When Blades Brown and Ben James shook hands on the 18th tee at El Cardonal at Diamante Sunday evening, all eyes shifted towards the future. Who would win this playoff between these two young budding stars? What could the next five years and beyond possibly have in store for both of them?
As hypotheticals were pondered and expectations were placed, shoulders slumped elsewhere on the property carrying a different kind of weight on body and mind.
Denny McCarthy had lost again.
In a career that has now spanned 240 PGA Tour starts, the former Virginia Cavalier has traversed the highest level of professional golf for almost a decade without stepping into the winner's circle. His T6 finish on paper is enough to push him inside the top 75 of the FedEx Cup standings and secure himself a place on tour in 2027, but it could have been so much more.
With five holes remaining, McCarthy, 33, was tied with a kid 14 years younger than him. McCarthy had more holes to play; at a resort golf course like El Cardonal, where the biggest defense is yourself, that means there are more birdies to make. He failed to get up-and-down for birdie on the first par 5 and then 3-putted for bogey on the next hole.
His chances were damaged but not yet destroyed.
That is until the par-4 17th. In need of a miracle, McCarthy tossed up a prayer with his second shot right of the fairway. The answer he was looking for (and his golf ball) was never found on the other end. A double bogey ensued. Anguish and despair rolled onto his exterior.
McCarthy has had a very successful PGA Tour career given what he has been afforded. He is not the biggest. He is not the strongest. He is not the most talented. He is often labeled one of the best putters in the world, but he has repeatedly said he wants to be known for more.
FedEx Cup Fall gets a bad rap. It's football season, the golf courses are resort-style and fail to test the game's best, and the stars are back home kicking their feet up or writing the first draft of some statement they are about to release that no one ever asked to read.
They wait with excitement (some, dread) for the start of the season in January, when they will play against their their peers. They will play for an exuberant amount of money and on golf courses like Riviera and Pebble Beach. Meaning will be attached to these tournaments given the history and the stakes, but not to the extent we witnessed this Sunday.
At the least, it will be different.
On Sunday, we watched as a long-time PGA Tour player attempted to fend off the next wave. In an era where the middle class is going extinct, and fans and executives want to usher in the next generation as soon as possible to create more stars and more dollar signs, McCarthy tried to delay the professional golf life cycle.
In one sense, he did. McCarthy locked up playing privileges for next season and reset his clock -- achieving a moral victory that won't be celebrated for long. As the likes of Brown and James begin mapping out their futures, McCarthy continues to fight a multi-front war flanked by a changing professional landscape, a wave of hungry new arrivals and a clock that is already counting down again.
What's my age, again?
Blades Brown won on the PGA Tour last Sunday. Dare I tell you the year he was born? 2007. Feeling old yet?!
It is unbecoming of the 19-year-old to make us feel this way at the start of another long week before the holiday season, but to the victors go the spoils. Brown became the youngest player since 1931 to win on the PGA Tour with his victory over James on the second playoff hole Sunday evening, taking that mantle from Jordan Spieth.
Starting the day seven strokes off James' pace, Brown carded a final-round 9-under 63 that included four birdies in his final six holes. It looked as if he would claim the trophy without the added drama as he knocked in a 6-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to get into the clubhouse one better than his playing partner Michael Kim, but James had other ideas with an eagle of his own on the last hole to tie Brown.
Despite only being 19, Brown has already amassed an incredible amount of experience. He started his season by holding the 54-hole lead at The American Express and played alongside Scottie Scheffler and Si Woo Kim in the final group. He then earned special temporary status on the PGA Tour and went on to earn his full-time PGA Tour card through the Korn Ferry Tour, where he was the youngest graduate in history.
The win moves him up to No. 62 in the world, meaning a couple more good starts could elevate him inside the top 50 by year's end when an invitation to a certain major championship is mailed out.
Return to relevance
One door closes, and another one opens for Jon Rahm, this one leading him into the winner's circle for his first relevant win since the 2023 Masters. In Rahm's first tournament since leaving LIV Golf, the Spaniard sizzled at the Abu Dhabi Championship and emerged from a crowded leaderboard that included Hatton and McIlroy at Yas Links.
The win represents Rahm's sixth Rolex Series title (most all-time) and his 11th DP World Tour victory.
In a stroke of absolute hilarity, Rahm now has a real chance to win the Race to Dubai. The victory moved him up to No. 11 in the season-long race, and should he win the DP World Tour Championship (which he has three prior times) with Eugenio Chacarra finishing worse than eighth place and McIlroy finishing worse than runner-up ... guess what? Rahm wins the whole damn thing!
That is where attention shifts in the short term. In the long term, inquiring minds want to know whether the PGA Tour will extend a lifeline for Rahm and how that would affect the relationship between the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. The league will not make any decision until the LIV Golf bankruptcy process is final.
WTGL debuts
These boots were on the ground synthetic turf Sunday at the SoFi Center as the WTGL kicked off its inaugural season. LPGA commissioner Craig Kessler hit a historic ceremonial first putt before taking part in a champagne toast to officially get the league underway.
From what I gathered, everyone within the TGL ecosystem is really excited about this opportunity for the women's game. The same talking point of this being a great chance to showcase personality and entertain a wider, younger audience is already getting beaten to death, but those soundbites should only persist.
The level of care from the players to those running the operations is there. That cannot be denied. Ultimately, I wonder what that level is from the outside world, though, and if success for this first run might be as simple as producing a new personality or two that golf fans were previously unaware of.
