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Why Phil Mickelson’s Open playing partner told Lefty that he’s hated him for 11 years

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Much was made about Phil Mickelson’s Open Championship pairing during the week leading up to the 150th edition of the event at St. Andrews. The six-time major champion has been one of the biggest stars in the game and an all-time great player.

Therefore, when it was announced that he’d be grouped with Kurt Kitayama and Lucas Herbert for his first two rounds it came as a bit of a shock. With all due respect to Kitayama and Herbert, it’s not the star-studded group you’d expect for last year’s PGA Championship winner.

It also came as a bit of a shock to the Australian, Lucas Herbert. Not because he was in awe by the star power of Mickelson, but because he’s hated Phil for more than 10 years.

Herbert shared the story on Instagram.

“Hey, Instagram, just shot two-under in the morning in the first round of the Open,” Herbert began. “Thank you for all the messages and what-not. Thought I would share a funny story for you all. So played with Phil today. Had an enjoyable day watching him play. And have a little backstory with Phil. So 2011 Presidents Cup, it’s Royal Melbourne, I’m 15 years old. I lied about my age to get into the volunteer network and become a standard bearer for the week carrying around the little scoreboards that update the gallery of what the group scores are on throughout the day. … Really enjoyed it.”

“Didn’t carry a board for Phil. But on the final day of play, I was hanging about, trying to get autographs, just wanting to be amongst it; thought it was the coolest thing ever. So hanging about the U.S. boys and everyone was signing this hat that I had. And I was passing it around to everyone, and everyone was great; everyone signed it. I asked Phil for an autograph, and he was the only one to deny me of this autograph.”

The roster of the 2011 Presidents Cup was loaded with stars and included Tiger Woods, Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson, Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, David Toms, Bill Haas, Hunter Mahan and Nick Watney. Having only one member of the team refuse to sign the hat to get the whole team I’d imagine would be quite disappointing for a 15-year-old.

Herbert made sure to remind Phil of his refusal to autograph the hat.

“So I reminded Phil of this today,” Herbert said. “On the 15th tee, I reminded him that I hate him and have hated him for 11 years as a result of him not signing the autograph for me. And he was very apologetic, and he played along and it was pretty funny.”

Herbert then slowed the video down and gave a detailed breakdown of Mickelson’s snub.

“Now you might not have seen it because it is in the background, but I will go through it again and show you the detailed analysis, the action replay of this snub of an autograph,” Herbert said. “So as we look here on the action replay, we’ve got the shot coming in. There’s Herbie on the left there, Titleist cap; sorry, hadn’t seen the light yet, TaylorMade. But Herbie on the left, standard bearer, moving across at Phil, who’s hidden behind the other standard bearer volunteer. Now Phil comes into frame here. You see: ‘Hey, Phil, can I get an autograph?’

“And you see the shake of the head, ‘No, absolutely not,’ and the signature hand gesture up there later on. ‘I’m with Amy. Go away.’”

Herbert got the last laugh, as he went on to finish in a tie for 15th place at The Open Championship while Mickelson missed the cut.

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‘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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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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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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