Fred Couples’ touching gesture and how to fight in golf

Welcome! Where are you, you ask. I’m calling this the Weekend 9. Think of it as a spot to warm you up for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’ll have thoughts. We’ll have tips. We’ll have tweets. But just nine in all, though sometimes maybe more and sometimes maybe less. As for who I am? The paragraphs below tell some of the story. I can be reached at nick.piastowski@golf.com.

I promise this won’t get preachy. Or syrupy. 

After all, this starts with a tee shot smacking a 50-foot tree about 100 yards out, then ricocheting off it at about a 4 o’clock angle, before finishing 10 feet below the hole we’d just finished, about 50 yards to our right. The only thing higher than the odds of that happening was the degree of absurdity. And Matt heard about it. It was his golf ball that he’d played more like a billiards ball.

Good stuff. And that’s what my annual golf trip is, which I went on last week. (Should you be interested, I’ve written about it here, here and here.) We go to Green Lake, Wis. (about 90 minutes north from where I grew up), we play the Lawsonia double, Mascoutin and Tuscumbia (which is right down the street from our Airbnb) and we play golf, eat and watch old pro wrestling on YouTube (sometimes all at once). Going are Matt and Ethan; they’re college friends. And another Matt; he’s a high school friend. And Todd, whom I’ve known since grade school. You have this group. You have this trip. 

And isn’t that the “point?” 

Remember Scottie Scheffler existentially reflecting on that at the Open Championship? About a month after he wondered why he should try to win, and after he wondered why he should try to win when things such as family matter infinitely more, and after he wondered “what’s the point,” I’d still been thinking about it all, too.   

Then somewhere after a bogey and a beer, I was reminded of the answer. Sometimes it gets lost among the emails and meeting invites. But it’s why we respond to all of those messages. It’s why we hustle. It’s why we keep hustling. 

The answer is the thrill of the climb, whatever your climb may be. And the ability to celebrate that, in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways. 

Like with golf balls off trees. 

Let’s see if we can find eight more items for the Weekend 9. 

One takeaway from the week 

2. The story of the week is Juli Inkster. After shooting a three-under 69 during the first round of the LPGA’s Standard Portland Classic and a 74 during the second round, she made a run to make the cut — at the age of 65, which would have made her the oldest to do so in LPGA history. 

The 31-time LPGA winner and World Golf Hall of Famer hadn’t played in an LPGA event since 2022, but entered the Portland event both to tune-up for next week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, and to play alongside Inkster Award winner Carolina Chacarra. (The Inkster Award recognizes the highest-ranked women’s collegiate player in her final year of NCAA eligibility.) Inkster then dialed in. On Thursday, she carded four birdies. On Friday, she parred her final five holes as she fought to make the cut. Over both rounds, she hit 22 of 28 fairways and 23 of 36 greens. 

In the end, though, she fell a stroke short. 

“Yeah, just kind of means that I have a passion for the game,” Inkster said Friday. “I love the game. You know, I’m really happy I played this week. Kind of when I signed up, was kind of like, what are you doing? I was free. I was out there with Hannah Green and Stacy [Lewis] and had a great time.

“Just love watching the young kids swing. I mean, it’s so impressive. I think the game is in really good shape and happy to be here.”

3. The second-best story of the week? It was the play of Jimmy Abdo at this week’s U.S. Amateur, and below is a video from GOLF’s James Colgan looking at it.

One takeaway for the week ahead

4. Ahead of this week’s BMW Championship, part of the talk centered on next week’s Tour Championship, where the season-ending PGA Tour event will undergo its latest revamp. The latest format is simple to follow, though — everyone starts at even on the leaderboard, and the winner of the tournament is the winner of the season-long trophy — but, for now, we won’t weigh in with whether it’s the best format. 

Because we want to offer this suggestion: 

End the pro golf season with an August PGA Championship. 

Of course, there’s the matter of what happens with all of the money and such dedicated to the current PGA Tour playoffs, but someone smart can maybe figure that part out. 

One takeaway for the month ahead

5. Also at the BMW, and at every tournament this summer, there were questions on whether Keegan Bradley should be a playing captain for the upcoming Ryder Cup. To opine here, I liked this thought from our Slack channel this week:

“Two weeks out, I am of the belief that anyone who thinks he’s NOT picking himself is silly.”

Which was followed by this comment:

“He has wanted to be on another team for a decade. He might not get another chance. He’s going to willingly not play? Be serious.”

I agree. The question is, how poor would Bradley have to play over these next two weeks not to pick himself. 

One takeaway for the weeks ahead

6. This week’s LIV Golf event is the first of two season-ending events, and it promises to determine whether players will be “relegated” out of the league for next season. Should they fall below 48th in the season-long points race, they’re out — and entering play, familiar names such as Henrik Stenson and Ian Poulter were among those looking to avoid that fate. 

LIV tour card drama will certainly be engaging. But contract negotiations should be even more so. Deals for some of LIV’s biggest stars are reportedly ending at the end of next year — Bryson DeChambeau talked about his negotiations in June at the U.S. Open — and whether they’re renewed is LIV’s biggest story. 

7. In more LIV Golf news, Sebastian Munoz shot a 59 during Friday’s first round — with a double bogey on his fourth hole. After the double, he played his final 14 holes at a ridiculous 13-under par.  

An instruction tip for your weekend 

8. I really liked this exchange on Friday between a reporter and Robert MacIntyre, with the reporter’s question in italics:

Question about golf and shinty. You used the word “fight.” I’ve heard you use that word a lot over the last three or four years. What does it mean to you, because we’re talking about fight in shinty, when it can be physical, and fight in golf, when it can’t be. What is your definition of being a good fighter when you’re playing a very calm sport?

“Yeah, I’m not very calm on the golf course,” MacIntyre said. “But shinty is a physical contact sport where the fight is not so much physical fight, but it’s like, don’t go in half-hearted; don’t go 50/50 in a tackle; that’s when you get injured. Go 100 percent in a tackle, and hopefully you win the tackle. If not, you get back up and you go again.

“Golf is exact — that’s the way I treat it. Yesterday I hit a bad tee shot on 12 into the water. When it’s a tough test, I find it easier, when you know people are making bogeys. But it was just get there, make a drop, think about what you’re doing, and it’s more of a switch on for me. In golf, it’s more focusing more and just do not give up, no matter what. Do not give up. There’s times when it’s not going well and you want to throw in the towel, but it’s not what I do.

“For me, it’s just try your hardest until it’s done and someone tells you to stop.”

A video on Twitter that I found funny 

9. The video below is wild. 

3 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: U.S. Amateur, Golf Channel 

6 p.m.-9 p.m. ET: The Standard Portland Classic third round, Golf Channel 

10 p.m.-midnight ET: Rogers Charity Classic second round, Golf Channel 

— Sunday 

6 a.m.-11 a.m. ET: Danish Golf Championship final round, Golf Channel

10 a.m.-noon ET: LIV Golf Indianapolis final round, FS1

Noon-3 p.m. ET: LIV Golf Indianapolis final round, Fox 

Noon-2 p.m. ET: BMW Championship final round, Golf Channel 

2 p.m.-6 p.m. ET: BMW Championship final round, NBC 

4 p.m.-7 p.m. ET: The Standard Portland Classic final round, Golf Channel 

7 p.m.-10 p.m. ET: U.S. Amateur championship match, Golf Channel 

11 p.m.-1 a.m. ET: Rogers Charity Classic final round, Golf Channel 

A story to watch for 

12. Late last month, I traveled to Olympia, Wash., for a story, and it should publish sometime in the next few weeks. It’s a deeper one. I can’t reveal too much, but I’ll say that I was asked several times if I’d ever previously interviewed a prison inmate.  

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