Austin Smotherman needed 100 starts to win once on the PGA Tour. He needed one more to win again, and Bermuda’s wind never let him play a Sunday.
IN THIS ISSUE
100 Starts for the First Win. One More for the Second.
McDowell Walks. LIV Hires an Adviser.
A Test-Winning Wedge for $130
JumboMax UltraLong: Choke Down Without Grabbing Steel
Duke Sweeps Landfall
Cardinal Gibbons Won the 7A East Regional
Golfers Rank Tobacco Road Above Two Pinehurst Courses
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PGA TOUR . BUTTERFIELD BERMUDA CHAMPIONSHIP
100 Starts for the First Win. One More for the Second.
Austin Smotherman went 100 starts without a PGA Tour win. Now he has two in a row. Wind at Port Royal blew out the final round, so Smotherman and Seamus Power sat tied at 16 under and settled it Monday morning on the par-3 16th. On the third trip, Power buried his tee shot in deep rough left of the green and missed from 15 feet for par. Smotherman hit 8-iron inside 15 feet and made his three.
The trophy is the small part. Two wins with full FedEx Cup points get him into the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. Moving to No. 51 locks him into the first two $20 million Signature Events at Pebble and Riviera.
Fall golf just set up his entire 2027.
$1,080,000. A U.S. Open spot. Two Signature Events. Three swings at the 16th.
LIV GOLF . LIV 2.0
McDowell Walks. LIV Hires an Adviser.
Graeme McDowell told BBC Sport he has “decided not to pursue” LIV 2.0. Add him to Jon Rahm, Louis Oosthuizen, Tom McKibbin, Tyrrell Hatton and Ian Poulter. The same day, LIV announced former TaylorMade boss Mark King as senior adviser. Hiring a figurehead while your roster walks out the door is a bad look.
The math is simple. LIV’s lawyer told the bankruptcy court the league needs enough signed players for a “bona fide golf league” and will know by the end of October whether it proceeds or winds down. Sunday’s sign-up deadline already came and went with “flexibility.” My read: flexibility is what you call it when the phones aren’t ringing.
End of October is Saturday.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Sabbatini Wins on the Champions Tour Rory Sabbatini took the Stifel Charity Classic, one week after Vijay won in Cary, per Sky Sports’ results roundup.
LOOKING AHEAD
VidantaWorld Mexico Open at Vidanta Vallarta
The Tour heads to Vidanta Vallarta in Vallarta, Mexico, Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. It’s another fall week, which means more card math for anyone sitting near the top-100 line. Names to watch: Austin Smotherman if he keeps riding the hot streak, and anyone in the 90s who left Bermuda still sweating their status.
A Test-Winning Wedge for $130
The best wedge in MyGolfSpy’s 2025 test now costs less than most new wedges. The Mizuno Pro T-3 won for accuracy, consistency and spin and held 97 percent of its spin in the wet. PGA Tour Superstore has it at $129.98, down from $179.99. If you’re replacing two or three wedges this winter, that savings adds up fast. Want the newest thing? The Vokey SM11 was the only wedge in the 2026 test that lost zero spin in the wet, but expect to pay $180 or more for it.
JumboMax UltraLong: Choke Down Without Grabbing Steel
A 15-inch grip means you never choke down onto bare shaft again. JumboMax’s JMX UltraLong runs 4.5 inches longer than standard, giving you three hand positions for ball-above-feet lies and partial wedges. It’s $18.99 each, sold only on JumboMax’s site. Watch the weight: the Standard size is 46 grams, so swapping out a midsize CP2 pulls 18 grams off the butt end and can push a D2 swing weight toward D5 or D6. My take: skip the full set. Put two on your gap and sand wedges and see if your 60-yard shot gets better.
ALSO THIS WEEK
What Smotherman Won With His Bermuda bag has a 10-degree Titleist GT3 driver and a TaylorMade Qi10 3-wood, a generation old and still winning.
TaylorMade’s Report Card Is Lopsided The Qi4D driver won MyGolfSpy’s 2026 testing at 9.2, but both TaylorMade hybrids finished seventh and eighth out of eight.
GolfWRX Members Picked Ping Hybrids by a Mile The Ping G440 hybrid pulled 39 percent of the vote in GolfWRX’s Members Choice, the biggest margin of any category.
Cardinal Gibbons Won the 7A East Regional
Cardinal Gibbons posted a 261 to win the team title at the NCHSAA 7A East Regional on Oct. 19-20. Olivia Erazmus was medalist with a 40-39 79. She’s up for the News & Observer’s athlete of the week, and the poll closes Friday at noon. Vote as often as you like, per the N&O’s own rules.
Golfers Rank Tobacco Road Above Two Pinehurst Courses
TheGrint’s 2026 Top 100 U.S. Public list is built from golfers who played the courses, not a panel. It has Tobacco Road at No. 34 with a 94.9 rating, ahead of Pinehurst No. 10 (No. 49) and No. 4 (No. 51). Only No. 2 rates higher among NC public courses. Strantz’s course is 45 minutes from Raleigh and still the best public round within an hour of the Triangle. The people paying green fees agree.
Duke Won Landfall by Eight. Malixi Won It by Nine.
No. 6 Duke led wire to wire at the Landfall Tradition in Wilmington and won at 5-over 869, eight clear of No. 1 Wake Forest and South Carolina. One week after taking the Tar Heel Invitational in Chapel Hill, that’s the program’s first back-to-back fall wins since 2018. Rianne Malixi was medalist at 12-under 204, nine ahead of the field, with a tournament-record 64 on Saturday. Katie Li tied for fifth at 217.
The other Triangle schools had a rougher Dye Course. NC State tied for 12th at 907, though Marie Madsen shared the first-round lead with a 68 and finished eighth at 218. UNC tied for 14th at 911, led by Marie Prats-Rigual in 30th. Duke is a spring team worth driving to Durham to watch.
High Side Golf Club Breaks Ground in Kannapolis
Developers broke ground Oct. 20 on High Side Golf Club, 109 acres at 6304 Mooresville Road. The plan is two nine-hole courses, a lighted range with covered bays, a putting course, and a 3,000-square-foot performance center with fittings, repair and three heated hitting bays. Opening target is fall 2027. That’s the right build for how people actually play now: nine after work, range under lights, beers on the patio. I’d love to see somebody try it in the Triangle.
APT Triad Opens 2027 at Sapona, and a Raleigh Local Made the Podium
The Carolina Triad Amateur Players Tour opened its 2027 season Oct. 18 at Sapona Golf Club with 34 players across four flighted divisions. Raleigh’s Joseph Vide finished third in Division 2 at 81, two back of Scott Nichols through 12 before Nichols pulled away. The par-4 11th gave up zero birdies all day. If you want flighted competitive golf without a single-digit index, this is the format, and the Nov. 1 Jamestown GC stop already closed registration.
ALSO THIS WEEK
Panther Creek’s Beverly Tied for Third Arianna Beverly shot a 4-over 76 at the 8A Eastern Regional and made the N&O nominee list too.
The Cradle Rates 92.8 Pinehurst’s nine-hole par-3 course rates 92.8 on TheGrint while playing easier than almost every rated course, which makes it the best post-round beer stop in the Sandhills.
Disc Golf at Dix Park, Dec. 5 Not our kind of golf, but the Triangle Women’s Disc Golf League runs a free pop-up course meetup at Dix Park from 2 to 4 p.m., registration required.
ON THE TEE SHEET
Oct 30: Riverside Ranch Charity Tournament, Neuse Country Club, Clayton, NC
Oct 30: NCSEA PER Golf Tournament, Jamestown Park Golf Course, Jamestown, NC
Nov 7: The Matchbox @ Tobacco Road, Tobacco Road Golf Course, Bahama, NC
Nov 8-9: 6th Annual North Carolina Golf Classic, Governor's Club, Chapel Hill, NC
Nov 9: One-Day Four Ball, Chapel Hill CC, Chapel Hill, NC
Nov 9-10: 16th Carolinas Net Amateur, Longleaf Golf & Family Club, Southern Pines, NC
Nov 15: The Neuse (Ridge Cup #2), Neuse Country Club, Clayton, NC
TWO WAYS TO KEEP THIS GOING
Show up to a new course already knowing the move.
The next time a buddy picks a Triangle course you have never played, you will know which tees to play, where the trouble is, and what the locals actually pay before you leave the parking lot. That is the Triangle Golf Guide: 23 courses deep, plus the curated sim spots and the membership math worth knowing. Less than a range bucket, at $5.99.
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That's your read this week.
Tour intel, gear picks, and local course intel every Tuesday.