Where there’s a Willett there’s a wait

We know you’re getting stoked about pumpkins, but don’t forget apple season! Get yourself to an orchard and pick some. Criminally underrated weekend activity.

Big meaty men slappin’ metal

Just days after helping Team USA win the Ryder Cup, Bryson DeChambeau was in Mesquite, Nevada, warming up for a long-drive contest that was broadcast only on YouTube. DeChambeau’s participation in the Professional Long Drivers Association World Championships initially seemed like a stunt. But then something odd happened: he started advancing through the heats. Round of 64. Round of 32. Using a comparatively penetrating ball flight to keep up with bigger, faster opponents, the 2020 U.S. Open champion made it all the way to the round of eight before getting knocked out. His buddy Kyle Berkshire won the title.

It was a remarkable performance by Bryson, but the more important story is how much interest the competition attracted. On social media, it was by far the buzziest golf event of the week. More than 40,000 people tuned in to the finals on YouTube in spite of a broadcast aesthetic that Geoff Shackelford compared to security-camera footage.

Which raises the question, where the heck was Golf Channel? Well, as James Colgan explains in this piece for Golf.com, the network ran away from the (now-defunct) World Long Drive Tour in June last year, citing pandemic-related factors. Bottom line, long drive didn’t make much money, and the network was in the midst of firing hundreds of people, moving to Connecticut, and focusing more narrowly on PGA Tour coverage. But with DeChambeau giving every indication that he’ll keep entering these bash-fests, Golf Channel may be forced to reconsider.

A Willett sighting

Danny Willett may not contend all that often, but when he does, he capitalizes. With a Sunday 68 at a blustery St. Andrews, he closed out the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship for his eighth European Tour victory. Results

Willett, the 2016 Masters champion, has a knack for both big wins and long droughts. In 2018, he ended a 30-month slump by claiming the $1.33 million top prize at the DP World Tour Championship. The next year, he won the BMW PGA Championship, another marquee European Tour event, and promptly receded again. Between September 2019 and this past week, he recorded 18 missed cuts and just three top 10s worldwide. Now he has a Dunhill Links trophy. Gotta admire the guy’s sense of the moment.

Also recovering their form in Scotland: Team Europe! Ryder Cuppers Tyrrell Hatton (T-2), Shane Lowry (T-4), and Tommy Fleetwood (T-7) bounced back nicely after the beatdown at Whistling Straits.

Quick Hooks

Have you been sleeping on Sam Burns? Shame on you. As No Laying Up noted, Burns was first in both Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and SG: Approach at the Sanderson Farms Championship, and that’s a decent recipe for winning stuff. Burns, 25 years old, now has two PGA Tour titles—as many as Viktor Hovland and two more than Scottie Scheffler. Results

Celine Boutier fired a final-round 63 to leapfrog two giants of the women’s game, Jin Young Ko and Inbee Park, and win the ShopRite LPGA Classic. Results

After going 7 down through 11 holes, Mark Costanza climbed back into the 36-hole final match of the U.S. Mid-Amateur, but he ultimately fell to Stewart Hagestad 2&1. Hagestad, the 2016 champion, has now won two of the last five Mid-Ams. Results

Daniel Rapaport has a fun Ryder Cup debrief with Collin Morikawa, who offers insights into the team-room dynamics and the afterparty at Whistling Straits.

At a Challenge Tour event in France, Alejandro Del Rey shot a freaking 14-under 58, the lowest score to par ever recorded on a major golf tour.

It has been a rough couple of weeks for Team Reed.

Pro Shop

It may be October but there is plenty of time left in the season to get your last rounds in. Next time you peg it, make sure to use Shotgun Start tees!