Greetings!
Garrick Higgo missed the cut by one.
One shot, not one second.
Was never going to go any other way.
We talked about that and more in a late night pod with takeaways from the halfway point at Aronimink.
Name drops today: Blockie (again), Troon, LIV Singapore, Zack Greinke and Artsy JT.
Today’s newsletter is presented by our friends at OGIO.
For the second consecutive day, I can recommend one of our sponsor’s products to our friend, Garrick Higgo (as well as everyone else who missed Friday’s cut). Yesterday, it was a Garmin watch. Today, some luggage for those slamming trunks, or I guess — since it’s 2026 and not 1986 anymore — angrily jamming a button that automatically closes the back of their six-figure SUV.
Regardless of how they’re leaving, I can tell you what should be in that trunk: Something from OGIO’s Renegade Vault collection.
Built because hardside luggage (like some of the pros in the field this week) has gone soft, OGIO’s Renegade Vault pieces are the best I’ve ever owned.
This carry-on is my current weapon of choice. Tough enough to get tossed around in any vehicle (plane or otherwise) but smooth enough that it would roll right off one of these greens at The Mink. A great combo.
OK, now onto the news.
1. It’s Friday at a major championship and everyone is completely exhausted, which means that we’re all yelling about things we wouldn’t otherwise care about.
In this instance, whether The Mink is the first, second or third bowl of porridge that Goldilocks tries.
First, it was too easy. Now it’s too difficult. I kinda think it’s … just right?
Scottie said the pin positions on Friday were “absurd” but also said nothing was unfair. Rory said he doesn’t believe bunched leaderboards are the product of great setups.
The only thing I would say is, I think a bunched leaderboard like this, I think it's a sign of not a great setup, I think when it's as bunched as it is, because it hasn't really enabled anyone to separate themselves. It's easy to make a ton of pars, hard to make birdies, and not that it's hard to make bogey, but it feels like bogey's the worst score you're going to shoot on any one hole.
There's not a lot of hazards. I think the setup is fine, like the golf course is good, the pins were tough, and the wind was what it was as well.
But I just think, yeah, I've always felt like really good setups, it starts to spread the field a bit, and not great setups sort of bring everyone together. I feel like that's what's happened the last two days.
Rory McIlroy | 2026 PGA
My take after 36 holes (subject to change after 72)?
The course setup is great, leaning a little bit on the difficult side, and I’m hoping they let it go a little bit and pin some easier spots on at least one of the weekend rounds (although Saturday does not appear to be that day!).
I get what Rory is saying, and I think there’s truth to it, but I also want to see things play out over the next 36 before fully judging the way the week was set up.
Also ……..
2. Here’s the problem I think people who are frustrated with the setup have with it: Average shots are being torched by the golf course, which means that great shots should be getting rewarded.
But the pins aren’t quite tantalizing enough for players to truly take them on so there’s a lot of guys just playing for par and bunching up on the board.
Rory basically said that above, and JT said something similar after his round.
But today that pin [on 11] is just over a slope there, and it's not hard to hit it to 20 feet past the hole, but it's really, really hard to hit it close.
JT | 2026 PGA
That part is key: it's really, really hard to hit it close.
I think that's a great example of if you have a great number and a full wedge that you can spin it and hit it close, great. But you don't want to try to do too much and try to hit it close, kind of like I did there this morning, and the wind knocks the ball right out of the air and doesn't even come close and I'm grinding to make a 5 when I have a sand wedge in my hand.
JT | 2026 PGA
That’s it right there. The whole thing. Guys are worried about shooting themselves out of it early in the week by going after too many pins. Which means the setup is on the more difficult side of things. Which is fine! It’s been fun!
Sure, it may lead to some bunching of the board, but that’s OK.
Angles have mattered. Shaping drives has mattered.
And I think it’s cool that they’re at a golf course where — depending on how they pin it — you can get different variations of the same test. Augusta is normally like that, too.
And while I don’t agree with all of this from Garrett — mostly because I enjoy the data more than most — I loved what he said here about challenging, unusual shots. That has 100 percent been the case this week, and it’s been a fun major thus far because of it.
Scottie sort of echoed this idea.
It's funny sometimes, I feel like the thing in our game right now, which I do enjoy, I love hard tests of golf, but it's also the hardest game in the world and we're trying to make it harder, and there's different ways you can do that. You can do that on a golf course like this -- I mean, I truly believe they could have the winning score be whatever they want it to be. It could be over par if they want it to be, just based purely upon pin locations.
Is that the best test? Who knows. It's a different test. I think that's what's great about our game is very rarely do we play the same golf course, and even when you do at a place like Augusta, it's different each and every year. So conditions are always changing, the golf course is always changing.
I think it's the hardest game in the world and still just trying to solve a bit of the puzzle.
Scottie Scheffler | 2026 PGA
Styles make fights, and if player vs. major is a fight, we probably don’t get enough unique styles of player or golf course. This week seems to be solving at least the course side of that equation.
I also think I’ll be slightly more critical of it if on Sunday the pins have remained completely tucked like this all four days.
Mad Mink Fury Green
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