Lexi Thompson Announces Pregnancy, Scottie Scheffler's $10m Bonus And A 400+ Yard Hole-In-One: This Week In Golf
It's a big week in the world of golf with plenty of tour action and other stories to know. Here's our weekly round-up...
This Week In Golf: Our regular look at the biggest stories in professional golf, tournament previews and other key details you need to know about the days ahead.
With the Wyndham Championship and regular PGA Tour season events now behind us, it’s full steam ahead for the top 70 players on the PGA Tour as the FedExCup Playoffs get underway.
It’s shaping up to be an engaging race for some players at the FedEx St. Jude Championship as they try to go one step further and reach the top 50 for next week’s BMW Championship.
Away from the professional game, the most prestigious amateur tournament in the calendar, the US Amateur Championship, got underway on Monday morning. It will continue through the week at Merion Golf Club and Philadelphia Country Club, Pennsylvania.
We've also got the DP World Tour returning, the LPGA in Portland, Oregon and plenty of other news stories this week.
Here's what you need to know:
Lexi Thompson announces pregnancy
Lexi Thompson has announced on Instagram that she is pregnant with her first child, days before playing at the Standard Portland Classic.
The Major champion and Solheim Cup star and husband, Max Provost, are expecting a baby girl in February 2027.
"The greatest blessing of our lives is on the way! This little miracle has already filled our hearts with more love than we ever imagined, and we can’t wait to meet you," Thompson wrote on social media.
"The best chapter of our lives is just beginning and we are so blessed and grateful. Baby girl, we already love you more than you’ll ever know."
Thompson semi-retired at the end of 2024 and has played five times this year, with a best finish of T12 at the Chevron Championship.
Scottie Scheffler Wins $10 Million Bonus
The World No.1 has finished top of the PGA Tour’s regular-season FedEx Cup standings for the fourth time in just five years to earn a $10 million bonus.
The bonus does not count towards his 'official' tour earnings, and he is expected to overtake Tiger Woods’ all-time record in the next 12 months. Scheffler currently sits on $116.4 million, chasing Woods who boasts career earnings of $120.99 million on the PGA Tour.
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick bagged himself a healthy $4 million bonus as he climbed to his highest-ever regular-season finish in the FedExCup of second.
The Longest Hole-In-One in English history?
Matt Virgus, an amateur golfer from Droitwich in Worcestershire, has achieved what may well be the longest hole-in-one in English golf history.
Virgus hit an ace on the 411-yard par 4 third hole at Great Barr Golf Club in Sandwell, Birmingham.
The +1 handicapper had already made a hole-in-one this year, but his second is the stuff of any golfer’s dreams. He said that he immediately “froze and couldn’t stop shaking” when he saw his ball at the bottom of the cup, before going on to add that the celebrations that stretched from Great Barr back to Droitwich “was an expensive one”.
While he missed out on the Guinness World Record, which stands at 447 yards in Nebraska back in 1965, it’s undoubtedly a feat that will take some beating in English golf.
FedEx St. Jude Championship
Justin Rose defends his FedEx St Jude Championship trophy
The first of three FedExCup Playoff events gets underway on Thursday, with some players knowing that they will need a good week to prolong their season. Some of the names currently outside the top 50 needing a charge include Max Homa (52nd), Jordan Spieth (54th) and Shane Lowry (62nd).
World No.2 Rory McIlroy returns to the event after controversially sitting it out last season. It will be just the seventh tournament the Northern Irishman has played since he went back-to-back at The Masters in April.
Defending champion Justin Rose will be teeing it up, hoping to recapture some of the form he showed at the start of the season.
Like a number of big names, the 2013 US Open Champion and Ryder Cup legend has skipped the last three events in the lead up to FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, Tennessee.
There is a $20m purse up for grabs this week, with $3.6m going to the champion.
US Amateur Championship
Mason Howell won last year's US Amateur
The most prestigious amateur competition in all of golf teed off on Monday at Merion Golf Club and Philadelphia Country Club.
Merion has had some golfing stars lift trophies there over the years, with Luke Donald’s right-hand man, Eduardo Molinari, hoisting the Havemeyer Trophy there back in 2005. Justin Rose then won the US Open at the club in 2013.
The tournament kicked off with 312 players for two days of stroke-play, where only the top 64 advanced. World No.1 Preston Stout surprisingly missed the cut, while the likes of Miles Russell and Luke Poulter safely advanced to the next round.
Six rounds of match-play begin on Wednesday and continue throughout the week until just two remain to battle it out for the trophy over 36 holes on Sunday.
The winner of the 126th US Amateur will of course win no cash prize but will earn three Major Championship exemptions.
This includes The Masters, where traditionally they will share a tee-time with the defending Masters champion, Rory McIlroy, for the first two rounds. Alongside this they will also earn a spot in the US Open and the Open Championship.
Danish Golf Championship
The DP World Tour returns after a three-week break. It’s being hosted at a new venue for the penultimate event of the Closing Swing on the Race to Dubai.
Great Northern becomes the fifth new venue on the tour this season and is the first Danish golf course to be designed by Nicklaus design.
Home favorites playing in the event include 2023 winner Rasmus Hojgaard, Thorbjorn Olesen and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who now has an Open Championship top-10 finish to his name. World No.63 Eugenio Chacarra, who is in-line for a PGA Tour card, is the highest-ranked player in the field.
Last year’s winner, Marco Penge, will not be defending the title, after missing out on the FedExCup Playoffs last weekend.
The Standard Portland Classic
Akie Iwai won last year's Standard Portland Classic
The longest running non-Major LPGA tournament kicks off with World No.19, Akie Iwai, looking to defend the title she won last year with a final-round 66.
Other notable entries include World No.2 Jeeno Thitikul, England’s Lottie Woad and Lexi Thompson.
Nelly Korda is absent from the event, along with Charley Hull who is coming off the back of the painful finish to the PIF London Championship last week in which she missed out by two shots.
What else to know:
- Our latest Golf Monthly Tour Issue podcast episode is out, where we look back on the Wyndham Championship and preview the FedEx Cup Playoffs
- 'The Year Tommy Fleetwood Broke Through' has been released by the PGA Tour on YouTube. The 30-minute documentary builds up to his long-awaited win at the Tour Championship in 2025
- Tyrell Hatton has confirmed he will be playing at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, having won the competition three-times previously
- Daniel Berger has pulled out of the FedEx St. Jude this week, ending his season early as he sits 60th in the points list
- Jason Day's 18-year streak in the FedEx Cup Playoffs is over after he was confirmed as one of the big names to miss out
- John Daly II has been confirmed in the field for next week's Nexo Championship on the DP World Tour
- Michael Brennan moved up to 35th in the Official World Golf Ranking after victory at the Wyndham Championship
- Joaquin Niemann has climbed to 42nd in the world following his LIV Golf New York win
