Golf News

If you were going to make a list of things that you don't want to do in a bunker it'd probably have things on it like don't scull it out and across the green, or don't chunk it and leave it in the bunker. What you probably wouldn't have on there is "Don't do a face plant." But, turns out, that's an actual issue for some people. Because, turns out, some people try and do backflips off the lips of bunkers. Spoiler, some people fail. She's laughing, so we think she's ok. Which is a good thing, because we definitely want to see the successful version of this video sometime in the future. Oh, and if any of you out there try this, just make sure you're raking the bunker. It's all fun and games until you're making the guy who sets the pins rake your bunkers for you. h/t ESPN WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

Phil Mickelson's selection to this year's U.S. Presidents Cup team came as a surprise and had many people wondering, "What's Captain Jay Haas thinking?" After all, Mickelson hasn't won since the 2013 Open Championship and the 45-year-old star has just four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in the past two seasons. He was ranked No. 30 in the Presidents Cup standings when he was picked. Was Haas just throwing a bone to his fellow captain's pick for the inaugural Presidents Cup in 1994? Was he throwing a bone to NBC/Golf Channel, which has the unenviable task of trying to get American TV viewers to tune into a sporting event on South Korean time? Turns out, it wasn't Haas driving the Phil for Presidents Cup campaign bus at all, but rather the players. NBC/Golf Channel analyst Notah Begay III explained how it went down during a pre-event teleconference. "I think it was simply a team choice. I think there was an informal survey taken amongst the ten pla...

Ever wonder how PGA Tour players would look animated as avatars? No? Can't say we have either. That's exactly the format of a new PGA Tour ad that promotes next week's Presidents Cup. First thing, gotta give this an A for creativity. Not many could've seen this ad coming. And if it gets people talking about the Presidents Cup -- that's a bonus. But this is prettttty out there. The PGA Tour is trying hard on this one. Team USA taking on the International team might not qualify as a "superhero-esque" battle. But that's what we have on our hands. That being said, Danny Lee seems to be excited about having a superhero avatar. So that's cool. Gotta be a thrill to be depicted as a superhero. The PGA Tour's creative team is making dreams come true.

I've never been to a Taylor Swift concert, which might have something to do with the fact that I'm not a 13-year-old girl, but I've always been under the impression it's a fairly peaceful enterprise. Maybe not. This one fan at a Swift show, perhaps contending with some undiagnosed level of self loathing, has the unique need for Swift to smack her in the face with a golf club. See (or really hear) for yourself: As for why Swift is holding a golf club in the first place, it has to do with a scene in the video for her hit "Blank Space" in which she destroys a boyfriend's car with an iron. It looks like a 9-iron, but we can't be sure. And is that a steel shaft? A woman of her swing speed really needs to be thinking about graphite . . .

Holding in anger is no way to live. Releasing hatred in a calm, peaceful way, however, can be tricky. Enter, Dana Dukes' brilliant method: You see, she taped a photo of a person she doesn't like to her golf ball, then smacked it around a course. Is your boss a tyrant? Tape him/her to your golf ball. Is your ex a jerk? You'll feel better after you swing at 110 MPH and make contact with a ball that has his/her face on it. Total genius. (h/t Reddit )

After having one of the best amateur seasons ever, Bryson DeChambeau has no chance of repeating what he did in 2015 next year. And the SMU senior has no control over the situation. According to Golf Channel , the SMU men's golf program has received a one-year postseason ban from the NCAA. That means DeChambeau, the reigning individual champ won't be allowed to defend his title in 2016. The Mustangs received the ban (and a loss of scholarships for the next three years) for recruiting violations and unethical conduct by former coach Josh Gregory. The school's men's basketball program and its head coach, Larry Brown, also received harsh punishments on Tuesday. After winning the NCAA Championship in June, DeChambeau won the U.S. Amateur in August to become just the fifth golfer to win both titles in the same season. DeChambeau, a physics major, decided to stay in school for his senior year rather than turn pro. By remaining an amateur, DeChambeau gets a spot in next year...

We've seen some crazy shots at St. Andrews' Road Hole -- which is to be expected on a hole that involves a tee shot over a hotel and a road with a stone wall by the green that's very much in play. Who could forget Miguel Angel Jimenez's incredible ricochet recovery during the 2010 Open Championship? But we have a new contender for craziest shot and it comes from retired Australian cricket star Shane Warne, who was playing the Old Course in a Dunhill Links practice round on Tuesday. Take a look: Warne didn't quite get enough backspin on the shot to hold the green, but it was a nice try -- even if that hospitality area is way, way out of bounds. And since there was no video posted of his next shot from the treacherous Road Hole bunker, we'll assume it didn't go too well. WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

Callaway’s latest versions of its Apex and Apex Pro irons are more different than just their constructions. While both feature elements of forged 1025 carbon steel, the Apex is a multipiece technological smorgasbord, while the Apex Pro is an updated classic, one-piece forged blade. The result of those different constructions are two irons that have a different approach to the idea of distance. Like its successful predecessor, the new Apex focuses on enhancing distance, while the new Apex Pro is focused on controlling it. The big story behind the Apex iron is the addition of Callaway’s proven cupface technology to a forged 1025 carbon steel frame. The cupface design, in which the iron’s face plate wraps around the sole and topline, is used in the mid and long irons to enhance the areas of the face that produce the highest spring-like effect. The Apex’s cupface design, which like Callway’s fairway woods and hybrids reaches the USGA limits for rebound effect, increases the amoun...

Michael Greller was a sixth-grade teacher at Narrows View Intermediate School in University Place, Wash., reportedly earning $77,000 a year, when Jordan Spieth hired him to caddie in 2013. Greller took a leave of absence beginning in January of that year, and when he soon realized that Spieth had a future in the game tendered his resignation in May. Good move. We can’t know the financial arrangements that Spieth and Greller have, so for this exercise we’ll go with a standard five percent of Spieth’s purse, seven percent for a top 10, and 10 percent for a victory (meanwhile disregarding the weekly stipend players usually pay their caddies, regardless of performance). On that basis alone, Greller earned $1,040,613 during the PGA Tour’s 2014-’15 wraparound season. Throw in another $100,000 for Spieth’s victory in the unofficial Hero World Challenge and about $85,000 for Spieth winning the Australian Open and Greller’s take for those 12 months moves to $1,225,613. Then there ...

When you're one of the best golfers in the world and you have a bad week at the office, it must be nice to have a backup activity at which you also happen to be one of the best in the world. Such is life for Jimmy Walker. After being at the top of the FedEx Cup standings for much of a second straight season, Walker played poorly in the playoffs yet again. But after flying home to San Antonio from Atlanta following his T-18 (out of 29) finish, the world-class astrophotographer had a rare 'super blood moon' eclipse to deal with -- and boy, did he deliver: As of March, Walker, a five-time PGA Tour winner, has had five of his photographs published on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day website. With this being the first eclipse of its kind in 33 years, can we really blame him for being a bit distracted? WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

Long before Jordan Spieth was given a conqueror's welcome on the 18th green at East Lake Golf Club on Sunday, Dustin Johnson was putting the finishing touches on a six-under 64. It proved to be the the low round of the day; only Henrik Stenson posted a better number during the week. The final-round fury translated to a top-five finish for Johnson at the Tour Championship. It was a round that should have astonished. Instead, it left many shaking their head. At the performance or the person, one could not separate. By most measures, Johnson had one of the five best campaigns on the PGA Tour in 2014-2015. Only Spieth and Jason Day registered more top-10 placements. He led the tour in driving, was third in putting, fifth in scoring and won $5.2 million in prize money. And yet, when Johnson's 2015 is recalled, the narrative will be of a lost season. Sports Illustrated/Getty Images Johnson has reached a juncture in his career where he's primarily judged by his outings in majors. ...

Could 22-year-old Jordan Spieth be the biggest money-maker in all of golf? Yup. And if not, he's damn close, which also makes him one of the most lucrative cash machines in all of sports, and among the richest in all of entertainment. Oh, like in the neighborhood of more than $50 million this year alone. Forbes says the highest-paid actor this year was Robert Downey Jr. at $80 million. By winning the Tour Championship on Sunday, Spieth finished the 2015 PGA Tour season with $12,030,465 in official money. Throw in unofficial money he won this season and the total is $13,030,465. Now, the icing on that financial cake is the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus, which gives Spieth $23,030,465 won on the golf course, eclipsing the record $22,902,707 won by Tiger Woods in 2007 when he amassed $122.7 million in total earnings in the Golf Digest 50 annual ranking of all-encompassing earnings. Spieth signed a 10-year deal with Under Armour earlier this year and also has endorsement relationships wi...

Winning the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup brought Spieth an $11+-million payday. His money club, as usual, was his Scotty Cameron by Titleist SC-009 prototype. Spieth posted a 1.738 strokes gained/putting mark, ranked first, at East Lake G.C. Spieth’s Cameron is a model the FedEx champ has used since he was 15 years old. He was drawn to the club because Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy used the same putter. Ball : Titleist Pro V1x Driver : Titleist 915D2 (Aldila Rogue Black 60TX), 9.5 degrees 3-wood : Titleist 915F, 15 degrees Irons (3) : Titleist 712U; (4-9): Titleist AP2 714; (PW): Titleist Vokey SM5 Wedges : Titleist Vokey SM5 (52, 56, 60 degrees) Putter : Scotty Cameron by Titleist SC-009 prototype WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

We love Johnny Miller, but it's hard not to laugh at this one. During Sunday's final round of the Tour Championship, Miller praised Justin Rose for making a "gorgeous golf swing" on the 10th hole. Only problem is the ball went dead left and out of bounds. Take a watch/listen: That's embarrassing. To be fair to Johnny, Rose does possess a gorgeous swing, just not on that particular shot. And Rose was coming off a front-nine 31. And he held the follow-through a lot longer than a pro who has just hit one off the premises usually does. Still, that's a bogey, Johnny. RELATED: Our favorite Johnny Millerisms WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

The last day of a season generally asks nothing more than the possibility of something memorable, and Jordan Spieth, the best story in golf, has obliged. On a difficult rainy Saturday at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Spieth wrested the lead from Henrik Stenson and has positioned himself to provide the exclamation point to a breakout year. Spieth, 22, shot a two-under par 68 that along with Stenson’s two-over par 72 allowed him to take a one-stroke lead into the final round of the Tour Championship. At stake, too, is the FedEx Cup Championship and the $10 million bonus that comes with it. At this point, it looks like a match race. Rickie Fowler and Paul Casey trail by four, Rory McIlroy and Zach Johnson by five. It would be premature to coronate Spieth. Stenson, though he hasn’t won a PGA Tour event in two years, has finished second in two of the first three playoff events, and won the this tournament and the FedEx Cup two years ago at East Lake. That said, this has been a season ...

Bringing your college-sports fandom onto the golf course is really fun this time of year. These subtle items are sure to be conversation starters: College-football themed socks from Kentwool Kentwool is offering its tour profile socks in various college-team color combinations to appeal to football fans. The socks ($19.95) are made from merino wool, a fiber material that specializes in helping to wick moisture. Also cool? Kentwool has a lifetime blister-free, money-back guarantee. State hats in the tailgate collection from Imperial Headwear Representing a favorite college team often means having state pride, too. Imperial Headwear is hoping to capitalize on that with its Tailgate Collection. There are 15 states represented here with various styles ($30-35), from a Mississippi camo look to California combos playing to UCLA, USC and University of California fans alike. These are made from a cotton twill with an unconstructed mid-crown profile. For those who can pull off the looks, there ...

One can argue the merits of the FedEx Cup playoffs, but they do serve to winnow the field for the Tour Championship to a number that virtually assures the kind of leaderboard that even a major championship would envy. The top 10 represents more than a third of the field of 28, but it is one enticing enough to warrant more than a peak on a college football Saturday and an NFL Sunday. The leader, as he was after an opening-round of 63, is Henrik Stenson, but Jordan Spieth made a move on Friday that landed him in second place, three shots behind leader Henrik Stenson. Those in pursuit include Paul Casey third, Zach Johnson fourth, Rory McIlroy tied for fifth, Justin Rose seventh, Rickie Fowler eighth and Jason Day ninth. A wet day on Friday did not yield the kind of scores that made East Lake look easy on Thursday. Spieth, looking to emphatically close out a player-of-the-year campaign, posted the low score of the day, a bogey-free four-under par 66. Spieth’s scorecard was clean, but hi...

The PGA Tour will be the first to admit that, although it's FedEx Cup postseason is in its ninth year of existence, its point format could still use some tweaking. If any doubt surrounded this notion, Thursday's action at East Lake Golf Club illustrated a new shortcoming. In its current configuration, each of the 30 players at the season finale have a chance to win the $10 million postseason prize. Granted, only the top five golfers in the FedEx Cup standings entering the Tour Championship can control their own destiny, but, with a little providence, even the lowest-ranked individual in the event -- in this year's case, Harris English -- can emerge as the playoff champion. So imagine English's surprise when, after finishing his first round at Atlanta, he found out he was eliminated from the FedEx Cup running. For English to leave Georgia with the $10 million, he would have needed the following to happen: Win the Tour Championship No. 1 in the FedEx Cup ranking (Jason D...

Holly Sonders will transition from fairways and greens to the gridiron this weekend, as the golf personality makes her debut as a sideline reporter for FOX's National Football League coverage. Sonders will be on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers-Houston Texans broadcast, alongside Kenny Albert and Daryl Johnston. Laura Omkin, the regular sideline reporter for this team, is off this week. The contest is scheduled to be aired in seven markets, about five percent of the national audience. Sonders, who worked at the Golf Channel from 2011 to 2014 on shows such as "Morning Drive" and "School of Golf," left for FOX Sports in the summer of 2014 to assist in the network's U.S. Open and USGA coverage, as well as contribute in NFL ventures. WATCH: GOLF DIGEST VIDEOS

The oft-asked question of what to eat during a round of golf should be answered with another question, says sports nutritionist Matt Jones. "What hole are you on?" What Jones means is that your dietary needs change as the round progresses. "Before a round begins, you should consume a meal rich in protein (eggs, meat, fish), healthy fats (salmon, avocado, nuts), low-glycemic complex carbohydrates such as fruits, vegetables and beans, and small quantities of whole-grain starches such as potatoes, quinoa, rice or whole-grain breads," says Jones, who works with several players on the European Tour. "But once a round begins, what you consume should reflect how far along you are." On the course, he says his "Super 6 Strategy" is your best bet for optimal performance. If you choose to eat during the first six holes, your goal is to stabilize energy levels. That means you'll want to eat low-carbohydrate foods. Fruits such as apples, pears, oranges or...

Don't let the humility of Henrik Stenson fool you. The man is on a mission. Stenson, who downplayed his odds earlier in the week , opened first-round play at the Tour Championship with a seven-under 63, good for a two-shot lead over Paul Casey. In an odd sense, that score is mildly disappointing. Stenson posted a 29 on the front nine, followed by a birdie at the 10th, a missed six-foot birdie attempt on the 11th and another birdie on the par-4 12th. With East Lake playing as a par 70 this week, the 59 watch was on as Stenson journeyed to the 13th tee. Alas, the wheels came off on the final six holes for the Swede, with a bogey at the 17th and disappointing five on the par-5 15th, which was the easiest hole on the scorecard for the field. Still, Stenson put himself in position to recapture the Tour Championship crown and FedEx Cup, both which he won at East Lake in 2013. Also in prime real estate after Round 1 is Rory McIlroy. You may remember him, don't you, the guy who grabbed...

Two questions will always be associated with Bill Haas' incredible up-and-down at East Lake Golf Club from East Lake during the 2011 Tour Championship: 1. How did he do that?! 2. How did he do that with $11.4 MILLION on the line?! The basic answer to No. 1 is, "Play it like an explosion bunker shot." But the answer to No. 2 is a lot trickier. You see, Haas didn't know there was that much on the line. "Well, we went up and did some TV interviews up in the grandstands there on 18 and both trophies were there and there was no other player, (laughter), so I kind of assumed and I looked at my wife and she was there, and she nodded her head. So that was when I realized," Haas said. "I saw Tim Finchem, I said, I didn't know I had won this, and he was like, 'congratulations, you won both.' That's what he said, 'both are for you.'" Yep, the player who hit the FedEx Cup's defining shot didn't even realize what he'd done. I...

ATLANTA -- According to the pairings sheet in front of me, Jason Day is not the only one teeing it up in the Tour Championship. Along with the red-hot Aussie, 28 other golfers will compete at East Lake Golf Club this week (Jim Furyk had to WD with injury). Although the winner of the FedEx Cup gets a cool $10 million, a victory in Atlanta holds varying significance for each player. Here's a quick rundown of what a Tour Championship crown would mean to some of its entrants: Jason Day/Jordan Spieth -- Player of the Year honors. Day becomes become fifth golfer in last 40 years to win six times in a season (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Nick Price, Tom Watson); with his winnings, Spieth can pull the trig on hair transplants . Rickie Fowler -- The "Big Three" conversation officially changes to "Big Four." Henrik Stenson -- Earns the nickname "Mr. Fall," a tongue-in-cheek nod to his FedEx Cup success and major shortcomings. Bubba Watson -- $10 million buys an...

Golfers play their cards close to the vest. Not to say they're difficult or dishonest; rather, it's an allusion to the vanilla, politically correct, guarded ambiance of their statements. To many on the PGA Tour, transparency, especially of one's vulnerability, is viewed as weakness. Which made Jordan Spieth's admission all the more enlightening. Speaking with the media on Wednesday at East Lake Golf Club, Spieth was asked about the state of his game heading into this week's TOUR Championship. The 22-year-old initially answered with an expected response: I feel comfortable, working on my putting, etc. But then Spieth made the following confession: "It's hard to play with somebody who is 18-under through two rounds and feel like you are 11-under and not playing well. When in truth, you're really playing some good golf. It's tough to play with." This, of course, is in reference to the performance of Jason Day, who's lightning the golf world on...

I thought taking Jim Furyk was a pretty safe bet last week at the BMW Championship. He had previously shot 59 at Conway Farms, and well, he's Jim Furyk. He might be the safest bet on the PGA Tour. Then the 45-year-old withdrew with a wrist injury after six holes, his first WD in TWO DECADES. Does my jinxing know no bounds?! Anyway, I'm back and hoping to make up for that at the season finale, where we've got the Big 4 playing for BIG money and potentially helping you settle your slightly-less-big fantasy league. How do I see things shaking out at the Tour Championship in Atlanta? Here's my weekly PGA Tour Fantasy Golf lineup: Related: Sign up for PGA Tour Fantasy Golf Driven By Avis Jason Day: We're not going to waste your time explaining why. Jordan Spieth: After two missed cuts, Spieth looked a lot better in Chicago, making a hole-in-one and sending beer and Giordano's deep-dish pizza to the press and volunteers. Perhaps, he should be buttering up his col...

When it comes to drivers and wedges, it's easy to fall in love with the idea of spin. Low spin off the driver, high spin off the wedges, right? Not so fast. True, some of the latest drivers shown here are designed for players with fast swing speeds who need to reduce spin. But be careful: Low driver spin matters only if you're launching the ball properly (higher than 10 degrees). If you launch the ball too low or with little spin, increasing your launch angle with a higher-lofted driver can be more effective than reducing spin. With wedges, companies are gearing back the sharp, spin-generating grooves on some low and middle lofts so that your shots land and stop instead of zipping back off the green. Another important factor is matching the shape of the sole to your swing type. If your wedge moves easily through the turf, you'll hit shots more solidly, and solid hits produce reliable spin. To help you in your quest, here are eight new clubs to consider. DRIVERS COBRA KING L...

PRO-FILE: AGE: 25 | 5-11 | 175 pounds | LIVES: Irving, Texas DRIVER: Callaway XR, 9 degrees | BALL: Callaway Chrome Soft Danny Lee is not your ordinary tour pro. Not even close. Most of today's young players are bred on the college circuit and come out ready to win, but the Korean-born Lee took a different route. At age 11, Danny moved with his family to New Zealand when his father became ill. They stayed for six years while he received cancer treatments. So Danny learned golf as a Kiwi of sorts, which explains his unique way of talking. "He's caught between Korean and English with a New Zealand accent," says his teacher of 18 months, Drew Steckel. Lee's father recovered, and the family immigrated to the United States. Danny was working with Jim Flick and won the 2010 U.S. Amateur at age 18, then the youngest-ever winner. But after Flick died in 2012, Lee lost his way, bouncing around tours and among teachers. "I saw a lot of instructors," L...

Yogi Berra, even at five-foot-seven, stood out in a crowd. No one looked like him. Or spoke like him. In 2010, he was serving as the host of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, when he noted how much he appreciated the attention he still garnered. “I get a kick out of sometimes, at the airport, a guy comes up to me, says, ‘Boy, you look just like Yogi Berra,’” he said. “And I say, ‘Yeah, a lot of people tell me that.’” Berra, 90, who died on Tuesday, was one of a kind, equally entertaining on or off the field (or golf course). He was known primarily as a Hall of Fame catcher with the New York Yankees, but he was known as well for his unique and inadvertent use of language (“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded).” He applied his brand of wit and wisdom, what came to be known as Yogi-isms, to golf, too. “Ninety percent of putts that are short don’t go in.” “I think they just got through marinating the greens.” Golf was a second sport for Berra. Last year...

Henrik Stenson enters the PGA Tour's season finale as the only golfer to finish in the top 10 in the first three FedEx Cup Playoff events and one of only four players in the field at East Lake this week to have won the $10 million bonus before. And at No. 4 in the current standings (the top 5 all control their own destiny), he has about as good of a chance as anyone to take home golf's biggest payday again. But even someone as good as Stenson, currently No. 6 in the Official World Golf Ranking, can be awed by the golf being played around him, most notably by new No. 1 Jason Day. When asked to assess his chances of winning the Tour Championship on Tuesday, the humorous Swede offered this response: We think he's talking about the current top three players in the world -- Day, Jordan Spieth, and Rory McIlroy -- but he could also be referring to World Nos. 4 and 5, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler, who beat Stenson by one at the BMW Championship two weeks ago, with that 330 remar...

The Titleist doctrine on iron design has always been pretty clear. “We want our irons to be about gapping and green-holding capability,” says Dan Stone, vice president of golf club R&D. “It’s the balance between two key variables: face compliance and feel, but we don’t see any value in giving up any feel.” It is in that vein that the company is announcing its largest iron launch ever, five new irons that run the gamut from traditional forged muscleback blades to cast irons the company toutsâ€"in somewhat of a shift in toneâ€"as its “longest, most forgiving ever.” The lineup includes the latest updates to the AP1 (the aforementioned distance iron), AP2, CB and MB models, as well as a model that has seen success in Japan, the tungsten-filled, driving iron T-MB, which also will be sold as a full set for the first time. The new 716 AP1 and AP2 irons are the latest to work within that equation. The AP1’s 360-degree undercut and the use of a specially heat tre...

Hybrids have been miscast, says Stephanie Luttrell, Titleist’s director of metalwood development. “Previously, we have designed them in line with our fairway metals,” she says. “But we’ve now made a concerted effort to study how hybrids best pair up with irons. Hybrids are really an extension of the top of your iron set.” With that in mind, Titleist is debuting two new hybrids: the 816 H1 (round profile) and 816 H2 (pear profile). Coming just a year after the introduction of the 915H hybrids, this new design incorporates a similar sole channel to boost face deflection, but it’s been reshaped with pre-worn edges for improved turf interaction. The 816 H1 offers a larger footprint than the 816 H2 and with more face progression compared to the H2’s slight visual offset, or more accurately less face progression. The H2 is designed as the lower-spinning option of the two new hybrids. Luttrell recommends the H1 for players who use more of a sweeping attack angle into the ball ...

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we're not picking up our ball against Suzann Pettersen unless we have signed, written consent that it's a gimme from her. Who could have imagined that Tiger Woods would have back surgery and Jason Day would win a playoff event by six and become No. 1 for the first time, and neither would be the weekend's biggest golf story? It's tough to know exactly what was going on in Pettersen's head in the heat of the moment, and it's even tougher to compare a major international team competition to a buddies trip, but we have a guy who is stingy with giving putts, and let's just say it has NOT helped with his popularity among the group. To Pettersen's credit, she apologized the following day, but the damage had already been done. With the U.S. using the incident as a rallying cry and winning the event, the competitive Norwegian wound up being both the villain and the goat of the event. Rough. Maybe we should lay off h...

You may know Rikard Karlberg as the man who captured his first European Tour win by beating Martin Kaymer in a playoff at the Italian Open on Sunday. After watching this music video the Swedish golfer made in 2012, though, it will be impossible to know him for anything else: Oh. Boy. Where do we even begin? Thanks to the European Tour's "Season Pass" for alerting us to this gem, which we were able to find still linked up to on Golf Today's Facebook page . Here's what Karlberg had to say about the video then: "Every year in Sweden we have the National Club Championship and we are at the highest division. Two years ago, we started a music video of a famous song played in Sweden and this year we did the same again. Only more feminine. . . " Yes. We would classify a group of grown men dressed in bikinis and blonde wigs lip-singing a song called "Summer of Love" by Cascada as pretty "feminine." Go on, Rikard. . . "We just try to have...

In Jason Day's words, he's "sitting on top of the world right now." But according to the new No. 1, getting to that position hasn't been as easy as the Aussie has made it look. And it hasn't involved a lot of sleeping, either. "This week has been a bit of a whirlwind, especially with how I started the week, shooting 18-under par through the first two rounds and then on top of it, the last two days were very, very emotional for me, very hard to sleep at night, knowing that I had the chance to get to No. 1," Day said. Makes sense. But he'll get some good shuteye now that he won a fifth PGA Tour title of the year and accomplished his longtime goal of getting to the top of the world ranking, right? "I mean, sometimes I get good sleep, but the majority of the time I don't get good sleep. Tonight I will not get good sleep. Sunday nights if I'm in contention I get about two hours' sleep just because I'm so amped from what I did toda...

Did Ole Miss get help from Augusta National in defeating second-ranked Alabama on Saturday night? Who knows, but a Mississippi coach was spotted holding a play card featuring Augusta National’s logo. One wonders, of course, what Augusta National chairman Billy Payne might think about this. Then again, Payne, a Georgia Bulldog, might approve of anything that contributes to a defeat of SEC rival Alabama. One can only guess what information the Augusta National logo is relaying to the players on the field. To run the Amen Corner route? Play cards featuring photos and symbols have become increasingly popular. Last year, Jason Dufner’s mugshot was used on an Auburn sideline play card, while Rickie Fowler has appeared on an Oklahoma State play card. (h/t Billy Byler @TheByler)

Other than skill, the biggest difference between the tour players and amateur hacks like us might be the fact that when they hit a wayward shot, they have crowds of people helping them find their golf ball. And sometimes, they're even willing to pay. That's what happened during the second round of the BMW Championship when Daniel Berger hooked one into the native area on the par-5 14th. But despite volunteers, fans, and even a bribe, the PGA Tour rookie was unable to locate his ball. "Yeah, we had plenty of people definitely helping us look. We had probably 25 people. At one point I offered the crowd $500 if they could find it. Seriously, I did. I said, $500 if you find this ball. I don't know, maybe they don't like money. But we found like -- we probably found 20 balls. If we had probably 10 more minutes I'm sure we would have found it. But it is what it is." Berger had to re-tee and he avoided disaster by making birdie with his second ball for a bogey si...

We're not sure what prompted this, but on Sunday night, Keegan Bradley took a swipe at Luke Donald's power off the tee: That's not nice, Keegan. And that has to be inaccurate. . . right? Let's see (scrolling down PGA Tour driving distance rank) . . . let's see (still scrolling) . . . there he is. Luke Donald is ranked 178th on tour with an average of 277 yards per drive. Take that, Keegan! OK, so Donald is one of the shorter hitters. And Bradley happens to be 10th on tour with an average of 306.1 yards per drive. But why point that out now? Tennis player Mardy Fish, a scratch golfer himself, even weighed in: To which Bradley responded with another dig: Ouch. On Monday, it was Donald's turn to respond. He switched manly topics from feats of strength to feats of drinking: Hey, what's wrong with Apple Ale? Am I right? Sorry, Luke, but you're still one down -- for now.

As the best players on the PGA Tour descend on East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta for the 29th playing of The TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola, many of golf’s past and present legends are also in town to attend the presentation of the prestigious Payne Steward Award. This award was created in 2000 by the PGA TOUR to carry on the legacy of Payne Stewart and the values of character, charity and sportsmanship that he held so dear. The award has been presented annually at The TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola ever since Stewart tragically perished in a plane crash on his way to the same event in 1999, and it’s given to a player recognized by his peers and the industry for his accomplishments on and off the course. Southern Company has presented the award since its inception as it aligns with their core values of trust, performance and commitment, and this year’s recipient is Ernie Els. Els is the parent of an autistic son, and his name has become synonymous with the fight against autism since...