Jon Rahmbo - First Blood

“They drew first blood, not me” - Rambo

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🇪🇸 Jon Rahm is a force and deserves his Rahmbo nickname. He won the Genesis Invitational on Sunday, securing his 10th career PGA Tour win and retaking the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Rankings. Rahm had a three-shot lead at the beginning of the day, but a few errors wiped it off the board with Max Homa temporarily taking the lead. However, Rahm fought back with birdies and finished the day with a pair of pars to secure a two-shot win at 17-under. He now has three wins this season and has won five of his last nine international starts. He has seven top-10 finishes on Tour this season and continues to be dominate.

✅ Fun fact - Rahm attended Arizona State University on a golf scholarship. There he won 11 college golf tournaments, which is second in school history, behind only Phil Mickelson's 16 collegiate wins.

🦅 Luckiest Eagle Ever

We’ve all banked one off a random tree or car 🚙 and had it bounce back into the fairway. Rahm topped any of our weekend golfer member’s bounces we’ve had with the luckiest eagle ever during the third round on the 604 yard par-5, 17th hole. On his second shot he overshot with a 5-wood only to have it hit the grandstand, bounce on the green and setup a nice 3ft putt for an eagle.

Only three birdies had been made on that hole for the day. Rahm said “That's arguably the best bounce I've seen in person my whole golf career and it would be hard to beat in the future”.

Check out the video of his member’s bounce 👇

🐅 Tiger Woods made his return with his first tournament since The Open at St. Andrews in July 2022. Ultimately he had a poor performance at one under and created some backlash with a display of misogyny when he out drove Justin Thomas and then handed him a tampon.

After suffering serious leg injuries in a car accident two years ago, he’s made sporadic competitive appearances as he continues to recover. Hopefully we’ll see him turn things around and see a competitive Tiger again soon

  • 💰 Purse: $20M

  • 🏆 Winner: Jon Rahm 🇪🇸 | $3.6M prize

  • 📍 Location: Riviera Golf Course, Pacific Palisades, California, USA

Swing for the Fences

Turn the temp down… to the 80’s 🌡🏌

As humans, we’re always striving for more. Whether that is for a better career, meaningful relationships, better physique… perhaps a lower golf score? Sometimes having a lower golf score is enough for some of us to be satisfied in life (at least lower than the guy you’re playing with 😉).

Depending on the group of mates you play with, you would probably guess that your average weekend warrior shoots somewhere in the 90’s ⛳… think again. According to data from the National Golf Foundation, only 26% of all golfers shoot below 90 consistently on regulation 18-hole courses. If you happen to fall within this “elite” group, you might be satisfied with how things are going… or maybe not. Because remember, we’re always looking for more. To break 90 takes more than a simple swing fix. It takes a combination of thoughts and decision making that we should be considering when out on the course. Spoiler: One of those tips is not another Bloody Mary at the turn 🍸 🍅

  • Unrealistic Expectations – This could be the only item on the list and it would suffice. We all think we are capable of shooting lower than we actually do. And when things aren’t starting out the way you had hoped, it can get ugly really quick 🤦‍♂️. It leads to pressure for the rest of the round that you need to crawl back to a score that you are content with, causing frustration, which leads to not having fun… you see where this is going. Having realistic expectations of where your game is currently, combined with proper practice and a positive outlook, will help you get closer towards improvement.

  • Hitting the Range / Stretches – Do you ever go into a pick-up basketball game or a hockey beer league without stretching or at least warming up? I am assuming the answer is no based on the strenuous nature of those sports. But we think of golf as being different because we’re not running or skating like in those other sports. Golf shouldn’t be treated any differently. Going into a round with no warm up swings or more importantly, no stretching can potentially lead to a poor round. Even if you can’t fit in range time before the round, at the very least warm up the arms and legs with some mobility exercises while everyone else is shanking their tee shots on the first tee box (see the 19th hole).

  • Pre-shot Routine – Now that you got all of your bad shots out of the way on the range, it’s time to start developing a pre-shot routine. You see all of the professionals do it, so why would you think you should skip it? Your pre-shot routine does not need to be complicated; it can be as simple as one practice swing, an alignment technique, and a simple swing. When pre shot routines are kept simple like this, your golf swing will naturally fall into place.

  • Course Management – I know we’ve all heard this one before, but it’s important. Golf course management is a bit more about strategy than about your actual golf swing. For most bogey golfers, there seems to always be that one hole that “blows up” 💣. There are ways to avoid that and keep you on a path to breaking 90. One thought is to not take the “hero” 🦸‍♂️ shot. Don’t try and shoot between two trees 🌲 and think you’re going to hit the green. It’s probably not going to turn out well. You have to learn to take your medicine and punch out, setting yourself up for a chance save bogey or even par. A bogey is better than a ⛄

    Another great thought is to stop aiming for the flag ⛳. Let’s be real, you shouldn’t be flag hunting as a bogey golfer. Start aiming for the middle of the green and you will have a better chance of avoiding hazards if the shot happens to go astray.

  • Lessons – If you are floating around the higher end of 90 rather than breaking it, it might not be a bad idea to go get your swing checked by someone who knows what they’re doing. There are a lot of local professionals out there that can help you. With as much technology involved in golf, it may only take a session or two to find out what is going on. YouTube videos are great and can help with some swing fixes, but sometimes you need that personal attention to your specific swing.

Now get out there and make something of yourself!

Course of the Day

🇿🇦 Legend Golf and Safari Resort in South Africa

Home of the Extreme 19th, a 630 yard par-3. A couple of cool facts about the 19th hole:

  • 🚁 Golfers have to take a 1,400 ft helicopter ride to the tee box.

  • ⏳ The ball hangs for about 26 seconds

  • 💰 First person to get a hole in one will be awarded $1M

  • 🌍 The green is contoured and shaped like the African continent

  • 🔍 All balls are fitted with tracking devices in case the drive goes a little to the right

  • 🏏 The first birdie was recorded by former Barbados cricket star, Franklyn Stephenson, who sunk a 7m / 23ft putt

  • 🎬 Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman became one of the first golfers to record a par

Each hole of the 18-hole course was designed by a professional golfer, including the likes of Padraig Harrington, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, KJ Choi, Trevor Immelman, Thomas Bjorn, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh and more (full list here).

🐘 The safari resort offers a beautiful wildlife experience with more than 55 mammal species, including lions, elephants, leopards, rhinos and buffalo.

📝 Jot this one on the bucket list!

19th Hole

We Want to Pump… You Up!

Back in the day, you would have thought exercising and playing golf didn’t belong in the same sentence. Long gone are the days where you will see pros like Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan together on the tee box puffing down a square 🚬 (and quite frankly we don’t recommend it 🚭). Fast forward to today, professional golfers are taking their health more serious than ever.

The fact of the matter is athletes in all sports are getting stronger and faster, including professional golfers. For 13 years straight from 1994 through 2006, the average driving distance had increased. That average leveled off a bit in the mid 2000’s, but started to pop again starting in 2013. Bryson DeChambeau led all players in the PGA in 2021 with an average distance of 320.8 yards, while the leader in 1994 was Davis Love III at 283.8 yards 😳. Bryson took his workout routine very serious to achieve that status and other golfers have been taking notice. Even Tiger Woods 🐅 looked like a linebacker at one point during his prime.

While any workout routine is sure to help your golf game, we’ve compiled specific exercises that target the areas in the body that will improve the golf swing. The best part is that it doesn’t take up 2 hours of your day at the gym, and for some you don’t even need any equipment (with exception of a golf club). Check out the links below and start hitting bombs 💣