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Will Zalatoris explains decision to fire longtime caddie mid-tournament

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Players spend an awfully long time with their team.

Whether coach, club manufacturer, agent or caddie, all are working towards one goal – the best result for their man each week.

Some players have a closer relationship with their bag-man than others but, given the time spent together on the range and course, it has to work and continue to keep working.

For Will Zalatoris, this week was the end of the road for his working relationship with his caddie, Ryan Goble. Strangely, though, it came in the middle of a tournament.

The world number 14 remains the highest ranked player yet to win on the PGA Tour, his high status coming via six top-10 finishes in majors over the last couple of seasons, and a host of similar results as a temporary and full member of the tour.

However, after finishing runner up at the PGA and US Open, and posting yet another top-five, this time at the Memorial, results haven’t quite gone to plan – a missed-cut in Scotland followed by 28th at St. Andrews and 20th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

For Willy Z, things had to change. After opening with a 71 and 66 at the Wyndham Championship, Goble was gone, to be replaced temporarily by his short game and putting coach Josh Gregory, until getting the services of Joel Stock for the FedEx playoffs and beyond.

It was a tough decision for the 25-year-old, who said:

“Yeah, it was the toughest decision I’ve had to make in my golf career. Ryan’s a brother for life. We’ve kind of had a rough month together, and it was starting to affect our relationship. I know guys say that when they split, but it really was.

We were guys that we would love to have dinner together and hang out, and it started — what was going on on the course was starting to bleed off the course, and that’s not what you want.”

Confirming just how hard it is to ‘sack’ one of the closest members of your team, Zalatoris continued:

“He’s an incredible friend. I love him to death, and I told him I had to do what’s best for me. Like I said, he’s just an amazing friend.

You know, obviously you can tell how hard this decision was on me, especially the timing of it, but I think it was just getting a little unhealthy for both of us, and it was — obviously it hurts.”

Zalatoris did not reveal exactly why he made the move halfway through the tournament, but it appears to have been on the cards for a while.

“We both kind of sensed it for a little bit,” Zalatoris said. “And, you know, nothing’s permanent. It’s just something that, like I said, he’s a brother. I love him to death.”

“And obviously it was on my mind. I mean, the finish that I had obviously made the day [Friday] a little bit better, but the frustration between the two of us had just kind of carried over the last month. Like I said, first and foremost, I love him to death and, you know, he’s one of the funniest guys I know and obviously I’ll miss his humor over this next bit, but as I said, nothing’s permanent.”

The ‘finish’ he talked about was the two-eagle, one-birdie finish through the last five holes of the second round, resulting in a 66 and a weekend’s play. But with Gregory by his side, Zalatoris had his best putting figures of the week, on route to a second successive four-under round.

Gregory talked fondly of the previous looper.

“I feel awful, but Ryan Goble was first class the way he handled it,” he said. “He’s been there with Will when Will was ranked over 1,000 in the world and now, he’s a top-15 player in the world and going to trend upwards.”

“So, (Ryan) will be very successful in the future, and he will land a great job and things are going to be good. And it’s going to be a win-win for both of them.”

Zalatoris started the final round just six off the lead, and in with yet another chance of yet another top-10.

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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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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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