19th Hole
Why Aldrich Potgieter’s grandmother is going to be mad at him following Rocket Classic win

After entering the final round of a PGA Tour event inside the top five an incredible five times this season, Aldrich Potgieter broke through Sunday at Detroit Golf Club. The impressive 20-year-old South African finished at 22 under par over 72 holes, tying with Max Greyserman and Chris Kirk, which kicked off the longest sudden-death playoff of the season.
After Kirk was eliminated on the second extra hole, the duel between Potgieter and Greyserman stretched to five playoff holes. It was on the par-3 15th that Potgieter finally drained an 18-foot birdie for the win, becoming the youngest South African victor on the PGA Tour in the process.
Following the tournament-clinching birdie putt, an understandably excited Potgieter plucked his ball from the hole and tossed it to a fan. An incredible souvenir, sure, but wouldn’t he have rather held onto it for his trophy room? Well, perhaps not his, but his grandmother’s, it turns out.
Speaking in a post-tournament press conference, the South African confirmed he tossed his Titleist into the gallery. When asked why, Potgieter responded:
“I don’t know, it was just in the moment. I was just pumped up. I know my grandma’s probably going to be quite mad at me. I give her all my stuff that I’ve won with, so she’s not going to be…happy.”
Imagining the stout 20-year-old tip-toeing home to South Africa in expectation of her scorn…
The only thing that can cast a pall on one’s first PGA Tour victory is a grandmother’s rage! But really, we’re sure she’ll understand. Hopefully, the tour stepped in to do the old memorabilia swap, trading the fan an autographed flag or something for the ball.
Anyway, here are a few more odds and ends from Potgeiter following his first PGA Tour win.
Not surprisingly, the day — which saw him start his round with a lead, lose the lead, take the lead, lose the lead, tie for the lead, then play five holes of sudden-death playoff golf — was a grind…
“It was a big grind. I mean, it was a very long day, kind of couldn’t get ahead of myself. I didn’t get off to the best start, so I knew there was a lot of holes still available, still to get back.
“There was a switch that kind of went off when I lost the lead and I kind of felt like I can kind of chase something. I kind of had to pull myself out of the environment I was in before those first couple holes and get in that chase mode where I can kind of play some different golf, golf that I played the first three days.”
His Airbnb checkout time put him in a tough spot…
“Waking up this morning was kind of difficult. I had to book out of my Airbnb at 10:00. Was out of there and only needed to show up to the course around 12:00. Drank a coffee somewhere and that got me a little shaky. No, it was OK. I kind of struggled to eat a little bit, kind of the nerves kicked in when I got here kind of sitting at player dining, but I think that’s just kind of normal and kind of have to get through that.”
Time off (and a fitting) paid dividends…
“It’s definitely nice to go home and see the family. I haven’t been home since February, since Mexico, and before that week I had three weeks off as well. So it was nice to get the refresh, come back with new equipment, not overthinking too much stuff.”
“I think I did a really good job of not coming in expecting too much because so much has changed. It’s nice. I thought I didn’t hit enough balls at home, I could have done a little bit more work, but it’s nice to kind of see some results coming from the club fitting and having some time off to breathe a bit.”
It’s easier to chase the leader than be the leader…
“I like to kind of set a target, to meet that target. It’s hard to kind of know what other guys are going to do. It’s kind of like playing match play, it’s very different to playing a golf course where you’re just trying to hit your golf ball, play the golf course every hole, it’s going to be different, where playing a player, it can change so much. And playing a player, you can be more aggressive with playing match play, but you also don’t want to make big mistakes because there’s six, seven guys right behind you pushing you right away. Once we made that switch, it definitely helped me to kind of go a little bit more flag hunting and hit the ball a little closer.”
Enjoy the highlights from Potgieter’s win below, courtesy of the PGA Tour.
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.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

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.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

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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