Welcome back to Monday’s Finish, where after a long offseason (four months! Unless it includes FedEx Fall, Presidents Cup, Hero, Grant Thornton, PNC Championship, The Show…) we’re finally back, gang. The PGA Tour season is upon us. For the news!
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I LIKE GOLF
Renewal of Golf’s image.
As we reach the end of 2024, I’ve been reading a lot about how, in the big picture, this was a bad year for professional golf. While I don’t think this is true on a micro level – there were many good things, such as Scottie SchefflerS ‘ the whole season, Xander SchauffeleS ‘ great discovery, Lydia KoS ‘ TALE, Nelly KordaS ‘ PRIMACY, Bryson DeChambeauS ‘ the birth of the stars – I understand the gist. Ratings are stagnant at best, golf fans are somewhere between “bored by” and “apathetic to” the ongoing split between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour, and the split continues to distract and take attention away from the action on the course without a clear conclusion in sight. Not good.
But let’s put that aside for a moment and consider an entirely different narrative, largely removed from the professional golf side of the game. Golf, as a whole, has completely rebuilt its image. People like golf now. Before, they didn’t. Seriously.
New research from the National Golf Foundation (NGF) sheds light on this phenomenon thanks to a study “Perceptions of Golf” (here) has been performed several times over the last decade. The findings? A clear decline in Americans describing golf negatively. In 2013, 57 percent of respondents described golf negatively. NGF research found common descriptors such as boring, stagnant, pretentious, intimidating. Anyone who has spent time around golf is familiar with this country club stigma and feeling that the game is too exclusive and unwelcoming and, even if you I DO decide to play, very slowly.
But NGF data shows this perception was already changing before the Covid golf boom. In 2019, 47 percent used negative descriptors. By 2022? Only 37 percent. And in 2024, this number dropped to 31 percent. This is a massive swing, cutting the negativity in half. This is great for golf. It is great for people who love golf. And it’s a sign that SOMETHING has worked – even if it’s not clear exactly what that something is. It may sound a bit like a USGA focus group fever dream, but the NGF emphasizes words like fun, exciting, engaging AND cold.
NGF says people are feeling good about golf. It makes me feel good about golf.
NGF
Over the same time period, there has been a “massive” increase in golf participation, meaning 15 percent of Americans now play golf on or off the course (think TopGolf, etc. for “off the course”), up from 10. percent. But that’s still a small portion of the population, which means non-golfers should feel a lot better about the game, too. Specifically, that 26 percent change in negativity translates to 70-80 million people feeling better about golf. It may not resolve the PGA Tour-LIV divide. But as someone who loves golf and wants other people to feel the same way? More people like golf now. That’s golf stuff I like.
According to OWGR, there were no official events that occurred last week. I’m pretty sure this is the only week of the year that’s true. So there are no tournament winners. But hopefully some of you won thanks new golf clubs under the trees and the promise of a new golf season on the horizon. Next week we’ll get back to the truth. The winners. The losers. Everything in between. For now? We are all winners.
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Non-winners
Our last two FedEx Cup champions.
Many of us look forward to the holidays as a time to rest and recharge, ready to hit the ground running in the new year. And many of us get through the actual holidays and realize that it doesn’t always work that way. Sign in Scottie Scheffler AND Viktor Hovland. While our two most recent FedEx Cup champions may not be coming off the holidays overstuffed and overworked like the rest of us, they’re hardly arriving in Kapalua in great shape.
Scheffler, in fact, is not reaching at all. He suffered a glass-related injury while preparing Christmas dinner that, according to a statement by his agent Blake Smithincluded “a puncture wound to the palm of the right hand from a broken glass.” There was still glass in his hand, which required surgery. Smith said he was expected to be back to 100 percent in 3-4 weeks and is scheduled to play the American Express — but after a nine-game winning streak in 2024, that’s not how Scheffler wanted to start the new year.
In the meantime, Hovland will be in Hawaii, but may be a little limited. The Norwegian posted what appeared to be an X-ray of a broken finger on Instagram with the caption: “Bed frame 1 – 0 me”. The 27-year-old is world No. 8 and had been eyeing 2025 as a comeback year after a disappointing 2024 and a four-month break from the tournament. This is not the start he had envisioned; he said Norwegian golf he is facing a four to six week recovery.
SHORT HITS
Five things that happened in last year’s Sentry.
Does a year ago feel like forever – or just yesterday? From January 2024:
1. Viktor Hovland confirmed his split with the swing coach Joe Mayo more or less due to creative differences. Yep, that just happened again (more on that in a minute). Time is a flat circle.
2. Jason’s day released its new sponsorship Malbon. It may seem like they’ve been together forever, but Day x Malbon is only a year old. Same with Xander Schauffele and Descente, for that matter. of Monday Conclusion hear we have some partnerships coming up this week, too…
3. Tiger Woods left Nike, the first domino to fall in the launch of Sun Day Red. Okay, that didn’t happen IN the watchman But on January 8, 2024, Woods confirmed his split with the Swoosh, the end of perhaps golf’s most famous sponsorship.
4. Scottie Scheffler completed T5. It was his first top-five finish of the season; he would finish with 15 of them in 21 events, including nine wins. Yowza.
5. Chris Kirk won. That was his only top-five finish of the season, though he rattled off two more top-10s and made it all the way to the tournament championship. Big week ahead – someone will make it count.
AN IMPORTANT THOUGHT
By Xander Schauffele.
Don’t let a pre-round whistle get you down.
That’s what he says Xander Schauffelethis week’s pre-tournament favorite, world number 2 and my latest guest on HEATa cool driving distance interview show that I encourage you to check out here or below.
“I used to shake it a lot. Warming up in college, for some reason,” Schauffele said. “No a LOTbut like, there’s probably been four rounds in a row where I’ve kept it and it’s helped me realize how unimportant a warm-up is. It was a big lesson for me then.”
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A BIG QUESTION
Where will Hovland land next?
If the answer was “at his feet,” well, that just got a little tougher. But the plot thickens for our Scandinavian hero, who was arguably the hottest golfer in the world at the end of 2023 but recorded just two top 10s in 2024 as he switched swings and swing coaches. To some extent this was always the plan; we talked in 2023 about his responsibility to be CEO of Viktor Hovland the company and its desire to use coaches as resources; he never wanted to be overly dependent.
Hovland Norwegian Gulf customs that he and Joe Mayo broke up about a month ago; I don’t trust my Norwegian enough to give an accurate translation, but it’s clear they didn’t agree on the way forward for Hovland. Here we will rely on Google Translate:
“I feel like I’ve learned so much now and have so much expertise that I don’t need anyone to hold my hand anymore. It’s always nice to have someone who can watch what I’m doing, watch the steps I’m taking. So I send some videos to another coach, but he’s more of a consultant.”
One lesson Hovland learned from last season: He can compete even when he’s not at his best. Last year he finished T3 at the PGA Championship, after all, in the midst of a semi-recession. That bodes well for his 2025, even if he’s getting off on the wrong foot. So even though he’s feeling sluggish from a Norwegian winter break, rusty from a four-month competitive hiatus and now a broken toe on the PGA Tour’s toughest outing of the season?
“But golf is a strange sport,” Hovland told Norsk. “I could suddenly find something that works.”
ONE THING TO PRESENT
Happy Gilmore 2.
Adam Sandleris back Christopher McDonaldis back Julie Bowenis back And now we have a cast that includes Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and… Travis Kelce? Here it comes Happy Gilmore 2. In an age of hit-or-miss sequels, here’s hoping we’re happy to pick this up again.
NEWS FROM SEATTLE
Monday Finish headquarters.
Return to the Pacific Northwest feeling reflective and grateful. People and places and past experiences are missing. Eager for good things to come. Sometimes both at once. Lucky to do this job and live this life and think about golf in this space several times a week. Glad you read, listen, watch – none of it would work without you.
So see you (smiles) next year!
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Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. Resident of Williamstown, Mass. joined GOLF in 2017 after two years of struggling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he is the author of 18 in Americawhich details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living out of his car and golfing in every state.
