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Bubba Watson explains Matt Wolff LIV trade that he says knew ‘the world would see as dumb’

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When LIV Golf’s RangeGoats GC captained by Bubba Watson traded away the reigning individual champion of the league, Talor Gooch, for a player who hasn’t performed well in Matthew Wolff, most onlookers of the upstart golf league scratched their head.

Watson, however, defended the move just a few weeks prior to the LIV Golf season being set to kick off at Mayakoba while speaking to LIV.

“I’ve always wanted Wolff. I think Wolff is such a great talent and a great kid,” the 45-year-old said. “Once I made the deal with the Aces for Peter, it was easy to make the deal with Smash because now I’ve got the pieces that I wanted to make this all work.

“I knew the world would see this as dumb. But at the same time, if I’m taking a chance to come to LIV, people may have seen that as dumb at the time. And now people see it differently, right? Two years later, they’re like, ‘Hey, LIV’s not that bad.’

“So, when you talk to me in two years, well, it’s like any sports team when you make a trade. Look at Aaron Rodgers this year. Four plays in, he got hurt. And so, the Jets blew it, right? I don’t know the future, but I can try to guess. And that’s what we tried to do, make our most educated guess.”

Bubba added that he also made the move as a way to help someone in need who’s had mental health struggles.

“I’ve always wanted to be on Matt’s side. Always wanted to be in his camp because he’s young, right? I didn’t tell the world I had mental problems when I was in my early 20s, mid-20s. I wish I had somebody to talk with back then.

“It’s no good for Bubba Watson to play golf or to be part of this world if I’m not going to help people. And so, with Matthew, when I sat back and before I made the trade, the light bulb went off. This is my chance to help Matthew.”

Wolff also seems happy with how things are going so far in his new pink threads.

“I know I’ve got a lot of skill and a lot of talent. For me, the main thing is just mentally making sure that I’m in a good spot, I’m enjoying where I’m at and I want to be out there.

“Being on a team with Bubba, I think he’ll definitely be able to help me out with that aspect. But more than anything, just kind of getting me in a position where I feel like I can thrive and be myself. I really feel like it’s a good fit here.”

Fellow RangeGoat Peter Uihlein is excited to have Wolff on board, and the two have been friends for a while.

“Funny enough, the other day I told Matt, ‘You finished second in the US Open. You won on Tour. You were top 12 in the world at one point. You don’t forget how to play golf,’” Uihlein said. “He might’ve just kind of lost his way a little bit, but it’s not like he doesn’t know how to get that back.

“He just needs to go out there, be himself again, play golf, have fun doing it. It’s ridiculous to watch him. He’s the most talented player I think I’ve ever played with. No doubt he’ll be just fine.”

With the season right around the corner, we will soon find out if Wolff can return to the form that made him one of the most promising prospects in all of golf just a few years ago.

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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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