Matt Fitzpatrick lost the Players on the 17th tee last week. Seven days later, he buried a 14-footer on 18 to win the Valspar. That's either elite mental fortitude or a guy who's simply too stubborn to stay down.
IN THIS ISSUE
Fitzpatrick Buries the Birdie He Owed Himself
DeChambeau Went Back-to-Back. The 3-Wood Was Absurd.
LIV's OWGR Experiment: Five Events In, Here's What the Numbers Say
Sensor-Free Stat Tracking and Titleist's Next Driver
Wolfpack Golf Is Rolling, Pinehurst Lands Another Major Event, and NC's Priciest Clubs Named
We Built a Thing. More This Week.
PGA TOUR . VALSPAR CHAMPIONSHIP
Fitzpatrick Buries the Birdie He Owed Himself
A week ago, Matt Fitzpatrick led The Players with two holes to play and walked away empty. On Sunday at Innisbrook, he buried a 14-footer for birdie on 18 to win the Valspar by one over David Lipsky. His first PGA Tour win since the 2023 RBC Heritage.
Copperhead ate the rest of the contenders alive. Sungjae Im, the 54-hole leader, imploded with four bogeys in his first eight holes and finished T4. Brandt Snedeker, 45 and tied for the lead on the 10th tee, three-putted for double on 12 and shot 40 on the back. Fitzpatrick missed four birdie putts inside 10 feet around the turn, figured he was cooked, looked at a leaderboard, and realized the whole field was drowning with him. Then he poured in a 30-footer on 15 and never looked back.
"It knocked me out of rhythm for two or three holes. You feel like you're chasing your tail, trying to speed up, get back into position, and at the same time still trying to win a golf tournament." — Fitzpatrick on his playing partner's pace of play
Two weeks, two closing stretches under pressure, one trophy. Sometimes the best antidote is the next tee time.
LIV GOLF . SOUTH AFRICA
DeChambeau Went Back-to-Back. The 3-Wood Was Absurd.
Bryson DeChambeau won his second straight LIV event, beating Jon Rahm in a playoff at Steyn City after pulling off one of the shots of the year: a 3-wood from a soaking lie in the rough on the par-5 18th to set up the clinching birdie. His fifth LIV title overall, and his last start before the Masters.
Rahm fired a 63 to force the playoff, continuing a stretch of form that has him up to 28th in the world from 97th at the start of the season. DeChambeau broke down afterward, citing personal challenges during the week. 100,000 spectators attended, and Paul Casey called it the best LIV event yet.
"Golf is a fickle game. You work so hard at it your whole life and then you realise golf is just golf." — Bryson DeChambeau
ALSO THIS WEEK
TGL Semifinals Set for March 17 — The Tiger-Rory indoor league wraps its regular season with semifinal matches on ESPN before a best-of-3 finals March 23-24.
Bridgeman Still Leads. The Race Behind Him Is Getting Interesting. — Jacob Bridgeman holds the FedEx Cup lead at 1,398 points, but Cameron Young's Players win vaulted him to second (1,323) and Fitzpatrick's Valspar victory should push him inside the top five when this week's points post.
LOOKING AHEAD
Texas Children's Houston Open at Memorial Park
The Tour heads to Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston — a Tom Doak redesign that rewards ball-striking more than power and the last full-field event before the Texas Open and Masters stretch. Names to watch: Jacob Bridgeman (FedEx Cup leader, rolling), Collin Morikawa (quiet but fourth in the standings), and Jordan Spieth (Texas native, T11 at Valspar, trending up).
But that's not the only thing dropping this week.
We've been working on something behind the scenes for a while now, and it's almost ready.
Later this week, we're dropping the Triangle Golf Guide — a full local playbook covering 21+ courses and every indoor sim spot across Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and beyond. Curated picks by vibe, membership hacks that can save you real money, and insider tips you won't find on any Google listicle from 2019.
It's the guide we wished existed when we started exploring Triangle golf. So we made it.
…and if you'd rather earn it than buy it, we've got a way to do that too.
Keep an eye on your inbox — the full breakdown lands in a few days.
Arccos Air: Finally, No Sensors Required ($349)
Arccos has been chasing "invisible" game tracking for a decade, and Arccos Air is the closest they've gotten. The matchbook-sized device slips into your pocket, uses gyroscopes, accelerometers, a microphone and GPS trained on 1.5 billion shots to detect and log every swing automatically. No club sensors, no phone, no mid-round fiddling. The tradeoff: it doesn't auto-identify which club you hit, though AI guesses improve over time. At $349 (includes a year of game tracking worth $200), this is the play for anyone who's been sensor-curious but friction-averse. If you already own Arccos sensors, Air works alongside them.
Titleist GTS Drivers Hit Tour This Week
Titleist is debuting the GTS driver family to tour pros at Houston, months earlier than their usual launch window. Three heads (GTS2, GTS3, GTS4) with new rear screw-weights and swapped adjustability features between models. No public pricing or release date yet, but expect May availability. If you're eyeing a GT driver right now, the recent price drop makes it the smart buy. Wait for independent testing before chasing the GTS.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Miura PI-402: Player Distance Iron, Miura Price — Chromoly face, 35g of tungsten, and a new Kissaki sole designed for easier launch across swing types, though no price listed yet and Miura rarely comes cheap.
Titleist Adds AIM Alignment to AVX, Tour Soft, Velocity, TruFeel — New alignment markings across the full Titleist ball family showed up to 35% improvement in putt alignment precision during testing.
NC State Men Win at The Dunes Club
Bo Andrews' era got its first team victory this week. The Wolfpack won the Michael A. Marino Classic at Myrtle Beach's Dunes Golf & Beach Club, finishing at 15-under and beating 15 other teams by four shots. Xander Goboy (T4) and Pearce Lewin (6th) both went under par in all three rounds. NC State was the only team to break par in every round. They're back in action April 3 at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Nashville.
Pinehurst Lands 2027 PGA National Club Championship
The PGA of America announced that the 2027 PGA National Club Championship will be played at Pinehurst Resort, March 15-17, 2027. Competition rounds on No. 2, No. 4, and No. 5. The event brings amateur club champions from across the country, and winners of any 2026 club championship are eligible through their PGA Professional. Another feather for Pinehurst's already overloaded cap as an anchor site for American championship golf.
Carolina CC Tops NC's Most Expensive Club List
Country Club Magazine just dropped its ranking of the 25 most expensive and exclusive golf clubs in North Carolina, and the Triangle fared better than you'd expect. Carolina Country Club came in at No. 6, Raleigh Country Club at 12, Old Chatham at 13, Governor's Club at 20, Treyburn at 22, and MacGregor Downs at 24. Mountain clubs dominated the top five (Wade Hampton, Roaring Gap, Diamond Creek), and Old Town Club in Winston-Salem took the overall crown. The takeaway for Triangle golfers: we have some of the most accessible private golf in the state relative to quality in the state.
ALSO THIS WEEK
UNC Finley Hosting North Carolina Challenge Cup April 3-4 — The UNC Women's Golf Team hosts the North Carolina Challenge Cup at Finley Golf Club on April 4. Finley recently reopened its back nine — if you're in Chapel Hill that weekend, it's a great excuse to walk the course and catch some college golf.
TriGolf: First Tee Sessions Running — First Tee Triangle Session 1 is running at TriGolf through March — Monday through Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings. If you're heading to the range, plan around the 4–7pm window when the last five bays are reserved for programming.
BlueGolf Carolinas Tournament Listings Live — Spring amateur season is ramping up across the Carolinas with registration opening for multiple events on BlueGolf's Carolinas portal.
That's your read this week.
Tour intel, gear picks, and local course intel — every Monday.
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