• “All of our tournaments are going to be identifying racial and social injustice causes in their local markets going forward,” Monahan said. “I think as you look out over the next 10 years, I think that we would project it to generate at least $100 million for those causes over the next 10 years, and that’s something that we’re going to hold ourselves accountable to.”

• “Monahan also outlined a program which would give the top players from Historically Black Colleges and Universities access to Korn Ferry Tour qualifying via the Advocates Professional Golf Association Tour and the PGA Tour University program, as well as financial resources and access to TPC network facilities.”

• “We will start there,” Monahan said. “We will be reintroducing programs, essentially Phase II of our five-phase return starting this fall, and then I think as you look beyond the fall and into ’21, every tournament is starting to plan for multiple potential outcomes, and hopefully planning towards the return of what we know as normal, and that’s fans on-site.

• “Given the consistently fluid nature of the virus and the way different communities are responding, each discussion is a different discussion. And so you may see different tournaments returning at different levels as we get into the end of the year and into ’21.”

• “Hughes, a professional golfer who last year graduated from Central Oklahoma, tied the Guinness World Record for lowest 18-hole score, firing a 16-under 55 last Thursday at South Lakes Golf Course in Jenks, Oklahoma.”

• Hughes’ 55 ties the world record first set by Australia’s Rhein Gibson, a current Korn Ferry Tour member who shot 55 back in 2012. Coincidentally, Gibson, who at the time played collegiately for Oklahoma Christian, also recorded the record number in Oklahoma, at River Oaks Golf Club in Edmond.”

Full piece. 

• “All I can say is it’s a heck of a golf course,” Rahm said Wednesday at the Tour Championship, where he enters the second finale as the No. 2 overall seed, two shots behind Dustin Johnson. “The greens gave me an Oakmont vibe: extremely difficult, extremely undulated. Sixteen of the 18 greens are sloped back to front. There’s always a run-up on the front. At least it seems a little more fair than Oakmont might look.

• “It’s just a difficult course. It’s long. It’s narrow. It’s undulated. You just need to play really good golf.

• “If it gets firm like some of the USGA guys told me they want it to be, I don’t see how any of us shoot under par. Or if we shoot under par, it would be somebody winning by a lot.”

Full piece.

7. Equipment storylines of 2020

• “Every year, there are one or two big sticks that typically shine above the rest. In 2017, it was Ping’s G400. The next year brought the Cobra F9 and the return of Cobra Golf. In 2019, it was a slugfest between TaylorMade’s M5 and Ping’s G410. There was one undeniable “best,” “longest,” “most popular,” and master of any other superlatives in 2020, however: the TaylorMade SIM.”

• “SIM came with some trepidation early on. The technology and odd shape looked a little awkward. It has been the SIM show ever since TaylorMade staffers started putting it in their bag at the Sentry Tournament of Champions, however.”

• “Performance-wise, it checked off every single box. Stable. Fast. Forgiving. And good-looking. Extreme TOUR validation and the wins helped, as well. Beyond Tiger, DJ, Rory, Rahm all putting it in play immediately, it was the free agents and staffers of competing brands having it in play that really nailed it home. Tommy Fleetwood, Patrick Reed, Paul Casey, Brooks Koepka, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose, Ryan Palmer, and Sergio Garcia are the big free agents who have had SIM in the bag. All but one still has it in play even today. That’s nuts.”

• “Not long after I qualified for the 1993 PGA Championship at Inverness, I started having a recurring nightmare: I was in a greenside bunker and couldn’t get out. I’d hit and hit, and groups would begin to pile up. Each night I woke up in a hot sweat.”

• “Then the dream changed. Instead of a bunker, it was the first tee at Inverness. There’s out-of-bounds way right, and I’d keep pumping balls over. Five days before the tournament, I called and withdrew. My buddies said I was crazy. Who cares if you shoot a couple of 80s, they said. I was too embarrassed to admit the relief I felt. My spot went to alternate Michael Allen, who made the cut, so I felt good about that.”

• “My doctor explained that I was having panic attacks. He prescribed medication for anxiety and depression. I told only my wife and parents about the diagnosis, and it was then I learned that my mother and grandmother had suffered from the same.”