Scratch Shack

What a week of record-breaking dominance on both the PGA and LPGA Tours!

Stewart Cink shattered both the 36-hole and 54-hole records at the PGA Tour RBC Heritage in Harbour Town and Lydia Ko set the 54-hole scoring record for the Lotte Championship in Hawaii.

Stewart Cink enjoys a resurgence in his career with his son by his side.

Stewart Cink, at the seasoned age of 47, shot a 16-under 126 in the first two rounds of the RBC Heritage- shattering the lowest 36-hole score at Harbour Town of 13-under 129 shared by Jack Nicklaus and Phil Mickelson. He carded a 69 on Saturday to reach 18 under, another record for the event. He finished at 19-under to win the event for the third time in his career.

Cink has had his 23-year-old son, Reagan, carrying his bag since the Safeway Open, his father’s first start of the PGA Tour season. They won the event. Before that, he hadn't won since 2009. A few weeks later, Stewart dismissed his full-time caddie.

With this second win of the season, Cink earned an exemption into the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in June. It will be his first U.S. Open since 2017.

In addition to the win at the Safeway, the father-son team has posted four other top 20s, including a T4 at the Bermuda Championship and a T12 at last week’s Masters. In addition to Reagan, Cink’s wife Lisa and their other son, Connor, were on hand to celebrate the victory.

According to reports, Reagan’s caddying job is short-term. Stewart and Reagan agreed that they’d keep playing together until the summer when Reagan is scheduled to get married. However, there is speculation that he may continue for a little longer. The FedEx Cup Playoffs start in August, and Cink currently ranks No. 3 in those standings. He’s also moved inside the top 50 in the world, and he’s being included in conversations about the American Ryder Cup team. We may be seeing more of this father-son team this year. What do you think? Leave a comment below. 

Lydia Ko is back in the winner’s circle!

Lydia Ko shot a final-round 65 Saturday to put her at a 28-under 260 and seven shots ahead of everybody at the Lotte Championship. Lydia lapped the field! 

Ko entered the final round in Hawaii with a one-shot lead over Nelly Korda after setting the 54-hole scoring record for the Lotte Championship with a 21-under 195.

Ko, who as a teenager won more than any other teenager in the history of the LPGA, winning 14 times in her first 81 starts, stalled a little over the past several years. Before this week, she had only won once since 2016, and that was three years ago.

Ko has said that she has, at times, wondered if she’d ever get back to the winner’s circle. The win ended a 1,084-day victory drought for Ko who said she took inspiration from recent drought-ending victories by Jordan Spieth (1,351 days) and Hideki Matsuyama (1,344 days).

Congratulations Lydia!

Juli Inkster, 60, is not ready to give up competitive golf.

Juli Inkster has signed up to compete in a 36-hole qualifier at Half Moon Bay Golf Links, April 26, in hopes of advancing to the U.S. Women’s Open at The Olympic Club in June. She has played in the USGA’s signature women’s championship 35 times during her Hall of Fame career, the last time in 2014.

Inkster finished 15th in her last U.S. Women’s Open start at Pinehurst No. 2 in 2014. If she gets through qualifying, it would be the sixth different decade in which she will have played the Women’s Open, her debut coming as an amateur in 1978 at the Country Club of Indianapolis.

With a professional career spanning 29 years to date, Inkster's 31 wins rank her second in wins among all active players on the LPGA Tour. She also has more wins in Solheim Cup matches than any other American and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Inkster is the only golfer in LPGA Tour history to win two majors in a decade for three consecutive decades by winning three in the 1980s, two in the 1990s, and two in the 2000s.

The seven-time major champion played in the LPGA Tour’s Kia Classic last month, where she missed the cut. She is also in the field at the Hugel-Air Premia L.A. Open, which ends two days before the qualifier.

"I'm probably an idiot for trying, but I think I would be disappointed in myself if I didn't because it's so close to home," Inkster said.

The LPGA Hall of Famer lives near the course and has played it approximately 50 times.

We’ll be cheering you on Juli!

You don’t see this every day (or ever) on the golf course!

How often have you seen punches thrown on the golf course? Hopefully never, which is probably why a video of a fight between two men at a children's school fundraiser golf tournament has gone viral online.

The brawl happened Friday at the Maccauvlei Golf Club in Vereeniging, South Africa. The two men were part of a sponsor group for seventh-grade students at the Laerskool Vryheidsmonument school.

A clip of the video was posted to Twitter and has since received more than 880,000 views. In the video, two men are seen throwing punches before one pulls the other's shirt off. The shirtless man grabs a flagstick and hits the other, causing it to snap in half. A few last punches are thrown before bystanders step in to end the fight.

According to a news report by news24 in South Africa, a lost phone appears to be behind the altercation. There were two groups, one behind the other, on the course. Someone in the first group lost their phone and had been looking for it throughout the day. A caddy had found the phone, but one of the men had allegedly hidden it from the owner. When they asked the second group if they had seen the phone, they denied having it, which is when things got out of hand. The phone was eventually returned.

It should come as no surprise that alcohol was involved.

Altercation: https://bit.ly/3n3vxkA 

Golf is Back on Track in 2021!

After a crazy year in 2020, the PGA Tour is back on track in 2021! The Masters kicked off the golf season, and even though Tiger Woods was not able to participate due to his recent car accident, it was still an incredible weekend of golf at Augusta National. Here are some of our picks for notable moments at the Masters:

Hideki Matsuyama

Let’s start by congratulating Hideki Matsuyama who made history on Sunday as the first male golfer from Japan to win a major championship. This is a proud moment for both Hideki and his country.

The 29-year-old took advantage of moving day and moved from -5 to -11 on Saturday, carding a 65 with an eagle and four birdies in his final eight holes. This set him up for a comfortable 4-shot lead going into Sunday.

He stayed on top of the leaderboard on Sunday, even after running into trouble down the stretch, with bogeys at three of the final four holes. This was his first tournament win since 2017 and was one for the record books.

A cool moment that was caught on camera was when Hideki's caddie, Shota Hayafuji, removed his hat and bowed his head after returning the pin on the 18th green. What a great show of respect and class to the course and the event.

Hideki, who is usually very stoic, was choking up while walking from the 18th hole to the scoring tent. "I'm really happy," he said. "My nerves really didn't start on the second nine. It was right from the start today and right to the very last putt. I was thinking about (my family) all the way round today and I'm really happy I played well for them. Hopefully I'll be a pioneer and many other Japanese people will follow. I'm glad to be able to open the flood gates hopefully and many more will follow me."

People are already talking about what Hideki will serve at the Champions Dinner next year. He loves sushi and sake and the Twitterverse is speculating that the dinner will be epic!

 Will Zalatoris

Those who know Will Zalatoris aren’t surprised that he ended up in second place in his first appearance at the Masters, but the rest of us were wondering: Where did this kid come from? And why does he look so familiar?

Will Zalatoris entered the 2021 Masters as the No. 46-ranked golfer in the world. He is technically a member of the Korn Ferry developmental tour and is leading the 2020-21 Korn Ferry tour points list, winning $403,978 in 16 events.

The 24-year-old finished T6 in the U.S. Open at Winged Foot in 2020 and earned special temporary membership on the PGA Tour, which allows him unlimited sponsor exemptions this season. The Masters is Zalatoris’ ninth start in 2021 on the PGA Tour. So far, he's played two majors and been inside the top 6 at both.

He lives in Texas and played golf with both Tony Romo and Jordan Spieth during the pandemic break. They weren’t surprised at his Masters finish. At least the rest of us will now know who he is next time!

A fun fact about Zalatoris is that he has often been compared to Happy Gilmore's caddie in the Waterbury Open. This could be why he looks familiar to some people. He decided to make the most of the comparison by having his 60-degree wedge custom engraved with, "Mr. Gilmore, I'm your caddy".

Adam Sandler got in on the action, tweeting that “Mr. Gilmore is watching you and very proud.”

At Indi Golf, we offer custom stamping options, so if you want to customize your wedges with a favorite saying, please contact us for details.

Si Woo Kim

If you tuned into the Masters a little late on Friday afternoon and saw coverage of Si Woo Kim, you may have been wondering why on earth he was putting with a 3-wood!

It turns out that Kim was playing well for the first 13 holes and was 5-under for the tournament. On the 14th hole, Kim’s second shot ended up on the back fringe, he used his putter from there and rolled it four feet past the hole, and missed the next putt too.

That’s when Kim got frustrated and slammed his putter so hard into the ground that the club’s shaft broke. There was no way he could continue using it, so Kim putted with his 3-wood. Remarkably, he ended up making 4 easy 2-putt pars on holes 15 - 18.

He later explained that he decided to use his 3-wood rather than blading a wedge because he felt he could control the speed better, especially on greens as fast as Augusta National.

Luckily he was able to get a replacement putter to use over the weekend. He finished at 2-under and T12.

 Congratulations to James K., The Winner of our Augusta-themed Giveaway!

Thank you to all the contest entrants for supporting us and entering the contest. We appreciate your support for our brand.

James will receive a set of 3 new 2021 Indi Wedges, a custom Indi logo hat by d.hudson and a $150 Indi Golf Gift Card to Indigolfclubs.com

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