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Ex-mentor of Zalatoris explains why he believes Justin Thomas holds a grudge against him

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The FedEx Cup Playoffs began with a bang a couple of weeks ago, with Will Zalatoris outlasting Sepp Straka in an engrossing finish to claim his first win on the PGA Tour.

While Zalatoris was delivering the goods down the stretch at the FedEx St. Jude Championship, a mini-storm broke out on social media involving Will’s ex-mentor Scott Fawcett, analyst Brad Faxon and Justin Thomas.

Taking exception to comments from Dan Hicks and Brad Faxon on NBC regarding Zalatoris’ putting stroke in Memphis, Fawcett blasted the duo on Twitter, causing Justin Thomas to weigh in and snap at the creator of DECADE Golf, calling his comments “egregious and aggressive.”

The fallout from the exchange caused Zalatoris to issue a statement where the 26-year-old condemned Fawcett’s actions, saying:

“Scott Fawcett is not a paid member of my team. I in no way condone or support anything that was said in those tweets. I personally reached out to Dan Hicks and Brad Faxon and echoed that I don’t condone what he said. Any interviews he’s given have been unauthorized.

“He has tried to reach out to me and I have not spoken to him. I’m thankful to him for everything he helped me with in the ups and downs in junior golf but those statements are not a reflection of my values or me.”

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and Fawcett has shed some light on the exchange, publishing a lengthy video with his view on what went down and why.

After explaining the history and bad blood between himself and Brad Faxon, Fawcett delved into why he believes Justin Thomas decided to chime in, alleging that it goes back to a feisty incident involving Fawcett and another pro from Q-School in 2019.

According to Fawcett, at TPC Craig Ranch three years ago he was on the bag for an unnamed player. On the second hole, his player snap hooked a drive, with his ball landing in an area where trash and debris had piled up following a microburst tornado that had hit the area a few days before.

While walking towards the ball, Fawcett explains how he stepped on a piece of wood containing a nail that ripped through his shoe and right into his foot. Understandably, needing some time to get himself together following the shock, the player and caddie took a few minutes before starting the search for the ball, at which stage Fawcett explains how “it appeared they’d been searching forever for the ball” in the view of the group behind them on the tee.

One player in the group behind began yelling from the tee, before hitting into them, and while walking down the fairway, the player shouted “cheaters” at the pair, alleges Fawcett.

Admitting that at this stage he snapped, Fawcett explains how “he went off on this guy,” saying he’d be about as embarrassed about what he was saying to the player as he was about what he tweeted to Hicks and Faxon.

“I wanted to ruin his day at this point” continues Fawcett saying the player’s actions were totally out of line.

The following day, Fawcett decided to time the entire round to prove that what happened on the second hole of the opening day “wasn’t an egregious thing” and to completely document the time in case this incident was ever brought up again.

Jumping ahead to last week, Fawcett appeared on The Loop podcast, where he was quoted as saying: “Find me a single tour player that has met me in person that says I’m not a good guy and does all I can to help them. Go find me one, I’ll give you $1 million.” A comment which provoked tour pro Tom Lovelady, the man who had the bust up with Fawcett that day at Q-School, to post a hand-up and wink emoji on social media reacting to the quote.

Saying that “he definitely hates me,”, Fawcett responded to the comment by telling him that he did offer to help him and do anything he could for him, which takes us back to TPC Craig Ranch.

In the parking lot on day two of 2019 Q-School, Fawcett allegedly apologized to Lovelady for what happened the previous day, an apology which Fawcett claims was not accepted.

Per Fawcett, Lovelady was Justin Thomas’ roommate at the time.

While breaking down Zalatoris’ statement condemning his tweets, Fawcett explained that he doesn’t condone his tweets either, saying it was a “hyperbolic joke that did not land” (citing the opening tweet, which says he’s joking) and revealed that he personally reached out to Dan Hicks by email to apologize to him and his family.

As for Faxon and JT? Fawcett said: “Faxon? Nu-uh, not going to apologize to him. JT? Definitely not going to apologize to him.”

Watch the video in full from Fawcett below.

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Gianni is the Managing Editor at GolfWRX. He can be contacted at gianni@golfwrx.com.

19th Hole

‘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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