The new BayCurrent Classic, formerly the ZoZo Championship, has found a new home at Yokohama Country Club. With an unknown course that we haven’t seen since 2018, this is ISN’s bread and butter: breaking down new golf courses.

There isn’t one necessary skillset to hone in on this week at Yokohama. The proximity buckets for second shots are pretty even distributed and there doesn’t seem to be a specific edge in either distance off-the-tee or accuracy.

I usually like to get creative in this segment of the newsletter because of all the filters that the Rabbit Hole provides. However, for our statistical spotlight, we are going to look at overall off-the-tee play.

Over the last 36 rounds, here are the top 10 players in strokes gained off-the-tee:

If you want a more detailed course preview of Yokohama, check out Andy’s 3,000+ word article on our website.

While it has been a while since Si Woo Kim’s last victory, the former Players Champion is trending strongly in the right direction after a fifth at the BMW PGA Championship where he gained strokes in all three tee-to-green categories. Of course, the putter remains a huge issue for Kim, as he has lost strokes putting in 11 straight starts, but at least he was almost neutral at the BMW PGA. Even more encouraging is that Kim has shown he can navigate the time difference and playing on Japanese agronomy with a sixth-place finish at this event last year, where he actually putted wonderfully. Kim should be an ideal fit for the task at hand at Yokohama Country Club.

Benny Safdie’s New Movie: “The Smashing Machine”

Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” was one of my most anticipated movies of 2025 given not only the subject matter, but the people behind it (both in front of and behind the camera.) This is Benny Safdie’s first solo directorial effort, although he did direct the criminally underseen “The Curse” in 2023, a mini-series for the now Hoffa’d (dead) Showtime. 

I have been a massive fan of the Safdie brothers since “Good Time,” and “Uncut Gems” remains a comically in the tank movie for me, converging all of my interests, which is a huge reason why I happen to love the Safdie Brothers. I’m not even going to pretend to be an expert in analyzing the craft of filmmaking, but it’s abundantly clear that any Safdie movie has a highly specific tone. They are able to convey tension in a wildly propulsive, cinematic way, while still making incredibly intimate movies. Even more importantly for my subjective opinion, they just seem to make movies about what I am interested in, even dating back to “Heaven Knows What.”

When the Safdies announced that they would no longer be making films together, and were both planning on pursuing solo careers, I was cautiously optimistic. At the very least, it probably meant more output from each of them and an unfounded opportunity to pursue more of their individual creative interests. 2025 is bringing us two Safdie movies, “The Smashing Machine” from Benny, and “Marty Supreme,” from Josh. We’ll get to “Marty Supreme,” when the time comes, a ping pong movie starring Timothy Chalamet that has already received extremely glowing reviews and been described as “The Catcher in the Rye” meets “Uncut Gems” meets “Jerry Maguire.”

That perfectly describes all of my interests so well that it almost feels like the Safdie’s are creating movies in a lab specifically tailored to all of my converging interests. It’s rare that a filmmaker so specifically makes movies to your tastes, but I’ve never not been highly interested in the subject matter of a Safdie film, although I would still buy a ticket to their work if they made something about a subject I deeply did not care about. I admire Paul Thomas Anderson maybe more than any other director, but he makes movies about stuff I am deeply not interested in all the time (Phantom Thread, for example.)

Both Safdie’s seem heavily interested in exploring addiction, sports, intense character studies about masculinity, coping with success and failure, and highly emotional characters that have a deeper interior than presented to the outside world. These are all extremely apparent themes in the “Smashing Machine.” 

“The Smashing Machine” tells the story of Mark Kerr, one of the pioneers of MMA, and it was heavily based on the 2002 documentary, “The Smashing Machine: The Life and Times of Extreme Fighter Mark Kerr.” In this brief column, I am neither going to plot, summarize, debate the Rock’s Oscar chances, nor dive deeply into whether or not the film was ultimately effective or great.

I understand why some were disappointed in the lack of conclusion or plot by the “Smashing Machine,” but it feels more like Benny was simply interested in staying very true to the real events of Kerr’s life. These events aren't always cinematic and draw a somewhat uneven conclusion. Is this is a happy movie or a sad movie? A tale of triumph and overcoming adversity, or more of a commentary on the brutality of Kerr’s chosen career path. I’m not totally sure if Benny cares.

He seemed more deeply interested in just bringing this character to life. I can draw my own conclusions about what Kerr’s character tells us about masculinity and the subversion of a massive, intimidating exterior via deep insecurity, pain, and addiction. This is made incredibly apparent both in the hospital scene and the amusement park scene. Kerr’s character is far more sensitive and vulnerable than you would ever expect from a being that can crush anyone in his path with his sheer physicality. 

I responded pretty heavily to the understated nature and lack of discernibility in the storytelling. Both Safdie Brothers have always been so talented at creating a world and exploring deeply complicated characters without ever hitting you over the head with an agenda or manipulation.

From my understanding of Kerr, this is about as stripped down and honest of a recounting and character study as it gets, even if it lacks a cohesive thesis or conclusion tied together with a bow. That cinematic satisfaction might be too conventional for this story, and that’s rarely how it works out in real life anyway. Kerr seemed to find inner peace in the concept of failure, an idea previously incomprehensible to him. Yet he also returned to a highly toxic relationship.

There is no comment whether he achieved long-term sobriety. Some filmgoers may struggle with this ambiguity of message or conclusion, but I think it’s a rather honest developing staple of the growing Safdie catalogue. I’ll be in the tank for infinity.

Josh Segal

The Televised Skins Game is Back!

Just under a year ago, the PGA Tour and Pro Shop Holdings announced they are bringing back the famous Skins Game. The Skins Game was a made-for-TV event that was played every year from 1983 to 2008. Over the years, the Skins Games included golfing legends like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, Annika Sorentam, and many more. 

It was announced yesterday who will be partaking in the return Skins Game on Black Friday. The players include Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Keegan Bradley, and Tommy Fleetwood. It will be played at Panther National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. It will air at 9am est on Amazon Prime, which will lead into the Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles game (GO BIRDS). 

I’m not old enough to remember the Skins Games as I was only 8 years old when the last match was played. Although, I can say I grew up in “The Match” era when the series peaked after Tiger, Phil, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady played a match during Covid.

For the Skins Games to be successful, it needs to be entertaining. Secondly, the series needs to have some sort of identity. I believe that “The Match” series on TNT has gotten really stale and lacks a true identity. “The Match” had too many variations of the cast of characters playing in the event. They also changed the format of the competition to be too confusing for the viewer to follow.

With the Skins Games, you know exactly the rules. If you win a hole, you win a skin, which is denoted a dollar amount. If there is a tie, the skins roll over to the next hole. 

It will be interesting to see what is different from the prior Skins Game matches. Obviously the technology is much better than it was in 2008, but hopefully Amazon Prime can display things from a golf broadcast perspective that we haven’t seen before. I’m hoping this series can help revolutionize the TV product side of professional golf. That might be a bit ambitious but the PGA Tour owns this series, so let’s see something new Brian Rolapp and the Strategic Sports Group!

Fall Golf Season

In the Northeast, the season is starting to turn to fall, which in my opinion, is the marquee season for golf. In the concrete jungle of New York City where I reside, there aren’t many trees or grassland to hang out around. However, you can feel the season changing as the subway isn’t as hot, sweaty and gross than it usually is in the summer. 

Nothing beats waking up on a nice crisp autumn day, watching the sun rise, making a nice hot cup of coffee, packing your car and rolling up to the golf course. You don’t need to worry about battling the blistering heat when the temperature is cool. I love when the leaves are changing colors and coming down, but however, for someone that struggles to hit fairways, sometimes it's hard to find balls in a pile of leaves. 

Fall golf is the season where you can finally utilize the nice Peter Millar hoodie you spent 150+ dollars on at the US Open merch tent. If it gets ever cooler, you might want to throw on a beanie that you have of your favorite NFL or College Football team. In the Northeast, the primetime fall golf weather really motivates you to get out as much as you can before it gets too cold and snow starts to fall down.  

If you have the luxury to belong to a country club, this is where sometimes they allow you to have groups of more than four people. When I used to caddy in the fall on Saturdays (I would never caddy on Sundays because of the NFL), the country club would allow up to eight golfers to play in a group if the course was open. This was a caddie’s dream. All you do as a forecaddie is just track balls and rake bunkers. You don’t really need to worry about pulling pins, reading greens, or giving our yardages. There would be so many money games going on it would be so hard to keep track, especially on a tiny scorecard. 

As fall foliage is upon us, it’s time to get excited for fall golf, the best golf season by far. I hope to try to take advantage and get a couple rounds in in the next couple of weeks. If you are a New Yorker that lives in the city, you know how hard it is to play. I am going to try my best and play some fall golf with the new Callaway Elyte Triple Diamond driver I purchased with my ISN One and Done winnings!