• “Golf is often billed as one of the purest meritocracies in sports. Play well, shoot low, and you’ll move up the rankings and into the biggest events. There is no head coach to woo for extra playing time, no front office to appease. No long-term playing contracts, either.”

• “Tiger Woods went from a walking injury report to the eye-popping superstar that he’s been for much of his career. His match-play foil, Phil Mickelson, added fashionista and dance instructor to his ever-growing list of credentials.”

• “Patrick Reed graduated from fiery villain to major champion, a transformation that can’t be undone with 100 post-Ryder Cup sound bites. Brooks Koepka went from Dustin Johnson’s workout buddy to the history books in the span of a summer, all while proving that perhaps Johnson should be viewed as his plus-1 rather than the other way around.”

Many more in the full piece.

• “Bryan Bigley and Braden Thornberry are tied for the lead after one round of Web.com Tour Q-School in Arizona. The duo each shot rounds of 62 on Thursday in pursuit of earning that coveted top spot in Q-School. They are being chased by dozens of others though, with twenty-four players shooting 66 or better during the first round.”

• “Just behind the leaders is a trio at 63; Andy Zhang, Michael Gligic, and friend of the program Vince India. Zhang famously qualified for the 2012 U.S. Open as a 14-year-old and recently played collegiately at Florida. Gligic is a Canadian who has played on the Mackenzie Tour for the last decade while also dipping his toe in the Web.com waters in 2017. India graduated from Iowa and has mainly played on the Web.com for the last few seasons. He did qualify for two PGA Tour events last season and notched his first career made cut in the Dominican Republic.”

• “More, more, more….That’s the theme behind the 2019 LPGA schedule released Thursday, but tour commissioner Mike Whan sees something else in the growth….”There’s less unpredictability,” Whan said. “I think that’s the cool thing. The schedule isn’t a big surprise. Most of our events are back again. We’re just growing our purses.'”

• “The 33 official events on next year’s schedule are one more than this year and will feature a tour-record $70.55 million in total prize money, surpassing the 2018 record haul by $5.2 million…It adds up to more stability…Notably, there will be more diverse formats, with three new formats on the schedule…”We’ve grown to the point where we are able to do more of these fun formats,” Whan said.”

• “The year will begin with one such event – the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions (Jan. 17-20), featuring LPGA winners from the last two years playing alongside celebrities and entertainers in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.”

• “The 2019 World Long Drive schedule will now include an inaugural event called Celebrating Service: Fort Jackson. The tournament will have a division represented by military service members competing alongside World Long Drive athletes.”

• “The inaugural event will be among six World Long Drive tournaments to air on Golf Channel in 2019.”

• “It was announced in July that the PGA Tour and NBC Sports Group had made a partnership and that NBC Sports Gold – NBC Sports Digital’s direct-to-consumer live streaming product – would be the U.S. home for PGA Tour Live in 2019.”

• “The new PGA Tour Live will provide exclusive live coverage of featured groups from 28 PGA Tour events beginning at the Desert Classic and running through the Tour Championship.”

• “Active PGA Tour Live subscribers will soon receive an email from NBC Sports Gold with instructions to complete account set up.”

• “The privately held Education Corporation of America, which owned the five golf schools, announced Wednesday that it would shutter all of its roughly 80 campuses in the wake of declining enrollment and losing its accreditation. Employees have been notified that their positions will be eliminated, and most of the company’s approximate 20,000 students will not be able to able to finish their programs unless they were in their final semester.”

• “Golf Academy of America said on its website that it has trained more than 11,000 students, with graduates employed in the golf industry in all 50 states and around the world. Its five campuses are in Myrtle Beach, S.C., San Diego, Dallas, Orlando and Phoenix.”