19th Hole
Tap the brakes on the Tiger Woods Express or “full steam ahead!”?
“Is Tiger Woods back?” This is the discussion among fans of this maddening game (even those whose heads explode at the question’s utterance).
GolfWRX member Kscarguy takes things a step further, suggesting that the field could soon be playing for second place, as was the case in Woods’ early 2000s heyday.
“I remember when tiger was at his peak and how he controlled everything related to golf. I remember interviews from various players and most of the questions asked to them was about tiger. Some if not most of the golfers got tired of answering same questions about tiger. When he was dominating the sport everyone was basically playing for second place. Just like when Hogan came back from the ashes of his injury so is tiger. But tiger is tiger and he will want to lay waste to all who tees it up during the week he plays. Is this the second (or whatever version we are at now) coming. I think we will see him dominate with scores, driving distance, short game. What does everyone else think?”
Yes, Tiger Woods is launching the ball off the tee Yes. His iron play looks excellent. Gone are questions about any “chipping yips,” and his putter looks pretty darn good. Yes, he finished tied for second at the Valspar Championship, his Sunday in his signature blood red coming up just short. Yes, he’s off to a strong start at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
But is the roaring blaze of enthusiasm too much? Or is it not enough? Could we be on the verge of another period of Woodsian dominance? GolfWRX members debate.
Mjen43 says
“His strokes gained stats are comparable to a typical world #1 so I expected him to win a lot, health permitting.”
MarkfromtheUK says not so fast
“Golf has far greater strength in depth now, than when TW was in his heyday. He could get his game back to where it was before all the injuries, but he won’t win as often. The current crop of players aren’t scarred by week after week of beat downs. The aura has dimmed somewhat.”
DavePelz4 represents the contingent wanting none of it
“For the love of all that is good, make it stop.”
Z1ggy says
“Okay now people… I love Tiger like the rest of us but he’s had ONE good showing out of 3 as of late. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves… If he can finish in the top 5 this week I’ll commit to saying that “he’s back”. Until then, I’m remaining skeptical.”
Darth Putter says
“We are at the “let’s win a tournament” part. Let’s worry about the “Winning a major” and “Tiger 2000” steps when we get there.”
The discussion is just getting started at this point in the thread, so you’ll want to get your popcorn and click through to see what GolfWRX members are saying, and of course, let us know what you think.
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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