Two weeks. That’s how long we have until daylight savings steals our afternoons. It’s always fun when it gets dark at 5 p.m., isn’t it?

Mr. October

Tyrrell Hatton has Reggie Jackson shaking in his boots. Fresh off his dominant performance at the BMW PGA Championship, the fiery Englishman opened the CJ Cup with a 65. He leads by one shot. CJ Cup Leaderboard

You would think a transcontinental flight after the biggest win of his career would leave him tired, but Hatton fired a 30 on his first nine at Shadow Creek. He’s now eyeing his third top 5 in his past four events. Last week, Hatton cracked the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time, and he could reach No. 7 with a win in Las Vegas.

Most people would be quite happy about all of this. But Hatton? “The issue today,” he said after his round, “was I was grumpy out there; I was quite agitated. Even though I had a really good score going, I was just on edge.” Never change, Tyrrell.

Other CJ Cup notes

Xander Schauffele has 20 top 25s and just one missed cut in his past 23 starts. He hasn’t won in that span, but his consistency is remarkable. He’s tied for second at the CJ Cup after a Thursday 66.

The other player at T-2, Russell Henley, has also been playing some really good golf lately: two top 10s and no finishes worse than T-27 in his past four tournaments.

Brooks Koepka opened with 74 in his first PGA Tour event in nearly two months. The four-time major winner looked solid early on but stumbled down the stretch. No matter what, though, Koepka will play all four rounds; the CJ Cup is a no-cut tournament.

There are an incredible number of provisionals being hit around Shadow Creek. Tom Fazio’s artificial oasis is certainly pleasing to the eye but quite punitive when you stray offline.

Quick Hooks

Adrian “Can I Buy a Vowel” Otaegui leads the European Tour’s Scottish Championship through 18 holes. The 27-year-old Spaniard shot a bogey-free 62 to lead Matt Wallace and Bryce Easton by two shots heading into Friday’s action. Leaderboard

Jim Furyk won his first two PGA Tour Champions starts and Phil Mickelson is 1-0. Both are looking to continue dominating the old guys at the Dominion Energy Charity Classic at the Country Club of Virginia. Tee Times

Steph Curry and Charles Barkley are reportedly replacing Tiger Woods and Tom Brady in The Match III. You read that correctly. Full details have yet to be released, but Phil Mickelson and Peyton Manning are also expected to be in the event, which is scheduled for Friday, November 27. Full Story from Julie Williams

The Australian Open, the Women’s Australian Open, and the Australian PGA Championship—all scheduled for next February—have been canceled. Press Release

The NCAA announced that Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona (’21,’22,’23) and the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa (’24, ’25, ’26) will host the next six NCAA Golf Championships. Forgive us if we’re less than excited about this announcement, given that the event went to places like the Honors Course, Riviera, and Prairie Dunes in the early 2010s.

Even while not in the CJ Cup field, Bryson DeChambeau makes headlines. In an interview with SiriusXM this week, Bryson said, “You look at [Albert] Einstein, you look at [Isaac] Newton, you look at all these big-time names in the science field, there’s been a lot of people that have been called crazy. Decades later they’re like, Wow, that person was actually pretty interesting, he did amazing things. I’m not saying that’s what I’m going to do but, shoot, I hope so one day. That’d be fun.” This guy.

The Latest from The Fried Egg

School of Golf Architecture, Part 5 (2): Routing with Jeff Mingay

This is the second part of Garrett’s discussion with golf architect Jeff Mingay (@jeff_mingay) about how golfers can “read” the routing of a course. Having laid out the shared traits of good routings, they dig into a few famous examples. They also tackle a couple of big questions: How have routing practices changed over time? And does the future hold any new possibilities? Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify. Also, check out the post devoted to the topic on our website.

Shotgun Start: The Shadow Creek problem and the Westy conflict

Andy and Brendan close out the week with a lengthy discussion on Shadow Creek after the first round of the CJ Cup. But first, Brendan issues an apology on some course record confusion and Andy argues that course records should no longer exist, as a rule. There’s also one more amusing sock story from a prominent American club. Andy is also forced to reckon with his hero, Lee Westwood, shilling for the Fake St. Andrews that was the target of so much ire on Wednesday. On the subject of Shadow Creek, the two discuss their misgivings about how it’s portrayed this week as some sort of aspirational marvel or treasure. There is less criticism for the course itself as opposed to the portrayal and the caution we should all proceed with when consuming the CJ Cup. They also discuss how it was a big day for provisionals, the stimpmeter, and overseed. News hits on reports of The Match III before they wrap with Masters facts of the day on the origins of rope lines at golf tournaments and a singing, dancing champion. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

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Trick-or-treating may be a little different this year, you will certainly still need an adult beverage while toting the little ones around. Might as well toss it in a Fried Egg Tervis tumbler! Get yours today!