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Vijay Singh's PGA Tour return announcement sounded like wishcasting about a dreamy comeback to most. But the three-time major champ, who once skipped a ball over water for a hole-in-one — watch the legendary Masters moment here — proved he still has it at the Sony Open.

Singh opened his week with a 2-under 68 despite a pair of double bogeys, one on the very first hole. Friday brought an even-par 70 with three birdies and three bogeys. Singh, at 2 under, is tied for 47th, with Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre, Tom Kim, and ahead of Hideki Matsuyama, Sahith Theegala, and other PGA Tour mainstays.

If that's not impressive, remember this was his first PGA Tour event since 2021. After the Friday round, Singh ranks 23rd in SG: Approach and 14th in SG: Around the Green — the kind of numbers that’d make young guns green with envy. Averaging 283 yards with his driver (71st), the Fijian earned through great iron play and nifty short game what he lost against bombers.

Some griped that Singh, a past champion of the event, stole a young player's spot by taking advantage of his career money exemption. So he has much to prove in the coming months, but for now, Singh can scoff at all the criticism.

Leaders: Davis Riley climbed 28 spots to grab a share of the lead at 9-under 131 with defending champ Nick Taylor, Kevin Roy, S.H. Kim, and Adrien Dumont de Chassart. Incredibly, no defending champion has held the 36-hole lead before Taylor this year.

MCs: Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa, Gary Woodland, and Tony Finau were among the notables to pack their bags early. As did two rising stars, Luke Clanton and Neal Shipley.

Report: Brooks Koepka has left LIV, and the league has already spent around $6B in the last four years. All the while incurring a staggering $1.1 billion in losses. Rory McIlroy believes there’s no way the breakaway league can establish a foothold, even if they re-sign Bryson DeChambeau. You can check out Rory’s scathing take here. 

Our Take: It’s pretty similar to his “LIV-is-dead-in-the-water” comment — listen to it here — but Rory might just have hit the nail on the head this time. LIV has failed to convince any needle-movers to join the league this year. And the situation with the two remaining stars, DeChambeau and Rahm, isn’t exactly cut and dried either.

Both said they were looking forward to the 2026 season. But their body language — the trepidation, deep sighs, and long pauses — will add a few more wrinkles in PIF chief Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s forehead. Check out Bryson’s expression and Rahm’s reluctance when asked about their future in this video below.

Now with Brooks gone, Bryson indeed holds real leverage. Guess how much he has asked for contract renewal (hint: it might just make him the richest golfer in history)? Here is your answer. And to McIlroy's point, LIV would have to pay for the contract renewal without the bells and whistles.

A failed negotiation will mean two things: Bryson might waltz back to the PGA Tour. Or, continue with his audacious plan of playing majors and only YouTube golf. Through the PGA Tour lens, after Brooks, Bryson's your guy. A few steps lower on the impact scale, you have Jon Rahm; a dozen rungs down, Cam Smith passes the test. But that’s about it.

So clearly, sans more star power, LIV has a diminished presence and reduced leverage.

Search for Brandon Robinson Thompson on the Dubai Invitational leaderboard. Can’t find him? No, he hasn’t missed the cut. He is playing but not competing. Puzzling? Well, welcome to the curious world of markers in golf tournaments.

In Thompson’s case, he volunteered to be the marker and became the talk of the town, like Michael McDermott. Don’t remember him? Well, here is what you need to know about the ANGC member who bombs 300-yard drives.

Travel is a total nightmare. But we mortals fly maybe a handful of times a year, so it's bearable. For golfers, though? It's basically their side gig. So what do they do on long flights? At the Dubai Invitational, Shane Lowry shared his packing essentials, including the book he is reading, the food he carries (because some airlines, well, don’t serve good food), and more.

Who is Lowry’s favorite travel buddy, though? No surprise he mentioned Rory. But the reason is what got us laughing, and you’ll laugh too when you hear it in this short interview.

Michael Kim explained it even better. Golf Twitter's travel guru logged 68k+ miles over 250 days, and across 16 states and 8 countries last year. That’s just for tournaments, excluding layovers and separate sponsor outings. Here is a visual representation of what that looks like; it is bound to make your jaw drop.