A common theme of the fall swing are courses where green in regulation percentage is through the roof, hitting fairways is easy, and you need to be able to spike with your putter. This week, as the PGA Tour heads Sea Island, GA, at the Seaside and Plantation courses, the skillsets required are the same. Historically at the RSM Classic, positive performance with the flatstick is the best avenue to success.

Over the last two years, here are the best Bermuda putters in the field:

1. Taylor Montgomery

2. Frankie Capan III

3. Mackenzie Hughes

4. Denny McCarthy

5. Nico Echavarria

6. Beau Hossler

7. Brandt Snedeker

8. Zach Johnson

9. Jacob Bridgeman

10. Matthew NeSmith

Closing Stretch

Josh Segal

What can the PGA Tour learn from the Internet Invitational?

Love or hate it, the Internet Invitational was a massive success. For those who don’t know, Barstool Sports, specifically Dave Portnoy and the Fore Play crew, alongside the boys from Bob Does Sports, collaborated on hosting a YouTube Golf tournament with a purse of one million dollars to the winner. 

It was a Ryder Cup style format, starting with 48 players, that continued to cut the field in half after each day. The creators voted on two captains, and each team had to come up with pairings for each stage of the tournament. The matches consisted of 2 man scrambles and up to 3 player alternate shots.

In the end, spoiler alert, Brad Dalke of Good Good, and Francis Ellis and Beef of Fore Play/Barstool, took home the coveted International Invitational tournament trophy and each came home with an evenly split share of a million dollars.  

From listening to the lead up of the tournament for over a year now, the goal of the Internet Invitational wasn’t to show the best players hitting the best shots. The tournament’s purpose was to bring all of these cast of characters together, regardless of what their skillset is, and to create compelling storylines and chaos to drive the entertainment value of the videos. 

We saw that instantly on the first day with Luke Kwon missing his tee time because he slept through it, Paige Spiranic cheating by improving their teams lie in the fescue and Malosi from Good Good (maybe) using the slope function on his range finder. 

While watching the tournament and seeing all the success it is having on social media, I am thinking to myself: what can the PGA Tour learn from the Internet Invitational? 

My initial takeaway was that the PGA Tour needs to somehow put players in positions to showcase their personality. I have written at length about the Ryder Cup being my favorite tournament and the most important event in professional golf. Why? Because the tournament drives storylines for almost a year in advance before a ball is even in the air. The Ryder Cup is the one tournament where the players show true raw emotion out on the course. 

One of new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rollap’s first key initiatives is to retool the FedEx Cup Playoffs. A ton of fans want match play as a format for the playoffs. This would certainly drive storylines and create excitement on the golf course because matches are 1 v 1. In normal professional golf tournaments, players are playing against the entire field, not necessarily one golfer. 

We need more players like Bryson DeChambeau who show raw emotion out on the golf course and carry compelling stories off the course. A lot of people saw that these PGA Tour golfers are boring, have zero personality and aren’t capable of driving the entertainment value of the broadcast and the event itself. My counter would be that the PGA Tour just hasn’t put its players in critical situations where the raw emotions naturally come out. 

One more key point that the PGA Tour can learn from the Internet Invitational is the behind the scenes. Some of the best moments of the video series was when the entire field was picking captains, and when each team was trying to figure out who gets paired with who. We even got a moment of Super Bowl winning head coach, Jon Gruden, giving an electric pump speech to his team.

I know the PGA Tour has improved its short form social media content, but we need more of it on a weekly basis that is more deliverable to fans. Instead of showing players on the driving range talking about different shots they are practicing, we want to see more practice round content.

Johnson Wagner and Golf Channel produce great content talking to players during their rounds about their games and the course. This needs to be delivered better to fans on social media and not just on cable television. 

I would love to see players filming like a three hole practice round match between their buddies. If you ever attend a PGA tournament practice round, you will see the same popular golfers practicing together. If the PGA Tour can somehow capture these moments and showcase it to fans in real time, that’s something to consider. 

Those were the two major takeaways that I believe the PGA Tour can learn from the Internet Invitational: personalities of the players and behind-the-scenes content. 

Overall, the Internet Invitational was never about watching elite YouTube Golfers hit sick shots on camera. If you want to watch that, you can watch the PGA Tour week in and week out. The purpose of the Internet Invitational was to showcase all different skill levels of creators and their personalities. This led to pure chaos and exceptional banter throughout the entire series. These creators bring a ton of entertainment value. T

he PGA Tour needs to lean into the entertainment side of the product and give the professional golfers positions to do so. Because right now, the opportunities are limited. Brian Rollap knows that and hopefully things will change for the better for everyone.

2026 PGA Tour Recipients: What to Know

If you aren’t aware, one of our most respected insiders, Bexico City, has started writing course and tournament preview articles for DPWT events. Since the DPWT season ended last week, with Matt Fitzpatrick as the Tour Championship winner and Rory winning the Race Dubai, Bexico wrote an article about the 10 graduates who go promoted to the PGA Tour. Here is a preview:

Marco Penge

After saving his DPWT by holing a putt to make the cut in the last event of 2024, Penge has been a revelation in 2025 winning three times and coming second in the PGA Tour co-sanctioned Scottish Open. By finishing first in the eligibility list, Penge also earns starts at Pebble Beach, Genesis and The Players.

Penge is an elite ball striker with top-tier distance and above-average iron play. He had a win at the long and wide distance biased Hainan Classic, and his best performance was the second at the distance-biased Scottish Open. It’s not surprising that he led the tour in SG:OTT, beating out Rahm and McIlroy. But he is not just a distance merchant. He also had wins at the tight and fiddly Danish and Spanish Opens, which were both down to great iron play. He also had a third in South Africa at the tight Durban CC, and a t8 at the similar European Masters. His weakness is his around the green play and his putting can be very inconsistent.

At 27 years old, this seems more like the beginning of an ascent into the game's top 50 rather than a flash in the pan spike year. With solid iron play giving him a good foundation and his distance giving him a trait that could take him into the games elite. I expect him to make noise on the PGA Tour next year, especially at harder courses that require good ball striking (his three wins coming at -15 -16 -17), rather than the easier putting contest birdie fests. And just because he has elite distance, don’t count him out on the shorter club-down tests, where his iron play can keep him relevant.

Laurie Canter

The first ex-LIV golfer to earn their way back to the PGA Tour, Canter is a great total driver of the ball, but the rest of his game leaves a bit to be desired. His 2025 was a season of three parts. He started brilliantly with a third in the Rolex series Dubai Desert Classic, and followed that up with a win in the smaller Bahrain Championship and a playoff loss in the rain shortened South African Open. After that came a barren run of only one top 20 in his next 15 starts, with his iron play, short game and putting all to blame despite consistently good driving. But Canter jumped back into the graduates' spots with the second in Korea, t23 in Abu Dhabi and third in the Tour Championship.

Canter’s best results have often come on courses where you can really separate with the driver, not just with length but by his accuracy too. His Middle Eastern form has been a way to do this with the sandy native areas penalizing those less accurate, and his other DPWT win came at the extremely long and penal Green Eagle GC in 2024. Canter’s best is good enough to contend on the PGA Tour, but I fear the rest of his game may not be good enough to stay on Tour for long.

Adrien Saddier

The DPWT journeyman finally broke through for his first win this year at the very tight Italian Open. Four other top fives, including a playoff loss at the high class BMW PGA capped off a breakout season. Saddier’s strength is in his driving accuracy, with the rest of his game being solid but not spectacular. His best results have come at courses with a real missed fairway penalty, with the aforementioned Italian Open and BMW PGA being prime examples, as well as a fifth at the brutally penal DLF, and top fives at the water lined Singapore and Irish Opens. I have concerns that this year was more of a one-off spike year, rather than an elevation into a higher tier of player. And the lack of higher missed fairway penalty (that aren’t) venues on a non-signature event PGA Tour schedule will make it difficult for him to keep his card for 2027.

To access the full article, click here (behind the paywall for subscribers).

Who would I bet to miss the NFL playoffs?

I have started a little series with midseason NFL future bets and giving my analysis. The first bet was taking the LA Rams to win the Super Bowl at 12-1. The Rams are now +550 to win the Super Bowl. Two weeks ago, I suggested betting Matthew Stafford to win MVP at +650. He is now the favorite to win the award at +150. 

Yes, I am vic lapping the CLV I have on these two future bets. They haven’t won anything yet but I like the portfolio I am building. 

This week, the question I have is: who would you bet to miss the NFL playoffs?

My pick: Chicago Bears +116 on FD

The Bears have the current lead in the NFC North at 7-3, with the Green Bay Packers sitting a game back at 6-3-1 and the Detroit Lions a full game back at 6-4. 

The eye test tells you that the Bears shouldn’t be 7-3. They have had a favorable schedule so far but now they face a gauntlet to end the season, having to square up against the Packers twice, Eagles, Niners, and Lions. 

The offense has been very inconsistent under Ben Johnson, even though they average the 4th most yards per game at 374. You can see how talented Caleb Williams is when he is running around like its backyard football and making some impressive throws. However, he hasn’t really been able to put it together for four quarters. 

The Bears defense ranks 27th in the league, despite leading the league in turnovers at 16. Their secondary has been getting picked apart all year and their run defense is well below league average. 

I trust the Packers and Lions to overtake the Bears as the division winner, with both teams making the playoffs. The NFC is way deeper than the AFC this year. I don’t like how the Bears stack up against their peers that they have to face down the stretch. I believe getting the Bears to miss the playoffs at plus money isn’t the worst bet to take right now.