A no contest, contest in Mexico. Two Worms for the price of one. You never know who you might be matching up with in the Degen Den. All this and more in glorious issue #17. Let’s get into it.
PGA Recap
Andrew Novak won the VindantaWorld Mexico Open at the Vidanta Vallarta golf course in Vallarta‑Nuevo Nayarit, Mexico, by five strokes at 25 under, and it was his first individual PGA Tour title. He started Sunday with a six-shot lead after rounds of 67, 61 and 62. A bogey on the 10th cut it to three over Steven Fisk and Kristoffer Ventura, but Novak birdied the par-5 12th with a bunker shot to four feet, birdied 13, then dropped a long putt on 14 and that was that. He closed with a 69 and said of the putt on 14, “That kind of really settled everything.”
Of note for Novak’s victory: He was ranked 158th in Strokes Gained Putting coming into the week and had struggled with the flat stick for months. How he fixed his woes to win reportedly went like this:
In August he ditched his modern mallets and went back to an old T.P. Mills blade from his college days. He had given it to his wife, Maddie, as a birthday present when they were dating.
The putter is worn and rusted, with lead tape on it, and he doesn’t know its exact specs.
With it, he led the field in putting and holed a tournament-best 456 feet of putts.
His quote: “It’s rusted out, but I know it works.”
Ventura and Fisk tied for second at 20 under, and Hughes and Griffin tied for 4th at 19 under. Ventura started the week at No. 108 in the FedExCup Fall standings and jumped to No. 76, which locks up his 2027 card. Novak earned $1,080,000 for a week that never really got tense for the winner.
The tightest race all week may have happened on the beach, which brings us to the Worm of the Week.
Worm of the Week
Friday at the VidantaWorld Mexico Open, Tom Kim and defending champ Brian Campbell both found the same greenside bunker on the par-4 9th. Each walked up, hit the ball from the sand, and wandered off toward the green. Kim had hit Campbell’s ball, and Campbell had hit Kim’s. They figured it out at the green. It takes a special kind of talent to hit the wrong ball. I know, I possess such rare skill in spades. However, it takes a rare kind to do it in front of a TV audience. And it takes a miracle of cosmic comedy for two professionals to do it to each other, from the same bunker, on the same hole. Priceless.
A rules official did the math: two penalty strokes apiece, and both guys had to go back and finish with their own ball. They each got up and down for a six, and a hole that should have been a routine par turned into a double bogey for both.
Nobody missed the cut, and in fact this dynamic duo finished tied for sixth. But Golf Channel’s Brendon de Jonge put it best: “It’s blame on both guys here.”
Nice finish fellas and enjoy the Worm(s) of the Week, you did more to earn it than many before you. Cheers!
Winston’s two cents: “Ye’ll na find a more loyal pair o’ friends than two lads willin’ ta hit each other’s balls.”
Chili Dip Golf Tip
Your buddy says “just relax” like it’s a switch you can flip. You’ve never relaxed in your life, and you’re not going to start over a 5-iron with money on the line.
Here’s what works: don’t try to feel relaxed, give your body a routine to follow. When you stand over the ball with nothing to do, your brain fills the silence with water, bunkers, and the beverage girl watching from the cart. A routine fills that silence on purpose.
Build yours in three parts:
Think behind the ball. Pick your target and shot, and commit. Make all your decisions here, before you step up.
Rehearse one swing. Take a practice swing that matches the shot you just picked, not a random one. BE THE SWING.
Step in, look once, go. Settle your feet, look at the target one time, take one breath out, and swing. No new thoughts after you start.
The key is that it’s the same every time and takes about the same amount of time. The routine itself is what quiets the nerves, because your body knows what comes next.
Practice it on the range, not only on the course. If you only use it when you’re nervous, it’s a stranger to you at the worst possible moment.
Today in Golf History
Today is a double anniversary for one of golf’s great trailblazers. On November 3, 1995, Judy Bell was nominated to be the USGA’s first female president. Thirty years later to the day, in 2025, she passed away at 89.
Bell’s golf résumé is the kind that humbles even that cocky SOB you see winning the annual scramble every year (we know he cheats). She qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open at 13. She played in 38 USGA national championships. In 1964, she shot a 67 in the Women’s Open, setting nine- and 18-hole championship scoring records. She played on the winning 1960 and 1962 Curtis Cup teams, yes, the same Curtis Cup the Curtis sisters donated (see Issue #13), and later captained the 1986 and 1988 teams.
She became the first woman on the USGA Executive Committee in 1987, and in 1996 she was elected the association’s first female president. Asked the morning after her election what it felt like to be a woman leading a major sports association, she quipped that she’d been president for only a few hours but had been a woman for 59 years, according to a USGA remembrance. In case you were curious, yes, she was Winston’s first love.
She also helped launch a grants program that has put more than $65 million into junior, disability and underrepresented golf programs. And back in her playing days, she reportedly sold Bermuda shorts out of her car to fellow amateurs, which makes her the original golf pop-up shop.
Happy Heavenly Birthday to a true legend of the game. Cheers to you Ms. Bell. Winston misses you.
The Degen Den
Last week, we met Titanic Thompson, he of the frozen 500 yard drive. This week, we stay in his orbit, because one of the better golf gambling stories I’ve come across starts with a man who thought he was about to take easy money and ends with him tipping his hat to a guy he’d handed his clubs to.
Picture El Paso in the mid-1960s. A young tour pro named Raymond Floyd, fresh off qualifying and brimming with the kind of confidence only a man with no scars yet can have, shows up at Horizon Hills Country Club to play a money match. Gamblers, including our new friend Titanic, had put it together. Floyd had $1,000 of his own cash on the line. His backers had thousands more.
He pulls into the lot. A young guy takes his bag, walks him to the locker room, and cleans his shoes. Floyd, relaxed and generous, asks who he’s playing today.
The young guy says, “You’re talking to him.”
That was Lee Trevino, an assistant pro who also worked as a cart man and range sweeper, and who, by every account, could play the game.
Trevino jumped out early. Floyd, by his own recollection, was feeling “pretty cocky” going in, and the cockiness left town quickly. After a couple of days, he was down real money. In his words, “This guy’s got $2,000 of my money and I wanted it back.” The final match came down to the 18th hole, where Floyd made an eagle putt and escaped with the win by a single shot. His reaction: “Adios. I’ve got easier games than this on the Tour.”
Lesson of the day: Never size up an opponent by his job title. The guy shining your shoes might be the best player on the property. Ask what he shoots, not what he does, before you lay your money down.
Golf Joke of the Week
A man asks his golf pro, “Be honest, what am I doing wrong with my swing?”
The pro looks him dead in the eye and says, “Standing too close to the ball. After you hit it.”
As is customary here, I would like to thank you for reading. If you found value in doing so (‘not bloody likely,’ says our mascot) take a look at the latest blog post here for more advice on how to straighten out that swing and just relax baby!