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Austin Smotherman beat Seamus Power on third playoff hole in Bermuda (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
It took Austin Smotherman 100 starts to win for the first time on the PGA Tour. He needed just one more to notch victory No. 2.
Smotherman’s playoff victory on Monday over Ireland’s Seamus Power in the weather-shortened Butterfield Bermuda Championship gave the 10-year pro wins in consecutive tournaments.
“It can literally happen at any time,” said Smotherman, 32, who didn’t qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, having finished the regular season 80th in points. “We say it every week, everybody out here’s so good, anybody can win on any given week. That’s what makes our sport so great.
“There’s Scottie Schefflers of the world that know how to win a lot more frequently every single year, but I think I’m getting a little bit of a taste of what they feel, a top player like that as far as just so much freedom every single week and feeling like what you’re doing, you’re getting the validation with the results but also just the immense trust you have in the process that you’ve devised.
“I’ve been a professional now for 10 years and I feel like I’ve put a lot of notches in my belt with different skills and things that help pay off at the end of the week.”
Also in today’s DD …
LIV Golf’s next steps
TGL releases third season schedule
Folds of Honor announces record scholarship numbers
Smotherman, who won the Bank of Utah Championship three weeks ago, has been through all the rungs on the PGA Tour ladder, having competed on PGA Tour Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour as well as going through the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament.
He was on the Korn Ferry Tour last year, earning a spot on the PGA Tour for the 2026 season by finishing among the top 20 points earners.
Now he’s positioned himself nicely for the future.
By winning twice, Smotherman will be exempt on the Championship Series through 2029 because the PGA Tour is awarding exemptions into its new top tier based on accomplishments through this season. A victory earns a two-year exemption and another win adds a year. That’s pretty stout for a guy who hadn’t assured himself of being among the fully exempt top 100 for 2027 when the FedEx Fall began with him tying for 17th at the Biltmore Championship Asheville in September.
The Utah victory meant a spot in the 2027 PGA Championship and by adding a second he earned a place at Pebble Beach for the 2027 U.S. Open. The Masters is still something to achieve. Fall winners no longer automatically qualify to play Augusta, but he can assure that by being among the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the year. He’s climbed from 121st to 54th in his his last two starts.
Smotherman’s only major experience to date is a missed cut at this year’s PGA Championship at Aronimink.
By moving into the top 60 in FedEx Fall points (he’s climbed as high as he can go at 51st), Smotherman has assured himself of starts at two signature events next season — the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Genesis Invitational at Riviera.
Unfortunately for Smotherman, the Bremuda event getting shortened to 54 holes cost him a spot inside the OWGR top 50 already. Because the tournament did not complete 72 holes, there was a reduction in OWGR points with Smotherman getting only 16.44 OWGR points for his 54-hole victory instead of 21.92. Those roughly 5.5 points mattered, because even with a two-win bonus Smotherman only went from 66th to 54th instead of 49th. Of course, had the final round not been cancelled due to dangerously high winds, there’s no guarantee Smotherman would have been the winner.
There is still a chance to move into the top 50 with several more FedEx Fall events left on the schedule, although Smotherman has withdrawn from this week’s VidantaWorld Mexico Open, the first of consecutive PGA Tour events in Mexico. The inaugural Austin Championship and the RSM Classic at Sea Island close out the schedule in November.
“Going forward, I don’t know what the next step is,” Smotherman said. “My goals, just after Utah, it kind of shifted on giving ourselves the best chance on moving inside the top 50 in the world by the end of the year and pursuing some majors next year.
“Getting to play the first two signature events was huge. Just being a West Coast guy, I wanted to play those events badly. Once they went to signature events, I played them beforehand and then I wasn’t qualifying for them so I kind of had a little bit of some fire in my belly to go get back there.”
For Smotherman, it’s been an incredible month.
“We knew we were doing a lot of good stuff and just wanted to go play golf. We were excited for the fall season,” he said. “We had our best FedEx Cup finish ever and the fall we felt was just going to be bonus golf and do things like this, and to have it come true and live this out now — not once but twice in that short time frame — is, I mean, I couldn’t have drawn it up. It’s a fairytale really right now.”
LIV Golf’s next steps
LIV Golf lost another major champion this week as 2010 U.S. Open winner Graeme McDowell announced that he would not be a part of LIV 2.0. Most of the news lately has been existing LIV players saying they are not returning.
Meanwhile, the leadership continues to push toward a reboot. On Monday, LIV announced that former TaylorMade CEO Mark King has been brought on board as a senior advisor and, per a press release, is expected “to recruit, build and serve as chairman of LIV Golf’s advisory board for the next era of the league.”
One thing is clear: LIV has brought on a lot of expensive expertise as it attempts to streamline operations. In the spring, in the aftermath of the Public Investment Fund’s decision to bail on the league, CEO Scott O’Neil announced the addition of two board members with restructuring expertise, Eugene Davis and Jon Zinman. Recent court documents revealed they’ve been paid $150,000 a month for their efforts.
Those same documents showed that O’Neil received a retention bonus of $6.25 million and other executives were rewarded as well in an effort to keep them focused on the transition.
Now, they have numerous obstacles to overcome, perhaps biggest being the signing of players. So far, beyond a handful who have publicly said they are coming back, LIV has not announced any signings.
The league said it is on pace to get the player commitments it needs but still to be determined is if they will agree to the restructuring support agreements (RSA), which is required for BC Partners or a new LIV entity to take ownership from the PIF. Court documents revealed the PIF set a Friday deadline for getting those signed RSAs.
TGL schedule reveals reduced appearances
While the TGL indoor simulator league added a seventh expansion team and bulked up rosters from four to five players, each franchise will play fewer matches when its third season launches in December.
The new TGL schedule was released on Tuesday, with the season starting two days after Christmas, with a Sunday afternoon double-header featuring Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common against Brooks Koepka’s Motor City team at 1 p.m. on ESPN followed by Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Links team against defending TGL champion Los Angeles GC at 3 p.m. on ABC.
With the added team, each franchise will play only four regular-season matches this season instead of the five they played in the first two seasons. So there will be 14 regular-season matches instead of 15. But the fourth and fifth place teams ater the end of the regular season will compete in a postseason play-in match to qualify for the semifinals. The playoffs will run from March 1-23.
Folds of Honor distributes record scholarships
Folds of Honor — a foundation that provides academic scholarships to the families of fallen or disabled military service members and first responders — presented more than 13,000 educational scholarships valued at nearly $60 million for the 2026-27 academic year, its largest single-season distribution.
Despite the record numbers, approximately 8,300 qualified applicants did not receive funding due to limited financial resources.
Since its founding in 2007, Folds of Honor has provided nearly 86,000 scholarships totalling nearly $400 million. With its 20th anniversary on tap in 2027, Folds of Honor has set a goal to commemorate it by reaching the milestone of topping 100,000 total scholarships.
“I want to thank patriots nationwide for their unwavering support to our families who have sacrificed so much for our communities and country,” said Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, founder and CEO of Folds of Honor. “While funds are important, these scholarships demonstrate that their loved ones have not been forgotten.
“What motivates us every day is the goal to provide scholarships to every qualified individual. We’re grateful for what we’ve accomplished, but we’re not done yet.”
The foundation experienced a 12 percent application growth from last year. First responders, which joined the mission in 2022, had a 670 percent growth in scholarships awarded since its first year. Several of the leading states where students accepted scholarships are Texas (1,696), North Carolina (1,252), Florida (1,184), Virginia (867) and Georgia (795).