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‘Certain guys I can’t stand being here’ – Shane Lowry blasts ‘disruptive’ LIV pros at Wentworth

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The friction continues to mount in the lead up to the BMW PGA Championship this week at Wentworth Club.

On Wednesday, Shane Lowry become the next golfer in an ever-growing list of PGA TOUR players to criticize the LIV golfers who are playing in the DP World Tour’s most important event.

Among other reasons, the Irishman said that he feels that the LIV players are taking the spotlight away from the event and what’s really important at Wentworth.

“I don’t like it that they are here. I think to be honest, the one thing that has really annoyed me over the last few months is how disruptive they are all trying to be. Obviously, they are here for world ranking points somewhat, but they are here to be disruptive, and I don’t like it. To be honest, if I put myself in those guys’ shoes, would I be here this week? No, it’s too uncomfortable for me. It is what it is. Like I said it’s the BMW PGA Championship, the biggest event in Europe and we would be talking about that, and we are not. It’s disappointing.”

Similar to what both Jon Rahm and Billy Horschel have said this week, Lowry did acknowledge that there are a few LIV golfers who have the right to playing this week. He also made it clear that there were others who he believes shouldn’t be there.

“There’s some of the guys I kind of don’t mind them being here given what they have done for the Tour over the years,” said Lowry. “There are certain guys I just can’t stand them being here to be honest.

While there are plenty of players Lowry will attempt to avoid, he is known as an affable person who doesn’t like to be confrontational.

“Anybody that knows me, I don’t like confrontation or any of that stuff. I’ll say hello and do my thing. That’s the way I’ll be. Obviously, the lads, I’ve known them for years and some of them became quite good friends over the last few years. But obviously I haven’t seen them in a long time now, don’t hang out with them anymore. Probably won’t be going out for dinner because we haven’t seen each other. But yeah, there are certain lads that I shake hands with and certain hands I wouldn’t.”

The LIV Golf story isn’t going away anytime soon, especially with the Ryder Cup set to begin next year. As of now, it seems as if the LIV players won’t be eligible to participate, but Lowry believes they wouldn’t be a good fit for the team even if they could play.

“I can’t see how they are going to make the team, they are going to need a pick,” the former Open Champion said. “I think without those guys, we still have a good team. With all due respect to a lot of those guys over at LIV, I think they know themselves and that’s why they went to LIV, their Ryder Cup days are probably over. Obviously, they are lined up as next captains but there’s not too many of them that would have too many Ryder Cups.”

With Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry having all made strong statements in opposition to the LIV players this week, we could be in store for some real drama over the weekend if the leaderboard cooperates.

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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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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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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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