🏌🏻PGA Introduces Late Twist To Season Finale

Good morning! Round 1 of the FedEx Cup season finale - the Tour Championship tees off today at East Lake - you can watch all the action live on Peacock and ESPN+.

For all tournament updates and the latest news, check out our Youtube channel.

Fun Fact: Strokes gained total per round for Scottie Scheffler on the PGA Tour since 2020

Tour Championship: +0.16
All other tournaments: +1.58

⛳ This day in history: In 1908, the US Open Championship ended on this day at the Myopia Hunt Golf club in South Hamilton, Massachusetts, when Fred McLeod defeated fellow Scot Willie Smith by six strokes in an 18-hole playoff.

ALBATROSS
Scheffler and Schauffele Tweak Plans To Conquer East Lake

The 2024 Tour Championship comes with a twist as East Lake underwent an extensive restoration process in the offseason. The course has turned back to the clock - no longer the golf course some have grown used to playing.

East Lake now plays as a par 71 as opposed to its traditional par 70 for professionals. This has caused some golfers like Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns and Xander Schauffele to play down the adjacent 10th hole during practice rounds.

It's a strategy other players were likely pondering as well, one Donald Ross probably didn't envision when designing the golf course. The PGA Tour Rules Committee has since stated No 10 will be marked as internal out of bounds.

Some may ultimately like the changes made to East Lake, but the general consensus among players appears to be that the jury is still out. While this week will tell a lot about Andrew Green's efforts to restore the past, the golf course will need time to settle into its own.

⛳️ PGA Introduces New Rule @ Tour C'ship: An internal out-of-bounds call has put paid to the plans of players, including Scottie Scheffler, to use an alternate route on the 18th at the Tour Championship - but why was the decision made?

In the build-up to the tournament, dramatic changes to two holes have led to several players experimenting with playing down the 10th fairway during practice rounds, as it offers a better way to lay up.

But the opportunity players saw to take a less hazardous route has now been closed after the PGA Tour announced the fairway of the 10th will be internal out of bounds during play on the 18th. It has also taken a similar decision on the sixth for any player considering using the seventh fairway.

This decision was made primarily out of safety concerns, specifically to prevent players from effectively putting people in harm's way by taking an alternate route.

It’s back to the drawing board for the stars as they prepare to compete on a vastly altered course to the one they encountered just a year ago.

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TWEET
Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
Why Akshay Bhatia Made Changes To Equipment Setup @ Tour C'ship

Akshay Bhatia stands No 19 on the FedEx Cup into his TOUR Championship debut. With ample ground to make up, and a newly restored East Lake Golf Club with firmer greens than in previous years, Bhatia is switching things up with his equipment.

Bhatia is adding a Callaway Ai Smoke Paradym Ti340 Mini Driver to his arsenal in Atlanta. He likes to curve the ball off the tee, and the mini driver increases his comfort level in hitting a controlled draw.

As for his Callaway Rogue ST driver, Bhatia is switching into a Fujikura Ventus Black 7X shaft for added speed and control. He is also considering a golf ball change to help deal with the scaled-up green firmness at East Lake.

Bhatia trails FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler by eight strokes into Thursday’s opening round.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

Matsuyama Injured? Hideki Matsuyama is dealing with a back injury that forced him to withdraw from last week’s BMW Championship. Following Tuesday’s practice round, Matsuyama addressed the injury saying that his lower back only feels about 50 to 60 percent healthy.

TV Ratings: The viewership ratings at the BMW Championship fell in 2024 from the 2023 - the ratings took a seismic hit from last year, garnering just 2.446 million viewers, available on NBC and the Golf Channel as well as Peacock on streaming.

Creator Classic: The inaugural Creator Classic, featuring 16 golf influencers, has ended with Luke Kwon taking the title at East Lake. The YouTube star saw off Wesley Bryan, Sean Walsh and Roger Steele to claim the trophy.

BIRDIE
This Is How PGA Plans To Popularize Golf

The PGA Tour’s 2024 season is soon ending with the Tour Championship. Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan is already looking ahead towards the 2025 season and shared plans to take the sport to the next level - let us take a look.

📌 Modernized Broadcast: The Tour will focus primarily on TV in the hope of attracting fans from different corners of the world calling it the “World feed.” They will factor in professional players from different countries to improve the overall broadcast experience.

The World feed might help to overall decrease the decline in viewership considering that the tour already experienced a 20% viewership decline this year.

📌 Plans for LIV Golfers: After joining the breakaway league there were pros like Bryson DeChambeau, Phil Mickelson, and more who never yielded their membership because of PGA Tour rules and regulations. In the 2025 season, players can look forward to enjoying membership benefits sooner.

📌 Alignment With Players: While sharing a new schedule, it’s important to see how it aligns with pros. Considering that, the player directors or members of the Player Advisory Council will engage more with the golfers.

In this, the player equity program will play a huge role.

📌 Fans Becoming Engaging Partners: The Tour will also focus on influencers and Youtubers to promote golf. It’s indeed true that there are already influencers like Paige Spiranac and also golfers like Bryson DeChambeau making original content.

But in the 2025 season, the tour will focus even more on the influencers to promote golf as much as they can.

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DRIVING RANGE
Create More Lag In Downswing

In today's video, we show three drills to help you create more lag in your downswing.

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