⛳The World's Most Expensive Golf Trip

Good morning.
A hot air balloon carrying 13 people recently made an emergency landing in a California backyard. Thankfully, no one was hurt, which means I can ask the important question: when that’s happening, are you supposed to yell “fore”?

-Harry Carlisle

Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, becoming the first brothers to win together on the PGA Tour as a team. They won by one after Matt hit a bunker shot to one foot on the final hole and Alex tapped in the winning birdie.

For Matt, it’s another trophy in what’s suddenly one of the hottest stretches in golf.

For Alex, it’s much bigger. The win gives him PGA TOUR status through 2028, which means he can build a real schedule instead of chasing starts and hoping for last-minute opportunities.

Worth noting: The Zurich win doesn’t automatically get Alex Fitzpatrick into the Masters, because Augusta’s PGA TOUR winner category doesn’t count team-event wins. Matt is already covered after winning the RBC Heritage earlier this season, but Alex’s Masters path still has to come another way.

What’s next: Alex’s schedule could change quickly. With PGA TOUR status now secured, we may see him in a TOUR field as early as Thursday, with the Cadillac Championship potentially in play.

Smash GC has been rebranded as OKGC, short for Oklahoma Golf Club, with Talor Gooch leading the team around his home-state identity. It’s LIV’s first team directly tied to a U.S. market, and it follows a broader push to make the league’s team concept feel less abstract.

The bigger idea: teams are easier to care about when they feel like they belong somewhere. “Smash GC” sounded like a golf brand. “Oklahoma Golf Club” gives fans a place, and a reason to care beyond who happens to be on the roster.

The test: can LIV turn that local identity into actual fandom? Oklahoma makes sense because Gooch has real roots there, and LIV has already staged an event in Tulsa. But the next step is harder: making fans feel like OKGC actually represents them.

Nelly Korda won the Chevron Championship at 18-under, five shots clear of the field. It’s her third major title, and it pushes her back to world No. 1.

Even after Chevron moved away from Mission Hills, organizers kept the tradition alive at Memorial Park, and Korda still ended the week in the water

Ina Yoon finished T-4, and her leaderboard run came with one of the stranger backstories in women’s golf.

Yoon was once one of Korea’s brightest young stars, but her career was derailed in 2022 after she admitted she knowingly continued playing the wrong ball during the Korea Women’s Open. The Korea Golf Association initially handed her a three-year suspension, though that was later reduced to 18 months.

The comeback: while suspended, Yoon spent time in Florida, played smaller events, and later donated mini-tour winnings to junior golf programs. When she returned to Korea, she rebuilt quickly, winning again on the KLPGA and becoming one of the tour’s top players before earning LPGA status.

Worth knowing: golf cheating scandals hit differently because the sport is built on self-policing. Yoon’s mistake wasn’t just playing the wrong ball, it was realizing it and continuing, which is why the punishment and reaction were so severe.

The MAEZAWA CUP in Japan ended with Ren Yonezawa winning in a playoff and taking home ¥40 million. The event also admitted fans free all week.

Why it was free: Tournament founder Yusaku Maezawa wanted more people to experience the event, including fans who had never watched golf in person before. There was a business reason too: last year’s event reportedly drew just 3,641 spectators over four days and lost about ¥450 million. This year, attendance jumped to 10,501, so the experiment seemed to work and Maezawa said the tournament will stay free in future years.

One of the most Louisiana moments of the week happened when Michael Brennan hit his second shot at the Zurich Classic into shallow water on the 18th, then decided the only reasonable next step was to take his shirt off and try to play it from the swamp.

It didn’t work. Brennan’s ball ended up back in the water, but his partner, Johnny Keefer, made birdie anyway, and the pair opened with an 11-under 61.

Worth remembering: golf has always been weirder when water is involved. Back in 2002, WWE star Bill Goldberg appeared in a PGA Tour pro-am and tossed a fan into a water hazard. The fan was in on the stunt, but still, it’s hard to imagine that getting cleared by a tournaments today.

With the Chevron Championship finished, the LPGA major season now shifts toward Riviera Country Club, which will host the next women’s major in 2026. Riviera is one of the most famous courses in American golf and has long been associated with the PGA Tour’s Los Angeles stop.

Why it matters: This gives the LPGA another major at a venue casual golf fans already know. That matters because recognizable courses make women’s majors easier to follow, easier to market, and easier for fans to compare with events they’ve already watched.

Three continents. Eleven golf courses. One private jet.

That’s the setup for a 20-day golf trip around the world.

The trip starts in Seattle, where guests stay at the Four Seasons and have a welcome dinner before boarding the plane to Japan. After crossing the international date line, they land in Tokyo and check into the Four Seasons Hotel Tokyo at Otemachi.

One of the rounds there is at Kasumigaseki Country Club, the course that hosted Olympic golf in Tokyo. There’s also a samurai sword lesson led by Tetsuro Shimaguchi, the choreographer and sword instructor known for his work on Kill Bill: Volume 1.

From there, the trip heads to Chiang Mai, Thailand, where golfers play Alpine Golf Resort and stay at the Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, which sits among rice paddies in the Mae Rim Valley.

Then comes the coolest stop: Gokarna Forest Golf Club near Kathmandu, Nepal. The course sits inside a former royal hunting forest, and one of the details highlighted in trip descriptions is that spotted deer still wander across the fairways.

The rest of the itinerary moves through Kazakhstan, Sweden, and Denmark, with more golf layered between hotels, dinners, tours, and private transfers. In Copenhagen, one hotel stop includes a Michelin-starred restaurant and a Champagne bar, which is about as far from hot dogs at the turn as golf travel can get.

The wildest part is that the trip removes almost every annoying part of golf travel. Your golf bag is handled. Your luggage is handled. Tee times, meals, drinks, transportation, guides, and gratuities are all included. There’s also an expedition team, golf directors, an onboard chef, and even an emergency-room-trained physician traveling with the group.

So who’s behind it? Kalos Golf and TCS World Travel.

And the price for this 20-day private-jet golf trip?

$166,000 per golfer.

The funniest detail: even at that price, your flights to Seattle and home from the final stop are not included.

A) One-stroke penalty, and you play it from the new spot
B) No penalty, but you must replace the ball
C) No penalty, and you play it from the new spot
D) Two-stroke penalty for moving a ball at rest

B) No penalty, but you must replace the ball

Under Rule 13.1d, there’s no penalty if you accidentally move your ball or ball-marker on the putting green. You just have to put it back on its original spot. If you don’t know the exact spot, estimate it.