Wormburner Weekly

Before we start on the newsletter, I want to say something to Mama Mush Master. Happy Birthday Bird! You have always been my number one fan and I love you for it more than I can say. Have the greatest day today!!

Thank you for allowing my indulgence to my world class mother (as if you had a choice), so on with it. No PGA event last week so we cover the European DP World India Championship tourney where we have a new Worm of the Week. A putting drill to keep you right on time. The Degen Den rises like a Phoenix from the ashes of the Mush Master’s poor decisions. That and more in Issue #15. Let’s get into it.

PGA Recap

Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra won the DP World India Championship at 21 under, two shots clear of Daniel Hillier, and jumped to No. 1 in the Race to Dubai. Weather did most of the early damage in this one. A five-hour storm delay in round one and darkness in round two backed everything up, so Chacarra finished his 9-under 63 third round early Sunday, then went right back out for a final-round 70. He said the hardest part was waking up at 4 a.m. three days in a row, which is the most relatable thing a pro has ever said, in this hacker’s humble opinion.

He led by five heading into Sunday, bogeyed the sixth, and held on as Hillier (64 and 67 on the weekend) made a late push. Adrian Meronk and Angel Hidalgo tied for third at 15 under, and defending champion Tommy Fleetwood closed with a 68 for a tie for fifth at 13 under. Patrick Reed made the cut on the number and finished T23 at 8 under.

Worm of the Week

Shubhankar Sharma is one of India’s best golfers. He was playing in his home country in front of his home crowd, but the 18th hole at Delhi Golf Club treated him like a tourist with an attitude. A par-5. The easiest kind of hole to make a birdie on, at least on paper.

Round one: a 7. Round two: a triple bogey. Add it up and that’s five over par on one hole across two days, which is a record as bad as some of us have against the one hole at our home course we’ve sworn to never talk about again. He missed the cut by four shots at +4. Do the math: take the 18th out and he was one under on the other 34 holes.

A double and then triple bogey on a par 5. Shubhankar, we’re connected now. May you treasure your Worm Trophy like I treasure my one winning lineup in the last 417 on DraftKings.

Chili Dip Golf Tip

The Clock Drill

Set it up. Place four balls around the hole at three feet, like the 12, 3, 6, and 9 on a clock face. Each one is a different break: uphill, downhill, and both sidehill.

Make them all. Go around the clock and practice keeping the form of the stroke consistent. Make all four and move the balls back to four feet. Miss one and you start over at three. Keep going until you finish the clock at five feet.

Why it works. Most amateurs only practice the putt they’re comfortable with. The clock makes you see every break from the same distance, so the putt you dread on the course isn’t a stranger. It also builds a bit of pressure, since one miss makes you start over.

The punchline. Your 3-putts mostly come from missing the second, shorter one, not the first. Fix the short ones and the long ones stop mattering as much.

Today in Golf History

Almost this date, 1907

Three days ago marked the anniversary of the most awkward family dinner in golf history. On October 17, 1907, at Midlothian Country Club near Chicago, a lovely place that hosted a wedding I attended a few years back, Margaret Curtis beat her own sister, Harriot, in the final of the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Harriot was the 1906 champion. Margaret, who had first played the event at 13 and qualified fourth, was now taking the title from her sister. It was the first of Margaret’s three Women’s Amateur wins (1907, 1911 and 1912).

She wasn’t just a golfer, either. The next year she won the U.S. doubles tennis title with Evelyn Sears, making her the only woman to hold the national golf and tennis titles at the same time. Your sibling rivalry over who rode shotgun on long road trips looks pretty weak now, don’t it?

The sisters later donated a trophy in 1932 for a biennial amateur match between the U.S. and Great Britain. It’s called the Curtis Cup, and it’s still played today.

So the next time you lose a match to your brother-in-law, remember that the Curtis sisters turned their rivalry into an international trophy, not a golden plastic toilet trotted out every Christmas Eve.

The Degen Den

There is indeed a PGA tournament this weekend, which is available to you diehard degenerates on DraftKings, if not other platforms. However, my bleeding bank account is taking a break from losing lineups. I am going to treat this section like a tumbleweed in the desert and take it whichever way the wind is blowing.

It will remain gambling related, because let’s face it, there has been gambling in golf as long as there has been golfing in golf, and that’s fun stuff, even if those who participate are fools (guilty as charged). A lineup will still pop up here from DK on occasion, particularly for the majors and other large tournaments. I am also going to include different gambling games to play with your buddies on the course for any stakes you choose, or no stakes at all besides bragging rights. Throw in an epic wagering tale from the annals of golf (annals, not anals, you weirdo) and we have the new and, well, new Degen Den! Today I am including a simple contest I play every round with my own golfing buddies, and it goes like this:

We play for 5 bucks a hole, closest to the pin on par 3s. The course we play most often has 8 of those (it’s a real confidence booster at just under 4500 yards and great practice for the short game), so this gets interesting and very fun.

So no mulligans can be used for the contest, and the player whose tee shot ends closest to the pin wins the hole. You must be on the green to count (fringe is no good), and you must make par or better to count. If no one wins, the hole rolls over to the next par 3 which is worth double, and so on throughout the round. If you make birdie you double the stakes just on that hole, but not for the entirety of the rollover, if that is in play. If one person wins all 8 holes, or however many par 3s are in play at the course, it is considered total anarchy for some reason I have yet to figure out, and you get absolutely nothing extra except bragging rights, which are everything. Give it a try if you like, it’s a fairly popular contest to play with different variations, and for the love of all things good and proper, hit ‘em straight!

Golf Joke of the Week

A guy tells his buddy, “My wife says if I don’t give up golf, she’s leaving me.”

His buddy says, “Wow. That’s rough. What are you going to do?”

The guy sighs and says, “I’m gonna miss her.”