An amazing driver off the deck, a vicious driver off the dome video and Tom Kim’s busted locker

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we are feeling extra tired—and cranky—this week after an all-time disastrous night for New York sports. The Yankees lost Game 3 of the World Series, the Knicks lost Game 3 of the regular season, and the Giants lost for about the 100th consecutive time in prime time. The worst part? All three did just enough to tease me into watching until the bitter end—emphasis on bitter. Like the slowing golf season, maybe it’s time to shut it down as a fan for a bit. Maybe just wake me up for the Masters. In the meantime, here’s what golf stuff has us talking.

WE’RE BUYING

Nico Echavarria: If this guy was doing those “Most interesting man in the world” commercials, he’d say, “I don’t always contend, but when I do, I prefer to win.” After claiming the Zozo Championship, this 30-year-old now has two career individual top 10s on the PGA Tour—and both times he’s come away with the win! It reminds me of that incredible Nick Faldo stat that he won the Masters all three times he finished in the top 10. Some people and teams (not from New York, of course) just have a knack of getting the job done when they have a chance. And he held off Justin Thomas (whose crazy 29-month winless drought continued) and Max Greyserman by a shot to do it.

Well done, Nico. Keep this up and maybe you’ll actually get a beer sponsor.

Ben An: Unfortunately for this South Korean, his top 10-to-win ratio hasn’t been as good, but he improved it with a dramatic victory at the Genesis Championship. An rallied with a late birdie barrage to get into a playoff with fellow countryman Tom Kim and then closed the door with another birdie on the first playoff hole to earn a long-awaited second career DP World Tour title.

It’s been 15 years since An became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur. And with the way this Presidents Cupper is hitting the golf ball (more on that in a second), it seems like it’s only a matter of time before he earns his maiden PGA Tour victory.

Vanderbilt’s golf facility: Want your kid to practice more? Show them this ridiculous setup enjoyed by the Vanderbilt golf teams:

Wow. These golfers are getting treated like SEC football players now! You love to see it. And I hate to remind myself that I never played high school golf. To all the junior golfers out there, you still have a chance!

This driver off the deck: Always a daring shot, An hit arguably the best one we’ve ever seen given the conditions. Uphill. Nearly 300 yards. Water guarding the green left. Golf tournament on the line. Let’s all watch and admire this absolute stroke of genius:

That might be the shot of the year in pro golf as well. At least, in the non-major division. I recently wrote about social media’s “DOD King” Carter Smith, but with all due respect to Carter, I think Ben deserves that crown now.

WE’RE SELLING

This driver to the head: While we still don’t recommend regular hackers attempting to hit driver off the deck, we didn’t think we had to remind anyone that hitting a driver off someone’s dome is never the right move. But such is what appears to happen in a crazy video that showed one golfer snap by snapping his club on someone else’s head:

Yikes. Fortunately, only minor injuries were reported. And the guy was arrested. And he now faces possible charges of assault with a weapon after making better contact with that swing than Aaron Judge has this entire World Series. As always, let’s all try to get along on the golf course. But if you do find yourself engaged with someone holding a club, stay at a safe distance.

Losing a piece of golf history: Last week’s Golfers Journal podcast unearthed a cool nugget about what happened to the golf ball used by Tiger Woods to complete his landmark 12-shot victory at the 1997 Masters. It wound up in the hands of a kid—but now the dad, billionaire Warren Stephens, is “not really sure” where it is. Here’s how he told it to Tom Coyne:

“It’s probably in our house somewhere”?! Really?! Forget about earning a golf scholarship, that thing could pay for college tuition for future generations of Stephens grandkids. But, given the family’s financial situation, it could at least have a nice spot on the mantelpiece!

Breaking a locker: Look, we understand Tom Kim’s frustration. It’s been a disappointing year in terms of winning and he had just lost a heartbreaker thanks to a lipped-out putt on the final hole of regulation. That's tough. But as a buddy of mine once learned the hard way by breaking his wrist, you never, ever take that anger out on a locker (or anything hard for that matter). But Tom did some damage to his locker at the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club in South Korea.

And because this is golf, it became a big story, with Tom even issuing an apology statement:

We’ll have to wait and see if the Netflix cameras were rolling for this one. In the meantime, Tom’s lucky he didn’t sustain any injuries.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour has a rare off week and LIV Golf has yet another off week. Good thing we can always count on the DP World Tour. Wait a minute. What?! Even the DP World Tour is taking a week off?! OK, we’ve really hit the offseason now. The women will be holding it down, though, with the Toto Japan Classic.

Random tournament fact: Only one American, Stacy Lewis, has won the Toto Japan Classic in the past three decades. Even more random? My six-year-old daughter, Julia, is playing the role of Toto in a production of The Wizard of Oz in December. Let me know if you want tickets.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tom Kim will ever punch a locker at Augusta National: 1 MILLION-1 odds

—Ben An will win on the PGA Tour next year: 10-to-1 odds

—Ben An will attempt a driver off the deck on the PGA Tour next year: LOCK

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Nailed it.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (ACTIVE PLAYERS DIVISION)

How could you not love this exchange between Xander Schauffele and caddie Austin Kaiser?

“I mean, the damage is already done,” Kaiser says as Xander laughs. “But you can’t keep hitting it from there.” It’s that kind of cool-headed reaction that led to this amazing scorecard:

Oh, and those two majors this year.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (LEGENDS DIVISION)

This Lee Trevino story about sending roses to Jack Nicklaus’ wife, Barbara, in order to get her to keep her husband home during senior tour events is an instant classic:

Lee Trevino is a national treasure.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

Check out this cool story from Alex Schiffer detailing how obsessed NBA stars Andre Iguodala and Steph Curry are when it comes to . . . fantasy golf. And I particularly love this photo of Andre going on a buddies golf trip with the guys in hi league:

He’s the guy in green on the end in case you couldn’t tell.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

It doesn’t get much better than this phone call between a crying Nico Echavarria and his parents:

Let those tears flow, Nico! What a moment.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION(?)

Or this week in Phil being Phil:

Classic. And impressive work by Mr. Mickelson.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I wish these fools would quit screwing around, LIV and the PGA Tour. I don’t know what the hell they’re doing. They’re so stupid. These guys are so idiotic. They need to be playing against each other [more than] the majors. It would be beneficial for both tours.” —Charles Barkley on PGA Tour SiriusXM Radio. This guy might be just as good of a golf analyst as he is for basketball. And (PLUG ALERT!) he’ll be involved in TNT Sports’ coverage of The Showdown in December when the PGA Tour’s Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler take on LIV Golf’s Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau. It certainly promises to be a lot more entertaining than watching the Yankees hit in the World Series!

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Ruoning Yin for winning a second LPGA title in three weeks at the Maybank Championship. She joins Nelly Korda, Lydia Ko and Hannah Green in a group that has won three-plus times on the LPGA Tour in 2024. . . . From a group of golfers who has won a combined 15 times, we shift to 15-year-old Jack Crabbe, whose quick thinking and reaction on a golf course kept his dad alive and made future photos like this possible.

Incredible story! . . . Then there’s 52-year-old Jason Caron, a long-time Long Island club pro who tied for third at the Simmons Bank Championship and qualified for next week’s Charles Schwab Championship Cup to earn full status on the PGA Tour Champions next year. Like we’ve seen in recent years with Rob Labritz—not to mention a bunch of other guys—these Met-area club pros can really play! . . . Bryson DeChambeau is a "near certainty" to become the first major champion to play in India. Excuse me for saying it, but that's actually growing the game. Nice job, Bryson. . . . And, finally, once again it’s Halloween, which means I’ve been stockpiling candy for another crazy night of tricker-treaters:

At least, the weather looks great for Thursday!

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Who is Aaron Judge’s PGA Tour comp?

Why didn’t I play high school golf?

What time will we run out of candy this year?