Now that it’s October, let’s review the two rules of the month. First, you do not have to dress up your pet for Halloween. Second, you do not have to buy candy corn. Two rules.

A Wave lost at sea

Birdies weren’t hard to come by yesterday at the Sanderson Farms Championship, but Sahith Theegala made a particularly impressive quantity of them. The 2020 Haskins Award winner birdied four of his opening five holes on Thursday and didn’t look back, finishing with a 64 and the solo lead at the Country Club of Jackson. Leaderboard

Last year, Theegala was a senior at Pepperdine in the midst of a red-hot season (two wins and six top 10s) when the pandemic ended his collegiate career early. He had to decide whether to do one more year of college or wade into pro golf’s underbelly of developmental tours. He took the latter path. Unable to make much of the few PGA Tour starts he got in 2020 and early 2021, Theegala eventually found some form during the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and earned his 2021-22 PGA Tour card the hard way.

We don’t expect him to burst into the top 25 in the world as Collin Morikawa or Viktor Hovland did recently, but Theegala is an exciting player with an engaging personality, and it’s good to see him shooting low numbers on the big tour.

“They own a day of the week”

Citing a “crowded sports weekend” in late January (aka NFL Conference Championship Sunday), the Farmers Insurance Open announced it will move to a Wednesday-Saturday window in 2022.

The NFL is the 800-pound gorilla of American sports. The PGA Tour rearranged its entire schedule so that the FedEx Cup would conclude before the NFL season started, so it’s no surprise for an individual event to make the same kind of move. Yet somehow we haven’t seen other tournaments do this. The Phoenix Open often runs past kickoff at the Super Bowl, and other PGA Tour events in the fall and winter get drowned out by football. It’s time for these tournaments to get creative. Props to the Farmers for giving us something to watch on what’s sure to be a cold Saturday evening.

Quick Hooks

Tyrrell Hatton, Haotong Li, Adri Arnaus, and Nicolas Colsaerts share the lead at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Tommy Fleetwood is two shots back. Leaderboard

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: this weekend’s LPGA Tour field is loaded. Nelly Korda, Jin Young Ko, Sei Young Kim, Nasa Hataoka, Lexi Thompson, Danielle Kang, and Patty Tavatanakit headline the Shoprite LPGA Classic. But we know you haven’t heard this one: the on-air television team will consist entirely of women, which is a first in the history of U.S. golf broadcasting. Tee Times

Former Tennessee Volunteer Blakesly Brock won the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur on Thursday, besting Cinderella-story 64-seed Aliea Clark. Both Brock and Clark are now exempt into the 2022 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Chambers Bay, and Brock also earned a spot in the ’22 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles. Results

The U.S. Mid-Amateur final is halfway done and will finish up on Friday morning. 2016 champion Stewart Hagestad has a commanding 5-up lead through 18 holes over Mark Costanza. Scoring

According to Rex Hoggard, Jim “Bones” Mackay has a new gig as Justin Thomas’s caddie. Longtime caddie to Phil Mickelson and current on-course reporter for NBC/Golf Channel, Mackay has filled in multiple times as a substitute on Thomas’s bag. On social media, JT claimed that his split with former caddie Jimmy Johnson was not a firing but a mutual parting of ways.

In other caddie news, Bubba Watson and Ted Scott are parting ways.

The Latest from The Fried Egg

The Shotgun Start – Bones picks up JT’s bag and Will Bardwell joins the pod to discuss the Sanderson and potential changes to the fall schedule. Listen on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify.

Pro Shop

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