Jon Rahm, Bethpage Black, Greg Norman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Hannah Green (clockwise from top left).
Getty Images
Welcome to Monday Finish, where we’re still choosing which TGL team to dress up as for Halloween. In the news…
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I LOVE GOLF EQUIPMENT
Patience.
Tim O’Neal he has always loved golf. He didn’t like it anymore.
EQ-School in 2000 needed a bogey on the last hole to earn his PGA Tour card. He did three times. In 2004 he missed by one shot when his birdie putt on No. 18 hit the green. There were plenty of eyes on O’Neal, a promising black golfer who won awards at Jackson State in college and even earned investment dollars from the actor. Will Smith. But when he reached the edge of golf’s top ranks, he couldn’t seem to break through.
O’Neal played several times on the PGA Tour’s top feeder tours, earning a spot on the Buy.com Tour, which became the Nationwide Tour, which became the Web.com Tour, which is now the Korn Ferry Tour. He won and lost that status several times and filled in over the years in tournaments and small tours near home and far away. There were times when he was tempted to quit but he didn’t quit; in 2013 he was one of the oldest players on the PGA Tour Latinoamerica but found some magic that season, winning twice. There were always enough signs that his game was there to continue, and the last time O’Neal won a PGA Tour-sanctioned event was in 2016 at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic, which was then a PGA Tour Latinoamerica event. .
Until Sunday, of course.
O’Neal, who qualified for last year’s PGA Tour Champions Q-School, entered the final round of the Dominion Energy Charity Classic three shots off the lead. He was on the verge of ending his best season — he had just one top 10, a T7, in 23 starts in 2024 — but he passed that goal and shot a round of seven, instead, seven under. 65 with birdies on 16 and 18 to win his first PGA Tour Champions title in two.
O’Neal was visibly upset in his post-round interview as he tried to process the moment in real time.
“It only takes one week, right? And this was my week,” he said.
If he found it difficult to understand what he had accomplished, that was understandable. O’Neal now has something he’s been chasing for decades: stability. He earned $350,000 for the win. He was injured en route to the next round of the Charles Schwab playoffs. And he closed his career for next season, too.
“You know, I love all these guys and I’ve learned a lot in the last two years playing here on the PGA Tour Champions,” he said when asked about the players who have been congratulating him. “For them to feel that way about me means a lot because I feel like now that I’ve won I feel like I belong.”
Patience and reward — those are the things I love about golf.
THE WINNER
Who won the week?
JT Poston won the Shriners Children’s Open, his third PGA Tour title and first as a father.
Hannah Green she joined elite company with her third win of the season at the BMW Ladies Championship in South Korea, joining Lydia Ko and Nelly Korda in the three-plus category.
Julien Guerrier won the Estrella Damm Andalucia Masters, claiming his first DP World Tour victory nearly 20 years after becoming champion. It took a role in playing the ninth hole to get there.
MJ Maguire won the Asian Tour’s Black Mountain Championship in the final.
Again Tim O’NealHis big win put him in the next round of the playoffs.
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NON-WINNERS
A few guys didn’t win.
Gary Woodland finished T9 at the Shriners, his second straight top-20 finish and his best finish since undergoing brain surgery 13 months ago. He said he feels better, and that shows in his game.
Michael KimThe Tour winner, best known for his Twitter presence, fired Sunday’s 62 – the lowest round of the day in par – to dramatically increase his chances of retaining full PGA Tour status for 2025. He went from No. 129 went to 112 the end of T5.
“I mean, it’s amazing. It is not a big a monkey on my back, but a decent one,” said Kim. It seems too big for me.
In addition to Kim’s departure on Sunday, Matt Schmidt again Rico Hoey shot Sunday 66s to lock in their PGA Tour cards for next year; they went from 105 and 102 to 84 and 83, respectively.
Others made moves: Woodland moved from No. 148 to 137 with his T9 finish. Alejandro Tosti also finished T9 to move from No. 136 to 127. Joe Highsmith it jumped between the ranks, at least for now, from No. 133 to 125. Vince Whaley he improved his number from 125 to No. 120.
Joel Dahmen fell out of the top 125 after a high penalty-WD combo; he is now listed at No. 129. Also Daniel Berger dropped from 126 to 128 after T39.
THEY DON’T HIT SHORTS
Five things you should know, in a nutshell.
1. Can the PGA of America sell the Ryder Cup? Golfweek columnist Eamon Lynch makes that case here, suggesting it could fetch more from the new PGA Tour Enterprises team now than ever before. If that’s possible, it’s okay to put on your tinfoil hat and connect the dots with $750 Cup ticket prices. Could proving high demand and generating a ton of revenue be a side benefit of raising the purchase price of the event…?
2. Cognizant has pulled out as a sponsor of the LPGA’s Founders Cup, according to a report from Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols. The event was founded in 2011 as a way to honor the legacies of the LPGA’s 13 founders and, with the help of Cognizant, soon boasted a $3 million purse. Now its future is being questioned. Nichols also notes that the Ford Championship in Arizona and the Portland Classic are facing funding questions – although Black Desert is expected to add a big money event to the calendar. Good to read here.
3. LIV is looking for a new CEO to replace him Greg NormanAccording to Sports Business Journal; ask a top search firm to help them in this process. Norman is expected to stay in the league, although his role is still unclear. Some top players include PGA Tour professionals Tiger Woods again Rory McIlroy and star LIV John Rahm suggested that Norman would need to step aside to discuss the future of pro golf in order to make meaningful progress.
4. TGL released its plan for early 2025; Things will start on Tuesday, Jan. 7 on ESPN in primetime with a matchup between New York Golf Club and The Bay Golf Club. Tickets for the 1500-seat stadium in South Florida will start at $160.
5. Wyndham Clark explained that PGA Tour players were struggling with the engineering of LIV pros who might join the league.
“If we knew 100 percent that we could take the money back, we all would have done it,” Clark said on the No Laying Up podcast this week. “Because we would all be very rich and then come back and play at a very high level.”
He revealed that, if it were up to him, he would do better things Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson again Dustin Johnson they will be able to come back. But he also did not suggest that the talks are close to any kind of conclusion.
ONE THOUGHT
There is more to life than birdsong. Kinda.
JT Poston he missed short putts on 16 and 17, cutting his lead over Doug Ghim from four shots to two. Then Ghim made 18 birdies and suddenly Poston faced a four-footer.
“Yes, I was telling myself that this is what you are dreaming of. You hit the putt to win on the PGA Tour. Just try and forget the last two. I didn’t make the best strokes in either of them, but I told myself I’ve done a million of these and I’ll do one more.”
He buried it.
ONE BIG QUESTION
Who is joining LIV next?
There are more questions than answers when it comes to LIV’s 2025 lineup, but we learned a few more things this week.
Sergio Garcia told GolfMagic that Eugenio Chacarra he is not in the team’s plans for 2025; Chacarra finished 39th in the LIV standings and his next stop is uncertain. Garcia revealed that he hopes to add a “smaller profile for a different type of player,” suggesting there is a target in mind. Rumored possibility: US Amateur Champion (and current Arizona State Sun Devil) Jose Luis Ballester. Ballester’s longtime coach is Garcia’s father, Victor, and Ballester has spoken highly of Sergio’s training.
Jon Rahm he has a place to fill his Legion XIII squad after Kieran Vincent was dropped. He told Golf Sin Etiquetas on YouTube that, while he doesn’t have a player signed yet, he “has six or seven in mind.”
Rahm said one expert thought it was Spanish and the DP World Tour field this week. He also suggested that a Callaway employee would be a good fit for him as he dreams of owning a sponsored team. Angel Hidalgo, the Spanish champion who knocked out Rahm in the final a few weeks ago, seems like a possible candidate; Rahm has seen his game up close (albeit playing Cobra and wearing Puma).
John Catlin continued his run of stellar play on the Asian Tour by finishing second at the Black Mountain Championship; he is in position to earn the LIV spot, and, if he maintains his No. 1 International Series.
ONE THING YOU DON’T WATCH
Michael Greller talks to Spieth.
We have heard it many times Jordan Spieth speak up to Michael Greller. We even occasionally hear Greller talking to Spieth. But it’s rare to hear Greller speak about Spies. But then he got ice cream with our Claire Rogers, which means here’s your chance.
NEWS FROM Seattle
Monday Finish HQ.
Gamble Sands is arguably Washington’s hottest golf course. Now? It will be twice as good. The resort has delivered David McLay-Kidd behind the sequence and so he and the participation Nick Schaan “Scarecrow,” the second course of the 18-hole course (there is also a short 14-hole course).
The new course is more compact, hilly, has more expansive views of the nearby Columbia River, and, while it still boasts fairways, smaller greens can make it more difficult than the original. Hope to see you there when it opens in 2025.
But first, I’ll see you here next week!
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Dylan Dethier welcomes your comments at dylan_dethier@golf.com.
