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Rory McIlroy discusses his WGC victory, Tiger Woods, why he found extra motivation from Brooks Koepka’s comments and more on “Just the Fax”

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Rory McIlroy was a guest this Monday on Brad Faxon’s SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio show, “Just the Fax”, where the Ulsterman discussed his recent WGC win, Tiger Woods’ Zozo victory, whether he found extra motivation from Koepka’s recent comments and more.

*All quotes courtesy of SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio

Beginning with his recent victory at the WGC-HSBC Champions, McIlroy contrasted his final two drives on the 18th hole on Sunday, the first in regulation which almost found the hazard, and the second in the playoff which was hammered right down the middle of the fairway.

According to the 30-year-old, the difference between the two results came from “staying a little more patient from the top of the swing” which allowed him to stripe one down the center in the playoff and which McIlroy credited as a “big moment” due to him teeing off first and allowing him to put pressure on Xander Schauffele.

Host Faxon mentioned his surprise when after a congratulatory text message he sent to McIlroy was responded to instantly while McIlroy was in the scorer’s tent following his playoff win. The 4-time major champ explained how if he doesn’t respond as soon as possible then it’s unlikely he will end up acknowledging every message received after a win, of which he claims to receive “around 100-150 messages” after a victory.

On Tiger Woods’ recent win at the Zozo Championship, McIlroy expressed his surprise at how Woods was able to win the event after seeing his game up-close at the Japan Skins match the previous Monday and also heaped praise on the 15-time major champion’s victory.

“Not at all (on if he saw Woods’ Zozo victory coming). Look we were all a little tired, we had just gotten there, but I did not, I didn’t see it. I mean, look, he’s Tiger Woods and everything, and he does things that other people just can’t do, but from what I saw on the Monday, I didn’t think that his game looked sharp enough to contend.

Whatever he did, he got it together for a few days, and that was some performance. I mean to play that good on that golf course, that was a pretty tough golf course. So to have control of his ball like that and to shoot -19, and win pretty easily in the end was awfully impressive.”

McIlroy stated how he plans to take a couple of months off this off-season where he intends to work on his tennis game. When the conversation swung around to Koepka’s recent comments, the Ulsterman explained how he did take extra motivation following Koepka’s remarks that McIlroy wasn’t a rival since he hadn’t won a major since he had been on Tour.

“I don’t think I’d be a competitor if there wasn’t extra motivation there. Look, I’ve said things in the media before, whether I’ve said them in a way where they didn’t come off the way I wanted to or, you know, you say some things. So I can get where Brooks was coming from, absolutely.

But yeah, of course, it gives me motivation when someone says something like, you’re not a true competitor if you don’t feel a little bit of something after that. Look, I’m good with Brooks, and I just want to let my clubs do the talking. I’ve been able to do that, and that’s what I’m going to continue to do.”

Asked whether he had received a text from Koepka following his win in China, McIlroy laughed and said “No” before the conversation turned to the Official World Golf Ranking.

McIlroy admitted that he bases much of his schedule on where the most OWGR points are on offer and how he uses the points on offer as motivation for when he finds himself out of contention on the weekend of an event.

The 30-year-old rounded off the interview with Faxon by saying he plans to play the week before next year’s majors when possible since it takes him “a couple of rounds to get going”, and revealed that Tiger Woods should “100%” pick himself as a playing-captain at next month’s Presidents Cup, calling it a “no-brainer” decision.

Brad Faxon’s radio show “Just the Fax” airs each Monday at 4 PM ET on SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio.

 

Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

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An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.

However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.

Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.

Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”

Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.

Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.

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19th Hole

How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.

Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.

Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.

Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.

Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.

“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course.  Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”

According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.

“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”

Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.

Check out Young’s winning WITB here.

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19th Hole

Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.

Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.

Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.

The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.

Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”

“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”

Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.

However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.

“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”

Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.

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