Breakfast Ball #60: A Smorgasbord of Early Season Golf

The golf… was not that great this weekend. The Players is next week, and The Masters is in 5 weeks. Better days ahead!

In This Week’s Newsletter:

Joe Highsmith Makes the Cut on the Number and Wins His First PGA Tour Event

The cutline in golf is a quiet but crucial battle. It’s not about winning—it’s about earning a spot for the weekend. A single stroke can make the difference between a paycheck and going home with nothing, turning every putt into a meaningful moment. As the second round unfolds, players on the bubble fight to stay in the tournament, knowing that sometimes just making the cut is an achievement in itself.

Joe Highsmith was one of those players on Friday, hovering right on the cutline after two bogeys at the 14th and 15th holes. He needed a par on the final hole, and after his drive found a fairway bunker, he was forced to layup on the par 5 18th. After a solid approach and lag putt, he was left with four-and-a-half foot putt to make the weekend. He sunk the putt and guaranteed himself a paycheck, but realistically didn’t have much of a chance to win. In the last 15 years, only 2 players have made the cut on the number and gone on to win the event.

That didn’t stop Joe Highsmith. Weekend rounds of 64 and 64 gave him his first PGA Tour victory, coming from 8 shots back to win the event by 2.

Highsmith only had two top ten finishes in his last 26 starts, and both of those came during the FedEx Cup Fall season. His best finish at a regular season full field PGA Tour event was a T21 at the Houston Open last year.

Highsmith: “Incredible to come out on top, I mean it was so tough out there. I played probably the best round of my life, so it was great.”

European Ryder Cup pairing Shane Lowry and Sepp Straka were the best of the Europeans in T11, with Matti Schmid, Nicolai Højgaard, and Victor Perez also finishing in the top 20.

Dylan Naidoo wins the Shortened South African Open in a Playoff ahead of Laurie Canter

Dylan Naidoo was a popular home winner of the South African Open on the DP World Tour in a playoff over Englishman Laurie Canter. The tournament was shortened to 54 holes due to intense rainfall, and the leading pair took to the golf course alone at 3pm on Sunday to determine a winner.

After both players hit their drives just short of the green on the 318-yard par 4, Naidoo got up and down for birdie while Canter could only manage par. Naidoo became the 7th South African winner of the tournament in a row, and the result earned him a place in the Open Championship this summer.

The TGL Train Rolls into the Final Week of the Regular Season

Look, if you haven’t watched a minute of the TGL season to date I don’t blame you. It is a difficult concept to get your head around. However, it has provided some entertainment over the course of its first few weeks in business. Some of the best golfers in the world are playing a matchplay event for a couple of hours each week, and they genuinely seem to be enjoying it. If you haven’t watched yet but might tune in for the playoffs, I am here to bring you up to date on the current situation.

Shane Lowry and Ludvig Åberg’s The Bay Golf Club are at the top of the standings, undefeated from their first four games. They have been very impressive alongside teammates Wyndham Clark and Min Woo Lee, and will secure the number one seed with a win over LA Golf Club this evening. LA, led by Justin Rose and Tommy Fleetwood, have dropped just one game—an overtime thriller against Atlanta, arguably the best match of the season so far.

Rory McIlroy and Boston Common Golf sit at the bottom of the standings, still searching for their first win. To stay in contention, they must defeat New York by at least four holes and hope Jupiter Links fall in their final match against Atlanta, who have already secured a playoff spot.

The semifinals will take place on March 17th and 18th, with the three game finals series beginning a week later.

Schedule:

The Bay Golf Club vs. LA Golf Club: 3pm ET/8pm GMT, Monday March 3rd

Boston Common vs. New York Golf Club: 7pm ET/12am GMT, Monday March 3rd

Jupiter Links vs. Atlanta Drive GC: 7pm ET/12am GMT, Tuesday March 4th

Other news and results from the golfing world:

• 🤯 At 21, Australian Ryan Peake was a member of a biker gang, convicted of assault, and sentenced to five years in prison. So how is this a golf story?

  • Peake won the New Zealand Open yesterday, earning himself a spot at the Open Championship this summer, just 5 years after being released from prison

  • Read more about that story here

• 🏌️ Jake Knapp joined an exclusive club on Thursday - he shot just the 15th round in the 50s on PGA Tour history with a 59 at the Cognizant Classic

  • Six birdies on both the front and back nines propelled him to a scorching 12-under round, but he couldn't sustain that momentum over the weekend. A costly triple bogey on Sunday ultimately dropped him to a T6 finish

• ⚡️ The shot of the week is usually one shot.. but this week it is two. Dale Whitnell had TWO holes in one in one round this weekend on the DP World Tour

Coming up on tour this week:

• ⛱️ The PGA Tour’s best will be at Bay Hill for the Arnold Palmer Invitational

  • The Puerto Rico Open, also taking place this weekend, is a separate event for those who did not qualify for the API

• 🏙️ LIV begins two weeks in South East Asia with an event in Hong Kong

If you have any feedback for the newsletter or would like to get in touch, I would love to hear from you! Email [email protected] or message us on Twitter/X at @BlueHorizonGolf. Thank you for reading!