This Weekend In Golf -- It's A Dick Trophy!

Riggs10/22/2018 7:45 PM

Welcome back to This Weekend In Golf* where we discuss and recap everything that happened in the golf world over the weekend. We’ve now done this two weeks in a row which means we’re on a hot streak. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — don’t let Riggsy get hot. I still think we need a better name than This Weekend In Golf but I can’t think of one so let me know what you got.

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Hello friends. It’s 171 days ’til the Masters begins. That doesn’t have anything to do with anything but it’s always on my mind so I said it. Even in these downtimes, there’s still plenty going on in the golf world. Here it is.

Biggest Story

The biggest story in golf this weekend bar none is Danielle Kang. The people’s women’s golfer is one of my favorites and she came back from the dead this week to capture just her second LPGA Tour victory in Shanghai. Her first win was the Women’s KPMG LPGA Championship last summer and we interviewed her two days after. She talked about how heated she can get…

…which appears to have come into play yesterday as well.

Danielle Kang needed to let it out. After a frustrating opening nine on Sunday in Shanghai, her caddie, Ollie Brett, gave her permission to throw a temper tantrum.
“I told him, I said, ‘Cameras are everywhere. I just want to hit the bag really hard,’ ” Kang said. “He said, ‘Here’s a wedge. Just smash it.’ ”

I’d say it worked. Here’s her final round scorecard, which produced a 2-stroke victory.

A very #nice finish. Congrats to Danielle. She’s spoken about the struggles she’s gone through, including battling the full-swing yips, and how turning to Butch Harmon recently revamped her whole game.

Oh and I almost forgot. How about that dick trophy that gave her?

lol.

Seriously, we’ve had Danielle on the show twice and stayed in touch with her over the past year. If there’s one person you should tune into golf and root for, it’s her. So jacked up she got another win.

The Other Story

In other news, Brooks Koepka ascended to no. 1 in the world with a win in Korea overnight Saturday night. It’s his third win in eleven starts which includes the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. Pretty impressive.

Koepka played the final nine holes in 7-under par, including a 72nd hole eagle, to win by four. Pretty impressive.

I wrote it yesterday and I’ll reiterate it today — it feels right that Brooks Koepka is no. 1 in the world. We’ve seen guys like Luke Donald ascend to that position without winning a major championship and it didn’t feel right. Brooks has won three of the last seven majors; this one feels right.

The Picks Report

Last week’s picks:

Winning score, -11.

Winner, Jason Day.

Dark horse, Ian Poulter.

DFL, Dong Seop Maena.

Day finished T5, Poulter T10, and Seop Maeng finished T41 out of 78 players. The winning score was 21-under, which is a full 10 strokes lower than I guessed and 12 strokes lower than Justin Thomas and Marc Leishman finished last year, which got them into a playoff. Yikes.

Zinger

Paul Azinger was announced as the new lead golf analyst for NBC Sports. He’ll take over Johnny Miller’s role with the network. And with statements like this, he’s off to a FANTASTIC start.

“I just can’t see anybody beating Tiger when Tiger’s at his best. I just can’t see it,” Azinger said. “He’s not his best yet, but he’s almost his best. And when Tiger’s his best, there’s more that comes with Tiger than just the score he shoots. That crowd comes with Tiger, and it’s a whole ‘nother dynamic when Tiger’s at his best. And I’m just going to have to say that when Tiger’s at his best, he’s still the best.”

Euros

Sergio Garcia won Valderrama Masters in his home country of Spain. I don’t have the stats on this, but I’m pretty sure Sergio wins this tournament every single year right?

The tourney was shortened to 54-holes due to rain.

Course Porn

Played Sleepy Hollow in Briarcliff, New York for the second time this weekend. As good as it gets — look at this place.