19th Hole
The young Euro Tour pro in the WGC-Mexico field whose inspiring story you need to know
World Golf Championships are reserved for the elite players in the sport, and joining that group this week for the second time in as many WGC events is Christiaan Bezuidenhout, who has overcome a number of arduous hurdles on the road to cracking the world’s top-50.
For those unaware, Bezuidenhout’s destiny was shaped earlier than most when on the streets of his native South Africa the then two-year-old picked up and drank from a bottle of coke – the contents of which contained rat poison.
The South African narrowly avoided death after the hospital completely pumped his stomach to purge him of the poison. Still, the poison infected his nervous system, leaving Bezuidenhout with a speech impediment that would have him develop a severe case of anxiety.
In a blog post for the European Tour last year, the 25-year-old explained the depths of the level of anxiety the stammer caused him growing up.
“I was basically just living in my own world because I was always scared of having to engage in conversation. When I talked to people, I knew I would struggle and it would take time for me to deliver my words, so I always had a fear of answering the phone, saying my name or being asked a question.”
Through therapy, Bezuidenhout got his life back on track but was then hit with another bombshell in 2014 when he was nominated for a random drug test that resulted in him being handed a 2-year ban from the sport.
The South African had been prescribed Beta Blockers to help control his stutter, and his sentence was subsequently reduced down to nine months.
What has happened since then has been a remarkable rise from being outside the world’s top-1500 on his return and outside the world’s top-500 at this point last year, to inside the world’s top-50 at the age of 25.
Victory on the Sunshine Tour in 2016 was Bezuidenhout’s first triumph. He then followed that up last year, hitting the headlines by winning one of the most significant European Tour events on offer, the Andalucia Masters.
Since then, the 25-year-old has gone from strength to strength. He finished third at the European Tour’s flagship event – the BMW PGA Championship, before recording a top-15 finish at the DP World Tour Championship to end 2019 inside the world’s top-100 for the very first time.
In 2020, things have only got better.
After a playoff defeat at the Dubai Desert Classic, the South African finished T21 at the Saudi International before notching a win at the Dimension Data Pro-Am last week for his second win on the Sunshine Tour. A victory which included a clutch eagle on the final hole to win by a stroke, in a week where he recorded a mammoth 29 birdies.
From rat poisoning, crippling anxiety, and a drugs ban, Bezuidenhout is now the second-highest ranked South African player in the world and will compete in his second WGC this week, having finished T17 at the HSBC Champions back in November.
Bezuidenhout’s story is inspirational and a testament to his courage and defiance. He’s a player which you are surely only going to hear more and more of on golf broadcasts in the future, and a man who will have his eyes firmly set on securing a spot at this year’s Masters – a feat he will achieve should he remain inside the world’s top-50 at the end of March.
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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