19th Hole
Major champ calls for audio release of bombshell Mickelson interview
On Wednesday, GolfWRX reported on an excerpt of 2002 PGA Champion Rich Beem’s interview with Golf Magic and Boylesports Latest Golf Betting, in which he doesn’t hold back his view on Alan Shipnuck, author of the recently published biography of Phil Mickelson.
Put simply, Beem said, “I don’t trust Alan. It’s nothing personal, I just don’t trust what he writes,” and the theme has continued today with more details of the interview that he had with the bookmaker’s blog.
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Whilst accepting the subject of the book, Phil Mickelson, has made errors and will need to ask for a deal of forgiveness to be allowed back on the PGA Tour, Beem has doubts about the context of the controversial comments that have turned the golf world upside down over the last couple of months.
Mickelson has become a (self?) exiled player since calling LIV Golf’s Saudi backers “scary…to deal with” and advising that they were a way of leveraging with the PGA Tour and their “obnoxious greed.”
Having been unhappy with the way Shipnuck handled the coverage of his rookie year in his 2003 publication, ‘Bud, Sweat & Tees’ – “I think that he tries to sensationalist everything,” – Beem wants some clearance on the circumstances of the controversial comments that appeared in the latest tome.
“What was printed by Alan Shipnuk, I want to be clear on this, I want to hear the audio,” Beem told the bookmaker site. “I want to hear exactly what Phil said and I want to hear the context of what he said because the written word is so different than the spoken word that you can take it in any context you want.”
“If you write me a letter, I can read that letter in so many different ways trying to figure out the way you wrote it. I want to hear what he said and how he said it before I really determine how I feel because I look at the source with a little disdain – I’m not a fan. ”
“Once I hear the context, I could probably make a better determination, but it’s hard for me to comment much more on Phil. He’s always been a unique character on the PGA Tour, and there’s a thousand stories out there as we all probably know.”
With nobody knowing for sure where we will see Mickelson next tee it up, Beemer has some advice for the 2021 PGA Champion should he wish to come back to the main tour.
“To go out and to try and redeem yourself, then what you need to do is become a model citizen. You need to come back, hat in hand at the PGA Tour if that’s where your allegiance is, and you need to apologise to every single player on the range.”
“You know, ‘Hey, listen, sorry for having this controversy, didn’t mean it to distract from you and this great tour that we’re part of’, because there are a lot more things to the PGA Tour that, besides the money they play for, are funnelled in.”
“You can give me a cheque for $5 million for winning a tournament, but the things that I get from the PGA Tour are so much more valuable in some respects. And there’s a laundry list of them.”
The current PGA champion is the first non-injured player of the modern era to miss the defence of his title, and with just three weeks to go before the first LIV event in London, we are still in the dark as to where he next tees it up.
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
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.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
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.
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.
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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