Blades Brown’s sneaky win, Jon Rahm’s curious award and a Scottie Scheffler bet gone very wrong

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we suddenly feel like we live in the Arctic Circle. On the days it doesn’t snow, you can’t leave the house because it’s a negative wind chill and on the days it snows, well, you also can’t leave the house other than to clear snow.

I set a lofty goal of working toward becoming a scratch golfer in 2026, but the only thing I’m becoming scratch at is using a snowblower. In any event, there were some parts of the globe where people weren’t stuck inside with kids. And the even luckier ones got to play some golf. Let’s talk about that.

WE’RE BUYING

Scottie Scheffler: What can we say? New Year, same Scottie. The World No. 1 made his 2026 season debut at the American Express and cruised to a four-shot win for his 20th PGA Tour career title. That puts him with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to reach that milestone and four majors before turning 30.

Amazing stuff that’s made even more amazing by the fact Scheffler has accomplished all of this in the last four years. He’s also more than halfway to breaking Tiger’s record of 281 consecutive weeks at World No. 1. And considering the difference between Scottie and No. 2 Rory McIlroy is greater than the difference between Rory and No. 677, it’s hard to see him losing that grip.

And here’s the scariest thing for the rest of the tour: Scottie had never won in his first five starts in any previous season. And last year, following that ravioli kitchen accident, it took him until his ninth start and yet he still won six times to claim a fourth consecutive PGA Tour Player of the Year Award. So with him winning his first time out in 2026, the floodgates could really be open.

Blades Brown: One of those players getting schooled by Scottie on Sunday was an 18-year-old who actually could still be in high school. Blades didn’t have the best final round, but it didn’t take away from one of the most amazing week-plus stretches in golf history in which he played eight straight days over two tours, finishing T-17 in the Bahamas in a Korn Ferry Tour event and T-18 in Palm Springs after shooting a Friday 60 and playing his way into Sunday’s final pairing.

And the day before he teed it up in the Bahamas, Blades finished his final English and econ exams to graduate high school. What a whirlwind! Congrats on the diploma and those high finishes, Blades. Now that you’re earning regular (big) paychecks, that econ class is really going to come in handy.

Patrick Reed: With all the worldwide golf this guy has played, it’s surprising that his Sunday win in Dubai was his first true DP World Tour title. Regardless, as Reed showed with that solo third at the Masters last year, he’s still one of the best players on the planet—plus he's now virtually guaranteed spots in all four majors again. And he could potentially be the next LIV star coming back to the PGA Tour.

Reed said he plans to be at the LIV season opener in Saudi Arabia next week, but he also revealed he’s yet to sign a new contract for 2026. Maybe he’s mad he only won one award at the inaugural LIV Golf Showcase Awards Show. Speaking of . . .

WE’RE SELLING

Jon Rahm’s LIV award: Look, I liked the idea of LIV having an awards show. And I thought some of the categories like Escape Artist, The Gambler, and Celebration of the Year were fun. Although, the Concert of the Year was a bit much. (Maybe I’d feel differently if I knew who/what Dom Dolla was.) But, anyway, how in the world did Jon Rahm win Clutch Player of the Year?! He’s a two-time major and a former World No. 1, but he won ZERO times on the Saudi-backed circuit in 2025. Thanks to Ben Coley for being all over this:

It was already crazy enough that Rahm was awarded the $18 million bonus for claiming the LIV season points title last year despite winning those zero times to Joaquin Niemann’s five victories. But Clutch Player of the Year? Every time he had a chance to win a LIV event, he lost. And on top of that, his caddie, Adam Hayes, won Caddie of the Year! Huh? This is almost as ridiculous as Shedeur Sanders making the AFC Pro Bowl squad. Almost.

Justin Rose’s “albatross” counting: Let me start by saying, I love Justin Rose. And I love that Justin Rose got so excited by this simulator albatross:

Don’t get me wrong, it was a helluva shot. And doing it in competition on national TV is a lot different than making one with your buddies on a random night out. But for them to treat it like it was officially the first albatross of his career (and, surprisingly, life) was a bit much. This is one of those, “No, I’ve never made an albatross, but I did make one in a simulator” situations. But again, helluva shot. And it’s not like TGL turns on funnel pins considering this was the first hole out of longer than 25 yards in league history. Hmm. Maybe they should consider doing that. Just a thought.

Betting against Scottie Scheffler: This continues to be a bad thought. And one bar owner found this out the hard way. Or, rather, his stomach is going to find it out the hard way. We’ve previously written about this Binghamton-area golf bettor (he once lit $6,575 on fire by betting on Carl Yuan to win a PGA Tour event) and now he’s made waves again by having to deliver on a promise to only eat Wendy’s chili for the next month after Scottie won the American Express.

On the bright side, Wendy’s chili is delicious. And the good news for this guy is that they sell Wendy’s chili in a can now so he won’t have to keep going:

Yes, I actually had that in my cupboard. And, yes, it made for a perfect lunch on our latest snow day.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour season continues with the Farmers Insurance Open, AKA that one at Torrey Pines, AKA that one Tiger used to always start his season at when he used to play golf, AKA that one that Brooks Koepka is making his PGA Tour return from LIV this week. Also, the LPGA Tour—and Celebrity Circuit—season starts with the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions. And to talk about that event, we had one-time winner and two-time MLB All-Star Jeff McNeil on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast:

Random tournament fact: Jessica Korda has won this event, but her sister, Nelly, has not. No one has hoisted more trophies at this tournament, though, than Mardy Fish, who has won the celebrity portion four times. In the unofficial World Celebrity Golf Ranking, I’m going Mardy, Steph and Jeff as my current top three.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Blades Brown will miss taking tests: 1 MILLION-to-1 odds

—Brooks Koepka will win this week in his return: 50-to-1 odds

—Brooks Koepka will get tired of answering questions about his return: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Jimmy Stanger put three balls in the water on one hole and then offered this reaction on X after:

Perfection. Just like “Tin Cup.”

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

The current World No. 1 and a future World No. 1? We’ll have to wait and see, but what a cool spot for an 18-year-old to find himself in.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (NEW TOUR PRO DIVISION)

Blades Brown played rock, paper, scissors with a fan. During a round.

I was going to say it’s nice to see him acknowledging kids in the crowd, but that guy might have been older than Blades. Also, he won, so you can add that to Blades’ list of talents. I bet he could take Scottie in that.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (OLD TOUR PRO DIVISION)

Matt Every told an all-time story on the Subpar podcast about how he once purposely hit a tee shot OB to get back at his caddie:

Amazing tale. Larry David would call that a “Spite Shot.”

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

It had been a few months since we’ve seen Bennett Scheffler:

He’s 19 months old and he’s seen 12 wins from his dad! All he does is win, win, win.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

San Francisco 49ers star tight end George Kittle didn’t let a little ruptured Achilles tendon keep him off the golf course:

Good for you, George. And I won't say anything about you counting whatever you shoot using that thing however you want.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Congrats Scottie Scheffler your 20th win. You're better than AI, Siri, Chat GPT.” —Si Woo Kim on Scottie. Well said, Si Woo.

THIS AND THAT

Shout-out to Jason Day for finishing T-2 at the American Express and recording the 100th top 10 of his PGA Tour career. Glad to hear The Loop pod bump is alive and well. If any other PGA Tour players want to test that out, please let me know! . . . The PGA Tour announced Cutwater as the official canned cocktail of the tour. Funny, because hitting a cut in the water is the last thing you want to do as a golfer. . . . In my latest installment of my “Late Scratch?” series, I wrote about strength training for golf. And you thought Indiana football winning a national title was unexpected. . . . And, finally, I received John Minnium’s latest Year In Review and it was fantastic as always. It was also nice to help contribute to this cult classic after writing about John for Golf Digest last year:

If you’re not on his mailing list, you’re missing out.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How many wins will Scottie have this year?

How many inches of snow will we get this winter?

Which golfer would be the best at shoveling snow?