adding to the glory of two of the Open rota’s favourite layouts.

Much of this part of the world was under the sea at some point in history which explains why it it such fertile golfing country.

The turf is fast drying and fast running, the land undulates naturally, the greens were contoured by the ocean.

Let’s take a look at each of the 11 courses to see what makes them special, travelling from north to south.

Royal Lytham & St Annes

Host of 11 Opens, it is famously surrounded by houses and schools with no views of the sea. But it is one of the toughest of all links tracks, famed for its brutal bunkering and wonderful Victorian clubhouse.

Hesketh

A links course but one that is tucked between sandhills, woodland and Victorian villas. It’s a genuine gem and famously hosts the ‘Hitler Trophy’ in its clubhouse, awarded during the 1936 Berlin Olympics to a Hesketh member.

Royal Birkdale

A 10-time host of the Open, it might be the most fun of all the rota courses, twisting between dunes as it heads away from, and back to, its art deco clubhouse. Two new holes will add to its reputation this summer.

Hillside

Situated right next door to Royal Birkdale, Hillside is no poor neighbour. In fact, no less a judge that Greg Norman insisted that its back nine, set in towering dunes, is the best in Britain.

Southport & Ainsdale

All that separates Hillside from Southport & Ainsdale is the railway line. It’s a James Braid classic which tells you much because Braid always made golf fun. It also hosted two Ryder Cups, in 1933 and 1937.

Formby

Formby has holes that are framed in sensational style by bunkering, pine trees and sandhills. A three-time host of the Amateur Championship, it can be easily combined with …

Formby Ladies

Unique on this stretch as land in being a ladies only member club, but men and women can play it – and Norman was again a huge fan of a test featuring heather and bunkers.

Formby Hall

A resort and spa with a parkland course so very different to the rest of the courses on this coast, but its facilities make it a fine base for visits.

Wallasey

Down on the Wirral, Wallasey makes a superb journey away from, back to, around, through, and over a series of dunes in the middle of the club’s property. Club member Dr Frank Stableford created his famous scoring system here.

Royal Liverpool

Once banished from the Open rota through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the course – sometimes referred to as Hoylake – is sometimes overlooked for being flat but it is a test that rewards care and attention. A true championship links.

Read next: England’s hidden golf gem? The five best courses in the West Midlands

For three and a half days there was no separation. It was as if the field was stuck in the same queue at the supermarket.

But when a new till opened up, Aaron Rai pounced first, and he was through. A new major champion, a worthy major champion and one of the nicest too.

But what of the action further down the leaderboard? What else did we takeaway from Aronimink?

Jon Rahm is look happier

When Jon Rahm was at his best in the majors championships he resembled a Basque bear with a very sore head. There was a glorious fury in his performance and his ball took the brunt of it.

It says much for his quality that, although he has not won a third major since he landed his second – the 2023 Masters – he has nonetheless recorded five top 10s in that period, which bodes well for those backing Rahm in golf betting markets.

And yet, for the most part, he has been less an angry bear since that April three years ago than a caged bear – the sort of sad creatures you see in the zoo.

On LIV he has been sensational. Utterly remarkable, in fact. A contender and winner for fun. It looks like he’s getting that vibe back in the majors and they are the better for it.

Justin Rose remains remarkable

How often is the 45-year-old Englishman going to be written off only to confound the critics?

He played uncle to Robert MacIntyre at the 2023 Ryder Cup – it was said he was all set to become a vice captain. He was sensational when T2 at the 2024 Open – it was deemed a last hurrah. He lost in extra holes at the 2025 Masters – another last hurrah. He came out fighting at that year’s Ryder Cup – perhaps time to be captain. He was T3 in this year’s Masters – that’s got to be the last hurrah, right?

Soon afterwards he swapped clubs, something he had done before to bad effect, and his decision making was mocked. And yet last week? A fifth PGA Championship top 10 in his last seven starts.

Bryson DeChambeau is in a funk

If we know one thing about the current model Bryson DeChambeau it is that he’ll either go boom or bust in a major championship.

Since the start of 2024 he has played in 10 of them. Six reaped top 10 finishes. The other four were all missed cuts.

The worry is that this year’s have both been the latter and it’s never, really, looked like being anything else.

He opened last week with a 76 and his second round 71 was deceptive because it included a trio of birdies to close, when all hope of playing at the weekend was spent. He also opened the Masters with a 76 which he followed with a 72.

Volatility is built into the DeChambeau process so in one sense it should be no surprise, but he’ll want to right the ship sooner rather than later.

Is Cameron Smith back?

When the Aussie carded 74-77 to go home early at last month’s Masters it was his sixth missed cut in a row at the majors.

It was a grim set of results for the 2022 Open champion and something had to give.

In the first instance he had to call his long time coach Grant Field to say their time was up. “I had been seeing Grant since I was 9 years old,” he said. “It was probably one of the most difficult phone calls I’ve ever had to make.

“It’s still kind of lingering, but I feel like I’ve made the right call. I can see it in my golf and my strike of the ball. It’s been nice.”

Now working with Claude Harmon, he finished last week in a share of seventh, enjoying the wobbly leg feeling of being in contention again. “It feels great to play nice,” he said. “You don’t work hard to play crap.”

Justin Thomas is good at the PGA Championship but …

It remains slightly baffling that the Kentucky man can be so good at the PGA Championship and yet the other three majors remain a puzzle to him.

In finishing tied fourth Thomas logged his fifth top 10 finish in 11 PGA Championship starts – and, of course, two of those results were wins. But in the other majors? Another four top 10s but in a total of 31 appearances. That’s a 36% top 10 ratio against 13%.

Why this championship and not the others? Might it be because it’s ranked fourth by everyone.

He hasn’t said as much directly but he did say after getting into contention this week: “What I’m probably more proud of, is not the score itself, but that I didn’t put any extra pressure on myself these first couple days. I didn’t make this moment bigger than it was.”

Perhaps Augusta National, his national championship and the oldest major of them all have been too big a moment.

Read next: How Aaron Rai became a Major champion at the PGA Championship

Here are out top five from Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands conurbation itself.

Beau Desert

It might sound French but this absolutely wonderful course is smack in the middle of Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

That gives a clue as to its vibe: Cannock Chase is one of the greatest forests in Britain never mind the Midlands.

The course is secluded, beautiful, fast running and high quality – and home for DP Wold Tour winner Richard Mansell.

Designed by Herbert Fowler, it is a heathland classic, among England’s finest and it is the Midlands finest too.

Little Aston

The great Harry Vardon advised on the plotting and the great Harry Colt oversaw alterations – that’s not a bad start and Little Aston has lived up to its beginnings.

Walter Hagen and Open champion Denny Shute visited in 1933 to played Percy Alliss (Peter’s dad) and Abe Mitchell (whose image sits on top of the Ryder Cup).

More recently Tommy Fleetwood won the English Amateur at the Warwickshire track shortly before turning pro.

It’s set within woods, with sensational bunkering and is a wonderful old-style test.

The Belfry – Brabazon

Let’s be honest: the Brabazon is a much better course than it was when it was first unveiled to the world in the 1970s, but it is also not a great course.

But it is nothing less than remarkable for anyone who loves the modern history of the game.

Because, of course, it was here that Europe first won the Ryder Cup in 1985 and sensational regained it in 2002.

Almost every hole has a story: where Monty led the charge, where Seve took aim at the 10th green, where Philip Price beat Phil Mickelson, where Christy O’Connor struck his 2-iron, where Sam Torrance holed the winning putt.

Enville

A little way outside Wolverhampton is a course that might easily be in Surrey.

The turf is fast drying and fast running. The fairways are tree and heather lined. The courses are traditional and well plotted.

Its quality is rubber stamped by the fact that it is an Open Regional Qualifying course.

It’s fun and beauty also calls to mind Woodhall Spa – it just happens to be easier to access from right around the world.

Church Stretton

Church Stretton in Shropshire will never host a tour event. It is not long. It is not, in so many ways, a great golf course – but it is a magnificent experience.

It starts with location: perched on top of the imposing Long Mynd on the fringes of the beautiful town of Church Stretton.

The drive to the course is up a winding, steep road that gives you a hint of the golf to come. That’s steep and winding too.

You’ll play alongside sheep, you’ll gasp at the scenery, you’ll love some holes, scowl at others, and end the day with a wide smile on your face. It’s beautiful and, in its own way, brutal.

Revealed: The seven most overrated golf courses in the world

But Rose has instead set tongues wagging by signing a deal with McLaren Golf to become the first global ambassador for the fledgling company.

This isn’t about logos on bags or hats though. Rose has instead become the first player to put McLaren clubs in his bags – quite the move given that the F1 giants have absolutely no history or background in golf.

Given his standing in the game – Rose is World No.7 – many have seen this as a massive, indeed bizarre thing to do for a player still intent on winning majors.

After all, Rose made another huge tilt at the Masters Green Jacket last month, leading in round four before coming up just short and finishing third.

The timing of the change has also baffled many. Why not do it in the off-season? Instead Rose has put the new irons in with three majors of the campaign still to play.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding and the detractors have had plenty to say after Rose fared poorly in his first two starts since turning to McLaren.

Cadillac Championship: 65th out of 72
Truist Championship: 45th out of 72

Not great but let’s not forget that Rose has only switched irons. The rest of his bag has stayed the same.

In the Cadillac, it was his short game that really let him down.

As for Strokes Gained: Approach, the key measure of how well he was hitting his irons, Rose ranked 16th (out of 72) in round three and 14th in round four.

In other words, there were positives to be taken.

At the Truist, the Englishman gained strokes with his irons in round one and ranked 11th for SG: Approach in Sunday’s closer.

Again, these are signs of encouragement. Of course they still need bedding in but Rose is already having good rounds with the new McLaren clubs.

Ironically, and this is so typical of golf, perhaps while trying so hard to get his irons performing, other parts of Rose’s game are suffering as a result.

There’s a theory that Rose made the switch now to get his game ready for this summer’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, the venue where he first hit the headlines as a 17-year-old amateur when finishing fourth in 1998.

In that case, he has this week’s US PGA Championship and next month’s US Open to see how he performs with the McLaren clubs when under the greatest pressure.

Rose is a meticulous practiser and tester and won’t have made the switch without putting in the hours.

So perhaps it’ll just be a case of taking a short-term hit to reap the full rewards down the line.

In that sense the 45-year-old is playing the long game.

One other twist to the story came on LIV Golf last week.

Rose’s great friend, Ian Poulter, has also become a user of the new McLaren clubs. He too is an investor and ambassador of the F1 brand.

Poulter put them in his bag for last week’s LIV Golf Virginia and immediately found success.

The Ryder Cup star ranked 2nd for Strokes Gained: Approach in Virginia and that helped him to 18th place, his best finish in seven LIV starts this year.

Aware of the cynics, Poulter went on to X and said: “I guess the new McLaren irons are working. Roll on Korea.”

As for Rose, it will be intriguing to see if he steps it up in this week’s US PGA Championship at Aronimink – a venue where he has a win and a second from two of the three PGA Tour events held there.

In terms of drawing conclusions about his move to McLaren, it seems smart to let him have a few more laps before making a rush to judgement.

Read next: Why Matt Fitzpatrick chips cross-handed and why it works

Seven back at the start of day four, it was almost enough to give the Californian his first PGA Tour win since 2023.

Despite coming up just short, it secured Fowler his third straight top 10 finish on the PGA Tour and all have come in elite-field Signature Events.

As for that driving prowess – he was ranked 10th, 5th and 23rd respectively for Strokes Gained Off The Tee in the final three rounds – it emerged that Fowler had a new shorter driver in the bag.

In his early days on tour, Fowler played a 45.5 inch driver but, to help give him a feeling of control, he choked down on it.

He’s since varied his driver length but after chats with Cobra tour rep, Ben Schomin, the 37-year-old decided that going shorter was the way forward.

Fowler, as reported by Golf Digest, told Schomin that a 45-inch driver didn’t feel in tune with the rest of his bag.

The solution: a switch to the 43.25-inch OPTM X.

Schomin explained: “I think when it gets longer and he’s swinging well, it maybe feels like it’s just lagging behind him.

“When it’s shorter, it feels like he can just turn on it a lot better. It’s like a good pass.”

The trade-off for the shorter length and increased control was a slight decrease in ball speed but, intriguingly, Fowler’s driving distance numbers went up.

At Quail Hollow, he averaged 308 yards off the tee for the week and in round four his Driving Distance stats were a mighty 331 yards (ranked 5th).

That compares to his season-long average DD figures of 302.4.

The explanation: finding the centre of the face more often and a better, more aggressive swing path.

The 43.25-inch build is two-and-a-half inches shorter than the longest he’s used in his pro career.

“I don’t know if a player in his career has ever had that big of a difference in driver lengths,” said Schomin.

But the early signs are extremely positive.

Read next: The remarkable comeback story of Chris Wood

At just 31 and in just his 13th Major Rai landed the PGA Championship at Aronimink with a brilliant closing round of 65. In the end it was a three-shot win. He was one over for his first eight holes but then he produced some sensational golf, making an eagle at the 9th and coming home in 31.

A chasing pack that included the likes of Rory McIlory, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg and the long-time clubhouse threat in two-time champion Justin Thomas couldn’t stick with him.

The supposed bomber’s paradise

Coming into the week all we heard about was that it would suit the big hitters. Rai was ranked as the 66th longest hitter this week and he sits in 160th spot for driving distance on the PGA Tour. At the 72nd hole, pumped up like never before, Rai launched one 330 yards down the middle.

Playing from the short stuff

While others were gouging irons from the thickish and unpredictable rough Rai was generally playing from the fairway. He was ranked as the 6th straightest player off the tee and that was crucial as he shaped various drives into the ideal position to get at the tricky pins. On Sunday he missed just four fairways which is a hell of an achievement the way the fairways sat and sloped. And his approach play was actually the best bit. Only Jhonattan Vegas was better than Rai for approach play.

That putt

Rai, like JJ Spaun last year, holed an absolute monster putt just when he needed it. Having rolled in an eagle and five birdies already he then drained a 68-foot putt across the 17th green when two putts would have been great in the situation. It was the second longest putt holed all week and he was the fifth best player on the greens over the course of the week.

His playing partner

For some it might not matter who you’re paired with but Rai certainly got lucky going out with Ludvig Aberg. Rai was out in the third last group, just ahead of Rory McIlroy and Xander Schauffle and just behind Jon Rahm. Aberg’s little smirk and fist pump on 17 was one of the great moments.

The ultimate nice guy

Rai, ever since he graduated from the lower tiers, has been a breath of fresh air in terms of being normal and respectful. A former colleague, while putting together his dissertation, contacted Rai for a possible chat and he replied and then gave him over an hour of his time. There’s not an ounce of ego about him, he plays the game his own way and he’s going to make a hell of a foursomes partner at next year’s Ryder Cup, which you can bet on with new betting sites available on MBS.

This was no fluke

There has been plenty of talk about the lack of an English winner in this Championship. Nick Faldo never managed it and only Jim Barnes picked up this trophy. But Rai has won on the PGA Tour before at the 2024 Wyndham Championship and he has twice beaten Tommy Fleetwood in play-offs on the DP World Tour. He came into the week as the 44th best player in the world, having made his last eight cuts in the Majors, and he’ll leave Philadelphia as the World No. 15.

His demeanour

Aside from his spectacular manners and unstinting politeness, the way he kept himself in check after making the eagle on 9 and then the five birdies, including that putt on 17, coming him was incredible. No fist pumps, barely even a smile but, with every passing hole, you sensed that he had the temperament to win his first Major.

“I think firstly the golf course really demands it. It was a true Major championship setup in terms of how difficult it was, how penalizing it was, but it also rewarded you for good play. So I think the nature of the course and the nature of the shots that are required over the last few holes just require a lot of attention and a lot of focus.”

His work ethic

Rai is a known grafter and quite often he’ll be the last one on the range. This week he was seen as the last player around the chipping green, working on his shots from some thick rough. It’s already paid off, now it’s come off at the highest level.

“A lot of that has come from upbringing, my mom, my dad, my siblings. Golf was always a very big part of my life from a very young age, but my mom and my siblings were very fast to continue to reinforce the importance of just being a good person and trying to do the right things away from golf.

“And that was consistent from a very young age, from the age of 5, 6 years old. I think as I’ve continued to develop as a junior, as an amateur, as a professional, golf in itself is an extremely humbling game. There’s so much hard work and discipline that goes into acquiring the skills to become better but you also realize that nothing is ever given in this game at any point, whether it’s a tournament, whether it’s a practice round, whether it’s even away from a tournament week. All of these things have to be done diligently and require focus.”

In a really good and positive way, Rai really is one of a kind.

You might recall that the triumph was reliant on a sensational final round performance.

You might successfully guess that the Sunday lap holds the key to this riddle.

But it would almost certainly still surprise you to what extend the Kentucky man’s Sunday stands out from all other recent PGA Championship final rounds.

Because, you see, Thomas started that final round four years ago seven shots off the lead in a share of seventh place.

And, since 1996, to have been in that position normally represented less than a 5% chance of victory.

In fact, of the last 30 winners of the PGA Championship no less than 29 were tied fourth or better with 18 holes to play, 25 of them were tied third or better, and no less than 24 of the were tied second or better!

In fact, generally speaking, all major championship winners need to be in the lead or right on the shoulder of the pace setter to land the prize.

Take the Masters.

Since the start of 1996, 31 of 31 winners were tied fifth or better with one round to play (and 30 of those were tied fourth or better).

In the US Open, 30 of the last 30 winners were tied eighth or better after 54 holes (26 of them tied fourth or better).

And in the Open? 28 of 29 champions were tied ninth or better – and 23 of them were tied fourth or better (the exception was Paul Lawrie in 1999 who was T14 with 18 holes to play).

If those numbers suggest that the Open – by the seaside, of course, so given to difficult conditions – is the major most vulnerable to volatility, then the American majors are anything but.

Put together, 85 of the last 91 major championship winners in the United States were tied fourth or better with one round to play.

So how did Justin Thomas buck the trend in such spectacular fashion?

Well, incredibly, his first movement was backwards.

He made a bogey at the third and was therefore quickly eight shots behind the leader, Mito Pereira.

He recovered that dropped shot at 5 but gave it back at 6 was was still eight shots in arrears after he’d played eight holes.

The first momentum shift came either side of the turn: Thomas made birdies at 9, 11 and 12 while Pereira dropped shots at 7 and 8.

Thomas remained calm. Only one man who ultimately finished top eight didn’t drop a shot on the final six holes – and that was Thomas.

He only made one birdie but it was enough to set a difficult clubhouse target of 5-under-par and, one by one, the other contenders failed to match it.

Matt Fitzpatrick had started the day on that number and fell back by two shots.

Cameron Young had opened the day on 4-under, reached 6-under, then stumbled late in the day.

Pereira was 6-under on the final tee, but made a double bogey to miss out on playing extra holes.

Only Will Zalatoris stood firm. He started the day on 6-under and a birdie at 17 helped him tie Thomas, but he was beaten in the three-hole play-off.

Thomas’ seven shot comeback was the biggest in the PGA Championship since John Mahaffey’s win in 1978.

There was something else that made the effort unlikely. Stats can’t verify that it is unique but Thomas suspected it was. “Can’t be many major winners who hit a shank,” he said, of his errant blow on the sixth hole.

But remember the really important lesson: unless something special happens, the likelihood is that the winner of this year’s PGA Championship will be tied fourth or better on Saturday night.

Read next: The uncomfortable truth about the PGA Championship exposed

It’s that time of the year again, whether it is May or August, when we debate what is wrong with the PGA Championship. It is significantly more exciting than pretty much any other week on tour, whisper it gently bar The Players, but where it will always fall short is that it is a distant fourth of the four.

The Masters can’t be touched for its spring-time charm and beauty, the US Open is generally a brute at some of the greatest layouts on the planet and then we have The Open, the oldest and for many of us the best week of the year – links golf in July, what could be better?

So let’s look at how things might change and what seems to be set in stone.

The courses

We get why we go to these PGA favourites but so few really get the juices flowing. Below is where this Major will be heading in the future and where those courses are ranked on the Top 100 Courses website. Not one is inside the top 25 courses in the country and yet it expects the watching world to get overly excited about the best players in the world tackling its showpiece event.

Courses are pretty much everything, look at when the US Open sparkles and how The Open is consistently outstanding, but the PGA is often very forgettable and samey to all the other weeks.

Aronimink –
PGA Frisco –
Olympic Club 73
Baltusrol 44
Congressional 91
Kiawah Island 45
Southern Hills 53
Bethpage Black 28

The American dominance

We are forever hearing about how heavily led this Championship is, in terms of the field, venues and also the winners. We have to go back to 2015 and Jason Day for the last time a non-American prevailed here. Before that it was a very international winners’ board but recent times has been a succession of US thoroughbreds.

The real thriller came in 2021 when Phil Mickelson was victorious at Kiawah at nearly 51 years of ago. A great champion on a great course, more of that would help.

The Tiger effect (or lack of it)

This really should have helped to elevate it to new levels but there remains a lack of identity. Woods won the PGA four times, perfect for the PGA to lean into but most watchers couldn’t name the years or venues like his other Majors.

Sergio Garcia got plenty of headlines for his efforts at Medianh in 1999 but then it all gets a bit blurred with Bob May, Shaun Micheel and Woody Austin being his nearest challengers in the others. The May win at Valhalla was spectacular but imagine how well we’d remember every last drop of it if it was at Augusta. All a bit simplistic but you get my drift.

Just take it overseas

We know where we’re going every year up to 2035 and none of them are called Royal Melbourne. This is such a lovely notion and so much more appealing than anywhere else in the world – the fans would get behind it, we’d see the perfect stage and ideally it would be just the start of moving it around the sand-belt courses.

Let’s say this does happen, somehow (it won’t). Do we extend the Major season to November? That would bridge the ludicrous gap between the Open in July and April at Augusta but there’s generally not a lot of golf played in the States in October that isn’t relatively meaningless in the grand scheme of things. We’re generally readying ourselves for the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas and some pairs action, not gearing up for ‘Glory’s Last Shot’.

Don’t get me wrong, many of us would be very up for a complete re-jig of things but it’s almost unthinkable to picture a Major rotating around the globe.

A change of format

Likewise moving it back to a matchplay style is nonsensical. There is a rose-tinted feel about the WGC Match Play but even that didn’t last. In such busy calendars where are the matchplay events? Nowhere. In short, it doesn’t work for TV with too much left to chance.

If we had the traditional 64 players and a Wednesday start, is that nearly enough? Surely we’d need to reward 128 players and that would mean getting things going on Tuesday and then how do you rank the players?

Again, it’s a lovely thought but it’s just that. As things stand 20 PGA pros get an invite, which always makes it almost impossible to compare it to the other three Majors, so how you would shoehorn them into a knockout format is anybody’s guess.

Read next: The five biggest threats at the 2026 PGA Championship uncovered

On the HotelPlanner (Challenge) Tour Chris Wood secured his first victory on the tour and it was as popular as any of his eight wins as a pro. There have been some very dark times in recent years for the hugely likeable Bristolian but now he’s back on our radar.

It’s often forgotten that Wood could very easily have won the 2009 Open at Turnberry. The record books show Stewart Cink painfully eclipsing Tom Watson but the Englishman very nearly did his version of the unthinkable in his rookie season.

Wood, who had only turned pro the previous year following his T5 at Royal Birkdale, came to the 72nd hole on -2, the eventual score set by Cink and Watson who were half a dozen holes behind. Watson famously saw his 8-iron from 187 yards skid through Turnberry’s final green, Wood pitched his 9-iron on the front from 210 and finished in an even worse spot.

Unlike Watson he hit a beautiful 15-foot par putt but it didn’t turn quite enough and he would finish alongside Lee Westwood in a tie for third.

There would be three wins on the DP World Tour, the third at Wentworth helping him play his way onto the 2016 Ryder Cup team. He would get as high as 22nd in the world but already he was feeling like his swing was getting weaker.

Whereas he would thrive in gusty conditions, like those two Open efforts, things were now slowly beginning to unravel.

“I had a year of playing my best golf but I just felt it started to drift towards the end of 2016. I always thought I would only move up the leaderboard in the wind because I had an ability to hit a good ball flight and it deteriorated a little bit from there.

“I felt like I needed to improve that situation but for two or three years I just stayed where I was with the odd feel that worked. I saw a bit of progress but looking back they were more like plasters,” he explained on a Tour blog.

“In 2019 I was working with my coach and I started to develop some severely wide shots, particularly with my driver, to the point where I didn’t carry a driver at Wentworth at the BMW PGA Championship in 2019, just three years after I’d won it, that’s how quickly it got from one point to another.”

And, as his swing fell apart, so did his mental game.

“I was just riddled with anxiety and fear and tension from the moment I left home for a tournament. It was 24/7 during tournament weeks, I was extremely anxious and not sleeping and it becomes a vicious cycle. You’re constantly draining energy but at that point I was hitting balls like I needed to do it more to make my swing better.

“I felt like I needed to do it more and there’s a saying with golfers: the secret’s in the dirt – golf is practice until your hands bleed. But I was in a point where I was not really connected to myself in my swing.”

Then came Covid where, understandably, Wood didn’t want to play very often and, come the end of the 2022 season, he had lost his card.

“About six weeks before the end of the season, I sat down with DP World Tour doctor Tim Swan and just opened up and revealed I’d been struggling. From there the Tour medical team have been great, they put me in touch with the right people but then I played in South Africa on the HotelPlanner Tour in January 2023 and I just broke down while speaking to my parents on the phone and they just both said ‘come home’.”

Fast forward three and a bit years and Wood is back on the HotelPlanner Tour, courtesy of his recent efforts on the MENA Tour, but now he is a winner again.

The now 38-year-old landed the Italian Challenge Open at the weekend with some brilliant golf, 24 birdies and just two birdies, to signal some far brighter times ahead.

If you follow tour golf you’ll already have a good idea that Wood is one of the really good guys.

Wood is about as normal as you could get from a player of his standing. Once upon a time he was put forward for a magazine piece to talk about the work that greenkeepers do and he happily stayed on the phone for 45 minutes.

There were glimpses of this when he had a top 10 last year in Turkey around 12 months ago which prompted him to open up.

When we all scroll through our phones and see these short videos, as nice as they are, they tell us very little about the true battle back to playing somewhere approaching his best again. Wood, who has now four children to throw into the mix, explains that it was a case of very small steps to begin with.

“When I first started trying to get back onto the course in 2023, my coach decided we should just start with a 6-iron and a putter and go and play nine holes. That was my first time back on the course and that was brilliant because there isn’t really any trauma for me with a 6-iron.I’m OK to fail now which is great so we’re trying to make that practice a bit harder because I can take a little fall now whereas a year or so ago, any more damage was really traumatic.”

The final kicker is that Wood finally got to give his daughter the chance to dress up.

Speaking last year Wood added: “My daughter wants a trophy party so she can wear a party dress. My children have not seen me win a tournament so that’s a huge motivator.”

Well now she can – and hopefully it will be the first of several.

Read next: Michael Block: the club pro who became golf’s unlikely star

It’s a traditional layout that looks sensational and will test the field with especially fast and sloping greens.

Length from the tee is likely to be key because shorter irons in hand will be needed to set up par breakers (and par savers).

Here are five golfers who can win this week – and why that can.

Scottie Scheffler – the World No. 1

It’s been an odd start to the year for Scheffler. He was a four-time winner in 2022, landed three titles in 2023, nine in 2024, and six last year.

This year he was victorious in his first outing, at The American Express in January, but he is yet to add to that tally despite finishing second in his last three outings (including last month’s Masters).

He can never be overlooked in the majors, however. He’s won four of the last 17 played and finished top 10 in five of his six PGA Championship appearances.

He’s always a danger at the weekend, too. In fact, he’s carded two sub-70 scores in the final two rounds in 13 of his last 15 starts.

Rory McIlroy – the man on a mission

After he successfully defended the Masters last month, McIlroy said: “I don’t think I’ll go through that lull of motivation like last year.”

He was referring to the downturn his form took after completing the Career Grand Slam at Augusta in 2025. This time he has more success in the cross hairs and is on record as taking aim at Gary Player’s major count of nine.

Beating it would make him the top international winner of majors and he does like a Donald Ross layout.

He has won three times at the Ross redesigned East Lake, finished second in the US Open at the Ross created Pinehurst, and carded a first round 62 when T5 at Aronimink in the 2018 BMW Championship.

Bryson DeChambeau – the big hitter

Word from the course is that the course should suit a golfer who puts length ahead of accuracy from the tee box.

DeChambeau fits the bill having won two US Opens when a similar profile was required – in fact, the second of them came at Pinehurst which is another Ross design.

The LIV star also reported earlier this year, after a course visit, that it reminds him of Ridgewood, another course he has won on.

He won twice in March and landed a top five last week.

Russell Henley – the Donald Ross specialist

Since 2020, Henley’s record on Donald Ross designs has been little short of superb.

He’s 4-for-4 at logging a top 10 at Sedgefield and 1-for-1 at Detroit. He was also T7 in the 2024 US Open at Pinehurst.

And on the Ross redesign at East Lake he has been the second, third and fourth best scorer for the week (the tournament has used starting strokes in the past).

He even has a fine major championship record: five top 10s in his last seven starts.

Kurt Kitayama – the sneaky outsider

We need an outsider and what about one who combines all the requirements?

Length from the tee? He ranks eighth in the field for Driving Distance.

Donald Ross form? His best major finish was T4 in this championship at the Ross designed Oak Hill in 2024.

Form? He was a winner last year, was second at the major championship-hosting Riviera in February, and has finished T8th, T9th and T19th in his last three starts.

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Of course he has missed a few in that time – the 2012 Masters when he was injured after a jet-skiing accident, the 2014 PGA when he took time off for ‘personal challenges’ and the 2017 Masters when he was again injured after a fall on the eve of the tournament – but he will be teeing it up at Aronimink on May 21.

“Very excited,” Johnson said from LIV Golf Virginia, “I want to play in all the Majors. I feel like my game is still good enough to compete with everyone and still can win. The PGA was nice enough to give me an invitation. So yeah, I’m very, very happy and thankful for that.”

Johnson’s exemptions for the PGA and Open have now expired while his US Open one from his 2016 victory at Oakmont will end this year. For Augusta he can return as long as he fancies thanks to his win there in 2020.

The American has two second places in the PGA and in 2010 he came to the 72nd hole at Whistling Straits with a one-shot lead but then ground his club and wrote down a treble-bogey seven on his card.

That year Martin Kaymer would triumph and he is another LIV golfer to take his place in the field though Phil fellow PGA champ Phil Mickelson, the oldest Major winner at 50, will miss out due to his ongoing family matters.

Fellow Major champions Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm and Cameron Smith will also fly the LIV flag – how long we might be saying this is anyone’s guess – and Tyrrell Hatton will be a huge fancy and he qualifies through his Ryder Cup efforts last year.

Joaquin Niemann will be another to travel to Philadelphia and he takes his spot courtesy of finishing inside the top 15 at last year’s PGA Championship. That eighth place remains the Chilean’s sole top-10 finish in a Major.

There are a host of other invites and Elvis Smylie, David Puig, Thomas Detry and Tom McKibbin are among those to get the nod which takes the LIV entries to 11.

For McKibbin it will be just his sixth Major start having missed the cut at his debut Masters in April.

“I played last year as well, and I think to sort of do it two years in a row with not having the availability of many world ranking points and to stay around that 100 number has been pretty good. It’s always nice to get to play another Major. They’re definitely the events that you want to be playing, and every time you can tick one off, it’s a great learning experience. I always sort of leave learning more and more about my game and what I need to get better for the future.”

Brooks Koepka and DeChambeau are the only active LIV players to have won one of the big four and, if ever the breakaway tour, needed something special from those still on their books it will be at Aronimink in a couple of weeks.

LIV players at 2026 PGA Championship (11)

Bryson DeChambeau
Thomas Detry
Tyrrell Hatton
Dustin Johnson
Martin Kaymer
Tom McKibbin
Joaquin Niemann
David Puig
Jon Rahm
Cam Smith
Elvis Smylie

The American, who will turn 50 on June 15, shot a closing 69 at Bandon Dunes to climb 33 spots into a tie for 10th after posting a 78 on day three in high winds.

It was particularly poignant as Block had been on a golfing trip to Bandon in 2023 and one of the members of that party died two weeks before his recent qualification.

“If he was here right now, it would be insane,” Block said. “I was calling myself the mountain lion. You know what the mountain lion does? It attacks from behind. Never attacks from the front. I’m weird. And so I’m like, what’s my mountain lion song? And boom, Metallica, let’s go. That’s the vibe I needed.”

What is Michael Block best known for?

This will be Block’s eighth PGA Championship but it will always be his 2023 showing that stands out. That week at Oak Hill not only was he the only club pro to make the cut, the first time he had achieved that, but he was in a tie for second place at one point on day two.

On the Saturday he was partnered with Justin Rose, a level-par 70 moving him up to eighth, and he then picked up the golden ticket when he was paired with Rory McIlroy on the Sunday. And of course he then produced the shot of his life when he made a hole-in-one at the 15th, his first in tournament play.

“I could hit a hard 8, but all day long when I tried to hit anything hard, I was pulling it. So I was, like, I’m going to flight a little 7 in there into the breeze from 150. It was playing about 167 in my head. So I hit it, and it’s just right at it and all of the you sudden it disappears. I’m like, cool. I’m like, thanks, guys. Rory is walking down the pathway 20 yards away from me and turns around and starts walking back towards me with his arms open to give me a hug. And he goes, you made it.

“I go, what? I’m like, seriously? He’s like, yeah, you did. He had to tell me five times that I made it. So it was a pretty cool experience to have Rory be telling me that I made a hole-in-one in front of God knows how many people that were supporting me.”

He would shoot a 71, tie for 15th and earn $288,000 (his previous highest cheque was $75,000 for winning the 2014 PGA Professional Championship). It would also give him an invite into the following week’s event at Colonial – where he would finish last – and qualify him for the 2024 PGA.

What other Majors has he featured in?

He has also played in two US Opens and two of the great Championships, in 2007 at Oakmont (+16 MC) and 2018 at Shinnecock (+23 MC), where he came through sectional qualifying.

Where does Michael Block work?

At Arroyo Trabuco, south of Los Angeles in California. Click on the tab ‘Instruction Staff’ and Block is one of eight PGA pros. Arroyo Trabuco is a public course designed by Tom Lehman and Casey O’Callaghan. An hour’s lesson will cost you $250 while you can have a nine-hole playing lesson for $500. Block has the course record at Arroyo Trabuco after shooting a 59 in 2019.

Where is Michael Block from?

He grew up in the St. Louis area and played college golf at Mississippi State before transferring to the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He then graduated with a degree in golf course management at the San Diego Golf Academy, became at assistant in Palm Desert from 1998-2004 before the move to Arroyo Trabuco.

What has Michael Block won?

Block is a serial winner in the Southern California PGA and he has played on two PGA Cup teams. On Wikipedia he has seven professional wins alongside his name; the 2001 California State Open, the 2014 PGA Professional National Championship and five Southern California PGA Championships since 2017.

How many starts has he had on the PGA Tour?

He is listed as having 35 starts and he’s made the cut in five of them.

How does he see himself?

“I’m like the new John Daly but I don’t have a mullet and I’m not quite as big as him yet. I’m just a club professional; right? I work. I have fun. I have a couple boys that I love to play golf with. I have a great wife. I have great friends. I live the normal life. I love being at home. I love sitting in my backyard. My best friend in the world is my dog. I can’t wait to see him. I miss him so much it’s ridiculous, my little black lab.”

What’s his mindset?

“I told my caddie at the beginning of the day (at Oak Hill) that I’m not going to look at leaderboards throughout the day, no matter what happens. Good, bad or indifferent, I’m not looking, because in the past, sometimes I get ahead of myself. I start booking rooms at hotels that I’ve never even qualified for, and it’s never worked out well. I no longer get ahead of myself.

“I had no idea where I was. And if you put me at 120 yards out on 17, hitting my third shot, and if you put me on 18 hitting my third shot from that 40 yards, sidehill lie out of the rough to a tight pin on 18, and you’re telling me I’m going to get up-and-down on both of those to make next year’s PGA Championship, there’s no way in God’s green earth I would have done it. So lucky enough, I didn’t look at the leaderboards. I was just grinding my butt off, and I did it.”

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This time last year his game was in the doldrums and a place on Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team looked unlikely but he’s turned everything around and, form wise, a second Major could be just around the corner.

Where Fitzpatrick differs from his peers is that he chips cross-handed. It’s something that he has done since the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and something that he has stuck with ever since. This season he is ranked inside the top 25 for SG: Around The Green and for Scrambling.

For some pros they will tinker with the left-below-right method but, for the Englishman, the fairly unique method isn’t going anywhere.

Why did he switch?

I started off using it for just basic chipping. I had issues when I would break my wrists too much so I would take the club away on the inside and then the ball would fall off the face and you wouldn’t get the correct flight or the correct strike.

So I was getting one that would come up short and one that would go too far without any spin. This was always a practice drill going back that I would use with Mike Walker and Pete Cowen.

They would use it to sync up the body because, if you don’t, then you end up shanking it. So this makes me chip it correctly otherwise it will come off the hosel.

The biggest thing that I’ve noticed is it feels like there’s always a straight line from my shoulder all the way to the clubhead so, with that, you’re always keeping the radius the same. When I was going with the normal grip the radius would get really narrow whereas with cross-handed it’s always staying the same and it’s an arc.

Is it one-dimensional?

I always felt comfortable with it but I think doing this now it definitely feels like I’ve got more variety. I first used it in 2017 I practised and practised it and I missed one left on number one and I looked at my caddy and he was like, well you’ve been practising it, you may as well give it a go.

Originally I started doing it just out of the rough because again, when you’re in the rough, you kind of need the speed and you need the correct technique. If you take the club away on the inside it’s going to grab it even more and there are going to be huge inconsistencies.

With this it forces me to keep the clubhead effectively in line with my shoulder all the time so that way it’s going to be much better contact, it’s going to be square the whole time and you’re going to have a much better outcome.

What about the low chips?

I don’t hit that many chip-and-runs but, if I do, I would still do cross-handed. I’m so used to going cross-handed now that going the other way kind of feels a little bit awkward. If I really want to lob it I know I can just open it up massively and just literally make the same movement.

What distance does it go up to?

I’m trying to build it up to about 50 yards because I know it’s really consistent and the flight and spin are so consistent. With a normal grip that is a lot harder and the good thing is I control the distance using my body rather than just my wrists.

Now and again, if the ball is above my feet for example, it might be easier to go conventional. I used to use this technique in practice for pitching and half shots. It helps to shorten my swing and to keep things really connected.

How does it work with the spinny ones?

At first these were trickier but, the more I’ve done it, the more I kind of I’ve almost put a bit of a natural kind of touch on it where I can manipulate things a bit more. To start with it was obviously feeling very stiff and now it definitely feels a bit more that I mix things up. Technique wise I don’t need to work on it because it just happens because of the grip. The thing to improve is to get used to different clubs and lies.

And bunkers?

That will be conventional as you can’t get the speed and it’s hard to get the angle into the sand. I’ll have a little bit of wrist set but you need much more in the sand.

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This has never been a weakness but we rarely focus on what is now a key strength of his game. Over the past decade he has averaged around the 40th mark for Strokes Gained: Around The Green which represents a very decent return for someone who plays more tougher courses than most and is under more pressure than pretty much anyone.

At Augusta this year his driving was famously off but the closer he got to the green, the better he became. The six-time Major winner (that sounds good, doesn’t it?) is up to 14th this year for his Around The Green efforts which is outstanding.

McIlroy has hit some out-of-this-world chip shots in recent times, the spinner at the 2023 Ryder Cup late on Saturday quickly springs to mind, but the general commentary is that we’re still undervaluing his skills with his wedges.

He actually likes to keep things very simple around the greens and, through a collection of short-game videos, this is how he sees certain shots and how we can all learn from the two-time Masters champ.

Meanwhile, fans of McIlroy can bet on him and the Masters with free bets for golf. The Master is one of the biggest golf tournaments in the world and a great opportunity to back the man and the sport across a variety of interesting markets and potentially lucrative odds.

The bump and run

You’re going to want to take a wedge or an iron that’s a little lower in loft. Usually I chip around with a 60˚ or a lob wedge, I’ll play this with a 52˚. It’s all about set-up; you want to try to keep the ball a little bit back in your stance and, if anything, try to get a little bit closer to it and get the shaft a little more vertical.

And then from there, you just want to try to lean a little bit of pressure on your left side to drive the ball forward and to make it run when it’s on the green.

Then it’s just about rocking your shoulders back and through, picking your little target on the green where you want to land it, and then just let it go.

I really try to make it like an elongated putting stroke in a way and I try not to have a lot of wrist break. I will try to keep my wrists and my hands pretty quiet and I feel like I keep my right arm long, trying not to break it like you would in a golf swing.

I do a lot of chipping practice with one hand trying to keep my right arm really really long and then that just helps me pull it and to find the low point. Then it’s just about keeping my body moving.

Being short-sided

My first thought is to just give myself a putt for par. The worst thing you want to do is try to be too cute with it, leave it in the bunker and then you’ve really got your work cut out just to make bogey. So for me, I’ll just try to pick a spot on the green where I’ll try to land it.

So give yourself a little margin for error and then I try to visualise the trajectory that I want this ball to go on to land at that spot.

In terms of technique on how to hit the shot, obviously you want to open the club up a little bit so that you can get a little more loft on it, a little more height.

Chipping on Bermuda

I’m not going to try to go into the ground as much and I’m going to try to clip it off the top a little bit more.

I feel like there’s not as much hinge on the way back. My right arm doesn’t stay straight but the feeling is that it stays more straight so I can be shallower coming in.

The ball position will be a little forward. The more forward you have the ball, the more you can keep your weight on your left side and that will be probably 70-30. So then just try to stay on that left side and that can guarantee the strike.

I’ll always rehearse it before so it’s equal back and through and just quite wide. I have a lot of right-side feels in my game so my right arm will be straight and then I try to cover the ball with my right shoulder and then that automatically gets the chest to open up.

The hop and stop

This is a shot that I guess is a little higher risk but, maybe if you need to go over a little slope on the green, it’s a good shot to have in your bag. So basically what I try to do with this one is I try to set up pretty square.

If anything, I’ll open the clubface slightly just to get a little more loft on there. That encourages the ball to stay on the face a little longer to impart that spin that we need to try to hit this shot.

So in set-up, I’ll try to stand square to it. I’ll try and not have my weight too far forward. I still want maybe 55 per cent of my weight on my left with the shaft at address pretty vertical and all I’m trying to do is get that shaft back to vertical at impact and then release it under the ball – and that will impart the spin on it.

So hopefully if I do that, get my set-up right, try and return this club to where it is at address, it should work pretty well.

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The date – why we worry about such things two years out is anybody’s guess – will be at the slightly later date of August 3 due to the Olympics in Los Angeles and it will be the 12th time the Lancashire hot-spot has hosted the Championship.

But also the first since 2012 when Ernie Els got the better of Adam Scott for his fourth and final Major win.

The news means that Muirfield and Turnberry won’t be returning to the Open roster until 2029 at the earliest. There has also been talk about Portmarnock joining the party but that too will have to wait.

The good news is that Lytham is back though and there are lots of reasons to look forward to its return in two summers.

1 The course is phenomenal and, given the opportunity to play any of the Open’s layouts, I’d have it in the top five (with the Old Course, Muirfield, Turnberry and St George’s). The opening few holes, particularly 2 and 3, are outstanding and it has the unique opening of a par 3. Few Open courses boast much interest straight from the opening shot but Lytham’s 205-yarder is a beauty with the railway line lurking just off to the right.

2 We all know about Lytham’s 16th, thanks to Seve. But it’s the next hole which is the jewel in the closing crown. This is a brilliantly-bunkered par 4 that swings from right to left and is the perfect penultimate hole for an Open.

Other favourites are the shortish 13th before two brutish par 4s while Jack Nicklaus identified the par-3 12th as one of greatest holes in the game.

3 There have also been some notable changes since we last came here, which we’ll get to see at this year’s AIG Women’s Open, in particular the par-5 11th which has been straightened out. The 8th has also been tweaked and both holes have already been warmly welcomed.

4 The roll call of winners here is on a par with Muirfield; Bobby Jones, Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Bob Charles, Tony Jacklin, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros (2), Tom Lehman, David Duval and Ernie Els. Maybe we make too much of this but the chance to relive some of Seve’s heroics always makes for a good build-up.

5 The red-brick clubhouse is fantastic, inside and out. Inside is some incredible memorabilia, with some very special portraits, and there’s a great feel to the place. Years ago I interviewed Peter Alliss and asked him, of all the Open venues, where he’d like to be a member?

Quick as a flash, he answered Lytham because this was where you felt the members would ‘most likely start a food fight!’

From the outside it makes for maybe the second (behind St Andrews) best 18th-hole setting on the Open rota. An historic clubhouse that sits just the right distance from the putting surface.

6 Lytham ranks strangely low in some GB&I Top 100 rankings. If you’ve played there you will likely disagree with this though plenty is made about the bunkering and how tough it is. Since Mackenzie & Ebert’s renovations ahead of the 2012 Open around 40 bunkers were removed and the course has continued to improve and soften slightly in terms of difficulty.

7 Lytham suffers from its surrounds given it doesn’t run alongside the coast and rather sits inside a lot of housing. But, when you are either playing or watching golf here, none of that matters. The layout, turf and setting is incredible and it’s a very welcome return to the greatest Championship in the game.

Read next: Ranking Augusta’s back nine: where The Masters is really won

To give yourself the best chance to hit a good putt, you need to make a free stroke with clarity over what you are trying to do.

Do any of these sound familiar?

1. ‘I missed so many putts today’

Newsflash: Everyone misses putts. Scottie, Rory, Tiger, everyone. The average percentage of putts made on the PGA Tour from six feet is 65 per cent. Yet so many handicap golfers get so frustrated when they miss from six feet.

What is one difference between the two types of golfers though? Well, yes, they practise more, it’s their job etc but what you find is those players you see week in week out on our TVs don’t bring baggage to the putt, yet amateurs tend to.

They bring the fact this is for par or this is to make buffer. A tour player brings no baggage, just an acknowledgement that this is a putt and it requires two things – a chosen line and a good pace to roll the ball.

So the next time that you find yourself missing putts, first of all accept you have and always will miss putts like the world’s best do. But then trigger in to choosing your desired line and your chosen pace and then enjoy the opportunity of rolling the ball into the hole.

2. ‘Get it inside a dustbin lid’

You’ve hit two fantastic shots which have seen you put the ball on the toughest par-4 green on the course. So now your attention turns to the 40-foot putt that you face. The conscious mind kicks in and you remember a great piece of advice you were given – get it inside a dustbin lid.

I love the idea but where is the fun in this? The chances are that you play this game for a hobby so you might as well have some fun trying to roll a long putt in.

Hold it right there though because the last thing you want to do is race it by because you got over eager to hole a putt that you might only hole once every 15 rounds. So let’s go back to the dustbin lid. Admittedly this would be a great result but, if you aim to get within a dustbin lid and miss it by two feet, that is not bad.

Now however, you hit the putt and this time with the goal of holing it and you hit an equally accurate putt by missing that by two feet.

If you leave yourself four feet away then you are leaving yourself with the task of holing a putt that the tour pros hole roughly 75 per cent of the time.

Trying to put a ball inside a dustbin lid is easier than trying to hole it yet, with that mindset, focus can be leaked. The key is to heighten the focus without applying unnecessary pressure.

So next time you are in this position, plan to roll the ball to the hole embracing the opportunity that it might drop in.

3. ‘I can’t believe I missed that last putt’

Well, you did miss that putt but how you missed it is different to just missing it. The result was you missed it but did you do all you could to try roll the ball into the cup? If your answer was yes, then that’s it, you did all you can. You saw the line, you executed the putt with clarity in the mind but it missed.

Process and result are two separate things. If you find yourself dwelling like this on the course, just ask that question if you must, ‘Was my process good?’ If the answer was yes then great move on.

If it was no, then you can take action by focusing well on the next shot. You should never try to make up for something because you can’t. You cannot make up for a bogey on the last with a birdie on the next. That birdie is a birdie, that’s it. It does not mean you made up for the last, you just birdied it.

So, when you find yourself dwelling on the last putt, ask yourself if the process was good, and then look forward to the next opportunity to roll the next putt in.

4. ‘I must hole this’

Why must you hole it? You would love to hole it but wouldn’t we all like to hole all putts? Golf isn’t that kind. Those who work, have a family, in fact those who live, will come up against various pressures throughout their lives.

Maybe it is illness, paying bills, meeting work deadlines the list could go on. Those things are real life pressures some have so, now you have acknowledged these, is that putt really that important?

It is obvious you want to hole the putt but do you have to remind ourselves of this? No. Instead you suck the wandering mind back from the future and emotion of the putt, get back to present and the task at hand which simply put is to find the line that you wish to roll the ball down and roll the ball down it at your chosen pace.

At the end of the roll there might just be a hole waiting for it. If not we tap in, walk off knowing you did all you can to roll the ball as best you could and enjoyed the opportunity.

About Duncan McCarthy

Duncan is a mental performance coach who works across all sports including women’s Major champion Ashleigh Buhai

It appeared to back up the accusations that joining the money-laden rebel tour with limited fields had taken their competitive edge away and the effect of that was shown at its strongest in Majors – the most important events in the game.

LIV’s Tyrrell Hatton finishing third at Augusta – his best Masters result – punched a hole in the theory in some eyes.

But there’s no doubt that several players have really dropped off in the Majors since leaving the PGA Tour for LIV.

Here we list the top five.

Dustin Johnson

In seven seasons from 2015 to 2021, Dustin Johnson was an absolute stud in the Majors.

Over the 27 he played in that period, DJ racked up two wins, four second places and a further eight top 10s.

He signed for LIV just prior to the 2022 US Open and finished sixth in the Open Championship a month later.

But in his 13 Majors as a LIV player since then, Johnson has missed six cuts and made the top 20 just once (T10 in the 2023 US Open).

Jon Rahm

Rahm joined LIV at the end of 2023 and it was a huge coup for the breakaway organisation.

In the 10 majors he’d played before the switch, Rahm racked up two wins (2021 US Open and 2023 Masters), a tied second, a tied third and three other top 10s.

Since the move, he’s managed three top 10s in seven attempts but nothing better than seventh.

We’d become used to Rahm being up there in every single Major; now it’s far from uncommon to see him nowhere near page one of the leaderboard.

Cameron Smith

The rumours surrounding Smith were swirling when he achieved his finest moment in golf – winning the 2022 Open Championship at St Andrews.

It was no great surprise to see him lifting the Claret Jug at the Old Course as he’d previously posted second, third and fifth at The Masters.

The move to LIV in the summer of 2023 didn’t stop him making a mark in the Majors in 2023 as he delivered a ninth in the PGA Championship and fourth in the US Open.

But after another good show at Augusta (sixth) in the 2024 Masters, Smith’s form in the Majors has fallen off a cliff.

Indeed, he’s failed to make the weekend in each of the last six. That’s more Majors MCs than he’d suffered in his entire career before switching to LIV.

Louis Oosthuizen

The South African had his golden moment in the Majors when streaking to a seven-shot win in the Open at St Andrews in 2010.

It didn’t stop there. Between 2012 and 2017 he recorded a runners-up finish in all four Majors while in 2021 Oosthuizen went 2-2-3 at the PGA Championship, US Open and Open Championship.

Oosthuizen joined LIV the following year and his form in the Majors since then reads MC-MC-WD-23-MC-MC.

Due to LIV not being given world ranking points, he struggles now to get into Majors and has featured in just two of the last nine.

Brooks Koepka

Maybe Koepka answers the obvious follow-up question: if LIV is detrimental to performance in Majors, should a player move back to the PGA Tour?

Koepka did just that at the start of the year and in his first post-LIV Major he produced a promising tied 12th at The Masters.

Pre-LIV he enjoyed a superb run in the Majors, winning two US Opens and two PGA Championships between 2017 and 2019. In the final three Majors of 2021 he went 2-4-6.

After an initial dip (55-MC) when joining LIV in 2022, Koepka flexed his muscles in the Majors again when finishing runner-up in The Masters and winning his third PGA Championship.

But did no top 10s in the following 10 Majors help persuade him that LIV was hurting his hopes of adding more big titles?

Conclusion

As Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau have both won Majors as LIV players, it’s hard to make sweeping statements.

There are other factors at work such as injuries and natural career dips that would have happened regardless.

But if LIV does come to an end and players like Rahm, Cam Smith and Dustin Johnson suddenly hit form again in the Majors, the obvious conclusions will be drawn.

Professional golf has many archetypes that we adore.

The journeyman who always saves his card. The veteran who finds something special in his 40s. The champion who rekindles the magic for one week in a major in his 50s.

But nothing quite gets the juices flowing like a youngster thrilling us with the first steps of a great career.

Who should we be looking out for right now?

Let’s take a look.

Blades Brown

Brown carded a 60 on the PGA Tour in January (at The American Express), was third in the Puerto Rico Open in February, and he is also a two time 54-hole leader on the Korn Ferry Tour this season (eventually finishing second and third).

And he’s still only 18 – in fact he was the youngest-ever KFT pre-final round leader when he grabbed the first of those leads.

It’s safe to say that the Nashville born and bred golfer is somewhat precocious.

In fact, he was also the youngest-ever medallist in the US Amateur aged 16 and the man whose record he broke was only the great Bobby Jones.

Unusually for an American, he quit education after high school and turned pro in December 2024.

He landed one second place on the KFT in 2025, but it was not enough for graduation to the top tier. His current form suggests he’ll be on the PGA Tour sooner rather than later, however.

A final thought: that 60 could have been even better – he had a 7-foot birdie putt at the last for a 59.

Angel Ayora

The Spanish 21-year-old has connections.

He is managed by Javier Ballesteros, son of Seve, and is physically trained by Juan Carlos Ferrero, formerly the trainer of Carlos Alcaraz and winner of a Grand Slam even himself.

Ayora’s amateur achievements were not shining but he was still considered a future star and he’s taken to the pro ranks with style and composure.

He graduated from the second tier with one victory and second place in the Grand Final, and ranked 20th in the Race to Dubai in his rookie season on the DP World Tour.

Perhaps the only gap in his CV at this stage is a top level win because he’s become a relentless accumulator of top 10s and top 20s.

If he could find a rock solid putting stroke, the wins would pour in and he surely has graduation to the PGA Tour in his sights at the end of 2026 – a year in which you can use a kalshi referral code for golf.

He’s capable of it, too.

Wenyi Ding

The Chinese 21-year-old spent time at Arizona State University where Phil Mickelson and Jon Rahm honed their games – and he won the US Amateur Championship in 2022.

He’s where it gets weird: when he won that prestigious junior title he had already clocked eight top 10 finishes on the professional China Tour including a win and third place in the China Open.

He won the 2024 Asia Pacific Amateur Championship which got him spots in last year’s Masters and US Open, but he passed on those opportunities to turn pro late in the year and he easily kept hold of his DP World Tour card.

He pushed another fine youngster, David Puig, close when he was second in the Australian PGA Championship late in 2025.

Jackson Koivun

The World No. 1 amateur became just the third player to earn a PGA Tour card through the PGA Tour University Accelerated Program last year, but he deferred it and said it was a no-brainer – he likes Auburn University and the amateur game that much.

“He’s just special,’ said Auburn head coach Nick Clinard. “He’s elite physically, he’s elite emotionally, he’s elite mentally. He’s got the whole package.”

The 20-year-old wins college events for fun, went 3-1 in the 2025 Walker Cup and has proved himself on the PGA Tour with four finishes of T12 or better last year.

He might be the best of the lost.

Expectations will be high when he decides to take his PGA Tour card, but he might be up to them.

Aldrich Potgieter

The South African 21-year-old already has so much pro experience under his belt it is sometimes hard to believe he is still as young as he is.

Born in SA, he spent a large chunk of his youth in Western Australia where his family relocated for his golf. They returned to their homeland after COVID and Potgieter won the 2022 British Amateur Championship aged just 17.

It was immediately apparent that he is a prodigious hitter, helped by the rugby and wrestling he played as a boy.

He turned pro in 2023 and early in 2024 he became the youngest winner on the Korn Ferry Tour aged 19. Two weeks later he thrashed a 59 on the same circuit and he ended the year finishing second at the Nedbank Challenge – also known as Africa’s Major.

Last year, his rookie campaign on the PGA Tour, he broke through with victory in the Rocket Classic.

Consistency is what he needs. His A game is very, very good. His B game is poor.

Read next: A changing of the guard? What The Masters says about golf’s future

Since it launched itself at golf’s docile status quo in early 2021, LIV has provided stories that have a remarkable capacity to shock and divide in a way no-one could have predicted.

Let’s take a look at the timeline of golf’s global circuit, tracing a route of disruption has rocked the world’s most conservative sport.

October 2021

Greg Norman is appointed CEO of LIV, a mysterious entity but one claiming to have big aspirations, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

February 2022

The writer Alan Shipnuck reveals that Phil Mickelson told him that the Saudi’s are “scary motherf***kers” who he plans to use as leverage in his ongoing dispute with the PGA Tour. The incident leaves Mickelson out in the cold.

May 2022

At The Centurion Club near London Greg Norman heads a press conference to reveal LIV Golf. Norman, whose previous attempt to start an alternative to the PGA Tour had been repelled in the 90s, was up for the fight and is not scared of PGA Tour threats. “This time it’s different,” he says. “We’ve got $2 billion backing us.”

The biggest headlines, however, are made when he is asked about Saudi government’s sanctioning of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, as judged by the CIA. “We’ve all made mistakes,” Norman says.

June 2022

The first event – LIV London. As the players tee off a missive from the PGA Tour CEO Jay Monahan drops: anyone who played without release is banned. Shipnuck is ejected from a press conference by security staff. He messages Norman who says he know nothing about it.

Photographs of the ejection then show Norman stood behind Shipnuck, staring at him throughout the ejection. Charl Schwartzel wins the tournament.

July 2022

A DP World Tour ban on players is suspended until a Sports Resolutions hearing in February 2023. The same month Greg Norman is not invited to the 150th Open and when the champion, Cameron Smith, wins it he is not happy that he is asked about the rumours that he is joining LIV.

Six weeks later he joins LIV. Henrik Stenson also joins LIV, losing the Ryder Cup captaincy.

August 2022

11 PGA Tour players file an antitrust law suits against the PGA Tour.

October 2022

LIV has been unable to get world ranking points. They now try to join with the third tier MENA Tour but the ploy is rebuffed. The same month the PGA Tour files a law suit against PIF.

December 2022

Rory McIlroy argues that Norman needs to leave his role so that there is an, “adult in the room.”

February 2023

The PGA Tour and LIV have spent the winter fighting through the courts, filing law suits, but both are desperate to avoid any form of disclosure. They both have information they don’t want in the public domain.

April 2023

The DP World Tour wins its arbitration case against LIV. It can fine and ban players. Days later Brooks Koepka and Mickelson finish T2 in the Masters.

June 2023

The maddest bombshell of them all. It is suddenly announced that representatives of the PGA Tour and LIV have been in secret negotiations. A “framework agreement” between PIF, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour has been set up.

Rory McIlroy looks to have been marginalised and Jay Monahan is shouted down at a PGA Tour player meeting. He later takes time away from office because of stress related issues.

October 2023

LIV yet again fails to get world rankings points.

December 2023

Jon Rahm had always been dubious about LIV’s 54-hole, no cut, shot gun start format. He also talked of the importance of history and legacy, which only the traditional tours could provide. In December he announces he is joining LIV. Tyrrell Hatton soon joins him.

January 2024

Anthony Kim joins LIV, plucked from obscurity.

March 2024

LIV withdraws its application for world rankings points.

January 2025

Scott O’Neil replaces Norman as LIV CEO.

February 2025

PGA and LIV representatives meet Donald Trump in the White House.

July 2025

LIV reapplies for world ranking points.

November 2025

LIV backtracks and announces its events will be played over 72 holes.

December 2025

Brooks Koepka leaves LIV and in January Patrick Reed follows him.

February 2026

Kim wins LIV Adelaide amid crazy scenes. Rahm also rejects a DP World Tour proposal that would have allowed his dispute with them to end and shutdown the threat of him not playing in the 2027 Ryder Cup. LIV earns world ranking points.

April 2026

Unnamed sources suggest that PIF is to end its involvement in LIV. O’Neil emails employees arguing otherwise but among the final lines are the words: “You mattered.”

The broadcast at LIV Mexico briefly goes down. Bryson DeChambeau cuts a disgruntled figure on the course and withdraws ahead of the final round. O’Neil tells TNT Sports that: “The reality is you’re funded through the season, and then you work like crazy as a business to create a business and a business plan to keep us going.”

This line is then deleted from TNT Sports coverage.

Read next: LIV Golf and Major championships: Separating fact from fiction

We are hitting around 80-95 shots and therefore the same number of chances to find fault with either ourselves or the course so it’s crucial to be able to keep a lid on the negative self-talk.

1. The lie

There’s is nothing worse than a bad lie in the rough, even worse is a bad lie in the fairway. Hold on though, we are playing a game that is outdoors, in the elements, on uneven ground and sometimes on a course that has been there potentially decades and centuries of years played by thousands of golfers.

So guess what, bad lies are going to happen – its part of the game. The reaction by many is to either let their playing partners know this or moan internally that the golfing gods are against them today.

In perspective it is what it is and the one thing lacking from most golfers is the skill of acceptance.

In my mind this is probably one of the greatest skills we can ever learn for this beautiful game and possibly for life. Accept the poor lie to allow the mind to focus on the task at hand. Instead, what many do is go through their process physically but the most important bit, the mind, is sitting in the past still moaning about the poor lie and guess what…. the result is a poor one.

So next time we reach our ball in a poor lie don’t blame the golfing gods, accept it, re-focus and execute the best shot that we can at that time. It can be very rewarding to pull off a great shot from a poor lie.

2. Our practice

One of the best lines is when we hear people tell us they are shooting great numbers in practice rounds. Unfortunately however we are judged handicap wise and tournament wise by our competitive rounds though we can of course put in scores at any point.

Yet why and how can we hit it so great in practice and yet so poorly on the course? Well the answer is simple; state. We are surrounded by states, states of people. Happy state, sad state, frustrated state, calm state – the list goes on.

We have to become very mindful of the states that we create for ourselves because some can be very beneficial and others harmful.

In practice be aware of the state that we create. My guessing is we are probably in a relaxed and calm state. However some of we may start that way but move into a frustrated and annoyed state if we hit it poorly.

Are the last two states really good for golf? Not a chance and certainly not in practice because we are training ourselves to get annoyed and frustrated at poor shots in practice so guess what happens in play? We become frustrated and annoyed in play.

So next time we are practising, become aware of our state and maintain a consistent state throughout our entire practice session regardless of results. Then we might just see a reflection of this in play.

3. The pins

Most golfers have played a round of golf, shot a poor number and blamed the pin positions on certain holes or even every hole.
What we forget are numerous things and two of the most important things are these – one is it is out of our control where the pins are set and, secondly and most importantly, we don’t have to go at the pins.

This is massive. A golfer, generally one having a poor day, will hit his or her approach shot into the green and be left in a shocking position with an almost impossible chip to the pin. The knock-on effect is ‘that pin is a joke’. The joke is not the pin; the joke is the individual who got suckered into playing towards such a tricky pin placement.

How many times have we heard Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods say they won most of their Majors by making the least amount of mistakes.

Just check next time we are playing, at the bunker nearest the pin, generally on the short side. It will have lots of rake marks in it from players being in there. Then check the bunker on the smart side of the pin. I bet it is smooth and generally unused. Yet this bunker is the one to miss in for the average golfer because it leaves the easier shot.

Next time we are faced with a tight pin placement, play our shot to the smart side of the green, whether it is long, short, left or right.

Finally, remember that centre of the green never hurt anyone.

About Duncan McCarthy

Duncan is a mental performance coach who works across all sports including women’s Major champion Ashleigh Buhai.

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Rahm had won the title in 2023 and was in great form on LIV. DeChambeau had made the top six in the previous two Masters and headed to Augusta after capturing the latest two events on the LIV schedule.

Everything looked in place but both men flopped. DeChambeau messed up the final hole to miss the 36-hole cut while Rahm scraped into the weekend on the number and made modest progress to finish 38th.

Their joint failure had many casting aspersions on the value of playing in LIV events. Are they competitive enough? Are the courses on LIV too easy and no preparation to take on a course like Augusta National?

Debate raged, as it does, but what do the facts say? Were the poor showings of Rahm and DeChambeau just isolated examples and not representative?

To get a broader view, Golf365 looks at how LIV players have performed in majors since the breakaway tour came into existence in June 2022.

Has a LIV player actually won a major? Let’s go through each of the four.

The Masters

The first Masters to feature LIV players was the 2023 edition.

Rahm, the winner, hadn’t joined at that stage but LIV players thrived. Phil Mickelson and Brooks Koepka finished joint-second while Patrick Reed was fourth.

In 2024, the LIV players performed well again although none made the top five. DeChambeau and Cam Smith were tied sixth, Tyrrell Hatton tied ninth and Reed tied 12th.

Last year there were two LIV players in the top five – Reed in third and DeChambeau in tied fifth.

Despite Rahm and DeChambeau underperforming in 2026, Hatton burst through the field with a Sunday 66 to share third place.

Get US Masters picks and predictions.

PGA Championship

In the first PGA of the LIV era (2023), Brooks Koepka lifted the trophy, thus claiming a fifth major title. DeChambeau was fourth and Cam Smith also made the top 10.

DeChambeau finished runner-up in both the 2024 and 2025 PGAs, with Rahm and Joaquin Niemann both making the top eight in last year’s edition.

US Open

The 2022 US Open was the first major to feature LIV players and they all drew plenty of heat for joining the money-laden Saudi-backed tour. Maybe as a result, none made the top 20.

Cam Smith (T4) and Dustin Johnson (T10) made the top 10 at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023 before DeChambeau became LIV’s second major winner when edging out Rory McIlroy down the stretch at Pinehurst in 2024.

In last year’s US Open, six of the 11 LIV players taking part made it to the weekend. Hatton and Ortiz were the standouts, both finishing in a tie for fourth, while Rahm placed seventh.

Open Championship

There were rumours that Cam Smith was heading to LIV ahead of the 2022 Open at St Andrews and, to his annoyance, the questions kept coming after he’d held off Cam Young and McIlroy to lift the Claret Jug.

Smith, then World No.2, officially signed up with LIV a few weeks later.

As for those already LIV members, Dustin Johnson was the best with tied sixth while DeChambeau was a shot behind in tied eighth.

The 2023 Open was a collective flop for LIV with no-one finishing better than Henrik Stenson in 13th.

It was a similar story in 2024 at Royal Troon with Rahm, in tied seventh, the only one of the 17 LIV players to make the top 15.

The Open again proved the toughest major for LIV players at Royal Portrush in 2025, with DeChambeau’s T10 the only top 15 finish among the 20 who took part.

LIV in the majors – the final count

The Masters – 4 editions
Wins: 0
Top 10s: 9

PGA Championship – 3 editions
Wins: 1
Top 10s: 7

US Open – 3 editions
Wins: 1
Top 10s: 6

Open Championship – 3 editions
Wins: 0
Top 10s: 4

To answer the original question, two players – Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau – have won majors since switching to LIV.

There’s probably not enough years of evidence yet to try and draw conclusions about whether playing on LIV takes away some competitive edge.

A counter-argument is that it leaves LIV players mentally fresher if they’re not trying to beat full fields on tough courses.

In truth, those angles need to be investigated on a case by case basis. It’s certainly done DeChambeau no harm but Rahm does seem to have dropped off since moving.

Finally, for whatever reason, the Open Championship has been easily the worst major for LIV players. Will that continue at Royal Birkdale this summer?

Read next: How much does the Masters winner earn? 2026 prize money revealed

There have, after all, been a few duff tournaments down the years.

But we seem to be living in a golden period currently because this year’s finale undoubtedly lived up to the drama of 2025.

As we all catch our breath, let’s consider the five biggest talking points coming out of the 2026 Masters.

1. Is Rory McIlroy Europe’s greatest ever golfer?

If we are in a golden period, let’s call it Rory’s World.

Because in winning last year he completed the Career Grand Slam.

And in successfully defending the Green Jacket he joined an elite club of back-to-back Masters winners. How elite? Its only other members are Jack Nicklaus, Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods. That elite.

With a sixth major victory McIlroy draws level with Faldo as the leading major winner from Europe in the modern era (Harry Vardon won six Opens and a US Open between 1896 and 1914).

McIlroy trumps Vardon because he’s had to beat deeper fields. He trumps Faldo because he has the Career Grand Slam. He trumps Seve Ballesteros, who had five wins, but does remain the man who revived European golf.

The Northern Irishman has the potential to achieve something special. Tom Watson ranks sixth for major wins on eight. Ben Hogan and Gary Player sit on nine. They are in the crosshairs.

2. Just how important is mindset?

At the start of the week Rory McIlroy hosted the Champions Dinner and for many defending Masters champions, especially the first timers, it is that experience that makes winning back-to-back exceptionally difficult.

The dinner is an intimidating experience but McIlroy was older than most new boys, with a career record that meant he deserved to be there.

He treated the night with reverence but there was also a sense that he had found his place and it allowed him to attack the tournament with a sense of having nothing to lose. It allowed him to build a six-shot halfway lead.

Suddenly, however, he had everything to lose: a huge lead and the threat of looking a proper Charlie. Cue a clumsy Saturday which conceded his advantage.

He was fortunate that the mistakes came in round three and not round four. It offered him the chance to right the ship, but more importantly to re-assess his mental attitude.

When McIlroy three-putted the sixth green Cameron Young immediately went from the hunter to the hunted leader with a two shot lead.

Had the parred his way home we’d have had a play-off. Instead he made bogey immediately and was a spent force.

3. Is Justin Rose golf’s most resilient man?

It will be tempting to believe that this was Justin Rose’s final opportunity to win a Green Jacket. When Young started to slide backwards it was initially Rose who found himself top of the leaderboard on his own.

His first response was positive: a birdie at 9 to double his advantage to two strokes, but Amen Corner ultimately caught him out and he added a share of third to his three second place finishes at Augusta National.

He will turn 46 in July – surely he’s done with contending in the majors?

And yet we thought that when he played in the 2023 Ryder Cup, holding the hand of Robert MacIntyre and generally looking like captaincy or vice-captaincy was next. But he bounced back to be superb in the 2025 match in New York and rejected overtures to captain in 2027 because he wants to play again.

We thought he’d had his last major chance when he was superb in finishing second in the 2024 Open at Royal Troon. His response that time? He very nearly won the very next major he teed it up in – last year’s Masters.

Don’t doubt the Rose. He keeps coming back for more.

4. What is the state of LIV golfers in the majors?

LIV enthusiasts had every right to be excited about this Masters.

Jon Rahm entered it on a run of nine finishes of T5 or better on LIV that included one win and six seconds. Bryson DeChambeau arrived fresh off back-to-back wins in Singapore and South Africa.

What happened next was a double pratfall: Rahm barely made the weekend and DeChambeau didn’t.

It allowed traditionalists to become smug, with much chatter about the poor levels of preparation that LIV offers for a major championship. It was noted that Rahm and DeChambeau fought out the final tournament before the Masters in extra holes in South Africa having shot 26-under in regulation – easy golf, it was said, is no prep for the tough Augusta National.

The truth, as always, is more complex than partisans will allow.

LIV advocates ought to be concerned that Rahm can so dominate LIV and yet, since winning the 2023 Masters before he joined the circuit, has not genuinely contended in a major since. They should be concerned that Joaquin Niemann plays world class golf on LIV and yet has only one major top 10 in 26 starts. They should be concerned that Cameron Smith has missed the cut in his last six majors.

The traditionalists ought to note that Tyrrell Hatton has finished top four in two of the last three majors (and contended in the other). And DeChambeau still has six top 10 finishes including a win and two seconds in his last nine majors.

5. How good were the TV angles?

There was a time when we watched the Masters from the same TV angles every year, from those green platforms on green posts behind greens and tees.

In the last couple of years, however, we’ve started to see subtly different angles and this year was a revelation. Sometimes it was as simple as seeing the players tee off at 3 from the side – so we could see the 7th green behind.

But it was the drone footage that took it to another level. From a TV perspective, we’ve never seen so much of the course and it was fantastic.

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