Hey Everyone,

This week marked the end of the MassGolf season, and I collected all the winners from their championships and shared five highlights from the year. You can read that here.

Last Sunday, I played George Wright and Franklin Park. One of the coolest golf days of the year for me. It’s like a mini golf trip without leaving Boston. Both courses are in incredible shape right now. Go play either (or both!) before the season ends.

One quick Mea Culpa from last week. I listed some of the local courses that are closing or shrinking to nine holes in last week’s. I included Sagamore Springs in Lynnfield as one course that would be cut to nine holes. That, in fact, is not true (we do fact-check in this newsletter…). Toll Brothers will build on the property, but the course will remain fuly intact. However, they will use the driving range for development, so that will be gone. I’m glad I can give back nine holes this week!

News and Notes:

Korn Ferry Tour Championship: Davis Chatfield, Richy Werenski, John VanDerLaan, and Robbie Oppenheim are all playing in the final event of the KFT Season. Reaching this point of the season means they have status on the KFT next year. A handful of PGA Tour Cards are still available for players who finish in the top 30 of the season-long points race. An excellent week, like a win, seems like the only chance for any of the Bay Staters to earn their Tour Card. Leaderboard.

Michael Thorbjornsen off to hot start in Mississippi: The Sanderson Farms Championship could be a great chance for Thorbjornsen to make some money and earn some FedEx Cup points (it’s gross that I have to write those words…). A 63 in the opening round is just the ticket. This time last year, Thorbjornsen was recovering from back surgery. Now he’s a PGA Tour member and in the hunt after the first round. Leaderboard.

Mass. Super Senior: Don Reycroft won his second Super Senior title. He shot 71-73 (+4) at Oak Hill in Fitchburg to beat Steve Tasho by one shot.

John R. Williams at (the other Oak Hill): Two teams from Massachusetts are playing at Oak Hill in Rochester, NY, this week. The JRW is a coveted invite to the major championship venue. Danny Frodigh and his brother Patrick Frodigh make up one team, and Nick Maccario and Matt Parziale are the other Mass. team in the field. George Zolotas is also in the field, he’s playing with New Yorker Seve Calmi. Maccario and Parziale are in solo first place after an opening 64 (-6). The Frodigh Brothers shot 67, and Calmi and Zolotas shot 68. Mass Golf Comin’. Leaderboard.

Help with next week’s Results Round-Up

If you know of any events that you’d like to see mentioned in the round-up, you can fill out this form. I am looking for college (any division), amateur, pro, or cool country club events. There’s room in the form for two events for the try-hards in class… Trophy shots? Send them to [email protected].

Here’s the Sept. 23 Round-Up.

Maybe the pros should play faster?

This week, Ryan French of Monday Q Info reported that the 2026 PGA Tour will look quite different from its current form. 

Smaller fields.

Fewer PGA Tour Cards.

Less opportunities to graduate from Korn Ferry to PGA Tour.

Half the Monday Q spots.

It’s worth a read to get all the details.

French has built an incredible following on Twitter through his tireless coverage of Monday Qualifiers and the unheralded pros who are chasing a dream. He knows more about the intricacies of the inner workings of PGA Tour cards and exemptions and Monday Qs and such. He’s the expert on a lot of it.

One section that stuck out to me in his article was about the shrinking field size and the reasoning behind the decision.

Physical therapy?

That’s the reason?

Sheesh.

I get that the late/early tee times on a Thursday and Friday can be tough for guys. Finish in the dark, grab food, get a massage (oh, the madness!), and head home for some sleep before the 5 am alarm kicks off their Friday morning.

The player who told French, “We need to enforce the pace of play policy,” is exactly right. Taking away 12 players from a field (that’s four groups of three) will save the PGA Tour 40 minutes. Those 40 minutes have disappeared due to play slow.

You can blame AimPoint (I don’t) or tougher layouts (probably not). Ultimately, if you’re going to give players limitless time to hit shots without any accountability they’re going to use it.

In the NBA, players are allowed 10 seconds to shoot a free throw. Teams are allowed 24 seconds to hit the rim with a shot. When the shot clock gets down to 4 seconds, a player has to shoot it. Under the immense pressure of a late game free throw a player can’t just take 20 seconds to catch their breath or wait for the crowd to quiet down.

Patrick Maholmes has 45 seconds to receive a play call, deliver it to his teammates, huddle up, get his team to the line, read the defense, and snap the ball.

Pitchers and hitters in the MLB had nearly all the time in the world between pitches before last year. I suffered through 5-hour Red Sox v. Yankees games on Sunday nights in the mid-2000s. Now, a pitch clock and some other part of play rules have brought fans back to the game. Viewership is up. In 2022, pre-pitch clock, the average MLB game took 3 hours and 2 mins. In 2023, games averaged 2 hours 32 minutes. 

The PGA Tour has decided to remove spots in their event instead of keeping players accountable. That’s sure to draw more than 69,000 viewers in next year’s Procore Championship.

Playing within the confines of time is part of what adds drama to sports.

So here’s my suggestion.

Have a putt clock.

We don’t need to time every shot (although we could…).

But imagine if there was a putt clock next to every green on the PGA Tour. Once the final ball in the group hits the green, the putt clock starts.

Maybe the first putter gets 2 min. because they have to walk to the green (you could always create a few different lengths of time based on how far the last player is from the green).

Maybe the clock starts once the player reaches the green, and they have 1 minute to hit the first putt. Then after the first putt in the group is hit, the clock resets to 45 seconds for every player’s turn.

Over the last few rounds I’ve played, I have been recording video when we arrive on the tee box and the green. For the most part, it takes a foursome 2 min. to hit their tee shots once the fairway is clear. Putting takes just a shade over 2 min.

Just imagine Scottie Scheffler on the 18th hole at Kapalua in January lining up an 8 foot putt (his favorite), and the putt clock is down to seven seconds.

Then imagine a referee runs onto the green and blows a whistle once the clock expires and Scottie hasn’t hit the putt yet. Then imagine they go to a replay to see if he struck the ball before the putt clock expired.

I’m kidding about the referee part, but if players were held accountable to some extent and it was something the fans could actually track, it would make golf better! Maybe a player gets a warning for a “delay of game,” and the second time, it’s a one-shot penalty. Fines don’t really affect these guys; hit them where it hurts, on the leaderboard.

If the PGA Tour wants to cut their fields, that’s fine.

But to hide behind the excuse of players needing physical therapy is pathetic.

Once again, I’ll remind you of Jay Monahan’s words at the Tour Championship this past August.

Engagement, momentum, and innovation.

In the words of Judge Smails in Caddyshack…

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Weekly Favorites

Reads:

• I read Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr a couple years ago. I broke it out this week and man, oh, man is it a delightful read. Doerr was given a residency in Rome for a year. He spent the year there with his wife and infant twins and wrote a memoir. His writing is exceptional, a breath of fresh air.

• This review of a new restaurant in St. Andrews is scathing in only the way a Guardian review can be scathing.

  • “Busy restaurants often have their own particular smell: of good things searing on the grill, or garlic fizzing in hot butter, or perhaps of a strategically placed trolley full of ripe cheeses trying to make a run for it. The 18 restaurant atop Rusacks, a fancy hotel in St Andrews, smells of newly pumped testosterone. On a weekday night the place is filled with a certain kind of middle-aged man, most of them American. They are not just seated at the tables but thronging between them and leaning over the shoulders of friends at other tables to bark with laughter at each other’s jokes and war stories. The thing that unites them lies on the other side of the long plateglass window at the back of the dining room, shrouded now by night’s fall. It is the 18th hole of the Old Course, the oldest golf course in the world and therefore the holy of holies for golfers the world over. Let us pray.” - Jay Rayner

Listens:

• I follow Somewhere_Soul on Instagram and he makes some cool playlists. I’ve been listening to Songs That Live Rent-Free in My Head.

• For the golfers out there, thought this “Yoke with Doak” episode on the Fried Egg was outstanding. The discussion about “Drive and Pitch” short par 4s got me thinking about some of the holes I’ve played on my quest that aren’t quite drivable but leave me trying to figure out if I want a 20-yard pitch shot. Listen here.

• Another good Plain English Podcast. “A Sports Mystery: What Happened to the NFL Quarterback.”

Eats:

• Had an incredible Fried Chicken Sandwich at George Wright on Sunday. However, it sad that the new ownership is not serving the famous hot dog.

• I discovered Hi-Chews a couple of weeks ago. A blend of Starburst and soft taffy. A top-notch candy.

Watches:

• Great British Baking is back! That is all.

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Bay State Archives

• A list of golf courses open in the winter.

• Bay State Picks: Best courses you can walk for less than $60.

• Bay State Picks: Nine-hole courses to play before or after work

• Bay State Picks: 18 public golf that is worth your time

• Bay State Picks: Easy 18-hole public walks

• Bay State Deep Dive: Myopia Hunt Club

   

• "On Course" New England Journal Podcast

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• Amateur Golf Podcast

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