Do you need me to move my mark?

Golf Digest

“I sure hope your mark’s not in my way.” A golf round is filled with pithy asides like this. One golfer’s mark is close to another player’s line, so they ask if they need to move it, and occasionally there’s a wisecrack response about how it really shouldn’t be unless something is really amiss. Amazingly, this happened in the U.S. Amateur at Merion, when 17-year-old junior phenom Miles Russell sought to use opponent Ryder Cowan’s ball marker to line up a putt in a first-round match. As our Ryan Herrington noted, Russell wanted to keep his ball just left of the marker, but he went directly over it, and the putt missed. Russell went on to lose, and in the aftermath faced questions about whether he should have had Cowan move his mark altogether. It’s one of those “only in golf” type moments, and match play especially delivers them in abundance.

Smart strategy or silly mistake?

Either way, this U.S. Amateur favorite’s tournament is over

By Ryan Herrington

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Joel Beall

More bad news for LIV Golf. The Telegraph reports that LIV officials are “almost resigned” to the belief Jon Rahm will not return next season. Rahm reportedly has two years left on his LIV contract, but with Saudi Arabia pulling its financial backing and LIV weighing bankruptcy it is assumed that to have a chance to make it to 2027 the league would need to break its existing deals. However, it’s a Catch-22 for LIV; though the circuit has already struggled to be a viable product, a LIV without Rahm is a future not worth taking seriously. With LIV telling players this week that its season finale has been canceled (yet, incredibly, no official announcement yet), Rahm may have just one event remaining with LIV.

Christopher Powers

Scottie Scheffler's simple course strategy tip for Vikings coach Kevin O'Connell is gold. During a training camp interview with ESPN's Kevin Clark, the Vikings head coach told a story about playing with the World No. 1 in the 3M Open Pro-Am recently. On the first few holes, O'Connell was trying to play "responsible" by taking 3 wood off the tee. Scheffler said that's enough of that as matter-of-factly as he could. Yeah, that checks out. Even at the pro level, even for the World No. 1, the game has become to bash driver as close to the hole as you can, go find it and do it again. Obviously, there's a little more to it than that, but it's that type of simplification that has made Scheffler as good as he is, among other reasons.

Coleman Bentley

LeBron James' dream foursome shows how much golf is changing.

It used to be when you asked a celebrity golfer about their dream foursome, the answer would be some combination of Arnie/Jack/Tiger, whoever was president at the time and, of course, their dear old dad. But that was then and this is now. This week, James was asked that classic question, and his answer was nothing if not a sign of the times. Check it out.

It's honestly great and cool and good that James mentioned Nelly Korda first. Women's golf deserves more attention than it gets, and if you're going model your move off of anyone's, you could do A LOT worse than Women's World No. 1. The part more traditional golfers will raise an eyebrow at is James drafting Robby Berger and Wesley Bryan as the other players to round out his dream group. Not Rory McIlroy, not Scottie Scheffler, not even Viktor Hovalnd (a first-round pick of yours truly). Instead, two YouTubers, one of whom remains banned from the PGA Tour entirely.

We're not saying this is a bad thing. We're not shouting "SHRINK!" from the peak of snowy mountain. But it is an interesting barometer for how the casual weekend golfer engages with the sport in the year 2026. Needless to say, if you're not on YouTube train just yet, it might be time to come aboard before the next new thing comes along and leaves us all in the dust once again.