The Grind
Rory McIlroy’s not-so-subtle flex, Jason Day’s latest fashion controversy and the new King of Celebrity Golf
Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we think we think we can put that crazy Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade into golf terms. Well, TGL terms. Imagine Bay Golf Club trading Ludvig Aberg to Boston for Adam Scott? Actually, Luka is a bit more established than Ludvig, and golfer’s careers last a lot longer, so maybe a better comp is New York Golf Club trading Xander Schauffele to L.A. for Justin Rose? Again, not exactly apples to apples. The point is that it’s utterly bewildering. But there’s plenty of stuff from the golf course for us to make sense of after a jam-packed week. Let’s get to it.
WE’RE BUYING
Rory McIlroy’s new mindset: After surging into contention on Saturday in his first start on the PGA Tour in 2025, the four-time major champ stated that he’s going to “try to limit the mistakes and play smart golf and be a little more like Scottie Scheffler basically.” Um, why didn’t he think of that before? OK, so emulating a World No. 1 is a LOT easier said that done, but the former World No. 1 certainly stuck to that game plan making just one bogey over the weekend to win the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
That being said, it was this aggressive—and spectacular—eagle on No. 14 during the final round that put the tournament away:
What a display of power. What a flex. As Roger Maltbie famously said during the 2000 U.S. Open after Tiger Woods pulled off an amazing second shot on another Pebble par 5, “It’s just not a fair fight!” The latest signature event victory gave McIlroy his 27th career PGA Tour title. But his week on the Monterey Peninsula was made even more special by a slam dunk hole-in-one at Spyglass Hills on Thursday:
I’m not sure what his celebratory bar tab was on Thursday night. Or Sunday night. But I’m pretty sure his latest winner’s check for $3.6 million covered it.
A Lim Kim/Joe Pavelski: We move from an impressive first start of the year to an impressive season opener as A Lim Kim kicked off the 2025 LPGA calendar with a thrilling victory over World No. 1 Nelly Korda at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.

Julio Aguilar
Known by some as “Queen Kong,” Kim had this to say after. “I wish to just be Queen. I don’t like that. Just Queen please.” You got it, Queen. And then there’s the new King of Celebrity Golf, Joe Pavelski, who won the other part of the tournament. The recently retired NHL player nearly won at Lake Tahoe over the summer and now he took down defending champ Jeff McNeil and four-time winner Mardy Fish at Lake Nona.
It’s been a while, but hoisting a golf trophy isn’t new for Pavelski, who won something called the Channel 7 Invitational in 2002 while growing up in Wisconsin. So this guy is a serious stick. And now that he’s retired, Mardy, Jeff, Tony, Steph and the rest of the celebrity circuit better watch out!
Shane Lowry’s ace list: The Irishman couldn’t quite track down Rory at Pebble Beach, but he’s surpassed his Ryder Cup buddy in one area. Heck, it seems he’s got everyone beat when it comes to hole-in-one resumes:
Unbelievable. I guess you could swap Augusta’s 12th for No. 16 to make it slightly better? But maybe not when you factor in that you get such a better crowd reaction at 16. Anyway, talk about being #blessed. That being said, Shane doesn’t have one at Oak Hill’s No. 15 like Michael Block and I. Just saying.
WE’RE SELLING
Tom Kim’s pace of play: First off, I love Tom Kim. And in case you need proof of that, I present “The Ballad of Tom Kim” I put together a couple years back.
But there’s no getting around how slow he played at Pebble Beach. And taking a page from Dottie Pepper, we’re going to do our best to call some of these guys out with the hope that they pick it up. And credit once again to the CBS Golf team for calling it out:
The funny part is that Kim played plenty fast with that TGL shot clock. And, again, he’s such an electric player otherwise. Let’s hope this doesn’t become what he’s known for instead.
Jason Day’s sweatsuit: Before you call me an “Old Head,” please hear me out. I loved J-Day’s comfy Malbon getup. Heck, that’s how I dress 90 percent of the time during the winter, although most of my sweat suits come from Costco. J-Day looked great:
And I’m not even saying that sweats shouldn’t be allowed on golf courses. But these are the best golfers in the world. These are the professionals. And I'm not one of these crazy old school people who think they should have to wear pants in 100-degree heat. But they should look better than us when they play golf.
Whoever keeps vandalizing the Old Tom Morris statue: Seriously, what’s wrong with people?!
Disgusting stuff.
ON TAP
The PGA Tour season shifts to Arizona for the WM Phoenix Open, AKA the Greatest Show on Turf, AKA that one with all the, um, rowdy fans. The LPGA continues with the Founders Cup and LIV Golf opens its season—and its new TV deal with Fox Sports—under the lights in Saudi Arabia. Oh, and then there’s that certain football game on Sunday. What a BIG week.
And to talk about a lot of it, including a fantastic breakdown of Super Bowl LIX, we had red-hot PGA Tour pro Andrew Novak on this week’s episode of The Loop podcast. And he was fantastic. Have a listen:
Random tournament fact: Only two players have top-two finishes at TPC Scottsdale in the past three years. The 2022 and 2023 champ, Scottie Scheffler. And the 2024 winner Nick Taylor. Food for thought.
RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK
—Nick Taylor will win again this week: 60-to-1 odds (Actual odds)
—Scottie Scheffler will win this week: 3-to-1 odds (Also actual odds)
—Andrew Novak will talk me into betting the under in the SB: LOCK
TWEET/PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Was Michael Greller thinking about that time Jordan Spieth almost fell off a cliff at Pebble Beach? Or one of the many times Jordan attempted a risky shot? Or maybe he was just pondering the meaning of life. Either way, great photo.
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (TOURNAMENT DIVISION)
Good luck to anyone topping this golf shot off some roots by Cam Davis:
One of the sickest shots I’ve ever seen. The only thing that comes to mind is that insane up-and-down Corey Pavin pulled off to win a PGA Tour Champions event a few years back. And he did it lefty!
Not sure how that was only No. 3 because nothing will ever top that. But hats off, Cam.
VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (RECREATIONAL GOLF DIVISION)
Imagine getting to play Cypress Point. With Jim Nantz. And then nearly making a hole-in-one on the beautiful par-3 15th. With the legendary CBS announcer providing play-by-play. If Trevor Immelman didn’t already have a green jacket, we’d say this was the highlight of his (great) golf career:
And as someone who has also been lucky enough to get the Nantz treatment, yes, it’s amazing.
I just haven’t gotten it at Cypress. Yet. Fingers crossed.
THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS (NON-JOE PAVELSKI DIVISION)
But I did get to hang with a superhero recently. And my Golf Digest story on Tom Holland is now live:
I can confirm that Spider-Man can really play.
THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION
Sepp Straka might love soda as much as I do.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“In my opinion I suck at it right now, but that's all relative.” —Viktor Hovland on the state of his golf game heading into last week. He shot 65 at Pebble Beach the following day. It’s all relative, indeed.
THIS AND THAT
Congrats to Ollie Schniederjans on winning his first event in nine years at the Asian Tour’s International Series India event, beating Bryson DeChambeau by four shots. Great to see the former World No. 1 amateur back playing well after double hip replacement surgery, but now I have to learn how to spell his last name again. . . . Speaking of Ollie (that’s a lot easier), he will replace Phil Mickelson in this week’s LIV season-opener in Saudi Arabia after the six-time major champ hurt his shoulder in the gym recently. Yet another reason to not go to the gym. . . . Congrats to Josh Teater on breaking an even longer winless drought than Ollie (Yeah, we’re just going to stick with that) by winning on the Korn Ferry Tour for the first time in more than 15 years. Man, the last time Josh won The Grind wasn’t even around. . . . And, finally, while I await my beloved Quaker Oat Squares to return to Costco, I broke down and bought a box of this classic at the grocery store:

Still great.
RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER
Can TGL players be traded?
What were the Dallas Mavericks thinking?
What was Michael Greller thinking?