by The Florida Swing ruled. There have been years when the winners roll might have featured more prominent names or the Sunday dramatics more intense. But it was a month of mostly proper pro golf. The keyword there is pro. The Florida events might not be your cup of tea. The West Coast swing boasts better overall venues you’d probably want to play more. But this four-pack of events is, by and large, a great modern pro test that requires many different shots, a good bucket of mid and long irons, some real penalties for whaling away with impunity off the tee, demand for real precise second shots, and a good-to-great player playing well in order to contend.
I’ve not always been sold on the Florida Swing but maybe I just wasn’t paying close enough attention. I’m sure it’s cyclical. I’ve enjoyed past visits to Bay Hill and the Players (both May and March). But the enthusiasm of watching some of the great Hawaii and West Coast golf from your own winter setting would wane and you were ready to get outside and play yourself, and less interested in the pros playing opposite March Madness as the majors approached. The Florida Swing felt like a gilded bridge of FedEx Cup points and deep purse events taking us to the Masters, and nothing more.
This year was great pro golf. The TV ratings, which seem to be the only validation metric of anything in pro golf these days, indicated some return interest. Not sure those matter much at all to me – I just enjoyed the golf. The weather was great, aside from late Sunday at the Players. There was some real cut line drama from Palm Beach to Tampa. Tempers flared. And quality champions earned their bucket of courier cup points.
So here are some completely made-up awards recounting the month in Sunshine State.
The Florida Man Award (MVP)
Rory McIlroy. No one dominated this Florida Swing. In prior years, we hand this to Scottie Scheffler with unanimity. Rory won the biggest event of the swing and finished T15 at Bay Hill. I’m not sure there is a stronger argument. Shane Lowry made all four cuts and finished no worse than T20 with two top 10s. Michael Kim played some good golf. Jacob Bridgeman made all four cuts and had to two top threes. Justin Thomas was playing solid, including a course record round at TPC Sawgrass, before going off at the Valspar to nearly win. But we’ll give this to Rory McIlroy for his Players statement.
The Shot of the Swing
Billy Boy, the real true Florida Man, who spent his month chasing alligators with golf clubs, hollering around the TGL Sofi Dome, ripping the Cognizant course setup, closed out his home state swing with one of the most outrageous opposite swing birdies you will ever see. It’s astounding. It was a fun month for Horschel, the 20th-ranked player in the world.
Honorable Mention: Russ Henley’s chip-in at 16 at Bay Hill, and Rory’s punch shot from the trees at 18 on Thursday at the Players.
The Rick Pitino Award (LVP)
Goes to PGA Tour Championship Management. Pitino benched his best player, who was admittedly struggling, this past weekend – going away from their identity and what got them there all season in a loss that ended their season. PGA Tour Championship Management has desecrated the Honda/Cognizant at PGA National with overseed and soft setups that even had the notoriously sensitive players critical of the gentle test. Jake Knapp played great to shoot a 59 (could have been 58) that was inconceivable in a prior era, and there were boatloads of low scores on his heels. You can’t control the wind, but the Bear Trap has become toothless the past two years under new management. This was the only real black mark on an otherwise sterling Florida Swing.
The Ed Orgeron Award
Luke Donald just watched two of his players win two strong events without anything close to their best stuff in Rory McIlroy and Viktor Hovland, who beat out Justin Thomas still hitting “disgusting” shots. Donald is an exceptional captain and tone-setting voice. And we have a long way to go before September. But he’s been shown an embarrassment of riches through the first quarter of the year.
Viktor Hovland after winning the 2025 Valspar Championship.
The Main Event Award
This is easy – The Players Championship was the best event, start to finish. It’s working with a bit more from the start, but that doesn’t always mean you get the best four-day event. Yet the Players was a nonstop ROI on your time and interest from Thursday to the weekend winds to the Monday three-hole playoff finish. It was awesome for a second straight year.
Proper Noun Proliferation Award
Fan Forward. It’s a noun, a verb, an adjective, a crutch, the entire reason for being, and might carry more weight than the Constitution of the United States if you listen to PGA Tour talking heads long enough.
Honorable Mention: Arnie’s Place. I love Arnold. Enjoy Bay Hill. We don’t need to do this.
NCAA Noise Maker
Luke Clanton, the college kid, is already a “featured group” player making noise on the PGA Tour. His made cut at PGA National to accrue enough PGA Tour U points to officially earn his PGA Tour Card was an extremely touching moment from the Florida Swing.
Honorable Mention: Luke Potter, literal NCAA noise maker.
Florida Gulf Coast Award
For the Cinderella who came back and did it again to get to a second weekend: Bud Cauley! He gets in as an alternate at the Players and then contends the next week in Tampa. Great to see (with an additional nod to Danny Walker’s week at the Players).
The Pampered F*@ks Award
To the unparalleled delusion offered by Lucas Glover to Adam Schupak in Orlando on the rollback. “This might be the time that the Tour and PGA of America say, ’We’re out,’” the Glove man said. “It would be nice if somebody took a stand for us for a change. Maybe this could be the opportunity for the Tour to do that.” No one sticks up for the players toiling away in the salt mines these days. Some things are better left unsaid!
The Temperamental Tyrrell Award
We miss Tyrrell Hatton on the PGA Tour, flipping off inanimate objects across Florida and mimicking machine-gunning bodies of water. But man we were not short on outbursts in Florida this past month. Scottie was a mix of incredulous and angry for most of the weekend at Sawgrass. But let’s focus on the one burn-hot moment and we could confine this simply to the past week at Valspar, where Sahith Theegala chucked a club into the woods, Adam Hadwin destroyed a sprinkler head with amusing results, and Patton Kizzire punted his putter with Pro Bowl caliber hangtime. I have to give it to General Patton for a truly unique punt – anyone can throw a club or smash an object, but this went deep into the sky. We then got to see him appear in commercials for a lawncare service during every NCAA tournament commercial break.
Drama for the Golf Geek Soul Award
Only the closest Tour watchers and golf geeks really monitor and care about exemption categories and sponsor spots. But Jordan Spieth getting a Heisman stiff arm from the API and the back-and-forth comments in the press (“I needed to play better injured golf last year, I guess”) were legit spicy, as far as sponsor exemption controversies go.
The Foot in Mouth Award
The entire controversy around Collin Morikawa’s obligation to talk to the press was unfortunate. Morikawa explained his painful API runner-up beautifully during a considered and thoughtful press conference at the Players after blowing off the press at Bay Hill. Then he dropped the I “don’t owe anyone anything” quote that was always going to read harsh and nullify all the other candid thoughts he was offering. I thought the reaction was a bit severe to the one isolated but clearly very bad quote. Then he went full Streisand Effect on it in another press conference, popping back at the haters like Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley, and using the line again. It was just a weird own goal and mismanaged. It was also interesting to see Viktor, Billy, and JT contending late to close out the Florida Swing – three guys, as Sean Zak astutely pointed out, who have been very forthcoming with the press during bad, stressful times. Hell, even Danny Hurley, who is about 5,000 times more unlikable than Morikawa, gave us something after a hard exit in the NCAA tournament. Morikawa has been playing awesome golf that’s been great to watch and it’s often been equally enjoyable listening to him talk about that golf. It stinks that this became the narrative around his Florida swing.
The Sebastian the Ibis Award
One of the great pregame rituals is Sebastian running through the smoke machine at The U. I guess you could plug in the horsey on the field at FSU if you’re so inclined in that direction. This week, I became aware of Ryo Hisatsune’s pre-putt routine, which includes a hand-delivered water bottle from his caddie and a subsequent gentle sip, like a cat getting some milk from a saucer or a baby taking a bottle. I did some Big J reporting on this practice and asked around with those intimately familiar with his game. This was not some isolated occurrence at the Valspar. Hisastune does this for EVERY putt. Brandon Berry, a Korn Ferry Tour player who was behind Hisatsune last year in Detroit, said he does not “swallow” the sip until after the putt. I could not corroborate this part from even the closest of sources, but it’s certainly plausible. I can confirm this has been the routine for a long time, including on chips, pitches, and bunker shots, which would make for some extra raking one would think after the bottle service shuffling around in the sand. I can confirm it’s been done on shots over 70 yards, at least. What’s in the bottle? Magic potion? Water? Alcohol? Sources were less forthcoming on that matter, but the sip-then-swing is officially his deal. Viktor’s win was great in Tampa, but this pre-shot routine may be the revelation of the event. What a great way to go out in Florida.
This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
