Rose Zhang’s perfect week, Rory McIlroy’s latest heartbreak, and an actual tree-hugger wins on the PGA Tour

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we (kinda) know what Rory McIlroy is going through. Like McIlroy, I’ve now had my heart ripped out twice this year on the golf course after falling in 20 holes in the semifinals of the Golf Digest Match Play Championship (Shout-out to Michael Sneeden—I thought I could GRIND, but this guy is as tough a competitor as they come). Unlike the PGA Tour superstar following his close calls in the U.S. Open and Irish Open, I didn’t have piles of money to cry into after this and my HGGA Championship runner-up.

Still, I (kinda) feel your pain, Rory. We should compare notes sometimes. And maybe you could give me a putting lesson. Well, we’d probably just stick to the driver. In the meantime, here’s what else has us talking from an eventful week in golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Team USA: The Americans had a bunch of stars in ending their seven-year winless drought at the Solheim Cup, but none shined brighter than Rose Zhang. The 21-year-old became just the third American to go 4-0 in the matches and the first to pull off the feat without ever needing to play past the 16th hole. Now that’s dominance.

Maybe I should try that strategy next time instead of being three down after four. Sigh. Back to the Solheim, Lauren Coughlin, a late-blooming rookie playing in her home state of Virginia, also went undefeated (3-0-1). As did Andrea Lee (2-0-1) and Megan Khang (3-0). And no one seemed to enjoy the W more than Khang:

Man, it’s so much more fun to win than it is to lose. Although, call me old-fashioned, but I'm not condoning the caddies taking their shirts off. Anyway, congrats to U.S. captain Barack Obama:

Whoops, make that Stacy Lewis. Nice job, Stacy. Keep this up and maybe you’ll run for President someday.

Rasmus Hojgaard: Playing the role of Michael Sneeden against Rory at a spectacular Royal County Down was this 23-year-old Dane. And despite all of Ireland rooting for Rory, Hojgaard fired a final-round 65 with seven birdies on his final 10 holes, including this crazy hole-out on 10:

And this bunker hole-out on 17!

Incredible. With the Irish Open victory, Rasmus now has five DP World Tour titles to twin brother Nicolai’s three. And it looks likely like he could join his bro as a Ryder Cupper a year from now. It also looks like Rory is suddenly as cursed as his nemesis Greg Norman used to be. Sorry, Rory.

Jon Rahm: The Spaniard’s Ryder Cup status remains up in the air, but his position as one of the world’s best golfers certainly isn't. After a disappointing year in the majors, Rahm took care of business on the LIV Golf Tour by winning the tour finale and season-long money title. The $22 million he took home on Sunday brought his season earnings to a whopping $38 million. Plus a really, really big championship ring:

Anyway, if you thought this guy had fallen off after signing with LIV, think again.

Patton Kizzire: After losing his PGA Tour card last year, Kizzire doesn’t have to worry about that happening again for a while. The 38-year-old returned to the winner’s circle for the first time in six years at the Procore Championship. And he did so thanks in part by following some unorthodox methods from his new mental coach, Aimee Smith-Schuster, who had him doing stuff like singing Disney tunes and hugging trees:

With all the Disney tunes we sing in my house on a daily basis, I’m now wondering why I’m not a better golfer.

WE’RE SELLING

Solheim shuttles: This shuttle situation was an absolute disaster at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club and gave me flashbacks to that four-hour line I waited on for the “Happy Gilmore 2” casting call:

Nightmarish stuff. And a huge fail on the LPGA’s fault at what was otherwise a great event. Although I missed the infamous Kiawah media shuttle debacle at the 2012 PGA Championship, I remember the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. So it’s not just a men’s golf thing. Or a U.S. thing. Or a fan thing. People make mistakes. Let’s just hope other events can learn from them. Presidents Cup, you're up next!

Tiger’s back: In an all-time Friday afternoon news dump (I missed it as I was missing putt after putt in my semifinal match), the 15-time major champ announced he’d undergone his 15th back surgery. OK, so I don’t think the number is quite that high, but this isn’t good:

I’d love to see Tiger continue to tee it up, but I think it’s pretty safe to say Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors record is safe. (I'd also love to see Tiger read this, get furious, and use it as motivation.)

This Reddit golf debate: I thought I was going crazy seeing this debate over what line is meant by “a cup outside” go viral, because it seemed pretty obvious to me that the correct answer is "2":

And, thankfully, the entire U.S. Solheim Cup squad agreed:

Not that it matters for me, because I still can’t buy a putt no matter the line.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour is off ahead of next week’s Presidents Cup, but the DP World Tour rolls on with the BMW PGA Championship, AKA that one they play at Wentworth. It’s a big tournament, and Rory, the 2014 winner, will be back in action. Meanwhile, the LPGA’s stars will be back in action as well at the Kroger Queen City Championship.

Random tournament fact: Billy Horschel became only American other than Arnold Palmer to win this event in 2021. He’s back this year. And apparently, he still can’t tell the Hojgaard twins apart:

Whoops.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Rory McIlroy will hug a tree before a round this week: 1 MILLION-1 odds

—Rory McIlroy will win this week: 5-to-1 odds

—LPGA fans will have an easier time getting to the course this week: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Steve Stricker, shockingly, won for the first time this season on the PGA Tour Champions. But he made the most of that win, a three-peat at the Sanford International that gave him four career wins in the event, by recreating this iconic Michael Jordan pose.

They don't call him the Strick Show for nothing, folks. Well, I don't call him that for nothing, that is.

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Good for you, Jessica. Heck, I should also pay you for all the content you’ve provided us on Twitter the past couple years.

CLUB PRO GUY TWEET OF THE WEEK

Apparently, last week’s announcement that Club Pro Guy is hanging up his Footjoy sandals wasn’t a joke. Sigh. RIP CPG.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (INSPIRATIONAL DIVISION)

This is Lulu Gibbin, a 15-year-old who sustained major injuries from a shark attack earlier this summer, back on the range:

Amazing. Go Lulu, go.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (FAIL DIVISION)

I know everyone is excited about "Happy Gilmore 2," but this was, well, not a good idea:

Yikes. Hopefully, that kid’s golf career isn’t over.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK (SONG DIVISION)

Charlie Day singing a song about playing golf with Jason Batemen is as funny as you’d expect:

And they’re both buddies with Andrew Santino, who I just wrote about for this month’s issue of Golf Digest . . . great timing!

THIS WEEK IN (MORE) CELEBRITY GOLFERS

John Smoltz recently hopped on The Phillies Show to talk about a bunch of things, but we found his discussion about the Phillies once dangling memberships at Pine Valley and Merion to him the most interesting:

It’s honestly amazing he didn’t take that offer and stuck with the Braves.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION (INANIMATE OBJECTS DIVISION)

Find you someone who looks at you like Peter Malnati looks at a commercial airplane:

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Unfortunately, I'm getting used to it this year. Hopefully the tide is going to turn pretty soon and I can turn all these close calls into victories.” —Rory McIlroy. (And me. Sigh.)

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Paul Peterson for winning his first Korn Ferry Tour title at the Simmons Bank Open and locking his PGA Tour card up for 2025. Also congrats to Morgan Hoffmann (Remember him?!) for finishing T-3. . . . Congrats to golf fans because the Masters is adding five hours of live streaming weekend tournament coverage starting in 2025. It's about time. . . . LIV Golf announced Richard Bland was fined $10K for slow play. Now that’s something I wish the PGA Tour would copy. . . . Scottie Scheffler shared that he had to apologize to players when he hosted his first Masters Champions Dinner because the tortilla soup was too spicy. Something tells us that won’t be on the menu at Augusta National this time around. . . . And, finally, shout-out to my Maddie, who just turned four and had to go first presenting her “All about me” project to her preschool class first:

Not a lot of sports stuff on there (Plenty of ponies and unicorns!), but otherwise, she nailed it.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Which PGA Tour pro (or wife) makes the most money from Twitter?

Is it finally time to take a putting lesson?

Rory, do you want to talk about it?