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Bryson DeChambeau finishes runner-up at Long Drive World Championship

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Bryson DeChambeau has rarely wavered from his ambition to produce the fastest ball speed and furthest drive in tour history, and went very close to becoming the world’s longest driver on Saturday.

In his second ever appearance at the Professional Long Drivers Association’s World Championships in Nevada, the 2020 U.S Open winner came within 20 yards of becoming world champion, eventually losing out to Martin Borgmeier in the head-to-head final.

With the PLDA finding itself on the losing end of a battle against falling crowd numbers and entries, DeChambeau made his debut at the 2021 event to huge publicity, eventually finishing seventh of the eight finalists, a huge achievement for a pro tour golfer, let alone one with his PGA and DP World Tour resume. His was a hugely welcome entry for the organization and the sport.

This time, with defending champion and undisputed PLDA number one, Kyle Berkshire, suffering after recent hand surgery, DeChambeau and Borgmeier were the two left standing from an initial field of 128, ‘our’ man making the final after being fifth in the final eight with a top drive of 415 yards.

That final octet included last year’s runner-up and overall second in the ranking, Justin James, but with a drive of 407 yards, DeChambeau made his way into the final. Even that number was 28 yards short of the longest drive of the day – Zach Holton’s 435 yards in the Round of 16 – and 11 off the drive Borgmeier had to make the decider. Despite his efforts, Bryson was facing a tough task.

Ultimately, the German’s experience was too much for the LIV player, and with drives of 415 and 426 yards, he took the trophy ahead of DeChambeau’s best of three legal drives – 406 yards.

Despite being hugely pleased with his win, Borgmeier was quick to praise his rival, not only for the achievement of making the final, but for what he had done for the entire sport.

“There is one very, very important thing, and all of you guys know,” Borgmeier said. “I would not be here, none of us would be here with the improvements in technology, if one guy wouldn’t have come in a year ago to make the sport what it is right now. And I think he’s on a very good track to come back. And that guy is Bryson DeChambeau.”

He continued, with increased enthusiasm, “He also came in second! What is going on? That guy is a professional golfer, and he’s putting up these ball speed numbers… he lights it up in the final, hitting 400 plus! No one has ever done that before! People don’t realize how crazy that is!”

Having recently had an argument with a gallery rope and then making fun out of himself, we probably do, but it’s still an immense achievement for a legitimate world-class tour player to do what he is doing.

And, as seen below, this is one sport where you may have to be slightly off-the-wall to compete:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFaRywFFfX0

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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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