Billy Horschel’s bad timing, Phil Mickelson’s brutal haircut and an all-time clutch hole-in-one

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are thrilled to declare a giant victory in our ongoing soda war. Yes, soda war. For the past few years, I’ve had trouble securing cans of Dr. Brown’s diet black cherry at my local grocery store. An employee there informed me that an old man in town loves the stuff as much as I do and clears out the section when it’s available. I pretty much do the same, so it’s a real back-and-forth battle. But after picking up a birthday cake at another store, I discovered not only did they have it, but they had it in 12-packs!

And they happened to be on sale! What a score! So to my (worthy) nemesis, good luck scrounging for six-packs. I’m not waving the white flag, but simply employing a different strategy that should benefit us both. OK, let’s talk about everything else going on. You know, in golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Billy Horschel: Already the only American to win the BMW PGA Championship other than Arnold Palmer, Billy now has a leg up on even Arnie with a second victory in what has long been considered the DP World Tour’s flagship event. And what a way to get win No. 2 at Wentworth. Horschel went birdie-EAGLE in a sudden-death playoff to take down Rory McIlroy.

Truly impressive stuff. And what a classy photo. Anyway, it’s been a very good, but odd career for Billy, who finished top five in his first major as a pro, but didn’t do that again until a T-2 more than a decade later at this year’s Open Championship. But he’s got two BMW PGAs to go with eight PGA Tour wins, plus the 2014 FedEx Cup. And it’s been a remarkable turnaround from how low he was feeling just last year. At 37 and playing as well as ever, it’s not crazy to think Horschel could still wind up … a Hall-of-Famer. More on that in a bit. Stay with me here!

Lydia Ko: On to a player who has already locked up Hall-of-Fame status, Ko continued a remarkable few months with another win, this time at the Kroger Queen City Championship. The 27-year-old cruised to a five-shot victory for her 22nd career LPGA title and third this season.

“I had a fairytale of those past couple months, and now I feel like if I set my mind to it, maybe I can do it,” Ko said. Um, yeah, there’s no maybe there. With three wins including a major, plus and Olympic gold medal, it’s also not crazy to think we could end up having an LPGA Player of the Year debate between Ko and Nelly Korda. Just saying.

Nicole Iniakov: Moving on to a young lady who would love to one day be compared to either Ko or Korda. This junior golfer—partnered with Ernie Els—not only won the First Tee division of the PGA Tour Champions' Pure Insurance Championship, she did it by making a hole-in-one on Pebble Beach’s iconic 17th with the tournament tied:

Unreal stuff. And a tip of the cap to Ernie as well for making another eagle on 18 as the dynamic duo won by four. Shout-out as well to Daniel Ferguson, who played with Justin Leonard, for winning the boys division. No word on if Nicole had to pick up the bar tab after.

WE’RE SELLING

Rory’s luck: Like I said last week, this guy is the new Greg Norman. Which, of course, is funny because of how much Rory hates Greg. But what else can you say after he got daggered again down the stretch at the BMW PGA Championship? This time McIlroy birdied both playoff holes—and it still wasn’t enough!

The price of being in contention so often is you’re going to have a lot of close calls, but it’s not always your fault. Like Norman, sometimes you just get beat.

Mark O’Meara’s finish: There was nothing wrong with how O’Meara finished the final competitive round of his career, it’s just sad when you see guys you've watched forever hang 'em up. He also fell into the MDF (made cut, didn’t finish) category, but at least he knew he wasn’t going to tee it up on Sunday. And at least he was able to make one final great memory at Pebble Beach on Saturday, birdieing the 17th hole:

And then the tears started to flow on 18:

And to those thinking my Billy-Ho HOF comment was crazy, consider that O’Meara won both of his majors during his hall-of-fame career during one season in 1998. And that was when he was 41. Anyway, happy trails, Mark. Hopefully, your old pal Tiger sent you a nice (needling) text.

Billy Horschel's timing: Despite his impressive résumé, did you know that Horschel has made just one U.S. team for either the Ryder Cup or the Presidents Cup in his career? That's crazy. But his 2014 FedEx Cup win came too late to make that Ryder Cup and this BMW PGA victory came too late for him to be playing in this week's Presidents Cup. Too bad, because he also has a WGC-Match Play Championship under his Ralph Lauren belt and Team USA could use his fire.

He could have been the American Ian Poulter, who knows? Anyway, maybe next year at Bethpage Black, Billy.

Phil Mickelson’s haircut: We’re not sure what the heck is going on here, but it’s not good:

I got better haircuts than that when I used to pay only $6 as a college student in North Carolina (Shout-out Mr. Gobbles!). That being said, we’re also selling those hating on Phil’s haircut. Heck, the dude is 54. The fact that he has hair is a victory already, so there’s probably some jealousy out there. And aside from age, when you factor in everything he’s gone through the past few years (of his own doing), it’s amazing he has any hair left at all.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour is back (kinda) with the Presidents Cup, AKA that event Team USA wins every two years. Sorry, but it’s true. And that’s been the case for more than two decades. Despite the fact that there have been a bunch of times we thought the tide was turning toward the International side. (Hey, what do you know? I wrote about exactly that!) In any event, both teams get absolutely hooked up with plenty of swag as evidenced by this video:

Another reason to keep practicing, kids!

Random tournament fact: Remember Aquaman? The last time Royal Montreal hosted the Presidents Cup, Woody Austin fell into a lake:

That being said, the U.S. hasn’t lost in 26(!) years. HOWEVAH, the past two road games resulted in two wins by a combined three points. So the home crowd could play a huge role this week at Royal Montreal. Attention, Canadians! Mike Weir is counting on you!

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—A player will fall into that lake again: 1 MILLION-1 odds

—The Internationals will finally win again: 3-to-1 odds (Actual odds, value?)

—Mike Weir will get the loudest cheers of the week: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

That is an insane stat. Scottie Scheffler is on an insane heater.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

It’s really happening, folks:

You love to see it. I just don’t love that I still didn’t get my call back to be a part of it.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Former boxer and “Creed” star Tony Bellew made an ALBATROSS during the BMW PGA pro-am and provided an all-time celebration:

Good for him. And then there was poor Tom Holland, introducing himself to Rory McIlroy, and, well, not getting much in return from Rory:

Ouch. But don’t worry, Tom! Plenty of kids out there still love you! Like Frankie Fleetwood:

Who said you should never meet your heroes?

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (WINNING DIVISION)

Billy Horschel's walk-off eagle was awesome. But the Horschel family watching Billy’s walk-off eagle at Wentworth from home was even better:

Unless you bet on Rory McIlroy, of course. Or you are Rory McIlroy …

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (RUNNER-UP DIVISION)

But Rory had a sweet moment of his own with daughter, Poppy:

Prediction: Poppy—and Rory—will have a MAJOR winning moment in 2025. Well, unless Billy Horschel or Rasmus Hojgaard or Bryson DeChambeau or Cameron Smith, or, well, anyone else gets in the way.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"It’s not like I’m killing you right now, but f--- you. Go f--- yourself. You can quote me on that one.” —Jim Furyk to Golfweek reporter Adam Schupak, who suggested the Presidents Cup could use an International win to the American captain. Note to self: Do NOT do that the next time I see Jim Furyk. Even though I agree that—you know what, never mind. I'm not even going to write it in case Jim is reading this.

THIS AND THAT

The U.S. Mid-Am used a couple of lighted drones made by a company called PegaPods to illuminate the driving range at Independence Golf Club:

Imagine the possibilities here? Widespread night golf would be amazing—especially around where I live since it’s basically impossible to get a weekend tee time. … Congrats to Paul Broadhurst on winning the pro portion of the Pure Insurance Championship for his seventh career PGA Tour Champions win. We’d be more impressed if he had made an ace, though. … And, finally, congrats to my Pelham High School pal George Evans on winning the Village Club of Sands Point 6.0+ Handicap Championship:

Glad to see he recovered from his runner-up to me at Turning Stone in the Pelham Guys Golf Trip a couple months ago. Iron sharpens iron as they say.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Who is my in-town soda nemesis?

Does he play golf and belong to a club?

Does he need a fourth this weekend?