Hello fellow Southern Hills enthusiasts. Today, I am contemplating whether Eugenio Chacarra is the greatest living Spanish golfer.
Name drops today: Alison Brie, Arnold Palmer, Texas A&M, Blades Brown and Claude (not Harmon).
Today’s newsletter is presented by Cobra.
Let’s be honest about something here.
I — like the Baycurrent Classic champion over the weekend — am desperately searching for help with my short game. I’m not sure where the champion of that event is turning in his effort to make the Ryder Cup team in 2027, but my focus is currently on Cobra’s KING black wedges.
When precision around the green is key — and brother, I cannot tell you how key it is for me (or the person described below!) — your wedge should provide max comfort, control and predictability.
Cobra’s metal injection molding and progressive spin technology allow their KING wedges to do all that and more, ready to face any lie (even some of the otherworldly ones I find myself in).
You can check their KING black wedges out right here.
Alright, now on to the news.
Kyle at the next Normal Sport Ryder Cup brainstorm meeting: “Michael Brennan is one of the most undervalued players in golf. His defect is that he can't chip.”
Why is Michael Brennan — who won in Japan over the weekend against Xander, Min Woo, Bridgeman, Harman, Keith Mitchell and others — not considered one of the promising young Americans?
Yes, his short game is sometimes makes Viktor Hovland look like a cross between Phil and Seve, but this is his ball-striking neighborhood (sorted by SG ball striking over the last 12 months).
Short games can be fixed — says the guy who has spent the last 21 years trying to fix his — but hitting the ball like Brennan hits it cannot. Consider me at least Ryder Cup curious when it comes to his 2027 prospects.
He was not on my original list of 20 players because — unless you’re Europe, and even your bad chippers begin holing out from literally every spot on the golf course — I’m not sure you can take somebody whose short game is this bad to a Ryder Cup.
However, if (big if!) he cleans that up and becomes even Tour average, then all of a sudden he’s basically Bryson without the baggage.
A potentially enormous asset for Team USA.
What is Blades Brown going to be?
Of the 20 players who graduated from KFT to the PGA Tour on Sunday, he’s probably the biggest name. He also ranks No. 63 in Data Golf — ahead of Rickie and Brooks — and isn’t even 19 and a half years old yet.
That’s two years younger than Koivun, five years younger than Akshay and nearly eight years younger than Ludvig. Blades Brown was born after the first iPhone came out. After!
Also, he and Koivun have extremely similar profiles — in a lot of ways, Blades is just the lesser Koivun. Or, if you prefer, Koivun is the greater Abraham (if you understand that, seek help immediately).
 |  |
I wouldn’t say Brown does anything exceptionally well (and neither does Koivun, for that matter), but he is so consistent, especially for a young player. Of his 28 starts between the PGA Tour and KFT in 2026, he had 19 top 25s. That’s impressive for someone at any age, even more so for someone who turned 19 in the middle of the season.
I don’t particularly love his swing — it’s a little stilted and mechanical for me, but also 1. I’m a moron and 2. It looks (and seems) so perfectly repeatable, which makes sense given how consistent he’s been as a professional.
So what is Blades Brown eventually going to become?
An impressive American at a super young age who has a repeatable (if not beautiful) swing, no holes in his game but also no superpower — though if you had to pick one it would be iron play — and top 25s everything he looks at?
And before you object … there are much, much worse potential outcomes.
• Is Eugenio Chacarra my favorite young player right now? Wears a Southern Hills hat with a Love’s logo on his collar, absolutely mashes the golf ball, plays all over the world and gives quotes like this one on LIV: “In the end, it seems I was the smartest one to leave.”
• Also, his driver swing amazes me every time. Shackelford is correct that it has some Arnold Palmer in it.
• I’m no golf course architecture nerd (obviously), but is the course they played the Baycurrent on in Japan, Yokohama Country Club, like the 7th best PGA Tour course they play all year? Am I crazy to think it’s in JLM’s fourth tier here?
Tons of different elevation changes, greens that look firm and fast (especially when it’s windy), intriguing bunker shapes and just kind of not perfect conditions overall. It’s certainly not in the top seven prettiest, but it seemed far more interesting than most courses we watch.
• After reading about this Texas A&M football mess over the weekend, I was wondering who you guys think is the A&M of pro golf: Chasing a ghost of yesteryear, desperately wants it more than anyone has ever wanted it, believes it’s so close to happening, has all the money and resources imaginable to make it happen and yet, it just never ever happens and in fact usually crashes out spectacularly.
And then I thought, Wait …
• This point by Joseph LaMagna on the Keegan Bradley incident that was going around on Friday is excellent. TL;DR a lot of pro golfers think anyone who’s not a pro golfer is beneath them. I mostly agree with that, and that’s one way (of many) that you end up with such chaos at these team events.
• Good story here on the deterioration of the Yale golf course by Gabby Herzig. I’m always amused by the inability of powerful people to call things what they are.
In a statement to The Athletic, athletic director Vicky Chun did not acknowledge the course conditions, instead stating that she sees the management shift as the “next phase” in the course’s development.
Gabby Herzig | The Athletic
Not sure why we can’t just say, Yeah, we failed. It sucks. We want it to be great. Good leadership is about a lot of character qualities and traits. The ability to objectively call things what they are seems like it should be one of them.
This one from Jacob Bridgeman on Michael Brennan is excellent.
I feel like he has the best swing on Tour, it's so much fun to watch. He's an incredible guy, an incredible player.
Jacob Bridgeman
Would be difficult to argue (and yes, that’s 175 with 3 wood 😂).
Now let’s go over to three-time PGA Tour winner, Michael Brennan, on his favorite players when he was growing up.
I liked watching like Jordan, J.T., Rickie, Smylie, that kind of group. They seemed fun as maybe a middle schooler when I was going through middle school.
I did dress up as Rickie Fowler also for Halloween one year, but Tiger Woods is my favorite.
Michael Brennan
Reading I did dress up as Rickie Fowler also for Halloween one year like …
Let’s start with Shane Ryan on LIV.
🐐 behavior.
This note on Rham entering and exiting was amusing as well.
And finally, the most relatable tweet of all time (at least to me).
Thank you for reading this newsletter. I cannot believe we have published 380 of them. I also cannot believe I am more excited today to publish it than I was for the first edition. Thank you for engaging me and our business in such a way that I am still thrilled to click “send.”
.svg){kind=spacer}
