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Morning 9: Should we blame Jillian Bourdage? | Major trophy theft? | Woods rode the intramural basketball bench?

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6 years ago

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By Ben Alberstadt (ben.alberstadt@golfwrx.com; @benalberstadt on Instagram)

July 31, 2019

Good Wednesday morning, golf fans. 
1. Should we blame Jillian? 
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols says Jillian Bourdage, the junior golfer in the now-viral clip, shouldn’t be flogged for slow play or held up as an example given the video’s context…
  • “The video highlights a comeback par putt Bourdage deliberated over on the 30th hole of a match that stretched to 36.”
  • “Slow play is a problem in golf. Can’t imagine anyone disputing that. But Bourdage is a 17-year-old Ohio State commit in the early stages of her career. She doesn’t deserve the same level of scrutiny as a professional athlete. She’s ranked 838th in the World Amateur Golf Rankings for goodness sake.”
  • “A few things to consider about the Girls’ Junior finale that make this the perfect storm for slow-play critics…“It was a commercial-free broadcast”…“This was the only match on the course”
Nichols’ point: there was no opportunity to cut away from the watching-paint-dry spectacle and Bourdage and her playing were never out of position and, again, at the time, they were playing on an open course (and thus felt afforded as much time as they wanted over each shot).
2. Monday qualifying is really hard!
Golf Digest’s Alex Myers…”If you don’t follow Monday Q Info on Twitter by now, hopefully, this will provide the impetus to do so. No one tracks the Monday qualifying circuit like this guy, and with the PGA Tour regular season coming to an end, he produced this stunning compilation of results”
  • “Monday Q Info (@acaseofthegolf1) 67-67-67-67-65-68-69-66-69-67-67-68-67-69-69-68-72-68-67-65-66-65-67-68″
  • “If you went to every PGA Mon Q, shot these scores in order…you got into exactly ZERO events.”
  • “To reiterate, the average last-spot score at a Monday qualifier this year was 66.42. And three times, a 64 was needed to grab the last spot. If you shot 65 any of those three days, you were out of luck. Incredible.”

Full piece.

3. Nelly’s major bid
Randall Mell on Nelly Korda’s effort to take the next step in her already impressive career…
  • “She’s looking to win a major, but she understands it’s like a graduate program. There are still lessons to be learned.”
  • “I started playing golf because I wanted to win major championships,” Korda said Tuesday at the AIG Women’s British Open. “I feel like the more experience I get, and the more I’m in contention, and the more I am under pressure in these situations, the more I learn, the more I grow as a player.”
  • “Korda, who just turned 21 on Sunday, broke through to win her first LPGA title at the Swinging Skirts Taiwan Championship last October and won again at the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open in February.”
4. Trophy theft
Golf Channel’s Randall Mell…”If Georgia Hall appeared especially enamored with the silver AIG Women’s Open trophy positioned next to her in a news conference Tuesday at Woburn Golf Club, there was good reason.”
  • “Somebody stole her trophy.”
  • “…The trophy the Englishwoman was presented as winner of last year’s championship was stolen out of her car in London two months ago. It was a replica of the original.”
  • “Smashed my back window, like 12 o’clock in the middle of the afternoon,” Hall said. “I don’t know if they knew it was me or not, because it was in the box and everything. And I had golf clubs as well, and they didn’t take that. A bit strange.”
5. Barron’s big week
AP report on the Senior Open fifth-place finisher’s impressive showing.
  • …”He flew to Manchester, drove to the Lancashire coast and played with Wes Short Jr. The last time they had played together was nearly seven years ago in the Jacksonville Open, the final event of the year on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour.”
  • “Two days later, Barron finished with three clutch putts at Fairhaven to qualify for the Senior British Open”
  • “The day he turned 50 was the final practice round at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, where Barron and Dicky Pride took 20 pounds off Joe Durant and Scott Parel. The week ended with Barron closing with a 67 in the rain while playing with Colin Montgomerie to tie for fifth.”

Full piece.

6. Tiger the bench jockey? 
Golf Channel’s Brentley Romine…
  • “During an appearance on the Golf.com Podcast, Woods’ friend and former teammate Notah Begay talked about Woods’ abilities ­- or lack thereof – on the hardwood.”
  • “The golf team had an intramural team at Stanford,” said Begay, who won two state basketball titles while at Albuquerque Academy. “Tiger was on our team. But let me just tell you – let the cat out of the bag – he wasn’t in the starting five. I’m not going to disparage his athletic ability because he’s a great athlete. But I mean, with the likes of Casey Martin, who had a birth defect in his right leg who started ahead of [Tiger], will give you an indication of Tiger’s skills on the court. I’ll just leave it at that.”
7. Morikawa on his sticks 
Collin Morikawa spoke with Andrew Tursky of PGATour.com about his equipment, while the whole of the conversation is interesting, here’s what Morikawa said about his breakfast-inspired wedge adornments.
  • “Your wedge stampings have gone a bit crazy on social media. I guess you’re a big breakfast guy? How did those stampings come about?”
  • “Yeah (laughs), so my girlfriend, we love breakfast and we’ve got a little nicknames for each other. I won’t tell you which one [is mine]… but I’ll tell you her [nickname]; hers is “bacon.” But yeah, we love breakfast. We’re huge foodies. We love going out – and I think that’s what’s great about the PGA TOUR is you get to travel to so many great places and find some really good food. It just happened to be that we wanted to put some breakfast [items on the wedges] and we got some good combinations on there. We forgot some cereal names; I think that might be on a new wedge. But yeah, we do love our food and we definitely can’t get enough.”

Full piece.

8. “An honest mistake”
A day after passportgate, here are a couple of perspectives on Lexi Thompson’s misplaced passport fiasco
  • From an ESPN report “…Her agent, Bobby Kreusler, told Golf Channel it was an “honest mistake” and that Thompson had no idea it would cause such a delay and affect players the way it did.”
  • “She would never have wanted that,” the agent said.
  • “Ryann O’Toole, whose clubs didn’t arrive until Tuesday evening ahead of the Evian, wasn’t happy to lose another day of preparation for a major.”
  • “I don’t know why the driver would agree to accommodate one person knowing it would punish about a third of the field,” O’Toole told Golf Channel. “The driver should have said: ‘Hey, I’ve got to get these clubs to Woburn. If you want the passport, somebody’s going to have to fly there to get it and bring it back.”’

Full piece.

9. Can you use the shadow of the flagstick for alignment?
Handy bit of info from Golf.com’s Rules Guy…
  • “I had a four-foot putt exactly on the line of the flagstick’s shadow, so I left the pin in and made the putt. My playing partner called foul. I know the USGA changed the rule so that it’s the player’s choice whether to leave the stick in or out, but does that still hold when using its shadow as a beacon? -GUY SYKES, VIA E-MAIL”
  • “…the Rules are there to guide us, not hinder us. They are, indeed, a beacon themselves. The sun is out, and a shadow leads the way? To mix a metaphor, the stars have aligned! It’s perfectly legal!..”

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. JThunder

    Aug 1, 2019 at 6:54 pm

    If this clip is “viral” for slow play, then the entire PGA Tour season should be “viral” for slow play. Typical that the wealthy men aren’t called to task but the young girl is. A young girl who played a match in just over 4 hours (about the time it takes JB Holmes to get ready to hit a shot).

    Well done again, “wonderful” world of golf.

    Reply Report comment

  2. Ryan

    Aug 1, 2019 at 10:43 am

    Slow play sucks. Watching someone take forever over a three footer sucks. However, if the player is still within their pace of play on the course, nothing, IMO, can really be said. If this event hadn’t been televised, then this story wouldn’t have made headlines. If the pace is set at 4 hours and 10 minutes for 18 holes and the match took 4 hours and 9 minutes, then what is the gripe? The game is about shooting low scores, not how fast can you play. This is the equivalent of giving your wife $100 to spend shopping and when she comes home, she hands you back $1. Can you really be mad at her for spending $99 when you told her $100 was the limit? Does it matter if she bought 15 items or 1 item? As long as she didn’t come home and say, I spent $300 today, can you be mad? I think the same applies here.

    Reply Report comment

  3. Jon

    Jul 31, 2019 at 10:29 am

    Mr. Alberstadt, in my opinion it is rather unfortunate you left out a key piece of information from Beth Ann Nichols’ piece on Jillian and slow play. The original article states their first 18 holes took 4 hours and 4 minutes to complete and were under the 4 hours and 12 minutes time limit for the second 18 holes. Again in my opinion, withholding this information in the above article makes it look like Ms. Nichols was making an excuse for the slow play, when in all actuality, the time limits were never exceeded. It is rather unfortunate the amateurs are bearing the brunt of outcries on slow play.

    Reply Report comment

    • James

      Jul 31, 2019 at 11:57 am

      Good point about the overall time limit. Just thought I should clarify also that Jillian is not just any amateur. She’s an elite amateur and knows better. On a side note, I am so sick of broadcast commentators talking about these boys and girls as if they are new to the game. They have conquered the physical and mental aspects of the game beyond what 99.9% of all golfers will ever know yet they are talked down to and apologized for? They know what they are doing.

      Reply Report comment

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Tour Rundown: Bend, but don’t break

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3 weeks ago

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Aug 4, 2025

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I’m going to gush in this intro paragraph, to get the emo stuff done early. I’ve not pulled harder for a professional to win, than Cameron Young. I coach golf in New York state, and each spring, my best golfers head to a state championship in Poughkeepsie. I first saw Cameron there as a 9th grade student. I saw him three more times after that. I reconnecected with Coach Haas from Wake Forest, an old interview subject from my days on the Old Gold and Black, the Wake newspaper. He was there to watch Cameron. After four years at Wake Forest, Young won on the Korn Ferry Tour, made it to the big tour, almost won two majors, almost won five other events, and finally got the chalice about 25 minutes from the Wake campus. Congratulations, Cameron. You truly are a glass of the finest. #MotherSoDear

OK, let’s move on to the Tour Rundown. The major championship season closed this week in Wales, with the Women’s Open championship. The PGA Tour bounced through Greensboror, N.C., while the PGA Tour Americas hit TO (aka, Toronto) for a long-winded event. The Korn Ferry lads made a stop in Utah, one of just two events for that tour in August. The many-events, golf season is winding down, as we ease from summer toward fall in the northern hemisphere. Let’s bask in the glory of an August sunrise, and run down a quartet of events from the first weekend of the eighth month.

LET/LPGA @ Women’s Open: Miyu bends, but she doesn’t break

Royal Porthcawl was not a known commodity in the major tournament community. The Welsh links had served as host to men’s senior opens, men’s amateurs, and Curtis and Walker Cups in prior years, but never an Open championship for the women or the men. The last-kept secret in UK golf was revealed once again to the world this week, as the best female golfers took to the sandy stage.

Mao Saigo, Grace Kim, Maja Stark, and Minjee Lee hoped to add a second major title to previous wins this season, but only Lee was able to finish inside the top ten. The 2025 playing of the Women’s Open gave us a new-faces gallery from day one. The Kordas and Thitikulls were nowhere to be found, and it was the Mayashitas, Katsus, and Lim Kims that secured the Cymru spotlight. The first round lead was held at 67 by two golfers. One of them battled to the end, while the other posted 81 on day two, and missed the cut. Sitting one shot behind was Miyu Yamashita.

On day two, Yamashita posted the round of the tournament. Her 65 moved her to the front of the aisle, in just her fourth turn around a women’s Open championship. With the pre-event favorites drifting off pace, followers narrowed into two camps: those on the side of an underdog, and others hoping for a weekend charge from back in the pack. In the end, we had a bit of both.

On Saturday, Yamashita bent with 74 on Saturday, offering rays of hope to her pursuing pack. England’s Charley Hull made a run on Sunday closing within one shot before tailing off to a T2 finish with Minami Katsu. Katsu posted the other 65 of the week, on Saturday, but could not overtake her countrywoman, Yamashita. wunderkind Lottie Woad needed one round in the 60s to find her pace, but could only must close-to’s, ending on 284 and a tie with Minjee for eighth.

On Sunday, Yamashita put away the thoughts of Saturday’s struggles, with three-under 33 on the outward half. She closed in plus-one 37, but still won by two, for a first Major and LPGA title.

PGA Tour @ Wyndham: Young gathers first title near home

Cameron Young grew up along the Hudson river, above metro New York, but he also calls Winston-Salem home. He spent four years as a student and athlete at Wake Forest University, then embarked on tour. This week in Greensboro, after a bit of a break, Young opened with 63-62, and revved the engine of Is this the week once more. Runner-up finishes at the Open, the PGA, and a handful of PGA Tour events had followers wonder when the day would come.

On Saturday, Young continued his torrid pace with 65, giving him a five-shot advantage over his closest pursuer. Sunday saw the Scarborough native open with bogey, then reel off five consecutive birdies to remind folks that his time had, at last, arrived. Pars to the 16th, before two harmless bogeys coming home, made Young the 1000th winner of an official PGA Tour event (dating back to before there was a PGA Tour) throughout history. What’s next? I have a suspicion, but I’m not letting on. Mac Meissner closed with 66 to finish solo 2nd, while Mark Hubbard and Alex Noren tied for third.

Korn Ferry Tour @ Utah Championship: Are you Suri it’s Julian?

Who knows exactly when the flower will bloom? Julian Suri played a solid careet at Duke University, then paid his dues on the world’s minor tours for three years. He won twice on two tours in Europe, in 2017. Since then, the grind has continued for the journeyman from New York city. At age 34, Suri broke through in Beehive state, outlasting another grinder (Spencer Levin) and four others, by two shots.

Taylor Montgomery began the week with 62, then posted 64, then 68, and finally, 70. That final round was his undoing. He finished in that second-place tie, two back of the leader. Trace Crowe, Barend Botha, and Kensei Hirata made up the last of the almost quintet. As for Suri, his Sunday play was sublime. His nines were 32 and 31, with his only radar blip a bogey at ten. He closed in style with one final birdie, to double his winning margin. Hogan bloomed late…might Suri?

PGA Tour Americas @ Osprey Valley Open presented by Votorantim Cimentos – CBM Aggregates

Some tournament names run longer than others. This week in Toronto, at the Heathlands course at TPC Toronto, we might have seen the longest tournament title in recorded history. The OVOPBVCCBMA was a splendid affair. It saw three rounds of 62 on Thursday, but of those early risers, only Drew Goodman would stick around until the end. 64 was the low tally on day two, and two of those legionnaires managed to finish inside the top three at week’s end. Saturday brought a 63 from Patrick Newcomb, and he would follow with 64 on Sunday, to finish solo fourth.

Who, then, ended up winning the acronym of the year? It turns out that Carson Bacha had the right stuff in TeeOhhh. Bacha and Jay Card III posted 63 and 64, respectively, on day four, to tie for medalist honors at 23-under 261. Nathan Franks was one shot adrift, despite also closing with 63. If you didn’t go low on Sunday, it was about the check, not the championship.

Bacha and JC3 returned to the 18th hole twice in overtime. Card nearly chipped in from the thick stuff for birdie, while Bacha peeked and shoved a ten-feet attempt at the win. On the second go-round, Card was long with his approach, into the native grasses once more. He was unable to escape, and a routine par from the fairway was enough to earn the former Auburn golfers a first KFT title.

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Photos from the 2025 Wyndham Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.

Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.

Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.

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Kurt Kitayama just won his 2nd PGA Tour event at the 3M Open. Kurt is a Bridgestone staffer but with just the ball and bag. Here are the rest of the clubs he used to secure a win at the 2025 3M Open.

Driver: Titleist GT3 (11 degrees, D1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD VF 7 TX

3-wood: Titleist GT1 3Tour (14.5 degrees, A3 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 TX

7-wood: Titleist GT1 (21 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)
Shaft: Graphite Design Tour AD DI 9 TX

Irons: TaylorMade P7CB (4), TaylorMade P7MB (5-PW)
Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue X100

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Shafts: True Temper Dynamic Gold Tour Issue S400

Putter: Scotty Cameron Studio Style Newport 2 Tour Prototype
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Grips: Golf Pride Tour Velvet

Ball: Bridgestone Tour B XS (with Mindset)

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