Young Is Unstoppable (& So is Korda)

👋 Hey, Golf fans,

Happy Star Wars Day! May the force be with you, because you’ll need it. We've hidden Star Wars references throughout today's edition. Your mission is to find them and tell us the count.

Now, onto the headlines: Cameron Young and Nelly Korda both continued a dominant run. So did the winners across tours. Meanwhile, a Tour pro faced a bizarre penalty, John Daly sang a Bob Dylan song, and more.

Onward…

Before we start with today’s edition, let's kick things off with the stories that've been making waves.

Jordan Spieth’s caddie helps Rickie Fowler escape a costly penalty. Fowler was really close to a rule blunder.

A spectator was arrested at the Cadillac Championship. The security breach was immediately stopped.

Spectators (or lack of them) at the Cadillac Championship raise questions. Did the PGA Tour make a mistake by elevating it as a signature event?

Cadillac Championship: Last year in August, if someone told you that Cameron Young would notch his third win in his next 14 starts, you might’ve asked which institution they were on day release from. After all, he had won exactly nothing in his first 93 starts on the Tour. But to quote Darth Vader, “The Force is strong with this one.”

So much so that Young won by six shots despite calling a penalty on himself during the final round. On the second fairway, the ball moved on his takeaway. No one—including the rules officials, his playing partner, viewers on TV—could spot the infraction.

And we bet even if you look closely in this video, you WON’T be able to see the ball moving.

But Young called in the rules official, accepted a one-stroke penalty, parred the hole, and moved on. Six birdies and two bogeys later, he was a wire‑to‑wire winner of the Cadillac Championship. The only real question was whether Scottie Scheffler could mount a late charge to close the gap. Nope. Instead, he wound up in second place for the third straight start.

Riviera Maya Open: Nelly Korda carried a six‑shot lead on the 18th when she sent her drive sharply right and deep into the tropical undergrowth. She dropped a provisional into a bunker, then plugged the next one into the gallery, and made a bogey en route to a four-shot win.

It’s her third win of 2026. In the other three tournaments she’s played this year, she’s never finished below second. Meanwhile, Arpichaya Yubol (-13/2nd), Yu Liu (-12/3rd), Brianna Do (-10/4th), and amateur Maria Jose Marin (-8/5th) all landed inside the top‑5.

• The combined 10-shot winning margin of Korda and Young is the largest since May 2025.

• Young’s six-shot margin is the largest at Doral since 1976.

• After Tiger Woods and Steve Elkington, Young is the only man to conquer the TPC Sawgrass and then tame the Blue Monster the same year.

• Scottie Scheffler is the first player to finish runner-up since 2014 (Sergio Garcia) in three consecutive PGA Tour starts.

• Korda became the youngest player since 23‑year‑old Nancy Lopez in 1980 to claim her 18th LPGA title.

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• Pain: Chris Gotterup (-4/T38) took “play as it lies” to his own doom. On the eighth hole in the first round, his approach flirted too close to the water. He planted one foot in the drink—without taking his shoe off—to swing away. But you’ll never guess where the ball ended up. Check it out below.

• Orange: Come every Sunday, Rickie Fowler (-9/T9) rolls up to the course in that signature Orange. But even then, he rarely rocks a blazing outfit like he did yesterday. Probably a nod to his 2011 outfit in the same venue. Look at these two pictures side by side. Seems like yesterday.

• Cool: The pro-am at the Regions Tradition was a reminder of why John Daly (+3/71st) is loved so much. He stepped up in front of the fans, whipped out his guitar, and belted a Bob Dylan song. Can you guess which one?

• Control: Max Homa (-4/T38) likely felt the dark side calling him on the ninth in R2. His drive sailed 190 yards and plopped into the water. Fuming, Homa raised his club high over the tee box, but watch what he did next.

• Sweet: Ernie Els's (-4/T8) son Ben was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at three and a half. These days, Ben brings his father peace. So at the Regions Tradition, Els invited his son to walk the 18th together on Sunday. Watch the heartwarming interaction here.

With the PGA Championship coming up, we are revamping our merch collection. Tell us, which favorite moment would you like to see printed on our merch?

Saturday’s Poll Result: 37.34% of you said Seve Ballesteros was the most creative golfer. 22.60% believe it’s Phil Mickelson, 20.03% agree with Jordan Spieth, and 16.83% voted for Lee Trevino.

Regions Tradition: Stewart Cink (-18/1st) landed his fourth victory in seven starts this season, capturing back-to-back majors. Cink parred the 72nd to lock in a three-shot win. How did Cink celebrate? Why, by jumping on a starship and flying to a galaxy far away riding a bike on the greens, as you can see below.

Turkish Airlines Open: Mikael Lindberg (-10/1st) fired a final-round 69 to fend off playing partner Daniel Rodrigues (-11/T2), winning his first DP World Tour title in his 70th outing. He also punched his ticket to the PGA Championship, his first major. His wife dashed across the green after the final putt—watch the heartwarming moment here.

MCB Ladies Classic: Smilla Tarning Soenderby (-14/1st) drained a clutch birdie on the 18th, slamming the door on Kajsa Arwefjall (-13/T2), and Casandra Alexander's (-13/T2) dreams. She had her mother on the bag, and naturally, neither could hide the tears of happiness.

GS Caltex Maekyung Open: Song Min-hyuk (-11) held firm with a par on the first playoff hole to snag his first Asian Tour title over Mingyu Cho (-11/2nd). The final round was spoiled by a rules controversy (we'll unpack that shortly). But hats off to 22-year-old Song, who couldn’t stop grinning.

Chunichi Crowns: Mikumu Horikawa fired a bogey-free 63, bagging his fifth Japan Golf Tour win in four years. Check out the celebrations with teammates and fellow pros in the clubhouse.

A last-minute penalty at the GS Caltex Maekyung Open booted Inhoi Hur from entering a playoff to T3 on Sunday. It caused a lot of ruckus between Hur’s fans and the tournament officials. It all started with an OB on Saturday—here is what happened and how you can avoid it.

• On the 7th in R3, Hur's tee shot appeared to go out of bounds, so he played a provisional. But once a spotter found the ball, some spectators claimed it wasn’t OB, and the argument continued. The rules officials allowed Hur to continue with the provisional because of conflicting opinions.

• Now, Rule 18 states that if your tee shot is out of bounds, you have three minutes to search before it's officially lost. But if it’s found to be in play, you must abandon the provisional ball. Or if it’s confirmed to be OB, you need to account for it.

• Reality was that the ball was actually out of bounds. Hur went on to count it as par, which should’ve been a bogey. Now, signing the wrong scorecard results in DQ; however, possibly because it was a mistake by rules officials, too, Hur wasn’t DQed, but docked a stroke the next day.

The entire fiasco created a mess that overshadowed everything else. Asian Tour has released a statement, but players are clearly unhappy, as you can find out here.

Today’s story comes from our reader, Barry Kouns, who shared a lasting image from the 1984 Kemper Open.

On June 2, 1984, I attended my first PGA Tour event: the third round of the Kemper Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. A reporter approached Greg Norman and asked about his decision on No. 16:

“Greg, most professionals would have laid up there. But you pulled out a 3-wood and went for the green. What were you thinking?”

Norman looked at him and, without much hesitation, said something I have never forgotten:

“I really don’t think these fine people came out here today to watch me lay up.”

That was Greg Norman in a sentence — bold, confident, and built for the moment.

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