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19th Hole

Kevin Na and Dustin Johnson involved in tense encounter over conceded putt

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There’s something about match play that always seems to bring about drama, and that was certainly the case on Friday in Austin as Kevin Na confronted Dustin Johnson on the 11th green.

Johnson lipped out his birdie putt to win the hole, and following the disappointment, scooped up his ball from inside a foot believing it was good. However, there had been no official concession from Na, who still had inside three feet for his halve on the hole.

This led to Na chasing down DJ at the edge of the green to make his point about Johnson picking up his ball without being told it’s good yet, where the 37-year-old warned the World Number One: “I know it’s this close, but you still have to wait until I say something.”

An already eliminated Na went on to dump DJ out of the event by birdieing the final two holes, which included a fist-pump on 17 followed by his patented early walk on his putt on 18. The fist-bump between the two, it’s worth noting, involved Johnson not looking at Na once.

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Following his round, Na elaborated on what had happened on the 11th green:

“He had six inches, and obviously it’s good, but I hadn’t said anything, and he whacked it,” Na said. “And I was like – I froze there and looked at [his caddie] Kenny, and I wasn’t going to say ‘that’s a penalty, you’re going to lose the hole. I was going to say, ‘you know what, that was good anyway.’ I didn’t want to be over that putt and be thinking about that.

So I called him over, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m not going to take the hole from you, but I just want to let you know before I said something you whacked the ball. But I’m going to give that putt to you, so we’ll call it a half and go to the next hole.

That’s what we did. I think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to say — we all know he can make a six-inch putt, so I think I did the right thing.”

Like he said, Na was fully entitled to claim the hole as his win, as Matt Kuchar did following a similar incident against Sergio Garcia back in 2019.

The reaction to the incident was mixed on social media, but Na had his backers amongst his peers on Friday evening, with Jon Rahm telling media on Friday regarding the concession of putts:

“I try to say it loud and clear before they get to the ball. But, you know, even if it’s something that I was going to give to them and they do (what Johnson did), I would just tell them the same thing, ‘Hey, next time just wait for me so you don’t get in trouble.’

If it’s something like that, I would have done exactly the same thing Kevin Na would have done.”

Following his elimination, Johnson declined to comment and will now head to the Valero Texas Open, which he has opted to play following a late entry.

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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